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IT'S MEANINGLESS TO ARGUE WITH TRAFFIC POLICE IN KENYA AND ARMENIA
By Gohar Gevorgian
AZG Armenian Daily
10/10/2006
Our compatriot Gnel Khachatrian who has lived in the United States
for 7 years was "fortunate" enough to encounter a traffic policeman
in Armenia. His collage friend Fred Opere had such an encounter in
Kenya too.
In a letter to the newspaper, Gnel Khachatrian compares the two
countries with regard to their traffic polices and concludes that it's
meaningless to try to solve problems with the policemen at the court.
But the essential thing in this story is that the author feels sorry
that this phenomenon is common for such dissimilar countries as
Armenia and Kenya.
The author tells that having been invited to work for a respectable
organization in the capital, he took his friend's car not to be late
for the job appointment.
Yet, a traffic policeman stopped his car for driving on the second
line. Asked by the policeman our compatriot said that he was on the
second line as there was no sign forbidding it. The impudent driver's
answer made the policeman angry. "I had arrived in the capital only a
day before having lived in the US for 7 years and I forgot that instead
of arguing I should pay 1-2 dollars. Now I am sure that 1-2 dollars
would have spared my nerves especially on my first working day. But
my principles did not allow me to offer a bribe," Gnel Khachatrian
tells. His quarrel with the policeman ended at the police station
where soon after he was bundled off.
A similar incident happened to his classmate Fred Opere in Kenya. The
organization that employed Fred manages to free him from the prison
by turning to the court. The court fined Fred $15. Khachatrian says
that in Armenia you do not have to get into this kind of legal scrape
but you can pay the money at the police station sparing you time
and petition money. "This can happen to anyone of us in any African
country. We are fortunate that in Armenia, which differs from Kenya
with its history, 1700 years of Christianity and an alphabet of 1500
years, we are not arrested for not paying the required sums unless
a policeman is physically injured or insulted," Gnel Khachatrian says.
By Gohar Gevorgian
AZG Armenian Daily
10/10/2006
Our compatriot Gnel Khachatrian who has lived in the United States
for 7 years was "fortunate" enough to encounter a traffic policeman
in Armenia. His collage friend Fred Opere had such an encounter in
Kenya too.
In a letter to the newspaper, Gnel Khachatrian compares the two
countries with regard to their traffic polices and concludes that it's
meaningless to try to solve problems with the policemen at the court.
But the essential thing in this story is that the author feels sorry
that this phenomenon is common for such dissimilar countries as
Armenia and Kenya.
The author tells that having been invited to work for a respectable
organization in the capital, he took his friend's car not to be late
for the job appointment.
Yet, a traffic policeman stopped his car for driving on the second
line. Asked by the policeman our compatriot said that he was on the
second line as there was no sign forbidding it. The impudent driver's
answer made the policeman angry. "I had arrived in the capital only a
day before having lived in the US for 7 years and I forgot that instead
of arguing I should pay 1-2 dollars. Now I am sure that 1-2 dollars
would have spared my nerves especially on my first working day. But
my principles did not allow me to offer a bribe," Gnel Khachatrian
tells. His quarrel with the policeman ended at the police station
where soon after he was bundled off.
A similar incident happened to his classmate Fred Opere in Kenya. The
organization that employed Fred manages to free him from the prison
by turning to the court. The court fined Fred $15. Khachatrian says
that in Armenia you do not have to get into this kind of legal scrape
but you can pay the money at the police station sparing you time
and petition money. "This can happen to anyone of us in any African
country. We are fortunate that in Armenia, which differs from Kenya
with its history, 1700 years of Christianity and an alphabet of 1500
years, we are not arrested for not paying the required sums unless
a policeman is physically injured or insulted," Gnel Khachatrian says.