Det må vi have sat en stopper for! På ambassaden i Kampala er jeg ansvarlig for nogen-og-tredive sikkerhedsvagter, der er posteret ved kancelliet og ved vores boliger dag og nat. De kommer fra det ugandiske politi, som har udnævnt en betjent til at være kontaktperson og min mellemmand til vagterne. Jeg er ny i rollen og ved blot, at vagterne får løn fra ambassaden, og at jeg skal udbetale lønnen til betjenten, som så betaler den enkelte vagt. Jeg snakker med vagterne hver dag, tager på runder til boligerne for at se, om alt er som det skal være, og om de har ting at rapportere omkring sikkerheden. På en af de ture får jeg at vide, at de enkelte vagter kun har deres jobs, fordi de betaler 10 procent af deres løn til mellemmanden fra politiet. Det vil sige, at vagterne er afhængige af betjenten, som udnytter dem. Det skal der gøres noget ved, beslutter jeg. Så hjemme på Tank Hill siger jeg til vores to nattevagter: ”Jeg har hørt, at I betaler ti procent til betjenten for at have jeres job. Er det korrekt?”. ”Ja”, svarer de. ”Det er helt normalt”. Jeg: ”Jamen, han udnytter jer på den måde, og det er ikke godt, vel?” Vagterne kigger uforstående på mig og siger: ”Nåh, ok, det vidste vi ikke”. Her stiller jeg det forslag, som jeg synes er en rigtig god ide, og som vagterne nok vil blive glade for: ”Hvad nu, hvis jeg i stedet for at betale lønningerne til betjenten, betaler jer direkte, så I får den fulde løn, altså 100 procent?” Vagterne går nærmest i panik og råber i munden på hinanden: ”Nej, nej, Sir. Det må du endelig ikke gøre. Sådan fungerer det ikke her”. Så genvinder de fatningen og forklarer: ”Hvis du gør det, vil han føle sig ydmyget, hver gang han skal spørge os om sine 10 procent. Vi risikerer at miste vores job, hvis vi ikke betaler ham. Og du kommer til at slås med ham i al evighed”. Jeg fortæller Claudine om min opdagelse, og vi diskuterer, hvad jeg kan gøre for at standse betjentens udnyttelse af vagterne. Vi er enige om, at det er noget griseri. Manden må jo være rig. En tiendedel af nogen-og-tredive vagters lønninger, og så er han også mellemmand for vagter ved andre ambassader og organisationer, ved vi. Jeg beslutter at forelægge sagen for den øverste chef for sikkerhedsvagterne, politidirektøren i Kampala, der samtidig er chef for hele Ugandas politi. Jeg får et møde med ham i politihovedkvarteret, hvor jeg giver ham et notat om sagen, som jeg har skrevet og gør opmærksom på, at ambassaden har ”nultolerance” overfor korruption. Det er den danske regerings politik, og den politik deler vi med den ugandiske regering. Politidirektøren lytter og smiler venligt og siger så: ”Det er dog nogle grimme forhold, du har fået nys om der, Mister Hansen. Dem var vi ikke opmærksomme på. Jeg er meget glad for, at du fortæller os det. Jeg lover dig, at jeg skal få sat en stopper for ulovlighederne og få straffet betjenten hurtigst muligt”. Jeg er stolt over, at jeg, unge ubesmittede mand, har fået adgang til Ugandas øverste politichef og har vundet ham over på min, ambassadens og Danmarks side i kampen mod korruption, så jeg takker ham tusinde gange, rejser mig, trykker ham i hånden, siger farvel og går ud ad døren, over parkeringspladsen til min Toyota Corolla. I samme øjeblik jeg tager i håndtaget til bildøren, går det op for mig, at politidirektøren og hans medarbejdere nu sidder og skraldgriner af den unge ”Mister Hansen”, der stadig har meget at lære i Uganda. Vagt- og lønnings-systemet forbliver det samme de fire år, vi er i Uganda, og mellemmanden holder også vores tid ud, mens vi lærer, at vi i visse situationer skal holde mund med spørgsmål for at undgå, at noget, der fungerer, går i kludder. Vi deltager altså i fifleri, mens vi lader som om, vi ikke ved, hvad der foregår - taler ikke om det. Vi er stiltiende med i korruptionen. Og så er der den korruption, som vi slet ikke opdager eller ikke vil indrømme finder sted, og det kan sagtens være langt det meste. Her vil jeg give ordet til den franske forfatter og Afrika-iagttager, Gérard Prunier, der har skrevet, at ”i de 32 år, hvor jeg har studeret Afrika, har jeg set flere hvide blive manipuleret af sorte end omvendt. Men en tilbageværende post-kolonial racisme gør det svært for ofrene at indrømme, at de er blevet taget ved næsen. At den hvide er smartere end den sorte er stadig den uudtalte formodning blandt et stort antal diplomater, internationale embedsmænd og forretningsfolk” . Pruniers tone er måske en kende for hård, ligesom jeg vil opponere imod, at jeg skulle lide af post-kolonial racisme, men han rammer nok ikke helt ved siden af, når han skriver om vores uvidenhed, der gør, at vi i mange situationer ikke bemærker korruptionen, før det er for sent. Men lad mig nøjes med at videregive et par oplevelser mere, hvor det var umuligt at ignorere uvæsenet. Begge udspiller sig i Ghana.

