A reason to like the ME

I was reminded the other day of a reason to like the ME. Here it is all about common sense. While I may not agree that people actually use their common sense here, I do believe that everyone here accepts responsibility for the consequences of their decisions. If something looks dangerous, avoid it. Nobody should have to tell you something is dangerous. Or if it is only reasonably risky you can risk it but it's nobody elses fault if things go awry for you.

It was a simple thing. I had gone to the mall to do some grocery shopping. One of my favorite grocery stores here is Carrefour which is in a mall. When I walked in I could see some men working on the escalator that goes up to the store's entrance. This is an escalator ramp rather than stairs. Kind of like a moving walkway but it goes up and down. The only other way to get up to the next level would be to take the elevator. Or I suppose you could walk quite a distance and use another mall entrance.

The elevators at this mall are a joke. There are two of them and they hold maybe 3 people at the most. If you've got a stroller with you then good luck finding room on one of them as they are always in use. I didn't want to wait for the elevator to take me up to Carrefour.

The men working were at the bottom of the escalator. They had opened up the bottom so there was about a 3 foot gap between the floor and the escalator. A man was down in the hole. You could only see his head. There were about 3 other men around watching/helping. Now in the states they would have had barriers and security and tape and warning signs . . .They'd be so fearful of getting sued should someone be stupid enough to fall in the hole. I stopped and debated how I was going to get up to the store. I noticed others were just jumping over this guys' head and walking up the escalator. So I decided to follow suit.

You're probably thinking "Oh no! She fell in!" No, I didn't. I was just very careful. As I think people should be. If I didn't think I could make the jump, I would've chosen the other two options of a longer walk or waiting for an elevator. Perhaps I could've chosen a third option of running really fast up the escalator that was going down but I've let my exercise routine slip a bit and it would've been really embarrassing to get halfway up and run out of steam only to have to ride the escalator back down, exhausted, and be in the same place I was to start with. So I opted for the jump. And I made it. I even cleared the guys' head as I jumped.

It just made me think of all the things here that are dangerous but you just have to be aware and careful. Most of those things are driving/road related--people jaywalking across busy roads, taxis that stop or pull out right in front of you right in the lane, vegetable trucks that drive slowly in the shoulder but weave occasionally into traffic almost causing accidents. I could go on. You just take life at your own risk and you can't wait for someone to warn you that it's risky.