After finishing school in Europe pops called me back home to the motherland run his interests in the newly opened Tendaho Dam and it's associated 200,000 acre sugar cane plantation.
The project was being lauded as "a new beginning" and economically game changing mega-project partly funded by the government and partly by local investors in order to pull the impoverished region of nomadic tribesmen out of violence and poverty while boosting the country's desperately needed forex reserves.
Average yearly temperature is above 38 degrees down there with 0 infrastructure. Me and a score of other mid 20s western educated sons of families who bought shares along with some local managers were staying at the best hotel in the largest town of that desert shithole. Population 1400. Hotel looked like a crack house Motel 6 with no running water.
Our main job was community engagement. Basically to convince the tribesmen that the project was to their benefit. 3000 of them were hired by the sugar factory and the farm with double the median annual salary for the country. We even built standard cement bungalows with indoor plumbing for each employee and his family. Might not seem much bit these people lived in camel hide huts before the project. That is on top of bribes and gifts to the clan leaders.
All went well for the first 3 months. Cane was coming in good. The dam was irrigating 100% of the anticipated arable land.
Around the 4th month mark the clan leaders ran out of money and started causing problems. After a long day of dealing with day to day 3rd world bullshit me and the other kids from Addis would drive a pick up into the desert with 3 baby goats and a case of beer. While were enjoying the evening a bunch of naked kids with flies on their faces would routinely show up just staring at us. We would give them some food and chewing gum. Next day they double in number. A week later over 100 people from the clan come over. When we refuse to give them food they threaten us in their language and leave.
Some weeks later we discover that over 300 acres of cane is drying up because these animals slashed the black plastic under the buoys which leads to the water seeping into the desert sand.
A significant portion of that land was my father's. I immediately file a complaint with the CEO in Addis and he flies in to negotiate with the clan leaders. Clan leaders ask for more money. I offer them a Toyota Corolla on the spot and a primary school in one of their towns if no similar imcidents happen for 5 years. Big mistake. Should have read the Art of the Deal.
While I was dealing with this, harvesting season came around. Out of the 3000 local tribesmen who were offially on payroll, less than 600 showed up. The rest? Not only were they getting paid this whole time without showing up to work, but they also rented out their bungalows to 3rd parties while they kept living in their makeshift camel skin huts.
A "Board of Directors" meeting was called shortly after that except, these fat middle aged thieves were not even in the country. They were chilling in Europe and North America while it was me and a couple other kids with skin in the game running this operation without knowing it. There was literally no one on top OR at the bottom for that matter.
The Cane is starting to dry up at this point and we are talking losses in the tens of millions of dollars. I'm a country were 60% of youth are unemployed and labor costs are dirt cheap finding 2500 workers should be that hard would it? Wrong. People are used to mooching off their families and playing candy crush on fake UAE androids and "don't want to work in the unbearable heat". These are able bodied men with no two cents to rub together.
We manage to assemble a rag tag team of 1500 workers. 1 week training and then to work. We sigh a big sigh of relief. But the tribesmen strike again. Beating up the workers after work and intimidating them. Almost half desert.
3 months later, 80% of the came had dried useless. And now we have to deal with hiring and paying workers to clear the fields for the next year. On top of trasporting the useless cane to be burned somewhere.
Atleast we made sugar from the rest 20% right? Wrong. The factory equipment was all second hand from India despite brand new equipment from the Chinese for less than 4% extra. Machines break down after less than a month of production.
A month later, newspapers report Tendaho Sugar Project a Great Success!!!! Fake ridiculous number in profits. Complete with interviews with happy tribesmen thanking the government and I can't make this shit up :
The wrinkly ass clan leader who I gave the Corolla to showing off his car as a proof of how the project has benefited his community.
In reality, the reservoir which is supposed supply the project for 4 years even with no rain and low levels on the Awash river dried up within 5 months after a particularly long summer. All the investors who made the project possible lost money including my family. The bungalows that were built are now populated by hyenas and meerkats. The people the project was to pull out of poverty are still getting bi-yearly food aid from Western NGOs. And the only people who benefited from this 300 million dollar project were the tribal leaders who wasted everything on Khat and concubine. And the "Board members" who are spending 9 months out of the year in places like Washington D.C and Cote D'Azur. The factory is still running at less than 15% capacity.
I aged 5 year during those 14 months and have given up all hope on Africa. I have stories for a lifetime about the day to day idiotic crap, laziness and inefficiency.
