Danger Pay

This morning dropping the children off at school, I recognised the need for some sort of danger pay as a parent dropping kids off with other crazy parents who drive like lunatics. My brother has lived in the US and England and the first thing he said when he came back to South Africa was how badly we drive. I have to agree with him. I think it must have something to do with the country's mentality or mindset about authority: 'authority? sorry? what was that? a new brand of washing powder? sounds a bit long and pompous for washing powder, don't you think?'
Not only do people ignore stop streets and traffic lights (which south africans affectionately refer to as robots), but I have seen drivers ride on sidewalks, swerve from the right hand lane - across three lanes - to the left turning lane, drive up a one way street and then reverse back out of it.
So, I'm thinking - I wonder when insurance companies are going to catch onto this whole thing and start charging higher premiums for parents driving within a 5m radius of schools.
You should see what these people do!! This morning I sat behind a person who had stopped dead in the middle of the road - not even bothering to pull to the side a little bit and guess what? It was a little grade one - so you can imagine the goodbye happening inside the car... eventually after about 5 minutes, the child stumbles out of the car with a suitcase almost as big as she is, and she clambers up onto the sidewalk. In the mean time, a couple of cars in the parking bays, are waiting with their reverse lights on while this twit is blocking their exit.
So, we drive a little further and hit the pedestrian crossing guards. No, not literally - although I did wonder to myself if the school ever had a really over zealous crossing guard who swung the stop sign and accidentally smashed someone's windscreen. I guess that's why they have the whistles...
By the time we arrive at the grade 6 entrance, there's a real genius who has pulled up onto the parking spots, but is parked horizontally instead of vertically, taking up 3 parking bays in the process... oh my goodness! I think I need a camera with me when I drive around - you wouldn't believe some of the things I've seen!
Everyone in PE is paranoid about swine flu at the moment - whether it's gastric flu or just plain flu, you can be guaranteed the chemist is going to tell you to get yourself tested just in case! I was listening to someone speaking about the concern if this hits the townships - poverty is so rife and HIV is already a pendemic, so if swine flu gets in there we're looking at a mammoth catastrophe. Apparently 15 people have already died in one area of India and since the health management in our country probably isn't a whole lot better, we'd be looking at this mortality rate and higher once it hits the ground.