Parking Cops or Meter Maids

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"I got a ticket.”

It’s even more frustrating if you parked illegally because you thought you’ll be back in five minutes. A lot can happen in five. Parking attendants employed by City Hall might be a few feet away.

They used to be called ‘meter maids’ because they were done mainly by women. Men are common now but it is still a job frowned upon. I don’t remember someone say: My dad is a parking attendant. We look down upon it because it’s manual labor. That’s why we intimidate them with big English and French and demand that they cancel tickets. Working with your hands was honorable in traditional societies. Preparing fields for planting, hunting and imitating animal calls, carving means of transport like canoes, building huts and animal enclosures, cutting grass for roofing and storing food in granaries for winter, was work.

We think parking attendants are inferior because they do housekeeping work. Which is? Looking after our cars. We don’t respect drivers and mechanics. How can we respect parking attendants? Point of correction. They don’t look after our cars. They ensure that we do, and not park illegally risking being towed. It’s not a nice sight, seeing a vehicle floating in the air, behind a mean-looking tow truck.

Manual labor is original work, before offices and cellphones.

Nonqaba waka Msimang

Executive Blogger

 

 

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