There is no hidden agenda, forget about it

yesterday, I decided to vacate the forum rather earlier than usual and cycle to Ede-Wageningen. And what a cycle that was, I had to deal with hedge trimmers, blocked cycle lanes, bicycle families, cars driving on the wrong side of the road, a dropped lucky hat, faulty roundabouts, two bulldogs fighting over a pice of steak... I haven't played MarioKart in 10 years but I needed all the skills I still remember to get me to the trainstation alive.

In the trainstation I met marcel, and ola, (who also managed to get through BennekomWorld level 3 in one piece) and we went to see a lecture by a certain well known, former World Bank policy maker, advisor to Dutch development people, Haiti expert, Oxford professor, deposer of Jamaican 'crooked' Transport minister, author of three world-shaking books, pioneer in the study of economies of conflict, and coiner of the phrase 'blood diamond'. I hardly need to say who he is...

Anecdotes, our hero had many:
He had us in tears when he told us of a personal encounter with some African finance minister ("one of the few honest ones") who asked him personally, what kind of gender policies pleases donor countries?
He shocked us with news that Africa's urban poor is bearing the brunt of global food crises, that Africa is the last frontier of sub-soil resources, which will be imminently extracted "by hook or by crook, probably by crook", (they are all crooks, apart from the honest guys who he has had personal encounters with and make for wonderful anecdotes), so get ready for armagedon or accountability, the choice is theirs, and ours.

He enlightened us with news that my ideology is blinding me to practical, scientific solutions to the global food problem such as large-scale commercialisation of African agriculture and GMOs. By extension I am assuming that my idiotic ideology is forcing me to ask stupid questions like, will simply increasing food production solve this problem? what about distribution and access to food produce? Isn't there already too much food being produced globally that it has to be dumped? Well luckily I now know that such questions are unscientific hot air and I won't trouble my pretty little head over them anymore.

Finally, this great man, who humbled himself so much to give us this great talk, he ended on a hope-filled note, full of inspiring vibes, based on the kind of scientific rigour that only the greatest, most altruistic, most honest and accountable people such as he can comprehend. After establishing, once and for all, beyond a shadow of a doubt and subject to the most demanding criteria social science has to offer, the now indisputable fact that “Twitter brought down one of the most entrenched autocracies of the last few decades” (Egypt), he presents his world-saving solution: it is now up to us to "use information flows such as Twitter to build critical mass movements of informed people that Africa so badly needs".

I was in tears. But just to be sure, questions were asked from a middle eastern (ie suspicious) looking man and a Latin looking woman, about what type of information is to be shared? and what is the hidden agenda of the West? "There is no hidden agenda" he bravely replied, "forget about it". down with this sort of talk, that is the stuff of failed revolutionaries from the 60s and 70s. How dare they poison our solutions boutique with their unaccountable discourse?
- No what we need is information that helps wealthy Sudanese diaspora get richer. http://peacediv.com/

I am amazed, inspired, to write this blog, sharing this information with Africa and the world. Thanks to this blog (inspired by our (and your) saviour, his greatness) Africa can now build accountable institutions of governance.

Aog?N

The unbearable routine in India

- Around 7.20 AM get up and get ready and have breakfast with relatives
- Around 8.20 AM take the Metro to work… Not a nice experience as it is really really packed… But thank god that there I a separate ladies department, as it can be sometimes really disgusting to be squeezed in between 4-5 male Indians (and very smelly as well)…
- Walk to work about 20 mins.. Nice exercise.
- Find a place on the third floor of the teri building (usually I have to hope that someone is sick)
- Office gets very packed by 10 AM
- Around 12pm I start getting hungry and just think about food (stupid Wageningen routine)
- 1 pm lunch… Usually with all the expats (local Indians do not join us and don´t ask us to join somehow)… We have three kind of canteens to select from.
- After lunch we go the “Chai-Wala” on the road… The best and cheapest tea ever!!! 5 rupees (about 10 cents or so) for a small cup…
- Get back to work… Usually very unproductive as I am very tired and Laurens comes online slowly :)
- In the evening I wait for my supervisor, that is when she usually has time… But this as well does not work out 95 % of the time…
- Around 6/7 pm go back home… Horrible traffic back…. Usually get into a very bad mood and annoyed…Delhi really has too many people
- Get back to the relatives… Hear everyday that I came tooo late… Talk to aunt and uncle… Go to my room for 20 mins… Then the wife of my cousin comes and we talk again… Dinner… Around 11 pm my cousin comes back from home….Talk again…
- around 11.30 PM go to bed…Talk to Laurens or parents or other relatives in India… And then go to sleep at around 12.30 AM….