MANILA, Philippines — My beautiful farm on the other side of the world, in England, is blessed with beautiful scenery. It also has a Roman road built more than two thousand years ago by the skilled engineers who accompanied the Roman Army.

Kent was criss-crossed with Roman roads, because it contained the ports which the Romans used to travel and trade to and from Europe. Some still survive as modern roads, but our old road has now disappeared, leaving a leafy valley where the water has carved it away. However, where the road crossed the stream we can still see the ford - stones the Romans laid so that horses and carts could cross the water.

After the Romans left, the English road system collapsed, and people travelled on dirt roads, or more often mud. No one travelled far unless they were forced to.  Apart from the inconvenience, it was also dangerous. Robbers waited for vehicles to be stuck in the mud. Several times people were killed in fights about who had priority on the dry part of the road. Then about three hundred years ago, private toll roads were authorised. One was built in our village, with a decent surface for travel, but the locals did not like paying and continued to use the old winding road. The owners of the toll road responded by blocking off the old road, the locals removed the barrier and a riot developed which left several villagers in jail.

When I was growing up in England, the first expressways, which we call motorways, were opened.  When I visited Los Angeles, I commented to a friend on the traffic jams on the freeways there and said that British motorways seemed to be better. “You foreigners don’t understand,” he replied, “Our freeways used to run smoothly, but the number of cars just expanded to fill up the roads. The same thing will happen to yours.” Sad, but true. We call our circular M25 “the longest traffic jam in the world”.

Here in the Philippines we can find all the types of roads you could wish for. I have had the experience of travelling on dirt roads where you need a four-wheel drive. Some roads in residential areas seem to be deliberately bad to stop people using them for short cuts. I have had a lot of experience of sitting in traffic jams. When I first arrived here, the Philippines could challenge for the title of the world’s best traffic jams, though now, I am happy to say, it has been overtaken by some other countries.

Isn’t it an odd world that we live in?