Crowd control...

[Innocentius]

Come to think of it, I've never seen a pimped ride, and I rarely see/hear people playing music in public.

[Spetulhu]

Come to think of it, I've never seen a pimped ride, and I rarely see/hear people playing music in public.

It's more common in places where bored young men use to attend car-related schooling. First buy a cheap used car, order the cheapest possible flashy parts and put it all together. Then buy or steal the components for a car stereo system worth more than your useless car. The end result is a pimped-out Corolla that looks like you wanted a racing car with monkeys beating on huge drums somewhere inside. Low-profile tires, widened wheel housing and lower hull, huge landing platform on the rear, huge chromed exhaust pipe. All seems cool until someone looks under the hood where the original 1,3 liter snotpump is wheezing away.

[FactionHeir]

In London, its usually the Brits who do it, and most of them are in classy looking vehicles, half the time windows closed even. Doesn't really block the noise from shaking floor and windows across the block though, and most people just look at them in a bored fashion while some swoon...go figure.

In China, I don't think I ever experienced said phenomenon. Not even in the expat crowded places. But then the expats and their kids who come here tend to be more careful, while the average Chinese has enough discipline not to do it. I doubt what Husar says would happen though - its quite a bit more liberal here than you think.

In Germany, there are quite a few, maybe as many as in London. Most are Germans in open roof cars. Police doesn't care, sometimes even points and laughs. Locals usually don't care, rarely you get someone shouting at them though.

[Don Corleone]

I appreciate all the helpful suggestions. I don't think I explained myself very well though. Booming sound-systems in cars is just one particular example of publicly annoying behavior (the one that got me thinking about all this).

But other examples:

-Street corner preaching
-Poor hygiene
-Yelling at people (in the mall) etectera
-Cutting lines (or, I think in other parts of the world, you call it breaking queue)

My point wasn't the particular behavior. My point was wondering out loud how you deal with said behavior from a more communal approach. If you don't keep up your yard in the Netherlands, what happens to you? If you don't bathe in Spain, will you still be treated with respect?

What forms of 'public disapproval' happen in your respective countries?

[Tribesman]

Oh come off it Don

-Street corner preaching

thats street theatre , and they don't even expect the audience to throw money for the performance
Theres a couple of really entertaining Ugandan ones in town this year , though they are not on a par with the Plymouth Brethren I used to come across in Britian , them brethren really give a good show , plenty of old time old testament smiting and damnation stuff .

[Don Corleone]

I mean the guys that come up and scream at you and get in your face. I mean anybody can climb up on a soapbox, the rest of us are free to walk around them. I'm talking about the wild-eyed sandwich board wearing guys that chase you down the street.

[Goofball]

I find that a small chuckle combined with an indulgent shake of your head and an eye roll (like you would give your three year old who had just dumped his ice cream sundae all over his shirt) really pisses them off, because it gives them an indication of how silly they look to others.

[Haudegen]

The best tip I can think of is: be spontaneous. Say or do something erratic that leaves the bugger speechless.

[Fragony]

What forms of 'public disapproval' happen in your respective countries?

Nothing really, ignore it, but then again we don't need to be noticed that much. People will look at eachother, shake shake their heads in a display of disaproval and continue with whatever they were doing.

[Sigurd]

I depend on my mood and the situation.

I really dislike beggars in the streets. Especially here in Norway where there is no need to beg. My disliking started when some idiot beggar boasted in a newspaper article that he received 30 000 NoK ($5000) a month tax-free from begging in the streets. This was far more than I earned busting my @ss off at the time in the military. From that moment I usually tell them were to go if they stop me in the street asking for money (which is the work centre, the social office or some place where it is rather hot). I am remembering my fellow beings when abroad though.
One time in Lithuania, I and a couple of friends had been to a concert in one of the beautiful churches in Kaunas. When we got out there was an old beggar woman there with a tin cup at the bottom of the stairs. We emptied our pockets and gave her all our change. We didn’t realise that what we gave her amounted to a months pay in Lithuania. To us it wouldn’t buy much in Norway. Tears streamed down her chin and we asked a by passer to tell us what this lady was trying to communicate to us. She had prayed for help when her pension had not come this month and thanked her Lord for the three Angles that had helped her in her time of need. Yeah, we were all tall blond guys, but wings we had not.

I dislike people talking on the phone in shops and on public transportation or people being rude to others. But I usually don’t do anything other than sending them an evil look.
Again it depends on the mood. I once told a guy to shut the hell up on a bus. This particular bus you don’t pay to ride. It is a service for those that park a little outside the town centre and it takes a roundtrip into the city. This particular day the bus broke down when it was about to leave. It was full of people both standing and sitting down. This guy was obviously either a drug addict or a general trouble maker. He started to mouth off to the driver about the bad service and the driver's lacking abilities to drive buses. There was an elderly Danish couple there where the man had a slight touch of claustrophobia and this trouble maker started mouthing to them as well.
I turned to this fellow and with drill instructor piercing eyes and voice, I told the man to shut up, drop to the floor and give 20. Ok, not the last part, but I explained why his behaviour was making him sound really stupid. This was a free bus service and he hadn’t paid to be there, in fact I bet he had no car parked in the parking house (I said some other stuff as well not fit for printing). The bus driver was on his walkie talkie and didn’t notice the Danish elderly man and his wife because of the throng on the bus. I opened the back door by using the emergency lever to let them out and they thanked me for handling the situation.

With queue cutting (called “smiting” here). I usually don’t make a scene when it happens. I don’t think there is a culture to cut lines here and people usually ask if they can get in front of you. I am not one to decline, and will usually let people in front of me if they are elderly or pregnant even if they don’t ask.

I can’t speak for all of Norway but my feel is that the elderly and people not from big cities are bolder and more up front than people in cities. It is not unusual to see an elderly man scolding an adolescent young man for putting his feet on the seat in front of him, or a youngster for sitting when they should give their seat up for an old lady or a pregnant woman.

I guess people should be told how to behave in public... If they don't like what you say, tough!

[Fragony]

I really dislike beggars in the streets. Especially here in Norway where there is no need to beg.

Was kinda surprised how many of them there are in Bergen, beggars everywhere, all drunk. Which is quite odd considering liquor prices in Norway. Hate it as well, they get 850 euro a month, that buys you a lot here. It can be fun to buy a junk a sandwich and watch them struggling eating it but that's just me.