Abide by the law


Queen Fura, a Sidama queen, is mentioned in history as a crazy and too powerful woman who, after her husband (who was a great king of the Sidama’s) died, almost turned the country upside down with her crazy commands which was directed against men...

By Nebyou W.

I heard a story from my friend which, even though not funny, is bound to make one smile. This friend of mine was walking during the evening (late hours) when the streets were deserted. There he saw a traffic police on a motor bicycle, who was waiting for the traffic light to come green. Then suddenly, out of the blue (or rather the black) a mini bus taxi came and hit the motorcycle from the back and then drove away without stopping. The traffic police, who was not hurt, but who was on shock, immediately started drawing lines on the asphalt with a stone. Yet it turned out later that he didn’t draw a thing on the asphalt.

I found it ironic that when the whole point of a traffic light is to manage traffic what was the use of having these lights when there was not traffic? When there is no traffic it is to be assumed that the lights are not needed (not denying that they may come in handy). I guess that it was because someone forgot to switch it off. But was the traffic police right in respecting the law or was he just too ‘conservative’? I am sure there are good arguments that can go both ways.

But let me point out a better example which is again related to traffic, traffic lights and traffic polices.

When I travel to the office in the morning I have to pass down the Churchill road. Two or three years back there was a frequent power cut which resulted in, during the worst scenario, partial blackouts once every other day. During that time I couldn’t help but notice that the time it took to pass the Churchill road was three or four fold faster when there was no traffic light. Why? Most of the traffic comes from the piazza direction and this line moves like a tortoise while the other 3 intersections which don’t have too much traffic and moved quickly. The traffic police, being a human being with a brain that can analyze this, was able to provide a much better service than the automated traffic light by allowing more time for the long queue. Here it is obvious that that the ‘law’ of the traffic lights was not solving such congestions but was actually becoming a problem.

I am forced to digress a bit and comment that it was during this time that I imagined that inventing a way to automatically gauge the cars that are in line and adjusting traffic light to this tempo may be a good idea. When I researched this issue I read on Wikipedia that there is a Dynamic Traffic Light Sequence system which uses a technology with appropriate algorithm and database applied to a multi vehicle, multi lane and multi road junction area to provide an efficient time management scheme. A dynamic time schedule was worked out for the passage of each column and the real time operation of the system was able to emulate the judgment of a traffic police officer on duty, by considering the number of vehicles in each column and the routing proprieties. I am sure that there are able engineers, computer programmers and traffic light installers that can make this happen in our country and I hope this is done soon.

Here I want to add stronger cases or examples that show how abiding by the law blindly can be disastrous.

My uncle is one of the committee members in an idir. One day, during an idir session, he was called by a lady who has been sick for some time. She was not able to get in as she was not able to walk up the stairs. I think she knew that he was a good person and as a woman (whose extra sensibility often offsets their extra sensitivity), she must have realized that, he was the right person to talk to. So when he comes down he is shocked by her condition and immediately scolds her for coming in such a state. But she almost begged him to forgive her and she gave her contribution money, (including the back pay), and her Idir card so that he will pay it for her. So in he goes and the Idir cashier immediately says that this will not be possible as she violated the law. Angry, my uncle tells the Idir rep that even if he wanted to follow the rules he should have done so from the outset (4 months back) when he should have started fining her. Anyway the row ended after a letter or application was dictated by the cashier, written by my uncle, signed by the lady and submitted to the cashier who didn’t allow the receipt of money and renewal there and then but postponed it to the next month by which time he proposed to ‘consult’ the other officials of the Idir.

An Idir is supposed to be a humane institution which will provide money and companionship during one of the most difficult time in life; when losing one’s close relatives. But this institution has even evolved to caring for the sick and even contributing in time of festivities. But what is the humanity in this?

In the Bible when Jesus cured a certain lady on Sabbath, the Pharisee’s, who had immense authority at the time in both religious and day to day lives of the people, turned against him by accusing him of defiling the Sabbath (i.e. law of Moses decreed that no one shall work on the Sabbath in order to worship God without any diversions). Isn’t it amazing how they found it easy to back the law rather than rejoice in the miraculous healing of this lady?

With the new law that assigns taxi’s to a certain route it is mandatory that those taxi’s start and end their route at the exact places for which they are assigned. But sometimes this will not be practical as in the case of the rush hours. Then it is wise to use ones head (which is created for thinking) and assign taxi’s to carry passengers from mid points. I have seen some officials who did exactly this and they should be commended for this. They saw beyond the rigid laws to solve the problems of the mass of people who were forced to run after any taxi that comes along as if they were bees attacking an enemy at the door of a beehive.

One of the most common inflexible mode of bureaucracy could be found in the finance section of any company. Sometimes it is so because as there is a need to tightly control the flow of cash so that it will not be too convenient for people who like other people’s property too much to get their hands on it. When I was in the university a certain person that I knew was thrown in jail. When I asked his friend why he answered ‘he picked up something which was not his property’. The Amharic phrase ‘Yerasu Yalehone Eqa Anseto’ is quite funny. Anyway the bureaucracy that goes along with the finance is usually suffocating. I know a finance head who created a wave that rattled almost half the staff in the organization (including the head of the organization, the finance officer, the cashier, 2 other department heads, a technical professional and a freelance professional) just to settle 850 birr.

Queen Fura, a Sidama queen, is mentioned in history as a crazy and too powerful woman who, after her husband (who was a great king of the Sidama’s) died, almost turned the country upside down with her crazy commands which was directed against men. Once she ordered the men to build her a house on the sky. An elderly man came up with an answer that they would obey her order on condition that she would lay the foundation first, as the Sidama tradition requires it. Defeated, she gave another crazy order for the men of the country to tame a buffalo so that she can ride on it. Well the same guy ordered the men to hunt and bring a buffalo. They, with his instructions, tamed the buffalo to a certain degree so that it will not run away when someone sits on it. How? They did it in a marshy swamp that was fenced. Then they called and told Fura that she can ride the buffalo but her hands and feet have to be tied so that she will not fall off. The queen’s agreed and after she was tied they opened the door of the swamp and the animal went out of the marshy swamp and sped through the countryside and forests, where parts of her body were ripped off, until she was completely disintegrated.
Laws are not there to impede progress. Laws are there to help people and entities achieve their goals. But without careful steps and some smart heads the laws can be prisons in which many languish. There are many laws that are useful when applied correctly but that sound like Fura’s laws in the hands of intentionally wicked or unintentionally slow people. Therefore, we can surmise that, even though one solution may be assigning the correct people who can adopt the law to the circumstances, the other solution may be coming up with clever schemes to beat these Fura laws.

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