There are behaviors that I have observed in public places that often go unnoticed. They are practiced as if they are part and parcel of our culture. Surprisingly, the people you least expect to bare such behavior, are the culprits; most gentlemen smartly dressed in suits, tie and classy shoes love cleaning their throats and disposing off the spit—disgusting!

Spitting especially in public is the nastiest and most unhygienic behavior anyone could have. Spitting on the streets as you walk, working out in the gym and or spiting in the swimming pool are signs of untrained people in etiquette.

Where did our morals go? I wonder where our moral heritage escaped to. Not even the older generation is exemplary to the younger ones.

The other day in a taxi as I headed to Nyabugogo I sat with this old lady, disgustingly she passes her head through the taxi window and spits outside as the taxi moves. She could have spat on someone out there. Anyway, it got to my nerve and I felt the urge to rebuke her but thank God I didn’t react lest I got cursed.

We sincerely do not need laws to preside over us to dispose off this habit in the 21st century.

Besides spitting there are people who clean their noses without a handkerchief or any tissue paper. Someone gets to the roadside and uses bare fingers to clean their nose. Honestly if this is not primitivity what should we call it?

Same is the habit of chewing gum and then throw anywhere you see. It happens in some work places. You walk through into an M.D’s office after an interview and all you have to come out with is the gum stuck under your shoe. Can you imagine that? Hygiene, nil.

Spitting in public and other unhygienic behaviors are an evil that need to be stopped for the best of the public’s health.

rutarindwabob@yahoo.co.uk/ bolivewanted2010@gmail.com