Ronald H. Brown Commercial Center

A couple of weeks ago, Jean received an invitation to a networking session at the Ron Brown Commercial Center. The Center is a part of the U.S. Department of Commerce, and as I understand it, at least one part of its mission is to assist U.S. companies that are interested in doing business in southern Africa. Here are links to more information about the Center and a speech by Don Teitelbaum, who is the Chargé d’Affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Pretoria (and basically the acting head of mission, since we’re without an ambassador to SA right now).

http://www.buyusa.gov/southafrica/en/
http://trade.gov/cs/
http://usembassy.state.gov/pretoria/wwwhpr15u.html (speech by Don Teitelbaum)

At the networking session, representatives from U.S. Embassies in various countries in Southern Africa were available to talk about business opportunities in their respective countries. The invitation was transferable to one person within the company, so Jean gave it to me. She’s been telling me (as an example), “Don’t bother going to Zambia; there’s no money there.” So, I thought it might be a good idea to speak with official representatives to get the real skinny. I was particularly interested in knowing how good the funding is for university libraries, government libraries, and what large companies with libraries might be operating in various Southern African countries.

Getting into the place was quite a mission! After going through a sturdy gate and being buzzed through a well-guarded, locked door, I had to walk through a metal detector, and my handbag went through the screener just like the ones at the airport. Then the woman guard took my nail file (I forgot it was in there), car keys, and small flashlight to keep in an envelope for me while I was inside. She even made me apply some of the lotion I had to make sure I wasn’t carrying dangerous biological agents! Gee.

I had my camera with me and had thought about taking a picture of the building from the outside, but decided that would not be wise. I remembered too well Mike “Baba” Burke’s experience in Zimbabwe. When the Zim 10s (the 10th group of Peace Corps Volunteers to serve in Zimbabwe) had just arrived in Harare in October, 1999, he walked by the U.S. Embassy one day and decided to take a photo from the park across the street. Moments later, someone tapped him on the shoulder and demanded to know who he was and why he was taking photos of the embassy. It was a U.S. Marine, and Mike had to talk fast to explain himself!

Back at the Ron Brown Center -- most of the representatives at the networking session were actually citizens of the countries they were representing, although they worked for U.S. embassies. The first person I spoke with, however, was an American woman who was representing Zimbabwe. I already knew that there is no money in Zimbabwe; the University of Zimbabwe used to be a customer of ours, but they haven’t had the money to renew subscriptions for a couple of years now. But I wanted to talk with this woman just to get an idea of how things are there. It’s not good, not good at all. Inflation is now well over 1,000 percent, all kinds of goods (including maize meal, cooking oil, sugar) are in extremely short supply, and in the last 10 days, petrol has become scarce once more. I asked her if the people show any signs at all of rejecting Mugabe, and she said exactly what I’ve said to folks who have asked me the same thing – they are warm, friendly, passive people who don’t seem anywhere close to rising up against the current government. Heartbreaking.

I also spoke with representatives from Zambia and Malawi. I think there may actually be some opportunity in Zambia, and the representative I spoke with knows a woman in the national library association office who sounds like she will be a great contact. Things not so good in Malawi.

I chatted with a man (a South African) who works in the Ron Brown Center, and he said that the center in Nairobi will eventually be doing a similar sort of session for East African countries. I won’t go all the way to Nairobi just for that, but I’ll get the name of the coordinator there, and maybe be able to drum up some business – or at least reasons for business trips – up to Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, etc.!