Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Walloped

A car finally struck me. It was a wonderfully Venezuelan experience. Though if I want to tell the story in a Venezuelan way, I guess I need to say -Se me choquaron -Me golpearon*. "They hit me."

I entered the crosswalk at Av. Francisco de Miranda and Av. Principal de Las Mercedes in Chacaito. This is a six-lane 2-way street with tall office buildings intersecting another street with four lanes in one direction and a little country street (sans sidewalks) on the north side. It's a major intersection, big enough to have a painted crosswalk. Some guy in a pale green (!) sedan, a Mustang or some such, wanted to turn right from eastbount Miranda onto southbound Las Mercedes (click the map to understand. This is right in the middle of the map, south of the golf course.) Like most Venezuelans, he saw me walking the same direction as his car was going, and the other pedestrians in the crosswalk going the other way, and decided to just go, knowing that everyone is looking out for cars and will yield with the grace of merengue dancers avoiding other spinning couples on the dance floor. The rule, generally, is that once the nose of a car is ahead of you, it has right of way. I didn't care. I was in the crosswalk and I have decided that in this respect I'm not going to be culturally relativistic -- cars suck just as much here as they do anywhere else.

At first he let me go, walking along to the right of his car as he edged closer and closer. He nosed ahead of me. I kept walking, and right when I was about to walk around the front right corner of the car, he accelerated while turning, walloping me with his right-side mirror and then knocking my knee with the car's side panel. It was like he just couldn't stand the idea of some other guy taking right of way from him, and he needed to assert his insecurity in whatever way was available.

10 meters more and he was stopped at the back of a line of cars at a long red light. I know what you're wondering, and no, he didn't run over the other drivers for blocking his way. Drivers and pedestrians here respect the power of other cars (and of politicians, businessmen, and pushy bastards on dance floors) quite unduly. There is a willingness to submit to the power of others that I, as a long-time U.S. resident, find kind of pathetic.

As he drove off, some guy near me yelled "Demasiado!", obviously shocked. A couple of women in white told me I should have gotten the license plate and told a cop. I realized I didn't particularly care. I thought about how I coulda keyed the car, or kneed it, both of which I would have done when I was younger and in a country where drivers rarely shoot people for small acts of vandalism. It didn't feel worthwhile. This was one little act of unjust power in a city where these things are rampant. Cops, companies, politicians, and just about every driver will take advantage of any little opening to behave in awesomely antisocial, unfair ways. Drivers always, always cut the line in traffic. And I'm no saint, I use my unjust power at times -- I think about getting searched by security schmucks and how you can wow them by mentioning you have a laptop in your backpack. Suddenly they almost always just let you go on through. And besides, I knew I had won. I didn't submit. I just kept walking. That's all I was trying to do, and I did it. I wasn't even bruised.

Such antisocial behavior was, for me, the biggest shock in arriving in Venezuela, with its banner of socialism. One thing I've found -- most people here are incredibly, over-the-top nice. They will do anything for you. Once you've met their eyes. Before that, there is a substantial minority who will fuck you six ways to Sunday. It is pretty easy to join the "us" side of us and them. But until then, beware.*

* UPDATE 9/5: Pepito, in comments, notes that my Spanish sucks. That is true. This is why all of my generalizations need to be taken with a grain of salt. Also why I refused to write or speak publicly about Venezuela in general for my first year here, despite goading from friends abroad. As is, I edited the first paragraph to have a better Spanish sentence. I changed the last one from extreme overgeneralization to regular overgeneralization.

PS: Welcome, drinkers of Inca Kola News. And thanks, Mr. Rock, for the link. Very kind. You sure have friends in many places. Hello Buenos Aires! Hello Krung Thep! Hello Sinaloa! Hello Lyngssa! Hello Burnaby! It occurs to me that the Blogger comment software is a bit of a pain. If anyone wants to return the salutation, it's very simple.

9 comments:

mgrace said...

As a New Yorker living in La Paz, I sympathize completely. I've been daring to do what you've done: Actually insisting that I have the right-of-way when I cross the street here. I have to keep telling myself that I am not going to change Bolivians' driving habits and I better just chill the fuck out.
It's hard, though, because these fuckers don't give a damn about pedestrians.
Great blog, great writing. I'm here through Inca Kola and now I've got you linked at my blog (should show up in my profile, I guess).

Anonymous said...

Dude, it's not "Se me choquaron'...the right way to say it is "Me chocaron". I hope your spanish gets better if you stay in Venezuela...


Pepito

Anonymous said...

Now i see you were not driving..so then you say "Me atropellaron" as the word "chocar" is not used when describing a car running over a pedestrian.

Pepito

Anonymous said...

"There is a willingness to submit to the power of others that I, as a long-time U.S. resident, find kind of pathetic."


