The level of impatience is increasing by the day among us Lebanese. With each passing day, we become much less patient and much more intolerant. And that shows mainly when we’re on the roads, either trying to make our way through the incessantly increasing traffic, or looking for a parking spot.
Parking spots are becoming a very “in” cause of problems nowadays. My first and closest encounter with this sort of problem was a couple of years ago. I had just got back from a friend’s, with my brother and my sister-in-law; my brother was driving and we had been looking for a parking spot for over half an hour. We finally found one in the parallel street, only it was reserved with a barrel. People in Beirut think they can reserve a parking spot next to their house by placing any slightly heavy object next to it; a barrel, a rock, or even a wheel. (Not to mention that wheels also serve another very important function: we burn them to express our dislike towards anything; they convey the message better than actual words).
Anyway, we were so desperate for a parking spot that my brother got out of the car, moved the barrel and headed back to park. At that moment, a buff guy comes out of the building next to which we are, wearing Jeans and a sling (The typical Lebanese thinks-he’s-a-macho-man attire). He walks up to my brother and says “ma fik tsoff hon khayye”. At first, we start explaining, calmly, that we have been uselessly looking for a parking spot for almost an hour now, and that our house is right there in the parallel street. Macho dude is not the least bit sympathetic, nor does he care. Instead, he just stubbornly puts the barrel back where it was. We keep trying to explain but he completely refuses to respond, so my brother gets back in the car and shuts the door, cursing his luck.
The guy decides to feel offended and starts walking towards us. Through the car window, he reaches for my brother’s face, holds him by the chin and says, in a threatening tone, “zabbetle 7akyetak men yom w rayi7”. I freak out and open the door to get out of the car (Don't ask me what I was thinking). Somehow in the next five minutes, we find ourselves surrounded by about fifteen guys, all shouting and cursing; talk about gangs! After a lot of struggle, we finally manage to get away from them. It’s an experience which we laugh at when we remember it now, but at the time, it was a truly traumatizing one. All we wanted was to just park and go home!
A more recent example in that field; the problems that arose in Burj Abou Haidar a couple of months ago. People were killed, the army filled the street, and everyone was left in panic mode for days. No one knew exactly the cause of the problem then, and it was referred to as just clashes. But it was announced on the news the next day that it had all started because of a parking spot which two people were fighting over; well, that and some political conflicts. I have no idea how those even managed to be part of the context! But isn’t this what we are best at? Bringing up politics anywhere, anytime, even when it has nothing to do with what we are talking about, for the sake of creating a problem and proving a useless point we think we know something about?
This is all in the past though; but what brought this up now is my experience in the ABC parking last week. While I am heading towards my car, I see two people parked next to the same spot, both of them with their engines off, and sitting there doing nothing. I keep looking at them until I realize that each one of them is claiming this is their parking spot, and that they will not let go. The guy is shouting, saying "law bedda tetkassar siyyarte mesh zeyi7 men hon!" I go up to them and tell them that I am leaving and that one of them can take my place. The woman finally surrenders and starts to drive towards my parking spot. Meanwhile, the guy quickly parks, and manages, in a matter of seconds, to agree with some other guy who is also looking for a parking spot, to “steal” the one the woman has been waiting for; mine. And so he did; the woman had to start looking for a parking spot all over again. While she drove away, he started running after her, yelling “kharjik madame! La tet3allame teser2e ma7allet ghayrik!” Mature? Yep, I thought so too!
It is definitely frustrating, to get caught in traffic, while going to work, and while driving back home from work; to have to look for a parking spot next to the office, when you have just woken up, and then next to your house, after having gotten back from a long tiring day at work; to park in a parking lot that is fifteen minutes away from the office, because that is the best option you have, and cross the road running, carrying your purse,laptop, lunchbox, trying to avoid getting run over; to give your car to a valet to park, and then find out they went on a cruise in it, changed your saved music stations to better suit their taste, or stole your gum and your cigarettes…
But this is how things are here; too many buildings, too many people, too many cars, and not enough space! I just believe it’s about time we all came to terms with the idea, tried to develop an optimistic view about it, and learned how to better deal with it than to kill each other over it.
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