An African safari

Gilles Coulombe isn't letting Africa get in the way of doing business in Africa. While civil war rages in Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe condones land seizures from white farmers, the engineer's Quebec-based employer provides services that keep African countries running, however imperfectly. Coulombe, who heads Dessau-Soprin's African operations, arrived at a Montreal trade conference last month to learn that Senegalese energy officials hadn't shown up for a scheduled meeting. Why? The West African country curtailed overseas travel after running across too many forged diplomatic passports. Unr...