The Weekly Sneak: Keep it Green

Not that it comes across very strongly, but I have a thing for environmentalism and the green movement and all that tree-hugging stuff*. I am a bit of a provincial actually: Dar es Salaam is the biggest city I have ever lived in in my whole entire life. Mega cities give me the willies actually. I like them the way people like rollercoasters. A couple of rides and it is time to go home. Trouble is that Bongo is trying to become a bit of a modern urban mess. Which makes me sad because if there was one thing that I always relished, it was the feeling that by living in Dar I was getting away with a delicious advantage. Everyone is obsessed with Nairobi, thank goodness, leaving us tourist-free residents to our own devices. It has remained a wonderfully under-appreciated corner of tropical heaven for the longest: hot, humid, torrid, complex, confounding, stagnant, vibrant, dynamic, sarcastic, inscrutable, welcoming, warm, playful... evidently I could go on for a bit, this here love affair has twenty-something years on it.

But of course, change must come. Recent work with some activists was instructive: the practice of urban farming is alive and well. I hope we stick with it, that would go some ways to making up for the visual assault of all those inorganic, mirror-fronted, puce- and violet-tiled, no-car-park having monstrosities that are going up around the city with impunity. Anywho, I wanted to do a combination love-letter, nostalgic commentary and "think green" piece for The East African this week. Here's a bit:

"Now that prosperity is trying to knock on Tanzania’s door- in spite of the fact that all of the lights are off inside- we seem to have found entirely new uses for the open spaces in our lush city. Land grabbing seems to be in Tanzanians’ blood, as anyone will tell you who has legally bought a plot and left it unattended for a month or less. Bars and food establishments are usually the first offensive: it is a rare space that hasn’t at some point been taken over guerrilla-style by a handful of plastic chairs to become the refuge of after-hours folks who prefer to have dinner and catch the evening news away from their domestic arrangement. Such a gentle approach to land-grabbing usually left a little patch for neighborhood kids to play, not to mention a corner for an enterprising sort to hook up an illegal water connection and grow vegetables."

Don't worry, the ranting comes later. One way of getting a bit of a feel for the Dar that rarely shows up in popular consciousness is, of course, to buy the Dar Sketches book :)

*a propos tree-hugging: how is that an insult? Everyone has tried it at some point in their life. Believe me, you ate bugs as a kid and we both know you've hugged a tree or two in your time. Nothing to be ashamed of.

Traffic Jam at 2:00 pm

So I'm driving back from city-sides this afternoon at around 2:00 in the afternoon, and to my surprise there's crazy traffic. I thought to myself: 'Where the heck are all these office folks going? Shouldn't they be food-comatose in the corporate rec room trying to digest the day's portion of ugali-samaki?' Apparently not.

I am evidently still getting used to the New World Order of traffic in Bongoland, and I spend much of my time trying to maintain my composure while navigating the general chaos. But who expects traffic at two in the afternoon? It was full blown misbehavior all around- cars overtaking on the left and on the right, people driving down the wrong lane*, pedestrians testing my braking skills, kuchomeka, gridlocking, totally inappropriate lane-changes, those (expletive deleted) bajaj... you know how it goes.

It all put me in mind of something that was said during an excellent discussion recently on the politics of development. In other countries (alert: totally unquantifiable generalization), traffic takes care of itself when there are no cops around. I had the chance to see this in South Africa at some four-way intersections where people went one by one all around- no gridlock, no road rage.

Can't we just do this in Bongoland? I figure (and we all more or less agreed during said excellent discussion) that it is because of those all-important substructures. Call it culture, informal institutions, whatever. See, in other countries (warning: seriously unquantifiable generalization) folks are used to taking care of business for themselves. Active citizenship, like. This means that they don't need to rely on the state, i.e. traffic cops, to come up with a set of rules for them to get on with life. But I am optimistic- something's going to give.

Remember the bad old days when folks would not queue up at a bank and just skip the line, coming up to the teller while you were still counting your loot? Not so much anymore. I suppose that we are on the same slow learning curve with our road manners. And I figure, once we can deal with each other somewhat politely on the road, much of the rest should take care of itself.

Aside: the Mo Ibrahim foundation has decided not to award anybody for the second year running. But they have announced an initiative to incubate talented young African leaders of tomorrow. Tenterhooks.

*Seriously? Only if you are The President, The Prime Minister, or The Army. Otherwise you are asking for it, and it shall come to you.

A little rain, a little traffic, a little meeting in the 'hood.

I can't be the only one chuckling at this: Nairobi hosted East Africa's World Social Forum (WSF) 2007 where all the lefties, greens, civil society beasts and other fringe types come together to wag a collective finger at Evil Corporations and Bad Governments. This year Dar gets to host the World Economic Forum on Africa where Governments and CEOs come together to make big economic plans, preferably without the drippy intrusions of the fringy folks. Nairobi got the Lefties. Dar got the Corporates. What is the world coming to?

Whatever. My real beef here is congestion- something that has been bothering Bongolanders of all vehicular stripes since the masika rains decided to go for broke. I wasn't going to say anything- lord knows there's been enough yakking about drainage systems and urban planning to satisfy the bitterest grouser. However the combination of flooding, road damage and totally insane road closures because of the WEF has tipped us over the edge of RIDICULOUS commuting times. Oh, you should hear the pathetic stories from people who live in the Outer Reaches of Beyond, like Kimara. Waking up at 4:00 or earlier to wade through backed up sewage/drainage pipes and being forced to push their stalled daladalas. It is inhumane.

So while it is nice to hold this Big Important Meeting to which Watus Are Not Really Invited right here in Dar es Salaam, my beloved center of the universe, I must admit regretfully that we don't seem to have the infrastructure for it. Mister Popularity was cracking jokes amidst his thinly veiled threats to TUCTA about not striking tomorrow, but if they do and lock up the city center we're going to end up killing each other at gridlocked intersections.

Likelihood is that tommorow is the endtimes anyways. They are closing Ali Hassan Mwinyi for four hours per day! Decades of Tanzanian civilization will be wiped out in one day. We should have traded in a couple of State House Taxis for helicopters so that your people could fly these Very Important Nuisances hither and yon and leave us alone. Because life is already plenty hard enough. Just sayin', Jay Kay. You'll be that president, know what I mean? The Weffers might go home with fond memories of how fresh the fish was from the buffet and how gorgeous the view from Level 8, but we the Watus will remember it a little differently.