Then and Now

Imagine my delight when I came across this "Beverly Hills, 90210 Stars: Where Are They Now?" website. It's inexcusably biased toward actors that appeared in the later episodes, but there are some interesting bits of information in there, like this tidbit from Jamie Walters who used to play Ray Pruit (Pruit with only one 't' because that's all his mama could afford):

"People do get mad at you. I didn't throw Donna down the stairs, but my character did. I kept having to remind people of that," said Walters, who's now a firefighter in Los Angeles.

And what could be more appropriate than Cindy Walsh becoming a licensed therapist?

Speaking of "where are they now?" stories, I was a little surprised to read in this article that Eminem is now over 200 pounds, hasn't left the house much in 18 months, and is usually in bed by 9pm.

Ghana CAN 2008

Anybody remotely interested in soccer should be following the Africa Cup of Nations, which is in Ghana this year (official site here, Wikipedia site here). Obviously I'm pulling for the Elephants of Cote d'Ivoire, who had a big victory in their first match against Nigeria. The other matches I've been able to watch so far have all been pretty good, but what was up with Egypt just killing a supposedly good Cameroon?

Joy Ride

Like most people who can afford it here, I have a guy who I pay to come to my house a few times a week to clean the house and wash my clothes. I'm pretty hopeless when it comes to washing clothes by hand and it's pretty hard to keep things clean with all the dust in the air. (It hasn't rained a drop since early September and now we're in the windy season.) It's a pretty convenient arrangement and it's an opportunity to pay someone for doing valuable work in a country where there are tons of people with no money and no way to earn any. His name is Issaka and he's been very reliable ever since I hired him back in September. You hear a lot of stories of people having trouble with their domestic workers, but it's typically pretty minor stuff--a suspicion that the sugar is running out more quickly than it should be, a missing bottle of coke, some small change disappearing from a countertop, that sort of thing. I never had any problems like this, and because Issaka came through the recommendation of somebody I know pretty well I didn't worry much about it.

Much to my surprise and confusion, I got a call from Issaka last Thursday saying that my car had gotten in an accident. I assumed he meant that somebody had hit or scratched my car where it was parked at my house, but it quickly became clear that he was talking about an accident somewhere in town. Apparently, he had found my duplicate key and decided to impress his girlfriend by taking her in my car to a baptism (baptisms are big social events here). The accident was clearly Issaka's fault and he was pretty lucky that the other car (a military officer and his chauffeur) managed to swerve enough to reduce the impact of the collision, so nobody was hurt. And it turned out--to my surprise--that he actually has a license, so they didn't arrest him on the spot. In all it's going to cost me about $200 to fix the car (my insurance covered the damage to the other car, but not mine), plus the inconvenience of sending my car to the repair shop for a few days and the hassle of spending half a day at the police station, which of course included paying a $10 bribe for the "gas" required for the police to go from the station to the scene of the accident. Issaka doesn't have any money so clearly he can't pay for the damage. And I'm not particularly interested in holding him in some kind of indentured servitude until he's worked off his debt, as a few people have suggested. The police told me I could press charges against him, which would virtually assure that he would go to prison, but that seems unnecessarily harsh. (Take a moment to imagine prison conditions in a country where a sizable chunk of the "free" population won't have enough to eat in any given year.) I told Issaka I couldn't trust him to work in my house anymore and he actually managed to make me feel guilty for firing him. He doesn't seem to understand that the accident itself is less of a problem than the fact that he took my car and he keeps pleading with me that losing his job would be a huge shame for him, his brother (who recommended him to me), and his whole family.

