I have always thought cars as over rated machines. Why wouldnt I when I see the younger generation dreaming about owning a car. The problem is that this dream is usually the only ultimate dream they have in their minds, if achieved then its like they owned the world.
To think of it, let us make a comparison between cars and computers. Cars only main function is to move you and your things from place A to place B, plus it has several other mini-functions. Computers, on another hand, have much more main functions. Eventhough those main functions differ from user to another, but on a worst case scenario it has multiple main ones.
And yet, still having the car has the top priority. I have always thought of that as an obstacle in the way of evolution. I am sure if those gave 50% of their interest in cars to computers, we would have created our own processors long time ago. Or at least our own operating system.
"Ok. So? what does that have anything to do with Japan and living in Tokyo?!"
No. I did not fly away from the theme of my blog. This post also talks about life in Tokyo. How?
Owning a car here is not an ultimate dream. Actually many people here dream of selling their cars and getting rid of them. The public transportation in Tokyo is more than enough to get you around especially if you live near the station. And in the heart of Tokyo, everywhere is near the station! When I go out with my lab here or there, and the professor joins us, he rides the train with us. Can you imagine your professor riding the bus in Amman with you? Hell no. That actually made me look at the professor with respect and appreciation.
I know, I know. How dare I compare between the public transportation between Amman and Tokyo. My point is, eventhough oil is getting more expensive every year, and eventhough complaints about traffic jam is increasing day by day, yet people still dream of owning a car. No, they ONLY dream of owning a car.
As I said above, cars -in my opinion- are so over-rated. They only take you from place A to place B and thats their only main function. I wonder when we - the arabic world - would realize this fact.
Thursday 3 January 2008
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3 comments:
Very true!
I always believed in the power of public transportation system when it's efficient and well organized. Which is absolutely not the case in Jordan.
It is not only the car over rated , every single thing that can indicate that the owner of it is high class person is over rated like mobile phones , living in certain area in a city , or even setting in some coffee shops :p.
Yes , in our community computers (PC’s ) are not important ,unfortunately, but laptops are becoming to be so , why?? The reason behind this is the same reason behind over rating everything can appear to people. In the last decade in our culture there is a saying about the value of people “ if you have only one pence then you worth one pence. but if you have more, then you worth more!!” , so how can people know that I worth millions even if I don’t!!.
Of course Life is not only black and white, there are many reason for that some of them are really strong reasons, But that what I wanted to focus on.
Here in the states, car is king, particularly in places such as California and Florida. Users of public transportation or self-propelled transportation, i.e.: bicycles, are viewed as being poor, homeless, and uneducated. Anyways, I've always thought that cars are overrated, as well. Also, when you think about the expense, the destruction to the environment (not just in operating them but to build and manufacture them), and the social costs (such as, boring, car-centric suburbs) and safety (over 40,000 Americans are killed or mamed by autombiles every year)it's still a wonder how people still drive those things.
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