Most of the ribbon cutting ceremony Honesty is dull. A series of corporate executives or local politicians appear to cut through a meaningless ribbon with a humorous oversized scissors to celebrate the completion of a project. Yes, a thin ribbon definitely prevented cars from passing This completed bridge. However, the ceremony to inaugurate a bridge in the Democratic Republic of the Congo took an unexpected turn when the bridge collapsed at the exact time of the ribbon cutting.
It happened like a scene from a TV sitcom Parks and Recreation. The dignitaries are positioned to open a bridge over a stream in the Mont Ngafula district of Kinshasa, the capital of the Congo. Video, Verified by Reutersclear start in res media. One end of the red ribbon is blowing in the wind while the other is held taut. I can only imagine that the original ribbon cutting wasn’t captured on camera and had to be done again.
As soon as the ribbon was cut for the second time, the entire bridge collapsed. The handrails fell off the sides and the deck plunged into the stream. The second camera angle shows the full extent of the collapse – and the relatively small scale of the pedestrian bridge. The bridge cannot be higher than seven or eight feet. Some onlookers actually came to help the dignitaries onto an older, parallel bridge.
Thankfully, no one seems to have been injured in the bridge collapse. My favorite victim had to be the one in military uniform, wearing a black beret and sunglasses, climbing out of the debris with a bottle of champagne in hand. I respect anyone who attends a public ceremony with the intention of leaving with as much as possible. That is the mentality that everyone should have when entering the ribbon-cutting ceremony.
