MozCam

Great article here about disastrous government IT project - has three good characteristics for a screw-up:

• UK Government - especially in Whitehall, no end of dreadful mega-projects
  
• Microsoft Windows - 'nuff said
  
• EDS - bidding for, winning, and trashing huge IT projects for decades now

Meanwhile, the ruling party here has used a more direct route to screw up the running of government services: last week ALL health service staff in Maputo (pop: 2mn) - from doctors to janitors - were obliged to attend a 'special meeting' with the outgoing president that lasted almost a whole day, and was supposed to encourage them to vote 'the right way' in next month's elections. Result: chaos in all hospitals and clinics, appointments trashed, surgical operations cancelled. Corruption is one thing, but this little abuse of state power shocked even mozambicans - how arrogant can you get?

I only hope that for every doctor or nurse who obligingly 'votes correctly' on 1st and 2nd December, several of their disgruntled would-be patients think a bit more clearly about the future of the country.

Some depressing things which have happened in the last few weeks:

• the election campaign suggests that the ruling party has, if anything, only increased in its one-party-state arrogance since the last elections. State funds, organizations and media are continually used to blast the opposition as unreformed armed bandits, and there is almost no debate about policy. Outside the capital, local administrators and police often take it into their own hands to intimidate opposition campaigners, via such means as beatings, confiscation of materials, and even house-searches of villages through which the opposition have passed. Anyone who has accepted things (T-shirts, toothpase, baseball caps) from the opposition is beaten and the items burned.
• Meanwhile, billboards across Maputo declare the rulers as 'The Force for Change'. Considering they have ruled the country for almost 30 years, that's a bit rich. When I pointed it out to my girlfriend (who is hardly a political firebrand), she laughed with incredulity and said 'the force of inertia, more like'. Certainly, the president-in-waiting is unlikely to do anything radical, given that he comes right from the heart of the party's old-school centralist wing, and is actually older than the current president!

While I'm waiting for the dreaded result, here are some stories from Indonesia:

• on the way back from Flores (Tini's island), I had to spend a night in Bali, to make sure I didn't miss my flight back from Denpasar due to dodgy local airline timetables. After I had checked into my hotel, I went on a shopping spree in Kuta. This is the touristy area which was bombed in 2002. They have made a big effort in rebuilding it and, at least at night, it looks pretty good. One great advantage over similar streets in Britain is that the road is still very narrow, plus one-way, so it is very pedestrian friendly. It is full of restaurants and shops - from tiny Balinese-run batik shops to massive outlets for global 'surf' brands like Billabong and Quiksilver. Prices for clothes are cheaper than UK and MUCH cheaper than Moz.
  
• Anyway, after several hours of trying to guess which tshirts would fit Nina, and then eating a massive steak (instead of rice, oh joy), I finally was ready to go home. The street is filled with taxis cruising at low speed, so I just walked off the pavement and got into the nearest one. We were soon on the way to Jimbaran, which is south down the peninsula from Kuta. The journey takes a while so we soon got talking. After exchanging some chit-chat in Indonesian the driver cut to the chase. The conversation below was mainly in Indo, with the driver breaking into occasional English for emphasis:
  

"do you want a woman?"
"no thanks, I'm alright"
"are you sure, I can get you a woman right now"
"no really, I have a girlfriend"
"hmm"

• he would not accept defeat, however, and after 5 more mins:

"your girlfriend, is she here?"
"no, she's back at home"
"in Bali?"
"no, in Africa"
"so why don't you let me arrange you a woman, Bali is fully of pretty girls"
"I'm sure it is, but really I don't want a woman"
"I'll find you a really pretty girl and you can jiggy-jiggy all night with her"

• this last was in english, and I burst out laughing:

"who told you to say 'jiggy-jiggy'? that's a rubbish word for sex! was it some australian tourist?"

• the driver gave a look which was a mixture of grumpy and nonplussed. I suggested a few other, more mainstream words for him to use in future but he refused to come out of his huff. The plus side was that he didn't try any more pimping and we got to the hotel in peaceful silence.
  

Am monitoring the US election results on the BBC website. In another window I am looking at xe.com, the currency converter, which refreshes automatically every minute. The more that 'mad monkey dubya' appears to close in on winning a second term, the weaker the dollar gets against the pound (and thus the less my salary is worth back in Scotland).

On the other hand, European stock markets appear to be jumping up at the prospect of a Bush win...