I hope the guys in the Black Man Game Options thread read this post before they go all Africa is great on me again.
The project was being lauded as "a new beginning" and economically game changing mega-project partly funded by the government and partly by local investors in order to pull the impoverished region of nomadic tribesmen out of violence and poverty while boosting the country's desperately needed forex reserves.
Average yearly temperature is above 38 degrees down there with 0 infrastructure. Me and a score of other mid 20s western educated sons of families who bought shares along with some local managers were staying at the best hotel in the largest town of that desert shithole. Population 1400. Hotel looked like a crack house Motel 6 with no running water.
Our main job was community engagement. Basically to convince the tribesmen that the project was to their benefit. 3000 of them were hired by the sugar factory and the farm with double the median annual salary for the country. We even built standard cement bungalows with indoor plumbing for each employee and his family. Might not seem much bit these people lived in camel hide huts before the project. That is on top of bribes and gifts to the clan leaders.
All went well for the first 3 months. Cane was coming in good. The dam was irrigating 100% of the anticipated arable land.
Around the 4th month mark the clan leaders ran out of money and started causing problems. After a long day of dealing with day to day 3rd world bullshit me and the other kids from Addis would drive a pick up into the desert with 3 baby goats and a case of beer. While were enjoying the evening a bunch of naked kids with flies on their faces would routinely show up just staring at us. We would give them some food and chewing gum. Next day they double in number. A week later over 100 people from the clan come over. When we refuse to give them food they threaten us in their language and leave.
Some weeks later we discover that over 300 acres of cane is drying up because these animals slashed the black plastic under the buoys which leads to the water seeping into the desert sand.
A significant portion of that land was my father's. I immediately file a complaint with the CEO in Addis and he flies in to negotiate with the clan leaders. Clan leaders ask for more money. I offer them a Toyota Corolla on the spot and a primary school in one of their towns if no similar imcidents happen for 5 years. Big mistake. Should have read the Art of the Deal.
While I was dealing with this, harvesting season came around. Out of the 3000 local tribesmen who were offially on payroll, less than 600 showed up. The rest? Not only were they getting paid this whole time without showing up to work, but they also rented out their bungalows to 3rd parties while they kept living in their makeshift camel skin huts.
A "Board of Directors" meeting was called shortly after that except, these fat middle aged thieves were not even in the country. They were chilling in Europe and North America while it was me and a couple other kids with skin in the game running this operation without knowing it. There was literally no one on top OR at the bottom for that matter.
The Cane is starting to dry up at this point and we are talking losses in the tens of millions of dollars. I'm a country were 60% of youth are unemployed and labor costs are dirt cheap finding 2500 workers should be that hard would it? Wrong. People are used to mooching off their families and playing candy crush on fake UAE androids and "don't want to work in the unbearable heat". These are able bodied men with no two cents to rub together.
We manage to assemble a rag tag team of 1500 workers. 1 week training and then to work. We sigh a big sigh of relief. But the tribesmen strike again. Beating up the workers after work and intimidating them. Almost half desert.
3 months later, 80% of the came had dried useless. And now we have to deal with hiring and paying workers to clear the fields for the next year. On top of trasporting the useless cane to be burned somewhere.
Atleast we made sugar from the rest 20% right? Wrong. The factory equipment was all second hand from India despite brand new equipment from the Chinese for less than 4% extra. Machines break down after less than a month of production.
A month later, newspapers report Tendaho Sugar Project a Great Success!!!! Fake ridiculous number in profits. Complete with interviews with happy tribesmen thanking the government and I can't make this shit up :
The wrinkly ass clan leader who I gave the Corolla to showing off his car as a proof of how the project has benefited his community.
In reality, the reservoir which is supposed supply the project for 4 years even with no rain and low levels on the Awash river dried up within 5 months after a particularly long summer. All the investors who made the project possible lost money including my family. The bungalows that were built are now populated by hyenas and meerkats. The people the project was to pull out of poverty are still getting bi-yearly food aid from Western NGOs. And the only people who benefited from this 300 million dollar project were the tribal leaders who wasted everything on Khat and concubine. And the "Board members" who are spending 9 months out of the year in places like Washington D.C and Cote D'Azur. The factory is still running at less than 15% capacity.
I aged 5 year during those 14 months and have given up all hope on Africa. I have stories for a lifetime about the day to day idiotic crap, laziness and inefficiency.
I hope the guys in the Black Man Game Options thread read this post before they go all Africa is great on me again.