inter cultural
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Anna
20 Augustus 2013 | Zuid-Afrika, Durban
The devil is in the detail
Often, when we talk to someone here, those people don’t look at us. So I had one thousand explanations in my head ranging from
“They are annoyed and by not looking they want to get rid of me as soon as possible”
to
“They are ashamed for some reason, and if I make them comfortable we can have a good talk”.
But what I learned is that it is neither of those. It is rather a common behaviour for showing respect.
Imagine for example that a European father is angry about something his son did. And so he goes and gives the son a lecture. If the son turns his face away while listing or even talking, the father will say “Look at me when I talk to you. Show some respect!”
Well, here it is quite the opposite: If the child would look at his father, the father would say: “how dare you look at my straight away. Show some more respect!”
You see, it is not that easy. And it took me quite a while to get to understand this (and honestly it came up from Erik when we were discussing the matter one day). But it helps so much in the interaction with people.
I’ll never get used to it
If you would ask my parents about my typical characteristics, they will probably say that I have a very strong sense of justice. And actually this makes life for my very hard around her. Because if anything is lacking constantly in any Mozambicans life… it’s justice, fairness and the likes.
The other day we walked down the street in Maputo on our way to spend an evening with friends. On our way a young man came running down the street followed by another one. In the first instance we thought it would be friends, joking around. But no! 2 guys came behind the first one and they got him, and started beating and kicking him. The boy was shouting and crying. I couldn’t help getting over and mixing myself into the discussion. I just can’t walk on if I see that kind of thing (I hope our security advisor from KiA doesn’t read this). It appeared that the boy had stolen a mirror from a car. The other two were guards. So they had taken the boy to the police station from where the boy had escaped. He was horrified. And if you had ever been as (supposed) criminal in a Mozambican police station you would know why he ran and why he was so terrified. On the other hand, those guys, they went behind him, because if they did not do their job well as guards, they would be unemployed very soon themselves. So it is not easy to say who is right. But what I felt was that the thief should not be beaten that way on the street. And what was worse: We were not the only bypassers that stopped and got into the discussion. There was one fellow who passed by. He came near, kicked the boy who was lying on the ground, in the stomach and the back and then just continued his way… . He did not have an opinion. Neither did he know what was going on. He just seemed to think that the one already on the ground deserved it or something like that.
But which way does a community – a country – develop, if this is accepted behaviour. Nobody seemed to be bothered by it except me.
Another example: Today Erik came home after a chat with our South African neighbours. They had been visiting a community 30 kilometers away today, where they accompany a farming God’s way project. The people there are living in constant terror these days. Apparently a gang is disturbing peace there: They break into houses, rape all women and children, beat everybody up, and do other things that are beyond our civilized European imagination. The people in that area don’t sleep at home anymore. Even in these cold winter days they prefer the woods to their houses because they are not safe anymore.
One thing is of course, that we wonder how safe we are under those circumstances. But well, at the end of the day, we can pack our bags and leave. Those people can’t. But looking up the incidences on the internet we found out things more shocking: This seems to be going on for weeks now. And there is no single Mozambican media, newspaper or whatsoever reporting about it. There is only one Portuguese News site (for various Portuguese speaking countries) that reports about it. And from what they say, and seen the fact the even the German Embassy, which usually does warn German citizens about any minor thing going on, did not send out any alerts, this story is being ignored on a large scale by police (Mozambicans say police officials are involved) and politics. So this gang according to that news site, attacks the poorest households (Seems to me they make sure no politician or police officer should be encouraged to come behind them, because those poor lads are of no interest to anybody) and they don’t even rob a single thing. Which I find even worse. Sounds strange, isn’t it?! But if they’d rob things, one could argue that they are also poor, needing to get along themselves and just choosing the wrong way. But it seems to be out of the pure pleasure of terrorizing and hurting others. And that makes me feel angry, raging and helpless at the same time. Because I would like to kind of understand things. And this is beyond my understanding and beyond everything I would consider human.
What is poverty? What do you think is poverty?
A
A woman with 4 little children, leaving home at 4 am to work and coming back at 7 pm, doing the laundry, cooking and cleaning. The little money she gets, she does invest in school fees for the wee ones. Her husband earns a bit more, but spends half of it having a good lunch and a beer at the market, one third on a “woman around the corner” and half of the rest for other fancy but unnecessary things. They have no new clothes, the food is corn porridge and beans half of the time, cassava (cooked or fried) the other days. During raining season the corrugated iron roof is leaking and the path to their house turns a mud stream. Every free minute they spend on the field 4 kilometers walking from home. Often, once the cabbages are almost ripe, someone does steel them. So again, the kids won’t have vegetables with the corn porridge.
B
A woman approaches you on the street. Her clothes are old and have holes in them. She tells you a story: She is on TB treatment. She has a card from her health centre which states her next appointments. But even in the government pharmacy the prices for TB treatment are too high for her. She hopes you will give her some money to get the treatment. Because she knows how important it is to stick to the treatment to get cured. She seems reasonably well nourished, probably has a roof over her head for the night and a clear look from her eyes, not disturbed by drug or alcohol abuse. But to pay the price for the medication and the “soft drink” to get the pharmacy technician to actually have another look in the back shelves to see whether he can find a “last pack” of that TB treatment that he says he has not left anymore (“You know, my friend, the central store doesn’t supply us well, and with the low prices I can hardly survive…”) - well that is too much money for that woman. Half her minimum wage goes into public transport, the rest to feed herself and take care of minimum needs and the “Soft drink” for the pharmacist is more than a day’s income.
