Letters & Opinion

We’re heading for disaster – at full speed!

Image of Carlton Ishmael
By Carlton Ishmael

THERE was a time when we cared about each other. Back then, we were concerned about how others felt. But somehow, that behavior seems to have been thrown out of the window.

My eyes are not the best, but I consider if there was more courtesy and respect for others, driving at night would not have become such a nightmare.

I am talking about the effect of drivers who choose to drive with their headlights at full beam at nights. If I recall, the rules of driving said that you are to dim your lights when approaching traffic, hence the reason every vehicle has a dim switch. But since the advent of modern-day lighting for some models of vehicles, plus the erection of fog lights, all drivers assume that it is OK to have all their lights turned on at full beam.

No consideration is given to the approaching vehicle or the effect that bright lights have, or the cause and effect. It is so sad, because the elderly — who have to commute as well — have to deal with that scourge or new mentality.

In addition, it seems — more often than not — that everybody is always in a hurry to go to somewhere, so there is nothing like leisure driving; if you are not driving at full speed ahead of the vehicle behind you, they are liable to blow their horns indicating that you are too slow — and you begin thinking to yourself that you are a bad or poor driver.

Have you ever wondered why there are so many accidents on a daily basis? It is because of mentality and the lack of give and take. This new-found lack of consideration seems to have become our new way of life. We seem to have progressed with a new-found rage. We have lost patience. The rat race has become more intense — and it is now this new way, or no way!

You go to our beaches and you are appalled at the quantity of rubbish left behind from persons who use it – again, because of mentality and attitude and the same lack of consideration, we have our litter issues.

We have become a nation of low moral standings. We evolve, but do not progress with good values. We plunder, we damage other people’s property, we steal at all levels and cooperate at the grassroots level.

Our homes, our cars, our produce — none of that is safe anymore, and yet we talk about development and progress made. Our children have become wild things, drunks, substance-abusers, ill-mannered and selfish — and we seem to be OK with that.

I wonder what kind of society we will become a few years down the line.

If you listen to the music that we enjoy, the skimpy and shabby way we dress, we seem to become more and more a no-class society, regardless of our social background or education.

If I can give my heart-felt view, we are becoming more primitive.

I do not know for sure how we became what we have become, but I know for sure we are heading in the wrong direction. We are on a slippery slope, heading for disaster full speed ahead.

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