Because I can...

I'm apologize in advance if I seem to use this blog simply to vent about this or that aspect of living in Zimbabwe, but I am using it partly to maintain my sanity! (and so as not to lose all my friend here by complaining incessently to them!)

I am feeling particularly frustrated today by what I've identified as the "Because I can..." attitude here in Zim. It is true, Zim has become a lawless society and most of us have to break the law in some way simply to survive. I won't list the numerous ways I break the law here, but needless to say, there are some strange laws here and it is necessary to break a few of them simply to survive. (not that most of these are laws I'm too concerned with, but it is actually illegal here to be homosexual; to criticize the president; to change money on the black market....and even to charge a reasonable price for certain commodities!)

But because, on a daily basis, we seem to break so many of these silly little laws, I suspect we become careless about breaking ones of more serious consequence. My gripe today is with rules of the road. (and again, in case I start sounding self-righteous, I am not always the best or most careful driver, but I do try my best...!) But this morning, on my way to work I was again overtaken by a brand new Mercedes Benz on a small, residential road. I was driving at a very reasonable 70 km/h (already 10km/h over the legal speed limit)

Now this is a road that has several schools on it, and leads the to the University of Zimbabwe, hence lots of pedestrians. The Merc overtook me simply because he could -- faster car could skip ahead of me, regardless of oncoming traffic and numerous pedestrians....oh, and that little thing called a speed limit!

I thought to myself that recently I've become frustrated by being frequently overtaken by big, shiny cars on small, residential roads. So thought I'd start counting how many times in a week this happened to me (and for those who have driven with me, you know I drive at a healthy speed!!) My guess was that this probably happened 6-7 times a week.

I was wrong. It has happened 5 times so far today!!! And every time on a small, residential road. Insane!!!

And a few days ago I saw a man drive his luxury car off the road, onto a bikepath, around a pole, and back onto the road simply to avoid a speedbump!! What the.....??!!

Now maybe I'm being picky, but these are normal safety measures that are standard to almost every country in the world. Basic road safety. But here, nobody's looking. The cops are too absorbed with keep shop prices down and bashing the opposition party to be concerned with something as mundane as rules of the road. So things on the road get worse and worse as the country becomes increasingly lawless. And as the rich get away with more and more in their wheelings and dealings, they seem to think they can rule the road and wipe out the "little guys" there too.

Such is life in an African dictatorship state.....!!!