SAUDI DRIFTING - A CRIMINAL MOTORSPORT

The youth in Saudi Arabia have very little forms of entertainment or avenues to express themselves and thus they have created their own form of entertainment and amusement in the form of Saudi drifting also known as tafheet or hajwalah in the Arab world. This dangerous and deadly activity has been occurring in the Kingdom ever since motor cars have made their way into the oil rich Kingdom. Tafheet practice and events occur with little to no concern for any vehicle occupants, other drivers or any spectator safety. For those of you out there who do not know what drifting is all about let me give you a brief explanation. Basically the driver would drive the car at maximum speed and then turn the steering wheel sharply towards the right and then left causing the vehicle to spin and sway from side to side. Young Saudi men see this as an act of bravery or very simply a means of showing off their manhood....It is a case of "I am a macho man". In most instances though the car spins completely out of control and causes loss of life and damage to property. Many innocent bystanders or pedestrians lose their lives. Many of these drifters would actually be daring enough to carry out this bizarre activity in peak traffic on the main streets of Riyadh. Many 'shabaabs'---young Saudi men would consider drifting in rich affluent neighbourhoods to attract the young women residing in those neighbourhoods forcing the police to set up speed bumps to contain this bizarre activity. I believe that if a person has no respect for their own life and wishes to destroy their own life then no problem that's your right. But no one has the right to destroy someone elses life or show disrespect towards another human beings property. The video below is absolutely appalling. The young men in the video literally hijack the vehicles driven by expats and then utilize the vehicle to carry out their drifting stunts. As you can see they have targeted the poor expat workers residing in the Kingdom knowing fully well that these labourers do not really have a say in the Kingdom from a human rights point of view. I do not think that these youth would dare to try a stunt like this with a Saudi citizen. These youth have shown no respect towards another human being and have failed to respect another persons property. I wonder if the parent's of these youth know what their young men are up to. They continued this horrific activity for four hours. The question is this? Where the hell were the police? The mutawwa are quick to run after women in the malls yelling at them to cover their eyes, cover their faces, reprimanding them for wearing nail polish etc etc. Why was there not one mutawwa in sight to advise these destructive youth about respecting other people? Islam is a religion that teaches us to respect and value other people along with their property irrespective of race, colour or creed. Clearly these youth have not upheld the teachings of Islam. It is of paramount importance that youth camps be set up to teach young Saudi men to become productive members of society.These young men should be inspired to learn other skills or take up part time jobs. They should be encouraged to become involved in social and community welfare projects like visiting the sick, visiting orphanages, raising funds for various charities across the globe. I strongly believe that residing in an overly repressive environment creates a recipe for disaster and the video below is a clear depiction of this. What are your thoughts on this one?

The horrendous driving culture within the Kingdom

The video below reminds me of driving in Saudi Arabia, and some other parts of the world. Even in a world with enforced traffic rules,road rage does happen, especially during the holiday season
But this classic Disney production simply hit the nail on the head in describing the driving culture within the Kingdom.
I also wished to incorporate an excellent article written by a fellow blogger who unfortunately does not write any more. The article quite aptly describes his own driving experiences within the Kingdom.

JAYWALKER

It’s Wednesday evening.  I love Wednesday evenings.  

Most of the rest of the world is marooned on an island as far away from a weekend as it’s possible to be.  I’m lucky.  My weekend begins two days sooner than yours.  With a Wednesday evening comes my Wednesday evening ritual.  

I’m driving the fifty miles back from work.  Everyone is bombing down the highway, faster, more aggressively, more recklessly than usual.  We’re diving in, out and around each other.  You can flash your headlights all you like, my friend, because this heap of junk doesn’t even go over one-thirty.  Finally there’s a gap to my right and I ease over to let the guy whizz past.  There are 3 or 4 behind him, nose-to-tail, shum-shum-shum-shum they go.  I’m so busy looking in the mirrors, trying to get back over to the fast lane that I almost don’t see the guy right up in front of me.  I catch it just in time, and there’s nowhere else to go but lurch round his right side; the sand tails blown across the asphalt by the non-stop wind nearly whip me right off the road.  Ah screw it, it’s Wednesday.  They’re all fast lanes.

