Sometimes you feel like a Spit Bag

Culture has always been an intresting topic to me. Just the way people look at so many things differently. One of those things that Westerners and Chinese look at differnty is spitting in public. I have been all over this great country of China and the one thing that Ihave notices is that EVERYONE spits. From the richest to the poorest this is just a habit that people have. Chinese think nothing of it and don't consider it rude. However, with the Olympics being hosted in Beijing next year locals here are thinking about the image that they want the world to see.

Here In Shanghai the public health office has come up with and idea to help with this spitting problem. They want to give cabbies bags to spit in while they drive... I know it sounds gross because it is. I can see it now, a nice warm day at the Bund lookinng at the river and feeling the breeze when all of the sudden a soggy bag of spit comes flying at you at 60 mph.

There are other concers as well. Many of you have seen that driving and traffic laws are differnt in other parts of the world. Well Shanghai is no exception. It is a large city of about 20 million and there are a lot of cars on the road. The cabbies here really have to be good inorder not to get hit and to get anywhere in the city. While soome seem to be in training for their next F1 race most cabbies can do the job. What we don't need is something to distract them for driving. I can see the headlines now: "Cabbie Crashes Lookinng for Spit Bag" or "American Throws Up In Cab As Spit Bag Lands In His Lap...Then Cabbie Crashes"

The health office here wants to give 45,000 bags to cabbies. Here is and intresting thought. There are 45,000 cabs with at least two drivers per car. That means that there are more than 90,000 cabbies in the city. Some here have estimated that there are about 270,000 cabbies in the city. so at the lowest estimate of 90,000 that means that cabbies would have to double up on the bags. And is that for just one day? Are these people to share for more than one day? The health offices plan is leaking like a soggy bag of spit. Just something to think about.

Tell me what you think out there in Blog land. Til next time this is Fatkid saying " is that a bird, a plane...it's a flying bag of SPLAT!"