Sunday, May 19, 2013

Exotic Zanzibar

Stone Town seen from Tower Top Restaurant


I almost never made it. A few days before, I felt weak and suspected I had malaria. Many of my colleagues who had earlier planned to go backed out as it turned out they had to work during the coming weekend. In the end, almost at the last minute, only three of us went ahead with the plan to visit exotic Zanzibar.

We flew out of Tanga in a tiny, ten passenger plane. It was the smallest plane I had ever ridden and the views were absolutely amazing. I saw Tanga Bay as a bird would see; I saw the clear blue waters of the Indian Ocean; I saw the green island of Pemba surrounded by mangrove forests broken here and there by white beaches. We landed on Pemba for ten minutes then we were up in the air again for the journey to Zanzibar.

View from Hotel Rooftop
My first glimpse of Zanzibar was that of beautiful white beaches on its east coast. Too bad I did not have the time to visit any of them. As we rode a taxi to Stone Town, it immediately became clear to me this was a place like no other. The white buildings closely packed  together were indeed made of stone. The intricately carved wooden doors with brass studs were their most distinguishing feature. The stone buildings and the fort evoked Europe yet the designs unmistakably bore Arab and Indian influences. After all, Zanzibar was once ruled by the Sultan of Oman and has been conducting trade with India and the Arab world for centuries through the dhows, sailboats that are themselves the very image of timelessness.

Iconic carved Zanzibar door
As I clambered four feet above the floor on my Zanzibari bed, also a carved, four-poster work of art that was draped with a mosquito net, I began to notice a sweet scent pervading the air. I smelled the same aroma everywhere we went around town. It turned out to be the smell of cloves, a spice which continues to be one of the top exports of the island. Indeed, Zanzibar was once known as the Spice Island.
Dhow sailing as they have for centuries
We set out for Forodhani Gardens, the center of activity on the island, to find a place to eat. It is a park situated on the waterfront and right in front of the 16th Century fort built by the Portuguese. It was bustling with activity as we saw children running around, families out for a stroll, and ubiquitous touts looking to make a sale. "Jambo, my friend!," all of them said as they approached us offering guided tours, trips to Prison Island, and various carved knickknacks. They were persistent. There were more of them than tourists as it was off peak season and they were eager to make a shilling. We politely but firmly said no; most of them were gracious enough to say thank you and to sigh hopefully, "Perhaps next time when you return." I sure hope there would be a next time.

Street food at Forodhani was an amazing sight. Vendors laid out on tables all sorts of seafood with all sorts of spices ready for grilling - octopus, calamari, king fish, lobster, prawns. They also sold chapati, bread and chips. We ended up at Archipelago Restaurant and I ordered pweza - octopus - with coconut and curry sauce. As I chewed on the soft and scrumptious octopus and sipped on tea spiced with cinnamon and cardamom, I had to remind myself I was not dreaming and I truly was in Zanzibar!

Sunset at Zanzibar
The following day was spent exploring Stone Town. We explored the Old Fort, now an atmospheric ruin used for performances and film festivals, but previously the stronghold of the islands' rulers from the Portuguese, to the Arabs, then the British. Beside was the House of Wonders, the tallest building on the island and once the residence of Sultan, but now the Zanzibar National Museum. Just a few meters further was another older palace, the Beit al-Sahel or Palace Museum. I was amazed to see portraits of Sissy, the Empress of Austria-Hungarian Empire, and with whom I was quite fascinated when I visited Vienna. The portraits and the copies of various treaties with world powers in the 19th century was a testament to the important role Zanzibar played in world trade. I saw rooms with ornately carved furniture where the sultan received heads of state. I finally sat to rest on the balcony like the sultans of old, watching the ships approaching port. They no longer unloaded a grim cargo of slaves, but hordes of tourists like me seeking to travel back in time or simply to shop for silver trinkets, exotic spices, and tanzanite jewelry.

