Good Bye to Land of Opportunities

Tomorrow I would be taking flight to back home after bidding final good bye to Land of Opportunities Africa. I do not know about the future, I might be here again but surely it would be for different purpose altogether.

I still remember my interaction with one Indian guy in Congo, when I went there for a brief period for my summer training. We are having a chit chat about life in African countries and work environment, and in between I told that my values do not allow me to do something. He gave me a puzzling stare and quipped “When you step into Africa to work or business, that itself says that how much respect you pay for moral and values. People come to Africa to make money and thats it. People with moral and values do not come to Africa to do business. Even if they come, they hardly succeed.” I ordered my lips to not move in order to restrict the volley of words. How can he say like this? He is talking nonsense.

But today, I do not have the same conviction to contradict his words.Six months in Africa and interaction with several business persons and watching how they do the business, he seems not far away from the truth. Though its the time, when words like Morals, Values and Integrity are best restricted to speeches of religious channels and books, or to those persons who are termed stupid and idiots by Successful people.

For me, it is land of contradictions. Contradictions everywhere. On one sides there are roads full of sparkling BMW and Landcruisers, on the other side you have people starving and dreaming of morsels of food. You are afraid of moving out in evening for the fear of robbing and loot, yet you leave all your valuables and belonging on the sole responsibility of your servant. There are businessmen, professionals trying their best to rip off everything possible to show the bottomline growth and see the number get quadrupled every quarter. And there are social workers, activists working in far remote corners of Africa making people aware of hygiene, training them to make and giving them opportunity to be on the path of attaining maximum potential.

On personal front, this brief stint in Africa would be my most treasured experience, as this became a trigger for many realizations. It might be the catalyst for transfiguration.

“To reap benefit in the land of opportunities, you have to be basically an opportunist.”

Technorati tags: africa, personal, thoughts, concern

Digitally Handicapped

NYT columnist Thoms L Friedman in his best selling work The Lexus and The Olive Tree remarked

While the defining measurement of the Cold War was weight – particularly the throw weight of missiles – the defining measurement of the globalization system is speed – speed of commerce, travel, communication and innovation. The Cold War was about Einstein’s mass-energy equation, e = mc2 . Globalization tends to revolve around Moore’s Law, which states that the computing power of silicon chips will double every eighteen to twenty-four months, while the price will halve. In the Cold War, the most frequently asked question was: "Whose side are you on?" In globalization, the most frequently asked question is: "To what extent are you connected to everyone?" In the Cold War, the second most frequently asked question was: "How big is your missile?" In globalization, the second most frequently asked question is: "How fast is your modem?"

Here in Freetown (Sierra Leon), waiting for 45 minutes, to get a crucial mail downloaded, I fully realized what it meant. My mail client is showing ‘downloading 1 of 19 mails’ and this message is being displayed since eons and the data transfer rate.. I am ashamed to reveal that its in bytes, around 8-10 bytes per second.  The mail in question is supposed to contain some key information for the meeting scheduled next hour. I cannot do anything, the person who sent me the mail is not available on phone as he is not in network area.

It make me in very precarious situation, I am accessing Internet through wi-fi network installed by the hotel (where i am staying) and there is no other way to access the net. But the speed of wi-fi is pathetic. No connectivity would have been better. At least, I could have been relying on age old alternatives. But here you know there are 19 mails waiting for, do not know what is in store in those mails.

Lets see, if I can overcome this digital handicap, going to find some alternatives, probably a cyber cafe nearby, and hope that it has data transfer speed at least in killobytes.

Tags: Travel, Africa, Sierra Leon, Freetown, Technology, Internet, Thoughts, Personal

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Exploring Sierra Leone – Part One

S N Brussels flight was scheduled at 18.05 hrs and everything went smooth, till we get into the plane. After getting into our seats and waiting for at least 30 minutes for plane to take off, we came to know that plane has been delayed due to security reasons. A passenger checked in his luggage, but did not board the flight and cabin crew is finding that person’s luggage before they can take off.

