Jill Rees: Welcome Press

            Here in the centre of Europe, near Vienna, the cold air hangs around my long coat and stretches in a fine mist over the salty lake that marks the borders of Austria, Slovenia and Hungary. This region was relatively recently the hub of European wars which stretched back centuries, even thousands of years, as different peoples filed back and forth across this land. Traces of inhabitants have been found in a wooden figure from 25,000 years ago near Salzburg, as well as 4,000 year old ceramics. Two thousand years ago the Celts, then the Romans, were in this area. Later successions of tribes fought over this piece of flat dank land hedged in on three sides by high mountains. The Allemans, Bavarians, Slavs and Franks passed through before the Hapsburgs developed their magnificent though often oppressive Empire, battling over threats from Napoleon and the Ottomans before succumbing to the two world wars at last, which finished in total devastation for Austria: they had chosen the wrong side to fight on!

             When I was a child the big aim for everyone was to make sure Europe remained at peace following the apocalyptic effects of World War II, which ravaged not only European but worldwide populations including Nigerians. The levels of destruction on mainland Europe would be almost inconceivable today, if the evidence did not remain. I have seen the endless white graves across northern and eastern France where soldiers lie, some of them unidentified, young men from all the countries of the world killed in the first flush of youth. In North East France, an area ten square kilometres large lies so stricken with mines from the First World War that the land remains unusable. Every now and then an unexpected explosion will kill a farmer or schoolchild of the subsequent century.   The lack of birdsong and variety of flowers provide a creepy backdrop to tops of bayonets, still sticking up from the now filled-in trenches where an enemy bomb exploded, throwing up the dirt and mud and burying the infantrymen as they stood bravely. A nearby Ossuary holds the bones of 750,000 dead of all nationalities picked out of the surrounding countryside, where 8 entire villages were so completely demolished that even modern equipment cannot find any trace of where they once were. Only a tiny chapel remains miraculously standing among the debris, and the locals come here still every Sunday to pray for peace.

Modern development could only really be said to apply to Western Europe, as half of the continent was still cut off from the other half by the Cold War, where, following the allied victory in WWII, Europe was divided among the major players as spoils of war. The three parts which went to the US, UK and France, quite quickly became independent democracies, rebuilt with US aid. The remaining part stayed with the USSR as the ancient proud peoples were ruled as satellites of this Communist state. Russia itself was in ruins at the end of the war, with 20 million of its people dead, and the level of investment the West received didn’t arrive in the Eastern bloc, which remained poor. With the arrival of television and pop music, people in the East became aware of the better life across the falsely drawn borders. The longing for reunification began to become universal, especially in Germany, which was divided in two, often separating families who were not allowed to visit each other, but had to wave across a kilometre of barbed wire at the borders which once had been their home.

            At school, we played ‘Germans versus English’ which meant that if you were tough or popular you got to be the British and could beat up the Germans. Everyone hated being Germans, as they invariably lost. My father was a teacher, and didn’t like this game.

‘The only way to destroy your enemies,’ he would say, ‘Is to turn them into your friends.’

 He used to take groups of children on visits to France and Germany, in the hope that friendships would be made between young people which would make fighting between our countries inconceivable. He was not alone. Many of the generation who had seen too much of war, who had hidden under tables and in cupboards as children when the bombs from unending air raids fell, and had lost so many relatives during the war, in all the nations of Europe, were determined to see an end to all this. Peace groups and the European Union struggled across age-old prejudices and hatred, to a position where most European young people travel freely in Europe for education and work, and have friends everywhere. Only the barrier between East and West remained seemingly invincible, to sully the atmosphere of economic growth and democracy.

The Cold War ended right here in Burgenland in 1989 when crowds of Hungarians suddenly walked across the border into the freedom and peace that had eluded them. This time the Austrian government decided not to stop them, thus uniting Europe once more. How heartbreaking then, when suddenl the Bosnian wars of the 1990s trembled in the air. Occasional ravages from the past, like the terrorist Bader Meinhof group of the seventies and the recent rise of the extreme right, can still bring doubt into a seemingly secure collaboration of ancient foes, reminding us that peace is something that cannot be left to simmer but must be watched constantly in case it threatens to boil over.            

Having seen the wars in Bosnia and Kosovo, it didn’t really surprise me all that much when Kenya erupted. Someone told me that after colonialisation, borders were fixed in African countries to try to give each new nation a strip of coastline, which is why they aren’t divided up on tribal lines. This has put different tribes together in an uneasy peace.

