This morning I have received two emails about the facts of life. The first
was describing (in a family-friendly way) the behaviour of some raccoons in
Central Park and clearly met one of the definitions of the "facts of life".
The second was Geoffrey's and I am not sure that the situation he describes
is a "fact of life". It is more a political reality. I see this as an
important distinction because the facts of life are more or less fixed
whereas political reality can be changed - in theory at least.
A good - and relevant - example of such a change is the attitude of the
police in New York. When we first visited the City in the late 1980s the
behaviour of the police was very similar to that which Geoffrey described in
his original posting: if you spoke to a cop you stood a good chance of
getting arrested. Nowadays, following political actions by the Mayor, the
police are nearly always courteous and helpful (those engaged in crowd
control at Caribbean street parades tend to be a little less so, but they
are also under heavy stress). The private sector "security" forces on the
other hand are almost always arrogant and unhelpful.
With regard to photography the only occasion I have been asked about such
activities here turned out to be when I had photographed near the (unmarked)
residence of a senior diplomat from a sensitive country. Once it emerged I
was interested in the architecture there was not a problem. The usual
situation is that if photography is not desired in an area there are large
signs giving hints by saying things like "no photography" so you take snaps
at your peril.
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