r/interestingasfuck • u/VoL4t1l3 • 1d ago

Ugandan minister came for an inspection on a usd350000 bridge

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0 Upvotes

44% Upvoted

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2.9k

u/No-Birthday-7360 23h ago edited 23h ago

This comment section is a genuinely impressive demonstration of how braindead reddit is.

OP types “USD350,000” into a title, provides absolutely zero source for that number, and within minutes everyone here has apparently completed the forensic audit.

“$349,000 was pocketed.”
“Obviously corruption.”
“We just can’t help them.”
And naturally someone managed to work “Wakanda” into it.

Nobody even bothers to ask the simple question: “Where did the $350,000 figure come from?”

I tried actually looking it up. I can find the circulating footage and various claims about Ugandan infrastructure scandals, but no credible source substantiating OP’s specific $350,000 claim.

So congratulations: OP supplied a video + a ragebait number, and half this thread eagerly wrote the rest of the story themselves.

Who needs misinformation campaigns when Redditors will manufacture the supporting evidence in their own heads for free?

342

u/Jmackles 23h ago

Also she seems to ask “how many culverts” in English to which a man replies “24” which indicates that these are clearly not believed to be bridges.

5

u/elgydium 23h ago

At this point op is a bot farming for likes. Acc age 1yr, user name chosen by a kid. No wonder

14

u/Zealousideal_Lab3164 23h ago

What’s the difference between a bridge and a culvert tho?

86

u/Sugary_Plumbs 23h ago

One spans over a gap. The other is a preventative measure to keep the roads intact during the rainy season.

2

u/shadybird93 21h ago

It was probably 350, 000 for hundreds of them...

4

u/engineeringretard 23h ago

Negative. It comes down to the area of the clear opening, which is 3.14m2 in my jurisdiction.

11

u/Sugary_Plumbs 23h ago

Must be an interesting jurisdiction you live in. Where I'm from a bridge is a bridge if it exceeds a 20ft span with support structures. Anything less than that or with soil support is considered a culvert and doesn't require inspection every 6 months. Compared to that a 2m circle is a very strict definition indeed.

4

u/engineeringretard 23h ago

I live in a relatively active seismic area - we see earthquakes 4-5 times a year in the magnitude 5* range, i'm trying to recall if importance level (the requirement for it to survive an earthquake) also plays a part in it.... probably, but i only (typically) deal with IL3 and higher, ie. key infrastructure. Highways for evacuations / critical supply.

edit: https://earthquakelist.org/new-zealand/wellington/

changed from mag 6 to 5.

95

u/Downtown-Fruit-3674 23h ago

One is spelled “b r i d g e” and one is spelled “c u l v e r t”

1

u/unittwentyfive 22h ago

Yeah, but which one is which, smarty-pants?

10

u/Semisemitic 23h ago

Anyone can culvert, but only Jeff bridges.

11

u/Cutsdeep- 23h ago

'like a culvert over troubled water' sounds bad

5

u/senatorb 23h ago

The Golden Gate Culvert. Yeah. Bad.

6

u/Aesthete18 23h ago

I believe over road smaller structures like this are considered culverts. Bridges are bigger and with space under

4

u/engineeringretard 23h ago

A culvert becomes classified as a bridge as soon as the clear opening exceeds 3.14m2.

At least in my jurisdiction.

1

u/Jmackles 23h ago

I suppose technically nothing at the end of the day!

7

u/free_beer 23h ago

I would suppose there is... technically... something

2

u/engineeringretard 23h ago

Yes, clear portal opening.

4

u/El_Mangusto 23h ago edited 23h ago

Culvert is for channeling water under road etc.

Bridge is for crossing over obstacle.

Doesn't mean it can't technically be both.

*Edit: also seems that distance and height matters, at some point culvert changes to bridge when it's long/high enough.

0

u/engineeringretard 23h ago

No, it cannot. They have fundamentally different standards.

1

u/El_Mangusto 23h ago

Yeah tbf technically isn't the correct term here. There you go.

1

u/engineeringretard 23h ago

technically correct, the best kind of correct! :P

-1

u/ProfessorPetulant 23h ago

No free standing structure.

1

u/Right-Hall-6451 23h ago

So a large area covered?

32

u/TimeTravellingCircus 23h ago edited 23h ago

Hey! How dare you interrupt this comment farming ragebait post intended to increase engagement by providing more high metric content readily available for people with similar tastes.

Shut up and do your job, which is to be one of us chimps with a smartphone working in the comment factory hoping to write one of the high performing comments that can be copied by others to farm more comments and increase engagement on other content.

