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World's Most Aggressive "Queue Jumpers"
One of the things that annoy me to no end when traveling are people who cut in front of you when waiting in line or as the British say "Queue Jumpers".
Part of the problem is that I never know whether I should just relax, ignore it and let everyone get ahead of me (I am on vacation, after all... no rush to get any place) OR whether I should "do as the Romans do", assimilate and become a champion queue jumper myself. I have a feeling I would be pretty good at it, too. What I do know is that most countries in the world could use an elementary school subject called "The Art of Forming a Line". It would make the world seem a lot more civilized.
Every time I travel from the US back home to Prague I notice how much more aggressive people are in Europe about their spot in line (The UK is an obvious exception here). Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Paris, Berlin airports...I swear sometimes you feel like if you don't squeeze into the front, they would not let you board. The further east you go, the worst it gets.
I just read a piece in the December 23 "The Economist" about the airports in Russia which really made me laugh. The author is describing the various species of the Moscow airport queue jumper: "the brazen hoodlum, the incremental babushka and the queue-surfing clans who relocate in groups when one of their number reaches the front." It reminded me of my trip to China where elbow-wrestling with 70-year old women in lines was a norm. The Darwinism of the 21st century is quite sad, really.
Filed under: Arts and Culture, Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, Oceania, South America, Antarctica
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
coach Jan 7th 2007 8:03PM
having just got in to a packed JFK Terminal 4 a couple of hours ago, i wholeheartedly agree. let's have a worldwide "culture" of proper queueing. it's part of being civilised. if you can't be basically civilised, stay at home.
today, i yelled at a woman and shoved my bag in front of her cart, after informing her nicely--twice--that the queue was behind me.
but i've had worse experiences. in mexico, in order to get in front of me in line to get off a ferry, an old woman looked right into my eyes, then rammed her bag into my crotch, using my shock to grab her chance to jump in front of me. lovely.
Adrienne Jan 7th 2007 10:41PM
Great post Iva! This royally annoys me to no end when I'm abroad. Everyone will get their turn if they just wait. I'd like to say I'd be pretty good at it myself, but I could just see myself bulldozing some poor old 80 year-old queue jumper to his untimely death.
Chill out and form a line folks.
A
Dave Jan 13th 2007 7:52PM
While this really gets to, a friend in Romania explained that under Ceausescu, people had to wait in line for everything -- mail, bread, paychecks... So when the dictator was overthrown, the people declared "NO MORE LINES!" Many Romanians apparently feel it's their right as free people to skip queues. So I try to be a bit more patient as I grind my teeth to powder