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Sitting here in Pointe Noire, Congo, I am starting to go a little crazy. It has been nearly two weeks since we arrived and applied for our Angola visas and we are still waiting. I have been trying to pass the time by reading and reflecting upon the Africa segment of our journey and given all that has transpired here in Africa, I have really only been able to focus on one central theme: corruption. I have become obsessed with corruption. I find myself constantly trying to find out more about the varying levels of corruption in the different countries we have passed through and trying to make sense of our daily encounters with corruption here in Pointe Noire. Each of my conversations with members of the ex-pat community here in the Congo always wind their way back to corruption, and when we are able to get online in between the random yet still somehow consistent power outages here in town, I am looking for more information as to the prevalence of corruption and what if anything can be done to put and end to it… especially here in Africa. I am obsessed to the point at which I can say that in 2007, the Republic of the Congo ranked in the top 10 percent of countries in the world in terms of corruption. (If you want to see where everyone else falls on the Perceived Corruption Index, check out Transparency International’s Annual Report)

“I don’t think you used your turn signal, give me 100,000 CFA!”

Photo courtesy Schalk van Zuydam, Associated Press

Personally, I believe the problem of corruption in Africa is immense. It ranges from our daily encounters with overzealous and underpaid police officers trying to extort money from us for ludicrous and falsified infractions to the top levels of government… politicians who have padded their own personal offshore bank accounts at the expense of the development of their country and the progress of their citizens. The numbers are staggering. According to a 2006 World Bank report, it estimates that half of all funds donated to health efforts in sub-Saharan Africa… billions of dollars… never reach the clinics or hospitals, instead leaking out in the form of payments to ghost employees and payments for padded customs, transportation and warehousing prices. It seems like you can not build a single road, bridge or building without some public official benefiting. During his 10 year rule in Zambia, president Frederick Chiluba stashed away nearly $46 million of public money in his offshore bank account but that pails in comparison to the estimated $5 billion Charles Taylor had in offshore accounts while he ran Liberia into the ground, or the estimated billions that Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe has reportedly stashed away in Switzerland while his country teeters on the verge of total economic collapse.

Africa has a lot of problems. Humanitarian problems, economic problems, social problems. The list goes on and on. I am by no means an expert on Africa and I have hardly been here long enough to formulate any reasonable opinions on the cause for all of the misery here on the continent and I am certainly in no place at this stage to recommend any solutions. But I am observant and I do have a background in politics and public policy and that, coupled with my recent obsession with everyone and everything corrupt, has led me to become more and more convinced that all of Africa’s problems stem from two things: a systematic lack of transparency in government operations and a lack of the rule of law. Without transparency and respect for the rule of law, Africa and it citizens will continue to suffer. Sure, most of the problem can be blamed on the endless list of African dictators who have used government institutions for personal gain, but I think the people too can be blamed for not reining in the excess of these plundering politicians. “People power” can be an effective and successful tool against government largess, but it seems to be stagnant and ineffective here in Africa. It is almost like people do not care that their leaders are driving their country into the ground and taking them with it.

The African continent represents one of the poorest regions in the world, yet in terms of natural energy and resource wealth, it is one of the richest. Oil and gas has the potential to provide much needed revenues and has allowed countries throughout the world to address the problems that they face, yet in in Africa, the revenues from energy production represent a curse: corruption runs rampant, waste is chronic and the gap that has developed between the extremely rich and the desperately poor is essentially insurmountable. It is painful to see how much potential Africa has for development yet in reality, how that potential has been squandered, wasted and tucked away into the pockets of the connected elite.

So what can be done? Is Africa destined to become one of history’s monumental failures? Are the people of Africa doomed to be forever victimized by tyrannical despots destined to profit at the expense of their citizens? It is without a doubt a monumental problem requiring a multitude of complex solutions and one that will take years, if not generations to correct, but I guess I can take some comfort in knowing that people are trying to right the ship. The United States has recently developed the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) which provides funding to developing countries on the condition that they meet strict criteria for good governance; the responsible management of government affairs, services and finances, and other lending organizations such as the World Bank are implementing similar criteria for the disbursement of their loans. Unfortunately, many developing countries in Africa with newly discovered mineral and oil reserves such as Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) are turning to other investors, namely China, who delivers billions in development funding in return for access to natural resources but without conditions of good governance, human rights, or economic reform. To the Chinese, “business is business.”

