Mohamad Chatah

A Pothole Down the Road

They say a joke is sometimes more eloquent than a thesis. I first heard this one back when Fouad Siniora was still Prime Minister. It goes something like this:

Prime Minister Siniora and Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah are together in a car. Mr. Nasrallah tells Mr. Siniora to be careful because there was a pothole down the road. “Watch out”, he repeats a number of times. “Slow down Mr. Prime Minister”…”watch out”…”slow down”…”WATCH OUTTTT”..and BANG!!!!....The car hits the pothole and rolls over a few times before it finally settles on its back. The two men manage to crawl from underneath the car, bruised and looking disheveled. Mr. Nasrallah turns to Mr. Siniora and shouts: “Fouad!!…. how many times did I warn you about the pothole?”, “didn’t you hear me yelling to you repeatedly to watch out??” Looking bewildered, MR. Siniora mutters softly: “Yes I did hear you Sayyed Hassan. You kept telling me to watch out. But you were the one who was driving!!!