It's not been a great week. The big reason being yesterday's post, but add to that tropical tummy trouble, Gloria splitting her head open on the shower attachment* and the car breaking down outside the local brothel and you could say Kampala is losing its shine.
Whenever I'm down, though, there's nothing that lifts my spirits like a bit of Barclays bashing. Hello, corporate spies!
My brother recently sent me through some info about Katine, a sub-county of Soroti district, where The Guardian is sponsoring various health, education, watsan and livelihoods programmes. "It starts with a village", goes the lofty strapline. The Katine projects are run by AMREF (African Medical and Research Foundation), who, to give credit where it's due, seem like dudes. But it is all funded in partnership with...Barclays Bank! BB are matching them pound for pound in donations. Barclays who charge £5 on every withdrawal once your balance goes under £50 (£50 pcm being the average wage here in Ganda.) They should make their money back in no time by squeezing the very people The Graun wants to help! FYI, my local branch also scores pretty high in Basic Incompetence. I needed to withdraw a couple of million shillings the other day to pay for our holiday, and after a lot of waiting around and flustered tapping on the computer, I was informed sheepishly they had ran out of money. Well done!
I feel better already.
*Gloria is fine. She is a bit accident-prone. She will have a scar on her hairline, but only a tiny one.
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3 comments:
Dearest Auntie L, what an awful tragedy re your friends baby - i am so sorry.. baby Catherine looks glorious BTW. We need to start a barclays awareness group on face book..what do you think ..? The age of the corporation will end i am sure much love sister s xxxxx ps got your wonderful care package -love the stuff xxxxxxthanks so much
It's a family affair...
'Geld stinkt nicht', so I bet the good people of Katine are please to get their hands on the cash.
Barclays may be trying to wash the smell of hundreds of years of being Aparthied's bankers out of their brand. From what I know about the Guardian's high moral standards, they will have checked through their credentials in this matter pretty thoroughly, as their readership are guaranteed to give them a hard time if there is anything less that PC about their actions.
Are they much worse that the other banks?
I don't know anyone with a good word to say about BB round here. Are they worse than other banks? I don't know. they are definitely more ubiquitous compared to the rest. Point taken about Katine people needing the cash, but decent financial institutions are part and parcel of good development...I'd sooner take my chances under the mattress. Geld stinkt (manchmal.)
As for the Guardians readership giving them a hard time..I'd be delighted to be the first!
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