I smile as I take my morning walk through Parkmore. The smile is an ironic one. The road workers are very busy painting the street markings and the L-outline at the intersection holding the word ‘STOP’ is newly painted. It’s bright and white and it glints into the sunlight. Hmm. Pretty roads.
Meanwhile, the roads are in a despicable state, rubble lines the edges, and potholes (craters) are a feature throughout the suburb. But, hey, they look good.
Papering over the cracks. This is what they are literally doing. It’s a theme that government responds to time and again. “Let’s fix the surface and hope no-one sees what’s going on underneath.”
The idiom “to paper over the cracks” is defined by Cambridge Dictionary as “to hide problems, especially arguments between people, in order to make a situation seem better than it really is.”
Collins dictionary says, “If you paper over the cracks, you try to hide all the things that are wrong with something.” Ehem, sounds like we are getting somewhere re the roads.
Apparently, we have Otto von Bismark (1815-98) to thank for the origin of the phrase, using it in a letter he wrote in German as part of a peaceful negotiation to postpone further German influence.
And here it is: “Wir arbeiten eifrig an Erhaltung des Friedens und Verklebung der Risse im Bau.
translation:
We are working eagerly to preserve the peace and to cover the cracks in the building.
If war can produce language, it can’t be all bad (kidding) but can language fix the roads in Parkmore and everywhere else in Johannesburg? I think not!
So come on Joburg Roads Agency put away your paint pots and roll out your buckets of bitumen. There’s no time to waste.