When you are blessed with living in a sorry excuse for a country like Lebanon, you are constantly surprised with things. Sometimes, it’s pleasant and very rare things like knocking off 1000LBP off a still absurdly expensive gas tank, or something less pleasant, like blowing up someone or a liquor store. The past week, the dominant event has been traffic-disrupting protests.

Yesterday, El Matn residents obstructed traffic, in light of the tearing down of the “temporary 3-decade bridge” when the charming municipality goons and government officials never bothered coming up with an alternative, much less actually realizing one. Today, we woke up to find the delightful people who come milk our wallets for electricity we never get, closing the North-bound Beirut highway at it’s choke-point: near EDL, where escaping traffic is hard and alternative routes are difficult to find.

You expect me to rant on about how these people protest and are being inconsiderate to everyone else. I even read tweets and comments boasting that “I wish I was there so I can run them over”. Disgusting, yet very representative of Lebanese mentality. That’s why strikes never work, that’s why protests always fail, that’s why movements never really take off.

Picture this: taxi drivers decide to strike. This means no taxis for the tens of thousands of people who rely on them for transportation. What do I think if I were the average, wretched Lebanese taxi driver? Go to work on that day, after all, customers are ripe for the picking: there is no shortage of them, and you can charge whatever you like cause there is no alternative.

This exact same spirit of selfish, narrow-mindedness flares up when such protests erupt. Now, I honestly don’t see how employees of the most corrupt government agency have the nerve to protest, but, they might have a point. The Jal el Dib residents though, have every single right. How would you feel if your exit to the highway vanished overnight? What if you were a business owner and had your venue on that exit? What if there was no solution in sight, wouldn’t you protest too? Probably not, you’d just whine about it. But these people are protesting, and consistently, and even though semi-retarded Free Patriotic Movement officials joined in (when they’re the ones in power, which is baffling), the movement is consistent with itself and looks to be growing stronger.

We should support these people. You’re upset with traffic? Pretend it’s an accident, which are commonplace on our roads and which attract curious onlookers who create traffic just as bad if not worse. The moment I realized how dysfunctional our attitudes were, especially when it comes to ripping off the government and each other, was when I was in Boston a few weeks ago. A friend of mine there, who’s married with a kid, pays yearly subscriptions to the beach and the zoo. They never go to either, because they’re too busy for the zoo, and it’s too cold for the beach. Puzzled, I asked her why she pays expensive yearly fees if they never benefit from them. She answered, “because if I didn’t contribute, the beach would not be taken care of and the zoo might be closed down.”

I was blown away, and honestly felt ashamed. The level of selflessness and good-citizen attitude was something I definitely was not used to. Here in Lebanon, people go through hell to prove they are Jbeil residents to avoid paying a 5,000 LBP (~3USD) entrance fee to one of the world’s oldest city’s ruins. People lie about their age, nationality, intentions, just to get away with something petty. How many Lebanese do you know apply for immigration to better nations, then rip those countries off by pretending to live there, getting free healthcare and never paying a single cent in taxes? Same goes for the dozens of failed strikes and protests here.

Bottom line is, we have no sense of unity whatsoever. All we care about is petty, ill-gotten gains which in the longrun will affect us negatively too. So, next time there’s a strike, stay home instead of ripping off your fellow strikers. Next time someone has the guts to protest, don’t fantasize about running them over with your car, take another road or go earlier. Next time you’re at a cultural site, just pay the damn entrance fee.