Progress means different things for different countries writes The Economist:

• It’s been 14 years since Sierra Leone last had a traffic light.
• During the country’s civil war, the old ones were torn down and sold for scrap.
• Now, under direct orders from the President, one has been built at a busy cross-roads.
• It is, of course, entirely ignored by a population that has never had to abide by one before.
• The few times it even works that is. It seems to perpetually blink the amber bulb.
• And while the government promises to build more it’s possible that this one was only built as a one-off in order to appease the populace just before elections.

Read more here.

Source: The Economist