One of the most unfortunate aspects of incident like this is how people use it to reinforce a lot of ugly notions. Issaka is a Tuareg, a minority ethnic group, so most of the Nigeriens I know have reacted to my story with some version of "these Tuaregs, they're all thieves and they never do any honest work". A lot of ex-pats have offered the "these people! You can never trust them" advice. Even Issaka's brother Ismael, when he came to apologize and thank me for not pressing charges, made me pretty uncomfortable talking about how Issaka's problem is that he just doesn't know how to behave according to his own position ("we poor Africans shouldn't get ideas about living like white people"). It's also frustrating because I always try to avoid taking the condescending and suspicious attitude toward Nigeriens that I see in a lot of my friends and colleagues, but an incident like this is a pretty vivid reminder that there are a lot of people here who, given the opportunity, will take advantage of your trust. Some of my friends have suggested, not unreasonably, that because I treated Issaka like a friend and an equal instead of as an inferior, he probably figured it wouldn't cost him his job if I found out that he took my car (not counting on the accident).

I went to check on the car on Saturday and it was an amusing site. It's in the courtyard of the mechanic's house, propped it on its side at about a 45 degree angle. I was supposed to get it back yesterday, but the mechanic wasn't finished. He told me he was done with everything except the paint. He couldn't paint yesterday because it was too windy and dust would have gotten in the paint. I ought to be able to pick it up this evening, insha'Allah.

"Looks Like an Airline Logo"

This website has an outstanding "study" rating the flags of the world purely on aesthetics. Each flag gets a letter grade and a 0-100 score, with some good commentary thrown in as well. It's also worth taking a few minutes to appreciate the methodology.

Personally I can't see why Libya received such a high score. And speaking of Libya, have I mentioned that Muammar Gaddafi is my landlord?

(Apologies to Kenzie for singling out the Marshall Islands flag. But honestly, that was the best they could do?)

Kenya Musings

The situation in Kenya these days is very sad. It's hard for me to watch what's going on there without being reminded of what it felt like to be in Cote d'Ivoire in 2002. Not that the details of today's situation have much in common with the Ivoirian conflict, but both situations offer the spectacle of relatively prosperous, stable, and peaceful African countries falling into widespread violence and chaos literally overnight.

On a more encouraging note, though, I thought this piece in the Wall Street Journal made a good point.

"This is Africa," many people have told me, Africans and non-Africans. But what they overlook is that this nation blew up so much precisely because Africa is changing. Ten years ago, bolstering a candidate's results by a few percentage points would have been no big thing. In fact, 20 years ago, an 85% result for the incumbent would have been de rigueur. Today, there are more stringent regulations; more Kenyans know their rights; more monitors were at the polls; Kenya's media coverage was extensive; digital media are accelerating the distribution of information; and many people have cellphones with which they can pass on information.

Stealing an election is no longer that easy, and as we can see, you may not like the reaction. Rig at your own peril.

It's easy to be discouraged and horrified by some of the news coming out of Kenya, but the hasty comparisons to Somalia, Rwanda, and yes, Cote d'Ivoire, probably obscure much more than they elucidate.

Finally, I'm always irritated by the use of the word "tribal" in the coverage of African conflicts. I don't recall ethnically organized violence in the Balkans ever being described as tribal. And besides, ethnic, linguistic, and historical divisions between groups have always been fault lines for violent conflict. It seems like the only reason we don't describe, say, World War I as tribal is because the parties to that conflict had the opportunity to define and organize themselves as nations.

Happy 2008!

The other day my sister and I went to see west Africa's last herd of wild giraffes. I had seen them a few times already--I've driven through the area a number of times and sometimes the giraffes are right on the road--but never quite like this. My car can't really handle driving off-road, so we parked some distance away and approached the giraffes on foot. We soon found ourselves in the middle of a group of thirteen giraffes who barely seemed to notice when we approached to within 50 to 100 feet of them. We spent maybe an hour or so watching them browse from tree to tree.

My sister left at about 2:30 this morning and today I'm back at work for the first time in what feels like ages. Christmas and New Year's were pretty low-key events, but we had a good time. Her visit gave me a good excuse to do some of the more touristy things around here that I hadn't done yet, including a couple day trips, a few days of camping in a national park, and a demonstration of Nigerien traditional wrestling. We managed to do quite a bit during the two weeks she was here and I was sad to see her go.

The Holiday Season

Once again I've fallen into bloggy laziness and haven't posted much lately. Here's the Cliffs Notes version of the past few weeks of my life.

