The new regulation approved by the Council of Ministers banning public smoking has become the talk of town.
Articles praising it fill our newspapers and our writers have expressed happiness at the regulation. I’m not so optimistic, even though the regulation itself is a wise one. A law that bans smoking in all of the Kingdom’s airports was passed over ten years ago, but no one cares. It’s normal when you go to any airport in the country to see a large sign saying “No Smoking” and under it a man or two smoking and not giving a damn about anything or anyone. If the new regulation ends up like the earlier one, then why should we care? As with other laws, as long as there is no enforcement by ministries or municipalities or government offices and no fines imposed on offenders, it may not even see the light of day before dying.
Even if people are assigned to do the job on a regular basis, let’s hope that they did not attend the same school as the “anti-begging committee” or the municipalities in our major cities whose officials are doing nothing about children begging and selling at traffic lights — particularly in Riyadh. The number of these children has increased dramatically, and they are found even in the most prestigious streets such as Olaya and Tahliya. You find yourself wondering whether we really have an anti-begging committee which gets a yearly budget from the government.
I sometimes wonder why some of our young people do what they do. For example, about half an hour ago in Tahliya Street here in Riyadh, two young Saudis were speeding along in a Mercedes Benz 500S. One of them lowered the passenger window and sat on the door with half his body outside the car. The driver — still speeding — went into a skid, turning the car left and right in dangerous daredevil maneuvers and leaving skid marks on the street. The street was fortunately almost empty. There were not even any girls crossing in the street to be impressed. So why do two Saudi guys in a Mercedes Benz, which probably costs well over SR250,000, skid all over a main street? Boredom? Maybe. Nothing to do? Perhaps. Not having earned a riyal by the sweat of their brow in order to buy the car? Most likely!
I sighed and then asked myself a question. Have most Saudi young men who drive BMWs, Mercedes Benzes, Lexuses and other cars with price tags over SR200,000 earned even a quarter of that amount? If they had, would they behave so dangerously with them? If the young Saudi I saw, even if he was from a rich family, had been told that he would have to earn money for his own car and for his own personal purchases as other young men do all over the world, would he have been more appreciative of the machine he owns? Whatever became of teaching youngsters to depend on themselves? What ever happened to a genuine upbringing by parents? Do we have to lose another generation before we realize that most of our social problems will never be solved until serious steps are taken by parents and educators to address these problems in our country?
The Supreme Commission for Development in Riyadh has approved a railway system to link all parts of the city. The trains will contain up to 20 cars at one time and will accommodate some 3,000 people at the same time. They will serve many main streets in the capital and stop at stations built exclusively for that purpose.
All of this sounds good. And though it has yet to be implemented — especially since the capital’s streets were built and asphalted 30 years ago — one question arises: Where will people walk when we do not have sidewalks? Surely any railway station in the world whose passengers get off trains walk down streets to reach their destination.
But how will 3,000 people do that in Riyadh when all the streets in the capital — like those in all of our cities — have been built without sidewalks? Would someone from the commission or municipality please clarify?
