blargblog
An expulsive extension of
Over at De Spectaculis, Martial returns to Afghanistan for three weeks and resumes his "Kabul Diary" to record his observations of the changes brought by the West and his impressions of the local culture. Just pop over to his site, scroll to the bottom and read up. As always, he's a swell writer and a compassionate witness. Among my favorite entries is this "sign" of the times:
Since I was last here another growth, a most curious mushroom, has sprung up by the roadside all over town. A bar of cream-painted steel, turned into an oval 2m tall, the ends cemented into the earth. The oval contains a blue sign, stenciled in white with the icon of a bus - under a Japanese flag. Yes, they are bus stops, apparently the sequential perches for that species of city bus (among the many which roam the streets) which wears just that plumage of cream of blue. I am assured, however, that the bus system is not yet running.Amusing, yes; but also enraging, as Martial points out that Afghanistan's systems of irrigation and education remain dysfunctional, yet "the capital city has bus stops!"I find myself thinking that this is very odd, this partial attempt to capture and tame the unruly beast of Kabul traffic by laying some sort of order on a part of it. I marvel at the effort and the determination to plant these signs over the whole of the city in a few short months - and wonder if they (and the money) might have been better spent.
I am disappointed, as I always am all over the world, at the need for the donor nation to put their flag on any work, great or small, paid for by their taxpayers (Afghans surely did the work of planting, and presumably Afghans did the work of planning as well). Now, Kabulis will always know that Japan bought them a bus system. But what else will Kabulis know of Japan? Is this how Japan cements its friendship with Afghanistan and gains the goodwill of Afghans?
"The Japanese? What do I think of them? They like bus stops."