This is very true; some years ago a friend who works for the Foreign Office was posted to Tunisia, and we went to visit her there. She pointed out a guy at a tr

This is very true; some years ago a friend who works for the Foreign Office was posted to Tunisia, and we went to visit her there. She pointed out a guy at a traffic intersection in a splendid uniform with white gloves, waving on and halting the traffic, basically doing the job of a set of traffic lights. This would have been derided in Europe or the US, and yet here was a guy with a purpose to his life rather than sitting around unemployed. Even the uniform seemed designed to imbue the job with kudos.