So providing development funding on the condition that the money is used appropriately alone will not work. Pressure has to come from elsewhere, namely from the citizens of these countries and countries throughout the world demanding greater transparency in the public sector and demanding that they become party to the billions of dollars being extracted from onshore and offshore reserves. Given what I have seen here in Africa, if I had to deal with the same problems day in and day out that people do here, I would probably be right along side people in picking up guns and fighting, but violence is not the answer and will only continue to push these countries closer to the point of no return. Something needs to be done to force leaders of countries in Africa to be accountable for their actions and to be accountable to their constituents. One thing is certain, there needs to be a fundamental change in attitude not just in people and nations wishing to help, but in people here in Africa, because the situation seems to only be getting worse… (case in point; Zimbabwe, Sudan, and Somalia) and programs like the MCA are only Band-Aid approaches to stemming the blood flow from a hemorrhaging wound.

The US state Department does a pretty good job of issuing travel advisories. Travel advisories provide information to US citizens traveling abroad to let them know that either the area they are in may not be particularly safe or to make would be travelers to a particular region reconsider their plans to go there in the first place. The recommendations in these advisories range from telling people to be “vigilant and alert” to recommending against all “nonessential” travel to a particular country or region all together.

At the beginning of the expedition, we were paying fairly close attention to these travel advisories. Our proposed route around the world had us going through at least a dozen or so countries where the State Department had current travel advisories in place. I guess the travel advisories serve a useful purpose, but they also seem to give you a fairly negative impression of a place, especially if you are going there. When you read that there are terrorists operating in a certain country, active abductions and hostage takings, and the general potential for something bad to happen to you, it can start a vicious cycle of negative scenarios popping up in your mind and you can find yourself walking on eggshells when you could be enjoying the experience. Eventually, for better or worse, you start to take these travel advisories with a grain of salt.

Maybe the advisories have served their purpose by placing the possibility of something bad happening in our minds and subconsciously that affects our behavior in a certain country. To date, we have been through at least half a dozen countries on our trip with active travel warnings and about half the time, we are driving through the region of a particular country that directly applies to that advisory. Fortunately, we have had no problems whatsoever. In fact, we have felt quite safe in some of the places that have been issued particularly serious advisories.

We drove through the northern part of Mali where we were led to believe that Tuareg rebels were lying in wait, ready to ambush us on the road and kill us, and we passed through the Niger River Delta region in Nigeria where we thought it would be just a matter of time before we were kidnapped and held for ransom by militants there. Maybe we have been lucky. Maybe it is because we have our own vehicles and have more control over our movements than someone traveling on public transport. Who knows. Whatever the case may be, we actually felt pretty safe there and in Nigeria, we were treated with the utmost hospitality and even more so it seemed because we were Americans.

We made lots of friends in the Niger River Delta States

To the credit of the State Department, I guess some of the areas we were traveling in were dangerous. One night in Nigeria, some security forces on patrol stopped by our campsite with AK-47’s at the ready. They found out what we were doing and suggested we follow them and camp in front of their headquarters where they could “ensure our safety.” I think they were going a little bit out of their way to make sure nothing happened to us, as the potential danger was not from rebels, but from local farmers hassling us because we were camping on their land. But at the same time, this was in a part of Nigeria that had no current travel advisory in place.

There are more prominent risks to your health in some places than gun-totting rebels

I can sense that I am rambling here a little bit so I will get directly to the point. I do feel the State Department has an obligation to inform its citizens traveling abroad that there is the potential for danger. At the same time, I think the language in the advisory itself can sometimes be a little strong and does people a disservice. The bottom line is, use your head. Common sense can go a long way to ensuring your safety. (Maybe the State Department feels that citizens traveling abroad are total morons)

Mark and Shoppman seem more concerned with what the street food will do to them…

By reading the travel advisories, you are meant to think that the rest of the world is this terribly dangerous place where people are lurking around every corner waiting to turn your trip into a total nightmare, and by traveling to these places, it will ensure that your photo is not only on your personal blog, but on CNN as well. Yes, there are dangerous places in the world and you would serve yourself well not to go for a roadside picnic in Somalia. But at the same time, I would also be wary of pitching a tent for the night in a park in East Oakland or taking a midnight stroll in parts of St. Louis, but you do not really see advisories on these domestic places where the homicide rates exceed those of some of the “conflict zones” we have been through.

The number one expense on The World by Road is fuel. To date, we have spent somewhere in the neighborhood of $23,000 on fuel. We thought that Africa was going to be cheap, and compared to Europe, it is, but it is still fairly expensive to fill up here in west central Africa. As a result of the higher fuel prices we have been encountering in Africa, we were looking forward to making it into Nigeria where we heard that gas is relatively inexpensive.

