Drive like an Egyptian

Anyone who has visited Cairo will have experienced the city's incredible traffic phenomenon. When the drivers of the millions of cars in the Egyptian capital are not at a complete nose to tail standstill (which is often), they are racing and weaving their way along the city's roads at top speed, watching for small gaps to open up, missing each other by fractions of a centimetre, all amidst a perpetual cacophony of horns. From the fog of dust and exhaust fumes you see people emerge, walking in the road, some actually in between the cars, and fortunately, the drivers are skillfully able to avoid them too. This chaotic choreography all takes quite a bit of time to get used to it. For the first few times you venture out in a car (please don't attempt to drive yourself, ask someone who is local to drive you), you find yourself holding on tightly with white knuckles to anything that is fixed, holding your breath, staring wide eyed and horribly fascinated at the many near misses and high speed chaos that is unfolding before you. You need nerves of steel. You sit there praying that your vehicle is not going to be hit. And somehow, it never is.

And then you notice that amongst all this chaos, the blaring horns, the brinkmanship as two drivers try to manoeuvre swiftly into a space that couldn't possibly accommodate them both, and the endless revving of engines and clouds of exhaust fumes... that some kind of organisation is actually present.  Every driver is acutely vigilant (360 degree vision, one of my drivers called it), and regularly sound their horns to warn other drivers where they are in relation to each other. It is a kind of organised chaos that somehow works, because although the large majority of cars have dents and scratches, there tend to be very few serious accidents. Every driver plays the game supremely, knowing exactly what the limits of the rules are and how they are applied. In a city the size of Cairo with over 9 million inhabitants, this is both remarkable and expedient.

Such self organisation takes a little time to evolve, but those within it must learn quickly to survive. Imagine venturing out to drive on the streets of Cairo for this first time. You would need to learn pretty fast, and adopt the conventions of driving with your horn, or risk a serious accident. You would need to know that it is not unusual for two cars to occupy the same lane with just a centimetre between them, and that cars are weaving in and out of the lanes continuously. Driving at top speed and braking suddenly are also completely acceptable, and cutting across other drivers is just a fact of life. All of this is normal in Cairo, and its drivers know these rules implicitly by being immersed in the culture of Egyptian driving.

This is a metaphor of self organised learning spaces, where unwritten rules have evolved to maximise the potential of the tools and environments with which we are increasingly familiar. Learning is no longer linear. Learning in digital environments is a meandering experience, where hyperlinks take you down new and surprising avenues, and conversations take an unexpected turn. On wikis and other shared spaces, there is a need to simply let go of content once you have submitted it, because as sure as there are pyramids in Egypt, someone will come along and edit (or perhaps even delete) your contribution. Be prepared for others to openly (and sometimes harshly) criticise your ideas when you blog, or post your video up to YouTube. If in doubt, or you don't have a thick skin, don't post. There's your slip road out of the chaos. Avoid potential car crashes by checking your facts and ensuring that your arguments are defensible. There's your seatbelt. Check to ensure that images and content you repurpose isn't copyrighted material. That's being street wise. Watch out for those on social media who are simply out to scam you or rip off your ideas to make them their own. Moderate comments to your blog to eliminate spam and trolling. There's your 360 degree vision. And finally, maintain your digital presence, and protect your digital footprint - by engaging your brain before you tweet, post or upload, you will preserve your reputation (and maybe your job) - and your indiscretions won't come back and rear-end you.

Photo by Steve Wheeler


Drive like an Egyptian by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.