This was not intended to be a political or a social statement and was not intended for argument. I started this blog - after many years of having lived, done business and frequently visited this nation. Very often doomed by reports as being among the poorest nations in the world, higher incidences of AIDS in West Africa, and more recently the drug traffickers haven. When I tell friends that I'm off to Guinea Bissau - the immediate thought is of gun-toting drug barons and droopy eyed addicts - poverty driven slums and beggars with people dying all over.
Guinea Bissau no doubt is impoverished - dark without electricity and the absence of civic amenities - but it is not at all any way like the bleak picture painted above. Guinea Bissau is special and with a little direction, can put many other countries to shame.
Economic Poverty - YES. But yet you don't see malnourished children starving for food. They may not have the money to pay for candles or for luxuries like tap water - but they are not suffering from lack of food. A unique self sustainability helps them survive.
Bissau has two classes - The hyper Rich and the Poor. Both survive. Both Live in this dark city without civic amenities. The hyper rich run generators or tap into generators run by neighbours. The poor live in darkness at night. At day break, equality prevails - they all share glorious sunlight at the same price. Everyone knows everyone and everyone is related in some way or the other. The tribal divide exists - but amongst themselves unity exists. The cities wealthiest have relatives among the cities poorest. and they can sit together and talk, meet, eat together. A little money or a bag of rice exchanges hands sometimes.
Bissau has evolved under Brazilian culture - The Brazilians imbibed Portuguese culture and re-invented it and this is what one sees in Bissau. Everyone has fun. Everyone enjoys a good drink - whether the popular Portuguese Cristal, Super Bock or Sagres beers or Wines or the Cana / Cachaca or the basic raw Caju 'wine'. Everyone loves Drink, Sex, Music and Football. Bissau has a tradition of good music and free sex - Now don't get me wrong. I dont mean prostitution. I mean that Sex per say is not taboo. Take a young girl out, dance with her, have sex - No Problems - Its human. Have a baby and disown the baby and that when the problem starts. Children learn early about fun n life. Discotheques cater to schol children. School girlsdress to school as though for an evening out. Tight jeans and T Shirts are the norm here. It's a culture that loves drinks music and dance. Salsa / Jazz or Cape Verdian music - Talent is in abundance. I just saw a picture in a 'friends' face book page - titled - "what the relationship between poverty and music". And the idea of the Carnival comes to mind. I once read that the Carnivals in Socialist regimes were used by oppressive rulers to let the people relax once in a while - get lost in rhythm and wine - celebrate with no reason to celebrate - only to forget their woes and the governments failures. Thus this regular carnivals do continue today - help all forget daily woes with music, food and wine. Seen from the perspective of the oppressive rulers - it made sense. Seen from the oppressed peoples points of view - It made sense too! Why do we go to Cinemas and the Theatre or to Music shows - or for that reason to the Carnival - for entertainment - that helps us relax and forget daily worries. So whats Different? Why complain?
Thus back to the connection between poverty and music, I'm sure its the best way to channel pent up frustration. A depressed person can take to drugs or other intoxicants. Take to music and you have a win win. that's the way I see the connection.
Come to look of it - every one of today's worlds talents have had problems and use Music to express themselves - Take today's Hip Hop - Rappers using the unique poetry of Hip Hop to express them selves in a language that a larger audience listens to.
Speak of Food, Wine and I seem to have digressed as I write. Back to Guinea Bissau. What could possibly be wrong here? Today's schoolkids playing either Monopoly or the more modern Sim City, can easily manage a country of 1,500,000 people with an economy driven by a tree crop and supplemented by potential in fisheries, tourism, phosphates , rivers, trees and an abundance of every other natural resource - including a largely young population. Over that, the voluntary efforts of over 200 NGOs pumping monies into the economy - In my opinion reviving a functioning economy in Bissau should be child's play.
Child's Play - If a few of the current power hungry people put the country first. An I am sure that everyone in public view would want to have a stable and a developing nation.
What else does Bissau need to move forward :
For starters - Education needs to be a priority for its large and quickly growing young population.
They must have HOPE
Health is important - and very important to teach the young of preventive health care.
A Plan : Bissau needs a 5-10 year plan to move the nation from its stagnant situation to one that will make it a prosperous and thriving nation - Not by TAXING its farmers and the poor. But by giving them an opportunity to grow.
Draconian Laws - taxing agricultural products are killing the farmer. The Government should for the moment push imports and ensure that import goods are taxed properly. Encourage exports. Foreign Exchange is important but if agricultural produce is exported - it must be bought - thus there must be cash to buy the product. If the Govt streamlines exports - the economy will prosper.
Rice : Widely consumed it is the largest import food . While Bissau used to be a nett Exporter, barter trade with Cashews has made it an import product. Bissau must subsidise rice producer and tax imports. The argument that high taxes will scare the rice importers then so be it. Let Bissau's population go back t rice production as before. Bissau must prevent subsidised imports from AID like US AID Monetisation from killing the existing rice or oil seed producers.
Palm Oil and palm Kernel Oil : Bissau has an abundance of palm and yet is under utilised and the palm kernels are thrown away.
Coconut : The islands near Sensale are full of Coconut and Coconut products can rejuvenate an economy by itself. An example of small scale industry from Kerala in India - needs to be implement.
Tourism ; Encourage tourism in the Islands. Bissau is ideally poised to be the ECO tourism headquarters of the world for the simple reason that there exists no power plants and thus no pollution. It is easiest for Bissau to enter the domain of Eco friendly power with Simple solar solutions. recently heard that the EU has given out over 12 Million Euros for hi-tech solar installations. What Bissau needs is simple off the grid solutions for its villages. At one tenth of the cost, these rural technologies can provide sustainable light to villages.
Developed nations are going in reverse gear to develop Eco friendly situations. Bissau needs to only get basic infrastructure down and it will have among the best Eco friendly institutions.
Corruption : This is a daily aspect of life and needs to looked at differently. Giving a policeman or an official a few thousand CFAs doesn't constitute as corruption to me as we are only supplementing an income that is not paid on time by government. Very rarely have I seen work not being executed for non payment of a little tip. I don't deny that in higher offices, bribes are serious and are not the supplementary kind of tips that I'm mentioning here. Corruption in higher offices in Government department is what is killing Bissau today. This greed too is justified by the short tenure that the Military lets its governments have. each one wants to have as much as possible in the short time they know that they have. At these higher echelons of government - corruption takes a more demonic form. Bissau will need to address this before development takes place.
A Government where everyone is a businessman, conducts business from offices of government and takes political decisions with personal business in mind. This is what has anchored Bissau and until these shackles are broken - Bissau will continue to be doomed. Doomed yes. But the parties will go on. Biana and Kalliste will continue to attract evening crowds. Ferra Bandeh will be packed every night , albeit devoid of Light. Sonhio, Bate Papo and X-Club continue to be full. The Wifi Internet hotspots continue to mushroom. No one protests - Once in a while there will be a shooting - International communities make a hoo and a haa - The next day we're back in the streets buying and selling - be it pirates CDs, Chinese Imports, bags or Trucks of Cashewnuts - Life goes on as usual. Ze Manel and Miguelhino NSimba continue to attract listeners. The local economy thrives - Is this Doom? No, This is Guinea Bissau.
Note: I have just written this as thoughts that occur to me everyday and without the intention of harming anyone. If anyone has an argument - Ill be happy to sit across a table with a bottle of Cristal and discus it. I love Africa and Guinea Bissau too.
Cheers
Vive L'Afrique - Vivre Le Gambie Vivre La Guinea Bissau
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