International Political Will

On June 2 (in 7 weeks), I will return to the United States after four years abroad. I am doing a countdown from 10 – starting at 10 and ending with 1 the first week of June when I depart India. And then that’s it – the end. I’ll ride off into the sunset where all the other former bloggers have gone, where we all comfort each other in the realization that no one noticed…

This week – the number 7, and the seven sites in Uganda where African solutions for poverty are helping young women get an education while adult women earn a living.

On a drizzling early morning in Kampala, I made my way to the campus of Makerere University, trying to find the professor that was employing poor women from refugee camps and the slums, and using sustainable technology to do so.

On the edge of campus I found Dr. Moses Musaazi, a University of London graduate in science and technology. Musaazi returned home after college and took up a teaching position at Makerere University. Several years ago, in order to supplement his income, he designed and then began manufacturing inexpensive bricks for construction. The bricks are made to interlock, which makes them stronger, but are not “fired” (heated), thereby reducing energy consumption and cost.

Elsewhere, the Rockefeller Foundation had discovered that girls at African refugee camps were avoiding school on the days they were menstruating. At the same time, the UN High Commission for Refugees, responsible for the camps in Uganda, wanted to reduce the $400,000 per year they were spending on sanitary pads.

Looking for a solution, the two organizations approached Musaazi, who had earned a reputation for his interlocking bricks.

“[The Rockefeller Foundation and the UNHCR] asked me if I could come up with a way to produce sanitary pads at a reduced cost. They wanted me to use local products, in an environmentally-friendly way,” Musaazi says. “Hiring women from the camps to do the work was a logical step, and the process was designed for them. So they gave me a research grant and we developed the MakaPad system.”

Technology 4 Tomorrow (T4T), Musaazi’s organization, now produces 50,000 MakaPads per month, which sell for 1/3 of the price of name-brand sanitary pads. Right now, most of the pads are sold directly to the UNHCR – enough to provide both refugee camps in Uganda with all they need.

But it’s HOW Musaazi and T4T is working to eradicate poverty that is really innovative. At 7 sites in Uganda – Nakivale and Kyaka Refugee Camps, and five more locations in the slums of Kampala – T4T employs 25 women for around $80 per month making MakaPads.

“A regular pack of 10 pads at the store sells for about $1.50,” Musaazi says, pointing out how unaffordable this is for many impoverished women in Uganda. “We can sell MakaPads for 50 cents for a package of 10. So there is a big cost savings.”

The pads are made primarily from a mix of recycled paper (shredded documents from banks, offices, and the university) and papyrus, a plant that grows like a weed in the wet areas across Uganda.

“We went through a lot of what materials were possible to use for absorption, and eventually found that a mix of paper and papyrus is best,” Musaazi says. “Papyrus grows everywhere, and no one owns the land. You can just go and pick it for free.”

The technology used is customized for the people that will do the work, with minimal cost (about $2,000 initial start-up cost for all the parts & materials to set up a new site). One of the manufacturing sites is entirely self-sufficient, using T4T’s solar panels to generate electricity.

There are metal frames that are used to dry the paper/papyrus mix, and manual metal rollers soften the absorptive material after drying. UV lights are used to sterilize the finished product, and a simple plastic heat sealer to package the finished product. The process is relatively simple, but the product is equal to quality found in retail brands.

Once the process was perfected in the camps, Musaazi saw an opening, and expanded manufacture to the slums of Kampala, hiring local women to supervise and operate five more sites. Much of the work can be done from their home, and different stages of the process can be spread across different sites.

“These jobs generate income for women,” Musaazi says. “Before, they made nothing. Now they are earning money for their families. We are signing a memorandum of understanding with the [NGO] Mildmay to hire HIV patients.”

But it’s the aspects of educating young women that was the ultimate motivation, and it is having the desired effect, reducing female student absenteeism. “If we provide cheap pads, more young women will attend school more often. We hope within the next year to begin selling MakaPads to retail stores in Uganda,” he says.

Musaazi and his grown son work in a new building on campus (constructed from Musaazi’s special bricks). In a room down the hall, three women are busy packaging finished products, with boxes of MakaPads stacked on shelves around them. The room is already too small, and it’s evident that it’s only a matter of time before more women are hired and yet another site is established.

T4T is growing and developing more environmental solutions for problems that will only increase in the future: water treatment & conservation, waste disposal, and cook stoves that minimize resource consumption.

Solutions for big problems – world hunger, poverty, conflict – require local ideas. It’s often difficult for outsiders to come in and impose external solutions. What works in one area may not work in another – for instance, MakaPad technology won’t work in regions where there isn’t an abundance of wild papyrus. But for 7 sites in Uganda (and soon to be more), T4T is fighting poverty by helping to educate girls, and they are doing it by employing women in an ecologically sustainable way.

Dr. Musaazi isn’t an outsider. Uganda is his country. He and people like him are the future of Africa – leaders that look for independent, sustainable, and financially appropriate ways to progress, using the most valuable asset every developing country has – their own people.

