The One with the Stampede!

Dear friends,

Something really horrible happened today in Jeddah. Three people died. It was really sad. The scene was chaotic at its best. Confusion, noise, traffic, huge crowds all led to a stampede that killed three people (1 Saudi, 1 Pakistani, 1 unknown). Now, I know you are thinking, what was the cause of the stampede? Well folks, the stampede occurred because people wanted to get their hands on the 500SR (Saudi Riyals) which only 50 people could get.

The Details:

Ikea, the world famous, fun, affordable furniture shop ( I must admit, I love their storage ideas) is to open their new flagship store in Jeddah and Riyadh simultaneously. In order to celebrate, Ikea advertised for one whole week in the local papers- full page advertisements. In each advertisement, they had mentioned that the first 50 customers who walk through the doors of the new Ikea will get a 500SR voucher which can be redeemed in the store. That grabbed my interest. Think of all the things you can get, mostly small items, for 500SR! I wanted to go. I had made my mind up to go early and join the queue.

I had a day off from work, got up at 7am and left. About 200 meters away from the store, traffic had built up. What's this for? Is this the early rush hour? I realize that all this traffic is for Ikea. I thought that I would be there early. Apparently, I was very late. I could see 100s and 100s of people there: busloads of women and children coming in from compounds, local Saudi women coming with their maids and children, young single men arrived in their fancy cars, working class bachelors arrived and in addition to this, there were policemen who were guiding the traffic to ease the blockage on the main street. There were two fire brigade as well. There were two ambulances as well. Gosh, what's this? A rock concert? As I drove by slowly, I could see a huge throng of crowd, clambering over one another at the main entrance of the store. There were mostly women, in their black abayas sitting, standing, walking around fast impatiently-- they seemed like flies hovering all over the Ikea store. And there were still two more hours to the opening! One look at the number of people, I made a u-turn and drove back. The 500Sr did not seem THAT important to me now!

What transpired later was that the management were forced to open the doors earlier because there were people that numbered close to 3000! People jumped and shrieked in excitement when the doors opened at 9am and not 10am. These 3000 people came just to get the voucher. Unfortunately, the people were too many, the policemen were too little, and in the process, the glass doors were broken, blood was spilt here and there, people were injured and eventually three people died in the mad rush.

That got me thinking: How far would I go to do something for money?

The last thing I can remember that I did something like this was back in London in 1998, and in 2003, although not for money. In 1998, I stood in the line at the bookshop for the signing of Bag of Bones by my then favorite author, Stephen King. I was a big fan of his and the three hours waiting in line gave me a chance to meet him, shake his hands, take a picture of him and get the book signed by him personally. In 2003, I stood in the same line at the same bookshop for the signing of the book Eleven Minutes by Paulo Coelho (author of The Alchemist). This time I stood for five hours! When I told this to some people, they gasped and balked at me: "You stood for five hours!! Are you crazy??" Of course, they had no idea how much Coelho's books meant to me.

But when I came here to Ikea, I decided to not stay in the line. For money, I would not do something like this. I think of the three people who died, of what they must have been thinking when they got up that morning. Little did they knew that they would meet death at the main entrance of Ikea!

Think about it: how far would you go for money?

Yours from having-returned-from-the-stampede,

Mansur