Children are planning to take over the world in a movement called poto.
How else can you explain that a few weeks ago on a London train a small boy continuously shouted the word ‘poto‘. Fast forward a few weeks to this past Saturday on a flight to Finland another child sat behind me and through the ENTIRE flight shouted poto-o-o.
Curiosity got the better of me and a quick google search revealed that POTO stands for ‘Phanthom of the Opera’.
Well, the ghost/magical child link is obvious if you ask me.
Apart from that, flying with Ryan air was not as soul-destroying as usual. I might have exercised a considerable amount of time in the same position (you can’t even tilt to an angle), but at least I did not have to queue that long. Alongside the idea of eating pig feet, queueing is the worst thing I know.
I dislike queueing less because of the tediousness, than for the arrogance that people demonstrate in queues, the tactless bypassing and pushing forward seems so telling of the lack of kind-heartedness that surround us.
The nature of queueing in Africa is so different than what it is in the West. I’m not saying that Africans are more kind-hearted than Westerners, perhaps it is merely that Africans generally are not in so much of a rush. Let me give you an example. Picture yourself going to a hair salon in Africa for a wash and blow-dry before a night out. Picture you get there and there are five women before you and only three hairdressers. The first woman has been waiting for 2hrs. What would you do?
Yup, I thought so. PatienceIsAVirtueThatMakesYouFeel(AndLook)Good.
I like the word poto as a reference to this kind of patient waiting. Maybe the poto-children are trying to urge us to chill down, to poto, our turn will come.
Why is waiting such a bad thing anyway? Why do you think people get so rude when they queue?
they don’t have an imagination that is why they can’t wait.
oooo i see you added me to the side, lovely! haven’t done that. but have done one better! told my mother about you and that i am planning on hanging out with you in september in london! 🙂
miss you.
meant to type: haven’t done that YET! but lack of poto made me too quick to type! lol
annie
Lol! that just made me grin
thanks miss, look fwd to sept
I think that waiting, or the dislike of waiting, is part and parcel of Western society and culture, i.e. time is money, it’s all about me, self-absorption. That said, I do think it’s also a part of one’s personality. For example, people – friends, family, acquaintances and strangers – regularly comment to me re: how patient I am. I think it’s just who I am, as well as the fact that my profession – being a teacher- requires LOTS of patience.
Re: poto. Thank you for the explanation. Wasn’t aware of it.
Hi!
Yes, that self absorbed culture can really get to me at times.
Patience comes with compassion, I think, so personality must have lots to do with it indeed.
I think chosen profession does too, my mum’s a teacher as well and she is such a patient person. Living in Africa has added to her patience furthermore.
It’s a virtue, hang on to it dearly.
LOL @ Children are planning to take over the world in a movement called poto.
Hmmm, I’mma have to disagree with you on the matter of patience/queuing in Africa. Perhaps you mean the rest of Africa excluding Nigeria? I’ve never been anywhere else in Africa except Egypt and can’t remember much so I’m afraid my only basis of comparison is Nigeria and queuing is different because it doesn’t exist. They’re equally impatient, they just deal with it by shouting louder and pushing harder. A Nigerian woman goes to the hairdresser and there are three stylists and five women, she goes to talk to the stylist she knows best, asking her about her kids, saying she is in a rush and would appreciate what she can do and slip her a lil sumthin sumthin thereby bypassing at least 3 of the 5 women in the queue ;p
I think we’re steadily losing the ability to wait for anything. We live in a world where we want (and very often are able to get) what we want NOW.
I know what you mean when you say that queueing doesn’t exist in Nigeria – it’s like a first shout, first serve system lol
However, when I observe people waiting in traffic or for a bus or to buy a meal, that stressful hurriedness we have here does not seem as present to me.
Maybe because in many African countries the idea of getting something NOW is less feasible than in the West, people develop a sort of ‘poto’ for electricity, getting home in traffic etc
Thanks for sharing your perceptions…
nice post. really wonder why people are in soo much hurry cutting lines and all that so annoying can people pls chill.. d snails to went on board Noah’s ark along with the cheater..
lol. thanks.
It is impossible to pinpoint exactly who invented the art of the queue, or where. But many would agree that it was most probably an Englishman. Afterall, they say an “Englishman will form an orderly queue even if he is the only person in line”
So, like a good “Englilshman” i “poto’d” for my iphone4. and that Poto was a long one too!
https://tinyurl.com/msafropolitans-patience
Thanks for that link! Ha!