Thursday, January 29, 2009

Bumsters or Bombs! A debate

Thursday,5th February, 2009

Just back from The Gambia Business Forum at the Kairaba Beach Hotel. Today's guest speaker was Aliou Secka - the Chairman of The Gambia Hotel Owners Association - who spoke on Tourism matters concering The Gambia.

A little country of 1.4 million people. I did find it very refreshing that the topics of discussion were on improvement of standards, the declining tourists, ways to improve arrivals including offering an all inclusive package, etc. However one important and pertinent point discussed was the so called 'menace' of 'bumsters' - a colloquially inheritted name for young Gambian boys who try to befriend tourists with the hope of being favoured by them - and eventually becoming guarantors of a passage to Europe. While this may be seen by many as an irritant - what strikes me in todays world is that in other tourist destinations, tourists are worried about the security, attacks, safety while walking the streets. Mugger, murderer, organ thief, con-man are the thoughts that pass through my head when a stranger approaches elsewhere - Here all theyre looking for is eventually a shortcut to a presumably better life. Dear tourists to The Gambia. Come on - The Gambia is trying to improve - Don't use Bumsters as the excuse to stay away. I'd rather be bumstered than bombed!

A short story on Bumsters - 
Seedy is 13 years old. He belongs to an extended family of 13. He lives in this extended African family with his mother, an uncle and about 10 half brothers and sisters in Latrikunda in Banjul. (I could easily write more about the extended family culture in Africa that is in a way similar to the Joint family situation in India - but that would require a whole new chapter. Moreover the reasons for the creation of extended and joint families are quite different - though their 'living' situation is quite similar.) 

Seedy goes to to the Latrikunda upper basic school but his mind is never on studies. He dreams to emmulate his older brother, Tche( short for Cherno - pronounced Chey - a name quite popular here, in honour of the famous South American 'Guevera'). Tche was the first in the inner circle of Seedy's family to successfully 'get away' 
to Copenhagen. Several years ago Tche, 18, met Isabel, 55, Scandinavian tourist in Banjul. Isabel was single, lonely, divorced,... (there are several more adjectives to describe cold life in cold countries) living off her state pension and decided to come to The Gambia on a whim. Her first visit was very memorable as she not only found warmth in the country, She found warmth with her guide too. Her guide, Tche, several years younger then, looked after Isabel in every way possible and their relationship had turned from comfort and lust, to love for her and from dreams into reality for him. They got married in The Gambia amidst traditional fervour of Tam-Tam drums, 'honking-motorcades' et al. For Isabel it was what she could have never asked for earlier. A devout companion willing to do anything - not just for money, but for a future. 
His future. 
What this future was, no one really knows. But what "key" did this gateway to this future need? To provide companionship? To meet the needs - both moral ,social & physical of the partner. This was and is an ideal Win Win. (My friend John Rao may accuse me of 'plagiarism of thought' and thus I shall give him credit here for constantly driving this into my head on several occassions when we discussed the issue in Banjul - over several bottles of Julbrew I must needlessly admit). The Win Win aspect. An elderly European lady - getting someone to look after her in the coldest years of her European life. And an otherwise disgruntled youth, who's immense energy was now being channelled towards achieving his dreams. What were these dreams. To travel to Europe. Why? For a better life? In a certain way to explore different lands - looking for treasures? Not much different from the dreams of Marco Polo or Columbus - and more pertinently - those of Mungo Park who died exploring the Niger river via The Gambia ( sans Visa sans Passport - as many modern African argue - 'He came with a Boat to explore our lands and we're just doing the same now - just a few years later!!' they say, indignantly justifying the 'pirogue' expeditions of african youth attempting to travel to Europe via North African seas - Sans Visas too - being objected to by the European Union! ( I must once again admit that there are a large number of Asian - Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Srilankan youth who make a fateful trip from home through west africa to attempt a similar voyage). Back to Tche and Isabel - they no longer live together. But that brief union sparked off a 'Tche-ain' reaction in Tches family. Tche visits every year bringing gifts for Seedy and all other cousins and members of the extended family. The gifts vary from mobile phones for the more dear or chocolates or trinkets or scarves for the rest. And in those gifts lies not only the surprise and pleasure of the gift. In it lies the dream. And the path to that dream as well.
Thus Seedy, on his way to school and especially after school, has his mind on every tourist bus that passes. When will Seedy find his 'Isabel'?


I'm sure that the above scenario can be debated for long. Is this an ideal situation for every tourist or for that matter and more importantly - for every Seedy? The answer is No. Certainly not. But as is with the issue of child labour and those seeking to forcefully arrest and stop it or ridicule it, remember that those children are bread winners (for themselves and thier families too).They should be given another channel, well prepared to ensure that it is not a stop gap solution. Pick up a child from a factory and send them to a remand home, where they could be equally exploited. Those championing the cause against child labour should have not just a solution, but a lasting and more rewarding solution. Take a child away from a labour situation only if you can provide the child with an alternate souce of income and more importantly - find a reliable source of income for the family. Else the child will be pushed back and probably into a more perilious and denigrating source of remuneration.

I'd suggest that, rather than hounding the factories with sting operations, use the funds spent on such operations together with funding from organisations that spend billions oon ineffective monitoring - to improve conditions in every factory employing children - and for free. Provide a system of education for all employees. Thereby the owners of factories will be productive and protected and money will be wisely spent. Win Win again. Of course there is no parallel between Tche's 'employment' and Child labour. But there lies a similarity between Seedys aspirations and of children in those factories.

