Gabarone

I had a quick business trip to Botswana - the capital, Gabarone, is just down the road by African standards - a mere 50 minute flight. Botswana is one of the success stories of the continent - the fastest growing economy in the world from 1966 to 2005, mainly due to the discovery of diamonds - but more than that, a governing class that resisted the robber baron mentality of many of their neighbours and ploughed a lot of that wealth into schools, hospitals, and employment. In 1970 GDP per head was 200 dollars, only 2% of the population completed elementary school, there were 100 University students, and there was a single paved road 12 kilometres long. Now the GDP is over 14,000 dollars per head and adult literacy is now 74% against a subSaharan average of 58%. There is also very little crime, a wonderful and relaxing contrast to Botswana's delinquent southern neighbour. However, there are some big clouds on the horizon - the diamond fields are expected to dry up within ten or fifteen years, there's very little other industry to speak of, and arable land is a mere 0.7% of the total - most of the territory is dominated by the Kalahari desert.

I didn't see much of Botswana - just the road from the airport and the pedestrian street in the centre - the latter, oddly enough, reminded me of the pedestrian areas in provincial Eastern European towns: grim institutional architecture, large open spaces covered in large flagstones with no provision for trees, and people using these spaces to sell a motley variety of goods, from shoes to vegetables to CDs to crafts to clothing - but with no attempt at pressure salesmanship or indeed any salesmanship at all - take it or leave it; this is also relaxing and refreshing.