Once we stood in a receiving line to shake hands with Marti Ahtisaari, former President of Finland and Nobel laureate, who was in town to speak at Atlanta’s Piedmont Driving Club. In his introduction, a forgotten member of Atlanta’s high society cited, among Ahtisaari’s achievements, brokering a deal which led to the independence of “Nambia.”
We smiled, winced and understood a couple of things: That the presenter’s lack of knowledge reflected the provincialism of our town, and that Namibia isn’t very well-known, either.We’ve since visited Namibia, which is beautiful, and are scheduled to return in just six weeks time. As we’re booked into a couple of days stay at Walvis Bay to start the New Year, Namibia is on our radar, and this story in the New York Times caught my eye. It’s no surprise, more sad than scandalous, and just a reflection of the world as it is today.
The article details allegations of preferential treatment for the children of politicians, and other misdeeds, including that “a state-controlled Chinese contractor … facilitated a $55.3 million deal to sell the Namibian government security scanners with millions of dollars in kickbacks.” Until last year, Hu Haifeng, the son of President Hu Jintao, ran the company.
The article quotes Xia Lili, First Secretary of the Chinese Embassy in the Namibian capital, Windhoek, with that characteristic light Chinese touch, as contending he had no obligation to respond to queries. “This is over,” he said.There will ever be scandals, of course, and we'll just be travelers passing through town. So never mind all that. For enjoying the southern hemisphere summer, and a couple of days at the beach, we're looking forward to the first CS&W posts of 2010 coming from Walvis Bay, Namibia. Over the next few weeks as we get closer to travel, we’ll have a story or two from our last trip to Namibia.
Photo of Namibian sand dunes from EarthPhotos.com. See about a hundred more in the Namibia Gallery at EarthPhotos.com.
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