President's Visit

So, if you remember not long after I arrived here there was a military coup and much international to-do that amounted to nothing. The guy who led the coup, General Aziz, was the same one who led the last coup that resulted in the first legit democratic elected president, who he ousted from power in this most recent coup. This led to the withdrawal of lots of international aid and was generally to believed to be a step backward, although a lot of Mauritanians were indifferent. At any rate, he is still in power and will soon be holding elections, only this time everyone expects him to make sure he gets elected again. (See previous article about the importance of good governance.) As part of his election campaign he visited my town. I kept my distance from him and his bodyguards with the uzis and mostly just took pictures of the people partying in the streets. In talking to my friends about how they felt, I got the sense that while most of the town and many people from the surrounding towns were gathered together, it was less of a support rally than it was a social event for the people. It is safe to say that the democratic spirit does not exist here and having seen the results I need to tell you too vigorously keep that spirit alive back home.