Wake up and get out of the way
During wet weather, why is it that people with functioning umbrellas nearly always amble around under the protection and relative dryness of shop awnings and building overhangs, poking everyone's eyes out in the process, and forcing those without umbrella
“The Wally with A Brolly Syndrome” (TWABS) has now become a serious worldwide behavioural phenomenon. It is almost on a par with another pavement-blocking “nobody else exists but me” idiosyncrasy of the “don’t moan, I’m on the phone” variety – the “must-be-in-touch-with-everyone-at-all-times” affliction, otherwise known as “Mobile Obtuse Behaviour Syndrome” (MOBS) [“Failing mobile-phone manners a global problem”, The Nation, April 27, 2007]
Like their TWABS counterparts, MOBS sufferers experience major awareness blackouts. For example, in public areas they will unexpectedly stop dead in their tracks, often creating extensive human pile-ups. Or they will suddenly experience an inability to walk in a straight line, veering all over the place, to the amazement and vexation of those trying to get past. And it’s all in the name of a totally self-indulgent and obsessive love affair with a portable techno-gadget that can turn intelligent beings into morons within the space of a microsecond.
MOBS has now been officially classified as incurable. TWABS appears to be going in the same direction.
MOBS and TWABS: What contagion is next for the human race?
John Shepherd
Bangkok
