FEATURE
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FEATURE
TALKING "AMERICA" WITH KENYANS, EGYPTIANS AND GERMANS LAST WEEK
TUESDAY MARCH 3RD 1998 -- New York (APJP) -- One of our editors just returned from a business/vacation trip which included stops in Nairobi, Cairo, Luxor, Hamburg, London and Paris. Here is his abridged diary:
KENYA
Nairobi: Today I was having lunch at a golf club in the ritzier section of Nairobi when I was approached by three Kenyan gentlemen who offered to buy me a drink. It turned out that one of these was a politician -- a man who was from the opposition party to - now in control - President Moi. My new friend had lost the election but seemed unconcerned, as if is had been preordained.
He wasn't far off. My own discussions with other pols in Kenya revealed that the so-called "free democratic elections" were, well, "fixed" and few opposition candidates had a chance.
Kenya is in shambles. Business is largely controlled by Indian nationals who own nearly everything in the country not owned by President Moi's political allies. The average worker earns less than $30 a month. A college graduate -- $60 a month. In short, the economy, relying heavily on tourism is flat broke. Signs of poverty abound. Yet, some, unbeknownst-to-them brave tourist souls still venture to the Masai Mara to see animals in the wild while remaining almost continually uncomfortable in a variety of camps set in the region for their convenience.
I was pushed into a four day photo safari. To be honest I was against this adventure from the start. I have no interest in seeing animals. Studying them, yes. Lord knows I've seen every detail of most species care of years viewing PBS specials. I also knew I could see all these same animals and more at San Diego Wildlife Park in the luxury of my Range Rover followed by a great dinner in La Jolla -- and all at a fifth of the cost!
But trek we did on a 25 hour plane ride followed by a scary flight in President Moi's buddy's airline from Nairobi to a dirt runway in the Mara.
The camp was inviting - sort of. It was fenced electrically with barbed wire and a covey of guards replete with aging rifles which didn't look like they could take out a chimp let alone a man-eating lion. What we did not know, was that the rifles were for marauders, not animals in the dark.
The power didn't work at several times daily. There was little or no hot water, and one had to tie there tent to the earth to avoid being burgled by feckless monkeys eager to get hold of this or that electronic goodie or use our CD's as mirrors.
I went out on "Safari" with the group only once. That was enough. The venerable Abercrombie & Kent who seems to gather its energy and clout through silly-sick relationships with Prince Charles, had stuck it to us.
The vehicles they offered? A few wrecked Japanese mini-vans with uncomfortable seats and personable drivers. The tires on these vans were the size of my son's Radio Flyer red wagon and no match for the dirt roads spidered across the Mara and devastated by years of neglect and recent flooding. Passengers were more often pushing them out of mud ruts than running through the grasslands in search of a Cheetah.
Only later did I learn that the roads are kept purposely un-navigable so President Moi's henchman can sell more air tickets from Nairobi and Mombasa to the Masai homeland. Or so the story goes. You see, the road once took drivers from Nairobi to Masai Mara in two hours. Now it takes eight -- if you are lucky not to break an axle. So, everyone flies. More money for Air Kenya, more money for Moi.
I would rise before the sun each morning as is my habit and sit around a poor campfire with young guards talking about politics, money and their families. They would also make me coffee -- a requisite for my tales of America. These "boys" earned $20-$30 a month guarding us even as we shelled out $1,000 a day for the privilege. I explained this to them. They were shocked, but briefly and then seemed to shrug into their fate pointing to corruption of big government and big business. In a way I was ashamed that an American firm controlled much of their region and took so much of my money for itself rather than sharing more with these men, the tent tenders, the cooks, waiters, drivers and myriad others here to make me comfortable.
During the recent elections Indian nationals -- who hold dual citizenship illegally in Kenya by "fiat" -- fled the country almost to the man. Their concern? Not awakening due to having their throats cut should the opposition party win out over their protector -- Moi et al. Yet it seems only a matter of time before the "Mau Mau" rise again to regain control of their country. The unrest is nearly hysterical in Nairobi and the Mara is the scene of brutal attacks on tourists once again.
While in camp alone one day I decided to get the best of my fellow photogs and hastily making arrangements, departing in a REAL Land Rover toward Tanzania and a river promising Hippos which no one had seen thus far.
At the site I did see my hippos and took digital movies of them at leisure. Only hours before 9 tourists had been shot in the area by Ugandan thugs patrolling the region with almost no fear. The next day another 10 people were ambushed right in Nairobi itself. To say the natives are restless is an understatement.
