Red Tape
on Shona in Sierra Leone (Sierra Leone), 30/May/2011 18:33, 34 days ago
Sierra Leone can be a very frustrating country to live in. If you have seen the film Blood Diamond, they use the phrase“TIA, this is Africa”. Many people here say, “There is Africa, and then there is Sierra Leone”. But once you know how to do things and how to get things done life here is actually quite simple. Especially if you can live with uncertainties regarding your electricity and water supplies, and you don’t try to do TOO much at one time!Sierra Leone is not generally a bureaucratic country though. Today however I was subject to my first bit of Red Tape. I was at the UN pool, and the security guards would not let me in the main gate. I was told I had to walk around to the far side of the compound and use the other gate. (I should point out that I would need to walk past the main gate again from the other side of the compound to get to the swimming pool i.e. it was all a waste of time).It was not the extra bit of exercise I objected to. Nor was I annoyed at the security guards. They were clearly just doing what they had been told to do. What I could not understand was that I have been using that gate for the last six months. No one had objected to me using it before. No one had even told me there was a problem with me using it before. And what’s more, nobody could give me a reason for this strange rule.The thing that annoyed me the most though– this wasn’t Sierra Leone being it’s frustrating self. This was a rule made by the United Nations. Surely,surelythey should be trying to help Sierra Leone develop, not get it stuck further into Red Tape and ridiculous rules. The Salonean security guards, who I have come to know quite well over time, could all understand why I objected to this pointless exercise (they assured me that they were not expecting the President, in which case I might have understood!). Thank goodness someone has some sense. Hopefully they will talk some sense into the UN. These things are sent to try us I’m sure. It certainly tried my patience. Grrrrrrrrr.(P.S. I wasn’t allowed out the main gate either).