貧国雑感 thoughts about poor countries

563rd day in Mer'awy / 610th day in Ethiopia
22 / 06 / 2004EC

少し前ですが、2月の頭にマラウィ、タンザニアに旅行に行きました。
A couple weeks ago, at the beginning of Feb. I have been to Malawi and Tanzania for sightseeing.

マラウィでは同期の地方隊員の家に泊めてもらいました。

現地隊員曰く、マラウィはないないづくしの国。
In Malawi I stayed at the other JOCV's house. They and I are companies who were trained together in Japan for two month.
They said they can hardly find anything in Malawi.

確かに地方は、エチオピアとあんまり変わらない。いろいろなものがないし、システムももうひとつ、インフラももうひとつといった感じ。
I surely felt that it is very similar in local area between Ethiopia and Malawi. There are few goods, poor systems and poor infrastructure.

国そのものが援助頼み。なのに援助国ともめて、日本以外の援助はストップしている状態。なもんでいろいろと困った状態が続いているわけです。
National government cannot run their country without foreign assistant. Yet, the government has problem with support countries, therefore all countries except Japan stop to support now. Malawian people have faced serious problem.

そんなマラウィも、首都に行けば、南ア資本の巨大なスーパーが。中は日本で売っているものと遜色がない。もちろん高い。だが金さえあれば手に入る。
Even in this situation, you can find giga-store established by South African capital in the capital. You can find same products as in Japan. Of course, the prices are very expensive. You can buy them if you have money.

外国人のお客より現地人のお客の方が多い。つまりそれだけお金のある人がいる。一方地方ではないないづくし。
You can find local people rather than foreign people in the store. It can be said that there are many rich people. On the other hand, people have nothing in local area.

格差という言葉は、日本でのそれよりはるかにでかい。
The GAP between rich and poor is much bigger than in Japan.