Politics

Politics can be a very tricky thing to understand here in Senegal. I have lived here for almost two years now and I am having a very hard time grasping the the way people think about who they will vote for. For instance the guy who is running for re eliection in my town will get voted back into office because no one is going to run against him. It wasn't always this way, for the past year and a half my host mom has been leading the campaign for a man who was planning to run against the current mayor. The held several meetings and even had a few parties. As the elections are begging to get closer and closer they began to organize more and more. Durring one of these events I asked my brother why he wanted to change the mayor. He explained that the current mayor just throws money at people, but doesn't actually solve any of the problems. My response was, but in Dagana we have new roads, street lights, a new high school, new sugar factory, new stadium, new garage, and a historic district. We are in better shape than 95% of the country. He still disagred with me and said it wasn't the mayor who did all of this it was just chance that we got all of those things since we are a departmental capitol. (I have no opinion of the mayor and the work he has done, I just wanted to argue to see what his response would be.)

About a week ago the mayor came to town to campaign, he put up speakers and gave out free shirts to everyone n the crowd. People went crazy, except for a few people who prefer the other candidate. My brother attached red flags to our house to protest and didn't go to the rally. About two days ago, my brother runs into my room and throws me a tee shirt of the current mayor. He is running around blowing a whistle and is holding a sign giving the mayor and President (Who he hates by they way) support for the upcoming elections. To say the least I was confused and had to ask what was going on. Turns out that his candidate is running with the mayor now and has switched parties. If you can't beat them then join them. At the drop of the hat, everyone in this other party switched over and wanted to be part of the winning side. Morals and beliefs failed to the feeling of victory. Imagine if politics was like this in America. We would have a one party system with each President. Everyone would join the President's party.

Any who, I thought that it was funny to see how politics work here. People become political not because they believe in something, they do it to be part of something. If the guy my brother supported lost the elections, he would not be part of anything, by switching over he can say he helped campaign and is part of the socialist party. The candidate who witched over, gets power and recognition and his views really didn't matter any ways.

Happy B-Day Elana.