Crazy before iftar is hardly describing it…on the way home from work there are 4 traffic lights that i have to pass through…3 of them had car accidents …all within a mile of each other…all at roughly the same time. In one case a sedan type car hit a bus sufficiently hard enough to knock the bus over…how fast was he going to accomplish that?

I dont know about the purpose or benefit of their Inshallahs….but I know mine is with heartfelt sincerity and utmost devotion when I utter it in hopes that I get home in one piece…I have kids waiting and depending on me…

The amount of carnage on the roads on an absolutely daily basis seems to indicate only one thing…lack of concern for personal safety or the safety of others. Now how can an entire region of the world be afflicted with this horrible mindset…and I say entire because diatribes against the middle eastern standard of driving is a daily basis kind of thing too…for all middle eastern countries…so I just dont get it…why the complete and utter lack of concern for your safety when driving a vehicle? Who teaches this to “belief” to the future drivers of the middle east? Whose fault is it and how can we change it?

And now during Ramadan, be sure and avoid the roadways if at all possible just before iftar….the driving is even more crazy then if you can imagine.

Do Emirati’s and, from the stories I’ve read about the roads in KSA, Saudi’s not care about death? Do they just say “Inshallah I will not die” and be done with safety side? Or is just the fact that they don’t realise how easy it is to die?

if you live in a particular spot…even if only temporarily…u should be able to have a say about what goes on…even if its just so much smoke in he wind…even if you are just labeled a “westerner” that wants to westernize everything…

Even God tells us in the Quran…if you cant affect change by your hand…the do it with your mouth…and even thats impossible…do it with your heart (paraphrasing).

“Does anybody know what actually happens if your out-of-control-drifting car is responsible for killing a few people? I mean, does anything happen? Like arrests or what?”

Yes there are cases. The famous one is the case of Abu Kab, which John Burgess followed with a few articles on his blog.

I think this was the latest
http://xrdarabia.org/2008/01/14/abu-kab-case-heads-back-to-court/

You can find the rest doing a search of the blog. The man that was responsible for the death was given the death sentence, which was reduced later. It is a classic example of punishment alone does not produce the right results. Even the threat of the death plenty did not stop more kids from drifting and endangering others. Saudi needs to look at these problems with comprehensive solutions which includes punishment along with preventative measures like more policing and yes more outlets for young people to act young in a safe way.

I was one of those who raced cars in the streets when I was young and stupid. And no amount of threat would have stopped me then, including having a couple of friends that died in car accidents. We all thought we were invincible. It is 30 years later and the problem just keep getting worse. Only education to guide kids to proper safe activities and having the right outlets can improve this. It is time to try something different.

She does have a point about letting the Saudi’s do what they want to do. State’s rights and all that. Although.. in that vein, I seem to remember it took a war to get the last “states rights” proponents to give up slavery, and none of us wants a war w/KSA..especially over stupid kids.

No, “we” don’t have a right to TELL “them” what they have to/should do…but that doesn’t make the advice bad. Safety is the issue..religion never was.

Contrary to the safety issue, although it’s sad kids die, I’m all for ANY form of population control. Mother nature tends to know what’s best..regardless of the country or the method.

And of course it is so popular because: There is Nothing To Do! There should be other outlets for having fun, and showing off, and get challenged, and compete, and be cool. But that’s more wishful thinking…

I dó wonder about these excesses, as the ”authoroties are happy enough to round up anybody who speaks his mind and putting them into jail for months…

Apparently speaking your own mind weighs a lot more than occasionally kill a few bystanders.
Does anybody know what actually happens if your out-of-control-drifting car is responsible for killing a few people? I mean, does anything happen? Like arrests or what?