A friend once called us brave. Brave enough that is, to leave the house on a payday (and weekend at that) to face the monstrous traffic that, in what seems like time immemorial, is snaking its way to the city. At this, I was reminded of a conversation with an urban planner not so long ago during our gig at an old haunt. With several major government road projects ongoing, he advised we should all, at the very least, just grin and bear it . The last three, his words exactly, as though he were a dentist or a sadistic masseuse.
That chat had apparently covered a lot of ground. But unlike our initial topic which was the traffic problem, the repartee wasn’t at a snail’s pace. Staccato-like responses from another companion ran at the poor guy almost without pause, with various reasons like volume of vehicles, parking space in the CBD, not to mention local diggings by both the water district and department of highways sprouting out like mushrooms after a rain and lastly yes, rain! The non-human factor in all these that, when ultimately mixed with traffic, diggings, lack of parking and whatever else, creates the perfect storm of inconveniences for any citizen who’s unfortunately caught in the midst of it all.
Many a time have I seen school children, with their feet already submerged in water lining the highways and literally mixing it up with office workers and other commuters for jeeps and buses already filled with passengers. During times when we’re in the car and I witness this, a feeling of guilt builds and for a moment I ponder, if it were only possible to accommodate them all in… I can only drift off with a sigh…what to do, what to do.
I once heard a biting comment, “how I wish people in the local government could witness all these, while inside the comfort of their comfortable and air-conditioned SUVs.” Indeed. But as always, morning comes and with light trickling in, everything is back to normal and what had transpired the night before is just headline news, if it makes it there at all.
Back to brave bit. At street level, most of all we meet wear that distinction. This is not mere back-to-the-grind kind of romantic crap folks, you’ve to be really brave in order to face every day. If not for anything else, it’s survival in this cemented jungle ( another romantic description to ugly reality).
So, in the end, what to do indeed. Have we a choice? Surely, ‘grin and bear it’ may hack it for a while, especially when one is struggling, but eventually, when the dam breaks and the waters rush in, those accountable will really have to answer big time. And by the looks of it, that time’s just about here.
