Road safety on busy highways: you are your own savior

Source: Africa Development Bank (AfDB)

Driving within Nairobi can be such a nightmare especially when everyone seems to be in a rush to beat traffic.  The nightmare increases as you exit the major highways onto the service lanes due to sudden or continuous movement of people and motorbikes, especially along highways that were predominantly residential areas before highway expansion projects began. While there are flyovers constructed across busy highways, more often pedestrians would rather risk their lives by walking (or running) across the road than ‘waste time and energy’ to access and use the nearest flyover point.  

Source: The Guardian

Unfortunately, the choice to cross a busy highway rather than use the designated pedestrian infrastructure poses a huge danger not only to pedestrians, but oncoming motorists as well. The risk worsens when the pedestrians happen to be are a group of children skating or cycling  across the road. This was my experience last weekend when a child, skating across the busy outering road, accidentally fell just seconds before our vehicle arrived. We escaped an otherwise would be car accident by a whisker. Luckily, our vehicle was on low speed at the time (approximately 25kph) so it was quite easy to brake instantly and veer off the child. Had we been at a slightly higher speed, the situation could have been worse. 

I considered it a miracle as just three weeks prior, we nearly hit a similar group of children who were playing/cycling across the same road, and around the same spot – our vehicle’s low mobility speed also happened to be our savior.  I am however left wondering whether such incidences of children running/skating/cycling/playing along/across a usually busy road is a norm. Or was it purely a coincidence in our case – a bad one for that matter.

A few lessons and tips that could be useful to you as a road user, none of these is something new so should serve as a reminder:- 

•  Be vigilant and alert especially when approaching service lanes from busy highways. You just never know when a pedestrian or motorcyclist or a vehicle driving on wrong side will suddenly show up! Better to be safe than sorry.

• Adjacent to service lanes, do not accelerate instantly once traffic clears unless you are very sure that the road ahead is clear. Again, you can never tell when a pedestrian will decide to suddenly decide to cross the road with an assumption that there are no oncoming motorists. Preferably, accelerate gradually to buy time and monitor your surroundings.

•  Avoid highway exits with recurrent pedestrian movement if you can. For example, if you do not need to use a service lane until a later exit, then there is probably no need to take it early particularly during rush hours as you add yourself an extra burden of double lookout for pedestrians or vehicles that could suddenly pull over or stop without notice.

•  Remind childrent the road safety rules for pedestrians. If you are a parent/guardian, save other road users the trouble of worrying too much about the possibility of hitting children who play or cycle across roads by teaching or reminding them the road safety rules for pedestrians.

• Ensure your brake pads and warning lights are in good shape at all times. This especially applies for lovers of fast moving automobiles but is generally necessary for all motorists. Never know when you will need to brake instantly. 

Source: National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA)

Be cautious, patient and disciplined as a road user. Even the most experienced drivers find themselves involved in road accidents. In short, you can never tell when, where or how you will be involved in a road accident. But you can prevent/reduce the probability by being cautious, patient, and disciplined as a road user - motorist or pedestrian alike. When it comes to roads you are your own savior. 

Are there more important professions?

“I wonder why lawyers think they are so special…Law is just common sense and English”.

Those were the words of political analyst - Herman Manyora to Law Society of Kenya’s president - Nelson Havi during a recent opine as posted by Standard online news on June 12^th 2020. My reactions to the article were; laugh – stare surprisedly – murk in discernment, respectively. I laughed because the title was hilarious at face value; like who says that about a profession that is highly coveted globally? Kids grow up wishing or being inspired to be lawyers in future.  Upon reading of the article, I was surprised to realize the circumstances under which such ‘hilarious words’ were uttered. Then the discernment occurred when I processed why/how such feelings and utterances mushroom – in the subconscious or conscious mind.  

Source: Flickr

This got me thinking whether there exist careers or professions that are more important than others. In such difficult times, we have come to appreciate how/why certain professions are essential hence the terms essential and non-essential services. These include but are not limited to health workers, food value chain workers/cargo deliveries, banking/cash transfer services and communication that are considered essential. For some of us, we have now endured at least 3 months of no house management support usually rendered by day-scholar or live-in nannies whose services we often take for granted. Yet these are the people to whom we entrust our children as caregivers when we are away toiling for a living.

In my interactions to understand what other people view as most important careers, I was humbled by the response of one of my networks who said that the “the most important/unique profession is that of a mother to a child.” I want to believe that in other words, this also means a career’s worth is as good as the person to whom the question is posed and the environment. For example, to a doctor or medical professional, his/her career is most important because humanity cannot survive without medical care – the patient will overwhelmingly share in this support. To a farmer/agriculturalist, his/her career is most important because we simply cannot go without food  - this is where the common lingual ‘you eat to live’ comes in and any hungry person/drought victim will overwhelmingly support the value of the farmer in our lives. To a water expert, his/her career is more important because water is life. And the list goes on and on.

Truth is one cannot argue and win a debate around the importance of a career especially if you take the debate to the horses’ mouth, because most of us try to find value and pride in what directly benefit from. The fact that certain jobs are considered essential should not be misinterpreted to mean they are the most important. It simply means that at the time in question, and going by the circumstances at hand, these would be the basic services required to keep us alive as we seek permanent solutions to our problems.

