Beira City

When I came to Beira I had read a lot about the city and the effects upon the city that the civil war had during the nineties. There were many discussion articles that I read which said the city was left in shambles after the war and it has never recovered. There were more stories I heard from people who had been here who talked a lot about the devastation of the buildings in the city by fire and gun shot pock marks. In the last few days that I have spent shopping for materials for the pumps we are building in the region I have been on almost all of the streets of the city, in some cases many times over. And sure, the awful state of the city is very apparent. But having been in Germany after the end of World War II where destruction was very apparent including bombed out buildings, pock marks on many of the buildings left standing and many gutted from fires, I was surprised that I have seen none of this in Beira. Sure the buildings are in very bad shape, and some look like they are about to fall down, and many are blackened, not from fire, I believe, but from lack of paint and general repair. So seeing what I have seen, I thought I would ask someone who lived in the city during the war who could tell me first hand what the conditions were really like. Here’s a sample of what he told me:

First, he said that there was no fighting in the city at all during the war and that all the fighting took place in the regions outside the city. He said there was much destruction everywhere around the city, and especially in some of the villages where the rebels marched through burning village homes and driving the people out of the villages. He said there was plenty of effort by the rebels to try to capture the city, but that the government forces that were fighting the rebels held them off. Most of the problems with the city’s debilitation came not from the war per se, but from the influx of village refugees who were fleeing from the rebels with hopes of finding sanctuary. Many of the villagers, my source told me stayed after the war and have never left the city because their homes were destroyed and in many cases they had no place to return to. Because of that, he said, the city has remained almost like a slum because so many of the people have taken up residence in hotels that were taken over by them and from temporary residences they have built from tin and scrap wood they found.

The second part of my source’s story that makes this account so interesting is that the government that was in place at that time needed money and resources, so everything that was within reach of the city, including factories, businesses and even the large fishing fleet was commandeered by the government and the products they made or caught (in the case of the fishermen) were sold to buy guns. So because of this, many of the factories and businesses that I see driving around the city that are empty and not functioning were brought to their knees and finally had to fold up as they had no way to make a profit. I was told that even the catches of fish and prawns from the huge fishing fleet were taken to buy guns and ammunition and that they too were never able to recover.

Now throughout the city there is little evidence of large factories or big business anywhere. Rather most of the economy is driven by small businesses that have their goods for sale in small crowded shops. Furthermore, almost all of them are being run by East Indians who have capitalized on the mass of simple peasants who now live in the city to function as their employees. These people, I am told will work for practically nothing and tolerate being treated like slaves. The lack of entrepreneurial spirit among the more educated or capable Mozambicans further exacerbates the problem, so they remain out of work as all the businesses that they potentially could own and operate are fully captured by the Indians.

One other interesting facet of this story from my source was the answer I got from him when I asked how the rebels got so much money to keep fighting as long as they did. His answer was that most of it came from Europe and the United States and other developed countries that were supporting the rebels with guns and funding because most of the outside world believed that the government of Mozambique at that time was corrupt and needed to be changed. The sad part of the entire story, however, was that no one won the war. It just died out when resources failed to be maintained and a new government was finally put in place.

I have published 14 photos of Downtown Beira on another site that can be accessed throught he following link: http://picasaweb.google.com/ascendphoto/JackSQuestMozambique2008?authkey=kfAV_OgeGk0

I mentioned in my last blog the difficulty I was having purchasing things for the projects, and now it makes a lot more sense as I see one person’s version of the reasons for so many failures in the system here. Even at home here where I live the problems are evident. We had heard before coming over that we would likely have to install a large water tank that could be filled when the water from the city was on. But the first week of my stay, the water was on every day so we thought maybe we didn’t need a tank after all. Now, however, things are really as they said they were with the water being turned off most of the time and only on, if at all, a few hours of the day. Power is a problem too. There have been days when the power was off for hours or even one and off several times of the day. Internet is the same, and while they do offer DSL as a service here, it is not strong enough to run some programs, especially those that require streaming, like music or videos. I even have trouble with staying connected using Skype, and as an example of the typical, last night I spoke to my daughter using Skype and had to redial at least five times during a 30 minute conversation I was trying to have with her. In the house here making things even more trying sometimes is the lack of repair this old house has had over its many years. Light switches, for example sometimes work and sometimes don’t, and the sink in the kitchen leaked water up until today when I found a new drain and installed it. The toilet now flushes, but water leaks out of the back where I have a bucket to catch most of it before it spills all over the floor. Then the shower heater only works on boiling hot, that is if there is enough water pressure to make it even operate. Oh well, so what do I have to do anyway on a weekend but play on my computer and fix broken appliances and utilities? Luckily I have the tools and the knowhow, so if I can find materials, “This Old House” will be different when I leave, I promise.