When I did contract work in the DRC and Gabon there were similar rubbish-strewn and nearly-impassable dirt roads leading to luxuriant air-conditioned gated compounds where the rich and well-to-do cloistered themselves away from the realities of the place they live in.
Of course this illusion was fragile. Reality confronted them with all its unwelcome revelations the moment they passed through the motorised gate to do the daily shopping, take their children to school, or go to work.
Older members of society would enthusiastically tell me whenever the opportunity presented itself (and in some flavour of French accent) that things were not always like "this": once upon a time, many moons ago, these roads were not only clean, but also tarred and smooth as silk.
It was impossible for me to imagine that the rutted scar cutting through the unkept brush, which was supposedly a sidewalk, was ever a real road. And yet allegedly it was.
For me, I could console myself that this was my life for only a few weeks or months before my plane-ride to "civilisation", a.k.a. Johannesburg, would deliver me from the oppression of destroyed infrastructure.
I guess those Old Timers in Libreville, Lubumbashi and Kinshasa had the last laugh after all.
My feeling on the world cup is as follows: France beats Morocco, Belgium beats Spain, Norway beats England and Switzerland beats Argentina. I'm not a betting man, but I think the odds would be crazy.
@Jason2bartlett@elonmusk@POTUS@SecRubio I'd live to join you. I've applied and been rejected . Possibly they thought I was an armed robber instead of the victim of armed robbery.