Gas is cheap in Nigeria costing only about $2.25 per gallon compared with prices that exceed $5 per gallon in neighboring countries, but in order to get gas in Nigeria at $2.25 a gallon, you must pay another price: a huge commitment of your time. I would estimate that over 90 percent of the gas stations we passed in Nigeria were either abandoned, shut down, or out of fuel. When you do come across a gas station that is open and has fuel in it’s pumps, you are forced to wait in excruciatingly long lines. Sometimes, the wait for fuel at a service station can occupy three or four hours of your day.

One of the countless closed service stations we passed in Nigeria

People wait for fuel at one of the few open stations near Gusau, Nigeria

Nigeria is the number six producer of oil in the world, but most of the oil that is pumped from Nigeria’s territorial waters is exported. Despite its position as an OPEC heavyweight, Nigeria is forced to import gas to meet it’s domestic demand. Refining capacity in Nigeria is almost nonexistent and the refineries that are operating in the country are run by the government which even admits that they are poorly managed, inefficient and plagued by maintenance issues.

Signs of Nigeria’s dilapidated energy infrastructure

In some regions of the country, like the state of Sokoro, none of the service stations had fuel available, so one is forced to search out fuel on the black market. Sokoro was where we entered Nigeria and we were totally amazed at the fuel situation there. No one had fuel of any type and no one expected to have any for days. One service station was expecting a shipment in two days, and already there was a line of more than 50 cars outside the gate. We obviously did not want to wait for two days for the fuel to arrive and then spend another day waiting in line, so we found some illegal fuel for the trucks at a roadside black market stash.

Black market fuel vendor in Zaria, Nigeria

We were not willing to wait so black market fuel it was

Fortunately for us, black market fuel in Nigeria is still cheaper than legal fuel in other parts of West Africa

Nigeria has a well established black market for fuel and some people’s sole income is derived from selling illegal fuel. Most cities have an organized group managing black market fuel and you can even spot local authorities purchasing fuel from roadside vendors. Because it is black market gas, you can expect to pay more for it. Throughout Nigeria, and depending on the overall availability of legal fuel in a region, you can expect to pay anywhere from 90 to 140 Naira per liter on the black market compared to the fixed price of 70 per liter at a service station. This is a pretty significant price difference, but a difference you are willing to pay when confronted with a seemingly endless line of cars in front of you at the service station. Unfortunately, for many Nigerians, this is a price difference that they can not afford, so they must either find alternative means of transport, or dedicate a large portion of their time to filling up their vehicles at legitimate stations.

Waiting for fuel in Gboko

You can make a good living buy legal gas in one state and reselling it for double the price in the next

The situation here is pretty bad and the black market also perpetuates attacks on pipelines and refineries that are operational by rebel groups who sell fuel on the black market to finance their activities. The demand for fuel in Nigeria far exceeds the supply (the power grid is so unreliable in Nigeria that many hotels and businesses run generators which further reduces the available supply) and this is strange coming from a country that has so much oil to go around. If there is one positive, I have one more for the I never game: “I have never bought black market fuel from rebels in Nigeria…”

On March 6, 2008 the Thundra and Little Pepe rumbled down the streets on our approach to Dakar, Senegal. I guess rumbling into town is a bit of an exaggeration because we literally crawled into town at a snail’s pace due to the intense Dakar traffic. It took 25 days to cover the 3,500 miles (5,600 km) from Lisbon to Dakar and although we were the only official participants in the unofficial 2008 Dakar Rally, it still feels good to say that we did it. The sections of the The World by Road Dakar Rally (TWBRDR) though Western Sahara, Mauritania and the Sahara Desert itself were a bit challenging from time to time, both physically and mentally… southern Morocco and Western Sahara officially take the blue ribbon to date for the highest number of police/military checkpoints crossed in a given stretch of road… but it actually was not all that bad.

Dakar is the end of the Rally but also represents the western-most point in Africa

We did drive under a few banners as we arrived in Dakar, but unfortunately, they were not for us. Instead, the banners were for the Organization of the Islamic Conference that was getting ready to commence in Dakar. The conference was being held at the Meridian Hotel in N’Gor which was about a 10 minute walk from where we were staying with Antoine, the friendly French fish biologist who rescued us at the Senegalese border and let us crash at his house in Dakar… another story. Dignitaries, heads of state, many of which are OPEC members, and other important people were arriving and being shuttled around this part of town, and as a result, the whole area was subject to somewhat predictable yet still seemingly random road closures and police checkpoints.

