European quality standards in the heart of Africa

摘要

Picture this: Night has fallen in the port city of Mombasa, Kenya. The crickets are chirping in the acacia trees, the heady perfume of exotic foods being cooked over open fires fills the hot, humid, East African air, the chaotic daytime traffic has finally subsided and peace gradually descends on the dusty city. Suddenly the silence is broken by the shrill sound of a car horn. A taxi has pulled up at an anonymous gate on an equally nondescript plot of land close to the harbour, and a suspicious nightwatchman tentatively opens the gate to enquire who on earth is asking permission to enter at this late hour.Access is granted and the taxi slowly drives in. The plot is shrouded in almost total darkness, the long grass wildly overgrown and the sounds of nocturnal animals and grass snakes scattering in panic to avoid the approaching vehicle can be heard all around. A dim light powered by a small, spluttering generator shines out from a portacabin office which is nestled in the furthest corner of the overgrown field and inside, busily working at a laptop computer, sits a man who is about to enlighten me with atruly fantastic vision.