‘Talk about bold-faced!’

For far too long we, in this country, have had to put up with “bold-faced people.” Now, I have reached the stage where I am just fed up of them. These are the people who like to have their own way. In addition, they pay no attention to their business but are seriously obsessed with yours. Recently, after a hectic day at work, I left Port-of-Spain and joined the horrible traffic jams which the Government is doing absolutely nothing about, only to reach Caparo hours later and find myself  stuck in traffic once more. When I got out of the car to investigate I was appalled. Nothing could have gotten me more upset. You see, some inconsiderate person decided to hold up traffic for half an hour in order to have a wrecker manoeuvre a car under his house. It was quite obvious, from the time it took, that the driver of the wrecker had bought his licence! What aggravated me even more was that no one said anything to this inconsiderate man who did not care that the people he kept waiting might have had important things to do at home or that, even worse, someone probably needed medical attention.

When he finally got the vehicle under his house he stood by the road laughing and telling the occupants of the cars “sorry.” Oh please! “Sorry” does not help after you have had such a long day. This is what you call bold-faced! Recently I came across yet another set of bold-faced people. The folks at TSTT. Bold-faced is when you take your bill to TSTT to query it after you see hundreds of overseas calls that you did not make and have the folks there put it to you that you made those calls. Numbers called that you have never seen in your entire life, yet they insist that you dialled them. Then, they go even further and insist that you pay a bill for two thousand and something dollars.Talk about bold-faced! I’ll tell you what is bold-faced. Bold-faced is when you see those TSTT workers standing by those booths pretending to be fixing wires when in truth and in fact they are without a doubt using my line to make calls. Bold-faced is when you pick up your home phone and hear a man sweet-talking a woman with 97.1FM playing in the background, and when you say “hello?” they begin quarrelling with you to come off your own phone. That is bold-faced. A bold-faced woman approached me the other day and said: “ah want yuh to put something in the papers for me!” For crying out loud, if someone would like me to kindly do a story for them I would appreciate if they would “ask” me rather than “tell” me.

Sales clerks are also among the bold-faced breed. When you go to purchase something the clerks roll their eyes as if you are begging them to sell you something. No way am I taking that anymore. I am certain I can find a store where I am treated the way a customer is supposed to be treated. On top of all that they expect you to ask for one size and one size only. Do not, I repeat do not make the mistake and ask to try another size. You would be subjected to the worse looks you have ever received. Managers should really consider training these people properly before sending them out to serve the public. Finally, the most bold-faced and annoying creatures I have ever come across are men. Men expect you to respond to their degrading cat calls and when you refuse to lower yourself to their standards, or lack thereof, they are bothered and lash out. “Oh! You feel you too nice?, Arite ah know you hearing me you know. Doh take me on, ah still love you.” Then it goes to “ah doh want you yuh know, I could do better than that. Oh you feel you too high?” Why in the world would someone respond to “pssst, Indian.”

That is not my name; if you want to speak to me say “Excuse me please Bavina,” or “Excuse me please ma’am may I speak to you for a moment?” Maybe if these bold-faced creatures were to respect women then we might actually respond (in a nice way). Another thing about men — they know you for one day and they think they own you. There is this guy who spoke to me once, then called my home phone. I missed the call (or at least so he thought) and when he saw me again he said “I was calling your phone yesterday, you missed the call.” As if waiting for an explanation. Why must I give you an explanation? You do not own me. Who do you think you are? I am really sick and tired of people who are so bold-faced. It annoys me and if it continues I will have to consider my options.