It’s official. We live in a primitive state of nature, a lawless country where every man is against every man.
So I was innocently making my way to a meeting this morning when two guys on a roughed-up motorbike appeared to be having a joy ride between jam-packed cars, cramming their way through tiny spaces and driving with excessive force while inducing sudden skids in a clear attempt to attract everyone’s attention. They literally behaved like two domineering hyenas that have come to disturb the peace and create chaos.
Before I knew it, the two animals decided to tail me and occasionally show up at my window flashing their crooked teeth in what seemed like the most pathetic attempt to pick me up. So naturally I was keen on not making any sort of eye contact with them and did my best to get as far away as possible from them. Ironically, this seemed to only encourage them further. Before I knew it traffic came to a screeching halt and I felt a loud thud on the side of my car. It turns out my sudden brake had caused them to ram their bike into back right side of my vehicle.
I turned around to comprehend the situation but the thug was yelling profanities at me and punching my car with his hand. At first I thought perhaps he wanted to tell me something or needed help but I looked into his eyes and realized that he was in a state of rage demanding I stop my car and get down. “I’ll teach you a lesson you bitch” he kept saying. So I stepped on it though there was nowhere to really go. They started following me for a good 3 minutes while I fumbled with my phone to call for help. Everyone around me just sat back and watched it all go down in the comfort of their cars. No one lifted a finger.
The funny part is one swerve from my car would have probably incapacitated the guys but my good judgment told me to just drive as far away as possible. They followed me some more until traffic finally cleared and I made a run for it.
Following the dramatic series of violent incidents and bloody crimes carried out over the past couple of days in Lebanon, everyone seems hypertensive to their surroundings including myself. I’m usually confrontational in such situations but an alarm kept going off in my head, what if they had a gun?
Some of you may tell me that I should have reported them to the police or at least noted their plate numbers. Maybe I should have but I did neither. I was in full-survival mode, I couldn’t even dial a number on my phone. To be honest, I freaked out. And to be even more honest, I’ve simply lost trust in the system. I think it may be time for a move. Air miles anyone?