Adventures is Customs Control - Africa Style

A propos of nothing in particular, I need to have a word with those consultants who advise on anti-corruption matters, specifically in customs control.

After a year in captivity in Bishkek, my "stuff" (including my golf clubs) arrived in Dar es Salaam via Istanbul, Frankfurt and Nairobi. Getting at it was another matter. Kenya Airlines never bothered to tell me when they were sending it down and they did so a week ago, thereby giving me the privilege of paying storage charges as the airport. No matter. Then, however, came the exciting half day at the cargo terminal of Nyerere International Airport.

First, don't ever try to do this alone. Select one of the facilitators at the main gate whom you will pay to do all the dirty work. That work means filing more forms than I care to count, photocopying identification, describing the goods and generally running around to get the shipment released. I had three hard working fellows on my side. They ran from Swissport offices to the payment windows and to me (for tax payments, signing documents, providing my passport etc.) and then, after two hours ambled over to the customs warehouse with me in tow to have the shipment "inspected".

I was quietly told that we needed to "take care" of the inspectors (five of them). My reaction was not shock (anti-corruption consultants take note) that bribery was going on here - I just wanted to know how much I needed to "take care" of them. As it turned out, my facilitators had negotiated a good deal. About $50 which I dutifully paid in Tanzanian Shillings. Suddenly, the inspectors dropped whatever other inspection they had not be paid to perform and tore into my shipment. It took ten minutes and, with a flash of papers and a wave, the next to the next final step was done.

It took another 45 minutes to pay for storage, grab a receipt and then run to another person to get the signed release and gate pass all before the entire office shut for the day. So, after all that and paying my facilitators, I was off.

Anti-corruption efforts only work if salaries are reasonable and punishment is certain, swift and decisive. Since none of that exists in Tanzania, at least at customs control, I was more interested in not waiting a week to collect my stuff. Hence, the automatic reaction to "taking care" of the officials. If the facilitation payment had not been made, very little would have transpired. Such is reality.

Back to work.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukka from Tanzania

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

I won't be posting for a week. I'm off on safari to Ruaha National Park for three days, four nights in a tent camp where hopefully there will be lion, giraffe, hippo and wild dogs. A 2+ hour flight on a small plane to central Tanzania. Back on Christmas day. Incidentally, it is over 40c during the day here lately. Almost the same at night.

So - Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah to all.

Tanzanian Corruption & African Fragmentation

Well, this is not good. A considerable fall from 2008. Ranked now at 126 (102 in 2008), Tanzania is only marginally better than most of Africa. However, for the sake of perspective, Somalia is dead last at 180. I guess that's something. Botswana is the best at 37 - only two points below Puerto Rico and 5 below Israel. Maybe I need to work there.

This ranking was published by Transparency International just prior to the speech in Dar es Salaam on November 14 given by Mo Ibriham where "the British-Sudanese mobile phone billionaire said bad leadership, and the fragmentation of the continent into small and economically isolated countries meant that Africa could not survive as it was".

Mo Ibrihim's conclusion, by the way, applies to ethnic separatists in Europe and Asia. Their desire for an independent state - driven by a demonstrable inability to tolerate others based on differences of religion, race, hair style, shoe size or a false sense of superiority or other less palatable reasons on the part of the locally dominant species of ethnic culprits who are equally at fault - leads to economically unsustainable "nations" dependent on the charity of others. Their position of "separate but equal" is more aptly called "separate but poor and stupid".

Work Break Over - Afghanistan Next Post

Image via Wikipedia

OK. I know the post below suggested an immediate start to a couple of entries on Afghanistan. I was completely sidetracked. By work. Hey - it happens.

So the next posts will begin shortly. I need to go sailing first off the coast here in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania to recover from reports and presentations to government officials.

Dar (as in Dar es Salaam)

Image by will likes tea and biscuits via Flickr

Well, finally arrived and up and running in Dar es Salaam (House of Peace). We are going to try and streamline the land tenure system in Tanzania which is under a huge strain despite having arguably the best land code in Africa.

I'm also looking forward to seeing the Serengeti (already tried the beer of the same name) Ngorongoro Crater, the Great Rift Valley, Zanzibar and Kilimanjaro, that is, in between work.

Off to Africa

Break's over.

I will be blogging exclusively from Africa (Ghana and Tanzania) beginning sometime in mid-September. Although I will try to keep my fingers in the FSU and Europe (and sometimes comment on the increasingly bizarre American political discourse melt-down now dominated by gun-toting right wingers), it is likely that I will begin to discuss the foreign assistance picture in Africa.

I have mentioned before that I believe that small scale, private sector assistance may be the better approach in Africa rather than the large scale - and not very cost-effective - USAID, EU and World Bank interventions. However, foreign aid assistance in Africa is not an either/or scenario, but rather one where the two approaches need much more coordination and collaboration. Hopefully, I'll be able to get a better handle on the two approaches during the next year.

In the meantime, blogging will be exceedingly light as I head to the US.