Archive for
April 26th, 2007
Stories
Sketches of Contradictions, Complexities, and Beauty of Life in Uganda
Here are some sketches that detail the contradictions, complexities and beauty of daily life in Uganda.
In Apac, two women go in search of vegetarian food:
Thus it began: the most epic search for food I have ever experienced. We didn’t ask for much: beans, rice, maybe chapatti — something simple and easy, common Ugandan staple food. Our quest took us all over town, onto two bicycles and to six different restaurants, all of which were staffed by women who told us the exact same thing:
Smoked meat. Fresh meat. No beans. No rice. No chapatti.”
It was an anti-vegetarian conspiracy, developed and manned by a gang of sisters who ran Apac’s food distribution behind the backs of the LC5. An entire city — a district seat, no less — and no beans to be found. Rebecca and I sat in our hotel room for a minute, wondering what we would do.
In Kampala, Glenna Gordon explains the contradictions that exist at Cafe Pap, the swankest coffee shop in town:
I sat with Ali, a stranger to me, at our dirty Café Pap table because it had the only open spot at a smoking table at the crowded cafe. Pap, which sits just below Kampala's Parliament and just above the main thoroughfare, is Uganda's version of Starbucks, only with even more mediocre food and an even more stratified social milieu. Mbu, this is Uganda, where the average family lives on less than a dollar a day, and a cappuccino at Café Pap costs two days' income. There are 28 million people in Uganda, 1.2 million in Kampala, and about 20 people at Café Pap at any given lunch hour.
In Gulu, Moses Odokonyero writes about Congo's forgotten women, who were taken from their homes and brought to Uganda with the Ugandan Army's 4th Division:
I met little Lwize Paalwa three years ago in the dilapidated hospital of the Ugandan Army's 4th Division in Gulu, northern Uganda. The seven year old had the monumental task of taking care of her HIV-positive mother, Mamisha, who was near death. “Mummy wants to eat eggs, but there are no eggs. Mummy wants to eat meat, but there is no meat. All we have is beans and posho (ed. corn meal),” she told me.
On Nsazi Island on Lake Victoria, Basawad describes the island's natural and human changes:
Nsazi Island and many other islands on the Lake, are magnets for Uganda's unemployed. Nsazi village is a very good reflection of what the Lake's islands have become. ‘The village is a collection of mud and woven-branch huts separated by muddy lanes, with a few houses built of wooden plank and even fewer sitting on concrete foundations.' The Lake's water is used for drinking and cleaning, without sanitation. There are now about 2,000 people on Nsazi; as recently as 1998, there were only about 600 people there. Many, think of islands on Lake Victoria as a tourist paradise, some are. But islands, like Nsazi are now over crowded, very poorly served with social and physical infrastructures and are only contributing more to the rapid destruction of Lake Victoria and its resources. The Nile Perch has devoured hundreds of native fish species in the Lake. But it's humans, now, who are rapidly destroying Lake Victoria.
In Arua, Pernille shows us a woman selling matoke (medium-sized green bananas), tomatoes and a hen:
To me this is northern Uganda in one photo; a woman dressed in a mix of kufa ulay and vitenge, on the way to Arua market with green matoke and a kawera with tomatoes from her shamba, a hen and the purse for small change.
The French Presidential Election: A View From Outside the Metropole
This weekend, more than 60 million French cast their ballots in the first round of the French presidential election, narrowing the list of candidates to two: conservative UMP candidate Nicolas Sarkozy and Socialist Party candidate Segolene Royal. Both face a run-off vote on May 6th.
In the five years since the last presidential election, and in particular after the 2005 riots and the headscarf controversy, immigration and race have moved to the center of the political debate.
This, combined with the fact that the election marks the first time in France's history a woman has come this close to the presidency, might account for Sunday's unprecedented voter turnout, the highest since 1965.
Here's a view of the election from outside the metropole–voters in overseas French departments, interested bloggers in former French colonies, and the growing ranks of hyphenated French.