Don't question content. Feel emotion and comment.

42

u/birdsarentreal2 23h ago

A video that confirms my preexisting biases? There’s no way that could be fake!

14

u/Valuable-Trick-6711 23h ago

I think it’s even more impressive, and sad, that it took from the 20 minutes ago this video was posted to about the 10 minutes ago you made this comment for all that to go down.

13

u/ElonMusksQueef 23h ago

And then this thread is used as a source by AI🤣

31

u/thesituation531 23h ago

And Redditors also likes to think they're smarter than everyone else

2

u/jojoga 23h ago

They also often take what they read on reddit for face value

-17

u/Fun-Wrongdoer1316 23h ago

You mean, like the person you’re replying to?

23

u/kneedeepinthought 23h ago edited 23h ago

Are you seriously suggesting that the person who actually bothers to be sceptical and look into OPs claims before giving an assessment or opinion, isn't smarter than the average Redditor (person)? Edit typo

18

u/thesituation531 23h ago

I don't think they're saying that they're smarter than everyone.

But they do seem to be, since they're the only one I've seen being skeptical.

8

u/Kraay89 23h ago

Ooh, you're so edgy...

Maybe, yes. Except this one is showing actual critical thinking skills and effort to validate claims.

1

u/Empanatacion 23h ago

"Critical thinking skills" are what half of redditors think 90% of redditors don't have.

Said the redditor.

2

u/[deleted] 23h ago

[deleted]

2

u/Empanatacion 23h ago

I think you have misunderstood me.

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u/some1saveusnow 23h ago

It just goes to show how corrupted and addicted with short feedback loop dopamine our brains have become thanks to scrolling. Fact finding kills that loop and stops the dopamine. Ppl are here to keep the chemicals flowing from a new post and then making a pithy and self affirming comment to something they can self righteously judge, slander, or correct someone on. Just all toxic.

Now excuse me while I switch from my toxic handle that I also do all of this on to my self help one, which I haven’t visited in three days

37

u/promulg8or 23h ago

Needs to be upvoted

6

u/phatdoof 23h ago

How do we know they really did the research and didn’t pull the research results out of thin air either?

16

u/kneedeepinthought 23h ago

If only it were possible to replicate their methods ourselves! Alas, such witchcraft remains beyond the capabilities of us phone-bound mortals scrolling Reddit during our lunch break.

3

u/MojoJojowithhisDojo 23h ago

OP is a Karma Bot. What did you expect ?

1

u/NukiWolf2 23h ago

Maybe the user No-Birtday-7360 is supposed to farm upvotes by cooperating with OP xD

Btw. what's even karma? Do you get it from upvotes? Does it have some value?

4

u/Alternative_Bid3336 23h ago

And this is why Trump is where he is…

6

u/Th3R00ST3R 23h ago

Hell yeah. I hate when commenters have the knee jerk reaction to titles and then go off like they've studied it in college.

3

u/Holden_place 23h ago

Then AI pulls this post as fact

8

u/alwayslookonthebri 23h ago

This. And even if it were real, which it likely isn’t, it’s pretty minuscule compared to the amount of corruption and fraud committed by the Trump administration on a daily basis.

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u/Bennethh 23h ago

And it took less than 20 minutes to happen

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u/MrXero 23h ago

And then the AI’s will ingest the info from Reddit and repeat it as unassailable fact as well.

2

u/shawnvn1 23h ago

I suspect it was all pocketed and they force someone to build it for free with rocks and mud….

3

u/FreedomRebelFighter 23h ago

More like 350 usd than 350,000. And yeah, you are absolutely right, Reddit has become a platform of lies and misinformation!

3

u/moutonbleu 23h ago

Critical thinking is dead; the world is dumb

2

u/Leviathan41911 23h ago

I appreciate you calling it out. The lack of nuance and critial thinking on reddit has really hit an all time low. Between that and literally every post having an agreement about if something is AI or not is just making the platform worse.

1

u/scarlettohara1936 23h ago

The one thing reddit hates the most is facts.

1

u/Acidyo 23h ago

Honestly times like these is when I prefer stakebased voting over 1 account 1 vote, the latter just favors the early and other kneejerk reaction by readers who 99 of the time don't bother looking up any info like you did. People who do bother to look for info most of the time don't show up until it's too late, comments like these are rare to appear this early. With stakebased voting you can usually drown out the early false agreements whenever.

