On ecosystems

I drove out of my workplace late afternoon last week, because I needed a carwash. Maybe it’s my imagination, but the daily expression on the security man’s face was on my mind. As far as I was concerned there was a question on the guy’s face every morning I arrived, concerning the ever pervasive dust on the car. Maybe it was just my dissatisfaction with my car hygiene status quo, that I was projecting unto a guy who may simply have been concentrating on his challenges for the day.  

So even though the car wash guy took his time about starting the process, and the heat oppressed as I sat in the waiting area pergola, and the sweating pooled behind the mask and blotched my shirt, I persevered. I thought it should be worth it. At least I would go park in the lot, with some sparkle on my battle hardened road warrior. I was reading, and playing scrabble and all the things that social distancing pushes one to do nowadays on phones.  

The car was sparkling as I drove out. Then I hit the road, and remembered that if I had to drive back to work, I would have to use the shortcut in the bush. The traffic on the tarred road meant a 40 minute trip. My heart sank. It was going to be a dusty 5 minute drive. I drove back into the parking lot 10 minutes later… and all the sparkle had disappeared. The look did not disappear from the security officer’s face. I went back unto the ward wondering about the futility of it all. I could have sat in an air conditioned office, done some reading and reduced my ignorance level.  

It brought thoughts back of a different time, and a different country, where my car would remain spotless for weeks, because the streets were spotless. No looks from the security man in that hospital. There was an ecosystem to keep cars clean. Pavements, multiple lane traffic, bicycle lanes, tramlines, bus lanes merging together to ensure that people kept moving. And in those places, everything excellent, had an ecosystem to support it. It is the way life goes. Nature abhors beauty in reclusion. Anything excellent, comes with a supporting system to keep it going.  

Two days after I failed to take the look off the security guy’s face, I brought it back, worse then before. Now apart from the regular dust, there was a big dent. I had taken a turn, a motor bike could not brake in time, and came running full throttle into the left rear side. Thank God, the children were not in the car. The guy had no license. The bike had no registration number. But he did have his life, and his bones were all in the right place, unbroken. And God be praised, after such impact, all he needed was some analgesia in the emergency room and he was good to go. So far, there have been no more calls from a disgruntled motorbike owner, and God, please continue to protect, because there is no real ecosystem to rely on if they do, and start haranguing for the motorbike to be replaced. You sustain. You protect. In this improvise-as-you-go existence of ours.  

More than 700 people have died on our roads since the beginning of this year. We have started making the usual noise, again. The major roads will stay single lane. The money for pavement construction will continue to go into people’s pockets. The gravel heaps will continue to accumulate on the roads, with no warning lights. The motorbikes will continue to whiz around as if traffic lights do not exist. The cargo trucks will continue to park by the roadside. And the hospitals will remain hamstrung in their attempts to take care of these injured souls, because the NHIS does not properly cover any complex restorative surgery, long term antibiotics, or rehabilitation. 

In the last 7 days, I have received unto my service 2 young men with spinal cord injuries at the neck, from road traffic accidents. Breadwinners, late thirties, early forties, active adults who hit a wrong turn and were trapped in cars that somersaulted. They were dragged out by passers-by, transferred in taxis to hospitals, and woke up only able to wiggle their shoulders, the rest of the body feeling like one big ice block. They both died in the first 72 hours of admission. 

 They would be alive in an ecosystem.