A Week in the World's Most Chaotic City

[marmar]

A Week in the World’s Most Chaotic City
Lagos is poised to become the world’s biggest city. The Nigerian megacity is a massive experiment – unregulated and wild, with endless traffic jams, waterfront slums and an impressively resilient population.

By Heiner Hoffmann, Akintunde Akinleye (Fotos) und Bernhard Riedmann (Grafik)
30.09.2021, 14.37 Uhr




(Der Spiegel) Every now and then, children slip through the cracks between the wooden planks or fall over the edge and disappear into the sea. "Just yesterday, I got my head stuck at the bottom of the sea,” says a three-year-old girl, laughing aloud. Aliate Ajagun, her mother, laughs along: "Then I just bend down and pull them back up.”

There is nothing out of the ordinary here about toddlers disappearing into the sea and then reappearing. Indeed, Lagosians, the people of Lagos, consider very little to be out of the ordinary.

Aliate Ajagun and her five children live on a kind of platform about three by five meters in size. It’s built on stilts in the lagoon of Lagos, which some statistics show to be the largest city in Africa. The floor is made of planks. The gaps between the planks reveal the sea water below, a murky, grayish soup.

....(snip)....

Lagos is loud. Everything here has its own sound The honking of the endless traffic jams; the relentless, slightly frantic music piping out of the loudspeakers in stores; itinerant merchants offering their services; the wandering tailor with his rattling scissors; the vendors who drum distinct rhythms for each product as they parade through the streets.

There are a lot of codes that are part of this city’s DNA, and they must be learned. It is hot and humid, and the temperatures barely go down at night. Lagos is a city where the rich don’t hide their wealth and the poor can’t cloak their poverty. There’s only one thing that unites them all: the water. ............(more)

https://www.spiegel.de/international/world/lagos-in-nigeria-a-week-in-the-world-s-most-chaotic-city-a-6d56ae7e-596b-40f1-b1ad-43ba0778a6c7

[Demovictory9]

1. now that's a traffic jam! Western world only worries about population growth rates for non whites

interesting article... going to read it .. thanks

[underpants]

2. An excellent article. Thanks.

Chickens walking across the trash in the water. Yikes.

[marble falls]

4. They are some of the most entrepreneurial people in the world. I don't know that they are ...

... anymore con men than anyone else. They haven't been treated well by their government or the oil companies, and yet there is vibrant society.

[keithbvadu2]

3. Nigeria and Ghana - Huge international, internet trade in romance and money scams.

Nigeria and Ghana - Huge international, internet trade in romance and money scams.

What does your internet sweetie look like?

They may be a doctor, or a hunk military man, or a supermodel woman/rich widow, or some rich businessman. But most assuredly they'll be overseas, somewhere out of range of a personal meeting. Charming of course. And most times you won't be able to video chat with them. You'll get a picture - someone's picture. Don't be surprised if they turn out to be a skinny Nigerian dude.

They called them clients, not victims.

These scammers are amazingly open about how they are scamming their clients. Are they convincing? They can be very convincing. One client was playing naked sex games with his 'girlfriend' who turns out to be a guy.

Their favorite clients??? Widowed/divorced....(lonely).

They have unlimited love for you. They only run out of love when you quit sending them money... as in; when you run out of money to send.

My favorite is the fetish priestess. She has character and personality.
(Not necessarily good character)

Start watching at about the 11 minute time mark.

?t=660

[tblue37]

5. That picture makes me think of the apocalyptic overpopulation science fiction novel

Stand on Zanzibar.