A City of Kobes

To avoid sounding too pessimistic, I've decided to balance each negative post about Doha with a marginally positive one... so after the insurance rant, I'll offer that this morning I may have realized why our cars here don't offer the familiar "honk" when you lock the doors with the key fob. The lights flash, but no noise - which can take some adjustemtn for those who would lock the car as they walked away, counting on the horn to confirm secure lockdown. While there's no shortage of horn usage on the roads in Doha, we've gone nearly two month in Doha without hearing the rythmic serenade of a car alarm. In a town where Ferrari's regularly parallel park between gypsy vans and oversized Land Cruisers you'd think a car alarm company would do quite well for itself - quite to the contrary. Since crime is almost nonexistant (I wouldn't risk my hand...), Qataris have actually figured out that car alarms cry wolf nearly 95% of the time (source: completely trustworthy internet site) and that an audible alert won't stop a trained auto thief anyways. 2 cars were reported stolen in Doha last year. It appears that the solution to auto theft lies in the punishment, not a Viper alarm.

Kudos to Qatar for unexpectedly leading the fight against audible car alarms - somewhere, someone from our old neighborhood is clapping.

Likewise, I recently heard that the fine for running a red light in Doha was raised to nearly $1000 for a first offense; certainly heightened my awareness. So why do the locals keep running lights and speeding around town so aggressively? Because the punishment doesn't hurt enough... it's like fining Kobe Bryant $10,000 for swearing on television; he could pawn his watch and have change left over for dinner. Unless they are brave enough to take away licenses, hand out jail time, or convert to a highly complex percentage of income fine (so that Kobe pays the "same" as the rest of us), the only effective deterrant from aggressive driving is the physical impact of the accidents themselves, and by then it's too late.

In other news, I'm heading to Tokyo on a last minute business trip (there are worst places to be sent on 4 days notice). Sheri wil join me for a few days midway through the 2 week stay, so we should have plenty of material for the blog... a good thing since our ratings appear to be plummeting with the every-other-day approach and high summer temperatures.