Recently I received a letter from an Arab who came to the beautiful Red Sea city of Jeddah six years ago. The city is beautiful with its wide roads, squares and attractive buildings, he said. Yet, at the same time, the system of small buses and their service are awful.

The old and unhygienic buses are worse than anything from Ottoman days. He called them "accident proof" because no other vehicle dares to drive near them. The dirty buses run willy-nilly on busy streets like angry bulls, polluting the air with fumes and soot, their engines roaring and snorting deafeningly. Any car venturing to drive near a bus feels that it may ram his car at a death-producing speed.

Because of some problem with his car, the man who wrote to me had to depend on these buses to travel to and from his work. The very first ride made him long for the return of donkeys and camels. It was sickening to listen to the drivers abusing and shouting at passengers. The driver’s repertoire of curses is endless.

In addition, the drivers have scant regard for traffic regulations. They stop anywhere they please with no thought for the safety of passengers or other motorists. What would be the impression of a foreigner when he sees these buses and their drivers?

A public transport system is a measure of a city’s cultural standard. Why can’t the bus drivers be more careful in their driving and respectful in their dealings with passengers and the general public?

My correspondent wonders why there are no comfortable bus stop for passengers. He was shocked and amazed to find traffic policemen, whose sharp eyes never miss even the most minute violation by other vehicles, failing to notice buses rushing past them throwing all traffic regulations to the winds. Even his distant and relatively undeveloped home village has a better bus service, he claims.

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I could have visited Bangkok any time in the past 20 years. It was very simple. A flight by Concorde from Bahrain to the Thai capital took only half the time of any other plane. In fact, I made all the arrangements for the journey and even bought some books about the country, just to get an idea about where I planned to spend several days.

To my great consternation, I was gripped by a fear of the journey on the eve of my departure. I attributed this to what I read about thieves and other criminal gangs who attacked tourists in Thailand. But to my horror, I discovered soon that my real fear was not due to criminals but of flying at so great a speed!

As I could not overcome my fear I postponed the trip to another day. Still I could not get over the fear so I dropped the whole idea. I later regretted my decision because never again did I get the opportunity to travel by Concorde.

Later after reading a book by Beatrice Ville, a woman-pilot of Concorde, I learned that there are pretty women who are far more courageous than men. Beatrice was never frightened by the speed of a plane at a high altitude. Her dream was to fly a Concorde. Her story made me ashamed. She had made up her mind to be a supersonic jet pilot while she was an aeronautics student even though at that time, such planes were in their early stages.

After graduation she worked flying small planes carrying 18 passengers. In 1985, she joined Air France and flew Boeing 727 and later an Airbus 320. Finally, she achieved her life’s dream and became a Concorde pilot. She lovingly called her Concorde a sparrow. She was immensely delighted to sit in the captain’s cabin. She said flying a Concorde gave her great confidence and peace of mind. The plane, equipped with the latest sophisticated technology, has the additional advantage of a smooth take-off with no shaking and jerking — smooth as a feather.

If I had read her story a little earlier, I would not have canceled my Concorde flight to Bangkok. I am ashamed of my cowardice.

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To the many kinds of fevers that we know, we must now add a new one. It is far worse than the others because it can affect anyone, anywhere, of any age and either sex at any time. It is a strange fever but have a look in your drawers and closets. Chances are you will find clothes, shoes, shirts, dresses and who knows what that will never be worn. Gripped by a sudden fever, you bought them and then never wore them and it is likely that they will remain unworn.

This fever reaches a pitch on days of sales. Not one woman who hears of a 50 percent discount fails to rush into the store. What she buys that day is added to her stock of things bought on normal days. Her closets and drawers overflow with clothes that may never be worn for a very simple reason — she doesn’t need them or discovers later that they don’t suit her or that they are not really fashionable.

Young men are as guilty of this as women. Research in England showed that the average British man between the ages of 20 and 35 spends some one billion pounds annually on clothes and other personal items that he doesn’t need. The research also indicated that many of these purchases are made when the buyer is feeling depressed and so shopping becomes a kind of anti-depressant.

A woman who feels that she has gained weight rushes to buy clothes a size too small, even though she soon finds that the clothes don’t fit so she throws them aside and feels depressed all over again.

The woman who supervised the research confirms that people shop for clothes because they want to appear different. She advises women not to buy a dress in the hope of losing weight but to lose the weight first and then buy the dress. A participant in the research says that buying unnecessary clothes fulfills a need for possession and that a spendthrift is ill with buying fever. The spendthrift will in fact treat people as he would clothes or any other possessions — own them without loving them. In conclusion, "Money is not everything" — but if divested of it, many people would have nothing left.