maandag 26 maart 2012

My political experience in Chad – Week 8 – Melisa Simoens


Hello everyone!

Chad is a beautiful country to visit. But because I didn’t heard of the country before we started our journey around the world, I wanted to learn something more about the political background of Chad.

So I went to a local bookstore to buy a little interesting book which gave me the information I searched for.  Chad is situated in Central Africa. The country has a severe political system, which is something typical for a lot of African countries. Chad has a president, Idriss Déby, so we can say Chad is a presidential republic. He has all the power: he dominates the political system but has also the power to choose the prime minister. The president is head of state and head of government. Idriss Déby is already president of Chad since 1990. Every president is voted for a five-year term. Déby won the elections in 2011 again, so before 2016 there will be no other president.

Every year the people of Chad celebrate independence day on the 11th of August. Unfortunately we can’t experience this day.

We noticed while our visit in N’Djamena, the capital of Chad, that there’s a lot of corruption here. Sometimes I didn’t feel very safe while walking through the streets and certainly not in the evening. This is not so surprising if you know that Chad is called one of the most corrupt countries in the world. Our travel agency warned us to watch out for louche people because there are a lot of kidnappings and incidents of terrorism in Chad. So it’s better to avoid wearing jewellery in public or carrying valuable things.

We wanted to take no risks so we registered us with the British High Commission in Cameroon as there’s no British Embassy in Chad. While we were exploring the capital, someone came to us and gave us the advice to avoid eastern Chad. In eastern Chad there’s a lot of rebel activity. That’s why we stayed especially in the capital.

Although you maybe gather that it’s better to avoid a trip to Chad, the country is still a visit worth, like you can read in the blogs of Roselinde and Julie.

It was a long day, so I better go to sleep now. Read my next blog for more news about our trip.

Sweet dreams!

With love
Melisa


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