I shivered as I watched the second car packed. Although convinced I had not done anything wrong, those black uniforms scared me.
After all, I came to the States not quite that long ago and I was not ready to go back to Africa.
Then I noticed the skeptic and quizzical looks on the faces of other faculty and students of the chemistry department.
We had been having a nice picnic so far. ”What could be wrong?” Then there was a third car packed, then a fourth but the fourth was not a police car.
When those three cops got out of their cars, I said a silent prayer to God and hoped that none of my friends was involved in whatever the problem was.
The departmental chair followed them into the department and came back to inform us that one student got locked up in the elevator.
Apparently the elevator developed a mechanical fault and could not move. The student made a 911 distress call.
We all gave a sigh of relief. Let the picnic continue
But wait a minute, there were three police cops, a technician and all that fuss just to answer a distress call for one student within that short period. Come to think of it, I just used that elevator some few minutes ago.
Wow. Is he the state governor’s son, a celebrity or a top government official?
Or better still, is he from a very rich home? I had heard of an effective “system” in advanced countries but this is something else.
Calling the police would not have been an option back home. People die because ambulances are not available or take to long to arrive when called. Pregnant women deliver in taxi cabs en route to hospitals.
If you enter a typical African office, you might be lucky to be welcomed by a young receptionist. In that case, he/she will be obliged to show respect to an elderly person – if they are cultured enough.
Even so, it is like he is doing you a favor. But just pray you don’t meet a disgruntled elderly woman with menopause – that means real trouble.
Elsewhere, public safety, customer satisfaction and public relations are sheer rhetoric. You only read about them in the books
Even more surprising are the driving rules here. In Cameroon, the car rules the road first. School children get knocked down by vehicles, even around school environments.
That is certainly different from what happens here in the states, at least for the brief period that I have spent here.
You get to a pedestrian crossing and a driver is required by law to stop and wait till you have crossed the road. And of course they obey the law. It makes me feel so “big” sometimes.
It works. It is amazing how human-centered the system is. It might have its own deficiencies.
Some are quite worrying about the breakdown of the family system and moral decadence, but not the people-centered nature; and more so, the women and children.
Guess what that means, hope.The future can only be better.
Then I thought of home and the African journey to modernization and western civilization – we are obviously far from there.
At least, not until our leaders and systems learn to put the people at the center. I don’t know when, how or whom, but I have seen it and I know it is possible.

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