http://expatbrazil.wordpress.com/2009/08/17/cities-sao-paulo-one-gringos-day-in-sao-paulo/

Eh, the veneer of legal structure in China is a punchline, I’ll grant you. I don’t really blame the cops for this, I blame the people for being narcissists. When you see people pissing/shitting/littering in the street or on the subway (gag), you get a sense of what locals think about ‘the system’…

Sadly, because the people have been so royally F’d over and lied to by their government in so many ways, there is a national distrust of anything authoritarian and, well, emanating from Beijing. By that I mean politicians and police, and the law itself. You can’t really blame them. Sadly, when you see this kind of thing, it shows you what ‘Chinese society’ really is: a mass of ants pushing/shoving, and absolutely zero ‘system thinking’.

By the way, I think some of our friends from Los Angeles would like to have a crack at the ‘worst traffic on Earth’ title.

Maybe its because politicians will lose their jobs if people get unsatisfied with basic shit like keeping traffic orderly. Maybe its because officials in China are either busy avoiding political danger like shuang gui or enjoying the fruits of their corrupt power with girls, drugs, travel or whatever. Or maybe its that these first-world societies have made a collective decision that good administration benefits everyone.

Still, the blame for this is clearly on the government. That is one of the most basic functions of local government! And BJ gov’t apparently gets a “F”.

Hey Seahorse, here is an article on the traditional superiority complex of the Canadians toward Americans/the rest of the world, you might find it interesting (the url title is a little misleading):

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/canadians-hate-america

OMG we have HTML tags now! That’s great, I just noticed!

Truth is without proper traffic laws, punishments, and asshole cops who won’t give you 1 extra minute of parking so you can pay your check, everyone would be Ayn Rand out on the road.

With the exception of Canadians. Because we’re just better than everyone else on Earth.

GREED, GREED RUNS CHINA!

Maybe that’s what happens when you create two entire generations of only children who are spoiled to death by their parents and grandparents, raised in a hyper-competitive educational system, and therefore learn always to think of themselves first.

Traffic jams….. 30 years of living in the vicinity of Seattle (almost always in the top 10 cities for worst traffic in the USA) and I have never seen a traffic jam in an intersection like that, not even once. Slow traffic because of congestion – yes. Complete gridlock in an intersection because people refused to wait for their turn – no.

10 years of living in Beijing / Tianjin – I saw and was trapped in such traffic jams in intersections… about once a week. Sometimes 4 times in a week. All because somebody refused to wait for their turn.

It’s the difference between a culture that values the rule of law and a culture that claims to, but doesn’t.

Jay probably thinks missing the toilet seat and Randian philosophy is something uniquely Chinese.

Those vehicles do NOT drive themselves, nor are they maneuvered by their own choices.

This is China.
This is the culture.
Other people are nothing but obstacles to be gotten around or taken advantage of.

Get out in that intersection first!
Take what you want! Take it fast! Before others do!
If you wait, other people will take advantage of you!
Waiting because the intersection is full, or because the light is red is for FOOLS!

After a decade in China, I’m really glad to live in a place where the culture is different.