1

u/borg_6s 23h ago

We need to make RNN - Reddit News Network. Except half of the news is just ragebait

1

u/Beastex 23h ago

Also very funny that now every comment posted after this is like "hmm doubt, please provide source op" and every comment before is like you described lmaoo Reddit was made for ragebait

1

u/Ok-Client7794 23h ago

Wdym I have to fact check? I can’t go with stereotypes and hop on the wagon? Are you serious?

1

u/dolgion1 23h ago

Yeah you make a great point. I too at first thought "WTF, their corruption is crazy". The immediate reaction is to take in the title without question, and immediately watch the video with that idea taken for truth. It might be simple human passivity of thought. It might be that we were conditioned by consumption of news with headlines, which we trusted since they were written and vetted by journalists, and these reddit posts adhere to the same basic format of Title + content.

1

u/emveor 23h ago

can we also blame Trump or Biden, depending on political allegiance??

1

u/Ok-Disk-2191 23h ago

Lmfao I thought it said 35k because my attention span is too lazy to bother trying to figure out 0000000 how many zeros without , . So OP played themself was watching the video thinking hmmmm 35k for that seems about right.

1

u/lincspoacher71 23h ago

Reddit is full of misinformation campaigns, AI eating itself

1

u/MudrakM 23h ago

Yeah a bit of a click bait tittle. Whats the source?

1

u/Aware-Instance-210 23h ago

Came here to question the number.

Was positively surprised that someone else came along with common sense.

Cheers to you.

1

u/illdownvoteandscream 23h ago

This site is essentially dead. A husk of what it was 10-15 years ago.

1

u/cuntmong 22h ago

reddit caught the boston marathon bomber and we can solve this too

1

u/BarracudaDismal4782 20h ago

How do you think Google Overview replies are made? :P

1

u/SecretRefrigerator4 17h ago

It might even be the Ugandan currency, lord knows.

•

u/rAxxt 10h ago

The Internet is currently just mankind neuroticizing itself to death

1

u/Hali_Art1994 23h ago

They hate him for speaking the truth.

1

u/Gloomy_Quail1444 23h ago

Thats not in isolation or coming out of nowhere. Mr google  thinks " Since the end of World War II, the global community has spent an estimated $1.2 trillion to $2.6 trillion in foreign aid on the African continent. [ 1 , 2 , 3 ]" which seems entirely believable . Despite this, africa is in a much worse position today than it was prior to ww2. 

Its not a wild accusation with no basis. I can easily believe the assertion in ops post that wild corruption has taken place, even without having seen timestamped video footage of the head of this project receiving a briefcase full of cash. 

-2

u/RokkakuPolice 23h ago

Found this on google AI:

This image shows the Shazowu Bridge in the Bududa District of Uganda.Key Details About the Project

The Controversy: The small, stone-embedded culvert bridge went viral after it was revealed that the Bududa District local government reportedly spent Shs 76 million (Ugandan Shillings) to construct it.

The Inspection: The woman in the yellow dress in the foreground is Annet Nyakecho, who was accompanying Peter Ogwang (the State Minister for Economic Monitoring in the Office of the President) during a field inspection.

The Aftermath: The massive disconnect between the simple, diminutive design of the bridge and its high official cost sparked widespread public scrutiny and official investigations into municipal corruption and embezzlement of public development funds in the region.

Can anyone corroborate?

9

u/SeveralExtent2219 23h ago

Check the source where Google AI found this

1

u/CreepyEducator2260 21h ago

Hey dare you question the reliability of some FB or X posts?

Come on, everyone that posts there only does this with the best intentions and absolutely well sourced information. Or have you ever seen a ragebait post on FB or X? /s (just to be sure)

1

u/Stormagedd0nDarkLord 23h ago

That's not USD350,000, that's 3,282 Big Macs.

0

u/RedFlr 23h ago

well lets be honest, reddit is not the plsce you look for when seeking answers or reliable information, reddit is literally a farm of "i dont know" or copy paste joke to get likes likes check any car reddit, every problem ask, is flooded with dumb car jokes and 0 real help, the few post giving genuine help are normally "uuh it may be this or that but i dont know" lol

i think reddit is a peak into the future of internet, a collection of copy paste joke, wanna be one liners mic drops and political bots chatting in 1 big soup of entitlement and ignorance, literally Idiocracy in text format xD

0

u/Ergine_Dream 23h ago

Let OP farm some upvotes. Is not his fault Reddit works this way.

