Yellow Journalism, African Style.. Part 2

Over the last couple of weeks, I have been subject to a full out smear campaign orchestrated by one of my crazy brothers using the press. Since he failed to destroy me in court, he brought his case to the newspapers. 

I have previously posted on the topic of what I call African yellow journalism on

this blog. In the past, I ignored the articles "ordered" against me. This time however, the accusations that I was a CIA agent and that my company a front for the CIA merited a response. So I ended up having to meet with so-called “journalists.” My oh My! This was a real eye opening experience for me.

Of about 10 papers, only one Editor-in-Chief admitted approving the article for publication. All the others contended that a staff journalist or intern had inserted the article without their knowledge. It was almost comical how each of these had the very same excuse. They were out of town… They are only reading the article as I am speaking to them and had not seen it before… The article was a disgrace and they are shocked that anyone would print anything like that but it is not at all what they do… They will suspend/fire the culprits… They will personally be writing the retraction to give it more credibility…

They were obviously reading from the same book of how not to get sued. In this country, libel is a criminal offense and both the newspaper’s Editor and the author of the article can be sent to prison. All of these Editors were disingenuous and it was obvious that they were well aware of the contents of the article before it was published and were simply trying to cover their tracks.

In the process of having to meet all of these “Editors” and “journalists” I learned a lot about how they conduct their profession. First of all, most of them had not bothered to actually write the article. They just printed what had been sent to them by email or on a USB key. This explained why the articles were all almost identical, including the title. They even received various jpg photos as part of the process. This meant that they had absolutely nothing to do except sign their name and find space in their newspaper in exchange for some money. The reality is that you order an article like you order an ad. Only in most major newspapers in the rest of the world, even the ad must meet certain standards. Here, just like with paid advertising, the placement of the article in the newspaper (front page or buried on page 6) is a reflection of the amount of money the paper received. 

One editor was furious at his journalist. “He probably got a lot of money for this! And can you imagine, I didn’t get any of it. And I am the one that takes the blame.” His problem was not the content but not getting his “fair share.”

One of the “journalists” actually opened his email in front of me to show me who sent him the article (in 2 different versions) and showed me the attached photos that he could choose from. He explained that he had picked one of the two versions, had not changed so much as a comma, selected one of the pictures and simply signed his name as the author.

I actually read through an article with one “journalist” and pointed out that not a single sentence in his full page article was correct. Not one. “I did not read it in that much detail,” he answered. While we were speaking, he mistakenly spilled his glass of water. I wiped the water off with his newspaper and told him that was the only thing his paper could be useful for. A pity he didn’t ask to go to the toilet…

I asked some of the “journalists” what evidence they had in order to publish the nonsense they printed. They had none and in truth, they had not even thought about that question. You see, in most cases, as they explained, the person attacked simply writes their version and they just print that. They all offered to give me space to refute their article and were shocked when I refused. I told them that they would have to write a retraction themselves on anything they printed which they could not prove. I was therefore putting the onus on them to write an article, an exercise they apparently were not accustomed to. They kept complaining that it was too much work and even suggested that I should write the retraction as if they had written it and they would sign. I refused. They would have to repair the damage or I would sue. All of them finally agreed, albeit reluctantly, to write a retraction; and truthfully a couple have already published it.

Another common occurrence was that these “journalists” saw my meetings with them as a revenue generating opportunity. Most wanted me to “finance” the retraction!! “Madame, it is expensive to print a paper.” I honestly almost slammed one of their faces into my meeting room table. My answer: don’t print a retraction and deal with the consequences.

Others adopted a more subtle strategy. They would print a retraction saying that they had made a mistake but then they also wanted to help me to get back at the person that had financed the campaign. “You need to attack him!” “We will print anything you want against him. All we want is support.” Support = money. I told them I had never paid for any article in any newspaper anywhere in the world and I would not start now. They were actually surprised. It seemed strange to them that I would not want to do that against my enemies. Some thought I was stupid or naïve. A missed opportunity. LOL!

