Brennainafrica’s Weblog

2. The Prime Minister and the President were double crossing those who originally supported them (Military leaders etc…). These were the men who lead the coup….interesting. Lesson: don’t piss off military leaders!!!

3. The people in charge of the military were trying to get the president out using democratic means, but the president was trying to sabotage what he could of the government before he was kicked out…so they had to act fast. Thus the urgency and unexpectedness of the coup.

4. The president’s wife stole a lot of money from the government and was very power hungry. She too will soon be in jail.

What I have learned is that there are different levels of freedom. This country is supposed to be one of democracy and freedom…there is supposed to not be slavery, racism or segregation. Though there are rules that are followed and ideas of how things SHOULD function in Mauritania, the country functions on the unsaid, the not spoken and the “this is just what we do” principals. For example…When I am driving around with a “white Moore” particularly a man, and we get stopped by the police (because the police stop people at random) they ask for money. Not id, not a license, not car papers, but for money. The interesting part was that this particular Arab man had NO paper, LICENSE or anything. He banks on the fact that they don’t care about anything but money.

The Mauritanian government has been trying for years to create a democratic government. This is next to impossible with people in power who still think in traditional suppressive ways. The saddest part is that the PEOPLE just go with it. They have to. They have no room for reason or free thinking when they are told, this is how things are going to be…and since we (the government) control the money in this country and your freedom you have to deal with it. It is a hypocritical, suppressive government that is going to fail if they don’t get those who are completely ignorant and power hungry out of their position of control and power!

I am not one to be very politically minded, but I do know that when a country says that there is NO slavery, NO racism and they preach democracy, shouldn’t the people be free, not segregated against and have a say in what goes on in their country??

(I would have taken pictures…but if a police officer sees a camera, he will take it. you can’t take pictures of them…freedom??