Walking is healthy, not a sign of poverty

Editor, RE: “More innovative ideas needed to curb pollution” (The New Times, May 29). A very large proportion of the citizens of Kigali walk as a matter of necessity. If you wake up at 5.30 am to walk in the cool of dawn, you will usually find the streets quite free of pedestrian traffic, but by 6, the sidewalks are usually already full of people walking to work, sometimes for quite long distances. It is only the bourgeoisie—both high and low—who lead totally sedentary lives and need a life-style change, but that requires an attitude change. Too many people believe you must be financially hard-up when they encounter you on the road walking; I can’t count how many times some would-be Good Samaritans have offered me lifts, often insisting against my declining of those offers, obviously in the belief I must have a serious problem if I am reduced to walking. For those with this kind of attitude, not walking has nothing to do with lack of walking space as, in reality, Kigali has a lot for those who love to walk for pleasure, especially early in the mornings before the sidewalks become clogged with foot traffic and car exhaust fumes and the heat become increasingly unbearable. Thus, those who love walking do not need this measure in order to do so; they already do, while those who detest walking or see it as something only the poor are obliged to do will not be encouraged to do so despite such initiatives. All that this will do is simply inconvenience many who genuinely need to drive into the City using the roads slated for closure. To paraphrase that American journalist, satirist, cynic, freethinker and social critic Henry L. Mencken, “There’s always a solution to every human problem—neat, plausible and wrong”. MweneKalinda

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Walking is healthy, not a sign of poverty