To be clear, not all journalists who received the articles or were offered money printed anything. All but one of the dailies refused and the one that did was very mild (no CIA reference). And even they agreed to print a retraction. 

These so-called ‘journalists’ tarnish the reputation of the few who struggle through a difficult profession, constantly putting their lives at risk and having to overcome enormous financial constraints. After meeting so many of their “colleagues,” I have even greater respect for the real journalists who have not fallen prey to easy money. 

Fight for your Principles, Fight a System

I have learned that the more I am able to get around corruption, the more I am able to overcome systematic hurdles, the more attacks I should expect. At first, I anticipated that my adversaries would be the ones to launch these assaults, and they have. I remember in one legal dispute, my opponents took out full page ads in all the country’s newspapers and ran them an entire week, attacking my company’s integrity. Those types of attacks are normal and expected.

What I did not imagine is that people outside of the dispute would also join in, in a kind of a multiplier effect. You are not battling against an entity or a person but battling against a system. And those who rely on that system will fight you not because they have a particular problem with you but because the outcome of your dispute might shatter their whole structure. If one individual can actually win court cases, win contracts and do business without corruption, this could encourage others to do the same and jeopardize an entire system.

I try to do what is right under my circumstances. And while I do hope that the decisions that I make will have a positive impact beyond my personal situation, I don’t have the ambition to change the whole environment. Yet, the mere sense that someone – anyone – could get around their system causes collective panic and leads to numerous forces working to protect this order of things.

As a result, just staying in a corner, trying to survive while maintaining one’s ethics and principles can be an invitation to what I call “invisible forces.” Doing the right thing is so costly, so exhausting that it becomes a luxury. Not many can withstand the barrage of assaults that result from trying to operate outside of the system, and many don’t. It is just so much easier to just go along with the flow lest one become the target for destruction.

Even though I don’t promote this openly, it is pretty well known that I don’t engage in corrupt practices. But the environment survives and thrives on corruption. As a result, I am an enemy before I even decide to enter the ring.

As I mentioned in earlier posts, my father died a couple years ago and there has been a real battle surrounding his estate. My legal status happens to make me his primary heir even though he had lots of children. To avoid any battle, I thought that it would be best to simply share equally with everyone and stay out of the courts. As rational as this might seem, it was a huge mistake.

In fact, when there the potential for a dispute, especially when it involves significant amounts of money, the system needs a battle; lawyers need to get their fees; judges need their bribes; law enforcement authorities too. Therefore, the more fights they can create and the longer they can keep them going, the more they benefit. So the various forces will actually fuel the fight – this until there is nothing left to fight over, and then they move to another case. While I have understood this, many of my siblings have not and they have fallen hook line and sinker into the system’s trap.

More importantly, the “forces” know full well that they will not benefit from me and that if I have my way, the disputes will end. So I unwittingly become the target for their attacks with my siblings used as mere instruments. Unwittingly because I chose not to engage in the battle so they brought the battle to me. My offices have been physically attacked by dozens of thugs with the police, when called, just watching as our doors were broken down and locks changed; innumerable criminal complaints have been brought against me, simply because I chose to stand up for the truth; I am on trial for purportedly being a CIA agent and there are two eviction proceedings against my company because we are “a cover for the CIA.” A local police station even issued a warrant for my arrest for “espionage,” amongst other ridiculous accusations.

Of course, these are all ludicrous and unfounded attacks and those who brought the complaints know that there is no basis for them. But because I am brought into the ring, I have to defend myself, and therefore, I have to surrender to their system.

One of the many times I had to respond to law enforcement, they straight out told me that they knew that I was really the main heir but that my half-brother had shown them money and that I should show that I have more. I walked out, suggesting that if they had anything on me, they should simply arrest me.