After walking mostly along the waterfront, we finally entered the maze that is the winding and narrow streets of Stone Town. They were so narrow in some places only two pedestrians could pass. They scarcely resembled what was drawn on the map and there were hardly any straight lines! I did my best to appear I was not lost for the sake of my two companions. We finally arrived at the building we were looking for almost by accident. That building is the hotel at 236 Hurumzi Street, formerly Emerson and Green, and which is an institution in Zanzibar. As we climbed the steep stairs, we were transported back in time as we saw peacocks painted on walls, beautiful carved decor, plants hanging from balconies, and several towers surrounding the building. As we reached the very top, we arrived at a restaurant with views all around Zanzibar. We stayed for several minutes as we took in images of dhows sailing in the sea, the spires of St Joseph Cathedral, the clock tower of the House of Wonder, and the Anglican Cathedral off to one side, site of the Old Slave Market. It was there that I agreed Zanzibar was truly magical.

The following day, we went to the countryside on a spice tour. While I know I have been eating them all my life, it was a real treat to see the trees and plants where spices such as nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, vanilla, lemongrass and other spices were taken from. I also had a sneaking suspicion most of these plants could be seen back home if I only knew what they looked like once they started handing out kamias, balimbing and guyabano for us to taste. We ended the tour with a fine lunch of rice with what else but spices.

In the afternoon, we rushed to the port to ride the ferry back to Dar. As I caught a glimpse of Stone Town for the last time, I said goodbye to the tiny island that once ruled most of the coast of East Africa. It was a trip back in time, a time of immense riches accumulated from the sweet smell of spices and the bitter sighs of slaves.

#IBMCSC Tanzania 10 

Thursday, May 9, 2013

Driving Prosperity through Public-Private Dialogues

Delivering Final Report to the Tanga Regional Government

Tanzania is ranked 134th in the World Bank Doing Business Report. It has been sliding down the rankings in the past few years. While its economy has been growing over six percent the past ten years, its GDP per capita remains very low at 1700 USD. There is more, much more, that needs to be done for it to achieve its vision of becoming a middle income economy by 2025. Its legacy of socialism under Julius Nyerere remains a drag on its aspirations as there is a pervasive mistrust of free enterprise while bureaucracy remains entrenched and continues to stifle the growth of businesses through miles of red tape and endemic corruption.

It was precisely to address these challenges that the Tanzania Private Sector Foundation (TPSF) was established in 1998 with the mission to act as the apex organization for the private sector and advocate policy reforms that will lead to a better business climate. One of its key mechanisms for influencing policy is the conduct of public-private dialogues (PPDs). These dialogues are meant to ensure the private sector is closely engaged with the government whenever key issues affecting business are discussed and before policy changes are implemented. While TPSF can point to some successes such as the reduction of the skills development levy rates and the adoption of the Kilimo-Kwanza Initiative, there are a lot more areas where genuine reform is needed in order to unleash the energy of the private sector.

My sub-team is in Tanzania to review PPDs and help TPSF improve the process with the ultimate aim of improving the business climate as measured in the WB Doing Business Report rankings. After conducting 69  hours of  interviews with about sixty people over 28 days, and reading TPSF documents and journal articles on PPD, we gave specific recommendations in five key areas:

  • One Team - improving unity and representation of interests in order to maximize influence when advocating with government
  • Effectiveness of PPDs - understanding what makes a PPD engagement effective through benchmarking and then replicating best practices
  • Consistency of Action - viewing PPD as a repeatable process and defining standard procedures
  • Communication - informing stakeholders and member associations in a timely basis and using the most appropriate channels of communication
  • Capacity Building - developing the ability for better advocacy among members and improving understanding of PPD among government officials

Mid Term Report at the TPSF Office
We have completed our final report and we will present it at the TPSF office this afternoon. TPSF has assured us they are looking forward to our recommendations and will share them to the highest levels of government, including the President. I do not expect wholesale reform to take place overnight and on the basis of a single report done in one month. But if we point out things they would not have thought about otherwise, and helped them take a few steps further on their journey to prosperity, then we will have fulfilled our mission. In the end, we are not after improving rankings on a World Bank report. We are all after encouraging entrepreneurs to take bigger risks so that more jobs are created and more Tanzanians escape the shackles of poverty.

#IBMCSC Tanzania 10 

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Tanga

 
Tanga Bay
Tanga is the third largest city of Tanzania but it has the quiet and charming feel of Dumaguete or Bacolod. The streets are clean; there is hardly any traffic; and many people are riding bicycles. The city center is surrounded by buildings from the German and British colonial eras and several green parks where locals sit and hang out.

