Insensitive, inconsiderate actions

Imagine, eight o’clock on a Monday morning and our caring police service decides to carry out another of its useless “exercises” near the Bird Sanctuary. At that hour, motorists know the kind of traffic to expect but this was taking torture to the extreme.

I left home at 7.45 am and should have been at work at about 9 am, well before my scheduled 10 o’clock class. By the time I approached Chaguanas, the traffic had backed up to Chase Village.

This is not unusual but, at least, the traffic flows slowly. This time, it was reduced to barely a crawl. It took almost two hours to get from Chaguanas to the Monroe Road flyover.

By that time, I knew I could never make it to my class on time, or even slightly late, so I called someone and asked him to inform my students and apologise for me. I turned off at Monroe Road and it took only another 20 minutes to get to UWI. However, my heart bled for those whose journey did not allow them that option.

A colleague who stuck it out all the way to the scene of the “exercise” also had to cancel his class. He wasn’t stopped by the police but it seemed they were “checking” (for dark tints, I suppose).

Really! Could the few dark tints that were removed justify thousands of people being late for work, late for classes, late for job interviews, late for their doctors’ appointments, late for meetings?

What about those with bladder problems forced to sit in an unnecessary traffic jam for three hours? Can you imagine their suffering? But who cares?

As if that weren’t enough, would you believe the story gets worse?

Not satisfied with the morning exercise, the authorities decide to repeat it at 4 o’clock on the opposite side of the highway near the Divali Nagar site! Now, who do you think are going south at 5 pm? Yea, you guessed it. The same ones who were going north in the morning. How heartless can you be!

Mercifully, this time, it wasn’t so bad. I took only one hour to travel a piece of road that would normally take three minutes.

In developed countries, the authorities make every effort to facilitate the smooth flow of traffic, even in the case of accidents or exercises. In backward countries, they “leave no stone unturned” to make life as difficult and frustrating as possible for its citizens.

Noel Kalicharan

via e-mail