I was renewing my resident's permit in Banjul, The Gambia, and the office was complete chaos. I had been the first in the queue, but they liked to keep the white man waiting. Nothing was moving and the man who had been given the job of issuing the permits was totally out of his depth. I watched with great interest, and not a little amusement, as he disappeared behind piles of paper. His boss entered the room and asked him why he hadn't sanctioned a particular individual. " What was the problem ?", he asked. The dolt muttered something about the fee, but the boss yelled at him, "It's gratis, man, gratis". The poor guy, not knowing what his boss meant, just sat there. His boss went apoplectic, and screamed at him again, "it's gratis, gratis". Eventually my man could take no more, and he yelled out, "Gratis, who is this gratis ? Where does he come from ? What is his first name? At which point I fell off my chair.