In the land of thorns

I was recently given the opportunity to visit the Karamoja region of Uganda. Karamoja, also referred to as the 'land of thorns' I presume for its many thorn bushes and perhaps harsh environment is unlike any other part of Uganda I have visited.

The day started as every day in Uganda should start....with a rolex. Classic Ugandan street food, a rolex is essentially an omelet wrapped in a thin pancake - crepe known as a chapati. While chowing on our rolexes Joe, Steve, James, and myself loaded up the Toyota 4x4 we had hired with our donations to bring up to a project we had connected with in the Karamoja region.

The night before we left a friend of mine who works on security issues gave me the low-down on Karamoja. The area is widely known for its banditry and cattle raiding amongst the various people that live in the area. My friend instructed me not to be out past dawn and informed me that only a couple of weeks earlier some Karamajong warriors had a gun battle with the Ugandan Army right in the area that we would be visiting which left 23 people dead. So, with excitement, uncertainty, and now thanks to my friends information, a touch of fear, we set out on our journey.

After several hours of traveling we came to a fork in the road. To the right the paved highway continued on passed the beautiful Sipi Falls and on to Kenya. To the left, a dusty potholed dirt road that seemingly went on for eternity, this was the road we were to take.

As we journeyed down this road the landscape began to change before our eyes as lush fertile land gave way to dry savanna where only thorny shrubs and cacti were growing. Out of the flat dusty land small mountains jutted out of the earth making for a beautiful scenic drive. After several more hours travelling down this road and passing countless trucks overloaded with people hanging off the sides and anywhere else they could grab on to we reached our destination.

We travelled with a young lady who was heading up the organization whose work we were going to visit and we trusted that she had everything arranged for us. When we reached the place we were going to stay we soon found out that our hosts were not expecting us. Thankfully they had room to put us up for a few nights, and after getting to know us a little bit they were assured that we were decent people and were happy to have us. Our hosts were an amazing American family originally from New Jersey who have been living in Karamoja for 10 years!!! Needless to say they had some pretty interesting stories to tell about their experiences.

A few days before we arrived another group of supporters did a distribution of goods in one of the resettlement camps that the project set up. We were told that despite having a military escort the distro turned to bloodshed and violence as people began beating each other over the donations. This obviously concerned us as we did not want our distro to turn into the same sort of chaos. There was some talk of getting a military escort for our distro as well which is normal for distros in the area, but the organization leader insisted that this would not be necessary as we were going to distro in a very remote school where there would only be about 100 people present.

The day of the distro -

The original plan was to get an early start so that we would have time to visit all the various projects of the organization...this did not happen. After a late start, a visit to the local council and lunch, we finally began our journey to the school where we were to distro our goods. After what seemed like several more hours driving down dusty dirt roads with very few people in sight, it became clear that we were lost and the organization leader did not know exactly where the school they support actually was. We stopped along the way to ask some local Shepperd boys dressed in traditional clothing carrying either spears or a bow and arrow. When we would stop to ask them if they knew where the school was the boys would look at us strangely and then suddenly make a run into the bush...clearly we were scaring them. Eventually we did find someone that knew where the school was and after more driving down a barely distinguishable road we came to a place where there were some small huts formed in a circle and a large tree off to the side with a bench under it...this was the school.

The distro

Once we pulled in and stopped it didn't take long for people to start gathering under the tree. As I looked around it seemed that people were appearing out of nowhere. On the horizon I could see people appearing out of of the scrub and small bushes, somehow the word was spreading quickly and soon there was quite a number of people gathered around. The organization representative assured us that things would be done orderly and that there would not be any chaos, however she seemed preoccupied with videoing the event rather than actually organizing it. By default then, my friend James and I ended up doing the distro with the help of some of the teachers. However, because of the language barrier and the fact the the organization representative was nowhere to be found things soon got out of hand as people started pushing towards the front of the line and eventually James and I were swarmed by people all wanting to get at the donations we had brought. It didn't take long for people to start fighting and hitting each other so James and I thought it best to make a hasty retreat back to our vehicle. Needless to say we were quite disappointed at how unplanned and unorganized the whole event was, in our view all the chaos could have been avoided with some simple planning. The organization representative didn't really want to hear our advice and instead stated that 'at least no one was killed' referring to a World Food Programme distro earlier that day where apparently a woman had been killed in the chaos of people fighting over food. She continued by saying the classic 'these people are just that way, they're violent'. This attitude did not sit well with us, and we all left with a bad feeling regarding the whole situation.

