Border Crossing 1

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The border between Benin and Niger is the Niger River. It is about 400m wide and there is a separate Immigration post on each side of the river. Luggage examinations were held in the open with the locals watching all that went on.

Let me tell you how and why I got there.

I was supposed to fly into Niamey, the capital of Niger, from Parakou in Benin. The plane never arrived and as my trip was strategic I had to travel by local taxis. I was allowed to sit in the front seat and enjoyed the trip – except that there was a hole in the side of the petrol tank of the taxi. The presence of the hole was not revealed in my contract of carriage, which was in fact only an urgently arranged verbal agreement. The driver was able to put in about 10 litres and then drove on until the fuel was about to run out, when another aliquot was added. So, having left about midday, we staggered along arriving at the border at dusk. The taxis had legal limits in which to take fares – one group was allowed to drive to the border, a second across the bridge; a third group was allowed to drive in Niger.

On the Beninois side Immigration ‘spot’ not everyone one was inspected – only one was, and I, maybe because of my distinctively different colour, was chosen. (sometimes bing a foreigner is a help, sometimes it’s not). My case, having been laid on the ground, was opened and I had to take out everything and place it on the ground. Every item was ‘oohed and ahhed’ by the watching crowd. There was no duty to be paid, so I repacked the case, got into a taxi, and arrived in Niger.

I think that you can guess what happened. The previous examination was replicated. Still there was no duty to be paid and I headed towards the next taxi area where there was only one taxi present. Approaching the driver, I asked how much to go to Niamey. Previously I had been told the cost was 1250CFA. He quoted 2500CFA, so I told him that I knew better. He told me that I was correct, but, pointing to a ramshackle place a few hundred metres away, told me that he was the last taxi going that night, and that I could choose that ‘hotel’ or pay the 2500. I chose the latter, was given a front seat again. We arrived about midnight. The place where I was to stay had given me up as a lost cause but found me a corner in which to bed down.

Benin 2

Dominic Cartier

A difficult problem

One of the nastier, more difficult cases I’ve treated.

When I first went to Africa I worked in a leprosarium which served a huge area. There were up to 15 different tribal languages spoken but using one or a series of interpreters we got by. The young man with whom I frequently worked spoke 7 languages fluently. There are over 80 plus separate languages and even more dialects in the land. You wonder how often the eventual answer given was to a question different from the original! The Chinese whisper effect.

At any rate this case, a teenage boy, was brought to the hospital from a high mountainous area. No-one in the hospital knew his language and we never during his stay were able to speak a single word with him, but got to understand each other with looks and gesticulations. His need was, however, pretty obvious. He had been electrocuted and had a gangrenous right arm and right leg. In addition there was a nasty full thickness burn on his right chest and abdomen laterally and a large necrotic patch on his left calf. The accident had occurred some days earlier and he was sick, sick, sick! They had no money and in a government hospital in Africa this is not good!

father's arm The case was even more complicated because his father (maybe during war service) had had much of the muscle and 2 nerves blown off his right arm and was not therefore able to do much for his son, whom he obviously loved dearly.

We found a generous donor for the son and we began treatment – obvious antibiotics, IV fluids and pain relief but ASAP he underwent surgery.

Initial surgery was amputation below his right knee and the amputation of his right upper limb through the shoulder and cleaning (debridement) of his other wounds. wchair.paint copy He survived this but soon developed tetanus. This is hard to treat anywhere but much more in an open ward with no intensive care specialists available – but we did. Besides the initial guillotine type amputation surgery he needed other refashioning and skin graft surgery. Early mobilisation is always attempted but how do you get one mobile if he has no armpit for a crutch and no leg on the same side? The hospital had a few wheel chairs for emergency use but none to be dedicated for a single patient. My wife and I fortunately had enough money to buy him a wheel chair which he loved. I retired when nearly 80 before the saga ended but we hadn’t solved the problem by any means. There is no social security in the country. Everything has to be paid for – so that even if it were possible to make an artificial above knee prosthesis learning to work without an arm to hold a crutch would be extremely difficult. He and his father could whizz around the cement paths of the hospital in the chair but when they went back into the mountains there would be mud and slush galore and probable no cement paths at all. I grew quickly to love both of them but I can’t even begin to imagine what life is like for them now.

Some may say that we should have let him die – but you should have seen his smile!

I guess, a medical and a moral issue. When working in India I had it said why waste money on the deformed and abort the healthy.

Dominic Cartier

Some thoughts on tolerance…

The majority of our society is constantly calling for tolerance. Personally I’m not sure that unbridled tolerance is wise or to be sought after.

If I am called to be tolerant to all groups, then must/should I show tolerance to those who get their kick out of lighting bushfires to watch the blaze? Why not be tolerant of the jealous person who, deeply emotionally disturbed and jealous, murders his/her partner’s lover? Why not be tolerant, and understanding of, the alcohol/drug affected driver who runs his/her car into a group of young people? What about the drag queen who tries to influence the children of straight parents, who desire to bring their family up in a Judeo-Christian way? Why are we not tolerant of people who circumcise their female children? Are we not judging them, and being intolerant, by calling it ‘genital mutilation’?

Maybe there is a standard which is acceptable and above human law or personal opinion. Maybe not everyone should be free to decide on their own standards.

Our governments in the West and in the majority of nations have shown themselves incompetent to lead their people in right ways. In the call for tolerance and maybe largely at the insistence of fringe groups, they are legislating against historically established standards of morality and social structure and custom.

Are there males and females? Yes, and they are as determined by XX or XY chromosomes and by external appearances. If their chromosomes are XY and the genitals are out they are males; if they have chromosomal XX and the genitals are inwards, they are females. There are a very small percentage of genital and physical abnormalities which are a trial to the individuals and to those with whom they are close and involved. They must be respected, treated with love and tolerance, but they are not the normal pattern of life.

Sex and gender have historically had the same basic meaning. There have been characteristics described as male or female and I doubt if there has ever been anyone with either only male or only female characteristics. The balance of these make us what we are. Maybe with time, learning, experience and even choice we can modify our character. This does not modify either our sex or our gender.

What are the stages of human life? It is pretty well settled in most people’s thinking; conception, embryo, foetus, newborn, toddler, child, pre, pubertal & post pubertal, adulthood, old age, after life. Why are we asked to tolerate murder at the extremes and deny the last stage, which if real (and there is evidence to say it is) is the largest part?

What has been known for years as wrong is now lifted up as the ‘to-be-accepted and tolerated’ norm. I am neither convinced nor personally prepared to accept such what I call un-informed, immoral rubbish!

Dominic Cartier

Introductory Regime

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I am getting old!

He now has more time to think abstractly and write blogs.

I grew up in Oceana in a relatively poor family with no radio, bathroom and an outside toilet. A toilet, that when the bucket was full, was emptied into a hole dug specifically for that purpose. As soon as we were old enough, old enough to dig, this became one of my chores. We all lived in a small country cottage, a bed for the parents, a smaller bed for the kids; a large enough yard to play cricket and kick a football – all you could ever need as a small boy growing up in the country. Continue reading “Introductory Regime” →