Merigoesaround

I am not sure for how long a Spanish ham lasts at home. Looking at my parents’ chunky shapes and at my rosy cheeks after 3 weeks of mama’s food, I am guessing not for too long. Every time I come home for Christmas the ham ritual is initiated when my mum announces to the rest of the family that the old ham is finished and we need to buy a new one. Buying a Spanish ham is like buying a good quality turkey for Thanksgiving: not every turkey tastes or costs the same. A ham can go from 60 EUR or so to thousands. I once met a Spanish diplomat who told me that the Spanish ham should be a hidden secret of the Spanish gastronomy and that we should stop exporting it abroad. Hygiene-conscious Americans and their multiple and complicated phyto-sanitary rules, haven’t allowed Obamaland to enjoy the taste of this Spanish delicacy until very soon. Pigs are very dangerous animals in terms of exporting diseases. True. My grandma used to say that pigs are great because you can eat almost every part of i...

In the few weeks I’ve spent home in Barcelona I’ve learned more about the Main Street meaning of the financial crisis than reading the best FT analysts from sunny India or Benin. Sometimes faces and voices say more than books. This crisis is deep down penetrating the brains and psyches of my Spanish fellows. Tightening the belt means cutting consumption. I am surprised by the discounts that most retail shops are doing, in theory the sale season should start at the beginning of January but since shops are empty and hairdressers sit in their saloons lonely…discounts have started everywhere. One shop displayed the words: PROMOCION CRISIS -30%. The blackboard of a restaurant around the corner announced MENU CRISIS 6.50 euros. Bittersweet marketing to tackle poor sales. And where is the money being spent? Mortgage payments are higher. True. Mine has increased more than 100 euros in a period of 2 years, half of that amount in the last 7 months or so. Some money is going to the bank savings a...

Being vegetarian for the last 6 months I've received all kinds of comments and complaints:"Oh, is it because you love animals?", "Religious reasons", "dietary restrictions?", "stop being strange and difficult and ate the beef steak I bought for you" (the latter, my mum) There is no other reason behind my vegetarianism other than the fact that I simply do not appreciate food that much, I hate blood and I put on weight even under full days of pineapple and papaya diet as my Beninese hips visibly confirm. Before a friend who is now living in Singapore tells me that I sound like Paris Hilton again, let me clarify the purpose of this posting: I want to love food and I think I found the way to achieve that. Some people close their eyes out of pleasure when they put something delicious in their mouths. I know some of those. Anna, Michael, Hugo. Probably you do that too. Well, I don't. I eat because I have to eat but I am not able of appreciating...

Some people say that twin brothers or sisters are specially connected. Mentally. They can feel what the other feels, advance what the other thinks. There is no chance of my sister and I being twins, she is 3 years older...but when we were kids our capacity to want the same thing at the same time, have the same reaction simultaneously and wish the same thing was extraordinary. We even had urgent urinary needs at the same time, the run to the bathroom was very competitive. We used to wake up with the fixation of wearing the same dress or shoes (I was three years younger but had her size), we wanted to eat the same amount of soup, we would complain if my steak was bigger or her piece of chicken was smaller. It had to be the same amount. One chicken breast did not equal a chicken leg plus a wing. No. My poor father started eating chicken breast (his favorite part) when we left home. So today, when my sister called saying that she is bringing me a little gift from San Francisco and that she...

Abdel is a Muslim friend from Northern Benin who refuses to open a restaurant with another friend if he has to serve alcohol. He does not want to serve alcohol, drink it or be involved in anything related to beers and whiskies. However he knows opening a restaurant could be a good business in Northern Nattitangou. Adbel lives in conflict. He did not finish school. Abdel’s little brother helps him reading the emails he occasionally receives from a Belgium girl who volunteered in Nattitangou some years back. He would like to learn how to read and write and spare himself the embarrassment of dictating emails to his brother. He told me that he knows "why blacks are still black"!: they know what they should be doing but they just don’t do it. His reasoning shocked me but at the same time I admire Adbel for taking own responsibility for the highs and lows of his life.