Despite these disappointments, the trip to Karamjong was an eye opener. The people are beautiful, the landscape at times was breath taking and the family we stayed with was truly an inspiration. I feel lucky and honoured to have such opportunities in my life, to be witness to such beauty and chaos, and to have meaningful exchanges with the people I meet along the way, all of these together enrich my life and help me understand the world I live in...

Kilimanjaro and the Sickness

Three weeks ago I was fortunate enough to attend a week long conference in Moshi, Tanzania. I was very excited for this opportunity as it was my first time to travel to another African country. Moshi rests at the base of Mt. Kilimanjaro, and we were treated to a beautiful view of the mountain every day particularly in the early mornings and early evenings. It was refreshing to go for a run through the coffee plantations surrounded by views of the various mountains in the distance and not being stiffled by the exhaust fumes you inhale while running in Kampala. It's a beautiful place, peaceful, quiet, a place to reflect and take in the beauty of nature and all that is around you.

Starting To Feel Sick...

I woke up one morning feeling really tired, at the time I didn't think much of it as we had all been out really late the night before. However, by lunch time I could barely keep my eyes open and decided to ditch out on the afternoon sessions as I could hear a pillow calling my name. I awoke a short time later with a high fever and soaking in sweat, my whole body ached. I began shivering so I decided to pull myself out of bed in search of a nice place outside in the hot sun where I could lay down and warm myself up. As the afternoon progressed my condition worsened. My fever persisted as I went from shivering cold to hot sweats and back again...every joint in my body continued to ache, and now I also had a pounding headache and severe diahhera (too much information?). As late afternoon approached it became clear that something was clearly not right with me as it became difficult to even walk...

The Hospital....

When I arrived at the hospital I was given priority and walked right passed the line of people waiting to be treated. I felt bad about this as I was sure that the only reason I didn't have to wait was because I was white, or perhaps because the place we were staying had a connection to the hospital...in any event I was happy to be marched straight in. I was brought into a room for a doctor to assess my situation, but as the doctor was asking me questions about my various symptoms etc. I was a little distracted by the man laying next to me with severe wounds all over his body who was dripping blood all over the floor.
While still being questioned by the doctor I had to ask a nurse to bring me to the restroom...in a hurry...The toilet was in a storage closet and as I walked in I realized there was no toilet paper...this was a problem. I asked the nurse if she could bring me some now now, and she told me that patients have to bring their own, but that she would see if she could borrow off another patient (patients also have to bring their own sheets, pillows, soap and food). Eventually the paper came and all was good. The nurse then wheeled me into my room in the intensive care unit that I would share with 6 other patients. The older lady next to me spent the whole night coughing, not just a little cough, but you know that cough that sounds like someone could die at any moment? That's the cough she had...all night! Then at about 4am another lady began screaming her lungs out. Let's just say it wasn't the best sleep I've ever had. In the morning I had about 5 people all doctors or nurses standing at the foot of my bed staring at me and speaking with each other in Kiswahili. I'm not sure what they were discussing as they didn't fill me in, but I assume it was about me...weird

The Conclusion...

My temperature was 39.2 degrees Celsius. I was tested for malaria twice, had a stoole sample done, typhoid test etc. and all turned up negative. They gave me some drugs and sent me on my way not knowing what I had. I took the drugs for a day or two, but they made my heart race so I stopped. I feel better now, but still don't know what it was...some of my friends here in the medical field said I could have had H1N1, not sure if they were joking or not...but who knows?!

Back in the K'LA

Well it's been about three weeks since I arrived back in Kampala from my holiday at home, and already it feels like I never left. When I arrived back here my apartment was covered in about 2 inches of red dust that I'm still in the process of trying to get rid of...welcome home.... Thankfully the rains have started so the dust is settling down some what, but it would take an ocean of water to really put it to rest.

A lot has happened here while I was away, both on the work front and in Uganda in general. Close to home here, well actually on the very road I live on construction crews have been trying over the last year to work on our dusty pothole filled road, but they never seem to quite finish the job. In an act of frustration residents decided they'd had enough and set up a blockade not allowing any traffic to pass through for quite some time. Eventually the conflict was worked out and the road crew began work again, but I haven't seen them in several days and the road is far from being fixed so who knows what will happen next.