After a long process of deliberating, browsing, and bargaining, I bought a car a couple weeks ago. Dealing with the paperwork, bureaucracy, and some of the personalities involved in this process was (and continues to be) frustrating, but the car gives me a lot more freedom and has so far been well worth the effort. My first weekend with the car I got pulled over (not for doing anything wrong, mind you) by the police and didn't have a shred of the necessary paperwork in the car with me: no drivers license, no registration, no proof of insurance or ownership. They harassed me for about 20 minutes or so but let me go after it became clear that I was in no rush and was willing to go to the police station with them to pay the actual fines rather than offer them something to let me go.

Last week I went to a conference on food tree species in Cotonou, Benin. The conference included a couple interesting and valuable (for me) presentations, but I wish I had had more time to see a little bit more of Cotonou. In any case, it was nice to have a brief change in scenery and food.

The holiday of Tabaski (a.k.a Eid ul-Adha, the Muslim festival of the sacrifice) occurs this week, along with Niger's "Republic Day", so we have most of the week off. Also, my little sister is coming to visit me so I'm planning to take all of next week off. One likely result of all this time off is that I probably won't be doing much blogging, although I'll try to post once and a while if I can. Maybe I can even convince my sister to contribute a little guest blogging.

Vendredi at Volume 5

The majority of my favorite African music comes from Mali, although I have no idea why this is the case. Although this song and video are about Senegal, the artists are Malian. They're a married couple named Amadou et Mariam, both of whom are blind. Some people may recognize in this song the influence of Manu Chao, who produced the album on which this song appeared: Dimanche a Bamako.

Vendredi at Volume 5

Because of travel and other work related headaches I didn't get a chance to post last week's installment of Vendredi at Volume 5. I'm terribly sorry to have deprived you of the pleasure. I'll try to get back to regular posting sometime soon, but in the meantime here's this week's clip. This video is of higher quality than I'd usually like to post. It looks like they may have hired an actual film crew with adequate equipment rather than just placed a video camera on a tripod, which is my preferred method of shooting a video in the third world. Anyway, this song is huge right now. You hear it several times per night in the dance clubs here. Other than the fact that it's Ivoirian I don't know much about the song or the singer.

Hope everybody had a happy thanksgiving!

Traveling Again

You may have noticed that I've been posting here a lot more frequently lately. Partly that's been because I've made a conscious effort to spend more time on the blog, partly it's because I've been able to post from home because a friend went on a trip and lent me his wireless modem. The lack of internet at home isn't really an excuse, though, since I always have the option of writing something at home and then posting it from work the next day. So we'll chalk it up to effort.

I'm traveling again to Maradi tomorrow and I'll be there all week. I expect to be pretty busy so I doubt I'll be doing much blogging, but I'll try to resume my current rate of posting when I get back next week.

Also, I wanted to give a belated congratulatory shout-out to my little sister who ran and finished the New York Marathon last weekend. Proud of ya, kid!

A Tale of Two Bridges

The city of Niamey sprawls over the Niger river but only has one bridge, the Kennedy Bridge, built by Americans and completed in 1970. Sometimes it's best to keep your eyes closed when crossing it, as it's only one narrow lane in each direction and vehicles are always swerving back and forth between the lanes to negotiate the obstacle course of pedestrians, bikes, motorcycles, carts, cattle, goats, and camels. When accidents happen, which they do fairly regularly, you usually have to cancel any plans you may have made to do something on the other side of the river since traffic comes to a standstill on one the city's busiest arteries and it always takes hours to clean things up.

This week they officially broke ground on a second bridge, which will have two lanes in each direction and will divert most of the traffic that is just passing through Niamey en route to (or from) Burkina Faso, which currently has to go through the center of town. It's hard to imagine that the new bridge won't be hugely beneficial in terms of improving the flow and safety of local traffic.