After 2 hours of search they could find out the luggage and finally we took a breath of relief. After that the journey was smooth. Err..I am forgetting something, the sandwich served (Veg Sandwich) on flight is so far the best Veg Sandwich I have tasted. Really yummy. After 1.20 hrs flying time, the plane landed at Sierra Leon capital Freetown.

After getting Visa and other clearance I came out of Airport and got a ticket for helicopter service to go to Freetown city. After getting the ticket, it was wait and wait for my turn to board the helicopter. After asking how much time it will take. I was asked to wait. I realized after 2 hrs of wait that  WAIT stands for West African Internal Time. So waited. Finally my turn came and I boarded the helicopter and after 15 minute, I was in Freetown main city. Took a taxi and straight to my hotel. Looked at my cell, time 12.05 am. So no chance to get dinner.

I asked hotel manager, can I surf the net? The answer was quite pleasing. "Our hotel is wi-fi so you can access from the room, if you have any problem, you can use it from our computers." So after getting into the room, the first thing I did was to boot my laptop and check the connectivity. Good signal strength, as my wireless network detector indicated. But, not able to surf any site. Some problems. But anyway, wrote this post,  using newly upgraded Qumana (the old one sucked as it was damn slow and unstable, but this one is really breeze.) so that I can post it when I connect to net.

Tags: Freetown, SierraLeon, Travel, Personal, Qumana

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Am I stupid?

Everyday, when my car stops at red light, 3-4 small children start hovering around my car, spreading thier little palms, and invariably I give them 100 cfa (African Currency) to each of them. It has become a routine for me. Yesterday I asked my driver to get change for 1000 Cfa bill,and he gave me an allknowing smile and a look which was clearly indicating that i am a stupid.Wasting my money on these kids. Am I? Noway, i enjoy the look on the face of children, when they see my car. They know that the are going to get
something. I dont want to disappoint them. I just pray God that dont make me disappont them anyday. Amen.

Technorati Tags: blog, life, thinking, africa

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I am back..

After being away from blogging for more than 20 days once again back (as if my return was awaited worldover, but nevertheless it seems nice to write). Just joined Olam Ivory Coast and was surprised by this city called Abidjan. Its completely different from my imagination of an african capital. Though i spent only a few hrs here but it seems a great place, irrespective of the security concerns.  So check out this space for some more info on Ivory Coast and Abidjan..

Congo Calling

Only 23 days are left of my stay here at IIFM Bhopal. And probably 30 days in India. While all my friends are happy that they are going to spend some time with the family, I am feeling a bit low as I will get less than 10 days to spend with my family. But looking back, it gives a mixed feeling, when I joined the institute in 2004, there were a lot of dreams and uncertainties, today I feel lucky that I got what I was dreaming for.. its not exactly that, but that’s damn close to it. And uncertain, where future will take me. It’s a proud feeling when you have offers pouring down to you and you are facing problem of plenty. But, you have to make a decision and I took a bold one. To go to a country, which name gives a very different feel altogether. Ya, I am going to Congo. The war prone country in Central Africa. I could have easily opted for a cozy job in one of the leading banks at Mumbai or Hyderabad. But, I could not resist Africa (or US dollars!!). I am trying to get hold of French (Congo is francophone country), as I had a tough time there on my summers due to no knowledge of French.

• Life is a bit different right now after that decision. Some changes I could feel right now.
• India seems to be more dear that it was earlier. I never knew I would miss India that much.
• Indian movies… though I did not watch much in my last 2 years stay here at IIFM, Bhopal, but right now I am not letting any opportunity to see some good movies.
• A regret that I could not see places around Bhopal and now I am leaving Bhopal. But really I loved this city. I’ll back to explore.
• I feel scary thinking of a life where I have to search to get some good English books (what I could find were only French books.). My god.. how will I survive. Let’s see whether Amazon.com has shipping facility there or not.
• People are saying I would be a changed person in Africa.. I don’t believe them. An Ass will be An Ass anywhere.

Going to miss a lot my friends .. and student life..

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