People in Africa will often explain various eruptions of violence as being tribal, as if this explains anything really. Over time, the four nations that make up the UK as well as almost all the countries of Europe have been in this position, an uncomfortable mix of ancient tribes, different languages even in the same country (to this day, Belgium, a tiny country, has four languages), almost contradictory-seeming religious and cultural differences. Gradually they became coherent nations, began to see themselves as individual peoples and finally joined in a determined peace in the current EU, for the undeniable economic and social benefit of all its members, however reluctant. Most of this   peace-building has been achieved in the past forty years, since World War II, incredibly quickly. This is what makes me think that African countries will solve their differences and learn how to develop all of their people to become the united Continent of their dreams, and a proper World mover and shaker. With the model of the EU and with very experienced negotiators of conflict resolution such as Kofi Annan, currently in Kenya, I believe Africa cannot fail to go forward.

© Jill Rees

29 January 2008

1,192 words

• From a poem by Sylvia Plath, ‘Daddy’ from the collection ‘Ariel’

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I have come to Austria via canterbury the last place God made. Everyone there seems very rude almost without exception, and the landlady of the guest house was absolutely pertrifying. it was very quiet as no one dared to move and tiptoed around. Met a great musician called Catherine Morgan who is young but I am sure we will hear more of her and she has her own web page.

The flight was ok and the landing in gale force winds interesting, with the cabin crew sounding anxious. The trains were all being refurbished so it was a mess and a group of children were running up and down the carriages which made me feel right at home. At Vienna Sudbahnhof I ate a delicious pizza, and remembered there are loads of Turks in Austria so good kebabs. Had a delicious strong cafe in cafes where you can still smoke! We finally got on the right train to Neusidl am See and noisy voices in English turned out to be my friend Amanda!!! We are working together for the first week, teaching Englihs for English in Action. They are a well organised company and the course is really good, interesting, culminating in a project and a show on the Friday. I’m really enjoying it. I have eaten school dinners but they are very nice. One day Austrians will find out about vegetables. Everyone is very polite but there is such a good lifestyle here. Next week I’m in Vienna and look forward to visiting art museums and such.

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It’s been a bad week for Barack Obama and the Nigerian football team alike. On Saturday Nigeria lost to Ivory Coast and only hope remains for the Mali match. Barack Obama lost out to Hilary in Nevada, having largely expected to win. In a hotly contested run to be the candidate for the Presidency, Hillary’s husband the former President has had strong words to say to ward off Mr Obama. Barack has taken umbrage at these aggressive tactics as Mr Clinton tries to defend his wife, and says he sometimes doesn’t know which Clinton he is fighting!It’s not so much that Barack’s father is Kenyan or that he is a black man in a country where black achievement has always been discouraged or unrecognised, as that Barack seems to have a greater grasp of the state of international affairs than the others. Nevertheless, just as Premiership teams throughout Europe and the UK are bemoaning the loss of 40 of their best players to the African national sides, so liberal voters in the US are divided about whether to support the woman or the black candidate. Like London buses, you wait for ages for a chance to vote for progressive politics, then two come along at once.

It is said that, after 9/11, Americans were surprised to discover that people in the wider world did not all hold the US in the high affection they hitherto believed. This level of isolationism is really mind-bogglingly hard to grasp for other countries, who have been struggling with levelling the image of the ‘democratic land of Freedom’ with its record of attacks on a succession of under-developed countries since Vietnam. Embargoes on Cuba and pre-war Iraq, seemingly aimed at causing suffering to the citizens by blocking supplies of food and medical supplies, as well as the refusal to acknowledge democratically elected governments such as the Palestinian government, the record in South America and the blemished elections of 2000, all seem to point to a retrogressive and inward looking nation.

The power behind the Presidency seems to be global businesses and oil companies, chemical producers and weapons manufacturers. The USA is seen as the major obstacle to dealing with climate change, as it continues to refuse to ratify the Kyoto protocol, presumably because no President has the power to oppose the oil companies.

With each strategic invasion or interference with a foreign government, the unspoken fear of American intervention systematically increases its influence in developing nations, as we have seen over matters such as introducing GM crops in Mali.

‘GM crops would re-colonise us,’ says Sereba Kone, president of the cotton growers in Bohi. Some Africa coalition members admit that theirs is a “David and Goliath” struggle, which they are not likely to win. (BBC 2007)

At the same time as allegedly investing to help increase productivity for cotton growers in Mali, the US government is paying large subsidies to its own cotton farmers, effectively squeezing Mali out of the global market and leaving it with a surplus. For most people in the world, this appears yet again as simply a means to take control of a developing nation. The intimation from conflicts such as Iraq is that any nation who objects too strongly to US policy or tries to stand alone will also come into the line of fire. This was perhaps behind Tony Blair’s reluctant decision to enter into the war in Iraq. As long as the UK was alongside the US, they could keep an eye on the US troops and restrain them from their worst excesses. There is a saying from the front lines of World War II:

‘When England fires, Germany ducks; when Germany fires, England ducks; when America fires, everyone ducks!’

