Rules should be respected

Nowadays, more and more people seem to disrespect every rule. And it's not only the younger generation. No, even the elderly are quite rude sometimes. This morning in the supermarket, I was pushed aside by a man who was easily ten years older than I, because he wanted something from a counter where I was standing. Another time someone hits your heels with their shopping cart because they are hurried and don't look out.

Also, a lot of people seem to forget they don't live alone in a block of flats. An example is the garbage left everywhere. Some don't seem to realize that even when vacationing they need to put the garbage where it belongs. And others clearly have not read the house rules (which are binding in court, when necesarry). The apartment beneath ours is rented out and since last year November a bunch of people from one or other eastern country (it's not Polish or Russian, those languages I can recognize) are living there. They specialise in making a lot of noise after 11 pm and before 7 am. They bang the doors and let the toilet seat drop with a thud. While doors have handles and toilet seats can be lifted and dropped without making a noise. My sister always wakes up by that noise in in her turn wakes me.

Something needs to be done about this. Talking to the guy who's responsible (the "syndicus" - I don't know the word for it in English) for our block won't help. He's quite old and doesn't care a lot anymore. But we'll find something. We have had other noisy under-neighbors and all the time they sold the flat or ended the rent. I'll have to find out if the owner rents legally. If not, something can immediately be done. Or find out who those people are. They don't speak a word of Flemish and pretend not to understand what you are saying. Good chance they're illegal or part of one or other thieving gang. There are a lot of Romanian and Bulgarian gangs operating in our parts. We have already noticed they are not always the same who come and go...

I don't have a problem with rules. We were taught to respect them from the time we could walk. We were also taught to pick up our dirt and put it in a bin. I won't throw a paper or something else on the street. When  I don't see a garbage can I just keep like a dirty handkerchief in my pocket and throw it in the garbage bin when I come home. The same with empty bottles or cans. But lots of others seem to think otherwise. What you see on the pavement when you walk home from the railways station to our home (a good 900m) - empty pizza boxes, cans, cigaret ends, dirty handkerchiefs.... You could fill a garbage bag with it. I wish Belgium had laws like in Singapore, where you are severy punished when you throw something on the pavement.

What about you?