Bon jour will get you far in Mail, daily blog of Terry Clark

3-16-2007
Some of this may be repetitive, and much of it is random at the end of the day. There is such an assault on the senses in Mali, and therefore so much to try to think about and synthesize.

There are no lazy people here, even in 110-degree heat, even when poor, even when begging, they have a dignity. . Ask some if you can take their photo, and many will shake their heads. Why is “No” so universal in languages?

The people are incredibly friendly. We are among the few “tubabu” (whites) many have seen—they stare, especially the children, but they smile and wave, and if you just make eye contact and say Bon Jour, you get smiles and return greetings.

We visit government minister of communication and others working with the press today. They speak in French….and it seems like the first 20 minutes or so are rehearsed and formal, and then they say “You have the floor,” and after many questions they start loosening up.

Everyone refers to the 1991 revolution when the dictatorship was ousted. These people can remember the dictatorship and all discussions of media start there

Asked if Mali’s many radio stations play music, the minister says, “they’ll play music when all Malians have something to eat.”

Actually they do play music, depending on the station, but everyone is aware how much is riding on radio. The people are committed to “decentralization,” a real federal system in reaction to dictatorship.
Accordingly, the country is divided into 750 communes (do not think Soviet style), where the communities pretty well run their areas. They elect mayors and representatives to the district level, of which there are eight, and the district elects 3 to the regional area. There are also elections for parliament and the presidency.

Next month is the presidential election—all terms are five years.

Each commune is allotted three radio frequencies, and the stations, most of which are fairly weak (one had a radius of about 60 km (40 miles) concentrate on agricultural matters, health, the fight against AIDs, women’s issues, etc.

It is a source of pride to work for a radio station –one we visited Sunday in a rural area had solar panels charging car batteries—it is on a few hours in the morning and a few in the afternoon, but not at night (no sun).

In Bamako, the capital of 1.3 million there are about 20 radio stations and about 17 newspapers (most in French the official language.) Most of these papers are tabloid size, have almost no advertising, and small circulations (I think the largest of them have about 17,000 circulation, another 10,000). There are 7 or 8 dailies, 12 weeklies, 2-4 bi-weeklies and 3-4 magazines. Average circulation less than 2,000 (literacy rate is somewhere between 28-47 percent).

We hear more than one person talk about “vision” and where they hope the country will go.

I think that is the key word—hope. How else can you explain that we don’t find any angry people? Most are smiling, working hard…we saw one guy pushing a cart down the middle of the street with about 1,000 pounds of rebar (steel for concrete construction). So it may look hopeless here to outsiders (the trash, the heat, the dirt, the poverty), but these people get along and something motivates them to work.

Radio is seen as a crucial tool in what these people call “mobilization”—getting the country moving up. They don’t deny they have problems, they talk about them, but they don’t complain or whine about them, and they don’t ask for handouts (other than the street children begging with coffee cans in the streets). Others will constantly accost you on the street at stop lights and in traffic jams, and try to sell you something.

Other than being persistent however, they are not threatening.

You can tell I have much to write—the more I write the more comes to mind. I’m not even through with the log from my journal for this one day, so I’m far behind, and so there will be more tomorrow.

One note on journalism—we work with an interpreter—our guide “A” who is an English teacher. It’s the first time I’ve worked with an interpreter in journalistic interviews, but it really helps. Here are some of the effects I see:

It makes you slow down and carefully phrase your questions so your words will translate better; it gives you time to write while the foreigner is speaking. It makes you listen carefully, both to the speaker and the interp. You find anew how important eye contact and body language is.

One final note to prepare for next blog—there are similarities here with American press in loss of credibility and circulation, and journalism pay is low.

Another quote of day from the newspaper owner we interviewed, when asked what he thought was necessary to train journalists: “To be a good journalist, you first need to love it—the rest will come.”

And that’s what’s brewing in my coffee pot, in Mali, West Africa—Terry Clark