Hello guys. Today, I'm going to Benin's Embassy in Accra to get a single entry visa. In general, visa rules are fairly "lax" (relaxed) in comparison to those of the United States. For example, in order to get to Benin, I'm going to have to drive through Togo. At the Togolese border all I will have to do is pay them $30 and they will allow me to pass by. On the other hand, to get a US visa, you'd need proof of employment, schooling, ties back to your home country. You'd need an address, a significant amount of money, a letter from an employer oh and if you had a criminal record you could forget about a visa.
Tomorrow, I'm going to take a bus ride from Tema to Kumasi, a city which is close to the center of the country. Kumasi is known for its art, its markets, its lake, and probably most importantly Tema is the seat of the Ashanti tribe. The chief of all the tribe has a palace there. A classmate from school is interning in a hospital there and is living with a local family so "I can kill two birds with one stone."
More to come...
By the way...Nante yiye (Farewell).
More will follow...
Monday, August 23, 2010
Sunday, August 22, 2010
The Elegant Pen in Ghana
Hello all,
So for the past week the "Elegant Pen" has been in Ghana. To all of my ESL students at the East Brunswick library and all others, feel free to comment and add your own contributions. As soon as I figure how to make it so everyone can post an entry, I'll email all of you.
Let me give you a quick "rundown" [summary] of all the things that I've learned about Ghana so far:
Ghana is a small country in West Africa, with the countries the Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast in English) to the west and Togo to the east. The capital is Accra, a hustling and bustling city on the coast to the south of the country. Right next to Accra, to th east, is Tema, the center of shipping and industry in Ghana. Accra is a mixture of New York City and Washington DC since it has big business and government and Tema would be like Port Elizabeth in New Jersey. In Elizabeth, millions of containers come in from around the world on ships to be unloaded and put onto trucks. The same happens in Tema.
It just so happens that my grandmother lives in Tema so I'm spending much of my time in that area. As soon as I am able, I will upload photos of my house and the area that way you can have an idea of what everything looks like.
Stay tuned for an update.
So for the past week the "Elegant Pen" has been in Ghana. To all of my ESL students at the East Brunswick library and all others, feel free to comment and add your own contributions. As soon as I figure how to make it so everyone can post an entry, I'll email all of you.
Let me give you a quick "rundown" [summary] of all the things that I've learned about Ghana so far:
Ghana is a small country in West Africa, with the countries the Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast in English) to the west and Togo to the east. The capital is Accra, a hustling and bustling city on the coast to the south of the country. Right next to Accra, to th east, is Tema, the center of shipping and industry in Ghana. Accra is a mixture of New York City and Washington DC since it has big business and government and Tema would be like Port Elizabeth in New Jersey. In Elizabeth, millions of containers come in from around the world on ships to be unloaded and put onto trucks. The same happens in Tema.
It just so happens that my grandmother lives in Tema so I'm spending much of my time in that area. As soon as I am able, I will upload photos of my house and the area that way you can have an idea of what everything looks like.
Stay tuned for an update.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
This is a typical street scene. Because the Congolese Franc is not a stable currency people typically exchange them for USD. The price you see here is 783 francs to the dollar. This is up from 500 7 months ago. Today it hovers around 750. Part of my responsibilities as an intern is researching this phenomenon. I tell Congolese people all the time, money markets in the US is a complicated thing and only a select few do it. In the Congo however, you'll see ordinary citizens with huge thousands of dollars in cash trading currency from the back of the car trunks. The economic term for this is a parallel market, it is neither a black market nor a perfectly "white" market. It is somewhere in between and it operates alongside registered currency exchange dealers. Hyperinflation is a perennial problem in African countries, particularly in the DRC. Under the Mobutu dictatorship the governement started out printing smaller bills with denominations of 1's and 5's and later found themselves having to print out 10,000's and 100,000's. It's interesting to see the evolution of the economic policy through the money that they issued. Rather than tackling, the inflation problem, the governement simply introduced new currencies. In this way there have been at least 4 different currencies in the DRC within a 20 year span.
Friday, June 12, 2009
For those who can read French...this is an entry from another blog that I'm keeping.
à Kinshasa
Bonjour a tous. C'est la première fois que je vous écris. Comme vous savez, je suis en train de faire un stage avec le département d'Etat à Kinshasa, le capital de la République Démocratique du Congo
Je suis arrive Mardi le 19 mai, mais comme je m'occupais des affaires du département pour plus de 45 heures la dernière semaine, je n'avais pas le temps de mettre a jour le blog.
