moving uphill


In the weeks before I went to Uganda, I was really feeling like my life was an uphill struggle. I had lots of deadlines, lots to do and lots on my mind.

And yes, I know that no deadlines = no work = not enough money = not much else. Maybe I was just tired.

The trip to Uganda really opened my eyes to so many things:

I was reminded how much I love teaching.

I was reminded how fortunate I am.

I was reminded how much joy there is in Africa, in spite of all the issues.



This guy certainly looked like life was a bit of an uphill struggle, but he saw me photographing him as we passed him on the bus, and he flashed the biggest grin!

I was interested to see the different forms of transport, from home made wooden wheelbarrows to bikes to the Buda Buda (scooters with lots of passengers) to minibus taxis to cars. And somehow in the disorder of a city with no urban planning and mostly sand roads, everything seems to work.

But there is a caveat.

Michael Totten's latest post was a timely reminder that no matter how cheerful people may seem, unless the real problems - especially in terms of poverty, urbanisation and health - are solved, the violence and despair that lurks just below the surface could be unleashed at any time.

As he said:

"Senator Barack Obama said something at the presidential debate last week that almost perfectly encapsulates the difference between his foreign policy and his opponent’s: “Secretary of Defense Robert Gates himself acknowledges the war on terrorism started in Afghanistan and it needs to end there.” I don’t know if Obama paraphrased Gates correctly, but if so, they’re both wrong.

If Afghanistan were miraculously transformed into the Switzerland of Central Asia, every last one of the Middle East’s rogues gallery of terrorist groups would still exist. The ideology that spawned them would endure. Their grievances, such as they are, would not be salved. The political culture that produced them, and continues to produce more just like them, would hardly be scathed. Al Qaedism is the most radical wing of an extreme movement which was born in the Middle East and exists now in many parts of the world. Afghanistan is not the root or the source."

There's a link to Michael Totten on the right of my blog page, or go here

Comments

Skoorby said…
Totten makes a good point, of course. I think Obama understands it, though. He's spoken extensively about the need to provide more aid, and he's referred to the fact that al Quaeda is sustained by political and social dissatisfaction in Muslim countries. But he's running a campaign to get elected as president of a country half full of people who would have a strong aversion to Totten's interpretation, and would rather focus on fighting and killing the enemy.
14 October 2008 at 19:08
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

the writer formerly known as...

Twenty years after I was born a Brooks, I became a Wilson in one of those happy-ever-after fantasies that didn't quite work out the way I had planned. But Wilson was a nice name, and eminently preferable to Brooks (which in Afrikaans means underpants or knickers and led to horrible teasing at school) and I quite enjoyed it. It was one of those anonymous names that everyone could spell and I liked the fact that it was totally normal at first look, but had a secret history. The great grandfather of the Mr Wilson I married had emigrated from somewhere near Moscow to the US and like so many others with unpronouncable or "difficult" names (I think it was Tobinofsky) he was given another one. One of the legends is that Wilson was chosen from the phone book, another is that he particularly admired a Wilson (couldn't have been Harold). So, for the next 25 years or so, I built my name and reputation as the journalist Lynne Wilson ... until I met and married my new happy-ever-a...
Read more

mind the gap

I'm suffering from an excess of velleity. Velleity is volition at its weakest. It's a mere wish or inclination, without any accompanying effort. My velleity is fed by an overactive imagination... I can see in my mind's eye exactly what my dream garden looks like, for example. So when I am outside, I'm imagining a tree there, a shrub here, a winding path and a bank of flowers. so the lack of all those things and the lack of effort on my part to make them happen don't worry me so much. It certainly makes things easier when you are living with a very large garden during our excessively hot and dry summers. I'd write more... but what can I say? Velleity strikes again.
Read more

happy birthday to "the Arch!"

Image
tenacity and hope in the most unhospitable of places " I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ"   I often think of Ghandi's famous words (even if it is not completely clear that it was actually he who said them) and use them as a measure and a reminder for the way that I try to live my life. I use them as a measure for other people too. For me, professing to be a Christian means that you have voluntarily set the bar that measures your behaviour, your reactions and the way that you live your life, every moment of the day. (Even when no one is watching). It is a particular joy to come across an individual who actually practices what he preaches. Someone who, like Paul, could say "Follow my example as I follow the example of Christ". For me,  Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu who turns 79 today, epitomises that example He is the elder statesman of South Africa and has been described as the conscience ...
Read more