Coronavirus streets in Cape Town - LIV

Electric menace with stupid

There is nowhere in the world where the riding of e-scooters is not a menace. In fact, any electrically powered vehicle that shares a pedestrian walkway or a pavement and in this case the promenade has usually inconsiderate riders whizzing past oblivious of others with literally no control or direction.

I had to jump out of the way of one hurling down at speed and in 10 metres, he crashed and fell. Whilst he got up and dusted off himself that we onlookers did not have to ask if he was alright, there have been casualties and fatalities after such accidents. The only word that came to mind was stupid, and we all to an extent have a proclivity for stupidity when the circumstance presents.

Desmond Mpilo Tutu

This morning as we contemplated and vacillated about going to church, which we eventually did not do, as I had a rotten night and his own was hardly any better with insomnia, we learnt that Archbishop Desmond Tutu had passed on, at the age of 90.

So many things will be written about Archbishop Desmond Tutu, I would leave that to the eulogists. To me, he was an exemplary man of God, who understood that his calling and cause was greater than self to the service of humanity, challenging the entrenched, the absurd, the hidebound, the acceptable, the untenable, the reprehensible, the unnecessary, the prejudiced, the judgemental, and the bigoted to see a greater value to our common humanity rather than our diminished individuality in the church, in our communities, and in society.

He enters the pantheon of the exceedingly illustrious, in the class of Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr, and Nelson Mandela. Our world was by all means blessed by his ministry and empathetic wisdom in his life and living in our time, that his passing, though a loss cannot expunge his footsteps in the eternal sands of time as a record of human history.

In the seat of his priesthood, his archbishopric, and in his heart, he gave Christianity a beating heart, a human face, a loving message, a welcoming sign with embracing arms, revealing divine purpose in mortal and flawed vessels. Rest in peace, Archbishop Desmond Mpilo Tutu and may eternal light shine upon thee.

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It's walking and I'm balking - X

Lawless on scooters

I guess there are two things that are my bugbears when I go out on my walks, the first that has become both a menace and a nuisance on our streets and especially on our pavements are the electric scooters or e-scooters, that are left strewn about the place abandoned by riders very much in the ilk of car drivers who discard their banana skins out of the windows are part of the problem.

Sadly, the traffic laws have not kept up with the invasion of these vehicles has allowed impunity to reign in their usage. They whizz by at speed completely oblivious of pedestrians who are almost always startled by the event, the riders do not even care to have a view of what they have done, you would think the things have no brakes.

Bad behaviour about

The other day, one just came out of nowhere and passed in front of me, there was hardy a foot distance between us, I felt the air turbulence on my face. Had I been slightly faster, I would have been knocked down by someone travelling at over 40 kilometres an hour on a pavement, when there is a clearly delineated cycle lane on the same road. It makes going out for a walk a dangerous exercise because careless and carefree people have become the kings of the pavement.

Then it is dogs, dogs out of the control of their owners that scurry or run into your path sometimes snarling and not reacting to the calls of their owners who after that encounter cannot apologise for the behaviour of their canine companions. It should not be lost on anyone that canine behaviour reflects the handler.

Just a second of terror

I sometimes wish when the dog approaches, I momentarily shapeshift and transmogrify into blood thirsty lion just for a split second that it cannot be captured, but effective enough to put the fear of all creation in the dog and the handler, just the change from snarling to whimpering would be a great pleasure and moderator. I need those powers.

On other paths, it is owners that do not have the civic responsibility of cleaning up after their dogs, there are fines for this, but they need to be caught. Maybe one last thing is cars that park on pedestrian crossings, the right of way is for pedestrians first and then it is an inconvenience for wheelchair user because there is a ramp from the pavement onto the road that is blocked off. Such people should receive heftier parking fines. I see this too many times that I wonder, does the council really care about this?