Ah, yes Mugabe from Zimbabwe is performing the oldest trick in politics: if you are worried about your opponents taking power from you, just put them in jail!
The police in Zimbabwe are now holding 200 members of Mugabe's opposition party in jail and the UN Security Council is holding a closed session about the declining situation in Zimbabwe.
Mugabe's opposition party now has political control after the most recent election threatening Mugabe's power.
It is time to look at the real losers in this situation: those who still don't have access to food and medicine because of Mugabe's political aspirations.
Mugabe needs to allow change to take place rather than hold onto power.
Friday, June 13, 2008
Friday, June 6, 2008
And we think George Bush is bad
President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe has announced that humanitarian groups are not longer able to function in his country because one supposed group is campaigning for the opposition in the June 27 presidential runoff between Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai.
What does this mean? Lots on two fronts:
1. AIDS medication will no longer be given to many.
2. Food, which is in short supply to say the least, will not be handed out.
Death and starvation in the name of politics.
Impeach Mugabe?
What does this mean? Lots on two fronts:
1. AIDS medication will no longer be given to many.
2. Food, which is in short supply to say the least, will not be handed out.
Death and starvation in the name of politics.
Impeach Mugabe?
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Border War
Burkina Faso is not the typical place one decides to visit. It is land-locked nation in West Africa. But some people have been visiting from neighbor countries for a different reason: to escape the fighting between Malian forces and the Tuareg rebels. (A similar year-old Tuareg-led revolt has hit neighboring Niger).
The Tuareg are a nomadic group. Their latest attack has been motivated by what they feel is unwarranted interferences in their traditional territories.
This brings up an interesting question that I don't have a really good answer to: who owns what land?
We have traditional borders but what do they mean? Looking back at the history of the U.S., Native American ideology states that no one owns the land which explains why Manhattan was sold for a few dollars....why would you be paid for something that doesn't belong to you?!
We are seeing that groups are proclaiming rights to their territorial home. How do we draw the borders and who has rights to them?
The Tuareg are a nomadic group. Their latest attack has been motivated by what they feel is unwarranted interferences in their traditional territories.
This brings up an interesting question that I don't have a really good answer to: who owns what land?
We have traditional borders but what do they mean? Looking back at the history of the U.S., Native American ideology states that no one owns the land which explains why Manhattan was sold for a few dollars....why would you be paid for something that doesn't belong to you?!
We are seeing that groups are proclaiming rights to their territorial home. How do we draw the borders and who has rights to them?
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Water in Kenya
While reading Reader’s Digest the other day(RD is old school..I used to study the vocabulary words when I was young!), I stumbled across a story about a teacher named Patty Hall who was about to retire after 35 years of teaching. She had spent much time in Kenya and received an email about a river drying up in a village she had visited. Not thinking she wanted to devote the time needed to this kind of project when she was retiring, she almost hit the delete button. She decided not to and started getting her students involved. When she asked how much it would cost to build a dam in the village, they said 480,000 Kenyan shillings which is the equivalent of $7,000.
She involved her students in this process to raise the money for the dam. The students were shocked that people had to spend most of their day transporting water. Many children could not go to school because they were getting water for their family. Her students felt like they couldn’t do anything to help situations like this but with the class banding together, they raised more than enough to build the dam.
A whole village now has water. A WHOLE village. $7,000 is not a drop in the bucket but would you trade that amount of money for the lives of the residents for the village, the animals that live there, and the ecosystem in the area. All three of these rely on water to survive. A thought for this summer....as we spend money on our homes, going out to eat, or a vacation, considering putting the equal amount to a cause like this.
It's about Africa.....
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Why I Write This Blog
For those people who don't know me, they probably wonder why a white, late thirties, middle class guy living in the Chicago area would write a blog about Africa. That is an excellent question!
While working for a large software company, I was able to travel the world helping people use a database more effectively. I worked with some of the best organizations you can think of! Eventually, my boss asked me if I would like to go visit South Africa. That was an opportunity I could not turn down. In talking to the organization I was going there to work with, they had partnered with an orphanage in the local area and asked if I wanted to experience first hand what poverty looks like in Africa.
To say I was excited to visit the orphanage was not exactly correct. It was more like intrigued because I knew it would be good for me to see. Little did I know how this would change my life.
In my next post, I will talk a little about my time at the orphanage and what it meant to me. In the book of James, it says true religion is taking care of widows and orphans. My life will never be the same after seeing what true religion looks like.
While working for a large software company, I was able to travel the world helping people use a database more effectively. I worked with some of the best organizations you can think of! Eventually, my boss asked me if I would like to go visit South Africa. That was an opportunity I could not turn down. In talking to the organization I was going there to work with, they had partnered with an orphanage in the local area and asked if I wanted to experience first hand what poverty looks like in Africa.
To say I was excited to visit the orphanage was not exactly correct. It was more like intrigued because I knew it would be good for me to see. Little did I know how this would change my life.
In my next post, I will talk a little about my time at the orphanage and what it meant to me. In the book of James, it says true religion is taking care of widows and orphans. My life will never be the same after seeing what true religion looks like.
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