Editorial DailyStar 23-10-2009

The Goldstone report might be on the minds of many these days, but in Lebanon, we’re not very good about noticing what we should call the YASA report.The head of this local road-safety awareness group reminded us this week of the horrifying statistics of road-accident-related injuries and fatalities in the country. Our poor roads are an open secret; perhaps it’s not so shocking to learn that nearly 1,000 people are killed every year in accidents. Horrifying, but not shocking.While the Goldstone commission investigated the killing of more than 1,000 people, during a single offensive, groups like YASA have regularly informed us about a phenomenon that is claiming about that many per year.Various reasons are cited, including drunk driving, carelessness and mechanical failure.In fact, our roads are in poor shape; we’ve all heard about the skimping that goes on in their construction. Our laws and regulatory system are lacking; we’ve all heard about the entrenched interests that protect the bureaucratic monopoly on processing licenses and registration. Our police are understaffed and poorly-equipped; we’ve all heard about the government’s stubbornness to give law-enforcement authorities the tools they’ve asked for.When state institutions respond so poorly to the needs of citizens and are plagued by corruption, a lack of respect for state authority results. Why obey the traffic law when others, with powerful connections, can get away with it?Some politicians want the Lebanese state to police its borders and disarm Palestinians, or Hizbullah. Others want the state to play a role in defending the country, in league with the resistance. Fine.Will a state that allows such a horrifying statistic when it comes to its citizens and roads be able to defend its borders? When the summer war of 2006 or the most recent Gaza conflict claimed about the same number of lives, we raised hell. When nearly 1,000 lives are being lost due to our abominable road and traffic conditions, we’re largely silent.The lawlessness, laxity, lack of road maintenance and other reasons are just as deadly an enemy as Israel, if not more so, judging by the statistics.Our politicians have spent a good part of this year focused on numbers, and usually end up dealing with the number 30. They should remember that 30 times that figure are being killed every year; some 2,000 permanent injuries out of a total of 20,000 represent, altogether, a tragedy in human terms, as well as in terms of the lost resources to society.It comes out to 75 fatalities a month – if they were all lost in a collapsed building, we might see some action … maybe. But our utter callousness and indifference to this ongoing tragedy are simply intolerable.
Editorial DailyStar 23-10-2009