Tanga is situated in Tanga Bay and is also the location of the second largest port in Tanzania. When we visited the port, it was nowhere as busy as Dar or Manila. While Tanga is beginning to grow again, it has obviously seen better days. In its heyday, Tanga and its surrounding districts were the largest producer of sisal in the world. Sisal is a plant whose fiber is used for making ropes and handicrafts. Then prices plummeted in the 1970s and the industry collapsed.

On our first day in Tanga, we met our hosts from the TCCIA. One TCCIA member, a spice trader and teak farmer called Amrish took us out for lunch at the Raskazone Swimming Club. There were outstanding views of the bay with Toten Island in the distance. He told us that every morning the old men who were members of the club would swim three kilometers across the bay and back. They would then have a nice breakfast at the club while reading the papers. That is the life, I thought.

He regaled us with more interesting stories. He said his grandfather was a stowaway from India at the age of 7 on a ship that traveled to Mombasa, Kenya back in the 19th century. He then journeyed on foot until he reached Tanga where he worked and founded the first post office. Indeed, the post office we saw in the city center still is still in an old house because it remains the residence of his family.

We felt this small town vibe everywhere we went. We felt a warm welcome from everyone. Everyone seemed to know each other and we kept running into people like Amrish while doing errands like buying groceries. I have been in Tanzania for three weeks and I do miss my family badly, but I am already feeling sad about leaving my second home in Africa.

On our first weekend in Tanga, we explored the surrounding attractions. We traveled to the Amboni Caves. We went deep inside the caves and we saw thousands of bats and spiders. There were passages that were so tight I had to duck or crawl to get through. It must have been tough for my tall colleagues from America. We saw a site where locals continue to leave offerings for the spirits. The caves were also used as a hideout by the Mau Mau rebels of Kenya. We, of course, had the requisite tour of rock formations that looked like fruits, animals and certain delicate body parts. When we emerged from the darkness, we heard beautiful singing. It was a Sunday and a Christian congregation happened to have a service right outside the caves.

We then went to the Galanos Sulfur Springs a few kilometers away. We had to walk several kilometers through plantations of coconut and other fruit trees. When we finally arrived, it was really nothing more than a small pond that looked bluish white because of the sulfur. We did see a crocodile and birds' nests.

Finally, in the afternoon, we journeyed north for an hour to the town of Pangani. It was a rough road as many of the roads in Tanzania remain unpaved. The countryside remained wild and beautiful. We saw villages from time to time but most of it was bush. When we arrived at the beach resort, we had a nice lunch of grilled fish and a cold Kilimanjaro.

I took a dip in the Indian Ocean. The water was brown and warm, warmer than I ever felt in the Philippines. The beach was wide and the sand was reddish. It was almost deserted; there were hardly any resorts. A few hundred meters away was a river. I always bragged to my colleagues about how nice the beaches were back home, implying I did not care much for them, but they had a hard time getting me out of the water as I had too much fun swimming. I appreciated the solitude. I still could not believe I was in Africa and I was swimming in the Indian Ocean! I thanked God for my good fortune.

Pangani Beach
In the evening, as we were exploring the nearby sandbars and admiring the majestic dhows sailing home, we had a beautiful, unexpected moment of silence. Mahesh and Isma were walking in the distance when Mahesh started sitting in an Indian lotus sitting position. I sat down too and faced the horizon. I began breathing deeply and rhythmically. I listened to the sound of the waves while I admired the clouds. Marta then sat beside me and started holding her Buddha beads. Birgitte followed suit and sat beside her in silence. Off to the distance, Isma also sat and stared in empty space. We were IBMers from all over the world with different religions. I did not even know if they knew about meditation, but, all of a sudden, there we were communing with nature, admiring the sunset, and being in the moment. What an astounding spiritual experience!

It was quite dark when we decided to head back to the bus. We marveled at the bright stars, which were so much brighter in a place so remote from the blinding lights of the city. Many stars I saw for the first time for I had never been to the Southern Hemisphere before. I thanked the stars for such a wonderful day.

