THE DECORATIVE COMMAND POST

Wherever they went, imperialists attempted to impose order. The world, as they saw it, was in need of rectalinearity, parallelism, and roads. Well, except for the French, who prefered circular reasoning, drug induced tropic stupour, and rough tobacco. The Dutch and the English, however, were more rigid. The Northern European brain shrivels at chaos.

Nothing is as indicative of that as traffic regulations. Which are sometimes hard to comprehend when the medium almost requires rampant opportunism if one wishes to get past the elephants.

In areas of the colonial world one can still find the intersection kiosks where stern taskmasters, as trained by the Londonian bureaucrat, used to stand, directing the vehicular anarchists, from a raised and shaded perch.

That they were crisply dressed and starched, and had good posture, went without saying. One must above all set a good example for the riotous repressed subjects. It was the only way they would learn!

Except for the somewhat ridiculous pagoda roof, the structure could be set anywhere. Burma, East Africa, the Caribbean ....


Significantly, such edifices existed nowhere in Europe, the British Isles, or North America. It is highly likely that the natives there would have torched them, in scenes of public inebriation, misbehaviour, and vulgarity.

Probably after a local sports team praestation.


They've largely disappeared in Hong Kong.
As have the British themselves.



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