In the limited
amount of time I’ve been coming to Botswana (on and off for the past five
years), I’ve noticed a change. In an effort to “modernize” or perhaps “become
more developed”, Botswana has become more and more bureaucratic to the point
that it seems to be almost “strangling itself in its own bureaucracy.” Even the
simplest tasks seem to take on a level of absurdity that is hard to ignore.
Paul’s
continuing attempt to deal with BURS (Botswana Unified Revenue Service,
comparable to the USA’s IRS) feels like a Sisyphean task (you remember Sisyphus
– the Greek king punished by being forced to roll an immense boulder up a hill,
only to watch it roll back down, and to repeat this action FOREVER!). Or a better yet, dealing with BURS is like a
scene from the movie “Groundhog Day.” You may recall
that 1993 movie where Bill Murray keeps waking up to find himself living the
same day over and over again. Well that’s what it feels like when trying to
deal with accounts and taxes here. Paul is on his fifth (or maybe sixth - I’ve
lost count) book keeper in the time I’ve been here. His accountants are a
disaster that are not only slow (they have had his year end accounts for
2010-11 since last July and they STILL are not finished!), but incompetent! To
make matters worse, they not only routinely make mistakes, but then they charge
for the time it takes them to fix those mistakes. Unfortunately, Paul is not
alone in this book keeping/accounting nightmare. Just about everyone we talk to
struggles with both. The only positive news about this, is evidence it provides
for Paul’s eternal optimism - we are currently “test driving” some new
accountants and Paul is convinced they are going to be wonderful! The glass is
always half full! (Thankfully)
IF one can
successfully gets through a financial year with records intact, you must then
deal with BURS to try to get the infamous “tax certificate clearance” (imagine
a choir of angels singing in the background to signal its importance). This
coveted document is necessary for any government contracts (e.g. if Paul wants
to make maps for any government office, he has to have a “tax certificate
clearance” for his company). My favorite story regarding this took place in 2009
when Paul went in to get his “tax certificate clearance” (aaaaahhhh) for the
year. Upon arrival to the office with year-end financials in hand, he was told
that they couldn’t issue a clearance because he had a problem with his 2007
taxes. When he explained that the he had a clearance from 2007 which was
necessary for the clearance he got in 2008, and asked how there could now be a problem in 2007 affecting 2009,
he was told by the woman working in the office that, since she hadn’t actually issued
the 2007 clearance herself, she didn’t know what had happened in 2008 but
certainly 2009 was not coming from her! What’s the point of having a “clearance”
if you’re not really “cleared”?
The absurdity
continues when looking at the licensing of one of Paul’s businesses. Paul’s
main work (in addition to the safari company and internet business) involves
map making, printing (large format on a plotter/printer), laminating, copying,
and more recently the development of guidebooks (like the “Maun Guide” – maps,
advertising, and a directory of Maun). About a year and half ago, local
government officials showed up at his office asking if he could make copies for
him. When he said yes, and went on to say all the other things he could do for
them, they informed him that he was operating a business illegally (tricky huh?) and that the “miscellaneous” license he was
operating under was no longer available and he would have to get a new license.
After much wrangling they decided the closest thing to what he was doing was a
“bookstore and internet café” (what? He neither sells books nor offers internet
services???). Later, when the health inspector came to do a sight inspection
she asked, “Where’s the bookstore and internet café?” Ut oh! Fortunately, when
he explained the situation, she signed off on the paperwork. I’m pretty sure it
is only a matter of time before there’s a knock on the door informing him that
he’s operating illegally again since he
neither sells books nor runs an internet café. What kind of craziness is this?
The latest
point of unhappiness among the expat community in Botswana is the new “point
system” being used to get work and residency permits. While it is not
completely clear what the rules are (except that you get 10 points for speaking
English and must achieve 85% of all points in order to be granted your
permits), there’s a lot of concern that long term residents of Botswana, people
who have made lives here and been active members of the community, may not be
granted “permission” to stay. Large financial investments and employment of many
Batswana citizens seem to be key factors to approval. While I appreciate the
desire of the government to help its citizens, this new approach seems to
really be making it difficult for people who have been here for years to
continue to live and work in Botswana. Even a co-worker, who is married to a
Motswana (the term for an individual from Botswana), is concerned about getting
the appropriate approval. If he can’t get permission to work, he can get
approval for residency as the spouse of a citizen (like I have) but isn’t this
worse? Wouldn’t the government rather have him work than simply live here? This
is certainly contributing to widespread unhappiness.
