Markets and Taxi Cartels

During my first few days in Addis Ababa I was spending nearly 10 dollars a day on transportation. The price was ridiculous. That is the price of a whole day’s worth of delicious meals and macchiato breaks between each meal. I knew there was a market disparity because of my white skin, but could it have been so high? 10 dollars is what most Ethiopians make in a week, so there must be another way. I tried bargaining at taxi stands. However this quickly turned futile as the men quickly locked in on a price. Before I go on further about pricing, let me refresh you on a brief economics lesson on markets and prices.
In a free market, services are priced at a certain point. (Let’s say 10 for one taxi ride) At this price point providers of services enter the market ("I can make a weeks wages if I find just one foreigner, I'm in!!"). A flood of service people enter the market ("Looks like these guys all had the same idea, so much for the easy $10.") At this point there is more supply of service than demand and service providers must compete. Service providers can either compete on price or service ("These fools have dirty cars, I will have the cleanest and rake in all the customers." or "So much for my $10 lottery ticket, I will increase my chances if I lower my price to $9"). Those who can't provide a better service or lower price, can't compete, do not get the customers and leave the market (I'm going back to making a sure $10 a week verses waiting for the $10 lottery ticket that prefers cleaner cars and $9 rides"). Eventually the market achieves a state of equilibrium where there are just the right amount of services for the amount people are willing to make.
The scenario presupposes two things free markets and competitive forces. Two things that exist in abundance in the Western World I inhabit, but do not exactly work as such in other areas of the world. I should have remembered that men at taxi stands quickly apply cartel pricing when I start to apply competitive forces to achieve a price that is more fair. Cartel pricing is also called fixed pricing. If everybody locks in their heels on a price, then everyone will get richer. This is such an effective strategy for business, that governments around the world have strict laws forbidding cartel pricing.
Cartel pricing and competitive forces sounds rather academic. Here is how I imagine these two concepts sound.
"Listen Tagle, you can't park your taxi here at this taxi park because you cheated all of us by offering to drive the foreigner for $9. Get out of here, and you can't come to my birthday party either"
"I needed the $9 you guys. Since your nephew brought his taxi to our stand were are not seven at this stand it is getting crowded. 9$ was a lot better than my one in seven chance of getting $10."
"You sound like an economist, get out of here and teach a class."

The long and the short of it was that I was not going to pay wildly inflated prices. It wasn't so much a money thing as a being cheated because I am a foreigner thing. Some foreigners have experienced affluence guilt and pay inflated prices to assuage their feeling of good fortune. However, I know that I have a set amount to spend in a county. That money can either be spent on people providing services and products that are worthwhile or the money can be spent on cheats and over chargers. The charitable advantage to spending money on things that are worthwhile is that you encourage people doing work for money verses people waiting half the day at a taxi stand for the lotto ticket foreigner.

Crime, Money, Relationship

Addis Ababa a poor and densely populated city. It suffers from the ills of all modern capital cities, traffic jams, pollution, pick pockets, noise, begging, prostitution.... Did you notice something missing from this list of modern ills? There is one element that would have drastically and irrevocably affected my stay there, violent street crime. This is not to say that violent crime is non existent, but by comparison to the other capital cities in Africa, Addis Ababa is a Garden of Eden.
I have been in much wealthier countries including my own where I feared for my personal safety much more than I did while in Addis. This is not just my own perception either, friends and acquaintances, locals and tourists I had spoken to all agreed that Addis Ababa is unique in its safety for both tourists and Ethiopians. That got me to thinking...
The typical liberal ideology with which I was raised held that poverty causes crime. If people had more opportunity they would commit less street crime. The dangerous neighborhoods were those without jobs, money or opportunity.
By extension one would think that a city where people are sleeping in shacks or under boxes on the street would be very dangerous. But it is not.
So what is happening? One ideas is that absolute poverty is not the cause in crime, but relative poverty is the problem. So, if everybody else is poor, one doesn't feel compelled to perpetrate crimes to make the overall relative wealth more even. However, this did not seem to be the case as there were plenty of rich folks in Addis who were driving Range Rovers and eating large carnivorousness meals on cafe tables for all to see.
Another ideas is that they lack weaponry to make crimes. However, one only needs a kitchen knife for a personal robbery and Ethiopia has plenty of wicked traditional weapons that would also do the job. Moreover, it boarders Somalia which is a virtual America personal firearms with AK-47s going for about $5.
Another idea I still hear pushed around by people trying to explain violent crime is this idea of homogeneity. For example, Japan and Scandanavia don't have street crime because they are homogeneous societies. Ethiopia has a wealth of ethnic and tribal diversity, there are around 80 spoken languages. Plus the country has serious Balkanization pressures with various groups that have struggled and succeeded and others currently struggling for independence from Ethiopia.
Another ideas is that it is a peaceful country, but with a vicious war with Eritrea ending in 1991 and the invasion of Mogadishu in 2006, the state has plenty of blood on its hands. But none the less this political violence does not trickle down to one on one street violence that can be felt and seen on the street.
So what could it be?
Could it be that the people are less materialistic? Kids kill for flashy sneakers in the L.A. Is the commercial pressure less intense in Ethiopia so that people identify more as a member of their family, community and tribe and less as a wearer of clothes,flashers of bling, consumers of consumables?
Could it be that since opportunities for creating material wealth are so limited, that people focus on other forms of wealth. Such as being a wealth of stories in their community, or making a wealth of traditional baskets, or being a wealth of compassion for those needing it.
Maybe the entire idea of human relationship is different. Efficient economic systems are able to reduce individuals to their productive and consumptive behaviors. With this reduction of people, it is easier to see a person walking down the street as a carrier of money to be beaten out of. Perhaps in inefficient economic systems, people are hold a richer notions of human relationship.

