Africa Vision 26

Africa Vision 26


N’Djamena, December 24, 2007

Ramani’s Christmas bash.

Ramani has more or less adopted me. Seeing my ever sliming body she has decided to single handedly assure that I remain in good health. Every time I go over to ponder on our experience in Chad I end up with belly full of great Indian grub. She works for the United Nations and through her I have met a whole new set of people. I have written about some of them in the past. They are here to set up a mega training school for police officers in Abeche. If I understand it well it will be a regional center for Chad, Sudan and CAR.

One of the people I met today was Emmanuel a white African, French origin born and raised in Gabon. Holding passports from Chad, CAR and I believe Gabon. He is only here for a month but was in Chad in 1996. A time when besides the French military there were no other whites than him. There were no foreigners at all. As he drove around at night he would be shot at with Kalashnikovs. He used to own a villa in Mondou in the South. But as a family of Zaghawas moved in 10 years ago he no longer does. Asking for help is asking for trouble. He was telling how crazy N’Djamena used to be in those days. The ruling party would just run around and confiscate what ever they wanted. If some one would resist they would be shot point blank. If a thief was found on the Central Market with out any ceremony he would be shot on the spot.

Clearly a lot has changed. Chad is flooded by NGO’s and people of all nationalities can be found in all corners of the country There is a bit of law and order. Then again as I reflect on my own experience in the East and the current status of the East a certain level of lawlessness apparently belongs to the country of Chad as it is. Since the oil has been found and is being exploited at least those areas are conflict free. As you can read in all magazines Chinese are popping up all over Africa and also in Chad.

But back to the barbeque. There were several old hands sharing mighty stories of the failed invasion of the USA in Somalia, the conflict in Bosnia and Kosovo, Lebanon, Sierra Leone and more of the well-known conflicts of the last three decades. There has too much of bloodshed and destruction of civil society in these countries. It is not always easy to remain optimistic hearing of the sad tales and realizing that several of the countries mentioned have been in conflict for over decades.

Next thing to pop up is the role of the United Nations in all these conflicts. It is easy to be critical about. the organization Yet it is the best tool we have mediating between nations and within nations in conflict situations. Never easy and always as strong as the weakest link in other words the conglomeration of nations together to decide where and hen to intervene. Perhaps a good venue to explore in the near future. Something to ponder over in the festive season.

Namaskar