Traffic cops

Tonight on our way home from a wonderful dinner at Khana Kazana, Larissa and I had a great conversation with our cab driver Mitchell. Now, this isn't your "yellow cab" type taxi (although believe it or not they do have those here in Kampala), but rather a nondescript small white Toyota of some sort (everybody who's anybody drives a 'yota of some sort in this country).

So enough about the nondescript car, back to the great conversation. We were stopped at an intersection for a while, an intersection with a traffic light - imagine that! - and not just any traffic light but one that was actually working - imagine that! But there were still at least 2 traffic cops with reflective vests standing in the middle of the intersection waving their arms and shoving their palms emphatically in the direction of certain lanes of traffic, and blowing their whistles. It's a bit scary to cross these intersections INSIDE of a vehicle (think large amount of metal protecting your body from the rest of the crazy/reckless large amounts of metal careening across the intersection), let alone be standing just you and your little self in the middle of all of the craziness trying to tell who to go where when clearly no one wants to be told what to do. So, this prompted my question to the cab driver "do traffic police get hit often?" Mitchell assured me it doesn't happen often but "sometimes disasters, they happen."

He went on to give us this riotous description of the job of the traffic cop. Larissa and I were cracking up in the back seat. Most importantly he pointed out that in fact the intersection we were stopped at had an opperational traffic light, "but they like to blow their whistle. They think they do better." The traffic cops stand in the middle of absolutely crazy intersections with perfectly functional traffic lights and insist on putting their lives at risk and blowing their whistles and waving their arms just because "they think they do better."

Mitchell also told us that at one point in 2004 they constructed kiosks to stick in the middle of the intersections for the above mentioned traffic cops to stand in, but instead of hitting the cops the cars hit the kiosks. So, they all came down. He said that the word on the street was that due to corruption each kiosk cost the country 24million shillings, when they should only cost 600,000....craziness.

I told Mitchell about the traffic cop who stood (or maybe still stands) at the intersection at 36th and Walnut in West Philly on Penn's campus. I was always glad to see him in action as I passed on my to or from class, he was really entertaining, but I don't think he was very functional. At 36th and Walnut there is also a functional traffic light, but this guy every once in a while would stand and blow his whistle and wave his arms emphatically often drawing a crowd (or at least me) to watch him do his stuff. Maybe it was one of Penn's ploys to draw prospective students (ie. $) to campus, I mean really, who can beat a real live traffic cop? Even in Uganda they provide a good amount of entertainment (or at least they did tonight).