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.