When visiting the Portuguese fort of Elmina in Ghana you expect to smell the splendor and the misery of Ghana's colonial past. It turns out that this week one could also smell the future of African-American relations if Obama gets elected tonight. The guy in the picture works as a guide and also as an unofficial Obama ambassador in Ghana, trying to reach undecided Americans while they tour West Africa. His efforts together with Beninese Voodoo ceremonies invoking an Obama victory are folkloric and anecdotal. However, I would like to think that if an Afro-American president governs the United States for the next years maybe millions of African children here and there could imagine that what seems difficult is indeed feasible and achievable. That one day, maybe not that far away, change could start with themselves. The next pre-results hours are exciting and full of chocolate chip cookies, popcorn and French cheese, isn't this already a signal of change and "Entente"?

http://xkcd.com/490/

Difference between the words women and men? The first syllable "WO". "WO" from the word WORK. Sometimes it is horrifying to see how hard women work in Africa. The other day I saw a lady carrying bananas on her head, the African way. Just like the lady above carries nuts. I stopped her to buy some little, sweet bananas. She had to give me some change back. "Madame, you have to help me to discharge the banana platter from my head, the coins are in the middle of the platter". "Of course", I replied. Taking the platter I realized how heavy it was. I smiled at her and told her she was a superwoman and that not even 2 whities like me could lift the platter. She said "merci" smiling and her beauty strocked me as much as the weight of the platter. For a second she probably felt as the superwoman she is.

These last days, this corner of the world looks different to me. Now I see Benin through the eyes of a friend who is in Africa for her first time. Milica. She is from Serbia and very well traveled but she is experiencing the Sub-Saharan African shock, in a positively way, I believe. The only thing she really disliked up to now is to pee in the bushes. Not for ladies like us. Evidently, to urinate in front of kids who want to see a white person in that embarrassing situation is a transforming experience. We saw a Bariba King (Roi de Kaounde), visited the magical world of healers, mediums and herbal remedies and illegally crossed the border to Togo for a tuna sandwich. It took a Serbian-passport holder a visit to Africa to be able to cross a border free of visa hassle. Interesting. There is a long pre-colonial history of kingdoms in Benin. Wikipedia does not tell me how many kings rule (traditionally rule) Benin's non-urban areas but my impression is that people still follow these ch...

In the four years I lived in the US I don't think I met a really dummy American. Not even traveling across redneck areas blatantly stupid people came across. In the ten years I've been abroad I only befriended mostly witty, cultured Americanos. Those who were and are representing Bush Foreign Policy abroad are everything but dummy. They hate criticizing American Foreign Policy, it is like sweet and sour pork sauce...On the one hand Yes, "I am a diplomat. Sweet"...On the other..No..."I am a diplomat of this disastrous administration". Still...I do NOT know stupid Americans. So...where are the Palin lovers? Is she truly considered a maverick by many Americans? I can understand how her style is enticing to the patriotism that runs inside e.v.e.r.y American (dumb and diplomat, both). I do. Yes, Yes...God Bless America, Good Old America, America's role in spreading democracy, the Founding Fathers...and all those Greeeat things. However, beyond the patriotism,...

Traveling around poor countries one sometimes feels the need to take pictures showing misery. Misery is not always ugly. Often in the darkest place, in the driest village the smile of a roundy stomach child or the mature hands of a women weaving turn the site into a picture-like scenario of warmness and beauty. It is like taking the picture of a smiley kid in the middle of a mountain of rubbish gives room for hope. One can always explain back home that despite living in poverty they seem to be quite happy. The endurance of children living in poverty is reflected in their eyes, they sometimes have a special shine, half hope, half tear. And I wondered, what would an African who has never visited Europe photograph had he or she the chance to visit? The Champs Elysees, the windows of the shops, maybe the food at restaurants, the clean spaces, the boring faces in the morning metro ride, the orderly lines of traffic... Cesaire is a Beninese who landed for the first time in European Paris wit...

Western Union has the monopoly of the remittances market in Benin. Interestingly, all banks in Benin have a cooperation agreement with Western Union, they share premises. Good business eye. As for the customer, we are talking about banked middle class Beninese who might prioritize convenience to commission.

I have Merilaria. Just yesterday I went for my first-ever malaria test. It was negative but I still feel sick. The picture below is a talking proof. What if I took the test too early (yesterday) and only later (today) malaria has erupted in my blood? Currently reading Kapuscinsky's Ebene...now that I know he had cerebral malaria and survived it back in the early 60s, I do not see why my merilaria should get me any complications. After all, I am even taking the prophylaxis. A Beninese friend had a bad cough and I asked him whether he felt like the beginning of a malaria episode. Asking for the state of your health is the most normal question over here (et alors la sante, ca va?, et la famille, ca va?). His answer was another surprise for somebody coming from Yovoland: when he feels malaria is attacking him, he boils quinine leaves into water, adds honey, lemon and sugar and drinks that for two or three days. But quinine has more interesting and jovial applications...according to tra...

