The Foreign Service Journal, May 2004

gettable experiences and blessed our family. Shortly after the 9/11 attacks I visited an especially remote area in Ethiopia along the Eritrean border, which had suffered tremendously from the recent war between the two countries: most struc- tures destroyed, livestock killed, wells poisoned, croplands turned into minefields, and people forced to live in caves dur- ing the conflict. (We had decided to focus USAID rehabilita- tion funds in this small area and rebuild much of the infra- structure, so I wanted to see progress first-hand.) When I arrived in the main village to cut the ribbon for the start of rebuilding, the local people asked to give me a very important message through an elder. I was expecting a shopping list of further needs; instead, the representative said the villagers wanted me to tell President Bush how sorry they were over what had happened in New York, and that they — the people of Irob — were praying for our country and were willing to help any way they could to fight terrorism. It was difficult for me to respond to these unselfish people who had suffered about as much as anyone could, but were concerned with easing America’s pain. With such experiences, the hassles of daily life in the “developed” world are of little importance. Career Advancement. If the above hasn’t tweaked an interest in Africa, consider job rewards. Having served on promotion panels, I can confirm that working in Africa is career-enhancing. Across pay grades and professions, the major issue for panels is to separate those who genuinely stand out from the majority who perform capably. Africa can be advantageous on two counts: panels reward those who work well under exceptionally difficult circumstances, and those performing far above their grade. For example, being a General Services Officer will always be exponentially more challenging in Djibouti than Geneva. Furthermore, jobs in Africa usually entail greater responsibilities at lower-grade levels, making the description of the work and accomplish- ments stand out from other evaluation reports. Another career advantage in Africa is the large number of Deputy Chief of Mission positions, many at relatively junior levels. The Africa Bureau has historically shown great loyalty to its hardest-working employees by supporting them for these jobs, regardless of professional career track. I will forever be glad that when the list of available assign- ments was handed out during junior officer training, I opted for Lusaka over London. I stayed in Africa throughout my 25-year career (with just one assignment back in Washington). And I can’t imagine having had a better time for the past quarter-century. — Tibor Nagy F O C U S M A Y 2 0 0 4 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 23 cantly more funds later, to help reconstruct the shattered infrastructure and rehabilitate the traumatized popula- tion. There is definitely a sense among many Africans that the U.S. values African lives less than just about anyone else’s, and no rhetoric to the contrary will change this out- look as much as action. We need to get over our historic reluctance to respond quickly and proactively to African crises (and I don’t mean just issuing carefully worded offi- cial statements employing words such as “intolerable” and “unacceptable”). I would venture that beyond the humanitarian considerations, a post-action analysis would show that the opportunity cost of acting immediately would have been much less than what the U.S. govern- ment ended up paying in dollars and loss of continental goodwill. • Democratization . (Significant Improvement) Despite tremendous cynicism about the continent’s polit- ical prospects, I believe internal and external forces are finally driving Africa toward much greater democracy. The people want it, donors want it, and finally there are a group of African leaders who want it. Putschists can no longer count on autocratic neighbors supporting their illegal government takeovers. I believe the recent strug- gle between Didier Ratsiraka and Marc Ravalomanana in Madagascar was a turning point against the autocrats-for- life class. The old school supported Ratsiraka, the reformers Ravalomanana, and the African Union (as is its habit in controversies) did nothing. Ravalomanana’s eventual triumph was a message for the continent that the scales have been tipped. Of course there will be reverses — probably with regularity in certain countries — but the state of democracy in sub-Saharan Africa will progress significantly. U.S. policy response. I used to greatly annoy my donor group colleagues when I would tire of their unending debates over how many election observers were needed to assure fair elections and tell them that the number of observers didn’t matter one iota if the government in question was unwilling to allow itself to be voted out of office. I believe we need to use our full arsenal of carrots and sticks to encourage governments to not only allow themselves to be voted out of office, but — just as importantly — to rule justly while in office. This is where it’s essential for the U.S. to pursue a holistic approach in supporting the various compo- nents that play key roles in “democratization”: e.g., voter education, anti-corruption efforts, judicial