The European Union, Ive often repeated, would have had far less a problem of the 'backway' syndrome had they spent some efforts developing industry and civic amenities in the lands they colonised. 

And in the case of Seedy's and Tche's, we must make sure that, while we curtail the present key to their aspirations, they do not land up on the streets, using methods far more sinister than soliciting friendships for their gateway to Europe, methods like peddling drugs or mugging tourists in an attempt to find shorter short-cuts to their aspirations in life.
Ram Mohan, Banjul,THE GAMBIA

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

The 'Hussain' Within



If you live in the part of the world that I Live in, it is quite 'paradoxical' that at the mention of 'Barack Obama' one hears loud cheer for a fellow African 'albeit American'. The distance of this American from anything African is forgotten in the Euphoria that one of 'OURS' is President of the Country we hate and love most. The sense of ownership of Obama by Africa is almost ultimate.

Yet, the mention of his middle name 'Hussain' creates a sort of blind reverse baptism. 'All is forgiven - Come Back Home' is the rhetoric invisibly heard. It becomes a matter of pride or insult, whether at his Inauguration, he will use his seemingly inconsequential middle name officially or not. As Obama raised his left hand to take the Oath of Office, one could almost hear the bated breath of tele-african viewers, whether he would embrace them or alienate them - The millions of African Muslim viewers. The African Christians have already their claim on him.

He starts, "I, Barack Hussain..........." and the rest of the Inauguration pledge is drowned in internal pride. The Oath over, the African euphoria explodes. 'He's African' they chant and 'HE IS one of us.....' "He IS A Muslim" a dancing stranger proudly exclaims!

The Ownership of Obama by Africa is now Complete.

Monday, January 26, 2009

Eight Days a Week

All we need is Love Babe - The Beatles sang.

All WE need is TIME Guys
Just you wait and see
Eight Days a Week? "Get up dust yourselves and lets Get America working again" - Obama appeals to the American people in his National address.

All He needs is Time to get the turn around done. He now has the power, the money, the support, the ratings of the US People, the Veto and everything else that 'desire' could name on Mother Earth. Everything - except the one thing that his predeccesor, George W Bush was able to take away from Obama and the American people - TIME. Time wasted for 8 years. Time is overtaking the Americans.

For those who haven't read Ryszard Kapuscinski's 'Shadow of the Sun' - he has a wonderful bit on Time and Africa. He implies that Westerners are slaves of Time while Africans have conquered Time. A European would run to the Bus station because the Bus leaves at 10.32 or for a meeting that would start on time (even if the passengers or people were not there, he implies) - thus becoming slaves of the clock and not of the purpose. Time in Africa is a slave of the People and thus is 'people centric' - Get into a bus and ask the driver when the bus would leave - the obvious answer (after your silly question has been ridiculed) would be 'When the Bus is Full'!!!. When does the meeting Start? Of course stupid! When the people are all there!!!

President Obama! The bus is full and the people are all here too! But do you have enough TIME???

On what's special about Obama's Election

I don't think that the euphoria over Obama's election should be about an African American making it to the Citadel of American Power and thus exhibiting the triumph of Civil Rights. America in my opinion overcame those barriers quite some time ago. The African American community have had several members rising to high offices in American politics and governance - Senators, Governers, Secretaries of State as well - exhibiting that African-Americans who had it in them, could make it. Obama had it in him. He became President. Of course an African American becoming President makes excellent story and nostalgia material - a story of triumph of the Blacks - from abject Slavery to ultimate Power - but this could have happened many many years ago too. They just didn't have the right candidate.

Why I think Obamas election is special - is because he did it with backing from the people. It was his ability to get the 50 cents and the 5US$ contributions to count that makes it truly amazing. The parody is that small things like chads (dimpled and hanging ones equallly) brought George Bush into power. Small things magnified a million times, brought Obama and a new era in. Arundhati's 'God of Small Things' has a new significance here.

Saturday, January 3, 2009

Mathematics Simplified



We've been having some interesting posts on various theories on Mathematics. The Trachtenberg system and other interesting theories. What I found more interesting, apart from the video clip above was the percentage theory that my sister Nandita presented using Mathematics and Numerology -
I QUOTE
From a strictly mathematical viewpoint:
If: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Is represented as:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26.
Then : H-A-R-D-W-O- R- K = 8+1+18+4+23+ 15+18+11 = 98%
And: K-N-O-W-L-E- D-G-E = 11+14+15+23+ 12+5+4+7+ 5 = 96%
But: A-T-T-I-T-U- D-E =1+20+20+9+20+ 21+4+5 = 100%
END QUOTE

Thus, using our Attitude is important. We did so - with a little research and introspection with things that concern us a lot more in our daily lives, and we, The Non T-Totalitarians (as opposed to that complicated breed of Tee-Totalers) came up with equally interesting mathematical arguments :-

W-A-T-E-R Gave us a measly 67%
I-C-E an abyssmal 17% ( Proving that as temperatures went down, so did the percentage yeild)
But add some W-H-I-S-K-Y =84% and we get 168%
M-I-L-K, T-E-A & C-O-F-F-E-E turn up poor percentages too
0-R-A-N-G-E J-U-I-C-E doesnt do too badly with a 91% but then
VODKA TONICS , RUM N COCA-COLA all score over 105%

Researching this further - we found that SEX with BOOZE scored far over ATTITUDE, KNOWLEDGE or HARDWORK!!
Ram