Last week, I received a call from a friend of a magistrate that has one of the cases; again, he stated that others had made “offers” and that he wanted to give me the opportunity to make an offer of my own, suggesting that the decision would favor the highest bidder. Again, my response was simply that the judge simply do what he thought was right; I would not be “bidding.”

Because of the legal circumstances, it is very difficult for judges to outright decide against me, or for law enforcement to charge me with a crime. However, they drag the cases or investigations for as long as possible, hoping that the pressure and the financial cost of multiple lawsuits, complaints and disruption to my business will cause me to relent.

If I have been able to withstand the attacks so far, it is only through God’s grace. This does not mean it has been easy. It has taken a toll both on my personal and on my professional life. It has also caused me to put on hold many of my projects and other more constructive endeavors. So in that respect at least, the system has been victorious. Although it has not yet destroyed me, it has limited my ability to function normally – meaning against the system's interests.

I am an optimist and believe that good overcomes evil. I cannot allow the system to change what I believe in or to dilute my principles. I might lose a lot in a material sense but at least, I will maintain the very essence of who I am. This doesn’t sound very pragmatic but as some say, “pragmatism is the enemy of principle.”

Paying for Air or a New Utilities Billing Concept

Our office here just received its monthly water bill a few days ago. About $30. This is a lot for an office and it is twice what we were paying about a year ago. Worse, the water service is so infrequent that we often go several days with no running water. I asked our accounting manager why the sudden jump in the cost when we were using less water.

The accountant explained that we were paying for air. Yes. Really. After noticing that our bills were unusually high given the usage, the accountant and a plumber did a test. They checked the water meter when there was no service and noticed that the meter was running. After some tests, they realized that whenever we opened any water faucet or tried to flush the toilet, the meter would count that as water used! I thought this was impossible.

A couple days ago, I ran into the water meter reader. He seemed friendly and I asked him about this strange billing. He actually admitted that this was indeed the case and that many people were complaining about it but that there was nothing he could do.

The water utility was privatized a couple years ago as one of these World Bank / IMF imperatives. The quality of the water has not improved; the service has gotten worse and the prices have increased. I was in the office of the CEO of the water utility once and I thought it was very telling that he had bottled water on his desk!

I have not seen the new financial results for the water utility. I would not be surprised to see that their profitability increased substantially. After all, they are the exclusive distributor of paid air in the country.

Treading the Muddy Waters of Corruption

People often ask me how I manage to keep my "no corruption" stance in an environment in which corruption is the rule and not the exception.

1. My first strategy is to "sell" this concept to my staff.

Most people from this country are accustomed to business being done in a corrupt way. Even when they don't like it or agree with it, they often go along with it just because the alternative seems too hard. The way I sell it is by example; and over time, they see the benefits of the strategy. For instance, taxation officers tend to drop by on Friday afternoon and threaten to seal the office if they are not given their "weekend allowance." We simply say no and agree to be shut down. Others who fall into the trap do give the "allowance." Sure, the tax officer who received the gift will not come back for a few weeks but he will send the word out to his colleagues and they will visit one at a time to get their piece of the pie. In our own case, after a few times of not getting anything, they simply stopped coming. They really don't bother us anymore.

There are many other examples too of employees seeing that a no corruption rule can be beneficial. We have actually won contracts because of our policy (although we have lost more than won).

I also try to position our policy in a greater context to our staff. We often have discussions on the ills of corruption and how this negatively affects the development of our country. I explain how we are too good to participate in that game and if any company can have such a stance, it is us. If we can't, how should we expect companies with fewer resources to do so?

This staff by-in is essential to make the policy work. They are on the front-lines and are getting the push back. They lose deal after deal as a result. If they do not firmly believe we are doing the right thing, then we cannot succeed.

