Mayhem and booze
'I was wrong when I said in my latest entry that the 'rogue elements of the Presidential guard came to the police office, took the man out of his cell and without much further ado killed him on the spot'. It turns out that there was considerable further ado, in that they invested time and effort to beat the man senseless, stab him repeatedly, cut off his private parts, and finally shoot him to a pulp with a Kalashnikov. A newspaper picture showed the corpse in the morgue, brains bulging out of a crack in the skull. Sorry for adding these disgusting details, but it shows the bestiality of the people involved.
If the above is hard to read, just imagine what it must have been to actually witness the scene, as did Amour, our nanny. She happened to be at the gendarmerie to follow up on her own trouble with the army when the Presidential Guard people came storming in. The policemen inside were so scared of them that they fled the precinct and ran onto the street barefooted. Amour was deeply traumatised about what she saw. Yet another element in this dense African life of hers.
So much for the rule of law in this country. The government has remained as good as silent on the incident. It shows that no-one really controls these murderous and, as it now turns out, sadistic elements, and that the population is rightly scared to death of them. I cannot yet foresee the consequences of the incident (which comes on top of many previous incidents), but they may eventually be severe in terms of our assistance. A dilemma I have talked about before: a whole population taken hostage by a few.
Something unpleasant happened yesterday afternoon: my boss, myself and other colleagues had a meeting with the representatives of the major French development agencies in town, and I noticed that there was something odd to my boss's behaviour. He turned out to be quite tipsy after a lunch that according to a colleague who had been there had been 'bien arrosé'. I had noticed before that he is a heavy consumer, but he never seemed affected by it. This time he definitely was: he spoke with a noticeable slur, repeated himself and he lost his balance once while seated (!) as he gesticulated with his hands. He also nearly tripped over a chair when he got up to answer the phone. Furthermore he made an important factual mistake in his presentation.
It sounds funny, but it really wasn't. He's someone I respect and sympathize with, even though I have been disagreeing with him on certain issues lately. The situation got embarrassing as the guys in front of us seemed to understand exactly what was going on. Word will get around on this, and it will not help our credibility. Perhaps somebody should cautiously raise the isssue with him (like 'please get pissed in your own time'). Let's hope this was a one-off incident?
If the above is hard to read, just imagine what it must have been to actually witness the scene, as did Amour, our nanny. She happened to be at the gendarmerie to follow up on her own trouble with the army when the Presidential Guard people came storming in. The policemen inside were so scared of them that they fled the precinct and ran onto the street barefooted. Amour was deeply traumatised about what she saw. Yet another element in this dense African life of hers.
So much for the rule of law in this country. The government has remained as good as silent on the incident. It shows that no-one really controls these murderous and, as it now turns out, sadistic elements, and that the population is rightly scared to death of them. I cannot yet foresee the consequences of the incident (which comes on top of many previous incidents), but they may eventually be severe in terms of our assistance. A dilemma I have talked about before: a whole population taken hostage by a few.
Something unpleasant happened yesterday afternoon: my boss, myself and other colleagues had a meeting with the representatives of the major French development agencies in town, and I noticed that there was something odd to my boss's behaviour. He turned out to be quite tipsy after a lunch that according to a colleague who had been there had been 'bien arrosé'. I had noticed before that he is a heavy consumer, but he never seemed affected by it. This time he definitely was: he spoke with a noticeable slur, repeated himself and he lost his balance once while seated (!) as he gesticulated with his hands. He also nearly tripped over a chair when he got up to answer the phone. Furthermore he made an important factual mistake in his presentation.
It sounds funny, but it really wasn't. He's someone I respect and sympathize with, even though I have been disagreeing with him on certain issues lately. The situation got embarrassing as the guys in front of us seemed to understand exactly what was going on. Word will get around on this, and it will not help our credibility. Perhaps somebody should cautiously raise the isssue with him (like 'please get pissed in your own time'). Let's hope this was a one-off incident?
posted by Emilian at Thursday, January 12, 2006
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