"A man and a morass" - a must-read on Nigeria

A great Economist article on Nigeria, the recent elections, and the hope and hurdles facing Nigeria.  A taste:

Many frustrated businessmen—some unpaid for years—think the situation is hopeless. Yet Nigeria’s recent past suggests that small changes can bring vast benefits. The appointment of Attahiru Jega as head of the election commission last year produced the first credible poll in a generation. Telecoms privatisation has reduced phone prices by 99%.

Nigeria is reformable, but it needs the right sort of leader. Its presidency is more powerful than its American equivalent. Favours are bestowed and punishments meted out by “the man in the villa”, as some Nigerians call the occupant of the presidential palace. But he must assert himself over advisers, ministers and godfathers—the visiting regional bosses who lobby him. Many supported Mr Jonathan, who was formerly vice-president, during his 12-month interim presidency after his predecessor, Umaru Yar’Adua, died in office. Now they expect payback. IOUs will be cashed. This is the point where every civil-service reform in the past has failed.

We Love(?) The King

In Swaziland, just like in Thailand, every establishment has a picture of
the king. In Swaziland it is accompanied by a wife of the king's mother.
That may seem odd until you realize he has ~12 wives, so maybe it makes
sense to honor the one from the previous batch of queens that birthed the
king. There's got to be enough catfighting among them without someone
getting their picture everywhere.

There was recently unrest in Swaziland as people protested the last
absolute monarchy in Africa. When I asked several Swazis, however, they
were fine with him and happy with Swaziland.

I have to agree with their points. It is very underdeveloped (cows
wandering through petrol stations in one place), but it has a definite
natural beauty.

I went rafting in Swaziland and it was the first time I had to dodge cows
while going down a river. We were in the middle of nowhere, and children
along the bank were always curious. One bunch called us to "Come! Come!"
like tiny Sirens.

Happy Africa day!

Happy Africa day today: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Africa_Day

Hair today, gone tomorrow

On my last project I almost didn’t recognize my black colleague when she showed up on Monday of the second week. The week prior she had short, straight hair that was slightly puffy around her head. The next week she had tight braids down her back. Many African ladies use wigs or hair extensions, so there is no telling what you’ll see from one week to the next. Guys can go close-shaven/bald, and there are a decent number of women who do, too. For the rest, the standards of beauty are not kind to natural hair.

A stall in Mozambique selling all kinds of hair.

History carved into the earth, and money carved out of it

I have a bunch of notes that I haven’t turned into posts; this is one of them.

You can see signs of South Africa’s mining history if you travel around Joburg at all. Remember that Joburg wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for mines – it is the largest city in the world not on a river or body of water. As you fly in over the city you can see scarred circles in the earth that are defunct mines; Joburg has generally built itself around them, and the effect of modern homes next to what looks like a festering wound in the earth is a bit jarring. As technology has improved it has sometimes become economically viable to re-process the waste, so some of the man-made hills are now disappearing again.

Camelthorn tree.  For perspective, the larger thorns are as long as my finger.

Driving to the mine I worked at in Northern Cape is impressive. It doesn’t look that big from a distance, but as you approach you realize that it’s the proportions (long and low) that make it seem smaller, not the actual size. A massive berm rises above flat grasslands and stunted trees. I’m probably misjudging this, but I would guess the berm – the waste excavated from the pit – is likely ~150 ft tall. While that is big for a mound of dirt that stretches the entire pit circumference (possibly 30 km), even more impressive is the view from the edge as you look inside. The pit walls are built up as the pit is excavated down. Cresting the hill for the first time and looking down inside is like discovering an underground world that has been exposed. Bakkies (pickup trucks) look like ants; the industrial dump trucks look like the Hot Wheels-sized versions of themselves. That’s saying something when each truck can haul >250 tons and is larger along every axis than a portable home.

These dump trucks have electrical contacts so they can use electric motors to supplement the diesel engine going uphill; engineers will appreciate the extra (and efficient) power this provides at low speeds.

"Culture" meets culture at the opera

I went to hear the opera Carmen the other day. I went mostly for Bizet’s music, and I decided I like the music sans opera better. The lady who played Carmen was American, and while I thought she was decent, my group universally agreed that the black South African who played Micaela was much better.

The opera is typically considered “high culture,” and in this case it was mixed with a good dose of SA culture: during intermissions you could get a wors in a bun (local sausage in a hot dog bun) and biltong (SA version of jerky). That might be the equivalent of a U.S. opera selling popcorn and Mike & Ikes.

I’m going to miss this place.

Today I was doing one of my favorite things: reading on my balcony. This past week I started the machinations to move back, and it’s starting to set in – and a strong part of me is digging in its heels.

My balcony might be an odd place to contemplate SA. I can find a balcony anywhere. The only distinctively SA things I can see are the three braai pits in the common area and a few hadeda ibis. (I can also definitely hear the hadedas...) Not only that, but the SA I see out my balcony is wealthy Sandton, which is a far cry from a lot of SA.

