The traffic police often face the accusation that they are devoid of artistic sense. This is patently false, and I offer proof to the contrary in some of the following examples.
No one visiting our fair city can possibly miss the tall and slender yellow poles that decorate many of our intersections. These delicate poles are made even more attractive by the beautiful lights attached to them that switch from green to yellow to red and back again. They do so in a manner sure to bring excitement to all who watch them turn.
Furthermore, the traffic police have adorned our streets with delightful round signs with mysterious numbers on them (50, 70, etc.) and other even more cryptic symbols to provide visual stimulation to drivers and to relieve their tedium.
And you still say these people have no sense of art?
The department has gone to even greater lengths to display its powerful sense of the aesthetic. They have hired hundreds, nay, thousands of young men and dressed them in elegant khaki uniforms and then distributed them among our roundabouts and road intersections in a glorious display of performance art worthy of any great and refined city. You can see them there in their cool dark glasses leaning upon their even cooler motorbikes, observing traffic without a care in the world.
Who among us has not thrilled to the sight of a police car decorated green and white cruising down the street with its lights blazing and siren roaring a sweet melody?
And you still think these guys are not artistic?
In other, less advanced societies, the traffic police are supposed to be responsible for the safe condition of the roads for all who use them — motorists or pedestrians.
We, however, as more enlightened beings, believe that this is the responsibility of the motorists and pedestrians themselves. The police are there to express our deep artistic impulses and to adorn our streets with their presence.
Let me relate a story that happened to me the Friday before last.
I had gone to the mosque where I usually pray. It is the Al-Rahma Mosque behind the Saudi Bin Ladin headquarters in Rawdah district. On the eastern side of the mosque, which happens to be the Qibla wall, there is a small street. This street is important because it joins Alrawdah Street (formerly prince Abdullah ibn Abdul Aziz Street) with Tahlia Street (Prince Mohammad ibn Abdul Aziz Street).
I decided to pray in the open space outside the mosque to enjoy the cool sea breeze on that day. As the prayers began I saw an elegant traffic police car pull up and stop right in the middle of the road, thereby completely blocking traffic. A couple of cops descended and with slow and measured steps entered the prayer line and commenced to pray with great concentration and obvious piety.
I could not believe my eyes.
Immediately after the end of the prayer I got up and walked barefoot to where the police car stood to make sure that it was indeed blocking the road. I was unfortunately correct and saw that the street was totally impeded by that one police car.
The traffic police may contact me for the license plate number if they are at all curious.