Surfing buddies Locals tell me that they are far offshore. And naive me thinking that it was a dolphin...

Today Ramadan ends in Benin. It finished yesterday in Togo and I believe the day before in Nigeria. My colleague Halima, a Muslim herself, has been eating for the last days, she has her period and she does not need to fast or pray. “I am on religious vacation”, she says with a smile from ear to ear. Northern Benin is more Muslim than the south. It is also drier and poorer. It has also been heavily impacted by the food crisis during the last year. Price of basic food and fuel increased, the weather did not help, micro-farmers sold almost everything they had to neighboring Nigeria, women stocked as much as they could so to sell corn at a higher price during the non-productive season…an accumulation of causes and consequences that called for Gadaffi’s intervention, who generously shipped some tonnes of rice. But rice did not last long. Charity is a good temporary medicine, for both giver and receiver. Rice is now gone and some areas of Benin lack food. More data courtesy of GTZ, Hugo'...

Workshops in Benin are such an intercultural exchange. A workshop brought me to Bohicon and Abomey to discuss a project on microfinance and energy. There were many issues to discuss, among them whether the organization I work for has any specific role in the project at stake. Beyond planning activities, postponing deadlines and creating new ones, we touched upon the mystic topic whether Christ is white or black. From a white perspective, I never thought that black people question Christ whiteness. Please, do not get me wrong or draw conclusions from my comment…as a professor of mine says…fish do not know they live in the water. Beninese in general are very religious people, followers of traditional religions and animistic ones. The large number of religious NGOs and new-built horrendous churches all along the main road traversing the country might be an indicator of religious practice. A good French friend of mine told me the other day that Benin is Paris main source of priests. Chris...

http://www.cgap.org/p/site/c/template.rc/1.11.1909# http://psdblog.worldbank.org / http://www.indiadevelopmentblog.com/ http://creativecapitalismblog.com/ http://chrisblattman.blogspot.com/ http://www.voxeu.org/ And just to bring the brain down...and your mood up http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25YDJuKJ6h4

I read that there is not enough public money to fund the demand for microfinance services in the world. Giving access to savings accounts, loans and microinsurance to millions of unbanked people will need more money than what the World Bank and the rest of donors can offer. MFI’s across the world need funding and investments are already pouring towards them, drop by drop, slowly, slowly. At least in Benin. Benin is not a major destination for private money in microfinance right now. The intervention of the government in one of the major MFIs at the beginning of this year has scared most investors off. Understandable. Why would you put your money in a local MFI when the government can decide tomorrow to remove the whole management team and replace it with an interim bunch of people? Risky. A local MFI told me yesterday that they only have funding to give credit to 31% of their total demand. Regardless on how inflated or deflated this number is, the fact that some MFIs do not serve poten...

Dutch public officials, Dutch UN staff or Dutch consultants are a different breed. I simply admire their sincerity and straightforwardness. Imagine a donor harmonization meeting, a donors’ annual review or an European Commission Round table: watch out where the Dutch official, consultant or intern sits. Yes, even opinionated Dutch interns have a say, they are not shy and they will speak out loud, commenting on what the British ambassador says, questioning why to pay a consultant a 800 EUR per diem, inquiring the viability of a project and telling everybody else that we are wasting money. If they could only be a little bit more positive without loosing their Realpolitikness.

Once in my life I thought I wanted to be an expert on Eastern Europe and Russia. I did not know what that meant…but I was fascinated by the sound of Slavic languages, I thought those who lived under the Soviets were cultured and cultivated people, loved borsch soup with a spoon of sour cream and cold weather. Out of all those useless classes at high school and university, I only remember subjects related to Communism, I regret not having read more books and novels instead of memorizing those dates and facts at school that give you no historical culture at all. That brought me to Poland, Albania, Russia and anywhere where (some) men wear Adidas sweatpants with leather jackets. I quickly realized that an expert on a region was not enough. I needed a subject, an area, an amount of knowledge on something. I chose human development thinking that education, health and social protection - how donors define human development-, was the part of development that resonates with my values. However,...