Exploding Ordinance

A month on and I need to post to make sure I stay on target for at least one New Year resolution. It’s not easy really, since we’ve not been doing much travelling or exploring this month. By and large it’s been a month of domestic normality for us here in Dar es Salaam. That doesn’t mean there has been nothing happening here in Tanzania. Fortunately for us, however, the main event of May only gave us a glancing blow.

One morning I was working at or office in the centre of town when we heard a distant bang and felt the office shake. This in itself was nothing new- the building next door had been under construction for some time and we’d got used to a more or less constant rhythm of thudding as the pile- driving needed to create deep foundations proceeded.

A short while later, however, we realised that this was nothing normal. We started to hear rumours of explosions and, worryingly, the noise and damage seemed to be greater back on the Peninsula. Fortunately for my personal peace of mind, we found out quite quickly that whatever had happened had not happened there- nearest and dearest were safe at least.

News gradually filtered through, but, just like the bomb attacks we experienced in Cairo, the news was sketchy, adulterated by rumour and was generally trumped by the distant but more accurate reports of the international press. At first we found out that a major explosion had occurred at the Mbagalo barracks on the other side of town- about 25km from the centre. This made sense- the peninsula is on the other side of a bay from Mbagalo- the wave from the explosion would have passed uninterrupted over the water and hit Msasani quite loudly- hence the number of broken windows and frightened people over there.

We heard news on the radio that the government had advised all town centre offices to evacuate, so this we did straight away, heading to a smaller office we have on the Peninsula. From there, we finally found out what had happened, the BBC World Service doing us proud. The first question everyone wanted an answer to was what had caused the explosion. Although Tanzania is not exactly public enemy number one either to the West or to Al Qaeda, this has not conferred immunity from attack- the 1998 embassy bombing here was brought back into public consciousness for much of the day. If this was a deliberate attack, then the whole complexion of our lives here would change. Fortunately, we found out that the explosion was caused by a tragic accident. An army unit had been moving missiles ahead of deployment to Darfur apparently. Two missiles had knocked together and exploded, setting off other missiles into surrounding buildings.

Final numbers of affected people have not been issued. However, at least count the toll was something around 30 dead, 350 injured and over 4,000 rendered homeless- a pretty awful outcome.

Things have calmed down now. Inquiries are ongoing and we, like most companies in Dar have done our best to contribute to the efforts of the many agencies helping the poor people who have either lost family and friends or seen their homes vanish in smoke.

Life has returned to normal now. To be honest, with not much else happening over the past few weeks, we’ve been keeping an eye on events back in the UK. The expenses scandal has been the cause of much mirth in the office, with Tanzanian colleagues now gloating that their politicians are not as corrupt as ours. A couple of the Tanzanian papers have even started offering advice to Gordon Brown on dealing with political corruption! To be honest, I’m beginning to realise that politicians across the world are much of a muchness- you get to a position of power, you use it as much as you can it seems. It makes you appreciate those few politicians who do actually try to work for something greater than their own enrichment. I will always believe that the socialist policies of Tanzania’s first president, Julius Nyerere, were misguided and simply wrong. However, his refusal to accept the lavish trappings of power throughout his presidency set an ethical standard some of our so called “honourable members” might learn from. His ducks, sadly had to forego the level of housing that those fortunate enough to belong to a British MP enjoy.

It does seem a bit odd the way news travels only in one direction in the world. You get a few MPs playing the system in the UK, or a bunch of non celebrities decide to join the thousands who climb Kilimanjaro each year and the (non) news is pasted ad nauseam all over UK and Tanzanian press alike. We experience a huge explosion killing scores, injuring hundreds and rendering thousands homeless and nobody in the UK really notices!