The highlight of my week was having my puncture repaired. Actually, let’s explain that. In a week where I came up against rude salesgirls, indifferent telephone operators, aggressive drivers and noisy petard firers, the man who repaired my tyre was a refreshing change. He greeted me politely, parked my car out of the sun, directed me to a seat in the shade and had me on the road in no time at all. I drove out of his garage feeling inordinately grateful that for once, I had not been met with the lack of civility that characterizes much of the interaction that I have with my compatriots.
Blame it on stress, nerves frazzled because of the heat, worry about the cost of living, or what you will, but you’ll have to admit that incivility has become the norm rather than the exception. We’d consider ourselves lucky to get through a day without encountering rudeness or unpleasantness. I don’t believe I’m being particularly old-gittish when I say that incivility has become a national malaise. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t think that it’s peculiar to Malta. I’m sure that there are scores of examples of other countries where one is met with appalling service and inconsiderate behaviour by one’s fellow men, but my goodness, we’re making it to the top of the table in the incivility stakes.
Read the newspapers to see just how true this is. Interspersed with the missives about maltreated horses (yet another example of intra-species incivility) there will be letters from people who are fed up to the gills of being treated inconsiderately by others or by the authorities.
One such letter that caught my attention, was written by a man who had to endure two daily 30-minute stints of bell-ringing leading up to a marathon 50 minutes on one occasion. This together with shorter bouts which lasted between 5 to 15 minutes each. Rightly enough, the contributor felt that this was rather excessive and wrote in to say so. Instead of the apology that was due, a couple of people wrote in sarcastically suggesting that he should have checked out the bell-ringing timetable before he bought his property or that he should move elsewhere. I was taken aback at the perverse reasoning of these people. Instead of removing or reducing the source of discomfiture, they insisted that the person discomfited remove himself. They did not spare a thought for the people out there – and believe me, there are many – who think that incessant bell-ringing is nothing but an infernal din which disturbs people’s rest and sleep. No, they told him that if he didn’t like it, he could shove off – basically “lump it or leave”.
Another example of inconsiderate behaviour – from official sources this time – comes from the police manning the Regional Road when it is closed for the letting off of fireworks for the Msida feast. A driver who asked for an alternative route, got no joy from the officers, one of whom replied: “I don’t know, all the main roads are closed… Take a one-hour drive and come back if you like.” After a long and frustrating detour, the driver crawled back only to find that the road was still blocked and to be told: “This road is blocked, if not we wouldn’t be here. Shut up and get driving.” Even by the Neanderthal standards that we have become accustomed to, that’s quite bad. It shows that even officialdom has been beset with the incivility malaise.
Then there are so many other instances where we encounter bad manners and yobbishness. There are the people who talk or who chomp through snacks at the cinema, the drivers who think nothing of stopping their car in the middle of the road to talk to a friend on the pavement, blocking traffic in the process, and the freaks who insist on playing loud music at the beach so that it sounds like an Ibiza disco in full swing.
Perhaps in the grand scheme of things, these are petty incidents and minor annoyances. However they do add up to what author Lynne Truss calls “the utter, bloody, rudeness of everyday life”. Such annoyances make the world a much less pleasant and communal place to live in, and according to certain schools of thought, might lead to more dangerous offences.
The Broken Windows theory of crime, advocated by former New York mayor Rudolf Giuliani is one such school of thought. According to this theory the neglect of minor incivilities in a neighbourhood tends to encourage more serious forms of antisocial behaviour. In order to tackle the big problems like crime, it is necessary to pay attention to the little issues. To its supporters the theory appears to have worked in New York, when Giuliani clamped down on petty property crimes like vandalism (arrests went up ten-fold) and graffiti spraying (over 20 million square feet of graffiti were removed from public spaces), as well as things like noise, litter, jaywalking, service standards of taxi drivers and the zoning of anti-social businesses like sex shops (Times Square, for example, was purged of its less than salubrious outlets).
There’s the same kind of reasoning behind the British Anti Social Behaviour Order which is more commonly known by its acronym “ASBO”. An ASBO is a civil order issued against a person who has engaged in anti-social behaviour. The order binds the person not to repeat the behaviour complained of. Breaching an ASBO constitutes a criminal offence which may be punishable by imprisonment. ASBOs have been issued in cases of petty theft, harassment, vandalism, begging and instances where people make a nuisance of themselves. Sometimes ASBOS have been issued even when the behaviour complained of was not criminal in itself. So an 87-year-old man was ordered not to shout, swear or make sarcastic remarks to neighbours or their visitors. In another case which will strike a chord with beleaguered residents living near building sites, a group of residents from Manchester, called for an ASBO against noisy builders on big construction sites.
For people who have been on the receiving end of rude behaviour, the ASBO route might seem to be an attractive one. How better to silence the noisy neighbour who has his TV on at all hours of day and night with the volume ratcheted up as far as it can go? And wouldn’t it be a good idea to get the teenagers who use front gardens as a urinal to stop doing so? It is an undisputed fact that clamping down on such behaviour is desirable. What is less well known is that the means to do so exist, but are seldom used. More often than not anti-social behaviour falls into the “contraventions” category in the Maltese Criminal Code. Contraventions are punishable with fines which should act as a deterrent to their further commission. So we do have a system which caters for anti-social behaviour. Unfortunately, as in many other spheres, it’s not enforced well enough. The fines which may be imposed for the commission of some contraventions are risible when considering their nuisance value.
Then there’s the perennial problem of enforcement. What are the chances of having a successful prosecution of your noise-polluting neighbour or petard firer? Will your complaint be met with sympathy down at the police station during the festa season? Personal experience tells me otherwise. We may have the means to have a decent society – one which Giuliani defined as “a society of civility” – but we don’t employ them. For many politeness and civility is an unnecessary extra instead of the essential lubricant which eases the friction of social interactions. More’s the pity for us all.
cl.bon@nextgen.net.mt
