Strangely ominous weather crept into cardboard city (Karachi) last week. On Saturday, gusty breezes chivvied in dark angry clouds drenching the city with blinding sheets of rain. Life ground to a halt, cars stopped mid-street, as the drivers could no longer see, pedestrians, cyclists scurried for cover to avoid the tumbling debris from the nearby buildings.
Anything remotely movable was tossed up laughingly by the mischievous gales, and sent scudding across the roads. Man with all his scientific wizardry and tech talk was truly at the mercy of nature.
Tellingly what were also brought down to the ground, in spades, were the huge ugly billboards, which like a cancerous growth, despite the hue and cry, seemed to mushroom stubbornly even more. Despite dark warnings of their being dangerous to health and safety, not just a thorn in the side of aesthetic pleasure, they grew even mightier and taller and uglier, jostling each other to block out the sky. The mighty gales with one puff levelled these objects of crass consumerism and greed to the ground.
The morning after found many fallen over each other. Sadly, as predicted, it entailed losses of lives as they collapsed over shanty towns, as near the Kala pull bridge or onto cars, snapping wires and electricity lines. Some remained in shards, bits of twisted metal on ugly poles.
The city authorities seem to be now trying to pull down the rest of these perilous contraptions, but shouldn't the culprits be brought to book? Shouldn't they be held responsible for the loss of lives and damage to property? Who are the culprits? The sponsors of these ugly adverts, the soap companies, banks, telecards, multinationals etc for commissioning such huge, unlawful billboards? The agencies for accepting their demands and putting them in place.
The city administration for letting them be unchecked. Not only were these hoardings a general eye sore and menace, dozens of lurid women gazing down at you in silly poses and attire, but they siphoned off a good amount of electricity and gave the city a ghastly painted like a harlot look.
One night, when there was an outage on Shahrah-e-Faisal, the night sky crept in with its dewy dark softness, and star flecked light. Such a relief for tired from the glare of artificiality and materialism eyes. I suppose the action to bring down these vile boards is better late than ever, but when the monsoon clouds have bidden adieu and glided away, will these ugly monsters, like cancer cells, again rear their ugly heads to run rife through the city?
Crisis situations seem to bring out the worst of our traits. Wouldn't it be good if we followed traffic rules. Even if was for just one day. Laws and Rules exist not to take the joy out of life, in the straitjacket of donots, but for the greater weal of society . Especially in public shared spaces. Your space ends where mine begins.
Do unto others, what others would do unto you, are their underlying credo. The basic bedrock of their philosophy is to make life easier for every one, not just for one individual, to respect the rights of the other. You cant take other's goods, possessions, hurt others, physically or even emotionally, for no valid reason (even though no laws prevail on this issue). You have manners and laws for social interaction, based on the premise of respect and consideration.
Do not offend others or be considerate to others, in how your actions may affect them, if you are playing loud music are your neighbours being disturbed? And in the same vein, since we all ply the same byways and thoroughfares, the same applies to traffic rules.
We share the roads , so laws exist to ensure justice and equal opportunity for all. Everyone gets a chance in their turn, an exercise in patience and self restraint. For laws to be effective, no one is above the law and has the right to break traffic signals with impunity (except ambulances) or drive deliberately counter to the flow of traffic. Yet this goes on unchecked.
Infact the violator has the audacity to glare at you for being in his way. So it is with motor cyclists who, under the cop's nose, break through the signal before it turns green, posing a hazard to the oncoming traffic. The signal is red, yet at the Shaheed e Millat, the traffic will keep ploughing through the intersection despite the frenzied waving of the police cop to stop.
So many accidents transpire from cars driving counter to the correct traffic flow especially at turnings, for in how many directions can a person look ? He brakes suddenly, trying to avoid the oncoming car and the car behind rams in.
If people had any concern for the others they'd think twice about driving counter, reflecting upon the risks and hardship they'd put the oncoming cars through. If, but every one is in a haste to get to their destination, and our level of culture or refinement is reflected in the traffic.
During the rains traffic jams bubble up as each car, from a different direction, insists on being the first to get through the signal, other car zig zag their ways out of lanes to outmaneuver the traffic, with the result of an 'only in Karachi' traffic chaos.
The fall-out- double the wasted time if people had been patient enough to follow the laws and awaited their turn. To stem this slide into a state of traffic anarchy, in which every one does as he pleases, the laws must be implemented impartially. Which means that the influential should not be allowed to drive by with tinted windows while only the poor are stopped and fined. For then there would be no respect for the law and to break them would not mean that it is the sole prerogative of the privileged.