Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06DAKAR1280
2006-05-31 13:43:00
UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Embassy Dakar
Cable title:  

THE CORNICHE HEMMED: WILL VOTERS SWALLOW WADE'S

Tags:  ELTN PGOV ECON PINS PINR SG 
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VZCZCXRO3145
PP RUEHMA RUEHPA
DE RUEHDK #1280/01 1511343
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 311343Z MAY 06
FM AMEMBASSY DAKAR
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 5265
INFO RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLECTIVE
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 DAKAR 001280 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS
SENSITIVE

STATE FOR AF/W, AF/EPS AND INR/AA

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ELTN PGOV ECON PINS PINR SG
SUBJECT: THE CORNICHE HEMMED: WILL VOTERS SWALLOW WADE'S
DISRUPTIVE PRESTIGE PROJECTS?


SUMMARY
-------
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 DAKAR 001280

SIPDIS

SIPDIS
SENSITIVE

STATE FOR AF/W, AF/EPS AND INR/AA

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ELTN PGOV ECON PINS PINR SG
SUBJECT: THE CORNICHE HEMMED: WILL VOTERS SWALLOW WADE'S
DISRUPTIVE PRESTIGE PROJECTS?


SUMMARY
--------------

1. (U) Two of three major roads leading through the Dakar
peninsula and downtown are closed by construction. Using
Kuwaiti funds for the next Islamic summit and on short
notice, President Wade on May 10 began tunnel projects and
road widening on the well-known Corniche, redirected traffic
to already choked back alleys, and turned yet another part of
the capital into a massive traffic jam. Gridlocked
foreigners have since been heard remastering command of the
profane and scatological vernaculars.


2. (SBU) Ever-patient Dakarois, in contrast, seem of two
minds. In the coming campaign, the opposition will contend
Wade could have found better use for the money, and they
predict economic losses. Many, though see Wade using Arab
money, not Senegalese, and figure he is giving them something
for nothing. Wade expects an electoral boost, and may well
see these projects, coordinated by son Karim, as first steps
toward long-term goals of a new airport and capital. END
SUMMARY.

FROM COAST ROAD TO LABYRINTH
--------------

3. (U) Dakar is on a peninsula ,and there are three main
ways to get downtown: the autoroute, essentially closed a
year ago for still-unfinished interchange construction; the
so-called &Voie du Degagement du Nord8 (VDN); and the
Corniche. Some smaller routes are used mainly by jitney
vans, taxis and the year-old Tata bus fleet. None is
particularly efficient, though Dakarois often have a favorite
way of avoiding ferocious rush hour congestion. Arrivals at
the airport and the Dakar middle-class of the plushest
suburbs choose the Corniche: snaking over cliffs on eternal
verge of collapse, it offers rugged Atlantic Coast beauty and
a feel of vast space despite bottlenecking in a clamorous
urban fishing village.


4. (U) Parts of the Corniche remain open, but getting
downtown or out of town involves detours through heavily
populated and deeply potholed back streets. The construction
firms have set up barriers to channel traffic, and

blue-uniformed and unarmed volunteers help police and
gendarmes herd Dakar's unassuming but undisciplined drivers.
Commuting time has increased; Friday prayer hour, once a
great time to drive, is now an alley-creeping, fender-grazing
bad dream. An accident, stall, flat tire or police
misdirection of traffic, not to mention the inconvenience of
pedestrians, kiosk vendors, street cleaners or beggars, can
stop thousands of cars for what seem endless minutes.


5. (U) Economic losses are almost certain in the short term,
as even those who direct the projects admit. Gas stations,
boutiques, the main tourist market and the fish market along
the Corniche, are all but closed. The owner of a posh new
restaurant that had been rapidly expanding clientele recently
told us we were his only customers all week. A taxi driver
said he upped his price to go downtown by 60 percent but was
still losing money. Throughout town, transport costs are
rising even as delivery times increase and become less
reliable. A labor leader predicted a "disaster" for workers.


6. (U) For the diplomatic community, attendance at
receptions is problematic as guests cope with longer and
unpredictable driving times and closure of access roads. The
police volunteers allow some friendly cheating by leaving
just a car's width of space between barricades, but these
must be approached at an often impossible angle from
crushingly crowded streets or over sidewalks. Getting to the
Ambassador,s Residence, superbly situated when the Corniche
is open, presents a puzzle that not all guests can unravel.

THE POLITICAL EFFECT COULD BE POSITIVE DESPITE IT ALL
-------------- --------------

7. (SBU) Foreign residents, and by no means just westerners,
have reacted with exasperation and occasional anger. One
African diplomat was observed arguing with a gendarme who had
objected to his stopping in mid-traffic to make a cellular
phone call, physically harassing a following car after the
long line behind him had tried to hoot him along, and, then,
in apparent fury purposely blocking traffic by drag racing
jitney taxis in the middle lane of a nominally two-lane
street. Others are generally not so choleric, though, and
limit themselves to a quiet under-the-breath discourse with
other drivers and an evening over-strong-drink replay of the
traffic brutishness with fellow road warriors.


8. (U) Dakarois, in contrast, remain even-tempered, though
even their traffic-bound smiles seem forced. One embassy

DAKAR 00001280 002 OF 002


employee thought it hardly worth mentioning that his evening
commute ballooned one night from 30 minutes to two hours and
a half. People are getting up earlier, but admit "we
Senegalese are not early risers," and join rush hour jams.
Those who are cross with Wade fault him mainly because
children in once fairly quiet urban neighborhoods are now in
danger from pollution and traffic accidents.


9. (U) Wade has publicized road construction and private
firms' building of several hotels along the Corniche, as
preparation for the Organization of the Islamic Conferences
(OIC) Summit, and as a way to reinforce Dakar as an
international air traffic hub. He has emphasized his
interpretation that the Kuwaiti funds he is using are grants.
Several Dakarois, of different social strata, have told us,
"le vieux (the old guy) is not spending Senegalese money, so
we're getting something for nothing." A beachfront artist
told us, "it's inconvenient, but Wade isn't doing it for us,
but for our grandchildren."

KARIM AND THE GRANDS TRAVAUX
--------------

10. (SBU) Wade's son Karim is in charge of coordinating OIC
Summit preparations, including road construction. He is also
said to be close to the firms building luxury hotels along
the Corniche (at least one of which hugs cliffs so steep and
narrow only a daring architect would have imagined building
there). Many think the projects will be Karim's chance to
prove himself a competent manager on a national and even
internationally important scale.


11. (SBU) As we understand Wade's logic of construction, a
new Corniche and autoroute, followed by widening of the third
route, the VDN, will make Dakar more important as an
international air transport, diplomatic, and commercial hub.
It will also draw full attendance at the Islamic Summit which
Wade reminds Senegalese he still expects to host. In 1991,
Dakar airport was too small to park all OIC aircraft, which
were parked in neighboring countries. This time around, a
new runway (but only a runway) will be built outside Dakar
and distant from the current airport. This runway will be
the nucleus of a new airport that, over time, will entice
Dakarois to invest and build away outside Dakar peninsula.
All this would go far toward realizing Wade's long-time
vision of Grands Travaux: a new airport, new capital, and
new highway linking them to Dakar.


12. (U) Visit Dakar,s classified website at
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/af/dakar.
JACOBS