One interesting detail is that a Chinese company is responsible for constructing the new bridge. If you follow African news, you know that an important subplot to contemporary African development is the role of the Chinese. Chinese firms are doing good business all over Africa these days, and there's a lot of angst among Western leaders (and especially the former colonial powers) about the growing Chinese influence in the region. In addition to this bridge, I've heard that the Chinese have become big players in Niger's uranium industry as well. I suppose if you're somebody who's concerned that the rise of China poses a threat to American influence in the world you'd have trouble finding a more potent symbol than the big, shiny new (yet unnamed) Chinese bridge diverting traffic from the decrepit inadequate old Kennedy Bridge.

Vendredi at Volume 5

Sometimes it's hard not to get carried away with posting videos on your blog. I feel like I've exercised a lot of restraint up to this point, but no more! Today I'm officially announcing a new Angler's Rest feature, Vendredi at Volume 5. Volume 5 was the name of a watering hole in Madagascar where clients were treated to an inexhaustible supply of the local (and some international) music videos. From now on, Friday will be my designated day for posting the songs and videos I'm just dying to share.

The inaugural installment features a good friend from Madagascar, Lien Bouessa. A single blog post couldn't do justice to what a great guy this is. Really talented, smart, thoughtful, and always the life of the party. This video is full of people and places I knew well.

LIEN BOUESSA tsy tiambady
Uploaded by cynthia_974

It's Tough Out There

I think a lot of people I know will find something to identify with in this article. Here's a taste:

Armed with a Georgetown University diploma, Beth Hanley embarked in her 20s on a path hoping to become a professional world-saver. First she worked at nonprofit Bread for the World. Then she taught middle school English in central Africa with the Peace Corps. Finally, to certify her idealism, she graduated last spring with a master's degree in international relations from Johns Hopkins University.

But now the 29-year-old faces a predicament shared by many young strivers in Washington's public interest field. After years of amassing so many achievements, they struggle to find full-time employment with decent pay and realize they might not get exactly what they set out for. Hanley, a think tank temp who dreams of aiding the impoverished and reducing gender discrimination in developing countries, is stuck.

Keepin' it Real

I usually don't have a lot of patience for people who get rabid about how the "original" or "authentic" version of some song/book/movie/TV show is so superior to the popular version of the same. But every time I listen to this song I wonder what's wrong with the world. How can the vapid American knock-off be the version everybody knows and recognizes? It's not just that this version is so obviously better. It's actually offensive that somebody would think so little of an audience as to assume that turning this song into an radio-friendly jingle constitutes some kind of improvement.

P.S. Isn't YouTube amazing?

Babies for Sale

Strange stories like this one about nefarious plots by Europeans and Americans to adopt African children seem to surface from time to time even when Madonna's not involved. It's hard to know what to make of them. Obviously--and for good reason--everybody seems to be concerned about the possibility that this "charity" is actually involved in supplying vulnerable children to pedophiles or others involved in the trafficking of sex-slaves. But honestly I'm not sure which possibility is worse, that a shady ring of bandits got caught in a modern day slave raid, or that a bunch of well intentioned people hoping to rescue orphans from the Darfur genocide inadvertently kidnapped 91 children from their parents.

One detail I liked about this article is that it's not too often you see the president of a country on television engaging in this kind of exchange:

One of the Spanish pilots, still in his gold-brocaded uniform, can be seen in television footage telling the president of Chad, Idriss Deby, that he and his crew are innocent. "We are Spaniards!" he says.

But the president responds: "You are part of a pedophile ring!"

I'm no great admirer of George Bush, but I'd love to see him on TV chastising, say, Rudy Giuliani, who actually does keep a known child molester on his campaign staff.

Live in Concert

As a follow-up to the last post, I'm posting some video of Lucky Dube in concert. Last I read they had caught four people suspected of being involved in the murder.

Lucky Dube

For me the music of South African reggae sensation Lucky Dube will always be bathed in the nostalgia of hearing those songs over and over again in dirty, sweaty night clubs in Madagascar. He was pretty famous as far as African musicians go, but it was still a bit of a surprise to see that The Economist ran an obituary for him after he was murdered last week in a car theft. It had never really occurred to me until reading the obit how many of those songs were written when the apartheid regime was still running South Africa. They're much more provocative when you think of them that way. For some reason it always seem easy to forget that apartheid wasn't really that long ago. Neither, for that matter, was colonialism.

