I like the way residents of a Russian city finally managed to get local officials to listen to their complaints. Perhaps we too should take similar action in order to get responses to our requests and grievances. The Russians constantly complained of a nearby lake that was so polluted with toxic waste and radiation that everything in its waters — fish and otherwise — was unfit for human consumption. Each time the residents complained and sought corrective action, the city officials summoned the media to issue denials that anything was wrong and insisted that the local people were simply overreacting to an insignificant matter. Everything else having failed, the frustrated people decided to force the officials to acknowledge the problem. They caught a fish from the polluted lake, cooked it carefully and presented it to the mayor. They told him that by eating the fish, he would prove that the lake was not contaminated. They said if the fish were contaminated, the mayor must admit so in public. The plan worked; the mayor backed down and the people got not only an admission of contamination but also a promise to address the problem. Perhaps we should use the same tactic to move things forward and force our own local officials to take action.
If the officials in charge of water tell us there is no possibility of sewage being mixed with our mains water, we should offer them a cup of mains water and ask them to drink it. If the official who claimed that the fish in the waters off Jeddah, especially along the city’s southern coast, are not contaminated as the press has reported, he should be served a traditional Jeddah sayyadiah — fish and rice dish — and obliged to eat it in public.
If someone says our hospitals are the best in the world — even better than those in Europe and the United States — that person and all members of his family should be forced to seek treatment at any public hospital where ten patients are crammed into a single room. Let them enjoy the privileged service.
If one of our officials insists our neighborhoods and streets are the best designed, cleanest and most convenient, ask him to move for only one week into one of Jeddah’s slums so that he can acquire first hand knowledge and experience of how people live in those areas.
And if an official claims that the salaries of government employees are more than enough for people to live on, let him receive the salary of a grade 3 employee and see how easy — or not — it is for people to live on that small sum. Why shouldn’t we try the Russian solution and see what happens?
Arab News From the Local Press 5 May 2003