Kinshasa est une ville qu'on ne peut pas facilement décrire. Or, je crois que les mots de mon patron le décrit précisément, "il nous semble le chaos mais en fait il y a un rythme la dedans. C'est-a-dire, quand une voiture conduit directement vers vous en évitant "un pousse-pousse" dans la rue, quand un policier vous arrête en demandant un pot-de-vin et vous l'ignorez sans conséquence, quand les soldats portant les AK47 fument le Marihuana en plein air, il n'y a pas de désordre et on l'accepte. Je dirais c'était un choc mais je savais la situation avant d'arriver. Donc, la solution de toutes les problèmes que cette réalité s'impose est d'avoir confiance que l'autre conducteur sait ce qu'il fait, le policier ne vous battra pas, les armes de soldat ne sont pas chargés. Oui, c'est une situation précaire mais typiquement les suppositions sont vraies.
Malgré tous ce que je viens d'écrire, Kinshasa reste selon moi un joli coin. Mais sa beauté se trouve parmi sa décadence. A l'époque la ville a été moderne -le bijou, du dictateur Mobutu Sese Seko. Maintenant les vestiges de cette grandeur restent. Il y a certains bâtiments, surtout ceux du parlement, de la trésorerie et le tour Zaïre (maintenant abandonné) qui m'intéressent. Leur beauté es abstrait. Je la trouve dans leur histoire, Chaque trou et chaque fêlure me montrent quelque chose fascinante.
Une autre chose qui m'intéresse est la façon on les construit parmi les grandes arbres d'un ancien foret. Il n'est pas hors de commun de trouver un mur ou un bâtiment construit a conte d'un arbre d'un quarantaine de mètres en hauteur. Par contre, il n'existe pas d'arbres de cette haute a Michigan.
J'espère d'avoir les photos pour vous montrer ces faits, malheureusement, il est interdit de prendre les photos en publique. Comme vous comprenez la corruption de la police, il ne serait pas difficile d'aussi comprendre qu'ils n'aient aucuns scrupules en confisquant tous appareil photos qu'ils trouvent. Certes, cela serait une bonne subvention de leurs salaires de $20 par mois.
Je vais vous écrire avec plus de précision au niveau de mon stage.
Yannick
Bonjour a tous. C'est la première fois que je vous écris. Comme vous savez, je suis en train de faire un stage avec le département d'Etat à Kinshasa, le capital de la République Démocratique du Congo
Je suis arrive Mardi le 19 mai, mais comme je m'occupais des affaires du département pour plus de 45 heures la dernière semaine, je n'avais pas le temps de mettre a jour le blog.
Kinshasa est une ville qu'on ne peut pas facilement décrire. Or, je crois que les mots de mon patron le décrit précisément, "il nous semble le chaos mais en fait il y a un rythme la dedans. C'est-a-dire, quand une voiture conduit directement vers vous en évitant "un pousse-pousse" dans la rue, quand un policier vous arrête en demandant un pot-de-vin et vous l'ignorez sans conséquence, quand les soldats portant les AK47 fument le Marihuana en plein air, il n'y a pas de désordre et on l'accepte. Je dirais c'était un choc mais je savais la situation avant d'arriver. Donc, la solution de toutes les problèmes que cette réalité s'impose est d'avoir confiance que l'autre conducteur sait ce qu'il fait, le policier ne vous battra pas, les armes de soldat ne sont pas chargés. Oui, c'est une situation précaire mais typiquement les suppositions sont vraies.
Malgré tous ce que je viens d'écrire, Kinshasa reste selon moi un joli coin. Mais sa beauté se trouve parmi sa décadence. A l'époque la ville a été moderne -le bijou, du dictateur Mobutu Sese Seko. Maintenant les vestiges de cette grandeur restent. Il y a certains bâtiments, surtout ceux du parlement, de la trésorerie et le tour Zaïre (maintenant abandonné) qui m'intéressent. Leur beauté es abstrait. Je la trouve dans leur histoire, Chaque trou et chaque fêlure me montrent quelque chose fascinante.
