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 
------- 
¶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