Apart from the risk of friendly fire, the British Army are experts at citizen support in conflict areas, having practised for several decades in Northern Ireland. British troops are specially trained in negotiating skills and armed policing in urban areas, where the aim is to win the ‘hearts and minds’ of the local population. In Iraq, as in Ireland, these attempts to gain the public’s confidence has failed, and the reason is easy to understand: an invading army is unlikely to be welcome for long, however pleasant the lads appear to be.

Now, it appears, the US is at risk of losing the self-styled ‘war on terror’. George is on his way out, leaving the war unfinished; Tony has already gone. Newspapers in the US* are saying that Britain presents a greater security threat to the United States than either Iran or Iraq, displaying a singular lack of gratitude. To help our ‘special’ allies, Britain has defied popular opinion and numerous anti war protests, ruined its reputation abroad, and effectively seen the downfall of the previously universally popular Blair government. At the same time, a new report shows that NATO is now considering the ‘nuclear option’ to combat terrorism. It seems incredible that, with the effects of radioactive pollution from Chernobyl still in the environment, anyone could believe that a nuclear explosion can somehow be contained.

Putting these two developments together, it appears even the UK should be wary. Whether careless words or a deliberate threat to destabilise the European Union, which is again considering a constitution which will increase its military influence, this recent polemic puts the UK with Iran and others in feeling nervous of the world’s repetitive paranoia about terrorism being organised on a national scale. As people constantly tell my American friends,

‘We like you, but we don’t agree with your president.’

Well soon he’ll be gone. Will the new incumbent fulfil our hopes and dreams? Hilary, with her record of the alleged ‘Whitewater’ land purchasing scam, still seems to be a member of the political classes. Her only record with major league politics is the failed 1994 health care proposal, which she is still inclined to follow through. Barack in contrast seems like an untainted, highly intelligent, educated, aware and relatively normal proposition. Our hopes, from the UK and Nigeria alike, are that the US under the new administration researches more deeply the causes and protagonists behind modern terrorism, calms the fears it has been relentlessly creating throughout the world, and establishes sound dialogic relationships on the international scene.

We would like to see international agreements and treaties over climate change and sustainable development to be ratified, the USA to join the rest of the world in taking global and holistic responsibility for all of our future, and a deeper trust of United Nations organisations. Our problems are now global, and require global and not national solutions. When Barack Obama says it is a time for hope, he isn’t speaking only to America. He already has an international voice.

* from US newspaper the New Republic

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Shopping is one thing, and let’s face it, shopping in Abuja is not all that varied, so I was relieved when the cool breeze of Hammatan drove me out of the midday sun into a craft shop to buy some souvenirs of Nigeria. The electricity had gone off, leaving an air of Africa-exotic in the dark dusty warehouse, and I had to feel the wooden sculptures to get an idea of them, before carrying them to the window to get a better look. In a second room at the back of the store, alongside those little drum-rattles and rather frightening masks that I was too scared to buy in case they carried some kind of ancient voodoo spell, I discovered a pile of old paintings which had been chopped away from their scaffolds.

Paintings are sad objects when they’re cut away from the wood, covered in dust, and left piled up in the corner like dirty washing, the dulled surfaces of the canvas cracked and flaking. Two eager shop assistants helped me view them by quickly flicking them over, stacking them nonchalantly beside the original pile, in reverse order. I managed to catch a dusky glance at each one for a brief second before it once again disappeared under the anonymous heap. It was impossible to compare them, and as I appeared indecisive, the assistants became impatient with me and starting taking them all out again and putting them one by one back into the original pile.

It is impossible to overstate the global importance of African art. Sculptures and paintings from West Africa were the lynchpin of the shift from forms of realism like the impressionists and expressionists, into the cubist and abstract art which defines the 20^th century. Innovative young men like Picasso and Matisse were deeply impressed by the works of art recently brought out of the French colonies to Paris. Called ‘naive art’ because of the strong definition in the lines of paintings and the forms of sculptures, they began to discard the conservative style based on the gradual shaping of objects, using subtle shades of colour blending to give objects perspective. Instead, they began to paint sweeping outlines of portraits, trying to find the same clarity of delineation as African artists.