Une autre chose qui m'intéresse est la façon on les construit parmi les grandes arbres d'un ancien foret. Il n'est pas hors de commun de trouver un mur ou un bâtiment construit a conte d'un arbre d'un quarantaine de mètres en hauteur. Par contre, il n'existe pas d'arbres de cette haute a Michigan.
J'espère d'avoir les photos pour vous montrer ces faits, malheureusement, il est interdit de prendre les photos en publique. Comme vous comprenez la corruption de la police, il ne serait pas difficile d'aussi comprendre qu'ils n'aient aucuns scrupules en confisquant tous appareil photos qu'ils trouvent. Certes, cela serait une bonne subvention de leurs salaires de $20 par mois.
Je vais vous écrire avec plus de précision au niveau de mon stage.
Yannick
Kinshasa by Topic: Business Roundtable
Business Roundtable is a “get-together” at the ambassador’s house of the entire prominent western and Kinshasa based business executives and officers. Right of the bat, as an intern, I was out of palace. However, that impeded me very little. The ambassador’s wife immediately took me by the hand to meet her husband. Rather than wait for a break in the conversation she edged in an introduced me. Because the ambassador took an interest to me, the person to whom he was speaking naturally shook my hand and introduced himself. Eventually he left the conversation, leaving the ambassador and me alone. One minute later, another businessman “butted” into our conversation and so went the natural succession of conversations for the night--harsh, brutal, and short. Such was the nature of business conversations. This happened to me again when an attractive young business woman interrupted me in order to speak with a British business owner.
Approximately one hour into the evening we all met under an awning that covered the ambassador’s porch. We celebrated the accomplishments of one of the embassy’s economics officers who were being transferred to Sydney. During his spur of the moment speech he mentioned something of interest to me. He said, “When I joined the embassy [in Kinshasa], the DRC was ranked the lowest in terms of Business and investment [by the World Bank]. Currently, it is still ranked dead last. So, basically in my two years here, I accomplished really little.” I learned that this statement was “pregnant” with meaning.
The very nature of Foreign Service at least with the US State Department is rooted in the constant displacement of its officers. Specialists serve 3 year duties in areas which they “bid” on. Generalists serve 2 years. Often these officers do not receive their first choices so they find themselves at an “undesirable” post. I believe this happened to this officer. This system also makes it tough for officers to become entrenched in certain regions. I am inclined to believe that the US government wants to maintain complete control of their officers and by shuffling them they insure that blocs or agency loss do not occur. Additionally, the gov. insures that officers have AFM or the military television programming in their apts. In an effort to make sure their officers do not remain detached from developments at home. After watching several minutes of this programming, I realized that it only amounts to poorly concealed propaganda and indoctrination. Perhaps I am being too harsh—all of the public service announcements had the welfare of US soldiers and their families in mind. For example:
1) See your local legal counselor when interested in marrying a national
2) Report fraud
3) Sexual harassment is not tolerated
4) Wear a bicycle helmet
5) Unreported war trophies are not permitted
6) If you stand out to the locals, you’ll stand out to the terrorists
I will dedicate a whole section to this topic at another date.
Another implication of the Officer’s statement was it exhibited the pervading cynicism and pessimism that is common towards the Congo’s conditions. Right after he made this comment, he concluded, “I will be serving in the equally difficult country of Australia.” In Kinshasa, officers often make cracks or digs into the DRC’s corruption and economic/security woes. These beliefs are not unfounded; they are based on the overwhelming evidence that the DRC is in serious trouble. I am just shocked with how open people made comments about not liking working in the DRC. Certainly, it is difficult, walking outside is not something that can be done without taking security into consideration. The bad guys here are not terrorists or Islamic fundamentalists, they are the shegue—gangs of children, they are the police officers and the soldiers who prey on the citizens who they are supposed to protect. They are the government ministers who impede progress by seeking bribes. Most of all, the enemy is the whole culture of corruption propagated by more than a half century of Belgian colonization, power and control tactics. There is only so much that public policy can do to fix the problem of the DRC. The rest is up to God and this is soooo readily apparent.