President Moi should take his cues from the PRC. There, the Chinese leadership knows that most important thing to maintain control of a large unruly populous is a FULL rice bowl -- both figuratively and in reality. Kenya's bowl has been empty for far too long, and with the help of Leaky the Younger and other opposition party workers, the end is near for the near-dictatorial government, the president of which disbanded the parliament a week ago rather than face its rebuke over more than 100 political murders in Kenya during its election cycle.
Ever since then I have not been able to get even one telephone call through to my friends in Nairobi.
Meanwhile, back at the golf club the political man and his son began to speak to me about garnering support in the US against Moi. I explained the routes toward that aim, but sadly brought up US support (now eroding) for Suharto in Indonesia, and my fear that the Administration might not take kindly to "changes" in East Africa at the moment. The older man was uninterested in American politics and the latest White House witch hunts, scandals and the like. But he did say something to me which I will never forget:
"You know, when I saw you sitting down to lunch, I could smell you. I knew you were involved in politics. Could you smell me too...from so far away?"
And you know what?
I had.
EGYPT
I had an appointment in Egypt with a banker who was trying to sell me a one-third interest in a modern building on the Nile Road in Luxor. It was an interesting meeting. What I recall most, aside from the financial details, was how, when making a point, this man would reach out and touch me, literally, as if to underscore his thought. I thought it charming and returned the "touch" more than once as the meeting continued.
Egyptians are a proud and intelligent people, best evidenced by President Mubarak and his right-on-target review of US policy toward Iraq. He, like most of his countrymen, see all sides of an issue almost simultaneously. He knew attacking Iraq was folly, as did President Clinton, all along.
During the week, I rented a small packet boat from a boy, 17, who explained to me in great detail why he was ready to die for Saddam and Islam.
Coming from him it made sense -- or at least as much sense as one of our boys dying for Standard Oil. He told me that America should leave the Arab countries at peace and not meddle in their business. His understanding of multinational economics was not there -- but his knowledge of basic human traits abounded. I thought I would fund a small trust for him in the hope he would live to inherit it rather than die in the Sinai for religious zealousness. We spent a lot time together. He escorted me into the sook. --- A marketplace not for tourists really, and he chastised me for paying too much for a small silver bracelet which would have cost 10 times the amount at Tiffany.
Here he was, this skimp of a boy, defending me and my purse and yet he was supposed to be my enemy. Kofi Annan had not yet made his pilgrimage to Baghdad at this time. I and my fellows were off-and-on in discussion about what would happen should America being bombing Iraq while we were in Egypt. I contacted our embassy in Cairo to alert them I was in Egypt, not wanting to fill out the normal registration forms distributed by the State Department to US citizens caught in an unfriendly nation during times of strife. I demurred from submitting these forms when I saw the Abercrombie & Kent rep throw the forms on an open desk in the lobby of the Nile Sheraton and leave them for at least 36 hours in open view and for anyone to pick up and sell is the Islamic Jihad.
One evening at the Luxor Museum I stood in front of a sarcophagus wondering what this King might have advised our President re Saddam and his palace guard armed with "weapons of mass destruction." I was reminded of the mythical Cleopatra as she held the asp to her satin neck.
In the end, only her loved ones were important he whispered to me from the ages.
EUROPE
I spent a couple of lazy days in Baden Baden close to the Swiss border, and a centuries-old watering hole for Europe's middle elite. Europe was nervous over the US/UK alliance against Iraq and the telegram those two nations were sending to the rest of the world.
"Hey," we were saying, "We're rich, we're armed to the teeth, and if you cross us -- watch out."
German's are loathe to discuss politics, and many hide behind a thin veil of mixed shame and envy over the loss of the big war yet today. Germany is rupturing money from the drain on its treasury by the recently absorbed East and unemployment is at record highs.
Germans are not in a good mood.
One evening I sat in the plush bar at Brenners Park Hotel and chatted with an amiable and obviously well known Baden-Badenite. He was elderly and jocular. He told me he had been in the US. I asked when and he replied with aplomb, "Why in 1942! I was in prison in California! Ha, ha, ha!" He went on to tell me how well he was treated by us, his captors. However the conversation turned ugly when he began to complain that he had to share his prison with "Japs" and that such filth was disgusting to him.
I took a chance and asked him whether he thought it was simply races and nationalities that began with a "J" that he disliked. He understood, but made no gesture of understanding, buying me a whisky and soda in the alternative, smiling all the while as if we were brothers.
Were we? I wondered.
- Mac Smith
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A Word from Eliot Janeway
"JK, a client, a friend, and one of the keenest minds in American politics, told me one afternoon: 'A good place to begin thinking critically about American and Western European democracies is to ask yourself: What kind of man or woman would choose to run for public office? Think about that.' - I did."
- Eliot Janeway ,1991 New York
From an Introduction to JK's "Washington - The New American Babylon"
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