They felt that they had begun to understand the true way to achieve abstract figuration, instead of the realism which artists had developed in Europe when they had diverted into recording events and performing flattering portraiture for their wealthy patrons. With the advent of photography, the role of artists changed utterly. Picasso and Matisse opened the world’s eyes to art other than the post-classical forms known hitherto, and altered the somewhat colonialist attitude to African culture. Among culture-lovers at least, the new exposure to the mysterious and misunderstood Continent’s art opened a deep respect and admiration, which continues in Europe to this day.

Patronage of the arts nowadays rests largely on the shoulders of the state, and there is good reason for this. A nation is defined by its art, as civilisation is defined by the citizen’s leisure time. One of the first things Europeans look up when they are deciding where to go for their holidays, is the art galleries. When a nation is going through a difficult economic patch and ‘tightens its belt’, funding of the arts is usually the first thing to go. So that you can measure the state of a nation by its support for the arts.

Economically, art is a money-maker. Tourists visit art galleries and choose destinations on the basis of its galleries, especially for shorter breaks. Visitors go to Paris to view the Mona Lisa at the Louvre, to Amsterdam for the Van Gogh museum and so on. Paris now has a new Musée des Arts d’Afrique et Océanie which has bought up fine collections of ancient and modern art mainly from former colonies. Individuals invest in paintings, which, if well chosen, can inflate dramatically and become worth millions. Fortunes may stand to be made in internationally uncovered African painters such as Ashiru Olawole Rufus and Victor Ekpuk. In the USA in particular, a modern art collection is seen as the prime cool for the nouveau rich, and no self-respecting movie star or business icon would be seen without one. It is often seen as a tax-benefit, since taxes in the north favour art collecting. Some countries, such as France, are always mentioned when anyone says a word about art. It has almost made its name as a world player based on its artists!

Abuja is almost shamefully poor at exhibiting its artists. I tramped round Abuja until I found the National Gallery of Modern Art in Garki. Even then, it is not always open for a permanent display. You have to travel out of the capital to Lagos to see Ben Enwonwu’s beautiful ocre tones. The Spanish Embassy in Abuja recently held a competition for young artists, which was very successful, and shows that there is a demand, at least among the visitors to Abuja, to see some local work. African art is very much sought after at the present time in Europe and the USA, and tourists are beginning to develop the confidence to visit areas of Africa other than the beach sites. It seems an ideal time to push Nigerian modern art into the foreground, especially with regard to funding, to develop Nigeria’s reputation abroad and attract visitors who wish to spend money on local attractions.

As with so many things, one feels that Nigeria could be a leader in African art. Joe Musa, director general of National Gallery of Modern Art Abuja, says:

“I have read the New York Times, I have read some of the major news prints in the world, and you find that the artist is a big newsmaker there. Be it the sale of a Picasso or a major art event hits the front page. But that does not happen here. I have a desire to see that such a thing happens here.”

It’s not just Picasso, African art is big news abroad. In Abuja and Nigeria as a whole, many artists are working in education or in local trades and firms. Nothing wrong with that to start, but there does need to be a chain of development for the artist to begin to exhibit and gradually to earn enough to paint or sculpt full time. With sound backing in the capital, politicians travelling abroad would be able to promote Abuja as a centre for arts and culture. The poor reputation and lack of proof of the ability to promote national events was one of the major doubts about Abuja’s Olympic bid. The promotion of the visual arts might be the beginning of establishing Abuja not only as the political but also the artistic and cultural capital of Nigeria and of Africa.

© Jill Rees

20 January 2008

1155 words

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After struggling with bureaucracy for many months I’ve finally got some supply work so off to sunny Worle tomorrow. In two weeks EIA send me to Austria. They seem to be a great company, very organised, but at the same time compassionate and taking my needs and wishes into account quite carefully. Same with my supply agency Day2Day teachers. It makes life so much nicer, and I find I can do my job better.

I’ve got my suitcases and my rough guide at the ready for my first week near Vienna (it means nothing to me). What shall I see first? No idea haven’t finished reading rough guide yet.  Any suggestions?

I’m still writing and thanks to everyone who has asked for commissions and so on.  There’s so much work doing articles that I’m struggling to find time for the longer peices! But that is good!

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So how cold is Hammatan? The answer is - not very!Waiting for my driver in Abuja, the security guys were shivering in teeshirts, while I was relaxing in the evening air in my dress. After a while of watching me, one of them said

‘You’re not cold are you?’ I was amazed.

‘How can you be cold?’ I said, ‘It’s 25 degrees!’ This started a discussion about what you’re used to. In the UK, it isn’t really cold; it has a warm climate all year round. Moderated by the sea all around the island that is Great Britain, and in the path of the Gulf Stream, the warm current which comes to us from the West Indies, Britain is considered to be a temperate climate. The temperature varies between about 8° in winter to 18° in the summer. Occasionally, as happened this winter, there is a cold snap where the temperature may reach freezing, and sometimes it is up to about 25° in summer, but these less usual temperatures don’t last long. This didn’t stop the security guys being shocked and horrified at the idea of a temperature of 11°, as it is right now in the UK.

