I live in New Kingston, so unless I am going to Portland (parish of conception), I exist in pretty urban surroundings, I have wireless internet, cable and even a standby generator in my complex so even when that rare power outage occurs, I am usually blissfully unaware (excluding that dull roar of the generator in the background).

So whilst I drive full tilt down the information highway, checking my email on my mobile phone as I go, I tend to periodically forget that I still live in a third world country.

So it is moments like these that bring me back to reality…these little moments I like to call “third world moments“. If you are still unsure what qualifies as a third world moment, then just try to do business with or get any useful information from most government agencies. Lose your passport or driver’s license and you will in very short order realize what I am referring to.

PARKING TICKET

So yesterday evening I pulled up in front of JMMB, Knutsford BLVD at about 6 P.M. Let me state upfront I was going to park illegally really quickly and use their ETM.  Now before the wheels of the car stopped turning this police man charged over and started yelling at me “ah haffi gi yuh a ticket, yuh park inna a no parking zone”.  At this point I was a bit taken aback as I really had not parked yet. So I said to the officer “I have not parked as yet”.

The very irate police officer at this time started to shout even louder, “yuh violate!, yuh violate!” at which point I started laughing (yeah I know, bad idea to laugh at an irate policeman with a gun) but I could not help myself. Still thinking I could get through to him, I said “officer you could have just said move along”. By this point I think he was conscious of the attention he was receiving, so he just gave me the silent treatment and wrote up the ticket.

Since I figured I was getting the ticket anyway, why not just park properly and do the business I was intending to do.

AND THE MORAL OF THE STORY

Unless you are the type of person who has no qualms about going through the hassle of debating a parking ticket in court (a government office – see above), then be very careful where you stop, pullover or “bruk dung”…as you just might get a ticket for “stopping, pulling over or “brukking dung“ in a no parking zone”.