India: Politics and Technology
Blogging about IT and technology is common topic for many Indian bloggers. The technology sector is the engine that is pulling the great Indian train forward in fits and starts and it seems that there be a change in the engine crew. President Kalam's tenure as the President is coming to an end and there is the usual buzz about who will be the next president of India. Dr. Kalam is not interested in a second term according to various media reports. There appears to be some sort of an agreement that another technologist/scientist is needed to pull this great Indian train forward among a certain section of the Indian population. Who is this candidate? Mr. Narayana Murthy, co-founder of Infosys, India's most successful IT and services company.
Prof. TT Ram Mohan writes in The Big Picture that Mr. Narayana Murthy's chances might be low going by the results of a latest poll. He writes:
“The urban middle class wants a non-politician like Narayana Murthy to be Prez. The politicians think otherwise. So the chances of Murthy or any other non-politician getting the job are low.”
Mr. Murthy and the success of his company has inspired many young Indians to dream and think big about technology. Sixteen year old Yuvi is a blogger, who is clearly inspired by the technology revolution in India. When he is not at school he is busy coding, mucking around with his digital camera and blogging about it. Here is a link to his post about Photocommuting and he hints that he is working on a project that is under wraps, or in stealth mode as they often like to label it in Silicon Valley.
Forget blogging, what abut Skype? Kumar's post on Skype is a great reminder of how quickly new technologies are being adopted by people around the world. In his post How Skype Captured India, he writes:
“That is when it hit me: how Skype has entered the life of so many Indians.
So here we are again, using a product because it's free, useful (actually, vital, to some), and untouched by politicians. But not really sure of who the providers are, and privacy issues. So I did some research on these issues.”
And, what Kumar discover? This age old adage that you have heard repeated many times, right place at the right time.”Skype had better timing. And marketing. And has captured India.”
Thumbnail picture courtesy Esthr.
Syrian Independence Day and Elections
This past week marked one of the warmest and most popular days of the year for Syrians - The National Independence day.
On April 17th, 1946, the last of the French mandate troops left Syrian soil, and Syria was announced an independent Syrian Arab Republic. Shukri al-Quwatly, President of Syria at the time [and propably the closest political figure to the hearts of Syrians all through Syria's modern history] handled the celebrations.
It is a very warm and happy memory for Syrians, because it is one of the few things left of that era, the 40s and 50s of Syrian politics. Syria was one of the few countries in the Middle East that prided itself with democracy, a parliament, and a real political diversity. The Syrian parliament introduced the first communist to be elected to a parliament in any Arab country, Khaled Bekdash, also known as the father of Arab Communism. Along with many other political currents, Muslim Brotherhood, Baathists, Communists, National Bloc, Nasserites… It's a scene the people in Syria have missed for the past 4 decades. It reminds them of figures like Quwatly, like Khaled al-Azem, Hashim al-Atassi, the men of independence.
I couldn't find a better way to say this than what Ayman said…
Once upon a time in Syria,
… real men competed for Parliament seats.Happy Independence Day.
The quote refers to another event that was taking place in Syria this weekend. The parliamentary elections.
Few Syrians were expecting anything from the elections, which might explain the low turnout of voting [some areas reported turnout of less than 2% of eligible voters]. The voters were set to chose their representatives for the 250 seats parliament [also called People's Congress]. The NPF [National Progressive Front] is a coalition between leftist and socialist parties lead by the Baath party. The NPF is given two thirds of the seats by the constitution, which leaves the independents with 83 seats.
Some of the opposition had called to boycott the elections on the basis that there is little to chose from in the first place.
Let's see what some bloggers had to say about the elections.
Abu Kareem of Levantine Dreamhouse said…
In the end, the Baath party and its National Progressive Front allies gained three seats of the 250 seat Majlis el Shaab (People's Congress) at the expense of three from the independents who are down to 80 representatives. The whole electoral process was so opaque that you couldn't even get an accurate accounting of the basic numbers. Different news reports, all quoting official sources, put the number of candidates for the 250 seat Majlis al Shaab (People's Congress) at anywhere between 900 and 2500 (or was it 10,000?). I have yet to see real numbers about the turnout of eligible voters. A report of Hassakeh suggested a turnout of 1.5% on the first day of elections. The government admitted to dismally low turnout numbers but blamed it on the opposition's call for a boycott. Additionally, there were reports of many irregularities including the addition of shadow lists of Baath-approved independent candidates and of Baath activists going door to door to force people to fill and cast their ballots.