We can’t say they’re wrong: hot and cold are properties and however you say you feel, you feel. If you say you’re cold, you’re cold. It’s the same with taste: one person may find oranges sweet, another may find them sour, but neither of them is wrong, it’s a matter of personal taste. There’s no point arguing about it, as some of do with our children, saying

‘Try it! You’ll like it’ - they almost never do. If they don’t like it, they don’t like it! When it comes to beauty, it might be different. They say there are measurements of the face that determine if a person is good-looking or not. It is reasonable to debate the matter:

‘No she is not really beautiful, her nose is too big.’ Nevertheless, if you insist your wife is the most beautiful woman in the world, it would take a brave man to argue with you about it.

As I speak, it is 20° in Abuja at night, and reaches up to 35°most days. The air-conditioning is put on at 25°, which is considered a reasonable temperature by the expats. In this room, I feel pleasantly warm. I remember with surprise the summers in the UK, which are often 16°-18°. Only on the rarest day does the temperature reach 20 degrees. When it gets up to 23, we call it a heat wave. The weather forecast gives out extreme weather warnings and instructs people to use sunscreen and ensure old people are not overheated. We are warned against dehydration and told to wear covering up clothing, hats and sunglasses.

Global warming is blamed for the recent long hot summers in the UK - that is to say, the two weeks when it doesn’t rain much and the temperature rises around midday to above 20°. There is total panic, and people talk about closing schools. Of course, we don’t have air conditioning, and often our clothes are inappropriate for hot weather. In recent years, we have experienced rainfall in almost monsoon amounts, but we’re not sure whether it is the amount of rain which has caused flooding, or continuing development of flood plains, culverting of streams, concreting over town gardens to make carparks and carrier bags blocking the drains.

In Central Europe, many countries have had the same problem with recent flooding. The great River Danube has been straightened along much of its length, and damming has changed the nature of this ancient river. The normal areas which were flood plains, and which used to take up the excess water as the snow melted off the mountains, now carry the furious flow through continuous barriers. When it finally breaks over the river bank, it rages a destructive fury on the towns. We may be witnessing a change of climate, or just a change of effects due to development. Architects and engineers need to give us some answers! But even when councils know that building houses on flood plains will create flood disasters in the near future, the lure of money in the form of development encouragement payments (note, Nigerians - these are not the same as bribes, are they?!) induces them to continue to build. And people continue to buy houses which are clearly susceptible to flooding and complain when they can no longer get insurance.

I’m going to Austria in two weeks to do some teaching, so I looked up the temperature. It is 2° today, cloudy and windless. It is likely to remain around freezing until February, when it will gradually sneak up towards 6°. I’ve been hunting in Marks and Spencers for thermal underwear. My Canadian cousin Carolyn mocks my fragility. In Calgary, where she lives, it is minus 30° for much of the winter. Your breath freezes as it leaves your mouth, and you have to pull your scarf up over your nose, lest the liquid content of the aforementioned proboscis should freeze, with horrendous consequences. Nigerians are to be found in all these places. Even though they are unaccustomed to these unimaginably low temperatures, Nigerians study and work in the UK or the USA. My friend’s sister, who lives in Manchester, a city uniformly cold and grey, phones him regularly to say how cold she is! There are even Nigerians in Calgary, wrapped up in several jumpers and big furry hats. A travelling people, they aren’t put off by the temperatures. Oh no, the Nigerian knows how to suffer!

‘Put a jacket on’, I suggested to the security men, trying to be helpful.

‘No’, they all said, ‘No need’. In Nigerianese, admitting to being cold would be tantamount to showing your weaknesses to others, which we must never do!

Since the guys at security were shivering at 25° in Abuja, I would love to see their reaction to a day in Calgary!

© Jill Rees

13 January 2008

1012 words

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At Wuse market, they make a selection of shirts. There are the normal ones in the many bright African colours so envied by dour UK men. Then there are massive tent like vestments for the larger man. Another way of saying for the successful man.

In Nigeria, a prerequisite for being wealthy or powerful seems to be one’s size, despite the fact that women are always telling men that ‘size isn’t everything’. It seems the bigger a man is here around the girth, the more respect he should be accorded. A man’s size shows that he doesn’t have to do things for himself, he has boys who run errand for him. He can get plenty to eat. Heavy Nigerian soup with lashings of palm oil and half a chicken on top - half? Why not make that a whole chicken? - will expand the waistline better than sweet Northern food. Quiche and salad is not for the business lunch here. Back at the market, I asked ‘Do you charge more for the large sizes, because they’re obviously made for rich men.’

