h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I recall reading some years ago that Kuwait was number 1 in per capita highway death rates: 34 per 100,000 people
per year (as compared with 3+ for the USA). I think Saudi Arabia was #2. This is what happens when you have neither poverty nor fascist bureaucracies to keep a lot of people off the road. I can't say about Kuwait, but in Saudi, an additional hint for pedestrians is to cross the road at a dead run.

The United Arab Emirates is very similar as well.

When going through an intersection the common logic is "if God wills it". Such as if God wills it, I will get across the intersection alive or, if God wills it, I will get into a real nasty crash and die, so it's completly out of my hands.

Not that I've been there (though I'd love to go) but I was told that taxi drivers in Egypt have exactly the same attitude, and therefore high-speed taxi drives through bustling Cairo are supposed to provide a similar seat-of-the-pants-if-Allah-wills-it-so-be-it kind of experience. Groovy, eh? No?

Sam.

Taxis can be like that in the UAE as well. It's slightly daunting when you ask them to turn left at the roundabout or something and the reply is "Ensh'Allah" (if Allah wills). Luckily I did manage to get where I wanted to go.

Just FYI, Insh'allah DOES mean 'if God wills', but it is the common way of saying 'Yes' in the more devout parts of the mideast, since a 'yes' to a proposed course of action kind of flouts God. One non-Saudi Arab told me it is SUPPOSED to indicate that you will do what was asked absolutely and only God will stop you - but that the more affluent and self-centered Saudis now use it to mean something more like "if I feel like it when the time comes". During the War, the Saudis mocked any of us who expressed concern of any sort about the incoming missiles, but I noticed the first weekend after the invasion all of them were missing, driving their families to areas out of range of the Scuds. I guess Allah can only be trusted so far....

During the Gulf War a lot of Kuwaitis were in the UAE and they all thanked President Bush (Snr) for liberating Kuwait, not anyone else not even the Saudi fighters that shot down some of the Iraqi planes. The traffic was particularly bad that day. :-|

I had the joy of living in Kuwait for two years of my life. My mother would drive with one hand and keep her other hand resting on the horn while going to school. While living there I managed to see 3 lambourgini Diablos (the only 3 I have ever seen were seen in my two years there) and then I saw a corvette with a porshe sticker covering up the corvette symbol. I have never seen such wealth.

Or such abject poverty.

I will never forget the "bag of rubbish" moving towards me - with outstretched hand. It was a woman in a black burka and she was holding a baby. She wanted the drink I was about to deposit in the nearby bin.