C
How he ended up in this situation he won’t be able to tell anymore. Alcohol and other “stuff” have destroyed his memory and the ability to concentrate. You find him, wrapped in some plastic bags (note: in the developed world we’d make alternative haute couture from this. It looks like a nappy for adults wrapped around his intimate parts. Another bag serves as t-shirt), digging into a garbage container.
Yes, Maputo municipality does distribute those around the city, and every now and then you can find people actually dropping their garbage into them (the other day a lady came to me while I was sitting on the steps of the guesthouse, and asked for a Paracetamol for her headache. I gave her one and she took it. Then she dropped the empty strip right and there. She didn’t understand when I asked her to get it and give it to me to put it away into the garbage. It is not a common concept here yet).
But back to our friend dressed in plastic bags. He doesn’t seem to see anyone passing by once he reappears from the garbage container. The things he found seem to be worthless crap, but they are of some value to him. He walks down the road on his way to the next garbage bin. When he gets tired, he just finds a spot in the shadow, below a shop window or maybe in the entrance of an abandoned house. He lies down. It’s a long time (in another life?) since he last had a blanket or a pillow, no need for exaggerated luxury. As long as the youngster walking down the street trying to be “cool” leave him alone, everything is fine.
D*
Police cars in front and in the back make sure he won’t have to stop at any traffic light. And he should not. He is a very busy and important man – a politician, grown up in the party. His father was a freedom fighter in the war. That alone would be enough to see how important he himself is. And he will have important guest today. Selling some concessions to that big foreign company will render him a nice pocket money and some pictures he will be able to use promoting his commitment with the fight against poverty in Mozambique. And after all, there will be some Mozambicans working in that new company which will own one of the new mines to extract all the newly found precious materials in Northern Mozambicans ground. They won’t have a lot of high positions, mainly simple workers, because the foreigners will want to have their own people in the key positions. So his colleagues might get some “incentives” as well to issue all these visa for those foreigners and other colleagues will get “soft drinks” so that they will turn a blind eye to the fact that many people won’t be paid the official minimum wage. But that’s life and they should be happy to have work at all. It’s their own fault. They are not trustworthy members of the party, they don’t cooperate, and they spend their money for alcohol. He can’t help it! But he has to show some commitment in order to convince developed countries to keep donating for HIV programs, health care programs, education programs, water programs… . Otherwise not enough money would come into his pockets or the money would simples end up in private pockets lower down in the “food-chain”, so he can as well keep it.
* Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental
PS thanks Mieke, Ineke, Anique, Maarten, Jannet voor jullie trouwe berichten. Dat doet soms wonderen. :-)
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20 Augustus 2013 - 17:55
Stefie Meekers:
Hi Anna,
Your blogs are always so insightful, I always enjoy the read and wonder how you manage to stay there so long. I would feel so unsafe all the time!
Greetings from us all from hot sunny Malta!!
Stefie
www.maltabudget.com
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20 Augustus 2013 - 18:01
Miekedebest:
Hallo Anna en Erik,
Laatste loodjes wegen het zwaarst? Anna in een contemplatieve bui om e.e.a. af te wegen? Hopen dat het beter wordt vroeg of laat, veel meer kun je niet doen. Hoop dan ook van harte dat jullie het lachen niet verleerd zijn want positieve kanten blijven er altijd! Tot de volgende keer, groetjes, Mieke -
21 Augustus 2013 - 15:43
Anique:
Mooie en leuke foto's hoor, doet me denken aan de vakantie waarin Daan en Lio op zoek waren naar city faces. Gewone dagelijkse foto's van alles en nog wat waar je een gezichtje in kan herkennen. Die sprinkhaan achtige foto deed mij eraan denken. PS vertel nog wat over het lekkere eten wat jullie ongetwijfeld doen!! Erik zag er goed uit op de foto!!! Jij ook? Haha, gezellig hoor, dikke knuffel van uit een rustig 20 graden Nl. liefs Anique -
28 Augustus 2013 - 22:30
Maarten:
Oei, reageer ik nu pas :-S
Hoi Anna,
Goeie vraag 'wie er nu arm is'. Ik beschouw dit maar even als een quiz en ik kies antwoord D. De man (zijn altijd mannen) in kwestie heeft - in tegenstelling tot de andere personen - immers wél de mogelijkheid om zaken te veranderen en te verbeteren maar doet er niets aan. Dat is armoede om wat voor reden dan ook. Feitelijke armoede zit natuurlijk bij de andere drie voorbeelden die je geeft. Schrijnend zijn ze, evenals zovele situaties die je al eerder beschreven hebt.
> I’ll never get used to it
Gelukkig maar. En wij met jou. En velen met ons opdat het ooit beter wordt! Precies 50 jaar na dato en in compleet andere context: "I have a dream" - dat alle mensen een respectabele levensstandaard zullen hebben. Jij hebt in ieder geval voor een aantal mensen die droom al laten uitkomen denk ik zo!
groeten, Maarten.
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