Kuwait’s Traffic And The Problem Of Disrespect

21 August 2015 Kuwait

All I can think about the approaching academic year is the traffic. I really hope that this year the government will find a way somehow to organize the traffic, especially in school drop off and pick up zones. The problem in this country is that most people simply don’t respect the law. I’m not only talking about traffic violations, I’m talking about almost everything.

According to sources last week, the General Traffic Department conducted a series of security campaigns in the six governorates that lead to the issuance of 46,933 traffic citations, impoundment of 2,519 vehicles, arrest of 37 motorists for committing serious violations and referral of 23 expatriates for deportation as they were found to be driving without a driving license. What does this prove? It proves that people in Kuwait, both locals and expats, simply don’t respect the law.

I have a few questions to expats and locals who are breaking the laws:
1) Why on earth will expats drive a car without a driving license? Will anyone from any nationality drive without a driving license in her or his own country?
2) Why would anyone not put on a seatbelt while driving?
3) Why would anyone speak on their cell phones when they can use an earphone or Bluetooth and save their own and other people’s lives?

4) Why would anyone put their children in their laps while driving instead of putting them in a safety car seat or let them pop their heads out of the sun roof while driving fast or teach them how to stir the wheels when they can’t even tie their shoes?
5) Why would anyone park in a disabled parking spot? Or park under a big red sign that says “NO PARKING?”

6) Why would anyone park their car on the black and yellow-marked pavement?
There is only one answer for the above questions: disrespect of the law. How can any one respect the law if ‘wasta’ rules? Arabs have grown up on the idea that with ‘wasta’ they can do and get away with almost anything. Even teenagers have learned this ‘golden rule’ from their parents.

The law should be implemented on everyone, equally, and should not differentiate between expats and locals. Laws must not be only a propaganda and advertisement that will be forgotten after a few months. A law must be taken seriously by all within the society. For all expats that are being deported for breaking the law, I do understand how it is to be deported after settling and making a living with your family from a country such as Kuwait. But please try as much as you can to respect the laws and not break it. And for locals, try to be a good example for your children and for others and respect the law.

I think that expats fear the law but do not respect it, while locals disrespect the law and do not fear it. As Martin Luther King, Jr said, “Law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and when they fail in this purpose, they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress.”

 

Source: Kuwait Times

 

 
 
: 2009

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