I’m confused….

It gets to my nerves when people are stupid and ignorant… like today, I was going to buy some stuff from thr grocery. As usual, I go into my car and drove off to the main highway with the CD playing in my car. I was enjoying the hot breeze coming in through the windows, wreidly enough. I am usually a careful driver, always checking my mirrors and using signals and abiding by the road signs (stupidly enough, since in Lebanon none of the aforementioned matter anyway). And today was no exception.

I needed to stop by the bakery to buy some bread. And since the bakery happened to be located on the right side of the road, I drove to the right – thus giving space to the other cars to overtake me – and used my signals to point out that I was going to make a right turn soon. I expected that whoever was driving behind me would actually notice the flashing yellow light signaling that I was about to take a turn to the right; but I was wrong. There was a small motorbike driving behind me, to the right side of the road. I had seen him through the mirror, and expected him to slow down to prevent a collision. Apparently, he is one of the many – and I mean MANY – in this country who do not understand “sign language”… To make a long story short, as I slowed down to make a right turn, the dude hit the brakes, steered to the right and ended up falling off his small motorbike.

I heard the screeching and the bang, and I felt sorry for the dude. But truth be told, I didn’t bother to check on him. Why? Well, because it wasn’t my fault is he was so dumb not to understand that a flashing yellow light on the right rear of a car is actually a signal telling those behind that this specific car will slow down eventually and make a right turn. And this is what I do not understand: how hard is it to abide by the road signs? Or signals? Or traffic laws? And do people in Lebanon actually believe that the little yellow lights installed in the car are simply a decorative item? I really don’t get it!

Traffic lights are highly useless, since if you do stop at a red light (God forbid you do that), drivers behind you start honking and cusring and cussing, wanting you to go when it isn’t your turn… it isn’t even safe, for crying out loud! And the funny thing is, there is a policeman standing beneath each traffic light on the roads of Beirut (since it is only mainly in Beirut that Traffic lights exist) to assist with the traffic flow. And even then, the drivers don’t even abide to either. I have never seen such a place…

And you should see how they drive; like they’re in some sort of race: everyone wants to be first… is there a prize waiting which I am not aware of?

I guess I am declaring war on this society I live in…

The dude was not injured, at least not physically…