2. I am always ready to walk away from a deal

Sometimes, the corruption is more insidious. You think that you are dealing with people with integrity and you proceed with the proposal with that in mind. At some point, even far down the line, some clients become strange. There are unforeseen delays; they are having personal financial issues; the client boss wants to meet the supplier boss in person... There are a number of signs that point to clients wanting you to come forward with an offer for a bribe. When I see such signs, I just walk away. It is just better that way. If they want a bribe at the proposal stage, even if you get around that somehow, they will get you at the payment stage. Just not worth it. We lose lots of deals this way.

3. I try to maintain relationships unrelated to deals or services

The best time to offer a gift to a client or a government official is when you don't need them for anything. Even here you need to be careful with the gift so that it is not misconstrued. I will personally select a book or other inexpensive item that is of personal interest to the person receiving it. People love pens. We had some nice logo pens made and we give them out as gifts. If there is a deal on the table, no pen. This is simply because some clients might interpret this as an incentive and the beginning of bigger and better things. When you don't follow the pen with a more significant "gesture" they see this as an insult.

Another present people just love is Obama gear. So I brought some back after the inauguration and they were thrilled.

I am not a phone person. I hate the phone but I do try to call government officials from time to time just to say hello. People really appreciate this. I prefer email so when I know that they read their email, I will send a quick hello from time to time.

Another one of my favorite gifts is prepaid phone cards. This is not expensive and people really appreciate it. I usually tell them that I would love to hear from them from time to time but that I know it is expensive for them to call. They still "beep" -- beeping is calling briefly to let their number appear on your caller-ID and then hanging up before you pick up as a sign for you to call since only the caller pays -- but they will often do so to give heads up on a matter of interest to you.

4. Do Say Thank You (and not just with words)

There have been times when people have gone out of their way to help us. This is both in the business sector and in government. Although this is not allowed in the US, we do sometimes say thanks by offering a gift, sometimes even cash. (I know!!! Not me!!!). This is very delicate and has to be done very carefully. First, this can only happen if there is no expectation of any type. If there is an expectation, then it can't work and you get caught up in the game.

Second, it must be separated in time enough from the act that it is not seen to be a pay-for-play deal. Let me give you an example. Court judgments here take sometimes months to get typed up and registered. Until that happens, you just can't execute. We had some a judgment that we needed typed. The court clerk, who had been very friendly with us offered to stay after hours to type it. He said that this was because he had followed the case and really felt bad for us. No expectation. More than a year later, I purchased a cell phone and gave it to that Clerk. It was my way to say thank you. I am his hero now.

Third, this is usually only for lower level staff that are not implicated in the decision-making. This is a secretary, or a security guard, or a similar position where they assisted you in making something happen faster or giving you pointers. For example, with one client, there was a guy working in the IT department with no real title. The guy really liked our solution but he was not part of the decision-making process and had no authority. In fact, he knew from working with that agency, that we would never be selected. He gave us a few tips on how to make sure that our proposal got to the right people so that the decision-makers would be forced to explain why we had not been considered. Using his advice, we won. Well after the project was done and over with, we thanked him with a cash gift. He was getting ready to leave the agency and try to set something up on his own. The cash was what he needed.

There are even times when we have provided a gift to a decision-maker (I know... I know, digging deeper into the mud). This happened twice. In both instances, they were no longer in their capacity when we "thanked" them. They were very surprised and very grateful. And in both cases, they had really helped us a great deal, even at personal cost when everyone else seemed against us. Each time also, they never asked for anything or acted in a manner which led us to believe they had any ulterior motive.

I know a lot of people will say that it is a form of corruption. I struggle with it myself to be very honest. I worry that the recipients of the gift might expect us to do this every time. We have not run into many problems but it is still a concern.

5. Little Corruption is Big Corruption

One of the most annoying type of corruption in this country is what they call the "mange-mille" which translates as "eat-1,000." These are the police who are on the side of the road and will harass you until you give them the equivalent of $2 or more. I have sat in my car for over an hour refusing to give in before they finally let me go. Once, they stopped me and when they saw I had all my documents, they asked for my yellow-fever vaccination certificate. Believe it or not, I had it with me much to their displeasure. Another time, they wanted to cite me for having a suitcase in the back seat. They said that this required a special license to carry mixed cargo (people and goods). I refused to pay. I missed my plane.

