A FEW DAYS ago I woke up early at 10 a.m. (that’s early when you’ve gone to bed at 4 a.m.!) and rushed downtown to the Balad area of Jeddah to send some money to a friend in the Philippines.

Bleary-eyed I pulled up at the Corniche shopping center at 10:25 a.m. to find it still shuttered and shoppers milling around outside waiting to gain entrance. I thought it would open at 10:30 a.m., but soon found myself to be too optimistic. Let me explain to my non-Muslim readers what is going on here: It’s Ramadan now in the Muslim world, a month during which Muslims fast during the day, refraining from all food in daylight hours. It is supposed to be a month of spiritual purification and reflection. Unfortunately, in many Muslim countries it means just flipping day into night. By that I mean, they try to do as little as possible during the day, sleeping the whole day if possible, while staying up the whole night, overindulging in food and of course shopping!

Ever hopeful that the shopping center would open, I waited with my fellow shoppers and money remitters until 11 a.m. The doors were finally unlocked and we all rushed in only to find the bank wasn’t opening until 11:30 a.m.! Most of the other shops were also shuttered, except for the supermarket, most likely not opening until 1 p.m.

When the bank finally opened, there was a mad rush to get inside, grab a remittance form, fill it in, and get in line in front of the sole two tellers. Even though I accomplished that in five minutes, there was already a line in front of me when I lined up in front of the teller’s window. No problem, I thought, it would take 15-20 minutes at the most.

Daydreaming to take the boredom out of waiting in line, I was jolted out of my reverie when an Egyptian man tried to muscle into the line in front of me. Obviously not wanting to have to wait like all of us other mortals, this man just marched up to our line and said, "I was here!" Luckily, the plucky Filipinos in front of me would have nothing of it, and tapped the man on his shoulder and told him to go the "end" of the line like everyone else. He protested meekly, but immediately moved back.

Glad at our version of mob democracy working so well, we front-liners wagged our heads in disbelief and smiled inside at having won one more battle with these notorious line-jumpers. Our satisfaction was to be short-lived. Within five minutes another man (also Egyptian, I’m sad to report) pushed his way to the front of the line, loudly exclaiming that he had been at the front of the line all along, but had momentarily slipped out of line for technical reasons to fill up his form. We protested, but this man was a consummate liar and was going to push through with his charade, come hell or high water. I thought for a split second that maybe he was telling the truth, until the interloper opened his mouth and exclaimed: "I was here an hour ago when the bank opened. I swear to God!"

I now knew he was lying through his teeth because the bank had just opened 25 minutes earlier. Too tired to put up a fight, I and everyone else in front of me just decided to adopt the path of least resistance, and kept our mouths shut. But we were all amazed at how someone could lie so brazenly during Ramadan. But then again, liars don’t stop lying because it’s a holy month, do they?

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Why arming ourselves is a bad idea

A SMALL news item caught my eye the other day. Manila Councilor Julio Logarta Jr. of the sixth district proposed that civilians start arming themselves so that they could deal directly with the rising crime rate.

I know he isn’t the first person to propose guns as a solution to rising crime; nor will he be the last. What is unfortunate about his suggestion is that it would only add to the riskiness of civilians going about their daily lives. Manila may be overcrowded and its police resources stretched to a dangerous limit, but placing guns into people’s hands is not the answer.

The notorious arms lobby in the US, the National Rifle Association, has vociferously lobbied Congress to allow all Americans to carry weapons, believing it is a right enshrined in the US Constitution. (The more right-wing nut cases believe that the United Nations is trying to control Americans and take away their "right" to bear arms).

Everyone carrying their own weapon may have been OK during the Wild West days of young America, but in urban centers nowadays we have professional police forces, whose job is to protect citizens and prevent crime from happening. Logarta would be better to vote for more funding for a chronically underpaid police force than push for the arming of all citizens, which might lead to vigilante killings.

The Philippine tradition of neighborhood watch groups, led by local tanods who patrol neighborhoods, should be encouraged and expanded. Of course, they shouldn’t be expected to take over the police’s basic duties of enforcing law and order, but they can certainly help make the police’s job easier while providing neighborhoods with a greater sense of security. That beats guns in the hands of everyone any day.