Winter sunset off my balcony; the shot into the sunset washes out both the vibrant orange and the trees' autumn canopy.

A word you hear in SA all the time is “vibe.” Everyone in SA is looking for a “vibey” place, or asking about the “vibe” at work, home, party, city. It was initially something I noted and moved past – it’s not concrete, it varies based on what a person is looking for, and is fleeting. Where does it come from? What does it represent?

However, I have come to appreciate it.

I’m going to miss the “vibe” here. I started to parse out the sources of that vibe for me as I am wont to do, but I decided that’s for me to know and for you to come discover.

Bright idea

Ever thought there was a spot behind a big truck only to discover there was
a Smart car parked there? The Johannesburg airport parking has a great
system: above each spot is a sensor with a red or green light to signal
whether there is a car in that bay. Simply hone in on a green light and
you're found a spot.

I like to travel

"The difference between travel and tourism is simple.  A tourist experiences disconnected sights and sounds and enjoys them without drawing meaning.  A traveler roams the earth, digests what he sees and hears, and collects them in a framework of understanding, which he both brings to his travels and deepens with travels.  The former is a pleasant interlude in life.  The latter is about life itself." -George Friedman of STRATFOR

"Geez, I'm only married to her!"

I mentioned once before that about every month there is some big corruption story in SA.  This month it comes courtesy of the wife of the Minister of State Security, whose wife was convicted of running a drug smuggling ring.  Oh, and Minister Cwele was previously the chair of the Standing Committee on Intelligence.

Of course, he claims he had no idea what his wife would be doing.  But if he couldn't figure out what his wife was doing during his time as head of intelligence, does anyone really want him heading up State Security?

One of the two people carrying drugs for her was caught and is in a Brazilian jail where she is allowed two phone calls per year.  I'm pretty sure Mrs. Cwele won't be too deprived in jail.

In other news, Malema is the firebrand as usual.  At a rally with President Zuma he had some choice words for white "criminals" and DA "monkeys" and called for nationalization.  While people expect this of Malema, the more telling point is that Zuma did not rebut this in his speech immediately after and that he leans on Malema to energize his voting base.

SA's loud silence on bin Laden's death

The Atlantic has a very good article on SA's negative reaction to bin Laden's death this week.  I highly recommend reading it for background on SA's foreign policy.

An excerpt:
"The ANC's position on bin Laden's demise is illustrative of a disturbing trend: South Africa's transformation, under its tutelage, into an increasingly anti-Western power. Supported by the Soviet Union during the Cold War, the ANC's alliance with the communist bloc was more than just a tactical alignment for an exiled, decimated, and desperate liberation movement. Most of the ANC's senior leaders during the apartheid years were simultaneously members of the South African Communist Party, and today, the ANC governs the country as part of a formal "Tripartite Alliance" with the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and the South African Communist Party (SACP). Thanks to its intellectual kinship with Marxism-Leninism, decades-long working alliance with such thugs and terrorist movements like Muammer Qadaffi and the PLO, and lingering resentment towards Western governments for not taking a harder line against the apartheid government, the ANC elite has never gotten over its deep suspicion of the West in general and America in particular. Coloring all this is the continuing legacy of apartheid, which has made the party's intellectual elite hostile toward anything that carries even a hint of "colonialism" about it."

On a related note, the front-page headline in The Star, an SA paper, the day after the death was that OBL was unarmed.  This turned out to be true and confirmed by the White House, but at the time the only source of that was a statement from one of OBL's wives.  That they would take that statement and state it as fact on a headline despite the (then) contradictory message from the people actually involved said something to me.

When your infrastructure assumes service delivery failure

Many places have parallel power plugs as shown. The red plugs go through a
device that ensures "clean" power (no frequency/voltage fluctuations).
These are built because SA has struggled with power; it had load-shedding
in 2008 (basically pre-announced rolling blackouts) and it currently runs
on 1/2 the recommended reserve margin, meaning it has very little spare
capacity. The assumed poor ability of parastatals to consistently deliver
basic services means extra costs to people.

In another example, guess what MTN's (big cell phone company) biggest
expense is in Nigeria? Diesel. It has to have a diesel generator next to
every cell tower because of the total lack of consistent power, so it has a
network of trucks to refuel the generators daily. AT&T Mobile has probably
never thought about its diesel consumption.

Mindset shifts

Actual conversation yesterday with a South African that pointed out to
me another fundamental difference in life that drives different
operating assumptions.

Them: "I wonder if police purposefully time roadblocks for paydays or
if they just seem like that."
Me: "why?  So they know everyone has money and they can get more
bribes?" [See, I'm learning!]
Them: "No, because everyone goes out and gets drunk!"

There were a lot of similar things I encountered on a previous project
that introduced me to what it really means to live paycheck to
paycheck -- and peoples' counterintuitive (or at least irresponsible)
behaviors.