This is such an annoyance that most people just pay. What I find though is that once you start justifying the bribe with "it saves me time" arguments, it becomes easier to use those same arguments when the stakes are higher. I know lots of fellow Diasporans who returned to this country with the same "no corruption" philosophy. Then they gave into the police to avoid the hassle; pretty soon it was the customs officials at the airport to avoid paying custom duty; then they started to justify paying the phone company technicians to install a line faster; and then it goes on and on and on... Within a year, they are fully in the system.

6. Be Beyond Reproach

You can't very well complain about police harassment when your papers are not in order; can't complain about courts being unfair when you are on the wrong ; can't complain about tax authorities when you don't pay your taxes.

As a result, you have to ensure that you are always on the right side of the law. In this country, dual-citizenship is not allowed. I have a US passport. I could get one from this country in a day. But that would set me up for being in an irregular situation. Therefore, I apply for and pay $500 for a residency permit every two years. All our employees, including our cleaning staff and security guards are registered with the government. We cover all their withholdings so that their net salary is what it would have been had they been paid under the table. We file our tax returns
monthly no matter what, even when we can't pay them right away. If we are in a legal dispute and we are wrong, we settle. Sometimes even when we are right we try to settle because Court in this country is HELL (see justice heading for more on that).

The beauty of being beyond reproach is FREEDOM. It is wonderful. We are certainly poorer in financial terms for it but nothing can match the feeling of being FREE. I sleep well at night. My conscience is clear and I know that I am doing my part, as small as it might be, to try to make this country a better place.

Some Progress with Internet Availability

One of the greatest frustrations in living and working in this African country is access to internet at decent prices. About a year ago, a new provider came in with a huge campaign for the mass-market. Others have tried before but this company seems to have been quite successful. In fact, in a little over a year, they have signed over 25,000 customers. This may not seem like much but when you consider that there are only 100,000 total fixed telephone lines after 50 years, you can quickly see how 25,000 customers becomes important.

A customer first has to buy the equipment; a book size modem for about $150 or a small USB flash card sized modem for about $20. The smaller modem is definitely cheaper but the reception is not as good. Then customers buy prepaid cards denominated between about $2 and $50. the $50 card gets you unlimited usage for 30 days. The other cards have a per minute cost. For about $10 you can get about 16 hours of usage. This is really not bad at all.

The modems work in the three cities and there are plans to deploy to several other smaller towns within the next few months. The speed is pretty slow but fast enough for basic browsing and email.

The other day, I was passing by some security guards. One should note that security guards here make about $60-80 per month so they are on the very low end of the salary grade. But I overheard one explaining to the others how this modem worked and how he could connect for about 30 minutes at a time and get everything he needed done. That is the most exciting part of this solution. It will allow greater internet penetration to sectors of the population who could simply not afford to have the internet installed at home.

Since internet use is "socialized" one connection will serve several people. In one study I saw, one internet connection served an average of 12 users.

This important price decrease has not extended to the business sector where prices still seem exceedingly high. The provider I mentioned in this post recently extended its offerings to the business market. We asked for a quotation. They sent us a proposal for a one year commitment at $900 a month before tax (almost $1,100 including tax) for a 256k connection! Come on y'all.

So as you can see, there is still some ways to go but I am pleased that we seem to be heading in the right direction.

Changing Internet Providers

We decided to change internet providers. Our current provider does a pretty good job but at the US $ equivalent of almost $2,000 a month for a 256k connection, it was just too much for our budget. We found another provider (call them OW) that could provide a dedicated 128k connection at a little more than $400. Since the connection is dedicated, we should get roughly the same bandwidth with OW as with the 256k shared we got from the current provider.