Marathons, Sudoku and intercultural adventure,

During an argument about the importance of first impressions and etiquette, I had to stop myself and determine why I was getting so heated about the topic. Why was I insistent on making the best impression as possible even thought it may not have mattered? In fact locals usually expect foreigners to display a certain level of ignorance with local customs, so its not like I am really going to offend people. Also, its not that I am trying to curry favor with someone, usually the person I am trying to work with has little influence over events. So what is it? I realized that it is a game that I am playing, not a little game but a game like marathon games. A game like chess game. I realize that intercultural interaction is my chess, marathons and sudoku. It is a game that I have been competing in since my first trip to Oxford.
I remember my first day in Oxford. I walked into a coffee shop and was puzzling over the coffee selections.
"What is a Canned Coffee?" I ask in my best English accent.
"Its something those Americans like."
"Well in that case I will have an espresso."
This is my first intercultural game and I scored points here. But what is it? What did I gain out of this? Why was I thrilled? I know it wasn't because I was ashamed to be an American. Nor was it because I wanted to trick people. It also wansn't because I like fitting in. Any friends from high school will attest to this. What I realized was that her assumption that I was not American proved that I had accurately "code switched". This is a term in the field to describe a shifting of language or ques that communicate on a deeper cultural level. Think shifting you guys to you all. Or shifting from "diversity initiative" to "inclusion".
Why do I like this intercultural game? Probably because it was a skill I developed while moving around the country as much as I did. People tend to like challenges they have a head start in. Besides, why do people like marathons or sudoku? It's a challenge that pushes them to the next level.
So what can one do with these intercultural skills? Lets ask Karen Armstrong. I would appreciate your comments on how this blog post connects with Armstrongs talk.

Safety Matches

When I bought matches to do some grilling, I had always wondered why box indicated "safety matches." What was so safe about these matches? Were other matches dangerous? Aren't all matches dangerous in the hands of the wrong person.
So, I concluded that the word safety on the box of matches was just there to satisfy some advertising need. Perhaps it made people feed better playing with Prometheus' creation. This I thought before I went to Uganda.
There I encountered Krishna Matches. They had a nice little picture on the matchbook of the blue Hindu Messiah smiling as he brings you the ability to make fire. After the electricity went out one day I was happy I had saved my Krishna matches to light a candle. I struck the match against the rough striking surface and the head of the match started on fire, broke off and fell into my lap. I slapped out the flame in my lap. That is when I revised my explanation of "safety" in "safety matches".

Technology and Timezones at the end of the road.

As a child I spent most of my time living in the Southwest. Our family would take visitors to the most Southwestern thing we could, old west town. As I walked through the long dirt road flanked by old west buildings, I remember wishing to see these places alive. I remember straining my imagination to recreate a typical day in town. Imagining it not as a historical playground, but as a functional space. Why did people enter this building for? Did they wear pistols inside? Where did they tie their horses?
Several years later I am in Chencha, which is literally at the end of the road. Type Chencha Ethiopia into Google maps to see what I mean by the end of the road.

