Some Jeddah rats criticized the article I wrote on crows last week. Their conversation was as follows:
Rat 1: What is wrong with writers these days? Why are they spying on crows? Instead of hearing lovely bird songs, we hear the ugly rasp of crows. And as everybody knows, the crows are responsible for the disappearance of the lovely birds and their songs.
Rat 2: Can you believe they are calling us fat cats? Why are they concentrating on us? There are many real fat cats in this city!
Rat 3: It is not our fault that people leave their messes behind wherever they are. The messes are gifts that come to us and which we cannot refuse. Thank goodness, these people are not fined for the messes they leave behind.
Rat 4: I heard that one writer has suggested establishing some municipal police.
Rat 5: What do you mean by that?
Rat 4: I mean police who would have the right to arrest those who deface public property — writing on walls and the buildings and littering the streets.
Rat 5: If that is done, it will be a disaster for us. We won’t be able to find food. Oh well, because of past behavior, we have enough stored food to last us forever. How lucky we are to be here where everything is provided! And there are plenty of places which are fine for our homes!
Rat 6: Well, I really think some of those places are too small for us with our large families. The officials should think about providing bigger places with more space. Why, some of them are so small that we look like fat cats — those same cats that we frighten away by simply looking at them. Don’t forget those cats left the beaches because of us. There are just too many of us. We must be thankful for the power we have.
The rat conversation ended when an intellectual rat, full of wisdom and knowledge, said: “Dear brothers, especially you fat ones, to guarantee us a long time on the beach, we must behave. Meaning that we have to take people’s feelings into consideration. We must not rush out and seize food as soon as they throw it away. We have to remain calm; after all, the food will be there for plenty of time. Nobody is going to take it away. By the time the garbage collectors get there the next day, we have already taken all the best bits. To continue our easy lives, we must use a bit of strategy and not appear greedy. We must pray that people will continue to neglect and ignore us.
One senior rat commented: Haven’t you seen that now we are scaring crows too? They don’t seem to want to come anywhere near us. So we are frightening both people and crows! We really have a lot of power.
Now, leaving the rats, here is a serious question: Is there a plan on the part of the municipality to do anything at all about the problem of rats and crows in Jeddah?
Arab News Features 10 January 2003
