Poor Mopti

I arrived in Mopti today and have never been greeted in such a welcoming fashion. When I settled in and then went to the hotel restaurant for lunch, it became clear why… there is nobody here. I talked to the waiter who sadly shared that due to the “insecurities” there are no tourists anymore. However, the hotel is fully staffed. I guess it’s nice that they haven’t let anyone go despite the fact that there is no work, but it is off-putting when there are so many people standing around, waiting to do something. There are about 50 rooms in this hotel and my colleague and I are the only two guests. There are six waiters, and they all hang around while we eat. When we got back to the hotel, the receptionist had our keys in his hand, ready to hand to us. He was clearly waiting for us to come back and I’m not sure what else he could possibly do while his only two guests were away at a meeting. It’s really, really sad.

In fact, our partner, a woman from another agency based in New York was supposed to accompany us here to Mopti and backed out due to security concerns. I’m always so conflicted about these security reports. They can be terrifying with the language they use but it all needs to be contextualized. They paint areas with broad strokes as “safe” or “dangerous” without taking into consideration the geographical differences and it seems like once some place gets labeled dangerous, it can never return to safe again. If I ever get nervous, I just read what they write about Morocco, a place where I lived and felt totally safe, and I use it as a comparison.

The AQIM kidnapping in Niamey, Niger in 2010 was real and it was scary. I’m not sure it was a random thing, I’m not sure the full story will ever come out, but either way, it was a game changer in the region. But here’s the thing- Mopti feels safe. It is a city. It is not in the middle of nowhere. It relies heavily on tourists. I feel even safer in villages where I am so openly welcomed.

I’m of course angry at AQIM for f’ing it up for so many people’s livelihood by doing the kidnappings, but I’m also frustrated at the governments who ban entire areas of a country without considering the nuances of safety. I get that they want to be conservative and never want something to happen that they could have prevented, but these warnings cripple economies. It’s not clear to me that these actions don’t produce the opposite effect—strengthening terrorist organizations as there are more and more out of work people due to the lack of tourism. I know that’s a bold statement and possibly a big leap, but that’s all I can think of when I’m at dinner being served b y six men as one of two guests in a hotel.