An Hour between Two Sides of a Road -- The Political Curse

politicians are appointed by the vote of the public. and they are expected to serve the country -- looking in to the development of the economy, culture and also ensuring procedures are in line for long-lasting peace, etc.

and those are the only things that they don't do. apart from smuggling the country's treasury, they invest in foreign banks and buy luxury vehicles for their generations, for personal use. these are public secrets and no one talks of them.

this morning i was headed to work as usual and there was this huge traffic block. i got off the bus and began to walk, since the bus was moving at 1cm per hour -- i was much faster than that. i came to the usual junction, which i have to cross the road, and right opposite of the road is my office. and this is where the traffic block had originated -- there had been some parliament meeting -- and all the routes and sub routes that entered the main route that these politicians were passing, were closed.

i wanted to cross the road -- as my office is on the exact opposite side of the road. and a policeman stopped me and said "you can't cross the road." i told him that my office is on the exact opposite side of the road. he said, "still you can't due to security reasons, as you have to cross the road."

while the terrorists and other underworld gangs bring in weapons and mass destruction items through other methods, innocent people are being tormented. if you counted the amount of people stuck in the line of this particular route only, it would have been over 1000 -- i need not mentioned the other routes. and they were standing there in the hot sun, waiting for the road block to get cleared, for more than an hour. among them were kids who were schooling -- and they were already late to school -- i believe their parents would have taken them back home, once the block was cleared.

if you calculate the total amount of man-hours wasted due to this stupid parliament meeting, it would exceed 10,000 man-hours in one day. and this is without taking in to account the other man-hours connected to the network of people within and out of the country. and this will directly impact our economy.

they start blocking the roads when the politicians wake up in the morning and starts brushing his teeth. so the poor public has to stay halted while they get ready for parliament. and all these politicians don't wake up on time -- and at least they all don't wake up at the same time. so the people have to stay from when the first politician to wake up, till the last politician to wake up is ready to go.

one politician has a parade of vehicles, leading and following him -- while the poor public have to stand by the road and watch them go by in their "adopted glory."

after about an hour of standing, they cleared the block -- i was lucky enough to get caught in the latter part of the block -- otherwise, i would have been standing there for more than an hour to cross the road.

first there were a couple of vehicles coming from the opposite side of the road, but the side that i was standing were still not given permission to move. the people -- who were frustrated -- couldn't wait for more, and they began to move in bulk.

they were stopped several times by the police -- may be to clear their doubts if the block was really cleared. and their was this person who was on a bike, who came a bit forward than the others in line. first an army officer pushed him back. and then i heard some words being exchanged. and then a police officer came to him and shouted at him. then he ordered the poor man to come to the edge of the road -- then he shouted at him again, and slapped him -- all this for just moving a few inches beyond the other, after being tormented in the hot sun for more than an hour.

i was already late to office, and had to move on. but this is the pathetic situation of this country. once called the "pearl of the indian ocean," has now become "hell in the indian ocean."

politicians, you are to be blamed for nearing "doom's day" to this country. invariably isn't it us -- the public -- who should be responsible for appointing such cowards to the parliament?


-- neo