Everything has to be big for the rich and powerful man: he needs a big house; even if he lives alone there is a coterie of friends, family and employees living in with him. He naturally needs a big car, using lots of fuel, big furniture, sofas and of course the famous Nigerian huge bed - how many people are you expecting to fit in there?

My friend Ade is a thin man, very slim, quite young and healthy looking. He plays sport regularly. In Europe he’d be a fine specimen. However he works in a bank, and his customers are always asking the manager, ‘Can we have a different bank manager? This one doesn’t look as if he’s able to make any money. He’s still very thin.’

Nigeria isn’t a meritocracy. It isn’t what you can do, but what you look as if you can do. Influence is still by the macho hard power, taking control, giving orders, bending others to your will. Employees don’t argue with the boss, even when they know he is wrong. Like small rugby players, they weave in and out of the big guys’ orders, finding the way through surreptitiously. They say ‘Yes sir’, but hesitate to carry out actions they know won’t work, waiting for the boss to realise this and change his mind, playing for time. Nigerian employees are incredibly faithful and try to do their best for their company. The emotional nit-picking and criticising which would be thought of as bullying in the UK, washes over them like water off a duck’s back.

When I first arrived in Abuja, my boss ordered an employee to drive me to my workplace. ‘You know where it is, right?’ he asked her.

‘Yes sir’, she said. Once on the Express Way, she stopped and phoned her friend. ‘He’ll come and take us there,’ she said, ‘Because I don’t know the way. I’ve only been in Abuja for a week.’ So I asked her why she didn’t just tell her boss she didn’t know how to get there? ‘Because he would take it as a sign of weakness,’ she replied. And then she gave me some advice. ‘I know in Europe you show your feelings,’ she said, ‘But in Nigeria you hide if you’re upset, because it’s a sign of weakness. It’s like saying you can’t do your job. So you just say yes, then find out how to do it later.’ How much time is lost in this way?

Imagine the scene. Your thin boss is sitting round the table with his employees, telling them his plans. ‘I don’t think that will work,’ says the bright young man. ‘It would be better to do it this way….’ The boss listens, he asks the opinions of others. After a heated debate, a plan of action is decided. Everyone’s expertise is brought to the fore, possible mishaps and alternatives are discussed. Finally a decision is reached. No-one remembers any more whose idea it was, it is a collaborative effort. Once decided, everyone is on board, and goes about their duties enthusiastically. You meet again a few days later, to assess how it went, to monitor and evaluate, to change direction if necessary. This collaborative method is very effective, no time is wasted, no loopholes are left open. The boss is happy, he leaves the office early and, after a light salad with a diet dressing, plays a round of golf. The others have left early too; the job is done and what’s food for the goose is food for the gander.

Things have to change, but who is going to start? A person who is always disagreeing with the boss is going to receive short shrift, and will soon be out the door. Nevertheless, Nigerians can be their own worst enemies, accepting an autocratic boss in a collaboration to ensure their own continuing enslavement to a system which swells the stomachs of a few at the expense of the many. If you have fought for a decent education, financing yourself, taking evening classes, battling against underprivilege to begin to achieve your dreams, why should you have to kowtow to anyone? Your capability should speak for itself. The abilities and potential of all need to be harnessed so that Nigeria can develop into the great nation every single person knows it should be. Like many arcane habits, deference to the big man is an impediment to healthy growth.

The prerequisite for any kind of control over a population or a workforce is always the ‘divide and rule’ kind of management. To begin to enact a change in the relations of power in the workplace people need to work together rather than to let themselves be divided. This means first becoming aware of the dynamics that determine your own particular workplace, and contributing in a way that encourages communication and cooperation rather than each person protecting their own sector. Presenting new ideas in a positive way so that no-one feels threatened. By using dialogue to consider options before taking action will improve results and may enable the enterprising employee to slowly improve the working systems to the benefit of all. When we see the quiet humility of bosses who know how to make the most of his workplace using ‘soft power’, we will know Nigeria is on the move.

Then intelligence will hold more weight than corpulence and we can get the quiche and salad out, and start buying bosses belts instead of huge vests for their birthday.

