Observing the Aussies: It's next to godliness...

This Australian behavior caused my mouth to drop open.

I remember the first time a few years ago when I was here on a business trip and went into a Maccas (that's McDonald's to you and me) for a quick bite. Sitting down in the minuscule dining area, I observed a couple who had finished their meal blithely get up leaving the trash from their meal behind without a backward glance. I was shocked to the core. "Oo! My momma would give them such a pinch," I thought! Only to see yet another group do it, followed minutes later by some bottom-of-the-rung McD's employee busing the tables.

Since then I have seen it countless times; including people at food courts eat amongst other people's leavings rather than clear the table. Even today a group of kids in an outdoor eating area of a fast-food restaurant got up and left their trash on a table mere feet from a receptacle, only to have it join the other discarded meal packages blowing around the parking lot like brightly colored confetti.

And remember that McDonald's I was talking about? It got so bad one night it garnered worldwide attention when someone posted cell phone footage of the mess on YouTube.

The Singaporean newspaper, The Straits Times, recounted an on-line blog entry, "I, for one, will not clear my trays at a foodcourt, not because I lack social graces, but because most foodcourts are not designed for customers to do that. What's next? Asking diners to clear up after themselves at a restaurant?"

Maybe it's just me.

- Farmer Ted