#IBMCSC Tanzania 10 

Sunday, May 5, 2013

The Lecture and Debate at Eckernforde University

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24 April

The CSC team went to Eckernforde University Tanga on 24 April to deliver a lecture. Eckernforde is a private university with students mostly taking courses in education, business and technology. A university lecture is normally part of the CSC experience so participants have a chance to share their work and their experiences with students while also helping promote their CSC projects. The team delivered a lecture on the following topics: IBM and its expansion in Africa, the future of technology and how IBM is making the planet smarter, lessons learned from the career experiences of IBMers from growth markets, and communication skills for the first interview. In my speech, I emphasized how privileged they were to be in college as less than 1% of students in Tanzania ever reach tertiary education and that they should take this as a responsibility to lead and be successful so that they might create the same opportunities for their countrymen.

The day before the lecture, the team had a big debate in the conference room about the simple question of whether to keep the students in the lecture hall once we open the floor for questions or to divide the students into groups so they could interact more closely with the team. In the end, it was much ado about nothing. The premise for the proposal to divide the group was a false assumption that the students would be too timid to ask questions. As it turned out, that assumption could hardly be further from the truth. Shy they were not, the students of Tanga!

As soon as we opened the discussion, questions began pouring in. It was a large lecture hall with over five hundred students, but those who wanted to ask questions were undeterred. In addition, they were also sending scores of written questions. We were unprepared for the kind of questions they asked. We were expecting questions about jobs in IBM or career advice in general. Instead, they began peppering us with questions about the dangers of globalization, the role of multinational corporations in emerging markets, and IBM's position on key issues of international relations.

There was one student whose line of questioning made us squirm. Instead of welcoming us as guests and thanking us for our effort, he questioned the motives of IBM in visiting the university for a second time without bringing any material things. He suggested we were there to take pictures and nothing more.

I knew the mindset that led them to ask the questions they asked. It was a mindset that continues to blame the white man for all their troubles and remains distrustful of free enterprise and globalization. I knew exactly how to rebut them with the facts and the experience of other emerging economies who face exactly the same problems. So instead of being angry at the cheeky questions, I decided to rebut them point by point. They were, after all, college students still steeped in ideology and eager for an intellectual exchange.

They asked questions about what material things we were bringing to Africa. I told them it was not helpful to keep thinking the white man will bring gifts to them and that the white man will bring them out of poverty. I told them that China and India are growing the way they are because young men like them started taking responsibility and began building businesses and creating jobs. They asked questions about the dangers of globalization including brain drain. I told them that while globalization has its dangers, it was important to take advantage of its benefits. Globalization actually enables countries to reduce brain drain because technology now enables engineers in India and accountants in the Philippines to provide the same service without moving to the United States. They asked about how corporations like IBM are training Africans to make machines instead of selling machines to them. This was the old underdevelopment thesis about developing countries being exploited for raw material and becoming the market for finished goods. They said it was only the white man who makes machines. I told them that if he insisted on talking about skin color, then it is not the white man, but the yellow man from China who is making all the machines now! Furthermore, manufacturing is no longer the only path to growth. India grew so fast in the last few decades because of services. They became the back office and IT helpdesk of the world. I then reinforced the point that in today's knowledge economy, it is not material things that matter but their ability to educate their workforce and build human capital.

It was easy for some to think of IBM as another American company that has come to exploit the resources of a Third World country. I believe we helped dispel that notion by answering their questions with candor and competence, but also simply because most of us actually come from emerging economies like Tanzania. It was hard to argue IBM was a mzungu company when most of its employees are not even white anymore. Most of us, especially my colleagues from Argentina, Brazil, China, India and Mexico were actually like them and we were on a shared journey to take our economies out of poverty and improve the lot of our countrymen.

We were expecting to give basic career advice; we forgot that Africans are still grappling with older and deep seated, even outdated, questions of history. I can only we made a little difference in their thinking. I hope they have begun thinking of themselves not as victims of history but as agents of change. As Marta so beautifully put it, if we continue to blame others for our problems, then we believe the solutions are outside us and not within us. But if we believe the solutions are within, then we have the power to act.

#IBMCSC Tanzania 10
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