While walking into town, I look around and I am flanked by old cinderblock buildings separated by a muddy dirt road. Could it be that my childhood wishes came true and I am now in the closes living analogy to an old west town? Goats are being herded down the dirt road, kids roam freely, most people are using their feet for transportation, something broken lays in the road waiting to be used for scrap parts or burned for fun, a shack that could most accurately be translated as a saloon hosts dozens of men drunk from home brewed honey wine at 10 in the morning. The function of the each space is clearly seen through its design. As I am trying to open my eyes even wider to take in everything that is happening, a man approaches me with a modern device clutched in this hand. I look at his face for intentions, is he threatening or ready to try some con? He is holding a mobile phone and from what I gathered from language and hand gestures he wanted me to use it. He then places his mobile phone against my ear and holds it as I hear a voice mail message “I am not here right now, leave a message. Beep.”. "Its voicemail," I explain to a blank face. Time is running out so I leave the best message I could, “I am a tourist in Chencha and I guy approached me on the road to leave a message, I guess, ok call him back.” I nod indicating that I am done with the call. He then asks me what is going on. From what I understand, he recognizes the man’s voice on the other line, but the man does not respond.
I think for a moment as to what could have been going on. Does he expect a response from a voice mail? Does he mean he needs a return call? Suddenly experience I have been having and this experience comes together to form a new realization. All the while I have been in East Africa, people have been struggling to answer the phone even when the time is inappropriate (in American standards). People have answered the phone in several cases: mid conversation, while being introduced during a semi formal event and even while giving a professional back message. Finally, I understand it here, at the end of the road. People in East Africa do not have voice mail! If someone calls, just like in the days before answering machines, people struggle to take the call. Do you remember running into your house in the 80s, to catch the phone? Also, if they hear a voice mail, they probably do not know what to do. Remember the explicit instructions we used to give when answering machines were new? “Please leave your name, time you called, ect.” I write "used to give", but people are still leaving these instructions twenty years after the advent of answering machines. Who do they think is calling?, someone from East Africa?
So here I am on this dirt road doing my best to be helpful. I must explain two things timezones and voicemails. First I explain that although it is 10 AM here, it is around 2 AM in the United States. So, he should consider the time difference when calling. He thought I was joking and I don’t think that he bought the whole timezone thing. Then I explain the voicemail. “When you hear a beep, leave a message that includes your number and your request, just like you would write in a letter.” He then asks me why the man is not calling him back, and I have to explain a third thing, that caller ID is usually not transmitted via transnational phone lines. Three big ideas for a small town on the end of the road.

Hammar Hitchhike, Facial Expression, First Times

Why do I love this photo so much? It seems to capture a moment. When two people from two worlds look at each other and both are like, wow, what is expected of me in this particular social situation. Let me start from the beginning.
I was in this car driving from one village near Turmi to Dimeka. There was a Hammar woman on the side of the road. As we passed her she was waiving her hands. I figured there was only one place to go on a Saturday in this region and that was the Dimeka market. Since we had some extra space in the car, I asked the driver to stop so we could give the lady a ride.--You know there are certain conventions, that we learn when we are very young and do them all the time, so we just think they are natural like breathing or sneezing? One of the reasons I love international and intercultural travel is to bring those conventions into light and reveal them as what they are, unnatural learned behaviors that are practiced in my particular culture.--Once the lady walked up to our stopped car she stood outside it looking in the window. Had she decided against hitching a ride with us? Was she afraid of our foreign faces? Was she wondering what she would have to pay for the ride? After a while I figured that she did not know how to open a door. So I opened it for her and waved her in. The whole experience transpired in less than two minutes, but was earth shattering in what it revealed. Had this woman never opened up a car door before? Is this her first time in a car?
When she came into the car to sit on the seat, her movement was very deliberate and kind of a jerky motion. Like you and I would have saddled a camel or entered a tuk-tuk. Maybe she had never lifted herself into a car and onto a car seat before. This very well could have been her first time.
Once she was in the car, I tried to make light conversation. I didn't know any of the local language, but I figured the names of towns would be the same. "We are going to Dimeka" I say, hoping for some acknowledgment. --nothing. "Dimeka" I repeat again. --Nothing. Then I say about how we are going to Key Afar next, again relying on the assumption that the sounds of these town names are similiar in the language. She looks at me and makes this face at the driver which is unmistakeable. It is the kind of shy, stifled smile face that says, "This whole experience is pretty wild, but I really don't know what the heck is going on." I know, because I have made this face many times while traveling the world. Its nice that as humans, we still share many of the same facial expressions.
As a side note, did you know that until Paul Ekman did his work in the 1970s, people thought facial expressions were culturally programmed? Common, look at this video and tell me that this is not a universal face for, "WTF"

Animals and Humans

Ethiopians and Ugandans seem to spend their lives in close proximity to animals. While on the way down town, we had to wait for a herd of goats to cross the way. While driving to the office my host dad almost ran over a chicken. While waking up near the center of the capital city, I was awoken by a rooster. City life in East Africa seems to be still very different than city life in the West. While thinking more about it, what seems strange is that the only life we see in the West is other humans. The rest of the world is surrounded by a biodiversity that reminds them of their place in the organic kingdom. I wonder if living so close to other animals reveals certain insights. Does a mother chicken leading her little chicks reinforce the prominent in West African expectation that children are the sole responsibility of women? Do goats following in herds; reinforce the notion of going with the group? I wonder if Americans would think differently about social relations if we had a closer relationship with animals.

Why is this funny

Humor sure is different is different places.