From Brussel's airport...The flight back from Freetown, SL was pretty uneventful. I got to London and then to Brussels...only to discover that my baggage is missing! :( Oh well... I have a 27 hr layer over in Brussels and all this travelling has worn me out. So, I have decided to park myself at a 24 hr starbucks in the airport and use this time to get some work done...The first call of business is responding to crazy amount of emails in my inbox (i.e after blogging and facebook and skype etc :P) ...then down to serious business.The international airport check in procedure in Freetown is quite a sight/ experience. It is craziness at its height! No equipment...just people...people everywhere! Long lines..of people and baggage that move at ant's pace. You need to give money to get anything done...and men are always wanting to marry you!! The only thing requiring electricity that caught my eye was this lamp that they used to determine if your visas to europe/usa were valid or not. Having been through all that, I have to admit I have never looked forward to flight food as much as I did when flying from SL to London..I was done with all the african food...sooo much palm oil in everything (tasty though :P)
So..while waiting at the airport, I happened to meet a guy from Philadelphia who happened to be in SL to start a business. He wants to deal with timber and start a diamond mine etc etc...He helped me get through all the requirements (though I think doing stuff his way made me even more uncomfortable)...but it was good of him to be there around me...Conversation with him was strikingly different from what I had gotten used to for the past few weeks. Everything about him was money! He kept saying how there is so much to be made in SL with all the diamond mines and other business prospects...how he does not fear anything and just wants to make as much profit as possible...it got me thinking...I had visited the mine area a few days back and seen really poor Sierra Leoneans working 8-10 hours a day for 7000 Le (1 dollar ~ 3000 Le). Some of them toiling away with hopes of a better future, a house maybe, with the dreams of an education in Europe or maybe medical treatment for a loved one. And here there was this american guy, brilliant personality, very helpful person not giving a damn about the people whose land he is about to exploit!! So...have I been in this development 'business' way too long, or is my perception of his brilliant personality wrong (may be that easy comfortable charisma is not true)...is this a new form of colonization? Not political conquest but economic abuse...but then the good all era of colonization did start with economic benefits- the spice routes and the like...and then again, SL does need new businesses, it does need an economic boost and foreign investments....at what cost though? Well...last night got me thinking...
