Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Water, Water Everywhere

There's a gorgeous beach here called Al Bateen. So far it is pretty much untouched, has no views of any cranes or building work and is wonderfully quiet. It's free, not well known and has golden sand stretching for a mile or so.
But it does have a strange inhabitant. As I play in the sea with my family as the sun goes down, four or five cars seem to become very familiar to me. I see them again and again, slowly crawling along the beach road. Their windows are usually blacked out with maybe just a slight opening to allow the cigarette smoke to escape.
It soon dawns on us that they are pervs. They creep up and down this stretch of road as if we cant see them. You know how a child covers their eyes and thinks this makes them invisible? I think these guys work on the same mature theory. Some have their window fully wound down, thereby demonstrating their complete lack of self-awareness. We can see them, and they can see that we can see them, yet they continue their 10km/hr rumble along the road, sunglasses on and fag in mouth. One can only estimate what might be going through their minds as they scan the beach for a glimpse of a bikini.
But, whereas I do get rather miffed and would love to engage these "men" in conversation before ripping out their eyeballs and feeding them to them. More overpowering is my amazement that this is their best way of seeing scantily clad ladies. Have these guys not heard of the internet?One hour of MTV would be sufficient. Rent a DVD of Baywatch, if you must.
But if your culture denies you the freedom to express love and lust, go on holiday somewhere that doesn't or simply live by the rules you have chosen.
Because before long, Al Bateen beach will be a building site and a new, false paradise will be constructed. So let us enjoy this rare, natural delight without the perv-convoy.

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