A Chat with a Hitchhiker
I don’t usually drive around pointlessly, the way traffic jams in just about every traffic light anywhere around the country isn’t exactly an ideal way to soothe out and relax.
I was driving back from Manama (picking my tickets for Jump tonight) when I spotted a guy hitchhiking, he looked young 20 some short and thin standing there in the middle of the highway, I turn on my danger lights and stop he opened the door and asked “Are you going to Sitra”, “Yeah.. yeah I nodded.. Just get in before someone drives into my car now”.
Now this is something I don’t casually do! Having a stranger sitting in your passenger seat without you having a clue where you’re heading to feels a little weird. I turned the volume down on my mp3 player, the last thing I need right now is a lecture from a stranger who wants to guide me to the rightful paths of heavens. I look towards him and simply.. sime.. plainly as we cruise across the Sitra bridge.
It was then when he decided is the right time to start a conversation.
Me: إي نعم.
Mr.Hitchhiker: جم تدفع أجار خوك؟
Ok.. I am 25, I drive a crappy white sunny. Does give the impression that I’m married and living alone? Or is it because of my accent? Shii’tes can’t live in Riffa right? I just play along.
Mr.Hitchhiker: اها.. جم حجرة؟
Me: حجرتين.. وحمام ونص
Mr.Hitchhiker: الله يغربل آل خليفة.. الأجارات تقص الظهر!
Me: ليش إنت بجم ساكن؟
Mr.Hitchhiker: 100 دينار، حجرتين وصالة و حمام واحد بس.
Me: بس احس معقول يعني؟ 100 دينار في الشهر..
Mr.Hitchhiker: إي الله كريم.. عليك أقساط يا خوك؟
Yes, like I am going to discuss my personal finances with a complete stranger now.
Mr.Hitchhiker: انا ماخذ سيارة….. بستة آلاف و… ودفعت مقدم…. و خذت القرض من ……. الله يغربلهم وينعل هالديرة الدمار.
Me: شدعوة ياخوك.. الديرة فيها خير ترة، بس تبي اللي يشتغل و يحط على روحه شوي
Mr.Hitchhiker: وين الخير؟ إحنة مو جايفين شي؟! الديرة فيها خير للمجنسين و أولاد الخليفة الله يلعنهم، مو ليي و ليك و لشيعة علي..
Me: أها..
Mr.Hitchhiker: وين تشتغل ياخوك؟
Me: البنك الفلاني..
Mr.Hitchhiker: ومرتاح وياهم؟ مايضايقونك لأنك شيعي؟
You can imagine how the conversation went on from there; I dropped him to where he stayed and went on with my way, still shocked by the negativity this youngster carried, how could anyone live with such dark views when it comes to the future of their own country? How could one wake up everyday carrying such hate towards everything and anything that resembles Bahrain?
At least back in the 90’s youngster in the same age group as he is would probably share more or less the same amount of hate and distress, but at least there was hope back then, there was a savior in sight. One with a clear vision and objective, a shadowy agenda but that’s a whole different story altogether. While someone like Mr. Hitchhiker here has no faith in anyone, or anything. Has completely lost hope! To the extent that he would just blame anyone and anything for all the problems in the world. I mean.. to blame the royal family for inflation? And he is supposed to be educated aswell.. well, at least he looks it..
Such mindsets are the ideal breeding grounds for extremism and even terrorism eventually, but who is to blame really?
The guy was raised in a way that he would completely rely for everything he needs to government, be it free schooling, health care and even the daily chores of the house and what have you there is always someone to take care of it for him, it is only natural that he would continue to rely on the government for housing and a proper income, how do you expect him to walk out of university and compete out there when he has simply never done it before?
Or maybe it is the government to blame after all, it is easy to throw accusations left and right but boy do we have some depressed souls in this country!