Land issues are always a hot topic here in Uganda, and within the last couple of weeks tensions have boiled over on several occasions. In some rural areas local people have actually lynched landlords who were attempting to sell off their land to outsiders. This has reportedly happened in a few areas causing tension to rise between neighboring ethnic groups. Land issues are sure to be a main issue in the upcoming 'election'.

As mentioned earlier, the rainy season is here...hopefully. This is great news to people living in rural Uganda who have experiencing drought like conditions in several areas. Due to the lack of rain cattle farmers have reported that many of their cattle are dying and as a result milk prices have tripled since I've been away!

On the work side of things I'm happy to say that all seems to be going very well. When I was away at least 10 more children have now been sponsored to go to school bringing the number of children under our sponsorship program to around 80. The women in our tailoring program seem to be progressing nicely, they've mastered table mats, oven mits, and are now making change purses and next will be hand bags. We've distributed another 5 loans to women whose children we sponsor to boost their various businesses, and we've also started an adult literacy program beginning with these 5 women as well. It's encouraging for me to see the progress made in the short month that I was away. I see it as a testament to our local staff and the many volunteers that come for a few months or weeks to lend a hand....good work all!!

It's good to be back here refreshed and refocused. Thanks for a great time at home everyone!!

I am going to try and post more frequently so stay tuned...

Until next time

Guns, WWJD, and the American way

Hello all, I haven't posted in a while....just haven't felt like posting I guess, until today. I have these news feed that run on my desktop from MSNBC and once in a while there's tag line that catches my attention, today was such an occasion. Apparently, a pastor from a church in Kentucky is encouraging his congregation to bring their guns to church on the 4th of July to celebrate Independence Day and the Second Amendment (the right to bare arms). Yeah, this isn't a joke...seriously this guy is doing this (you may insert stereotypical Kentucky redneck joke here).

Seriously, this is scary stuff...I can imagine what this guys sermons are like and what his world view is. Shouldn't the FBI be concerned about this? I mean if a mullah from a mosque was doing this I'm sure the terror threat alert would be at red or whatever color scheme indicates a severe threat, and every person with dark skin within a 5 block radius would be arrested and sent to some off shore prison never to be heard from again. I dunno, I just don't get it...really? You're going to bring guns to church? Charleton Heston would be proud no doubt - From my cold dead hands afterall.

Only in America - the strangest and most confusing place on Earth.

So What's The Point?

As some of you may have heard, the Obama administration recently released secret CIA documents detailing the torture techniques used on 'suspected terrorists' in the various secret U.S. prisons around the globe. This is a good thing right, to expose the abuse of human rights by the Bush administration? Well, at first glance one would think so, and in fact may see this as a progressive move by the Obama administration. Perhaps some of that 'change' he was speaking about durning his campaign. Although Obama has stated that the use of torture was a "dark and painful chapter in our history" claiming that such techniques would never be used again. Sadly, he followed that statement by saying "nothing will be gained by spending our time and energy laying blame for the past." WHAT?!? So if I commit a murder, but only get caught a few years later then I shouldn't be arressted, I should just be left alone to continue my life depsite what I've done in the past. No consequences for my actions? what? There's much to be gained by laying blame...it's called accountability for ones actions. What about the thousands of people that have been directly affected by these actions? So Mr. Obama, war crimes of the past don't matter? hmmm...really? Tell that to all the Iraqi, Afgahni, Syrian, Jordanian etc. etc. lives that have been affected by these policies. I don't get it. The Obama administration has an opportunity here to set a precedent that would cause any future administration to seriously think twice about the actions they take, so why aren't they doing it? Clinton gets impeached for a fling with a White House aide, but Bush, Chenney, Rumsfeld et. al just get to count their money and retire? Too many pressures from the people that really control Washington? Wanting to leave some doors open for the future just in case such tactics are needed again? Or is it because America the idea can do no wrong, they are the moral light of the world afterall, you know they have to spread their values that supposedly everyone needs. What? Seriously....you get a failing grade on this Obama....you're just status quo....a shame cause so many people were counting on you to make real change.

