It’s challenging to navigate quite many streets and sidewalks in the city these days with large crowds inhabiting every square inch. In some places, I can tell you that have to be agile enough to wriggle and practically wade your way through heavy throngs of pedestrians every one of which hurried to wouldn’t want to lose minutes even seconds. Especially during the rush hours you really need big doses of patience as that’s the only way to accept the reality and, of course, the fat of modern city life. So many people! Such big crowds! So much haste! For many of us it’s even difficult to have the most innocent guesses as to how many of us permanently reside in the city. And the meek ones wonder, “All these people eat and go to bed daily! This must be God’s miracle!” Yes they do eat and go to bed daily. With crowds come frustrations caused by the citizens themselves. Of course, with so much crowds and so many people.
Some actions which disrupt the smooth movement of pedestrians maybe unconsciously could be taken as innocent carelessness or something like that. Take six or seven burly guys walking side by side on one of the narrowest streets. Others who come behind us find it difficult to pass through, but until someone alerts them of the problems they are causing they might just continue laughing and telling each other all kinds of wild stores. Once alerted they probably would break up into twos or threes.
But, of course that doesn’t happen always. There would be those irresponsible and not well-behaved who do such things deliberately with the intention of creating chaos and they laughing at the expense of those whose rhythm of life has been disturbed. Sadly I have to say that there are many such people around whose only purpose in life seems to be to disturb the status quo and watch people scrambling all over the place confused and not knowing what they should do. Of course many times than not such chaotic distractions have other devilish aims too. The perpetrators want to use them as the perfect cover for them to dip their hands in pockets and bags.
Then there are the so-called preachers who with blaring loudspeakers and megaphones do anything but preach the real thing. Now, I’m not sure if they’re freelancers out to make a couple of thousands or indeed attract people to their preaching. Or are they operatives of some groups who must have a very strange way of attracting believers or converts from other faiths? Whatever their real motives and however dedicated they are, whoever carried the sponsorship burden, if there indeed is any, and who ever really made their deployment possible, the thing here is that here is most of the time they disturb movements of people while at the same time contributing to sound pollution in big ways.
A few days back there was this car which must have been one of the twenty-million-plus toys so many people seem to be owning these days. The lady behind the wheel looked anything but a famous actress or something in the evening news spots ready for some ‘hall of fame’ celebrations. The car was squeezed in traffic the red light having stemmed the flow. Be aware that there were scores of cars all around it. Then practically out of the blue the lady behind the wheel hurls some banana peel out of the window. Just like that! You could have heard the obscenities thrown at her from adjoining cars and a few red hot pedestrians. Despite all that was happening the lady seemed so unmoved and it must be one of two things. She either was the perfect example of arrogance at its worst, or she was a complete moron who must have been in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Some of us might say; “who cares! She’s the dummy here and let her deal with it herself. It’s not that simple. In the first place hers was the most uncivilized behavior in the middle of a city crowded with motorists and pedestrians. And everyone are going about their daily chores and they wouldn’t want to be distracted by such actions from the driver of a twenty-million piece of toy or from one who tries to roll a complete junk of which once was a car. Someone must have forgotten to throw it in the junk yard perhaps several years earlier. You’d wonder “does she act the same way in her own residence?” Well, probably not. The most possible scenario is that she’d have a number of domestic helpers for specific chores and she wouldn’t have to pick up a fallen teaspoon.
Of course, almost everybody wants to get the best seat in the house. And to get the best in the house one has to really run, run and run! We might shove push each other to the finish line. Ad distractions are the last things anyone needs.
There are quite a number of construction projects in quite various parts of the city. Good for them. I know absolutely nothing about designs of high rises, on how they should be built and the like. I have to say that there are too few, if any, designs that could make me jump out and tell the world bravo! Bravo for whoever is behind such a wonderful and mesmerizing design!” Maybe I haven’t seen enough of the structures in the city to arrive at such a generalized opinion. Anyway, that was not my point.
In many sights building materials like sand, cement, bricks, corrugated iron and the like are scattered on sidewalks along with mini-hills of soil and the like. You have to be a pedestrian who goes places to really feel the discomfort pedestrians face in such instances.
Indeed if we really think about it here are many distractions which really disturb and even mess up movement of people. Some just come with the territory, meaning they are features of the bigger cities. At other times they are caused by carelessness arrogance and pure evil motifs.
BY EPHREM ENDALE
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD SUNDAY EDITION 27 APRIL 2025