يمكنك ملاحظه ذلك حتي في التدوين البحريني وهو يمثل شريحه من شباب البحرين المتعلم فما بالك برجل الشارع
رجل الشارع يسمع ويري ما حوله بعكس ما نقرء نحن في الصحف علي مكاتبنا
كل ما يقال هو ليس وليد الساعه لكن نتيجه تراكمات
اؤكد علي نقطتك التي ذكرتها ان لكل مجتهد نصيب لكا في اوطننا قد تخرق هذه المقوله
i totally agree with Layal .. it’s not from today or yesterday .. it’s the black result out of all what happened back from 80s till today & maybe further ago ..
Well this Mr.Hitchhiker .. is only a sample of the others .. they r all ( or let me say most of young people NOT ALL ) repeat what they hear from here & there with adding more salt or spices & sit down with their hands on their cheeks blaming the government 4 what had happened & what had NOT happen yet .. oh let me not forget the funniest part .. they r still STILL crying on AL A6LAL like BA7RAIN will come back the million palm trees country !!
4 the heaven’s saaaaaaake ! i don know why they don’t wake up from their misery dreams !!
i don’t ignore the fact that living in ba7rain is becoming much more harder day by day .. prices r high jobs r hard to get BUT .. WE NEED to get educated more .. we need certificates to live in this world ( not only this little island) ! we need more opened eyes & minds !
we don’t need dark people going out for protest & flaming the garbage or young boys running out of schools 4 protests & damaging the street lights !
i wish that they open their eyes .. & start to think with their own minds not with ( rejal al deen ) words & speechs !
they should erase that stupid idea about the government giving them everything 4 free : education, health, jobs & houses ! the 1st 2 r possible but the rest .. we all know that we HAVE to work hard to get them they don’t came out of sitting at home watching mbc2 !
theres quite a bit of negativity surrounding our youth generally because of what they see around them. were in a small island, comparatively a lot poorer than the people around us (ie, kuwait, saudi, qatar, uae) and their people visit us all the time, in their fancy cars, throwing around their cash, and so on. you would generally assume that, being from a rich region that you would have the same privelages given to you by your government, as the others have had bestowed upon them. this is incorrect because 1- our govt has nowhere near the amount of funds the other countries have and 2- theyre not willing to give it up even if they did.
i would say the govt is to blame for some of the crap thats going on, but you also have to blame those who sit back and expect the govt to cater for them without them lifting a finger. these are the people who riot senselessly, who burn things and vandalize, because they expect handouts. most of the people i know who want to get somewhere in life work hard for it. this is life, some people will make it, some people won’t. no one DESERVES to be given everything. no one.
[...] blogger emoodz discusses a talk he had with a frustrated hitch hiker in this post. Share [...]
Education helps people see things that others can’t see, by the way the guy you picked is from Sitra, now doesn’t that tell you anything ? I met a lot of people from Sitra and they are very educated and smart but let face the truth here what about the rest?
I’m a high school drop put which i still regret but when I was younger i thought in the same thoughts pattern that the young lad that you pick thought, but i repeat EDUCATION or as comrade Lenin says: LEARN, LEARN, LEARN and then LEARN MORE.
I think i know what you went through when you picked him up, at times i drive around and I pick people too and you wouldn’t believe how some people think.
best of luck
have a great weekend.
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[...] no ho afaka hanàraka ny toro-hevitr’i Ammaro, noho izy ireo tsy mànana fiara; ; vao haingana i Mohammed AlMaskati nandray tanora Bahraini teny an-dàlana ary dia sahiran-tsaina noho ny fomba fijery tsy matoky ny [...]
There was an old radio program they made into a book called “The hitchhicker’s guide to the galaxy.” When they wanted to invent a spaceship that travels the universe.. they found out that the only thing that travels faster than light was bad news.. so they built a ship out of bad news! The only problem with that was they were not very popular when they arrived.
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- Mohammed AlMaskati
East Riffa, Bahrain
I support a ONE Bahrain!
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