Post 22: Marxism, money and muck in Mozambique

Tuesday March 1^st

Darius in the Cessna 207 is still trying to get through to me with fuel and safety pilot. Villancullo airport was closed after yesterday’s wheels up accident. And there is no Avgas. Well there is, but it’s not for sale. Some slick willy has bought what Avgas the others used up yesterday and will not sell it at any price. He’s cornering a seller’s market to drive up the price. He joins a long and undistinguished company of moguls and profiteers from Chicago to Shanghai who’ve done the same with silver to cocoa over the years. He knows there are now only two places in Mozambique with Avgas: Pemba, a 4-hour flight north, and Maputo way south. Chris calls to say he is trucking some from Maputo tomorrow to the Cessna. So I can expect them here on Thursday, Kruger possibly Johannesburg Friday.

Steve has been for a flip in a Harvard at the South African Harvard Club at Swartkop, the 2nd oldest, functioning airbase in the world. Note to visiting pilots: check it out. It's a fabulous experience at a knock-down price, barely 40 minutes drive from Johannesburg. It's also got a great aero mueum.

http://www.theharvardclub.co.za/

Harvard trainer: possibly the most succesful trainer of all time. It also saw combat

 To pass the time here’s a COUNTRY NOTE: Mozambique is an odd mixture. Marxist-run since it won independence from Portugal, its colonial master, in 1975 after a 10-year military struggle; there followed a vicious civil war (the West backed the losing side) which slaughtered one million people; devastation and natural disasters have since left economic chaos and widespread poverty. And yet there is an odd sort of stability. White South Africans and Zimbabweans like this place for its beautiful beaches, islands ringed by azure seas, fabulous diving and easy-going style. Many have holiday homes on the coast. Foreign investors are interested in its titanium, untapped oil and gas and tourism potential. No doubt the Chinese are here flashing their cheque-books.

At the Flamingo hotel pool a bright, serious woman from Mozambique's Ministry of Education is tapping away at her laptop.

“ I am here to sort out a gender-strategy issue”. Not enough girls in school then or women in decent jobs? “ Yes exactly. The problem is very bad in this province. I’m trying to knock heads together”.

She is staying in a US$100 a night suite: bedroom, living-room and a jacuzzi-shower with a built-in radio and telephone. In the shower cubicle. I kid you not. I’ve got one. Outside the hotel gate, guarded by the man with the pump-action shotgun, more than 50% of people in Mozambique live on less than US$1 a day. Her 2-night stay (breakfast included) would fund one of her fellow-countrymen for 7 months.   

I’m all for altruism. And there are some extraordinary success stories in Africa. Nelson Mandela being the most obvious. And some pockets of progress. Aid agencies do (some) good work while driving around in chunky SUVs. Simon, who works for an Italian NGO in Quelimane says: " We've built wells, libraries and a health centre. But government here is part of the problem not the solution." I wonder: how much of our overseas budget is contributing to real change and making a tangible difference to ordinary people in Africa? And is there a strategy for our overseas aid budget, funded by our taxes, and,if so, what is it?   

Africa watchers divide into two groups: those who bend over backwards to be sympathetic and balanced ( mostly academics with lofty views, aid workers and officials) and journalists who bring a harder, more realistic and more authentic perspective. I know which I’d look to for insight.

For those interested in reading more about Africa I recommend two books by writers with long, personal experience of the continent:

Africa: Altered States by Richard Dowden, not without its flaws but a good country-by-country view.

It’s Our Turn to Eat by Michaela Wrong ( Ex-Financial Times) a brilliant and courageous first-hand account of corruption in Kenya

Both are available from Amazon or your local bookstore

I might go to the beach tomorrow.

Alpha Charlie tucked up for a 3rd night at Quelimane on her lonesome