1,112 words

© Jill Rees

Abuja 21 November 2007

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The buzzword in the UK is that 2008 is the year for Africa. Nigeria is thought to be the prime mover on this and the recent visit by President Yar’Adua to the USA impressed leaders in the northern countries. The steps President Yar’Adua is taking to stem corruption and stabilize the economy in the Delta States have particularly impressed everyone, as they realize he is serious. The President also had to tread a delicate path in his words to George Bush, as Dick Cheney, former CEO of the indicted oil investment company, is implicated in the recent corruption investigation. He seems to have managed it however, and he has been accorded a lot of respect and credibility as a result of his recent visit. It is the swell of public opinion in Nigeria verbalising the continuing concern about the lack of distribution of wealth, the increasing vigilance shown and the upswell of voices against injustice, the demand for opportunities among the less wealthy members of Nigerian society, which is beginning to resonate in the developed countries. While still considered to be a ‘fledgling democracy,’ Nigeria is also thought to have a promising economy with t he potential to be a major player in Africa, and therefore a significant global player in the 21^st Century.

However the lack of opportunities in education and the over-dependence on individual wealth as the sole means of social mobility within Nigerian society is still a serious obstacle to development of industries within Nigeria. Those with the greatest potential are often unable to find the best way to contribute to society.

In the modern world, production of marketable commodities and services becomes increasingly complex, involving as it does the formation and application of streamlined systems, and ongoing training for the workforce as technology changes so rapidly. Everyone needs to have the capacity to complete increasingly advanced tasks, and groups within companies take increasing levels of responsibility for their own sectors. Feedback from specialist teams is an essential function of modern management, which requires the democratisation of the workforce.

To achieve this, a high level of education is needed among all workers. They need to have a sound basis in literacy and numeracy, general cultural knowledge and awareness, communication skills and Information Technology. In the UK in particular, professional development and the learning of new skills continues throughout one’s working life. As the working life extends, with greater longevity, to last from the end of formal education at 18-21, until one’s 60s and 70s, this capacity and culture of ‘lifelong learning’ becomes increasingly important.

Employment protection ensures that workers can analyse their particular task areas and feedback or express concerns to management. It has to be said that this is largely ‘pending’ in the UK as everywhere, and the concept that people’s opinions and knowledge are all of equal relevance seems to pose a particularly difficult problem for society, despite being enshrined in the United Nations Charter for Human Rights, the American Constitution, European Law and elsewhere. It is a basic tenet of democracy however, and an essential component of global industry and communication in the 21^st century. The former director general of CBI and current advisor to the British government, Sir Digby Jones, expresses it thus:

“The impact of the wider adoption of new smarter working practices will be profound, as some businesses have already discovered. Not only will there be improvements in productivity and competitiveness but also in the well being of staff which in turn impacts positively upon employee relations. This is not about working harder but more cleverly.

“A successful economy is one that is prosperous and dynamic. One that moves and changes as the market moves and changes, one which makes efficient use of the resources it has at its disposal, without endangering the environment. It’s about applying knowledge, not just hours.”

Companies which have adopted these more humanitarian and egalitarian philosophies in their workforce have very positive things to say about it. For example, the blue sky company Microsoft reports that:

‘Flexible working is embedded in the culture at Microsoft UK. In a company whose products are all about mobility, sharing and collaboration, it seems appropriate the working practices and culture operate on the same principles.’ (Smartnumbers July 2005)

The third area of the modern working world lies with management skills. New-style management should genuinely take into account the feedback from the specialist workers. Managers need to mould what they learn from the grass roots into a more highly functional operation. This is bound to include staff development at all levels, staff health and safety, well-being and happiness. As well as being desirable ends in themselves, a happy and relaxed workforce is shown time and time again to improve productivity.

Some of the companies in Abuja have already grasped these ideas, and some of the managers who are aware and capable, often young men and women, need to be given full rein to develop their own modern competencies and techniques. The popular complaint that well educated and trained, enthusiastic young Abujans are employed on promises that they can take on responsibility and develop the company, only to be left in a menial desk job, needs to end. Finally, it is said that the effectiveness of a company can be seen in how it treats its female workers, in particular in the progression to company management, since female managers often have particularly well-developed people skills. There is no developed country in which in which women’s rights in education and the workforce are not respected and enshrined in law. With its strong well-educated and ambitious women, Nigeria can be a leader in this area.

Africa, having been a mystery to the rest of the world in the stagnancy of economies here compared to Asian and South American growth, seems at present to be just beginning to take serious steps to prevent corruption seeping away money that should be invested in the nation, and to finance education and training. The element of organisation and unity which the Asian Tiger has used to find wealth for its people, and standing in the world, has been lacking in the Dark Continent. At last, things seem to be on the verge of change.

