Alone Among Millions

From Namibia’s Open Space to the London Underground

The Namib (meaning "open space") Desert in Namibia

After Namibia, the London Underground took my sense of proportion, dragged it through the proverbial hedge backwards and then left it in a crumpled heap on an escalator. All while urging me to move right inside the carriages and to stand clear of the closing doors.

You see, Namibia has a population of 2 million and neighbouring Botswana has only 1.7.

London, however, lilts and lurches around the 10 million mark, (depending on the mood of the official on any given day) and its transport system herds 28 million people beneath the earth each year in order to move them from A to B.

Twenty-eight million.

The social rules are simple, but then, perhaps they have to be: don’t look, don’t talk, don’t stop. And for god’s sake, don’t get in the way.

Usually, I follow them. This time however, just fleetingly, I wanted to freeze that activity and focus on one person. One individual alone among the millions.

Alone Among Millions