Efficiency and Disabled

Hi again.

I'm quite amazed about how efficient a country could be compared to Spain. It seems this is a really efficient country. There must be some clever guys thinking about ridiculous, but usefull, things all the time. How much are they payed?

So lets talk a bit about efficiency in the UK. I see some bizarre (bizarre for a spaniard, I mean) things on the streets and on the tube. For example:

On the mechanical stairs you have signs saying "Please stand on the right" or something like that, I certainly don't remember the exact phrase. That's really clever and efficient. So the fastest people can walk up the stairs while the slower ones can stay on the right.

Anywhere you have tube maps, and more specific ones that indicates almost perfectly how to reach your destination. You have also somebody speaking telling you wich trains is coming, and also where is that train going to, and also he reminds you to mind the gap, the gap between the train and the station. You have also signs saying "mind the gap" and more tube maps inside the trains. It's quite difficult ti get lost at the train if you're clever enough and don't mind on asking somebody.

On the streets there's this painting I told you saying from wich direction are the cars coming. So even if you're a blody foreigner you don't have to be worried when you cross the road. When you want to cross you just have to take a look at the ground and read, meanwhile you'll be pushed by some Spaniards that just want to cross the road without looking because they're really clever, well, they aren't that clever, is always better to look I think, but in fact I preffer them not to look, so they can be kill....., ups!, I'm sorry, I was just letting my murderous instincs to fly.

But there's always a bad side on that kind of efficiency. It seems those clever guys aren't disabled or don't know any disable people. They forgot completely that some people can't read, they can't ever see. As not all the traffic lights have acoustic signals for the blinds, and as not all the cross roads have even traffic lights for pedestrians, I wonder if they can really live in this city. Somehow I haven't seen any blind yet. And it's quite hard even for non blinds to cross the roads as not all of them have traffic lights for pedestrians, just only for cars.

And about the wheel chair guys, I believe they have to "walk" (sorry, I don't know a proper word fot that) the whole city if they want to go anywhere. The tube doesn't have a lot of lifts. And, what's most strange, some of them have lifts but then they have stairs to reach the platforms. Of course it's impossible to "walk" on a mechanical stairway with a wheelchair. And on the streets, not all the crossroads have any kind of help for them as well.

So I see this is a country of efficency, but really unpolite with poor disableds. Somebody has to speak with Mr. Blair, or with the major, or with those blody clever guys that decided to put a sign saying "LOOK LEFT" instead of an acoustic signal for blinds.

It's strange that Spain is better in that sense than England. I'm amazed to see we do something more efficiently than English. At least our traffic lights have acoustic signals and paths for wheelchairs even in my little small town Pontevedra.

I hope you like it this time and also that I could stay as long here as I can really tell you all the differences between you and me.

Cheers.

Manoel.