© Jill Rees

09 January 2008

1046 words

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Two men from France, their uncle and a family friend were shot dead and their father wounded in a roadside killing in Mauritania on Christmas Eve. The injured man was air-lifted to hospital in Dakar, Senegal to receive treatment and is still fighting for his life. The Mauritanian Government was horrified. They have spent the past few years trying to reassure Europeans that Mauritania is a safe modern nation suitable for tourism.

Mauritania is in the West of Africa and incorporates large tracts of the Sahara Desert. The great waves of the Atlantic on its western shore bring huge quantities of fish to its ports, which it sells to the rest of the world who have consumed their own fish stocks. With its fish and its oil, Mauritania is keen to become involved with Western money. The great sandy beaches and hot climate in the winter months attract increasing numbers of cold white northerners seeking winter sun, sea and sand, and the Diawling Nature Reserve attracts bird-watchers from around the world. The usual strict Islamic lifestyle has been abandoned in some parts of the capital Nouakchott for a glittering nightlife. The tourists buy local craft-wrought silver and worked leather goods, and with the present exchange rate, their spending seems to know no bounds.

The road where the tourists were killed is considered one of the safest in the region and is the main route from Nouakchott to Mali. I drove this route through the desert last April. As you turn inland from Nouakchott, the cooling wind off the Atlantic dies down, leaving you in the heat of the desert. All around is sand, sometimes blown across the road, shape-shifting into sand-dune after sand-dune, a moving landscape which only those who know can map. Herds of wild dromedaries stand with their heads high by the side of the road and you tense up wondering if they will cross. Suddenly, their heads go down and they seem to raise themselves up on tiptoe and flee across the road in front of you, appearing to scuttle like small creatures. Packs of dogs scavenge at the edges of the small villages with their tent-houses. In the towns, wealthy men in white Mercedes stroll about in their shining white gold-embroidered robes while the poor stand morbidly in the poorly stocked shops.

These people are extremely kind, offering a stranger shelter from the burning sun under the tarpaulins of their desert tents and shacks, and brewing the traditional black strong Mauritanian tea in the hospitality of the Sahara, where taking care of travellers is the main ethic. Life here is tough. There is little water, pumped from occasional water holes which are marked on the map. How they clean the brilliant robes without water I haven’t managed to work out. The offering of tea to the traveller is a necessity, as people can die in these harsh conditions.

Mauritanians are traditionally nomadic, living sometimes in Mauritania, sometimes in Algeria, which makes it hard to estimate the population. When you stop your vehicle, groups of men appear as if by magic from behind the sand-dunes, offering to act as your guide, or with dromedary milk to sell. The three young men who killed the travellers appeared like this. They were carrying machine guns and started firing immediately. Despite the fact that the travellers had just withdrawn money from the bank in Aleg, nothing was taken. One of the young men had just been reluctantly released by the police, suspected of involvement with an Algerian terrorist organisation. He was recaptured, along with one of the other criminals, fleeing to Senegal in a borrowed Mercedes taxi.

The strange mystique of the Sahara carries impressions of so many kinds of people, the feared Touareg, their faces stained with indigo from their headscarves, trading cleverly throughout the Saharan regions. Where do they come from? How do they survive? The desert is their home, and in the crowded markets, they are nervous and dreaming already of the silence and vastness of the sands, which only they can negotiate. They are unknown, and have no particular wish to be known. They cannot be defined in modern terminology, they cannot be bought, and they are therefore the subject of much international speculation. Al Qaida is a simple way to define them, so it is used as a kind of generic term for peoples of the desert. To be labelled Al Qaida is quite a status symbol for extremist groups in Algeria, and they tend to encourage this idea that they are connected to the organisation, but the connections are tentative at best. In Algeria, with its still unsettled relationship with Europe, internal tensions and high unemployment, armed gangs of angry young men abound. For the blossoming Mauritanian tourist industry, the worst of it is the whispers of Al Qaida terrorists. It is unlikely that there is a genuine Al Qaida connection. The locals hate Al Qaida more than anyone, as their origin is outside the peoples of this part of Africa. The message to Westerners is clear: Al Qaida means someone to be avoided.

‘I’d like to visit the UK,’ say the young men at the service station, ‘But you kill African guys with knives and I’d be too scared to go there.’ This fear was echoed at the customs offices in Dakhla Western Sahara. There are groups of disaffected youths in the inner cities of the UK, and there have been murders. However this no more describes the UK than to say that in Mauritania a gang of three youths who jump you from out of the desert defines this country. it is a tragic event, but it is an incident of crime, an aberration of normal and accepted behaviour. The police have caught two of the suspects and they will be duly tried. But our relations are so delicate at the moment that any act like this can destroy the reputation and the development of an entire African country.

1oo7 words

© Jill Rees

2^nd January 2008

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