On January 6, 2007, 245 motorcycles, 185 cars, 85 trucks departed from Portugal with romantic dreams to cross the Sahara Desert and arrive in Dakar, Senegal in an annual race that dates back to 1979. In the process, each stage of this race results in the consumption of a tenth of Mali's annual fuel usage (1), kills innocent villagers, flaunts the disparity between wealth and poverty and asserts the legacy of colonialism. Supporters of the race see it differently, as the official site states:
"On the one side, bikes, cars and trucks. On the other, Africa, with its forests, villages and the Sahara. A shock of contrasts, in appearance; in reality, an avant-garde concept. The Dakar arose from an inspiration which enabled two worlds to encounter each other and a special relationship to emerge. On the surface it seems to be just a sporting venture, but, beneath this, lies another realm. The taste for adventure and for discovering a misunderstood continent has given birth to an intriguing, emotion-manufacturing machine."(2)
The Race:
7,915km through 6 countries-Portugal, Spain, Morocco, Mauritania, Mali, and Senegal.
Human Rights issues:
- The race is staged through one of the world's poorest regions, which is probably why it is able to plow through residential areas with few restrictions.
“Vatican says Dakar Rally 'irresponsible'
January 11, 2007 - 7:09AM
The Vatican newspaper on Wednesday strongly condemned the Dakar Rally as a bloody, irresponsible, violent and cynical attempt to impose questionable Western tastes on the developing world.
An editorial in L'Osservatore Romano titled "Paris-Dakar: The Bloody Race of Irresponsibility", slammed the race a day after South African motorcycle rider Elmer Symons died during the fourth stage in the Morocco desert.
"The Paris-Dakar, a race which many classify as a sporting event, in reality has very little to do with healthy competition," the editorial said.
"The trail of blood which grows longer from year to year on the route of the race instead underscores the undeniable component of violence that lies behind every attempt to export Western models to human environments and ecosystems that have little to do with the West," it said.
The Vatican newspaper said the race and its sponsors betrayed a "cynicism" that ignores local realities. It called the wrecks of cars, trucks and motorcycles abandoned in the desert "rusty monuments to irresponsibility".
The two-week race, which no longer starts from Paris, has claimed 49 lives in its 29-year-existence, 24 of them competitors.” (5)
"Dakar, Senegal (2006) - A second child has been killed by a vehicle involved in the Dakar rally.
The death of the 12-year-old on Saturday involved a supply truck and followed that of a 10-year-old who was hit by a rally car driven by Latvian Maris Saukans on Friday." (4)
"On January 13, (2005) a five-year-old Senegalese girl was crushed beneath the wheels of a service lorry after wandering onto a main road, bringing the total deaths to five. Many other African non-participants are said to have been killed because of the Dakar rally, but unlike the participants, no official figures are available and the names of the victims are usually not given." (4)
"After the 1988 race, when three Africans were killed in collisions with vehicles involved in the race, PANA, a Dakar-based news agency, wrote that the deaths were "insignificant for the [race's] organizers". The Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano called the race a "vulgar display of power and wealth in places where men continue to die from hunger and thirst."[2] During a 2002 protest at the race's start in Arras, France, a Green Party of France statement described the race as "colonialism that needs to be eradicated".[3]
Some local residents along the race's course have said they see limited benefits from the race; that race participants spend little money on the goods and services local residents can offer. The racers produce substantial amounts of dust along the course, and are blamed for hitting and killing livestock, in addition to occasionally injuring or killing people.[4]" (3)
Sponsorship/Support:
The race is sponsored by Yamaha, Citroen, BMW, and other major automobile and racing corporations. The funds raised have been calculated to equal half of Mauritania's annual aid budget (1).
Logistics:
- 28 organisation vehicules (10 vehicules "Contrôle de Passage", 2 vehicules "d’Ouverture", 10 vehicules medicalised "Tangos", 6 TV vehicules)
- 9 trucks in the organisation: (2 trucks "Atelier", 1 truck "d’Ouverture", 4 trucks "Balais", 2 trucks "Atelier" Euromaster)
- 20 planes
- 10 helicopters: (1 helicopter "Direction de Course", 1 helicopter "organisation", 1 helicopter "Photographes", 3 helicopters "Médicaux", 4 helicopters "TV")
- 54 doctors: including 6 in helicopters, 20 in cars, 24 at the bivuac and 4 coordinator
Catering:
- 11 trucks for the catering
- 77 people: 55 serving and 22 in the kitchen
- 12 000 50 cl bottles each day
- 1,5 tons of food per day (70% bought in Africa)
Road Safety:
The safety precautions implemented to protect locals and observers pale in comparison to the resources allocated in support of the participants. The “comic strip” distributed to villages is haphazard – assuming French language comprehension in a country with an unwritten national language (Hassaniya - an Arabic dialect), and a diminutive assumption that villagers who live in one of the world's poorest countries are to blame for running in the street after state-of-the-art vehicles, or staring at rarely seen helicopters in the sky.
- 45 000 comic strips summarizing the safety rules distributed to the local population
- 6 vehicles in the road security patrols deployed all along the rally to signal danger
- 15 people in the patrols dedicated to the security of the populations
- 30 ou 50km/h: the maximum speed allowed in the villages
Charity/Aid:
"In 1986, an operation formed by several partners was built up in connection with the Dakar. At the same time as the rally advances, another caravan crosses Africa bringing help to the Sahel villages. At this time already existing associations join the rally and organize transportation of the equipment. In total the humanitarian caravan includes about fifteen vehicles and around thirty people.
The humanitarian caravan accompanied the rally during four years. During this time various partners contributed by supplying mainly agricultural machinery (rice decorticators, seeds, pumps…)." (2)
Later on the rally organizers had to face a cruel fact. Due to the lack of means and supplies, the follow up of the investments to help the village people was not always achieved. Because of the technical and financial difficulties, particularly relating to the running of the pumps, part of the material was badly used or even lost.
In the middle of the 90s the organizers decided to pursue more specific targets. A number of ambitious schemes were therefore concluded over a period of years in Niger, Mauritania, Mali and Senegal:
- 1991: Building of a maternity dispensary in Senegal in the village of Niaga Wolof near LakeRose
- 1993: Building of a maternity dispensary in Niger in the village of Gazamni
- 1997: Building of a college in Mauritania in the town of Zouerat
- 1998: Building of a school in Mali in the village of Koudathiou
- 1999: Building of a water tower in Mauritania in the town of Akjouj. Partial street lighting in the town of Agadez (Niger)
From now on all new actions were substantially modified in order that the programs could be followed up. Thus, lighter but indispensable investments were regularly made for the servicing and running of equipment: training of mid wives, digging of wells…" (2)
Sources:
(1)Lonely Planet - West Africa; 5th ed, pg. 100 (2002)
(2)http://www.dakar.com
(3)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dakar_Rally
(4)http://www.motoring.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=751&fArticleId=3064985
(5)http://www.smh.com.au/news/Sport/Vatican-says-Dakar-Rally-irresponsible/2007/01/11/1168105081493.html