The official, unofficial 2008 Dakar Rally finish line

It was obvious when we arrived that Dakar was franticly trying to put the final touches on a citywide facelift. It was also obvious that Dakar had come nowhere close to meeting its goals for infrastructure improvements slated to be completed in time for the conference. In fact, people were still working on public works improvements even after the first conference panels began discussing what ever it was they were discussing. Apparently, and this is all hearsay mind you, Senegalese officials had been given quite a large sum of money from Gulf States that was to be directed towards citywide improvements. Unfortunately, a lot of that money ended up in people’s pockets and any money that did go towards improvements looks like it went to companies that should have no business being in construction.

Work continues even though the conference (sign in background) has already started

It will be amazing if the work that was actually completed in time for the conference lasts through the year to the next one. Case in point: they were going to lay concrete sidewalks along the main boulevard leading from the airport to the conference venue. Well, time ran out, so to show their benefactors that they had put the money to good use, workers were pouring concrete into forms that were simply set on top of uncompacted sand. No prep work, just pour it, paint it and move on. The job was done so poorly and hastily, that sections that had been poured only weeks before had already started to crumble from the weight of pedestrians and cars. Personally, I would have rather just spent the money to clean up the sand rather than pour a sidewalk that will consist of rubble in a few months, but hey, as long as it lasts long enough for the delegates to walk on it!

This sidewalk section is still being completed yet is already falling apart!

Anyway, I can sense that I have digressed from the main point of this entry which was to let you know that we won the TWBRDR and in a year when the official Dakar Rally was canceled, we blazed on!

As the The World by Road Dakar Rally (TWBRDR) enters its second week the route has us now in country number three on the way to Senegal. To be exact, we are currently in Fes, Morocco. We actually made it as far south as Casablanca, but have backtracked northeast through Rabat to get some more onward visas (Mali only took two hours - whoot, whoot!) and decided to drive further east to Fes to celebrate Shoppman’s 29th birthday on the 17th in true Moroccan style. Technically, in a rally of this nature you are forced to backtrack a bit in order to ensure that you take the best route possible and to keep the competition guessing and the last time we checked, we are still in the lead.

Fes is a pretty awesome place and the winding alleys of the Medina are a great place to get lost among spice vendors, vegetable stands and tanneries. Unfortunately, I do not think that you are allowed to drive through the Medina itself, but yesterday we somehow managed to do just that. In looking for a place to stay, we soon found ourselves in an alleyway that continued to get narrower and narrower the deeper we drove. We soon found ourselves past the point of no return. It would have been extremely difficult to back out given how far we had come and although the path in front of us looked impassable, the friendly local Moroccan, Abdul, who joined us for the ride reassured us that we would be able to make it through. As it turns out, Abdul knows quite a few people inside the Medina and one of them was kind enough to run point for the trucks as we drove through vegetable stands and fruit vendors. This guy was amazing. With a single swoop he cleared small children and the elderly from the path of the massive Toyotas rumbling down the Medina and made sure that not even one zucchini or stray mint leaf bushel was smashed under our tires. The whole event was kind of like watching Charlton Heston part the Red Sea in the Ten Commandments but in this case, we had a front row seat.

Are you sure we can drive through here?

This guy seems to think that otherwise

Little Pepe winds through the fruit stalls

People stand and stare in amazement… or disapproval

After about half and hour and another five to stop and buy a kilo of strawberries from the rear passenger window of Little Pepe, we made it out of the Medina and into wider streets. It was quite an experience and surprisingly enough, we did not manage to piss anybody off. In fact, we received a lot of complements about the trucks and even a few shouts of “viva le Paris-Dakar” after which we replied back “viva le TWBRDR (twiber-dee-are)!” We wound our way around the Medina once again and found out where we were headed but not before convincing Abdul that we were all truly nuts because we wanted to run the gauntlet of street stalls again. Some people in the Dakar Rally get bogged down in the sand… we got bogged down in people and vegetables. It just goes to show you that the TWBRDR requires just as much, if not more, skill behind the wheel. Next up on the rally, back to Rabat for some more visas, back to Casablanca to drop a few passengers off and then the wide open expanses of the western Sahara Desert.

Brook tries to film amid the chaos while business continues after we pass

Stopping to buy strawberries as the light at the end of the tunnel gets brighter