With a little calculation, I discovered that in a single week I had sacrificed 13 hours and 40 minutes of my valuable time — eight percent of the entire week — waiting in queues at banks, government offices, clinics and other public places. I found myself forced to wait for this amount of time because there is apparently no more effective way of doing things. No doubt every day, millions like me watch in helpless frustration as their time is wasted for no valid reason.
What struck me most was that in most of the places I visited, clocks of different shapes and colors were hanging from the wall as if to remind visitors of the importance of time and to suggest that the people working there take the matter seriously.
As a timepiece showing us the time, a clock or watch is also closely linked to the state of productivity in which every second counts. Since we seem uninterested in productivity and oblivious to how much time we waste, public places should use alternative units of time.
First of all, the second and minute hands of all clocks in those places should be removed. They have proven to be of no use, so why retain them? The hour hands should be altered so that they move only once every 24 hours instead of every 60 minutes.
Muslims used to be among the most punctual people when it comes to time. This is evident by the strict observance of the five daily prayers. This practice is unfortunately slowly eroding. It is a rich irony that Dr. Ahmad Zewail, an Arab and Muslim scientist from Egypt, won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. His work dealt with the transition status of chemical reactions using femtosecond spectroscopy and as he was doing this important work, millions of hours were being wasted all over the Muslim world in long queues!
During the time I personally spent standing in queues, Boeing built a new aircraft, Mercedes manufactured more than 1,000 luxury cars, the population of Jeddah increased by 113 and scores of Palestinian youth were killed and many others injured in the occupied lands.
How many hours have you lost today waiting in a queue?
Arab News From the Local Press 9 March 2003
