why, why why?

I have always heard people (mama comes to mind) say that Arabs are great people but our governments hold us back, westerns have good governments behind them to make them more organized, and to help them keep their countries clean and other things that we are lacking in the middl east. For some time I did believe this, but the more the older and wiser I get the more this remark stops making sense. I guess on the big scale of things there is some truth to this, but what about the small things here and there, which is what I want to talk about.

Yesterday I went downstairs to throw a garbage bag in the garbage dump by my apartment. I live in a three story building so there is no garbage shoot :o(
It brought back memories of going down to throw the garbage in the dump by my house in Lebanon as a little kid. There is a huge difference between the two.
Here it looks neat, you are not disgusted when you pass by it, everything is inside the dump, there are no bags sitting on the side, no loose garbage flying by. If you didn’t know better you would never guess this green container contains garbage. A huge contrast from how the garbage dump looked in Lebanon. It was disgusting. There were 2 big round containers that were to hold the garbage. The containers were never full; they were empty most of the time. Why were they empty you ask?? Because people were too lazy to walk one extra step to throw their garbage in the pail, instead they would throw them at the pail and it was a miss or hit. But who cares right. How could one not care, this garbage is in your parking lot for god’s sake, why could they not make a tiny effort to put the garbage where it belongs. Ya3ni I cannot blame this on the government, on the Zionists or what have you, but on the idiots who did were too lazy to throw the garbage where it belongs.

Then there is the waiting in line issue. Why is it so hard to make a neat line and wait your turn? We really cannot blame anyone on this. Why is it so easy for people to wait in line elsewhere? Has anyone been to that famous ice-cream shop in sook el7amadiye in Damascus? It is a zoo in there! One time I was trying to get past the people waiting in what in a different country would have been a line-up to get to the seating area, when I got squished by a not so skinny bald man. I was holding my then 8month old baby. It is a wonder no one dies in there! Anyways, I politely asked the man to move shwai, but he did not hear me or maybe he ignored me. How could he ignore cute little me? Huh? So I put all the muscle power I’ve got into my right arm and punched the guy with my elbow to get him to move before zozo and I suffocated to death. That did the trick and I was able to get by. I will never go into that place again, no ice cream is worth this! Besides I am more of a chocolate ice-cream gal. Maybe they should get those things they have in Canada’s wonderland, little fences to keep people in a straight line :o)

Let’s not talk about the people who clean their houses and then throw the dirty water from the balcony, or at their doorstep without any care to passer bys. I am hoping this has changed in the past 20year that I have been out of Lebanon. When walking through the za2azeek in the naher elbared camp in Lebanon you had to be on the lookout for housewives throwing water and splashing you.

Ok I could go on, but I have got to get off the computer and attend to my other duties :o)

Arabs are great people (of course I am biased on this), but they are too hamajeyeen in certain things.