We’re all racing in to the city at the same time.  Every day there is at least one amazing sight as the traffic is squashed tighter together.  Yesterday there was an 18-wheeler on its side.  Today there was a sedan with its radiator halfway through its engine.  The remains of blowouts are everywhere.

On to the inner city highway.  Less space, more pace.  Dodging the Dodges, ducking the trucks.  I’m finally back home.  

An hour later and I’m out the door again.  I’m on the way to my favorite coffee shop.  I’m going to drink cappuccino, smoke cigarettes and catch up with friends all night long.  I feel so damn good I might even zip over the bridge early tomorrow morning and spend the day in Bahrain.  But first to my favorite sandwich shop.  I get there and bang!  The door shuts in my face.  It’s maghrib prayer time – the sun has just gone down.  Yallah, ithneen shwarma dajaj, bass…please?  

Five steps to next door, my second choice.  Click.  The door locks.

Driving through the back streets, over to the coffee shop.  Crawling through unmarked intersections every fifty meters.  At the third cross, two young boys sail right in front of me on rollerblades.  They don’t blink.  I’m shaking my head so obviously that one of them notices, does a quarter turn, and offers me a cheeky two-fingered salute from his right temple, and they carry on.  I’m even impressed.  

I park up at the coffee shop – it’s still closed for prayer.  Off with the A/C and the engine so it doesn’t overheat.  Ten minutes later I’m inside, I’ve ordered,  and I’m cooling off.  It is great.  An hour later, the bill is delivered and it’s time for the last prayer of the day.  I leave my laptop downloading and go for a drive down to the beach.  

Just before the bridge to Bahrain there’s a guy behind me flashing his lights again.  I can’t move out of his way – there’s another car to my right.  I’m not trying to slow you down, friend, but what can I do?  I know you can see the car to my right.  I’m out of his way as soon as I can be, but he’s already parallel.  As his trunk passes my hood, he swings it out a little to give me a little scare, and he’s on his way.

The beach is deserted, and anyway by the time I’m there it’s time to head back.  I’m coming up behind a guy who kindly drifts over to the middle lane.  I’m almost parallel.  I’m on his left.  We’re curving left.  Shit, has he seen me? He’s drifting back towards me!  Hit the horn!  He catches it just in time, and I’m away from him.  

At the lights we’re stopped for a while.  From nowhere an oversized teenager on an undersized BMX comes across us at speed, bangs straight over the crosswalk, around the median and disappears up the street, against the traffic, in to the darkness.  The lights change, and I’m in to the back streets again, keeping my eyes open for those two damn kids on rollerblades…

This piece isn’t about me.  It would be pretty boring if it was, wouldn’t it?  In case you didn’t notice, go back and count the number of near collisions I had in less than two hours of driving.  This isn’t even about driving standards.  It’s all been said before.

What this is about, though, is my crazy admiration for people who drive – and in many cases live – like they couldn’t care less whether they live or die.  It’s truly amazing – and I’m not even being sarcastic.  

They’re not stupid.  They know that driving at 180, chipping every car in front off the road, is lunacy.  They’ve all seen the gory consequences.  If there’s one thing that isn’t censored here, it’s blood and brawn smeared over asphalt and aluminium.  

They know that taking 3 or 4 spoons of sugar in their tea is going to give them diabetes sooner or later.

They know that chugging down 40 hardcore smokes a day is going to kill them young.  

They know that staying up all night shatters them for whatever they have to do the next day. 

I’ve said it before and I’m certain I’m going to say it again:

I like the Arabs.  I don’t understand them, but I like them.

Source:

http://shwaybass.wordpress.com/