mattsiller.com Blog

Sometimes I think that the more time I spend outside of the US, the more unmeaningful holidays will become as they can be skipped to easily and you can forget to recogize its historical and/or personal importance. I enjoy holidays so was grateful when the company agreed to offer a formal celebration.

This one lived up to domestic standards with an international flair. I had to work most of the day but took the latter part of the afternoon off. We played the UN in cricket, the game seemingly similar but utterly different than baseball, where matches can last six hours a day for up to five days, and high tea is commonplace (our spectators substituted a darker liquid). Our team was made mostly of a South African burly crew who looked more appropriate for a rugby match meant for over-the-hill has-been’ers, compared to our opponents who were mostly Indian and very seasoned in their cricket skills.

I found myself umpiring (in our rules the batting team umpires their own at bats) during the first inning, where I asked more questions than made calls. And when it was my turn to bat I really wanted to take a cut like in baseball, but found, like in golf, that was a big mistake. When I pitched (bowled, as shown in the pic above) the ball (a leather bound cork centered hard ball), it was done by throwing strait overhand in an awkward manner which makes your shoulder joints hyperextend in abnormal directions strait above your head. I couldn’t aim very well, and if it wasn’t for the damn good batter (who managed to knock my bowls into oblivion), I would have hit him 4 or 5 times. Anyway, they killed us. No rematch planned yet. But it was fun.

In the early evening the company offered up a big BBQ/Braai to officially celebrate. Excellent food was cooked and we ate like kings, which is a rarity. No turkeys on this day, those are hard to find, instead opting for the Sudanese turkey, roasted sheep. We ‘halal’ed the sheep, (killed by cutting the throat) and spit spun two on an open fire which led to surprisingly good eats.

In an awkwardly appropriate moment of the evening, one of our Ghanian employees stood up and gave his thanks, expressing his appreciation with a native tongued accent so strong we just nodded and toasted and drank, knowing what came out was probably heartfelt. He then led his brethren into local dances and a circle formed that pulsed with the beat of the Zimbabwean tribal music playing in the background. It would have been fun to join but it was all large African men and I thought it best to remain a witness and BS with the new Swedish medical team, among others, in country.

Good day all around.

Sudan was recently voted the number five most corrupt country in the world. When you live and do business in a really corrupt country, you get a sense it exists and occasionally witness an encounter, but overall, from a common citizen’s perch the tangible depths of corruption levels for both institutions and individuals are hard to pinpoint.

When you think of what corruption encompasses, it can range from kickbacks, illegal payments, collusion, laundering, and unjustly acquiring wealth. Sometimes the act falls into one of these categories, sometimes it crosses over into many, and other times it’s more subtle and grey. Corruption and poverty levels are often hand in hand and it’s no exception in Sudan. The government keeping money for itself and neglecting the south and west is one of the primary reasons we are here today.

From an individual standpoint, I’ve noticed an interesting form taking place that’s not so clear cut and dry. There are small groups or cells created under the pretext of religion but have a secondary and lucrative objective. Actually some of these groups aren’t small at all, they are rather large, into the hundreds of thousands whose members span all aspects of society.

The groups starts when an individual, an entrepreneur, with particularly strong religious ideals decides to build a network. The call him the Religious Leader and he acts as the figurehead, godfather, preacher, and also as the ‘caretaker’ of the wealth generated. His network is created by recruiting a mix of people employed across various strategic businesses and government entities. The recruiting is religious based, and they gather with this pretext in mind. The leader believes strongly in his interpretation of Islam and the Koran and recruits those who share similar beliefs or who can be shaped.

The secondary agenda is based on making money. By having members employed in a cross section of ‘make it happen’ places, business transactions happen at accelerated and/or discounted rates. Subtle partnerships, collusion, information sharing, and discounts give an added and select advantage in doing business in these areas. The religious aspect makes fiercely loyal members, who then use this context for commercial gain.

Often these groups, which have various religious minded names, will have distinguishing characteristics of the members in style of facial hair, clothing, or symbols. Sometimes, you will only be able to tell by seeing a picture of the leader on someone’s desk or in their home. The interesting hypocrisy about the group is that they are often strict Muslims – no drink, no smoke, no promiscuity, etc. They pretend to be moral and are often judgmental on the religious front, then throw all these morals aside commercially to conduct selective and shady business, filtering money back into their organization.

