I don’t know how you feel about public displays of affection or as some like to call them for short PDAs but I’ve never been a real fan. I just never found them appropriate but it might have something to do with an event that happened when I was very young.

Although I don’t mind seeing someone giving someone else a peck on the cheek or a couple holding hands, anything to overtly sexual or even merely suggestive seems better left for more private surroundings. How it affects me changes from one time to the next. Sometimes, if I’m single and feeling lonely, hardcore affection elicits a certain jealousy. Other times if the people are particularly unattractive, I feel that no one needs to see it, even if it is reassuring to us all, that even ugly people get laid. Most of the time, it just seems like a lack of consideration for others that may be offended and I’m very big on being “polite” in society.

In Tangerang, Indonesia according to Reuters (04/07/06), they passed a law where anyone not related caught kissing for more than 5 minutes will face arrest. The predominantly Muslim population of the country has always frowned upon kissing in public but no one had ever set a time limit on it before.

Officially, the new law is meant to combat prostitution not just control public behavior. However, some liberals have seen the recent crackdown as going too far as one young female restaurant worker was already picked up by police on the suspicion of being a prostitute because she stood too long on a public street while waiting for her husband to show up. One wonders if the new law will be enforced with equal zeal and if whether cops will carry around stopwatches to time kisses.

I might be a prude about seeing people virtually dry humping on the subway but I don’t suggest they should be arrested only suggest that they get a room.