GabonMapJuly 11–13, 2013 Fasten your seatbelts.  The Gabonese digger is always accompanied by the name of the company carrying out the roadwork.  A license plate.  The parrot in the postal service logo is snatching the L out of the article.  Life in the villages is tranquil and worry-free.  The people are sated and content.  Working TV? Check.  Living room furniture set? Check.  What else do you need to be happy? LibrevilleMapOne third of the country’s population lives in the capital (just like in Latvia).  The city’s main street is lined with space-age (by African standards) government buildings.  In what other African country would you find a Russian embassy that looks like a world’s fair pavilion?  In what other African country do apartment buildings try to outdo one another in terms of beauty?  What other African country has wheelchair ramps?  Where else in Africa would you see traffic signs mirrored on the pavement?  All the share taxis—the main form of public transportation in the city—have taxi numbers on the driver’s door.  One of the downtown hotels has a «taxi needed» sign outside (like in Kuala Lumpur). The concierge presses a button, the sign lights up, a passing taxi sees it and heads towards the hotel entrance.  A beautiful view.  A new French traffic light.  A gorgeous old French traffic light.  A bus stop.  Payphones.  A street sign.  An illuminated signpost with directions to nearby businesses.  An outdoor advertising structure with a triangular trash can.  A regular city trash can.  An old fire hydrant.  A new fire hydrant.  Bollards protecting the sidewalk.  A manhole cover installed over an irrigation ditch as some sort of joke.  And the icing on the cake: trash dumpsters.  * * * Gabon is doubly lucky. First of all, it has oil. Second of all, the local dictator has actually made the country a fairly nice place to live, instead of not giving a damn about his people like African dictators are supposed to.  |
