See You Down in California Bay...

Yes.. greetings from sunny, SoCal, where the weather's hot, and the mayor's even mas caliente (at least that's what the papers say)



LA's alcalde Antonio Villaraigosa and his financial femme fatale Mirthala Salinas

Hope he's getting some good advice on how to structure his investments once half of them disappear in a cloud of depositions, tax bills, and settlement agreements.

Meanwhile, the other BIG news round here is the sad, sad tale of Miss Lohan.



As Homer might say.... "DUI'OH"

Oh, how I wish I could have been a fly on the wall of the squad car that picked her up - I hope the officers had a little bit of fun...

"So, Miss.... Lohan, is it?"

"You seemed to have spilled a bunch of sugar all over the floor, can we help you clean that up?"

"Oh, and your ankle seems to be making strange noises, you should really get that looked at, you might have pulled a muscle or something!"

So, that pretty much covers what people are paying attention to in LA.

As a famously weird little rock singer once said...
"Learn to Swim"

Looking forward to getting back to normalcy inside the Beltway... wait, did I actually just say that?

Debriefing and on to the Next Mission

What I Learned During My Summer Vacation:

- Saddam Hussein is not, in fact, alive and living in the Namibian desert.

- Mentioning the words "anti-corruption" to the man on the street in Africa is a great way to get someone to ask if you are a comedian by trade.

- High-school kids should, absent some sort of qualifying exam, no longer be allowed any vacation time, or generally let out of the house.

- There is such thing as bad Cuban food, it lives in Windhoek, Namibia, and it involves "salami" ; 'nuff said.

- Animals you see at the zoo also make for excellent eating - "Mommy, mommy - can we take a zebra home for dinner?!"

- Despite advertising to the contrary, Jaegermeister is not, "the house wine".

- Sand is abrasive...

- Namibian Germans are even more abrasive.

- Hyenas will eat your face.

Now off to begin writing my reports, holding my meetings, and sorting out the useful bits from my work in Namibia - hopefully it will lead to some future anti-corruption efforts there, but we'll have to see.

Next up - prepping for part II of the summer globe trotting, to Lima, Peru.

over and out...

From Arandis to Zebra - A Few Very Busy Days in Namibia: Part 2

In a wild and radical change from earlier posts, I will refrain from attempts at witty and insightful commentary and just show you a selection of great pictures I was able to take in Namibia's Etosha National Park:



A really nice sunset pic across the savannah on our first night in the park



A lone jackal. Look like cute little dogs till they're
running through your camp in packs and howling.



A rare sighting of a spotted hyena on the prowl.


The oryx - national animal of Namibia, and just damn
cool looking.





Giraffes were everywhere we looked. Course, they're hard to miss.


I swear this gal was smiling for the camera.


Zebras cooling off at the watering hole


The Kudu


And finally, I give you... the elephants on parade



I called these guys "Norm" and "Cliff" - they showed up for a drink long before everyone else


A little family photo



The Whole Committee - You know its a special moment
when even the guide was snapping pictures



The tour group at the edge of the Etosha Pan (4000 sq km of flat salt desert)

Other pictures will be available in the near future I hope.

So now, back to work for the rest of the week. Hope to have a few more interesting dispatches from the field.

From Arandis to Zebra - A Few Very Busy Days in Namibia: Part 1

Now that the satellite is back in orbit, stars aligned, technology gods appeased, etc., I can catch everyone up on my very brief tour of some Namibian hotspots Friday through Wednesday.

First it was a trip to the coast and Namib desert in Swakopmund (Swakop if you're into the whole brevity thing...).

A few things to know about Swakop:

- It is on the edge of the oldest desert in the world, the Namib
- It is the “adventure sports capital of Africa” (at least that's what the brochures say)
- It is verrrrry German

So here's what I did:

A 5 hour combi-ride from Windhoek to Swakop. Anyone who has ridden combis from Lima, to Accra, to Delhi know what this is all about – cram about 15 people in to a VW van, drive like a twitchy poodle on crack, and hope no person, animal, or pothole gets in the way.

Side note on the trip. About 1 hour outside of Swakop, in the absolute middle of the desert, the driver takes a little detour to drop a local off in a tiny town called Arandis. As we pull up, I see three things:

1.A busted-up, vaguely military looking jeep, with what appeared to be a mount that you would put a heavy machine gun on;

2.A few small building with Arabic writing on them; and...

3.An enormous mural depicting, the late, not-so-great Saddam Hussein in all of his mustachioed, beret-wearing glory.

Needless to say, I had two immediate reactions – laughter followed by a brief sense of dread. Not that I really though that I had been taken to a den of Sunni insurgents in the middle of the Namibian desert to be held for ransom, but hey its a weird world out there. Inshallah, we pulled away without incident, but after getting confused looks by the locals when I asked, essentially, “WTF?”, I was left wondering what was going on.

