Calabash-Wearers Will Be Prosecuted

As you can see, I’m an enthusiastic supporter of helmet laws. As such, I took particular note of this story from the BBC regarding motorcycle-taxi passengers in Nigeria trying to circumvent the nation’s mandatory helmet law in an unusual way.

They wear pumpkins shells on their heads.

The article (which contains the memorable line “Road safety officials said calabash-wearers would be prosecuted”) reveals that the gourd ruse is not working. Pumpkin-wearing passengers cause the motorcycle taxi drivers to have their bikes confiscated and generally make trouble for all parties concerned. So why do they persist? Are they afraid of being thought of as bumpkins? Pumpkinheads?

Ah, it's superstition! These passengers fear that any helmet provided by the taxi drivers could be used “to cast spells on their clients, making it easy for them to be robbed.”

If this sounds like magical thinking to you, try pushing the button for the 13th floor next time you get on an elevator. Can't do it, can you? Of course not. Nobody wants to be on the 13th floor. (Yes, yes, I know the 14th floor is really the 13th floor. Now go away... I can't get my pumpkin to fit right...)

Pumpkin helmet photo by Ben-Millett.

Hikikomori Are People Too

A Japanese software company named Avex produces videos of people looking into the camera. These “starers” (who are all female, and nearly all young) have a tough gig. They need to be neutral and non-threatening, but shouldn't just stare blankly. (You can see the videos at the link above; to end a video, hit the button on your screen’s bottom right corner.)

You see, Avex wants to help the estimated one-million Japanese boys and men who have contracted the anti-social syndrome called "Hikikomori." (Those afflicted are also called Hikikomori.) Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare defines such a sufferer as "an individual who refuses to leave their parents' house, and isolates themselves away from society in their homes for a period exceeding six months.”

Hikikomori victims are almost exclusively male. (What, women aren’t ever interested in avoiding all live human interaction?) And the Avex videos allow the socially excluded to practice having a stranger gaze at them. Avex’s company literature states that their videos helps the Hikikomori “handle the fact that a sentient being sits across from them and awaits interaction."
This France 24 article gives more background on the problem (and has mildly inappropriate material toward the end). The piece's reliability may be a bit suspect, though. It quotes a purported American Hikikomori, which is absolutely ridiculous. I find it impossible to believe that a red-blooded American (or French-speaking Belgian) would forgo all live human interaction in order to play video games.

ADDENDUM: Hikikomori can be cured! A Reuters story out of Lagos, Nigeria tells of a father who took his 20-year old son to court on charges of "idleness." For refusing to obey his parents and for not engaging in productive activities, the young man got 30 strokes of a cane —right there!— and was sentenced to six months in prison. Situation resolved.