Friday, May 17, 2013

Chasing Pavement: My Daily Life.

I open Twitter and see a mini-buzz going on about a member of the parliament who parked on a handicapped-reserved spot in a mall's parking. And to be honest, I was surprised. No, not because it's illegal. I mean we all know how corrupted our country is. What surprised me is people's reaction, I wouldn't imagine such an incident would cause this mini-buzz. Maybe because this is my daily life, and I'm used to encounter such scenes. So I decided to share one of my many stories here, with you.

A year ago I was in Hamra and I had a little incident that kind of marked me. I was "walking" in Hamra street with a friend and it was very crowded, so I decided adventurously to "walk" on the sidewalk. Now first, we all know how wheelchair-friendly our sidewalks are... But even when there's a slope/ramp on the sidewalk, there's always someone blocking with their car. On that day, it was a cab and the driver was standing next to his car yelling "taxi" at every single person passing next to him. I found it very normal to ask him to move but also to explain to him that he's not supposed to be parked there. He answered: "7adirr" in an arrogant way and then moved it. So I passed and continued "walking". But what this cab didn't know was that I was going to pick up something and come back the same way I went. So on my way back, I saw him again at the same spot. I stopped in front of him and smiled in a sarcastic way. Then I noticed there was a policeman standing there, so I told him that this was unacceptable and that his job was to do something about it. So he's like: "halla2 bi zi7lik". So I explained to him what happened before and that he's supposed to make him not park here. The answer I got totally convinced me...NOT! He simply said: "3am bi fattesh 3a reze2to el zalame". Ever since, I totally ignore people parking on places where they're not allowed to, as long as I can get where I want, I don't give a shit. Am I a a selfish coward who decided not to fight the government and its daily dose of corruption? Probably, but that's the only way to make the most out of my life :]

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