Career preferences and our ability to excel in them is largely influenced by both inherent and external factors. For example, it is often considered that STEM disciplines generally constitute the toughest careers and therefore more respect should be granted to those who excel in them. I have however come to learn that there is no such thing as an easy or difficult career/subject – it depends on who is pursuing it; whether they have acquired/were born with the unique strengths and abilities required to excel in the said field. Moreover, the environment in which we are brought up influences our fruition. For example, if born with a relatively ‘higher intelligence quotient’ towards scientific, mathematical or technology arena, and availed with a conducive environment to nurture that innate strength, a child will likely choose to pursue disciplines such as engineering, mathematics, actuarial science, physics, medicine, computer science, economics and so on. On the other hand, a child born with or exposed to talent in creative arts will likely excel as an artist – they could turn out to be the famous celebrities (singers, actors, designers etc) who most of us follow on social media and would gladly pay an arm and a leg to see/meet/work with.  The fact that you are good at sciences or mathematics does not mean you are the most brilliant person and will automatically excel at anything you try your hands on. Famous scientists/inventors/artists such as; Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, Nikola Tesla, Steve Jobs, Ludwig van Beethoven and Leonardo Da Vinci, in whose legacies innovations continue to be born were not necessarily the smartest people in everything they ever did.

Source: Flickr

Overcoming career inferiority or superiority complex. When one party belittles his/her own profession or highly regards it to the extent of stumping their feet on other professionals perceived to be of lower or ‘useless’ cadre, this could be a case of inferiority or superiority complex -  both of which are highly caused and driven by the societal believes and definition of careers. Traditionally, children are taught to believe that the best and therefore most coveted careers are those of; engineers, doctors, pilots, lawyers and architects. Times have however changed and so have careers. It is no longer the traditionally prestigious fields that automatically offer the best paying/rewarding jobs. You must wisely choose what to pursue based on global trends and developments. Some careers, of course, do pay better and higher than others. But that depends on who/where you are.

Each profession is important by its own merit. But some are considered as more essential than others depending on societal constructs and timing.  It is pointless to initiate a debate whose sole purpose is to make oneself feel as the most important professional in a room. Because we are all different and unique for a reason and, one way or another, complement each other’s efforts to make the world a better place to live in.  Focus on what individually drives you professionally. Is it passion? Is it the money? Is it the title/prestige?  Is it circumstances?  What is it?

 

 

World Environment Day 2020: A cry for Nature

June 5^th is World Environment Day. This is a day internationally set to celebrate our environment and appreciate nature for our co-existence. For those who share in knowledge of the creation story in the book of Genesis in the bible, it is believed that in the beginning  the earth was formless and desolate, there was darkness and from there the creation story starts when God orders for light to be there. It is a beautiful story of how everything – flora and fauna, the water, the land that we till, and skies above where the birds and all other creatures that fly flap their wings. Everything seems to perfectly fall into place like a jigsaw. Thousands of years later, we are caught up in a world filled with calamities; temperatures are increasingly high, droughts and floods are frequently experienced in different parts of the globe, ice in the Alaska and other arctic zones is fast melting and with that sea levels are fast rising to a life threatening level. In short, life is no longer the beautiful, perfect creation story that we read and wish for. Nature has taken a toll on us, and while some of us are still looking but not seeing the reality of what the world has become, the clock keeps ticking. Before we know it, there may be no time at all to do anything about all the natural phenomena affecting us thanks to our own human-inflicted effect on nature.

But all hope is not lost. Jumping to the scientific theory and ancient mythologies within which economies are believed to have been built and continue to advance, we are presented with an opportunity to reverse the order. Some of the suggested solutions are enshrined within the new policy scenarios for development which require that we not only limit our net carbon emissions to zero but take individual actions to enable us to get there. For starters, World Environment Day which is a day to voice out concerns, showcase our actions and call for further action, and is by no chance a one day affair. Every day is an environment day because everyday we wake up to nature, live in it, invest within it, take from it without caring much about we give back to it in return.  Nature has grown tired of our ungrateful attitude; it is reminding us in the simplest of forms that is has endured our destructive bullets for far too long. It can no longer stand our ignorance, arrogance, and selfish attitudes. It is also reminding us that either we as the current generation, or our future generations who will pay the price for how terribly we have been treating it. 

As the world takes time today to focus on achievements made in the UN decade of biodiversity which ends in 2020, and paves way for launch of the next decade of ecosystem restoration (2021 to 2030) agenda, we are left to ponder on what biodiversity really means for each of us. For me, it means reflecting on the beautiful creation story, how things were and how we could regain some of those values. Many things which should be done have already been said including; retracing our roots back to organic agriculture and food production, healthy living, green transportation methods, efficient industrialization pathways, carbon capture and sequestering technologies, increment on forest cover, sustainable use of water resources, reduced poaching activity and care for life in all its forms. I will therefore not dwell on what needs to be done. Because our governments and leaders know what must be done. At individual level we may be aware of what we to do or know where to find the correct information on what we must do. The problem is that no one is willing to sacrifice comfort today for the sake of a future they know nothing about. Our selfish desires drive us and the nations we live in. We are more concerned about ‘cashing-in and making our lives easier’ than we are about the overall effect all these have on nature. 

Until when we will stop pretending and override our selfish ambitions, and instead put nature first. Until when we will start asking ourselves before each action, ‘does this help or kill nature?’ Until when we will provide the correct answer to this question and be true to ourselves in our interventions. I am afraid that our cries to nature before then are in-vain. Kick-back time is here!