Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
Another week and another rant! Please bear with me this week since I find this column a great place to vent out my anger at the way society continues to fail to protect the many children on their way to school each day.
I was travelling to school the other day when I noticed something that made my jaw drop open and my eyes widen.
Just before entering the Sitra Causeway there is a school which hundreds of students attend. Since there is always traffic an hour before school starts, around 7.30 am, I noticed that parents were becoming anxious and sounding their car horns over and over again.
We can all understand the frustration when a car is stuck in traffic and the driver is anxious to get to work. However, I was shocked to see one parent abandon his car on a side pavement and take his children's hands - running across the highway towards the school - because he thought it would be faster and easier than turning the car and actually driving in a civilised manner towards the premises.
Not only were his actions irresponsible, they also placed his children - and ultimately others - in danger. There were actually two police cars in sight but the officers did not do anything. And listen to this guys, not only did the parent influence others to take the same course of action some even chose to wait at the side of the pavement and give directions to their children to race across the highway without running with them!
Clearly this has been bothering me ever since. How would those parents have felt had a child tripped and fallen in front of a high speed car? I hope that will all wake up to their actions. Parents who put their schedule before their own children's safety do not deserve to be called parents.
I seriously hope this matter is acted upon by the authorities and action is taken to ease the amount of traffic on the roads near schools as well as tackling the way some parent-drivers behave.