The night dwindled to a small relaxed conversation between the Deputy Chief of Mission, his wife, the ambassador, his wife and several other counselors. The focus of the conversation once again came onto me and they discovered that my internship was unpaid. The ambassador’s wife then proceeded to her pantry to gather several food items for me. I later discovered that she gave me a lot of expired food but this is unavoidable in the DRC. When we were all already to leave, I spoke to the ambassador again. He astonished me with this insight into the DRC. His opinion of the presidency was also shockingly forgiving. President Kabila won the national election with only the support of the east of the country. Kinshasa however is in the west and understandably, he comes under a lot of scrutiny. The ambassador believes that Kabila is a young and sharp ruler placed in tremendous situations. I mentioned that I heard that he was a recluse (he rarely is seen in public and hardly ever gives interviews). Surprisingly, the ambassador disagreed. He acknowledged that the president is not as open as he should be but he countered, “This does not mean that the president is disengaged, he just has a different style of running a country.” Of course, this is in contrast with the US where presidents often are covered in the Media as celebrities.
And with that, my night concluded.
Approximately one hour into the evening we all met under an awning that covered the ambassador’s porch. We celebrated the accomplishments of one of the embassy’s economics officers who were being transferred to Sydney. During his spur of the moment speech he mentioned something of interest to me. He said, “When I joined the embassy [in Kinshasa], the DRC was ranked the lowest in terms of Business and investment [by the World Bank]. Currently, it is still ranked dead last. So, basically in my two years here, I accomplished really little.” I learned that this statement was “pregnant” with meaning.
The very nature of Foreign Service at least with the US State Department is rooted in the constant displacement of its officers. Specialists serve 3 year duties in areas which they “bid” on. Generalists serve 2 years. Often these officers do not receive their first choices so they find themselves at an “undesirable” post. I believe this happened to this officer. This system also makes it tough for officers to become entrenched in certain regions. I am inclined to believe that the US government wants to maintain complete control of their officers and by shuffling them they insure that blocs or agency loss do not occur. Additionally, the gov. insures that officers have AFM or the military television programming in their apts. In an effort to make sure their officers do not remain detached from developments at home. After watching several minutes of this programming, I realized that it only amounts to poorly concealed propaganda and indoctrination. Perhaps I am being too harsh—all of the public service announcements had the welfare of US soldiers and their families in mind. For example:
1) See your local legal counselor when interested in marrying a national
2) Report fraud
3) Sexual harassment is not tolerated
4) Wear a bicycle helmet
5) Unreported war trophies are not permitted
6) If you stand out to the locals, you’ll stand out to the terrorists
I will dedicate a whole section to this topic at another date.
Another implication of the Officer’s statement was it exhibited the pervading cynicism and pessimism that is common towards the Congo’s conditions. Right after he made this comment, he concluded, “I will be serving in the equally difficult country of Australia.” In Kinshasa, officers often make cracks or digs into the DRC’s corruption and economic/security woes. These beliefs are not unfounded; they are based on the overwhelming evidence that the DRC is in serious trouble. I am just shocked with how open people made comments about not liking working in the DRC. Certainly, it is difficult, walking outside is not something that can be done without taking security into consideration. The bad guys here are not terrorists or Islamic fundamentalists, they are the shegue—gangs of children, they are the police officers and the soldiers who prey on the citizens who they are supposed to protect. They are the government ministers who impede progress by seeking bribes. Most of all, the enemy is the whole culture of corruption propagated by more than a half century of Belgian colonization, power and control tactics. There is only so much that public policy can do to fix the problem of the DRC. The rest is up to God and this is soooo readily apparent.
The night dwindled to a small relaxed conversation between the Deputy Chief of Mission, his wife, the ambassador, his wife and several other counselors. The focus of the conversation once again came onto me and they discovered that my internship was unpaid. The ambassador’s wife then proceeded to her pantry to gather several food items for me. I later discovered that she gave me a lot of expired food but this is unavoidable in the DRC. When we were all already to leave, I spoke to the ambassador again. He astonished me with this insight into the DRC. His opinion of the presidency was also shockingly forgiving. President Kabila won the national election with only the support of the east of the country. Kinshasa however is in the west and understandably, he comes under a lot of scrutiny. The ambassador believes that Kabila is a young and sharp ruler placed in tremendous situations. I mentioned that I heard that he was a recluse (he rarely is seen in public and hardly ever gives interviews). Surprisingly, the ambassador disagreed. He acknowledged that the president is not as open as he should be but he countered, “This does not mean that the president is disengaged, he just has a different style of running a country.” Of course, this is in contrast with the US where presidents often are covered in the Media as celebrities.
And with that, my night concluded.
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