And, as if you
needed another example, recently in
order to renew Paul’s PRDP license (needed to be a safari guide) he had to not
only have a physical (certifying he wasn’t crazy, that’s right in a 10 minute
encounter with a doctor they can certify that) but he had to be “re-fingerprinted”
to make sure he hadn’t committed any crimes. When Paul queried as to why he had
to be finger printed again (since his
finger prints were already on file with the police) they responded by explaining
that this was to see if he’s committed any crimes recently. Apparently they don’t
review finger prints on file when crimes are committed?
Fortunately,
I’ve been here long enough that there are moments that I can simply embrace the
absurdity. The other day, for example, we were in the store buying wine. After
being escorted to the “alcohol area”, a separate glassed-in room that you can’t
enter on your own, we selected our bottles and proceeded to the checkout area.
Our assistant put each of the bottles up on the counter and she scanned them
into the computer to get their prices. After scanning one of the bottles, the
attendant informed us that it was “out of stock” (mind you, this is as she
holds the bottle in her hand??). Paul tries to ask how that could be possible
given we had just pulled it off the shelf and she still currently had it in her
hand. She insists, “This one is out of stock. You cannot have it.” Paul continues
to try to argue with her (he really likes this particular brand) at which point
I interject, “What she means is, it is here but is it not here, so we cannot have it.” And she replies, “Yes.”
Despite all
this, I have learned a few things on this visit and I thought I’d share them
with you:
1. The air conditioner units Paul installed in
his house on my first summer visit in 2007 (hoping I would not overheat and
might ultimately return), are also heaters! This past April Paul had to have
the units serviced, because they weren’t cooling as much as they used to, and
in the process of checking the units, the service man switched it over to heat
and tested that too. Paul says, “What are you doing?” The service man replies,
“Checking the heaters.” Paul inquires, “We have heaters?” To think that we
froze during the last five winters, huddling around the tiny space heater in
the living room is quite funny! (FYI – most houses in Botswana don’t have
central heating or air conditioning.) I guess this is a case of “better late than
never” and we’ve enjoyed some mighty toasty mornings this year.
2. After years of observation I’ve come to the
conclusion that, when driving you need to worry about some birds flying into
your windscreen (what we would call “windshield”) but not others. Horn bills, francolins,
lilac breasted rollers, and guinea fowl - all risky and not to be trusted as
they might fly out in front of you in suicidal ways. Doves, starlings, and
plovers all safe – while they may be flying toward you they will likely get out
of the way before they smash your windscreen. Unfortunately, I didn’t come up
with this categorization until after a francolin took a suicidal leap into our
windscreen on the way to Johannesburg to catch our flight to Copenhagen earlier
in June. We spent most of my birthday getting it replaced before we flew out to
Dubai.
3. I like being “in the bush” much more than I
like being “in the office” (which we’ve been doing a lot of lately). Wait, I
already knew that one...
In addition to
learning a few things, there have also been some new bright spots in Maun as it
develops. A new art center, Motsana, now shows movies every other Thursday
night. Given my love for movies, this is pretty exciting. We’ve seen “Iron
Lady”, “We Need to Talk about Kevin”, “Sherlock Holmes” and last night “The
Artist”. Maun is feeling quite cosmopolitan these days. Also, our Woolworth’s
store has moved and expanded its food section (it is primarily a clothing
store). This small annex off the side of the main clothing section of the store
now offers us fruits and vegetables that don’t look like they should be thrown
away, a variety of breads (some of which may include whole grain wheat) and
chicken cutlets that are tender and juicy (as opposed to the texture of shoe
leather, which most chicken tastes like around here). While there is no deli or
bakery (that would be asking too much), what is available has definitely improved
the quality of my life and helped to counter some of the unhappiness that seems
to be hanging over Botswana these days.
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