Tags: solutions, Musaazi, UNHCR, Technology 4 Tomorrow, sanitary pads

On June 2 (in 8 weeks), I will return to the United States after four years abroad. I am doing a countdown from 10 – starting at 10 and ending with 1 the first week of June when I depart India. And then that’s it – the end. I’ll ride off into the sunset where all the other former bloggers have gone, where we all comfort each other in the realization that no one noticed…

This week – the number 8, and eight foods I ate (insert rim shot here…).

Of course, there were plenty of horrible foods over the last four years: fermented soy in Japan that tasted like rancid bleu cheese,  some kind of sea snail (also Japan) that made the bile jump up into my throat, the Indian drink jal jeera that smelled suspiciously like sewage, frog legs in Rwanda (more like frog groin), a sticky-gooey snack in Japan called mochi that could have been used as caulk for weatherproofing (and which literally chokes several Japanese people to death every year), and almost all of the orange curry of Mumbai, where it doesn’t matter what the name of the curry dish is – they’re all orange, and all taste exactly the same.

But most of these don’t stand out anymore – what I remember is the foods that were exclusive to specific areas, that I’ve yet to find elsewhere, whose taste still lingers and leaves a memory stronger than photographs.

1.    Basashi

I lived in the countryside in Japan, and often rode my bicycle along a river through the rice farms. There was a horse ranch on the way, but the horses were never all that friendly and looked overweight. But I figured that since the standard of living in Japan was so good, these horses were just well-fed and perhaps a little snobbish.

It took a few months before I figured out that the delectable dish basashi (“raw horse”) that I loved was coming from the horse ranch. It’s one thing to eat smart animals and pretend that they would have become glue or dog food anyway – it’s another to eat smart animals that are mistreated. So that was the end of my basashi days. Too bad, because raw horse was surprisingly tasty.

Japan likes its raw food – of course there’s sushi, but also raw eggs, raw and live squid, raw beef, raw whale (if it comes from the sea, Japanese eat it) and even raw chicken (I can’t think of something more disgusting and potentially deadly to eat…). I drew the line at endangered marine mammals, salmonella, and, eventually with some hesitation, equine.

2.    Pani Puri

The Indian writer Khushwant Singh once said “The white man has his darkest thoughts about India while sitting on the toilet.”

But the sidewalks of India – however risky – are a great place to find snacks, and pani puri might be the best. Starting in early evening, men line the roads with what look like golf ball-sized chips and a mound of yellow mush (chickpea). He takes the golf-ball puri, breaks the top open with his thumb, scoops in the chickpea and masala, and then submerses the entire thing into bright green spicy-sweet pani (water).

For about 20 cents, you get six of these things, and when you pop the whole thing into your mouth and bite down, the green water explodes in your mouth. But just to be safe, look for a stand that already has women and children eating at it – Indian men tend to have more intestinal fortitude.

3.    Pad Pak Boong

I remember some chemistry class in college where the professor mentioned that the seeds from Morning Glory are potentially hallucinogenic. So when I noticed a dish called pad pak boong on the menu in Thailand and Cambodia, and the description said “stir-fried Morning Glory, garlic, and minced pork,” I thought I had hit the psychedelic jackpot.

Turns out the leaves and stems aren’t narcotic – but they sure are tasty. It’s like spinach, but crispy and without the bitterness.

The pork adds fat and grease to make it almost sweet (Homer Simpson would be impressed). However, a trip to the local meat market (in 100 degree heat) might make you reconsider the vegetarian version.

4.    Otoro

Given Japan’s penchant to translate everything into English too literally, otoro probably means “most wonderful tasty part of the fat abdomen of glorious raw tuna.” And they would be right.

The Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo is a nice place to wander around while you feast on inexpensive (but fabulous and fresh) sushi, and otoro is the crème de la crème. After Tsukiji and 150 yen otoro (about $1.50), it’s hard to go back to paying $15 for two pieces of rubbery bland sushi in the U.S.

Tsukiji is a main port for the sushi trade and is a bustling maze of alleys, with every imaginable ocean product for sale – dried seaweed, fish and crustaceans, shark, whale, dolphin, squid and octopus – and each are prepared in more ways than I thought possible.

There are also stores selling endangered non-marine animals (already dead and stuffed). Because who doesn’t want a stuffed panda, sea turtle, and polar bear hanging on the wall in their home?

5.    Sugar Cane Juice

Turns out you can “squeeze” sugar cane. That was news to a city boy from California like me.

The small presses around Mumai’s sidewalks usually have a bell attached to the spinning press wheel, and the ringing seems to lure you in. For about 10 cents, you get a nice glass of freshly squeezed juice (pressed right in front of you). It doesn’t look all that appetizing – sort of a puke-green color – but tastes wonderful, like the leftover milk after you’ve eaten a bowl of Fruit Loops.

The juice usually is strained over a block of ice to make it cold…but don’t ask where the ice came from. You don’t want to know. And ignore the stray dog peeing on the big blocks of ice covered in burlap sacks on the sidewalks.

