Waiting for a new solution
Dear Sir,
The speed limit on February 22nd Street has now been restored to 100km per hour from 80km per hour.
How will restoring the original speed limit improve the traffic situation on the road is unclear. The reason behind the speed limit restoration is not explained well.
The Traffic Department had reduced the speed limit on February 22nd Street early this year to cut the number of road accidents and ease congestion. The reduction in the maximum speed, it was thought then, would enable motorists to be more focused on the road and avoid causing accidents.
One has to assume now that the lowering of the speed limit had not served its purpose. But with the restoration, the original problem still remains, waiting for another solution.
Being part of Al Shamal Road, which links Doha to the extreme north of the country, February 22nd Street is the most preferred route of motorists coming to the capital city from the northern side and vice versa and hence one of the busiest.
MN, (Full name and address supplied)
A crisis of confidence
Dear Sir,
The rapid and intense political popularity of real estate mogul Donald Trump is a sombre warning to both the Republicans and the Democrats alike that their reign as political masters of the US is coming to a rapid end.
George Washington’s 1796 farewell address warned the American people of the dangers political parties pose to the nation’s government.
America is in the grip of a crisis of confidence and most people don’t see any light at the end of the tunnel.
An estimated 37% of all American voters now call themselves independents or unaffiliated voters, according to a recent study by the Pew Research Centre. This is a bigger group than those who say they are Democrats (34%) or those who identify themselves as Republicans (28%). The percentage of voters who say they are independent is the largest in 70 years.
In our lifetime, I’m sure an independent will occupy the White House. It will herald the era of a new party and the death of the old order that has ruled America since the civil war. The new order will control Congress and state legislatures in the US.
The US, under both the Republicans and the Democrats, has become a dysfunctional society. Whoever is elected is indebted not to voters but to the special interests that have funded them.
Today the US government has become unaccountable, released from constitutional and legal constraints. Elections serve only to validate the unaccountability of government.
Ignore Trump, at your peril then.
Farouk Araie, Johannesburg
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