Saturday, August 26, 2006

who stole our street, again?

as jordanians, we're familiar with big red tents that randomly pop-up to host weddings and 3aza. i personally find them quite shabby and ugly. how hard is it to get them straight? they all look like they're cloned off one another. how about a nice beige one that blends with the surroundings, and has matching carpets and chairs?

but who am i to judge if a tent is ugly (who knows, my wedding's mansafs might be in one of them)? well, i'd judge them anyway, but that's not what's bothering me.

as we all well know, these tents are usually erected in empty lots of land (after they're cleaned up of the garbage, debris, shit, etc). under them almost always coffee, and sometimes food or knafeh are served. however, this morning one caught my eye that was, well, peculiar. i was heading to bakehouse (my favorite, although currently overpriced, place to have breakfast), and as i was parking my car i saw it. there it was. it wasn't different on the outside than any of the others (tents, that is) in that it was red and ugly, but what was special about this one was the fact that it was not erected on an empty lot (or a roof or a large garden), but rather the person celebrating or mourning decided to erect it on the street.

i'm not talking about an entrance to a garage or a private street, i'm talking about the real street that people drive on. he decided that he has the right to annex the street to his property and use it to build the tent. how does that work exactly? when did anyone give him the right to use the public (which, by definition, means owned by everyone) street? i don't recall a nationwide referendum voting on that. anyone? i didn't think so. so in his total selfishness, disregard for public right and extreme idiocy he decided to steal the street for a day or two to complete whatever he has there.

go visit the tent, it's quite a scene. i wonder why everyone thinks arabs are backward.

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