We had contacted OW a few months ago and they had given us a quotation that was even higher than our current provider. When we decided last week to look for alternatives one of our interns told us his dad could get us a connection very fast. It turns out that his dad was merely an unofficial reseller for OW. But since our name was not mentioned by the Dad when OW gave him the quote, he was able to get a much better quote than we ever could (people just assume that we are incredibly rich and quotations here are often based on who is buying and not what is being sold).

OW was definitely a little disappointed to find out we were the client. They thought they could have gotten a much higher rate from us. Anyway, their claim to fame is to get you up and running the same day. We placed the order on a Thursday. No installation. They promised to do it on Friday. No installation. Then they promised to come on Saturday. No one showed up. Yesterday, we finally wrote a letter to them saying that if the installation was not complete by 3 PM, we would cancel and they would have to refund the entire installation fee and one month prepayment we had paid (installation cost was over $700 even after negotiations). Their manager agreed to have everything done by then. No one showed up until 2:30 PM. They started working on the roof to set up their equipment. Until 8 PM they were still on the roof. They promised to come this morning by 7 AM to continue. They did not arrive until 10.

A couple hours later, the technical manager comes to see us to explain that they would not be able to install the equipment after all. Their installation requires line of sight and there was a tall building between us and them (I guess they had never noticed it before now) and their equipment would not be tall enough to overcome that. So we have this gigantic beam on our roof that they now have to remove.

We had already cancelled service from our previous provider and we have no internet. Our second choice was with the state owned telecom. They are the exclusive provider of fiber optic service to the other ISPs and are themselves providers using ADSL. The paperwork to get a connection reads like a loan application. In addition to certified copies of this and that, they want photographs of the top manager as well as a copy of his national identity card. We have been customers forever since they have exclusivity over land lines but we don’t exist in their internet system and have to apply like everyone else. The application has to be accompanied with payment (cash or certified check) for the installation charge and one month of service. Then, they send the application to another city where their headquarters are for processing. The application then comes back and we wait until they have an “available port” to connect us to. They are suggesting two or three weeks. That is civil servant speak for “You will get connected in a few months if you are lucky but if you give me enough money I can move your file up and you will get your connection in a week.”

I am not sure what we will do. We might bite the bullet and go back to our previous provider. So frustrating. Such an essential element of development is incredibly expensive and difficult to obtain. There must be a better way.

Update: We went back to our original provider. Unfortunately, the new provider had sabotaged the original installation (removed the antenna, cut cables, disabled the radio) and after 2 weeks, our former provider is still working to fix the problem. So still no Internet.

Yellow Journalism: African Style

You know when you have really made it when you get trashed in our local equivalent of the National Enquirer. I got two full pages in last week's edition. I just found out today because no one I know really reads that paper (or admits to reading it). Someone finally called one of my colleagues to tell him.

I haven't seen it myself but my name in block letters was in the headline. The story goes into detail about how I swindled my business partner and how he sued me in various places and won. Of course, I have never had a business partner and the person mentioned as my business partner was in fact an employee who did indeed win a labor case under dubious circumstances as described in an earlier post: Do me a favor: Don't do me any favors.

I am torn as to how to react to the article. My business side laughs it off and won’t waste time worrying about it. My human side is distraught not necessarily that I am a victim of this latest attack, but that this is what has become of our struggle for freedom of the press.

Years ago, as a student, I was very active in the struggle for democracy and human rights for Africa. I organized and attended many demonstrations, led letter writing campaigns, and other activities to effect change. For this?

Our newspapers have been filled with sensational stories dragging everyone from business people to political authorities, from singers and to sports stars. There is a common expression in the Country today: “He is a Top 50.” This means that the person is gay. The expression originated from an article in one of our tabloids that listed the Top 50 homosexuals from the Country based on their own personal “analysis.”