So after my long trip to Swakop, here's how I spent my time:

- Hiking through some of the most spectacular sand-dunes I could possible imagine. Words can't quite capture it, so here's some pics:




My attempt at artistry...


Wow...



Is it just me or does that look like Mos Eisley in the distance?



Obligatory shot to prove I was actually there




And ending with a walk down to the ocean. There is truly something about the sunlight in Africa.

- Sliding down said dunes on both a piece of wallboard and an honest-to-god snowboard, in the Swakop tradition of “sandboarding”. Here's a few pics (with a few truly spectacular wipe-outs to be subsequently emailed to me by the very nice guides):



Preparing to begin our day of sliding to the bottom and
walking to the top... so naive and foolish

- Being talked into tandem-skydiving by a particularly amusing group of college students from Emory U. No pics from the free-fall, but here's an idea of what the dune sea looks like from 10000 feet:



Slightly digitally enhanced, but not much. Again - wow...

I finished off my weekend, by nearly getting pummeled by some less than polite German Namibians when I asked, not-so-innocently, if they knew the back-story to the Bob Marley song “Buffalo Soldier” that they were loudly singing along to (and mocking the local staff about). I know, sometimes I should keep my mouth shut...

Finally, I ended up having far too many shots of particularly ugly tasting “Jaeger Bombs” with a group of scary-looking, shaved-head S. African gents, who it turned out... were in town as extras in the HBO Films production of “Generation Kill” - about the Iraq War! Thus, Saddam poster explained, and I can return to Washington to let the DOD know there's no need to cruise missile Arandis, Namibia anytime soon.

Next up, some hot animal-on-animal action from Etosha National Park...

Highly Slow and Questionable Internet Connection - So No Pics Right Now

Something about a satellite falling out of orbit??? At least that's been the rumor going round the country. Thus, no new posts with pictures this past week. Perhaps tomorrow? Suffice to say its been a busy week:

- Spent two days observing the high treason trial currently ongoing in the Namibian Supreme Court. Then poof - a two week adjournement. I have been afforded every courtesy by all parties to the case, and yet, I had the distinct, and not too surprising sense, that they didn't particularly love having me there (perhaps the reason the adjournment timing perfectly coincided with my date to return to the U.S.? or am I just paranoid?) Thus, I moved on to other business...

- A few days of meetings and running around hunting down legal texts as part of the World Bank Doing Business Project, specifically, assessing their current anti-corruption legislation, governmental bodies, and practices. I've also been asking the man on the street a bit about this matter - needless to say, the opinions of the citizenry and the govenrment differ somewhat on this point!

- Today one hell of a vacation day - sandboarding the dunes of the Namib desert, and then shortly after, jumping out of a plane above it all. Fingers crossed that pictures will be posted soon!

Off to eat some antelope now (I look forward to a week of eating salads when I return!).

Katatura – A Complicated Relationship

Yesterday I visited Katatura, the former designated “black township” during S. African rule of Namibia (note that Katatura is the “new township”; the old township, known as "Old Location", was taken over by Afrikaners in the 1960s when the government forcibly moved the population to Katatura).

Now Katatura is considered a suburb of Windhoek, with nearly 1/3 of Windhoek's residents calling it home.

My guides Nesi and Ricky spent the day taking me around various areas of Katatura and giving me a bit of a history and sociology lesson. What a learned and a few thoughts:



Me and Nesi outside Mama Mabel's Goats Head Restaurant – yes that's what they serve, and yes its actually not bad!

Nearly all black Africans in Windhoek area have relatives who still live in Katatura; surprisingly, many of their children have not moved away, but have in fact made their fortunes as professionals and built new, modern homes in Katatura.

During apartheid, the main ethnic groups, Ovambo, Damara, Herero, were required to live in separate areas. To this day, some of the older houses still have, O, D, H, etc. painted on the door.



Herero Women in Katatura

Interesting point Nesi made was that almost everyone of his generation was sent out of the country during “The Struggle”, from the 60s through the 80s, most to communist countries who were supporting SWAPO, then the rebels, now the ruling party. That would explain this:



Vive Castro!

Katatura is not quite what I expected. Having seen other “informal settlements”, this one stood out for a few reasons:

No garbage in the streets whatsoever

Paved roads throughout almost the entire area

Running water and electricity, though sometimes in creative ways :)



All in one: The bar and outhouse combo - brilliant!

Greenery and gardens!



Dont' know what these are, but they're everywhere - even in Katatura

Ricky explained the relative prosperity as being a result, in some ways, of the apartheid system:

“Because they kept us separate they felt comfortable in investing in their city, unlike the French in W. Africa, and also recognized the need to “appease” the blacks by providing some basic services. So even though we suffered greatly, especially our parents, now the SWAPO government and the people are benefiting from the infrastructure and economy that grew during the apartheid era – it is a very complicated relationship.”

Tomorrow I begin my observation of the Caprivi secession trial for Lawyers Without Borders, so probably no new posts till later this week.