We have been working hard to facilitate a meeting between the representatives of Ashrafiah area and the police. People have been complaining that there is not much seguridad social that area… Ashrafiah is marginalized, even though there is an astounding population density. Marginalized means that there are not many policemen to control the masses. As a result there is a lot of what people referred to as Za3raneh… which means naughtiness!
 

The meeting brought a lot of thoughts to my mind. On the one hand, representatives of the church, which also could be speaking of behalf of schools there,  said that they need a police car to go around the area. Father Shabaan said that this would do the same function as the cane he holds in his hand when attending to his students… he said that even though he never used it, but upon seeing it, students stand upright every single time!
 

And as if to confirm his words, a very noisy truck was going in the narrow street, in which the building where we were meeting was… one of those trucks that sells and buys used furniture and the voice WAS  loud… it took the policeman’s showing himself at the window for the car to turn the noise down and goto another area!
 

People were listing their grievances one after the other… from drug abuse to alcoholism to lovers sneaking out at night to exchange kisses in dark allies… to guys saying dirty commentaries whenever a girl passes, and the list went on and on…It was at some point bordering the amusing, sometimes the disturbing  and sometimes the serious… 
 

The police representative, who happened to be a very charming fellow… started explaining to us what work load the police have, what they go through, and the number of cases they have to deal… and we all were sympathetic, even the most skeptical.
 

He brought up some very important issue…
 

Why doesn’t the citizen cooperate with the police?  I mean why do people expect that the police has to do everything.. why doesn’t everyone help a little… his questions made me wonder… why do we need imposed censorship in order to do “the right thing“  I mean people drive through allies very quickly, when a child dies, a cup of coffee would solve the problem…
 

Why should we wait for a police man to be standing at every corner in order to prevent the need for that cup of coffee, when the problem can be solved from the very beginning by not driving fast in the first place? this was one random example.
 

Ok… now that I wrote this I can stop thinking about the issue here… I happen to be listening to What a wonderful wordl… God knows when was the last time I heard this song… but like a good cup of Earl Grey, Louis Armstrong will  never lose his timeless edge.