Farce

Since moving back to Kuwait, I, like anyone else living in this country, have complained about the driving, about being harassed by the shababs (young boys who drive Porches bought by Daddy and his bank account) and have been sick of the people who drive like they own the roads.

The fundamental problem, the one that ties almost all of my complaints together, boils down to one entity in Kuwait: the police force. Although calling them a police force is generous – perhaps it would be better to call them a police farce.

I don’t want to pretend that the police force in the United States should be held up as the moral standard for police around the world – after all, the tales of corruption and bribery run rampant, and they certainly aren’t ethical. But at least they get the job done.

As I drive to work every day, I almost always hit traffic (funnily enough, I sit in more traffic here than I ever did while living in Southern California, traffic capital of the world, for six years). Inevitably, there will be a line of cars cruising on the shoulder of the road, because they are just too goddamn important to sit in traffic like the rest of us plebeians. Last week, for the first time since I moved to Kuwait, I actually saw police pulling over the cars that were doing this.

Today, there was a police car with three police sitting in it driving directly behind me. As they chatted away (probably about how many young girls they were aiming to pull over that day), a beat up Nissan pickup truck drove down the shoulder. The car, seeing the police car, cut in right behind them. The police did nothing. The pick up then changed its lane, pulled up along side me, and began merging into my lane – and at the same time, merged into my car. I leaned on my horn as the car paid no mind, and continued entering the lane. The police, there to protect and serve, still did nothing. I believe their conversation had, at this point, moved on to last night’s football scores. As we all hit another round of traffic, the Nissan truck merged back into the shoulder and drove off, probably worried about being late for his tea date. The police still did nothing.

This is exactly the kind of behavior that promotes the selfish, me-me-me attitude that Kuwaiti’s have. If the police farce actually did their jobs, instead of pulling over young girls because their license plates are dirty (true story) or their lights are too bright (true story) and started pulling over the people who are out-and-out disobeying the law, this country would improve tenfold. Instead of playing with the traffic lights (not a euphemism, although it could be), they should pull over the idiots who treat Gulf Road like their own Formula 1 racecourse.

Rules are there for a reason. It’s bad enough when ordinary citizens break the rules, but it’s worse when the police willingly and knowingly turn a blind eye. Instead of hiring middle school dropouts, they should hire people who actually have brain cells. Instead of giving the 21 year old, new-to-the-farce police officer keys to the fancy BMW police car, they should make them walk around giving tickets to cars that are illegally parked. Pull over the idiots who drive 200kph. Pull over the cars that are driving at night with no lights on. Stop and arrest the young kids who cruise around the malls and roads, harassing girls who happen to be out by themselves.

I am not trying to say that improving the police force would improve everything about Kuwait. Nor am I saying that the police are the be-all-end-all – plenty of responsibility falls on the Kuwaiti citizens. At the end of the day, however, when people see those in an authoritative position blatantly breaking or ignoring the laws, they will do the same. This is basic stuff, not rocket science. No one is asking the police farce to get out there and cure cancer; we’re talking about making sure that people aren’t killed as they’re driving to work. The death toll in Kuwait from car accidents is four times that of any other country in the world. Why wouldn’t the police want to protect their own people? Do they want to contribute to this?

At the end of the day, changes in society come from within. But as long as people are given free reign to do whatever they chose, Kuwaiti society will never change.