Soaked In uniform

The skies turn grey and with it comes a cool Colombo breeze. A policeman rushes to grab his raincoat before he is soaked in the endless downpour. The roads are blocked by vehicles eager to take their passengers home after a hard day's work. He takes a deep breath and make his way to the middle of the junction. This is going to be yet another long night.

Have you ever got stuck in traffic and blamed it on the policeman? If you haven't noticed, most of the traffic in Colombo is in fact blamed on the traffic police. Many misunderstand that the sole purpose of placing such an individual on the street is to relieve traffic. It's probably easy to place blame and judge from the comfort of your vehicle. But why don't we get out of our air-conditioned vehicles which are providing shelter from the rain and get a taste of what this individual might be going through. After all he is only following orders. 

Colombo has seen a steady rise of DUIs in the recent past. Getting pulled over is not something you can anticipate, but the roads close to the bars and pubs are usually crawling with cops after 8 pm. Again, the policeman's job is to make sure the citizens of Sri Lanka are not put in harms way. No one wants another incident where people are run-over by someone under the influence. But this is another great example where the policeman becomes our enemy. Once pulled over and even when it's completely clear that you are in violation of the law, there are still ways of getting out of it. Most would just offer a bribe. But how much are you willing to give to the policeman to let u loose? Or is that amount directly proportional to the type of vehicle your driving? Or maybe you know a politician who can make all this go away with only a matter of a phone call?

You finally are let loose from the scene with a strict warning. You drive off with a sense of relief. You have gotten away with it once again. The policeman is left with a profound realization. Will there never be any kind of law and order? Is there any use for his services? There will always be someone with influence that even the policemen are scared to raise hands to. So what will be of the duties and responsibilities of policemen? 

Aren't we to blame to blame for their sourness towards their own job. We have unknowingly made this individual hate his job and doubt his value.

People complain about our country, how somethings are so unfair. But maybe we can ourselves start with a change. We can change the way we think. We can change the way we do things from now on.