shame (and how it works)
I am one of those supposed to be going on the Plymouth-Dakar Challenge(I was going to Bamako in Mali others were going to continue to Freetown etc).
Most people have pulled out. One Austira group even had the police and a foreign office representative turn up at their parents house (who they didn't even live with) to convince them that it was not a good idea to go.
We've also heard reports that the Guinea military are behaving badly to foreigners (as well as nationals) but that might be more rumour- I haven't checked it out at this stage.
Right now, nobody is really thinking about the costs involved- more the missed opportunity and the fact the charities in Mali will suffer. We're trying to work out other ways to help.
To answer your question about buying for £20 in Europe and selling for £900 in Africa. Yes it's because the cars and equipment are scarce- they're desperate for resources of almost any type! Usually this is because of tax, corruption, laws to impede imports or similar. Governments want too much of any economic activity to let the people benefit too much.
The value difference may sound like profiting from suffering BUT the money goes to charities in the region so NO money is taken out of the country. Our charity was the Rotary Club of Mali which (national lottery like) hands out grants for worthy projects which (crucially) demonstration of good governance. We feel this is what Africa needs far more of which is why we chose to target it this way. We are self funding the trip (not raising money to spend) so it is 100% input into the area.
At least it was before it was too dangerous to go and likely to be kidnapped. But WE'LL BE BACK! There's talk of organising an army escort for next year- we just didn't have time this one after the news broke.
Ian "TeamMinicab" www.teamminicab.com
Biting the hand that feeds IT
