During my time in Guinea between 2003-2006 I had to wake my guards several times and remind them that they should be awake to be able to at least defend themselves. Their company told me that if this happened I was to take their night stick and radio and then report the incident to the company. I had other ideas. I once doused one guard with water, only to be assured that "I was not sleeping!" My funniest event was one night when I threw stones to wake the guard and then more stones to create noises elsewhere, and while he searched I took his radio and night stick. He searched frantically for these when he got back to his post, so I threw more stones for him to chase then replaced the items. He came back looking very curious and very alert. He did not sleep the rest of the night. But when I asked him in the morning if everything had been quiet in the night he said "Nothing strange to report." My final story to share was of a sleeping guard, whom I photographed, and left him the print of himself sleeping. When asked if he had slept during the night, he said "I was very tired but I never slept."
The picture attached here is of a new standard in sleeping on the job.
The guard works in a government ministry and obviously thought nothing of sleeping under the stairs in the entrance lobby of the ministry. I think this behaviour needs no comment.
2 comments:
This situation can be easily corrected by using a Watchman's clock.
I heard that what is done at the US residential compound is to have a bell that goes off every 30 minutes, and needs to be deactivated. If it isn't in a few minutes, then the supervisor and residents know that the guard is asleep.
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