AFOVA New Letter 2 of Year 2021

Section 6 - Memoirs CV 2 No. 02 / 2021 Page 203 of 332 Indian Rupees, about 1,500) for an official travel, by giving a false declaration that he used his personal vehicle when he had in fact used a government vehicle for that visit. Unsure of what to do under the circumstances, the DCEC made an appointment with the President and sought his directions. The President’s reply to DCEC was that if the DCEC did not know his job, he should resign and go home. The result – the civil servant, who was the incumbent President’s brother-in-law in this case, was removed from service, denying him any government benefits and even having to spend 6 months in jail. Consultation is extremely important in Botswana, not only within the family, but also in local environments and at the Government level. Therefore, decisions in government departments would be made only after series of meetings and consultations. On the flip side, we found that the process of decision making got delayed due to this and we, the expatriates, would grow impatient. However, the plus side was that these consultations led to consensus and acceptability. Meetings would tend to be long drawn and interrupting a person was considered to be rude and unacceptable. Personally, I believe both my patience and my ability to listen had improved markedly during my stay there. Tolerance, compassion and courtesy were virtues that were evident in their habits and dealings. During the initial part of our tenure, myself and an expatriate colleague had an occasion to proceed legally against the government (my own employer) for restoring some benefit that was not granted to our grade by a revision. Since the government had to reverse their original firm stand, we were apprehensive that as expatriates we might be denied an extension of tenure in the future. No such thing happened and the verdict was accepted with grace with an acknowledgement of our right to redress. We were amazed by this attitude of theirs. Though the younger generation has adopted many western ways, their ties to the family and respect for elders remained uncompromised. In the government, we were expected to be courteous and considerate to people especially elders approaching us for any service or assistance. Paying compliments is an integral part of the interaction between people when they meet. Not doing so is considered to be rude. A smile and handshake are essential greetings. Any conversation at any time, even in office dealings, would commence only after such greetings and a ‘How are you?’ in local language (“Dumela Rra /MMa?”). It took a while for us to pick up this culture and that too only after repeated reminders lead to the realization that adapting to local culture is imperative for survival in any country. We found that politeness in everyday interactions was of primary importance in this country.