Mwahahaha!! No me hagas reir, por favor. I have a long time living in the U.S. and I have never seen people more cowed and more likely to submit to authority (and to the powerful) than typical U.S. residents. Here in the good ol' US of A nobody gets out of line and if they protest they have to do it 5 miles away from where the acts they are protecting are happening...do you know anything about living in Venezuela? Nearly everybody is armed, and they are willing to shoot you for nothing...It's that hot Caribbean temper. That's why people are sometimes willing to let abusive bastards get away with everything. Methinks you haven't been in Venezuela long enough....

Pepito

Anonymous said...

"As a New Yorker living in La Paz, I sympathize completely. I've been daring to do what you've done: Actually insisting that I have the right-of-way when I cross the street here. I have to keep telling myself that I am not going to change Bolivians' driving habits and I better just chill the fuck out."

Jeez, man. I'm here in NYC...and guess what? People are so fucking rude it's unbelievable. Everyday when coming to work I see drivers disrespecting the right of pedestrians to cross the street without fear of being run over. Cabbies are the worst of the worst. And don't get me started about people with big SUVs. It's funny, because when I got here driver behavior made me think I hadn't left Caracas.

Pepito

Hedgehog said...

Thanks for the thoughts, Pepito. I edited the post a bit. But I quibble:

I have never seen people more cowed and more likely to submit to authority (and to the powerful) than typical U.S. residents.

I am not talking about typical folks, who will always go along to get along. I am talking about the independent-minded minority that I found in the States. I have had a very hard time finding people here who instinctively assert their rights. In the States, I sought out that kind of person and lived in a whole community of them for a time in San Francisco.

Here in the good ol' US of A nobody gets out of line and if they protest they have to do it 5 miles away from where the acts they are protecting are happening

That's baloney. There are protests all the time in the U.S., and while there may not be enough, it's wrong to say they are always far from their targets.

...do you know anything about living in Venezuela?

No.

Nearly everybody is armed, and they are willing to shoot you for nothing...It's that hot Caribbean temper. That's why people are sometimes willing to let abusive bastards get away with everything.

Sure, fear plays a role at times, but it can't explain why no one complains if a cashier helps three people ahead of you in line to reward those people's pushiness, or why people keep going back to restaurants that treat their customers like annoying pests, or why in the face of a very controversial government, opponents complain but don't build alternatives. The other thing is that fear works two ways. In big U.S. cities, what politeness drivers show to others is partly motivated by fear that the other drivers, too, may be armed or may scratch or kick their car (Cyclists in San Francisco have been known to demolish the car of those who try to commit hit-and-run.) So I don't buy that it's all about fear.

I suspect conformism plays a role as well. Nobody wants to make a scene. In every social class in the U.S., there is a powerful tradition of claiming your physical space. I have seen low-income 50-year-old black women and 22-year-old biker kids and old men with walkers in the U.S. just shake their heads and go, and if they get messed with they will argue back about rights. I don't think Venezuelans have nearly the sense of individual rights that I was used to in North America.

mgrace said...

Pepito:
NY cabbies can be bad. I don't know, maybe it's just that I REALLY don't understand the rules of the road down here, but man I get pissed at the cars. It reminds me, though, when I was in Casablanca and I was trying to follow a local to go have some tes (which turned into a scam, BTW, but that's another story). He crossed the street in front of me, but I was petrified--the traffic was too intense! He turned around, laughed at me, and help me across.
Cultural differences? Sure. But damn!
Where are you in NYC?

Anonymous said...

hedgehog:

I quibble too. You see, 12 years of living in the New York/New Jersey area (the Bronx, Jersey City, etc) have taught me exactly that here people are also willing to withstand abuse from those who are in a position of power or from those that can provide them a service. Bank tellers, state employees, etc. etc parade their incompentence in front of people that are apparently not willing to raise their voices. I've lived it.

I think you are being a little unfair also with the typical venezuelan population. If you're going to take a progressive San Francisco community as a representative sample of your typical USAmerican you're going to end up getting the wrong conclusion. Typical Venezuelans and typical Americans are not that different. And I can assure is not about not wanting to make a scene. As for that minority that demands their rights in Venezuela, you're more likely to find it in the cerros (if you have the balls to go up there) than walking down Las Mercedes or strolling along el Bulevar de Sabana Grande. Don't forget these people came down from their ranchitos when their adored President was kidnapped. Somehow I have a tough time thinking of Americans doing the same if they were in that kind of situation.

One more quibble: Yes, in the USA people also go to marches and organize protests. But the larger point stands: they get totally ignored by the powerful and the media, and they get booed and verbally abused by the sizable reactionary portion of the US citizenry. Your tipical escualido venezolano chains himself to the doors of the Asamblea Nacional without being beaten up by a baboon in uniform (totally unlike what happened in Saint Paul just this week). So I won't concede you that point. The powerful State machinery of your country has perfected the act of either ignoring or coercing protests with typical gringo efficiency.

As for physical space, I believe you are in one of those typical instances in which cultural differences actually play a role. People don't touch each other much here in the USA, at least not as much as in Venezuela.

Pepito

Anonymous said...

mgrace:

I work exactly in one of the buildings above Penn Station and currently live in New Jersey.

Pepito