Law and order

It’s a strange paradox. This country, known for the depradations of bandits and revolutionary groups, with infrastructure that is far worse than it was in colonial times, and an economy so bad that public servants either don’t get paid, or get paid very late; this mad country can really get things done.

We look with amazement at the fact that Europe had to allow at least a year for certain types of plastic to be banned, and the painfully slow adoption of rules to charge for plastic supermarket bags.

Not here. The Governor of Kinshasa decided that plastic shopping bags should be outlawed and lo and behold within a week, yes, just one week, they had gone. Shopkeepers scrambled for alternatives: paper bags were one alternative, and another was woven plastic bags of the sort that hawkers use. These are quite expensive, so of course they charge for them.  Some smaller shops are still surreptitiously using plastic bags, and the women hawkers selling vegetables seem to have a limitless supply of Obama bags (see photo)

Much the same happened with taxis. Most taxis are little cars, usually with plenty of dents. They operate on a sharing basis, and try and cram in as many people as possible. For a short while the rule was that they should have stripes down the side in the colours of the Congolese flag. So there was a rush to get colours painted on. But there was no rule about how wide the stripes should be or strictly speaking what shape. So the net result was somewhat disorganized. This annoyed the Governor who decreed that henceforth all taxis and mini-buses should be painted yellow. NOW. And must have a City-issued licence sticker on both front doors.

The next day the town was like a morgue as all taxi owners rushed to get their cars sprayed yellow. But . . . within a week there they were. Yellow everywhere, and all with the official stickers on their doors. Quite how it was done has never been explained, but done it was. To me it was amazing that there was enough yellow paint to go around, because there are thousands and thousands of these taxis – probably 40% of all cars.

Some time ago there was an outbreak of polio in the other Congo – across the river. Within three days the streets were flooded with volunteers offering polio vaccine – the sort you take by mouth. At the entrance of shops, at traffic lights, in the airports, everywhere there were girls with neat waistcoats proclaiming that they were vaccinators (organized and paid by UNICEF.but with 100% government backing). Polio was stopped in its tracks.

Maybe it’s because the law is weak that things can be done so fast. But whatever the reason, it’s impressive.