This trend is not just bad journalism meant to sell newspapers; it is much more insidious than that. Most of the newspapers that engage in the “decimation” business don’t sell any advertising. It is clear that the revenue from the sales of the paper does not cover the cost of printing, so why would journalists risk jail time (defamation is a criminal offense here) to print stories that completely invented? MONEY, of course.

In my case, the newspaper published a teaser a couple days before they printed the whole article. “Coming Soon.. the underside of [me].” This was meant to attract me to the publisher so that I could offer him a larger sum than what had been offered by the person who brought him the article. Unfortunately for them, I did not bite.

This goes the other way too. A few years ago while I was visiting the country, I made the cover of two newspapers the same day with pictures and information culled from various sources. They were extremely kind to me. One article focused on my personal wealth and stated that I was the richest woman from that Country. I remember one sentence that read that “She does not talk to you unless it is in Billions.” I thought it was very funny at the time (I am very far from being the wealthiest anything). When I got back to the US, a bill for $2,000 was waiting for me from one of the publishers. I also remember my father’s comment when he saw a cover article on me in a US Magazine. “It must have been very expensive!”

You pay for negative stories against your competitors or opponents, pay for positive stories about you or your business, pay to keep your name from being dragged through the mud.

We end up reading the government official newspaper to get information. How sad. Is this what we fought for so hard? What will happen when the next journalist gets arrested for what is really a violation of his rights? Who will stand and fight for him?

Update:

Looks like China's journalists are also in the "cash business." This article is in today's Washington Post: Blackmailing By Journalists In China Seen As 'Frequent'. It is all the more serious in China because of the real struggle of real journalists.

Illegal Arrest

Our plumber is in jail right now. Last night around 10 PM, some gendarmes (police) picked up up from his house and locked him up. Motive: none. One of his neighbors with whom he has recurring disagreements saw a group of gendarmes patrolling the area, he gave them a little cash to have his neighbor put in jail.

This morning, we sent a bailiff to the jail to report on the plumber's presence there. There is no written record of the plumber being held. There is no police report. There is not a single document to attest that he was arrested, why he was arrested or that he is actually being held.

Upon seeing the bailiff and one of our employees who went to the jail, the gendarmes tried to explain that he they arrested him for being drunk and that they would release him as soon as he is sober. Hen? You arrest someone in his house, half dressed because you say he was inebriated? No complaint filed, no report?

We are doing what we can to have the plumber released and we will likely succeed. Unfortunately, this is a story we hear all too often. Police officers will arrest anyone with just a few dollars. There is a new criminal code that goes into effect in a few days that is supposed to prevent such arbitrary arrests. But like everything else in this country, the problem is not the law, it is the application of the laws. The current laws do not allow people to be arrested for no motive, yet our plumber has already spent one night in jail.

In a recent Transparency International report on corruption in this country, the police was held as the most corrupt institution, followed closely by the judiciary. If the two institutions that are there to uphold the law are the ones most responsible for breaking it, what good is the law? I have never heard that any police officer has ever been arrested for corruption. A couple judges were disciplined for being corrupt. They were placed on early retirement and for the most egregious case, without pension. Basically, total impunity.

Until police officers and judges are made to pay for their crimes, they will continue to disregard the law.

Our plumber is lucky. We are around to help him. What about the others who have no voice and no possibility to speak out?

This place is nuts... Or is it me?

Have a Merry Crocodile!

I live in a small apartment in a high-rise building that has no garden. My cleaning lady decided that since it was the holiday season, she would bring me a gift. The next day, I come home and there is a LIVE crocodile on my balcony.

I had never heard of anyone giving anyone else a live crocodile. What was I to do with it? If I gave it away, it would probably be eaten but I could not possibly keep it. She had tied the mouth so that it would not bite but that also meant that I could not feed it.

I kept it for a couple of days but it kept struggling all night long to get away and the noise was simply haunting. I finally took the easy way out and sent it to my Dad who has a yard. He also has dogs but I just don't want to know.

This place is nuts... Or is it me?