Small stories from a big world

A few months ago, on a Saturday, the sound of a tractor or excavator woke me up early. That typical growl of a heavy engine, deeper and louder when the machine is doing heavy work. Slightly lighter, catching its breath, when the machine moves off and prepares for a new assault on the heavy task. Again and again. After my stay in Vietnam, I know very well what that means: a new construction site next door, or rather, opposite the door. Not exactly reassuring. Memories of the rhythmic turning of concrete mixers, the squeaking of reversing trucks with concrete (bê ton, in Vietnamese), the toiling of excavators, the shuddering of drills, the screaming of workers, the layer of cement dust on all the plants in the garden, and the smell of concrete came to mind. Anyway, things weren't going that fast here. Apart from the excavator, no other machines were involved. It was not about building a new residential tower or hotel, like in Da Nang, but about rebuilding a house. Drastic, though...

  If you are travelling in a car in Rwanda, and someone in the car says "Sophia", the driver will immediately hit the brakes. Sophia is the name used here for the hundreds of speed cameras on the roads. The original Sophia is a humanoid robot built in Hong Kong. It is one of the first robots to make an almost "human" impression through artificial intelligence. You can talk to her, she responds correctly, uses hand gestures and facial expressions. Sophia visited Rwanda in 2019 during a congress on the transformation of Africa. She made a lasting impression in a country that likes to call itself the Singapore of Africa. In the airport, there is a robot -also called Sophia- that looks a little less feminine, or even human. It supposedly can move around and measure the temperature of people in the departure hall. Yes, supposedly, because I have not yet seen the Sophia robot in action. It is always parked neatly by a wall or in a corner, charging. Anyway, everything...