Burundi: Where jogging is a crime

BBC ^ | 15 June 2014 Last updated at 19:46 ET | Tim Franks

[BenLurkin]

Burundi's football-loving president is rumoured to be standing for a controversial third term, despite the two-term limit in the current constitution.

...

Tucked between the narrow road and the side of the hill, the people of Bujumbura were running. Up, and up. A great, long line of them.

Some were in clusters - others, in their private reveries. Most were young men. But I also saw a man and a woman - of late middle age and generous girth - running together and holding hands.

The tradition of Saturday morning runs started during Burundi's long years of ethnic conflict. The last spasm of war only ended back in 2005, with 300,000 dead from the population of eight million. Then, no-one jogged up these hills.

This was where the militias - now the men of government - would hide.

So it was in the city of Bujumbura itself that people would try to vent their fear and frustration and claustrophobia, by running, often in a group.

But on this Saturday morning I was taken aback to see some young men, running together, as a group. It was a surprise, because back in March, the country's president, Pierre Nkurunziza had decreed that such a practice was to be banned.

He feared it was being used as a cover for subversion.

... While we chatted with the soldiers, a stream of boys hauled themselves past us, up the steep road. They were dressed in rags, their heads bowed under fat bundles of sugar cane.

I'd guess they were seven or eight years old....

Burundi comes second in the world only to Afghanistan in stunting, the main symptom of chronic child malnutrition. This, in a place which, as we'd seen on our drive across the country, is fertile enough to be self-sufficient in food.

[nickcarraway]

I bet their are a few Freepers who would support that?

[BenLurkin]

Cycling. On bi-cycles.

Cycling is the activity that needs to be outlawed.

8^)

[AnAmericanAbroad]

From the article;

“But on this Saturday morning I was taken aback to see some young men, running together, as a group. It was a surprise, because back in March, the country’s president, Pierre Nkurunziza had decreed that such a practice was to be banned.

He feared it was being used as a cover for subversion.”
____________________________

Sounds like Pierre is more than a little paranoid. According to the article - and the bio I read on him on Wiki - he’s quite the sports fan.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Nkurunziza