A few nice government corruption in africa images I found:

Day 6 – Train Travel in Africa


Image by Kevin H.
Tuesday January 19, 2010
Dar Es Salaam/Selous Game Reserve

After breakfast we checked out of our hotel and then just hung around for a bit until Michel came to pick us up at noon to take us to the Tazara train station. Although the train wasn’t scheduled to leave until 4 p.m., we had to be there by 2 because at that point they close the doors to the station and if you aren’t inside you’re out of luck. Evidently closing the station early is a way to combat rampant corruption plaguing the rail service.

The private company that formerly operated the trains servicing Tazara station collapsed due to mismanagement the week before our trip and it had been taken over by the government. Michel informed us that corruption was a major problem with the rail service. Ticket clerks routinely sold counterfeit tickets and pocketed the cash and engineers on cargo trains regularly stopped the trains outside Dar and siphoned off the diesel from the locomotive to sell it on the side. The station, rail lines, and rolling stock were gifts of the Chinese government back in the 1970s and Tanzania was currently petitioning the Chinese to take over the operation of the rail service.

It took us far less time to reach the station than Michel had feared it would and as a result we were faced with the prospect of a hot, boring, three hour wait. We should have been so lucky. Due to a problem with the engine our departure was delayed an hour and a half while they scrounged up a working locomotive. Apparently we got off easy. Michel said that delays are common and often stretch on for several hours or even days and given that they only run two trains per week on the Dar Es Salaam to Zambia line we were taking, there is no option to take a later train.

Because we had first class tickets on the train, we were able to wait in the small, separate first class lounge. The main waiting room was actually cooler, but it was very crowded and there was nowhere to sit so we were content to wait in the stifling first class lounge along with the other tourists and some well-to-do locals. The five of us had bought sandwiches at a small bakery/deli near our hotel before we checked out and so we spent part of our waiting time having a little indoor picnic. Apart from that, we diverted ourselves with books, newspapers, music, conversation, and wondering when the train would actually leave.

Finally we got the word that the train would depart at 5:30 and at the appointed time we made our way through the crowd down to the train platform and boarded the first class carriage. Each compartment held four people and featured facing benches with pull-down bunks overhead. It reminded me of the train travel you see in old movies. Shelley, Donna, Roger and Ruth were all in one compartment and Michel and I were in the neighboring one along with Matthias and Margot, a friendly young French couple who were going to be staying at our lodge for a day and a half.

First class or not, there was no air conditioning on the train and I made the colossal blunder of sitting facing backward so that I missed out on the breeze coming through the open window. Another act of genius. The trip to the stop for the Selous Game Reserve took approximately four hours. The train safari aspect of the trip sounded far cooler than it actually was, given that it had long been dark before we reached the boundaries of the game reserve.

When the train reached our stop, we handed our luggage out the window to the tour company/lodge employees who were waiting for us and then hopped off the train. There was no platform at the Selous stop, so we just had to jump down from the train into the tall grass alongside the tracks. We then piled aboard open-sided SUVs that took us along dark, winding dirt roads to the lodge approximately 15 minutes away from the ‘station.’

At the lodge, the attendants carted our luggage off to our cabins and we headed to the restaurant for our long-delayed dinner. After dinner, Michel informed us regretfully that, due to the rains that had blanketed the area the week before, the roads to the lake were impassable and we would have to forego the boat safari that had been planned for the following morning. We were all pretty crestallen over that and trudged disappointedly off to our cabins to fall asleep to a serenade of jungle bugs and birds.

Protection of Information Bill


Image by barbourians
"Drowning in a sea of corruption – help finally arrived"

I think that the Protection of Information Bill will save those who are drowning in a sea of corruption and that the bill will be used to classify documents that should be in the public domain.

I think that the bill poses a huge threat to our democracy in South Africa and is a blow to freedom of the press and will have a "particularly deadening effect on the work of investigative journalists, anti-corruption campaigners, shop stewards and others."

mg.co.za/article/2011-09-02-lifting-the-lid-on-toxic-gruel