Entrepreneurship in Senegal

Not 'the' beach, this one is further down the road on the Westernmost
point of the continent

After visiting the beach yesterday afternoon for a bit of R&R, my interaction with the local entrepreneur got me thinking about about entrepreneurship in Senegal. Something that exists on a completely different level to the capitalist entrepreneurship I am used do. Of course that does exist here, but to an extremely limited extent. Here is my experience, at my local beach – I go there because it is a 10 minute walk away, and I’m not actually sure there are any other beaches in a reasonable walking distance (I use the Australian definition of a beach here – where land meets ocean in the form of gently sloping soft sand into the water – some rocks are acceptable).

I sit down on the sand, specifically not taking advantage of one of the half broken umbrellas or partially torn up straw mats. Within seconds, I am approached by a hustler, calling me mon ami and asking for 2,000 CFA! Although this at some point in the conversation changed to 1,000 CFA, and I’m sure is different for every person at the beach, I wasn’t up for it. I figured this is a good opportunity to practice the little French I know, since the gentleman does not speak English. “Why?” I ask. He explains. I have little idea what he’s saying. We go back and forth, with half of the conversation being me telling him that I don’t understand or him telling me that he doesn’t understand English. My argument (armed with knowledge I gained from my colleagues) is that this is a public beach, I am not using any of his ‘equipment’, so why do I need to pay? His argument, I think, is that just like I have a job, he has a job, and it is related to the beach. It seems as though he is telling me that he cleans the beach and makes it look presentable. Admittedly, the beach does look a 100 times nicer than most public spots in Dakar. There is very little rubbish there, the sand and rocks are clearly separated in a way which didn’t occur naturally. Still, I argue – I a coming here to read my book and swim. If I use his services, I will pay. After 15 minutes he decides to leave me and give me free passage.

Love Of My Life

To my dearest Jessie,

I know that technically, I saved your life once, long ago, when we first met. But ever since then, I feel like you have saved mine countless times. Perhaps not physically, but emotionally. You have been with me as long as I have been an adult and although I feel like I have already abandoned you, I can't bear the thought of not being greeted by you ever again.

The true meaning of friendship

Hello. My name is Kevin and I've been diagnosed with a mental illness.

Whinging is my middle name, and this blog posting will probably demonstrate why. I have decided to 'come out' and write this because I have realised that there still massive prejudices and taboos in this world against mental illness. The phrase covers such a broad range of things, yet it evokes emotions in so many of the worst kind of disease possible. It is as if, ticking a form on a box saying you have a physical impairment causes people to immediately assume that you must have Ebola, without considering the possibility that you stubbed your little toe when you were 5 and the hairline fracture never healed properly, causing you a small amount of pain whenever you walk. Taboos in today's society which despite all the efforts of some great people and organisations around the world, still result in a massive amount of unbelievable discrimination. Given the statistics, I know there will be a few people reading this post who will at some point in their lives be in a similar situation to me, and I hope that they will learn from my mistake.

Depending on which statistic you see, mental illness affects somewhere around 20% of the population at some point in their lives (some stats indicate this figure is as high as 33%). But those numbers are immaterial. The key thing being, it affects many people I love, and it has affected me. As a result of this, I have been in the past, and still am today, discriminated against. No matter how many people rightly say that mental illness is "just another disease" and shouldn't be treated differently to any physical disease, it still is. The average person, and the average authority is scared of it and doesn't know how to deal with it. People do not understand it. Why it is easier for people to understand leukemia than depression, I have no idea. Neither are visible to the naked eye, yet for some reason, the 'physical' explanation is a lto easier for many to swallow.


I know that in personal relationships, honesty is always the best policy, but all of us are confronted by other situations where overt honesty leads to difficulties. Everyone in life has countless experiences of this, and I have had many small ones (take the example of admitting to being an asthmatic when wanting to SCUBA dive - I always achieve my goal in the end, but with a lot more effort and costs).