I wonder if most of the kids wearing the squeaky shoes were Asian. There seems to be a real cultural difference in the amount of noise people tolerate many places there versus here. In many Asian cities I've been to car horns never stop, everyone's hawking and spitting, dogs bark and snarl, vendors drone their jingles, millions of jammed up scooters and taxis rev their unmuffled two-stroke engines, kids cry, grownups fight, roosters and chickens are squawking all over the place. Sometime it seems like Hell. But it's normal there. People are oblivious. Here,it seems like the higher the income level, the lower the tolerance for any noise but one's own. I went to a town meeting tonight and my wet sneakers were squeaking on the polished floor. I was embarrassed. Disliking noise is one thing, disliking kids is another. You probably wouldn't have liked the shoes any better on an adult than a child, in fact maybe you would have been even more irritated. Two issues I think and it's probably more politic to focus on the noise.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2006-09-15 05:42 am (UTC)I wonder if most of the kids wearing the squeaky shoes were Asian. There seems to be a real cultural difference in the amount of noise people tolerate many places there versus here. In many Asian cities I've been to car horns never stop, everyone's hawking and spitting, dogs bark and snarl, vendors drone their jingles, millions of jammed up scooters and taxis rev their unmuffled two-stroke engines, kids cry, grownups fight, roosters and chickens are squawking all over the place. Sometime it seems like Hell. But it's normal there. People are oblivious. Here,it seems like the higher the income level, the lower the tolerance for any noise but one's own. I went to a town meeting tonight and my wet sneakers were squeaking on the polished floor. I was embarrassed. Disliking noise is one thing, disliking kids is another. You probably wouldn't have liked the shoes any better on an adult than a child, in fact maybe you would have been even more irritated. Two issues I think and it's probably more politic to focus on the noise.