i am a good driver. i am. but i have been pulled over twice in two months. the first one was legit. i was 'over taking' a slow car, but doing it very carefully. unfortunately i was quickly flagged over by the traffic police, told i'd committed a traffic offense by crossing over a solid line and told my fine would be 50K shillings which i would have to pay in court. but after looking in the back seat at the three boys on their way to school, he let me go with a warning. it all seemed very appropriate and official and i was glad to know that someone was actually paying attention to the rules of the road.
yesterday, i was pulled over again, but it was not so legit. i was a bit lost, and realized i was heading in the wrong direction, so i pulled into a driveway and turned around. about two kilometers down another road i was pulled over by a guy in the ugandan police blue camo uniform riding on a civilian motorcycle. he told me i had committed a 'very bad crime'. i apologized, but said i wasn't sure what i'd done. he told me i'd made a U-turn and this was illegal and 'very serious' and in uganda such a crime would require me to go immediately to court and pay 2 million shillings. now. i know this is a bunch of crap. and when i heard 2 million shillings (which is about half the yearly mean income here) i got annoyed and i really didn't mean to argue but i had to tell him that i hadn't exactly made a u-turn but had turned around in a driveway and that i didn't know it was illegal here. he went into a long explanation about the system, stating that there are no bribes allowed or anything like that, but asked what we thought he should do. i told him i thought he should forgive me and then help me get to where i was going, since i was lost and since he'd asked. then he asked how he should forgive me. my dad, who was riding shotgun and getting most of the eye contact during the conversation, said 'out of kindness'. but the officer laughed and replied that if he were going to forgive me, i should reach into my pocket and give him something. i told him i didn't understand what he meant. "oh, you don't understand my accent." he said.
"no, i understand what you're saying, just not what you mean." again he turned to my father, "what do you think i mean?"
my father said, "i think you are saying that because you are giving us a gift of forgiveness, you 'd like us to give you a gift too."
"yes!" he smiled.
i was furious. a- because he's not even a traffic cop, so i dont' think he can give tickets. b- i don't think what i did was illegal. c- because even if it was, i'm sure the fine wasn't 2 million shillings. d- because he was asking for a bribe. it was extortion!
but, what was i going to do? this isn't america. i can't jot down his badge number and report him. so i reached into my wallet and pulled out a 5000 shilling bill and handed it to him.
"i can't even buy sugar with this!" he complained.
i was still furious and not about to be extorted for anymore than what is equivalent to 2 dollars.
"yes you can", i argued, " maybe two weeks ago you couldn't have, but now sugar is 4000 per kilo."
i think he wasn't going to push his luck, so he let me go.
as i drove away, i just kept thinking about the complete injustice of it all. i didn't care about the 5000 shillings, i cared about the corruption of the police force. i cared that i now live in a country where instead of reporting him, i have to be careful to not piss off some guy with a gun. i also felt targeted because i'm a muzungu (reverse racism). i appear ignorant and fearful and wealthy- all of which are probably true.
my parents and mike kept reminding me that i was indeed not in the US anymore and that i'd better simmer down. they reminded me that i wasn't going to change any system by defying it- that while it was wrong, i needed to pick my battles, this was a traffic ticket situation, not a violation of human rights, and not worth great risk. but still it just sat sour in my stomach. i'm just supposed to give in to this? i thought of all the options - i could just refuse and tell him to give me the ticket- that i'd deal with it in court. but he's the guy with the gun- he could tell me that i needed to go with him- he could tell me that i was under arrest and who knows what would happen to me then. i also thought about him- he probably gets paid almost nothing and relies on this for his income- like Robin Hood- stealing from the rich to support the poor.
then i thought what would Jesus do? i thought about loving your enemies and praying for those who persecute you, but that seemed too abstract for the situation. i was looking for an answer- a response for the next time i get pulled over and a bribe is requested. and what came to me was the story of zacheus. he was that short tax collector guy who kept ripping people off and climbed a tree to see Jesus over the crowd that had gathered. Jesus called up to him, acknowledged him and asked him if he could have dinner at his house. Jesus, engaged him, he related to him, he didn't judge him or ignore him or reject him, he chose to eat with him. and just this was enough for transformation. zacheus gave back what he'd taken- four fold.
i thought about that a lot. what if i'd asked that camouflaged military police guy to dinner. what if when he asked what i was going to give him in return for his kindness, i'd said a nice hot meal. what if i'd invited him to our house. what if i'd asked what his life is like- what if instead of 'giving in' to the system or fighting the system- i was relational.
at the rate i'm going i'll have an opportunity to try out my new plan with in the next month. and i'm sure if my response to a request for a bribe was, "please come for dinner at our house" it would be met with a giant laugh and a smile and maybe it would at the very least, defuse the situation. or maybe it would be an interesting evening and slowly, the system would begin to change.
