A little background…
So, at long last, I will shed a bit of light on the events of the last few months of which the vast majority of you have been in the dark. First let me preface my absence of communication by saying that the last few months, for a variety of reasons, had been very difficult for me. The truth of the matter is that my Peace Corps service took a turn for the worse and I didn’t think it would be terribly wise to write blogs and emails moaning about how miserable I was. I figured this would surely succeed in little else than either causing people to worry about me or create negative views of Uganda/Africa. Neither of which would be productive in helping solve the problems I was having.
When I signed up for Peace Corps early in 2007, I did it out of a sense of adventure and charity. I had been blessed with a good education and wasn’t ready for the structure of 9-5 yet. I have traveled in the past and thought what better idea than to go to a developing country somewhere and share my knowledge and creativity to help better a growing community?
To take a step back from the hustle of the American pace and learn a lot more than I could at home. As I thought, through Peace Corps I would be able to do some grassroots eco-tourism development; help people capitalize on what they already had. Folks with my major always get, “So, you gonna be, a park ranger?” And while most of us don’t take that path, a lot of us do find some way to stick to the field. I think it is critical to our future and the preservation of diversity of environments, culture and our collective health, to act now. To learn to appreciate what we have before it’s gone and we are stuck kicking our selves over the extinction of species or peoples or global warming. I think it is essential to make the most of what we have in the greenest way possible and that this is perhaps most important to do so in the developing world where people are more easily blindsided by a quick payout. Why not find sustainable projects that embrace their culture and the uniqueness of the local flora and fauna, then at least they have an alternative against the “payout promises.”
Too often big corporations who “know better” will plant themselves in developing countries, taking advantage of cheap labour, a lack of environmental and safely laws and regulations, and corruptible officials. Too often those involved in development get their eyes glues to the quick and easy buck. Particularly here in Uganda natural resources promise big payouts. But the repercussions of extracting and altering the natural settings these resources are found in severely impact the potential longevity of alternative activities which would be long-term and sustainable (ie, the rafting and safari industries).
The longer I am here the more I learn about how environmental and political issues collide and what a devastating hand corruption has in such affairs. I am not saying that similar things don’t happen at home, for example, Satan Palin (sorry, did I misspell her name?) is still gung hoe to drill in ANWR. But the difference at home is the amount of green groups and activists getting the word out to support the opposition, the availability of information on the internet, and the relative economic stability found in the US. Relative meaning oil exploration at home does not promising big developments for communities who are literally dirt poor, whose homes are made out of mud, who have health problems like malaria and AIDS, who don’t have easy access to potable water, all problems you find here. Sure, all things in life are relative, but the repercussions of oil development here is not the same as at home. Sure, for SUV driving Americans a relief of a few cents in gas prices would be a welcomed relief, but in Africa, where most people don’t own cars, the costs of oil will outweigh benefits. Oil will make things much worse for the vast majority of people before it makes it any better; meanwhile, for the elite few who benefit, their pockets will fill. There is just something fundamentally wrong about stealing from poor people.
Alternatively, some communities don’t have these big ethical questions like ‘oil vs wildlife’ looming over their heads, some simply are just poor. But they, no less than the others, need help too. Often it is just a matter of organization and creativity. The education system here which most Ugandans experience is modeled after an archaic version of the British system…one used in England almost a century ago. In schools here the teacher is ALWAYS right and the students will be silent and learn by repeating, repeating, repeating, repeating. Creative, deductive or rational thinking is not taught in schools which tend to have a damaging effect on ones ability to think “outside the box” in other situations. Not to mention, due to lack of funding, there is also no art in the curriculum. I mentioned the creativity issues in one of my very first blogs, but sitting here, nearly a year later, I am still baffled by how far reaching the creativity void is for so many people. It stretches from eating the same few foods everyday (creating a nutritional deficit) to a lack of real entrepreneurial endeavors (economic stagnation) to poor judgment while driving (bad to horrific accidents).
Perhaps this sounds like a really pessimistic rant, but stick with me….. (really a lot more can be said, this is just part of the big picture, but in the light of not being really really pessimistic, we’ll leave it here for now.)
