Friday 12 June 2009

Asocial Behaviours

To say that I'm a foul mood right now is somewhat of an understatement. First of all I didn't sleep that well, despite taking a sleeping pill and it kicking in dramatically like before. While under the influence of the sleeping pill my headache and nausea got so bad that I felt like dying. That I didn't do, but I did have quite a restless sleep until about 6 AM, waking up feeling quite out of things.

I just returned from a trip to the city's Social Services office, for a welfare request using the BBZ. What I hadn't been told on their site was that those requests all go via the office in Lelystad, the other big city in this province. This made me feel kind of annoyed already. Then I got something more to get annoyed about thrown in front of me.

First a bit of background information: on Dutch trainstations it is not allowed to smoke except directly around certain pillars in so-called smoking zones, which are clearly indicated. To not do so is to risk a fine.

When I was standing there on the platform of the trainstation of Almere Centre waiting on my train, I saw this couple standing a few meters away, with the guy lighting up a cigarette. When I could smell the smoke of it wafting towards my position I decided I'd ask him to relocate himself. This I did, but instead of him acknowledging that he shouldn't be smoking there he decided to be a wise guy and tried to brush it off. This he shouldn't have done. I forced the cigarette out of his hand onto the ground and put it out, which lead to him calling me asocial and stuff, despite him knowing that he was doing something illegal, was bothering others with it and had refused a polite request to move to a smoking zone. Of course I didn't deem him worthy of more than this summary of facts and further ignored him.

Personally I feel that a lot of people even beyond smokers, though smokers are some of the worst, are completely asocial. If you ask the average person to pick up some litter he dropped on the ground, he'll look at you whether you just went crazy. Heck, a while ago someone was beaten up in the middle of a busy street, and people simply ignored it. "Not my business" or something. I addressed this smoker on the trainstation platform because he was bothering me and others, yet his response was basically that he didn't give a damn. How cute. I hope he and his girlfriend die in a horrible accident today. Also because I don't want to end up paying for his cancer treatments later on.

I'm all in favour of banning smoking in all public places, including buildings and roads, much like in California. It's a nuisance to those who don't smoke and possibly even dangerous to those afflicted with asthma or worse. I would also like to see people who smoke to pay more for their healthcare insurance, simply to compensate for their unhealthy way of living. Yes, I'm asocial like that. Screw them.


Maya

2 comments:

Jan said...

You took a risk by doing so, you might have been beaten or worse...

I agree with your remark that smokers must pay more but it should also include people who eat a lot of junk food, people with risky jobs etc.
What follows next I do not mean seriously so dont be angry or upset.

You, Maya, visit your doctor often, go regularly to a hospital for consult etc and use medicine.
I seldom do that, perhaps once in eight years, use no medicine at all despite my old age (55 next month).
Should you not pay more for your insurance company than I do?
Now we both pay somewhat the same...

But I shall not complain and pay my part of your medical costs:-)
In the end, in one way or another, we are all paying for each other.

Maya Posch said...

The difference is of course that I did not choose to create the circumstances under which I would require those services, while those who elect to pursue an unhealthy way of life did :)

Plus there is the whole question of whether if the doctors here would actually pay attention to my case, this situation wouldn't have been resolved much sooner and with fewer costs for everyone around?