| Wiping away the sweat is what it's all about these | | | | volumes of traffic since the turn of the millennium. |
| days. The Prado thermometer read 39 Celsius | | | | They earn around $40 per month, but like |
| yesterday. It makes you develop a twisted kind | | | | teachers, doctors and policemen or anybody |
| of affection for the office air conditioning, the kind | | | | dependent on 'government' salaries, often they |
| of deranged affection someone, erm, lacking in air | | | | receive nothing. This in a place where food and |
| might display. But what we really crave here is a | | | | commodities can be more expensive than in |
| little of Europe's winter snow. Just for a day, just | | | | Europe. |
| to spread the love. If they are having it hard | | | | "But the bottom line here Ben, is...that the people |
| taking a chill pill at home, maybe they could check | | | | in control..." |
| in here for a sobering lesson in meteorological | | | | "... don't give a f**k." Ok then. |
| relativism. | | | | The street kids are known as sheges. They are |
| About 20 seconds is what it takes in this heat for | | | | the bottom of the barrel, below even the kids |
| a shirt to grip your skin. And the hottest month | | | | who never manage to sell the tissues in the |
| has yet to arrive. That's February, and the only | | | | plastic orange packaging. They roam the |
| relief between now and May will be the huge | | | | boulevard imploring the white men and the four |
| tropical storms that dump torrents of water in | | | | by fours, begging at the driver window, the bigger |
| split seconds, but in their wake leave a few hours | | | | the vehicle the more relentless the performance, |
| of plausibly stiff air. When that happens you float | | | | always falling on deaf ears. The ones with polio |
| on clouds, serenely breathing in the draught to | | | | have it even worse, peering up from the |
| lubricate your mind and your gut, and out again. | | | | concrete hoping for any semblance of response. |
| Life is so balmily good the smirk won't lift from | | | | It's every man for himself, and that's where the |
| your face, but the next roll of oppressiveness is | | | | equality ends. |
| no further away than the other side of the dawn. | | | | Businessmen forfeit durable client relationships for |
| So you buckle up and pray the interval to the | | | | the sake of short-term gain, money for nothing |
| next rain is brief, and meanwhile dream of frosted | | | | and your chicks certainly not for free. There is no |
| fields and iced tarmac in Ireland. | | | | such idea as 'good service', an elaborate western |
| It's worlds apart here, of course, in more ways | | | | notion which there is no incentive to provide. If |
| than the weather. It might take you three | | | | somebody did they might just become a |
| months, or six, to get a sense of most places, | | | | millionaire, but white men are millionaires and they |
| but in Congo that's about the length of time it | | | | might just hand over the money anyway. So |
| takes for you to dispense with your fancy | | | | what's the point? Everybody from polio boy to |
| notions and take it on the chin: it is not supposed | | | | the president is 'on the take' because it is the only |
| to make sense. You may scour the minds of | | | | modus operandi that holds currency. "A day to |
| westerners who have been here a while, like Ben | | | | day existence is all they've ever known", says |
| at the British Embassy, for some guidance on | | | | Ben, so they're not inclined to plan for tomorrow. |
| how to get it across. "You can't." How one could | | | | The western mind is already incapable of squaring |
| put it into a sequence of words, to convey an | | | | any of it but this is the point at which he stops |
| idea of the place. "You can't." Ok then. | | | | trying: he is invited to a Sunday gathering by his |
| Dichotomies warp the mind. A State in a state, a | | | | French friend and Congolese wife. Guests are a |
| Stateless land in a state of disrepair, a State | | | | mixture of well-paid white Europeans and |
| beyond the point of no repair, perhaps. There is | | | | well-educated black Congolese. Drinks and nibbles |
| no State! The rusted morsels of Kinshasa were | | | | complement the conversation, before his wife and |
| inherited by the undergrowth generations ago, | | | | her church-choir friends rise to perform. |
| every layer since came to rest through 50 years | | | | These black gospel voices quiver with the power |
| of stagnation. It is stuck in neutral. Seen '28 Days | | | | of angels, transporting a mesmerised audience |
| Later'? Or 'Shawn of the Dead'? They wouldn't | | | | directly to the gates of heaven. For perfection of |
| seem so spooky anymore. | | | | harmony and rhythm, he has heard nothing like it, |
| How does a city stay standing on its feet after | | | | ever. Where does it come from, this sound of |
| generations of rot and neglect? The rains carve | | | | amazing purity? It is such a state of elevated |
| cavities in the streets so deep traffic must take | | | | beauty. But how to square with the ugliness and |
| detours. Nobody ever comes to patch them up. | | | | the horror? Trying to reconcile such things is |
| Refuse is not collected unless the EU happens to | | | | beyond him, just like it is beyond everybody from |
| have a rubbish directive at the time. Only one | | | | the outside. |
| crossroads in a city of eight million is served by | | | | Are the secrets written in the wind? The one |
| traffic lights; otherwise at key junctions a traffic | | | | that whips up in 30 seconds, tossing the dust |
| 'facilitator' mounts a little pulpit in the middle of the | | | | about with a reckless indifference, heralding the |
| street and directs operations with his contrived | | | | angry rains that, peculiarly enough, everyone longs |
| bundle of hand gestures. These are some of the | | | | for; because if there is one time you can't go |
| heroes of a city which has only entertained large | | | | without here, it is the time to clear the air. |