Grrr

The power was out most of yesterday and all of today, so far – am hiding out in a hotel with a generator. I was whining at one of my Malian coworkers and he explained that EDM (Energie du Mali, the utilities monopoly) is having management problems. Evidently at one point it was privatized and came under French ownership/control; the labour unions protested and now it’s back under Malian ownership/control.

J: What was the union’s problem?
O: Well, as you know, there are differences between Western and African culture. A Western worker is used to getting to places on time and planning and doing things in order. An African has too many social pressures. If there’s a marriage or a baptism, he has to go to it – there are too many demands on his time from his family.

O is perfectly right (although he may not have the full story.) If you’re heading to work and your cousin calls, needing something, it would be very rude indeed not to detour to help him. I can just imagine French managers getting increasingly angry as people fail to show up on time, accomplish their set tasks, and proceed efficiently. I can imagine the Malian workers being confused and then indignant – it’s not like they don’t want to work (well, I’m sure some of them don’t, just as I sometimes don’t), but the social and familial obligations have to come first.

Now, I am often enchanted by the importance of politeness here – for example, I love shaking hands with and properly greeting everyone. But I also really like having electricity. I don’t want Bamako to turn into Fairfax, but there must be a way to balance traditional emphasis on maintaining relationships and the modern need for efficiency and prioritizing work.

On another note: I have called EDM customer service twice, to see if they can give a window as to when the power's going to come back. They claim to be repairing/replacing something, and assured me it would be back on today - the first call, 'dans un peu de temps'; the second, 'tardivement.' Uh-oh.