We must have put an end to that! At the embassy in Kampala, I am responsible for some thirty-one security guards posted at the chancellery and at our homes day and night. They come from the Ugandan police, who have appointed an officer to be the contact person and my intermediary to the guards. I am new to the role and just know that the guards receive a salary from the embassy and that I have to pay the salary to the officer, who then pays the individual guard. I talk to the guards every day, go on rounds to the homes to see if everything is as it should be and if they have things to report on security. On one of those trips, I am told that the individual guards only have their jobs because they pay 10 percent of their salary to the middleman from the police. That is, the guards are dependent on the officer who exploits them. Something needs to be done about that, I decide. So at home on Tank Hill, I say to our two night guards: “I've heard you pay ten percent to the officer to have your job. Is it correct?". "Yes," they answer. "It's perfectly normal." Me: "Well, he's taking advantage of you that way, and that's not good, is it?" The guards look at me incomprehensibly and say: "Well, ok, we did not know".Here I make the proposal, which I think is a really good idea, and which the guards will probably be happy with: “What if, instead of paying the salaries to the officer, I pay you directly, so you get the full salary, so 100 percent? ” The guards almost panic and shout at each other: "No, no, sir. Finally, you must not do that. That's not how it works here ”. Then they regain their composure and explain: “If you do, he will feel humiliated every time he has to ask us for his 10 percent. We risk losing our job if we do not pay him. And you will fight with him forever ”. I tell Claudine about my discovery, and we discuss what I can do to stop the officer from using the guards. We agree that this is a mess. The man must be rich. One-tenth of the salaries of some thirty-one guards, and then he is also an intermediary for guards at other embassies and organizations, we know. I decide to refer the matter to the Chief of Security Guards, the Director of Police in Kampala, who is also the Chief of All Uganda's Police.I have a meeting with him at the police headquarters, where I give him a note about the case, which I have written and draw attention to the fact that the embassy has "zero tolerance" for corruption. This is the policy of the Danish government, and we share that policy with the Ugandan government. The police director listens and smiles kindly and then says: “There are some ugly things you have heard about there, Mister Hansen. We were not aware of them. I'm very glad you're telling us. I promise you that I will put an end to the illegalities and punish the officer as soon as possible ”. I am proud that I, a young immaculate man, have gained access to Uganda's Chief of Police and have won him over to me, the embassy and Denmark in the fight against corruption, so I thank him a thousand times, stand up, shake his hand , says goodbye and walks out the door, across the parking lot to my Toyota Corolla. The moment I grab the handle of the car door, it dawns on me that the police director and his staff are now sitting and laughing at the young "Mister Hansen", who still has a lot to learn in Uganda.The guard and pay system remains the same the four years we are in Uganda, and the middleman also endures our time, while we learn that in certain situations we have to keep quiet with questions to avoid something working, goes in rags. So we participate in fiddling while pretending we do not know what is going on - do not talk about it. We are tacitly involved in corruption. And then there is the corruption that we do not discover at all or do not want to admit takes place, and it can easily be by far most. Here I would like to give the floor to the French author and African observer, Gérard Prunier, who has written that “in the 32 years I have studied Africa, I have seen more whites being manipulated by blacks than vice versa. But a residual post-colonial racism makes it difficult for victims to admit they have been taken by the nose. That the white is smarter than the black is still the unspoken presumption among a large number of diplomats, international officials and business people ”. Prunier's tone is perhaps a tad too harsh, just as I would oppose that I should suffer from post-colonial racism, but he probably does not quite hit next when he writes about our ignorance, which makes us in many situations do not notice the corruption until it is too late.But let me just pass on a few more experiences where it was impossible to ignore the non-being. Both take place in Ghana.