July 23rd

Just a thought/suggestion:
As I was making passport photos for visa stuff the other day, the TV was on, and so I watched the news. I hadn't watched or read any kind of world news in ages. (I made a conscious effort during my trip to stay away from the biased political negativity of the news). And all there was was news about death, crime, catastrophes...in other words, everything to demotivate populations, showing a world going down, hopeless. So why not commit to dedicating the last 33% of each news cast to places where everything is going well and people are happy and thus ending each newscast with a hopeful note? Do people really need to feel sad when they watch the news or should they have a picture of the reality of the world? The people who want to be change makers and help people in need will not find their inspiration and resources in the news anyway...just a thought. Maybe something I can work on in the future.

I just had an interesting chat with last nights priest about Africa's problem and corruption. He basically agreed that all of Africa was deeply corrupt and that a solution would be for all foreign organizations to stop providing aid to Africa and/or the need to have a Africa spring just like the Arab spring. All the government who refuse to get out should be killed. Literally, killed. His mission near Sikasso was supposed to have a fence built around the big school. Well, their need was to have additional classrooms but the government would not hear it and imposed a fence around the school. The enterprise who was contracted to build the fence and most definitely the mayor of the town are so corrupt that only a couple of meters of fence were built up. And the same happened in four schools apparently. Ufff! We both agreed that the general African population does not have any courage and is just scared of facing and fighting its government. Such a shame, when African populations ate not afraid to flight other ethnicities or even colonizers for their land, but they will be shit scared to fight their own government for a decent economy, for food in their belly, for a job, and for their health. I am not sure whether it is complacency or lack of courage that is the cause of Africa's extreme poverty situation and conscious submission to corruption...perhaps a mix of both.

I was in a supermarket this afternoon because I got caught by the storm (I call it a storm because of how diluvial the rain is here), and as I curiously walked the aisles (I strongly believe that food stores reflect in many ways the culture and economy of a country. And so I observed that almost 100% of the products of the shelves were all imported. Why? Cereals, pasta, rice, biscuits, dairy, vegetables, cans, etc...they could produce so many things locally if the local population were not so lazy. Yes there is a large part who are artisans and earning an honest living, but there is a huge part of the population, at least in the capital, who is just doing nothing...waiting for things to happen and money to fall from the sky. People go to school, the labor is here, plenty of it. The natural resources are here as well and could easily be expanded given the size of the country. Space to build factories is also plenty. I just don't understand. Or perhaps once again, the government is not encouraging local production because it is making so much cash from import taxes. The retail prices of all these  imported good are just ridiculously high. 2, 3 sometimes even 5 times more expensive than in Europe, when the purchasing power per capita is probably around 70 to 100 times lower. So of course all this creates a sort of superficial inflation leading people to get stuck in poverty.

On my way back after the rain stopped I noticed that in several streets there were signs saying that that and that street was paved (not tarred, but paved with slabs of cut stones forming a giant puzzle) thanks to the cooperation between Mali and the European union. Really? Is that what the people needed the most? And isn't tarred road cheaper and stronger than rock paved roads? Hmmm...another unthought action rushed to secure commercial contracts between two countries.

Ah! Today I guess I am just screaming out to the Malians and other Africans to wake up and realize that the poverty they are in today is not because white people are getting richer on their backs but rather and simply because their government are selfish business men who have absolutely no interest in developing the countries they govern, but rather generate as much cash as possible during their term. I say this partly because today on the street, just like some other times in other places between here and Senegal I have watched locals giving me  accusation looks. And today I thought to myself, why not print out tons of flyers listing the millions of euros and dollars given by foreign countries every year to the country and asking how much of it is actually being spent. But most of the people who need to know that can barely even read.

Africa needs its Che Guevara! It clearly hasn't come up yet.

No news from Angelina today, I miss her.

Another thing I was thinking about as I walked back is that my life is quite exciting and I am quite privileged to be who I am, how I am, and where I am. I worked hard for it for years, but still, when I look around the streets of Bamako, I am definitely blessed. So should i even allow myself to have the blues from times to times when I am home sick and miss Angelina to much? I don't know, but I did feel a bit guilty, a bit much actually. Matter for reflection I suppose...