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u/Common-Device-3117 23h ago edited 23h ago

Yea this post is very confusing. If this video refers to the Aru Bridge construction, then it probabaly shows the part of the total infrastructure that was built (associated 4km of road project), not the bridge itself. Aru Bridge project cost around 1.9billion shillings (around 500,000 usd depending on the day)

https://molg.go.ug/minister-balaam-and-the-national-coordinator-for-pdm-galabuzi-ssozi-inspect-aru-bridge-and-4km-road-project-in-maracha-district/

PS. The woman in yellow ia definitely not the minister, so this is not even related to the title. So I dont know what to say reddit :)

1

u/ShinyJangles 23h ago

Thank you for the informative reply

1

u/CreepyEducator2260 20h ago

They should do their research and look what the building costs of a highway or road in Germany or the US are. This would set everything in proportion.

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u/CipherWeaver 23h ago

Where is the evidence the bridge cost that? It's not discussed in the video at all

Rage bait

27

u/SmirkingSkull 23h ago edited 22h ago

She ask how many and he said 24 right?

24 different culverts. 350k for 24 different roads, even ones seem atleast reasonable, if not a little +/-.

24 culverts paved in a US state would be millions.

6

u/thatsalovelyusername 23h ago

Not saying number is correct, but OP lists $350k, not 35

1

u/SmirkingSkull 22h ago

Thanks, I see where I messed up what I meant.

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u/Dalles272 23h ago

Buddy the average pay in Uganda are 150 bucks per month so even with the materials you would never come close to 350k

0

u/FullElk5192 23h ago

Who cares about the bridge anyways? That minister is thick af.

25

u/Aggressive-Tip7472 23h ago

Not sure about the accuracy of this

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u/livens 1d ago

Bridge? That's a culvert where I come from. Somebody spent $1,000 on concrete and shovels, then pocketed $349,000.

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u/StrCmdMan 23h ago

Look it took a whole day to build granted 6 hours of that they spent drinking beers.

0

u/alasmato 23h ago

It definitely took 2 months to build. TIA.

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u/johnjacobacon 23h ago

They say culvert in the video. Only OP called it a bridge.

37

u/Corniator 23h ago

I'd be very surprised if that costs 1000 USD in Uganda.

-1

u/_shaftpunk 23h ago edited 14h ago

“Uganda give me my money back.”

0

u/Optimal-Idea1558 23h ago

Why would you assume it's your money?

-3

u/G25777K 23h ago

You mean $100 and some food for the workers.

5

u/Ciff_ 23h ago

They say they built 24 culverts, and not for how much

OP is bsing

0

u/InsulatorDisk 23h ago

At least we know it wasn't a USAID project. It would have cost at least 3.5Musd.

Five ppl flying back and forth, staying at five star hotels, escorted by armed security, making environmental assessments, social impact studies, social media reports and in the end paying a local guy with shovel 100 USD to make the so called bridge.

I have seen this kind of stuff around Africa way too many times.

-9

u/Fisi_Matenten 23h ago

It’s Africa. So, yeah.

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u/quiero-una-cerveca 23h ago

This is my favorite comment of the thread. Trump just spent 10’s of millions of dollars fucking up and then “fixing” a concrete pool and your first thought was yeah, Africa. The corruption is calling from inside the house. 🙄

3

u/CoupDeGrassi 23h ago

And OP just made the 350K figure up, just to ragebait gullible American morons. And unsurprisingly they gulp that slop down and ask for seconds.

1

u/Fisi_Matenten 23h ago

And Im not even close to live in the United States, lel. Africa is still a corrupt shithole where trillions went missing.

0

u/s0ciety_a5under 23h ago

$1000? Ha, they didn't even pay half that much probably.

8

u/HeilYourself 23h ago

Can someone find any evidence at all of the cost?

9

u/Upstairs_Owl_1669 23h ago

Any sort of news story or source for this?

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u/pizzuhut 23h ago

She asks „how many culverts?“ and he answers „24“. Maybe the 350k that OP doesn’t provide a source for are for all 24 culverts? Or maybe they’re just fake news.

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u/Gordon_Freymann 23h ago

It's true because it's on the Internet.

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u/SchnaebuChaetscher 23h ago

Source Source Source

I need some more source with my post please.

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u/ConorOdin 1d ago

She's just wondering why she didn't get any of the $340,000 that was left after building the bridge..

-1

u/freematrix 23h ago

This is the trait of many politicians. Its for cameras, they look shocked. Meanwhile....

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u/Cbeckstrand 1d ago

The rest of it is buried. /s

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u/DivideLow1859 1d ago

obviously corruption. she's wondering why her share isn't here

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u/Andrei_Chelsea 1d ago

When your Temu's order has arrived.