And The Hits Keep Coming

Well, it appears the Harper government is at it again. This time they have barred British MP and peace activist George Galloway from entering the country. Galloway was supposed to begin a four city speaking tour, but the Canadian government deemed him a security risk. Galloway is a very outspoken critic of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as being critical of Israel's actions towards Palestinians. The Harper government has accused Galloway of supporting Hamas and being sympathetic to the Taliban...whatever that means. But seriously! A security risk?!?!? Seems like just another way to shut down dialogue and discussion to me. Keep the discourse one-sided.....What is happening to our country? Nazis marching in Calgary, refusing entry to a peace activist, not attending the UN Conference on Racism....wow!! we're falling to pieces here....hmmm....I'm suddenly reminded of my previous post about the creeping in of fascism within Canadian society....we need to keep an eye when such people as a peace activist and a British MP are refused entry into our country...crazy times....scary times!
Not to mention the deportation of American war-resisters that came to Canada much like they did during the Vietnam War seeking asylum, only this time they aren't being welcomed as before.
It would be nice to read some positive press about Canada in the international media for a change...that might be a long time coming.

later.

The Moral Authority

Canada has recently decided not to take part in the UN Conference on Racism citing that the conference will only be used to criticize Israel. I have not read the initiating documents of the conference so I will not comment on whether or not they are unjustly critical of Israel. However, what caught my attention recently was Conservative MP Vic Toews' comments on Canada's position towards Israel. Mr. Toews stated that "Defense of Israel is not a political choice for our government, it is a moral imperative." Now I don't know about you, but such statements frighten me. A moral imperative? What does he mean by this? Why is it a moral imperative to defend a nation that has slaughtered the people it occupies by a ratio of 100:1? We need to be aware of what this unconditional and uncritical support for Israel is really saying. It is claiming that there is no 'morality' among Palestinians. If it's not saying that, then what is it saying? Someone help me out here if I'm wrong...Vic are you there...hellooo? A 'moral imperative' to defend Israel automatically subjugates Palestinians to the realm of the immoral, or godless. Once a people have been deemed 'immoral' or 'godless' then essentially there are no limits to the amount of violent force used against them in order to defend the 'moral'. In biblical terms it becomes God (moral) versus Satan (immoral) - Good v. Evil. Evil must be destroyed at all costs. We assume moral authority, and thus determine who is moral and who is not. The language of morality in this context within democratic politics can be very scary as it's not too long before fascism rears its ugly head. Let us not forget that Hitler also used 'moral imperatives' to defend his ideology and actions. I'm not saying that the Conservatives are fascist, however, such language should not be tolerated by Canadian citizens. Once we start to tolerate this sort of language from our elected leaders how long before we tolerate the unlawful imprisonment of Canadian Muslims and Arabs in our own country or other countries?....Oh wait that's already happening...

Also, by boycotting this conference along with the U.S. and Israel we are effectively shutting down opportunity for dialogue, and our discourse becomes one sided and uninformed as a result. I would think that in the aftermath of the war on Gaza now is the time to really engage in discussion and reevaluate past policies and ideas. Although unwarranted criticism of Israel should not be tolerated, we need to move passed this idea that it is anti-Semitic or taboo to intelligently criticize Israel's government for some of their actions taken against the people of Palestine. Bottom line is, it should be our duty as citizens to continually question the actions of all governments especially those that claim to be guided by some moral agenda. This includes Canada, America, Israel, Palestinian groups, and other governments in the Middle East.

Some Middle East governments also want criticism of religion to be classified as a human rights abuse under the Conference on Racism. This too is scary, as someone that criticizes Islam or Christianity etc. could face legal prosecution. It would give theocratic states justification to rule with an iron fist, and thus push forward their agendas unchallenged. All of these propositions require our scrutiny. Without the willingness on behalf of our governments to accept dissent or engage in dialogue that may be counter to their ideas and ideology how can they be considered legitimate? If they have the right ideas, if they have the 'truth' then they should be more than willing to debate with people of differing views. Otherwise, what are they hiding?

When parties were campaigning during the last federal election some of the Conservative Party candidates in Winnipeg failed to show up at community debates where they would have to defend their party's views in front of the community and rival parties. Why is that? Maybe because if you don't give people the chance to challenge you, then you can continue to claim that you have the right vision while also criticizing your opponents without debate.

The way I see things right now, Canada is not heading in the right direction. Our political atmosphere is stale and the citizenry has been lulled to sleep. To us a line from Noam Chomsky we are the "bewildered herd". We follow along without raising much fuss, and frankly not really that interested to be bothered. After all, there's a reality TV show on somewhere we need to watch. Don't get me wrong, I'm as guilty as anyone of being apathetic, but perhaps this will be my catalyst to be more active in questioning my government on the decisions they make and actions they take.


I recently read an excellent book I recommend it fits very well with what I've just blogged about: American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America by: Chris Hedges

Here's to an uncertain future of Canadian politics and moral imperatives...