Syrian Economy doesn't understand the opposition's decision to boycott the elections.
I will never be able to comprehend or justify the call by the opposition to boycott the elections. So the elections are rigged and only the specific people can win. Is this really a reason to not vote. When a Syrian does not vote, he/she is essentially accepting whatever comes his or her way and, in a way, is sanctioning the results. A much better position would be to participate and let the authorities change the count in favor of their candidates; at least this way, the opposition can argue that they indeed won the election but the corrupt government changed the results. When you don't even vote, you lose the ability to argue that you could win.
Philip I has a very interesting analysis about this elections.
The new official game is all about pretending to be democratic and saturating the atmosphere with election hype and American-style fanfare (complete with cheap, over-sized poster and banner advertising) and whipping up public interest in a sterile non-event. It is all about creating a world of make-believe and engaging the public and local and foreign media in a preposterous game of charade. Everyone knows Syria is not a democracy and as long as the Baath Party and the Assad clan are around probably never will be. So, the regime dictates that we must all pretend to be democratic and act as though we were!
Bassam, gives us a first hand description about how he voted.
I entered the “voting secret room” and wrote down a couple of names, put the ballot in the envelope, removed the protecting strip and sealed the envelope. As I come out I handed the enveloped to the officers who scolded me for sealing the envelope!!! Bad practice number two. So what do they want to do? Check the names I wrote?? Make sure I didn’t write some insults, or scratched the names of the untouchables? They didn’t make a fuss about it and I took my card back.
On a more recent update, yesterday, a Criminal Court met a five year prison sentence against Human Rights activist Anwar al-Bunni. The verdict startled a lot of people for its harshness and timing - just after the elections.
NGOs and Human Rights organizations started to organize campaigns to respond to this decision. Fares was the the first one to respond to this from the Syrian blogspehere.
Syria celebrated its conclusion of its national democratic elections which it called “the democratic wedding”, 2% voting turnout in some areas, by throwing the prominent lawyer and human right activist Anwar Bunni (imprisoned with Michel Kilo last year) a five year jail sentence!!!!!! and 2000 $ fine. That was because the judge claimed he tried to spread false news !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hello Modern Justice and welcome to Hell in Syria.
Arabeyes: Palestinian Jordanian Anyone?
Jordanian blogger Hareega is furious that people avoid discussing racism in his society. He is particularly angry about the discrimination Jordanians of Palestinian origin go through in a country he claims they have helped build and project to the level it is today.
أحياناُ أحب أن أتوهم أن العنصرية في تلاشي وأنه مع مرور جيل أو جيلين سوف تختفي، لكن من الواضح أن هناك الكثير من الحقد الدفين والكراهية التي تصل إلى حد التعصب الاعمى وأتذكر أني لما خضت بموضوع أيلول الاسود سمعت الكثيرين ، غالبا عن رغبة في تفادي فتح صفحات تاريخنا الاسود، سمعتهم يطلبون مني السكوت ونسيان الماضي وكأن ما حصل لا صلة له بنا
Hareega calls on people to be more realistic when discussing this situation of racial prejudice in Jordan.
.الفلسطيني كثيرا ما يعامل كمواطن من الدرجة العاشرة واللي مش مصدق ينزله عمخفر شرطة أو دائرة جوازات وراح يكتشف أن اسم العائلة كثيراُ ما يكون اهم من الشكوى المقدمة او المخالفة المرتكبة
He then cites examples of how Jordanians of Palestinian origin are treated in his country.
Jordan's rich history, argues Hareega, is based in tribalism but it's future is only possible by recognising the impact Palestinians have had on it.
Young people, says Hareega, are in particular prone to calling Palestinians names and questioning their loyalty when they raise issues of public concern.
