Doing the J-aywalk J-iggy!

I just returned from blog-hopping to some of my favorite sites. Les Becker’s post on how she managed to get away with jaywalking immediately reminded me of another funny encounter I’ve had with the nice people in this little tiny Asian country I am currently having an extended holiday in.

Jaywalking. Yes, it had to do with jaywalking. I remember waiting for my cousin in her parked car and watching this young man getting arrested for jaywalking. The irate policeman (All policemen in this country seem irate. It must be the humid weather.) was giving the young man a piece of his mind, yelling and screaming at him about how he should have read the sign that said ‘No jaywalking’ and going on and on about how this country would be a better place if people just learned to follow basic rules of discipline. He then goes on to present to the poor guy his options. One, he can opt to pay the fine of P100 or, and this is the interesting part, he can go scot-free provided he stands in the corner and sings the national anthem for all pedestrians to hear. Unfazed and even a little glad that he had a way out of paying the steep fine, he chose the latter but requested that he be allowed to choose his own song. Since it was Christmas and people were generally in a good mood, the policeman agreed and the young man proceeded to take his place near the busy intersection.

In less than a second, without need for any prompting from the policeman, the young man starts gyrating ala Ricky Martin (Menudo is big in this part of Asia) and starts belting out (like someone having a root canal) his very own weird version of “Living La Vida Loca” complete with his own lyrics! Everyone, including myself sitting quietly inside my cousin’s car, is startled by the sudden onslaught of this man’s singing! By the time my cousin returned to her car, a slight commotion had erupted and an amused crowd had gathered round this Ricky Martin clone, laughing and clapping along with him while the enraged policeman kept blowing his whistle demanding that he stop this racket immediately!

Speaking in their native tongue, I couldn’t get what the policeman was saying so I asked my cousin and she told me, he was screaming swear words and saying stuff like “I’m gonna throw you in jail if you don’t stop this instant,” and “Stop or I’ll shoot you! You’re worse than a terrorist with that voice of yours!”

Well, the young man did stop, but only after he had completed the song. He even took a bow and blew kisses while people applauded in jest! And the traffic policeman? He was as red as a tomato and fuming mad. But it was Christmas so he let him go but not without a warning. As loosely translated by my cousin, he told the young man, “NEVER PASS BY THIS STREET AGAIN OR I’LL DOUBLE YOUR FINE AND THROW YOU IN JAIL WHETHER OR NOT YOU VIOLATE A TRAFFIC RULE!”

Well, that should teach "him" a lesson! But who, the cop or the reprobate? In this case, I’m not exactly sure. Like I said before, life in these islands is always interesting.

J