Incidentally, I've recently read two really good book on African history: John Reader's Africa: A Biography of the Continent and Martin Meredith's The Fate of Africa. Both were excellent, although I'd say Reader was especially outstanding.

I Hate the Bank

I've never heard of a good bank in Africa. Generally they're just varying degrees of awful. But I think I got a little bit spoiled by my regional bank in Madagascar, which was by far the least painful banking experience I've had in the developing world. No doubt that was in part because the director of that bank was a great guy and a friend, not to mention a lookalike of the "Bald Bull" character from the old Nintendo game, Mike Tyson's Punch-Out (which was later renamed Super Punch-Out after Nintendo apparently decided they didn't want to associate their product with a convicted rapist and lunatic). We'll just call him Maurice.

When I got here I was optimistic that my banking success would continue. The bank I was instructed to use here, Bank of Africa (BOA), was after all the same one I used in Madagascar. But whatever magic Maurice used to turn the tiny Fenerive-Est branch of BOA into a little slice of financial heaven is clearly missing from the Niamey behemoth of the same name. In almost three months I've probably been there 10 times now. Not once have I exited having accomplished everything I went in for. Every time I end up wandering down hallways knocking on unmarked doors asking for Madame So-and-So who's the one who's supposed to help me. Upon reaching Madame So-and-So, usually I don't get halfway through explaining my request before I'm redirected to Monsieur Such-and-Such. This usually goes on for an hour or so before they decide they've had their fun and they tell me to come back another day.

Today I found out that the application I filled out for a bank card on my very first visit back in mid-August (which would mercifully allow me to do at least some of my business through a machine rather than going inside and dealing with Mr. and Mrs. Whatever) had never been received, which is kind of funny because I filled it out right there at the counter. I don't think it got lost between my hand and the hand of the teller who took it from me. So I filled out another application and Madame happily assured me that this time they'd be sure to process it. I ought to be receiving my card in "one or two months".

DoTS

I know I've mentioned the movie Death of Two Sons to a lot of people over the past few years, and I'm about to mention it again. This is a documentary directed by a guy I went to high school with who was a Peace Corps volunteer in Guinea and produced by a guy who was a volunteer I overlapped with for just a few months in Cote d'Ivoire. It's about the notorious shooting of African immigrant Amadou Diallo by New York City police officers and the lesser known death almost exactly a year later of Jesse Thyne, the Peace Corps volunteer who lived with Diallo's family in a village in Guinea.

They're releasing the movie on DVD on October 30th, which you can buy through their website or on Amazon. It's also available on Netflix, so I'd encourage you to add it to your queue.

Update. You can read a short review of the movie from Variety Magazine here.

No, I haven't Forgotten about the Blog

Things have really picked up over the last month or so. I've been doing a lot of traveling and spending a lot of time putting a plan together for what I'm going to do over the next year and a half and how I'm going to do it. A lot of things are still up in the air, but I finally feel like I'm really getting some momentum and clarity about what I need to be spending my time on.

It looks like a big part of my project here is going to involve carrying out a survey of rural farmers. I'm sure the Sanford folks out there will envy my opportunity to return to the always fascinating questions of survey design, sampling strategy, weighting, dealing with bias, and all the other pressing concerns we dealt with under the watchful eye of P. Cook. Hopefully those lessons will be applicable to surveys that aren't about gun ownership.

In other news, Ramadan ended last week. The big thing about the end of Ramadan is that everybody has to buy new fancy clothes. Of course everybody is buying their new fancy clothes at the same time, so they all end up paying twice as much as they would have paid if they had bought them a month earlier or later. I've tried having this discussion with several people, but it never goes anywhere. Anyway, the city seems noticeably more lively now that Ramadan's over and people are all smiles strutting about in their fancy new robes and boubous.