Some of the blame, he adds, could be because of Palestinians who refuse to blend into Jordanian society and prefer to live apart from it.
Hareega's last words are:
Writers in Guatemala
In a country where people purchase more beer and sports magazines than books, where several languages are spoken (not only Spanish), and where a considerable number of people is illiterate, the context is challenging for a writer. In a country where books are not “Tax Free”, where children barely read the books, not even the compulsory ones, children are not enthusiastic with the idea of literature as a profession. Most of the writers find it really hard to publish a book, and even harder to make it profitable. They often work as journalists, analysts, engineers and also write regularly. Few of them are full time writers, many of them, unknown locally.
However, they have found, through blogging, an opportunity to express themselves, to share their works, and to promote the interest among Guatemalans, especially in poetry and short stories.
Poetry is the pioneer in the art of blogging, Pablo Bromo on his Bicicleta [ES] is blogging since 2005. Other poets blogging are Alejandro Marré with Marré v. Marré [ES] , Alan Mills and his revolver [ES] , Gerardo Sandoval with “Palabras Mayores”, and Arnoldo Gálvez with “Tercer Perfil” [ES]
The Novelist Ronald Flores even has his own domain [ES], where you can find not only his work but also critiques, suggestions and even comments on international books
Every Thursday you can read and comment on the column of Maurice Echeverría, a young, but quite successful Guatemalan writer in Buscando a Syd [ES].
You can read Claudia Navas either in Ordinaria Locura [ES] or in a collective blog called Panoptico Literario [ES], Wingston González [ES] a young Guatemalan writer just started with his blog ALFILER [ES] a collective project of e-books and critics with a blog called LIBROS MINIMOS [ES] (little books), where many of the writer-bloggers are sharing their publications and also comment on their blog .
What is important to stress is the use of technology and spaces such as blogs to promote culture, where they can attract young readers and also share their ideas with the world. All of them have at least a book published, and they have several literary prizes and book awards. And they are using the blogosphere to share their works, completely open minded to critics to build a new, free culture in Guatemala, and to let the world know what they are saying with their blogs.
Links for Thu, 2007-04
The Trinidad Insider reports on another incident at Zen nightclub, this time involving the alleged assault of a young man: “The assailants may include soca artists Machel Montano, Benjai and Kernal Roberts.”
nanopolitan about the possible inherent bias against women in the Joint Entrance Examination to some of the premier engineering institutes in India. “Finally, since when have we started allowing our public institutions to hide behind the society moral shortcomings? If the society is screwed up, I would argue that our publicly funded institutions — prestigious premier ones, in particular– should do everything to counteract the social ills. Perversely, the JEE seems to be accentuating the corrosive effects of society's immoral treatment of some of its members.”
At The Pakistani Spectator, an Indian living in Doha talks of the roadmap to peace. “In my conversations with both Pakistani and Indian taxi drivers is that both Indians and Pakistanis are fed wrong ideas about the others by their respective governments, My interactions with Pakistanis from Peshawar or Lahore or Karachi have nothings but a happy experience. Its always the Indian taxi Drivers that I've had to haggle for prices, Pakistani drivers never demanded but always politely said “Jo aapko marzi ho de dena”.”
Sheetal Goel meets a superstar and is rather smitten. “For those who don't know me, here's something you need to know. Shah Rukh Khan was my first love, at the age of 13. And without gushing too much about him and my love for him, suffice to say I'd been praying for the last decade or so that I should get a chance to meet him in person for once in my life.”
TOL's Romantic posts a link to the collection of resources on Latvia's Roma.
Munjal Shah, the CEO of Riya explains the decision to close their Bangalore office. “The costs of having two offices, which are twelve time zones apart, is significant. People in both offices frequently had conference calls at 10pm and midnight every night (as a result the office in the US didn’t get started until noon sometimes or people rolled in tired). “
La Russophobe posts two translations: pieces by Andrei Illarionov and Natalya Gevorkyan.
There're 32 comments to Sean Guillory's post on a Russian radio station that seems to have become “exactly” like Fox News in the U.S.
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