[War] Gabon-Seeing where we stand to see where we're going

[Vampi Digitalwytch]

President Jean Mbembe
Libreville


Jean had to admit that with for so long everyone in power was so used
to dealing with his predessor, to watch them have to step cautiously
until they knew where he stood was amusing.

After the Senate accepted Ondimba's final wishes to his appointment,
well save for a few raised voices from the Social Democratic Party, he
requested as many reports as possible for how the nation stood at this
time.

Not like he doubted thier reports to his predessor, the appearance of
his going over accounts so to speak would have them doublechecking
thier findings.

Economically, the nation was doing rather well.  By continent
standards they were among the top, but Jean knew they could do better.
 If Gabon was going to grow to stand among the other more prosperous
nations, it had to.

He was greatful that in the great chessgame of world politics, the
larger players tended to overlook Africa unless some despot was on a
genocide spree and feasting on the cooked limbs of children.  It was a
sad state that so many still regarded Africa as a place still
uncivilized.

Granted many still lived in thier tribal manner, but now a spear
carrying warrior could easily pull out his Nextel to call home that he
was going to be late.

During his tenure as Minister of Technology, he'd long argued for more
education and with the Congo refugees still taking shelter within the
country, education was still a vital need since so many barely knew
the basics of the modern world and still clung to superstion.

It would be a hard road for betterment.  One only had to look to the
Middle East to see the clash of modern versus tradition.  Jean hoped
that it would not be repeated here as he knew many would not accept
that a balance could be possible.

He smiled as he recalled reading a Star Trek book that mentioned a
future of a United States of Africa.  The dream would be glorious, but
he kept his feet on the ground enough to know it certainly wouldn't
happen in his lifetime or his grandchildren's lifetime if he was so
blessed to have children in the first place.

But if the groundwork was started, like seeds planted in fertile
ground, the grown tree would be impressive.  The task would be
nurturing it and pruning where needed.

Key would be that they had to do this on thier own.  Aid as far as
educational text or medicines was acceptible, but the bulk had to be
Gabonese for Gabon.

Foremost he had to push for the spending reforms.  They would raise
the value of the franc and work towards paying off the debt to France.
 There was also stepping up the crude oil production since the Middle
East was in turmoil again and it was only natural for those who
depended on oil to be panicked as to shortages.  Granted Gabon
couldn't handle it all, but the availabilty of shipments more reliable
than a widely publicized war torn region certainly couldn't harm the
budget.

Jean had no fears from reprisals from the nations' former OPEC
members.  After all, they'd have to stop bombing each other and the
stronger nations over slights only remembered through told tales
first.

For now the push was for more education and producing more oil.  At
least with the need for teachers and refinery workers, it would help
trim down the unemployment.  If things went well, they would see a
swell of immigrants seeing a better future or at least not being
slaughtered by a warlord's militia, and they too would be embraced for
a better Africa.

He wrote down the proposals for the funding to be increased for all
levels of schooling and improving the refinery conditions.

ACTIONS-

Just laying the groundwork for some longterm projects to bring in more
revenue and improve quality of life.

-- 
--I know there are no lifeguards in the gene pool, but damn, there
ought to be at least a few sharks in the water.