Consider walking into a government office in a room full of people all needing a permit. Having someone in your ‘religious based cell’ trafficking the crowd immediately propels you to the front and into see the authorizor. What would take two days for this department may take 10 minutes. When permits often take 4-6 departments for approval, what could take 2-4 weeks now takes 1 day. Government fee’s may be waived and importing licenses overlooked or falsely allowed. This example is minor, but together they add up. We see this, select business partnerships, and price gouging here on a regular basis.

I guess organizations like this exist all over the world, networking organizations meant to build relationships and bridge connections which can then correlate into the business world. It just seems that these groups in Sudan are hypocritical because the religious leader builds an organization in the name of Islam but uses that as a front to make money. And the sad thing is that this is an accepted aspect of society. Maybe this is one of those cultural misunderstandings where I can’t grasp the real intention of the organization or interworkings of their societal norms. With my western ideals, it just seems like it falls into the corruption category, adding another layer of dysfunction in this region.

I’ve been away from the blog for awhile. A few stories have popped up here and there that may have proven worthy public postings, but I held back for this reason or that.

I was invited to the new African Union Force Commanders house for an ‘end of Ramadan’ party, which brought quite the eclectic group of people together, including the Nigerian Force Commander, who is a character himself. For a dry country, he sure knows the intricacies of off-limits importing and the party was an overall success after finding myself caught up in the middle of multi-tribal African dance floor.

Several weeks ago, we had a large commercial plane land down here in El Fasher to pick up some of the troops at their end of mission. In typical Darfur fashion it broke down at the airport. The flight crew happened to be from Jordan and Syria (were all young lookers) and my company promptly offered them housing at our compound. After four days their plane still wasn’t fixed (even though we have multiple plane mechanics here in theater oddly enough) and in turn they provided an ‘oasis’ for us for half a week in the middle of the desert. You see clips in movies that resemble what I’m speaking of, like at the end of ‘Dumb and Dumber’, and things like this aren’t supposed to happen, but fortunately for us our compound was unsurprisingly livelier for those four days!

The desert winter is coming on, where the mornings are much colder and as my contract is officially expiring in two weeks, my mind seems elsewhere, which makes waking up harder in the mornings and the nights slower.

To compensate, I’ve been hanging out more with some of the guys and they can be a trip. Sometimes I think as I get older I’ll grow out of certain phases. One of the phases I’m scared to grow out of is music. After hanging out with these guys, I know that either music is apart of your life or it isn’t. The guys here jam…listening, reliving their old days with Jimi Hindrix, Pink Floyd, and Foghat, blaring it over their speakers while playing air guitar and drums. I try to sit back and suppress a smile as they relive their youth (or maybe never outgrow it) while acting utterly single and independent. I’ve heard more crass jokes and absurd stories than I can remember, but they do pass the time in the evenings.

The politics in the place hasn’t improved and it seems the momentum coming off the big international charge to ‘stop genocide’ is fading. New local houses are going up though and more outside folks are coming and going and I’m beginning to think it’s one big interlaced conspiracy among the Sudanese Darfians. The more they fight, the more the westerners come in and bring money to spend, which consequently, helps the community. They can’t fight too much or attack the westerners or we’ll pull out and they won’t be able to continue their new-found prosperity.

It’s a weak theory as to the origins of the conflict, but I do think this thought makes it through the minds of every one of the local entrepreneurs. Maybe something good can come from this conflict in that the western capitalism force can help kick-start this economy.

I still freeze in my tracks every now and then. Lately in my drives to work, I happen to find myself wedged between two rebel pick up trucks full of young locked and loaded warriors making their early rounds. Other times they’re headed in my direction in a convoy, down the one lane dirt road, off on their ‘game hunts’. I pull off to the side as they pass and follow only with my wide eyes. I’ve never felt threatened from that standpoint, as they really have no motive of attacking westerners (unless it’s for our resources, the vehicles, comms, etc), but it still will never sit easy, knowing one curious rider’s itchy trigger finger could stain my pants. The obvious choice in living safely out here is to simply steer clear.

My next leave will be back to the states before Christmas, 36 days from now, so I’m looking forward to the return. I’m planning on extending my time out here for a few months into the new year, as this new position has given me the opportunity to get some valuable experience and it’s going to help pay for grad school. But I do have the thought at least once a day…’Matt it’s time to just move on.’ Soon, very soon.