yesterday, i was pulled over again, but it was not so legit. i was a bit lost, and realized i was heading in the wrong direction, so i pulled into a driveway and turned around. about two kilometers down another road i was pulled over by a guy in the ugandan police blue camo uniform riding on a civilian motorcycle. he told me i had committed a 'very bad crime'. i apologized, but said i wasn't sure what i'd done. he told me i'd made a U-turn and this was illegal and 'very serious' and in uganda such a crime would require me to go immediately to court and pay 2 million shillings. now. i know this is a bunch of crap. and when i heard 2 million shillings (which is about half the yearly mean income here) i got annoyed and i really didn't mean to argue but i had to tell him that i hadn't exactly made a u-turn but had turned around in a driveway and that i didn't know it was illegal here. he went into a long explanation about the system, stating that there are no bribes allowed or anything like that, but asked what we thought he should do. i told him i thought he should forgive me and then help me get to where i was going, since i was lost and since he'd asked. then he asked how he should forgive me. my dad, who was riding shotgun and getting most of the eye contact during the conversation, said 'out of kindness'. but the officer laughed and replied that if he were going to forgive me, i should reach into my pocket and give him something. i told him i didn't understand what he meant. "oh, you don't understand my accent." he said.
"no, i understand what you're saying, just not what you mean." again he turned to my father, "what do you think i mean?"
my father said, "i think you are saying that because you are giving us a gift of forgiveness, you 'd like us to give you a gift too."
"yes!" he smiled.
i was furious. a- because he's not even a traffic cop, so i dont' think he can give tickets. b- i don't think what i did was illegal. c- because even if it was, i'm sure the fine wasn't 2 million shillings. d- because he was asking for a bribe. it was extortion!
but, what was i going to do? this isn't america. i can't jot down his badge number and report him. so i reached into my wallet and pulled out a 5000 shilling bill and handed it to him.
"i can't even buy sugar with this!" he complained.
i was still furious and not about to be extorted for anymore than what is equivalent to 2 dollars.
"yes you can", i argued, " maybe two weeks ago you couldn't have, but now sugar is 4000 per kilo."
i think he wasn't going to push his luck, so he let me go.
as i drove away, i just kept thinking about the complete injustice of it all. i didn't care about the 5000 shillings, i cared about the corruption of the police force. i cared that i now live in a country where instead of reporting him, i have to be careful to not piss off some guy with a gun. i also felt targeted because i'm a muzungu (reverse racism). i appear ignorant and fearful and wealthy- all of which are probably true.
my parents and mike kept reminding me that i was indeed not in the US anymore and that i'd better simmer down. they reminded me that i wasn't going to change any system by defying it- that while it was wrong, i needed to pick my battles, this was a traffic ticket situation, not a violation of human rights, and not worth great risk. but still it just sat sour in my stomach. i'm just supposed to give in to this? i thought of all the options - i could just refuse and tell him to give me the ticket- that i'd deal with it in court. but he's the guy with the gun- he could tell me that i needed to go with him- he could tell me that i was under arrest and who knows what would happen to me then. i also thought about him- he probably gets paid almost nothing and relies on this for his income- like Robin Hood- stealing from the rich to support the poor.
then i thought what would Jesus do? i thought about loving your enemies and praying for those who persecute you, but that seemed too abstract for the situation. i was looking for an answer- a response for the next time i get pulled over and a bribe is requested. and what came to me was the story of zacheus. he was that short tax collector guy who kept ripping people off and climbed a tree to see Jesus over the crowd that had gathered. Jesus called up to him, acknowledged him and asked him if he could have dinner at his house. Jesus, engaged him, he related to him, he didn't judge him or ignore him or reject him, he chose to eat with him. and just this was enough for transformation. zacheus gave back what he'd taken- four fold.
i thought about that a lot. what if i'd asked that camouflaged military police guy to dinner. what if when he asked what i was going to give him in return for his kindness, i'd said a nice hot meal. what if i'd invited him to our house. what if i'd asked what his life is like- what if instead of 'giving in' to the system or fighting the system- i was relational.
at the rate i'm going i'll have an opportunity to try out my new plan with in the next month. and i'm sure if my response to a request for a bribe was, "please come for dinner at our house" it would be met with a giant laugh and a smile and maybe it would at the very least, defuse the situation. or maybe it would be an interesting evening and slowly, the system would begin to change.
1 comment:
Oh Uganda. Rachel has been pulled over approximately once a week on her trips into Jinja ;) Half the time you're right they're not even proper traffic cops and have no right to issue fines anyway!
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