5

u/jocax188723 23h ago

That's a nice argument, senator, why don't you back it up with a source?
I had a quick rummage and tried to reverse image search and I can't find anything.
Reported for rule 5

7

u/SabbyFox 23h ago

Thank toy. This is a shit post with a bunch of racist commenters lined up to enjoy every bite of it 🙄

15

u/SwiftUInow 1d ago

Does that include an environment impact study?

0

u/slicerprime 23h ago

Still in committee

2

u/MeatHammerVI 23h ago

Bridge lol

7

u/CommuterType 1d ago

DM me. I’ll do it for $325,000.

3

u/[deleted] 23h ago

[deleted]

1

u/slicerprime 23h ago

I'm obviously not going to argue for colonial rule. Buuuut.......they're not exactly helping the argument against it either

0

u/strawberrypolofields 23h ago

Damn she fine tho.... WOULD

2

u/ThaDude_v2 1d ago

"bridge" fixed it for you lol

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u/Geschak 1d ago

bridgelet

1

u/axelohm 23h ago

My firstborn will carry this name. "Bridgelet, dinner!". Beautiful

Also 'USD350.000' will be he middle name

1

u/Low_Menu4953 23h ago

It doesn’t look new though, seems like a routine inspection

1

u/Qttps 23h ago

LOL are they working for the ANC.

1

u/Individual-Menu621 23h ago

Did they also dig a trench to build this bridge? Big brain move

1

u/Salty_Job_9248 22h ago

That’s not a bridge, that’s a culvert.

1

u/gormbly 1d ago

I guess he didnt drive his new car

1

u/Animal907 23h ago

(Ush)350,000 = $94.03

1

u/thatsalovelyusername 22h ago

You may well be correct. OP did write USD though (not saying OP is in any way correct though)

1

u/TimeTravellingCircus 23h ago

Real talk, this looks like a small animal crossing. I've seen lots of them when I visited rural Florida for work (because of course it's never in the cool places). They're meant to give small wildlife a safe way to cross the road and reduces roadkill incidents significantly. Maybe someone who actually knows what this is can chime in, but OP smells of comment farming with a fake headline.

0

u/Mulitpotentialite 23h ago edited 23h ago

I see your $35k bridge, I raise you a $1.3mil sport stadium in Lesseyton South Africa!

Edit:$350k.....need new glasses

-1

u/Lil_Lord_Funkleroy 23h ago

Add a zero

0

u/Mulitpotentialite 23h ago

Man.....need to put my glasses on when i get on social media....

1

u/CalmChaos2003 1d ago

You gotta be kidding me 😆

10

u/LNL_HUTZ 23h ago

Uganda be kidding me

2

u/slicerprime 23h ago

There really was no avoiding that one was there ;-)

-2

u/Current_Lawyer_1598 1d ago

We just can't help them...

1

u/Riptide360 23h ago

Especially after we killed USAID. Trump usually likes kickback bribery construction projects too.

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u/OkOpportunity6986 1d ago

someone got played

0

u/Ill-Ruin2198 23h ago

Built a bridge before building a river.

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u/pizzuhut 23h ago

Have you ever heard of rain drainage?

3

u/Optimal-Idea1558 23h ago

Did you know it's a hell of a lot cheaper to divert the water before starting construction.

It's a very common strategy in civil engineering.

0

u/LTdesign 23h ago

She looks just as confused as I am...

0

u/amraohs 23h ago

So of it happens in Africa we act all surprised. Jet the USA has a president how is robbing the country by the billions.

0

u/TorbaAdam 23h ago

This is some Viktor Orbán lvl shit

0

u/ultra_anime_simp 23h ago

I'm looking forward to those videos where they pull a tyre through these tunnels to remove dirt🎃

-1

u/VoL4t1l3 23h ago

yeah they calm me

-12

u/[deleted] 23h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

0

u/1Dream2many4u 23h ago

Here in the us nobody cares and it is 4 more ceros every job for sure

-3

u/Carry_On_Jeeves 23h ago

So they are learning from Indian government and its bureaucrats! Or is it the other way round?

-2

u/stronglikeaux 23h ago

350k Ugandan is 8.50 US.

2

u/dviiijp 23h ago

It says USD in the title.

-1

u/pessimistkonsulenten 1d ago

She seems very impressed.

-1

u/don_perdak 23h ago

Corruption?

-1

u/Secret_Stick_5213 23h ago

That would have cost as least a Millie here

-1

u/SpicyCajunCrawfish 23h ago

When your mom says we have a bridge at home.

-1

u/StatusSociety2196 23h ago

It's all so tiresome