Once I had my car being fixed, I had to call a cab to go to work. The driver was in his late forties, I sat in the back seat on the right side, as should be. I could see him through the front mirror. The traffic made a 20 minutes ride take as much as an hour.
As soon as we got blocked in traffic jam, the taxi driver started to talk, critisizing all this traffic. He told me his story, he was living in a scandinavian country for more than 15 years, he even has citizenship with his lebanese wife and both his children. It's been may be a year since he came back to settle in Lebanon with his family. He was having real hard time to earn a decent wage, to find a decent job... And he started comparing the situation in Lebanon, the political corruption, the unsecurity, the people around to what he witnessed and lived in his scandinavian country : compensation when he was unemployed, 100% coverage for medical and school expenses, waiting in a supermarket queue with the prime minister !!! ...
Then the conversation was getting hotter and hotter, he was turning his head right and left, with anger over his face, agitating his hands, yelling at me : LOOK ! LOOK! LOOK AT THOSE PEOPLE ! with disgust on his face then : LOOK ! LOOK ! LOOK AT THOSE CARS ! I thought he was going to give this : look at those cars, plenty of all road and expensive cars while everybody complains they have barely enough to eat... but no : LOOK AT THESE, MERCEDES, BMW, ... ALL GERMAN, ALL EUROPEAN CARS !!! YOU THINK IT'S THE ARAB OR THE LEBANESE WHO MANUFACTURED THESE CARS, NO , NO, LEBANESE ARE NO GOOD .... And it went on and on with more critisizing about Lebanon and praising the scandinavian country. Hearing all this, by the end of the trip, I simply asked him : do you consider going back to scandinavia with your family since you have citizenship and full citizen rights and facilities and you all speak scandinavian ? ---------------------- He went all crazy !!!!!! WHAT ! THERE'S NO LIFE THERE!! PEOPLE GO TO WORK, GO BACK HOME, GO TO WORK , GO BACK HOME , NO LIFE I TELL YOU !!! NO WAY I'M GOING BACK THERE !!!
As the days go by
This blog was specially dedicated to my bro Fadi, when he was in Qatar ,working there, so he could stay updated with us living in Beirut. Now it is for everyday posting, for whatever passes in my mind.
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