Because you never really want to know where the drinking water in India comes from.

6.    Afghan mutton kebabs

Afghanistan. The goat (sans head) hanging upside down outside of the small mud-brick house, and the old man fanning the flames of his BBQ next to the carcass was apparently the restaurant signage. The young kid who brought us the bread took it from a community bin where previous customers’ leftovers were thrown. I had been in the country less than 24 hours, and really didn’t know yet whether I could trust the two UN drivers with my life, much less my gastro-intestinal health. But they were hungry, and so was I, so I followed their lead.

I don’t particularly like mutton (I have since had a near-puking experience after overeating at a Bakr Id celebration). But after having just spent a year in Japan where everything was raw, it was nice to have some well-done BBQ meat. And, according to the two UN drivers, the kebabs also increase a man’s ability to make “sexy time” with his wife. Another bit of wisdom for the ignorant city boy from California.

7.    Banana pancake cookies

On a (long) bus ride across Uganda, the frequent stops in various villages were the only chance for food. The locals swarm the bus windows with every kind of snack – bananas, roasted sweet potatoes, kebabs, roasted nuts, etc. But the best snacks were these small banana pancake/cookie things. Good thing they were filling, because the time we spent broken down and waiting for a radiator that afternoon turned an estimated 6 hour ride into a 10 hour one.

Fresh and warm, and sold in packs of 10 for about a dollar, they reminded me of my grandmother’s banana bread without as much sugar. And they seemed a safer bet than the meat kebabs. After all, there was only one daily bus going through some of these villages – how many days have those guys been trying to sell the same kebabs?

8.    Tonkotsu Ramen

In some parts of Fukuoka prefecture in Japan, as you pass by particular restaurants, the strong pungent odor of dirty gym socks that have been left in a locker over summer vacation wafts into your nostrils. It’s not exactly appetizing – until you’ve actually tried eating the noodles and pork broth that is making the smell.

It may not be healthy (you can see the fat coagulating on top of the broth), it’s not particularly clear what’s inside (there’s always some strange seaweed-looking stuff in Japanese food), but you soon forget that a few minutes earlier, what you’re eating smelled like a Frenchman’s body odor on a public tourist bus.

And once you’ve become addicted to tonkotsu ramen (and you will – it’s like heroin, once is all it takes), you find yourself drawn to that dirty-gym-sock smell. (Kind of like how stoners inevitably find the smell of a skunk appealing.)

Tags: ramen, otoro, Uganda, pani puri, Cambodia

On June 2 (in 9 weeks), I will return to the United States after four years abroad. I am doing a countdown from 10 – starting last week at 10, and ending with 1 the first week of June when I depart India. And then that’s it – the end. I’ll ride off into the sunset where all the other former bloggers have gone, where we all comfort each other in the realization that no one noticed…

This week – the number 9, and nine books I have (somewhat recently) read that I recommend.

1. Hot, Flat and Crowded: Why the world needs a disruptive green revolution

by Thomas Friedman

I pretty much can’t stand anything Tom Friedman has to say – especially when it comes to the Middle East (his alleged area of expertise).

But a good idea is a good idea. Hot, Flat & Crowded provides not only a logical and informative explanation for why we’re facing a deteriorating environment, but profound and sensible suggestions as to how we can use the profit motive inherent in capitalism to save the Earth. Friedman stays away from overloading readers with scientific arguments about the validity of global warming – and simply looks at the fact that green technology will make the world a better place (and will be profitable for the entrepreneurs and workers involved).

His chapter on “petro-dictators” is a bit screwy with the usual Friedman-esque stereotypes and misconceptions, but you can ignore it and focus on the concrete, specific ideas he has about how to create a green future. I don’t know how much attention this book got in the U.S., but surely it deserves more.

2. Collapse: How societies choose to fail or succeed

by Jared Diamond

Jared Diamond outlines eight key factors that often lead to the collapse of civilizations, drawing from history, archaeology, ethnobotany, and sociology. Diamond is a smart guy who doesn’t overwrite and keeps his points clear. He runs the gamut of civilizational collapses, from Easter Island to the Anasazi, as well as the 1994 Rwanda genocide.

Diamond looks at some successes, too – such as the reforestation program of the shogunate in Japan. And he ends the book on a high note with specific suggestions on what average people can do to stave off collapse (a chapter that was warmly welcomed, because by the end I was convinced we are doomed and feeling suicidal…).

3. Holy War, Holy Peace: How religion can bring peace to the Middle East

by Marc Gopin

Gopin is a Rabbi and an expert on conflict resolution. For anyone with an interest in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Gopin outlines and describes the “reinterpretation” of myth that the monotheistic religions need to move forward. He looks at specific trust-building policies, such as turning border areas into parks that are shared between both people.

Gopin’s reinterpretation of the book of Revelations and the second coming of Jesus Christ is revolutionary.   Gopin proposes that when the Messiah returns to Earth and walks up to the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, Jews, Christians, and Muslims gather round, all expecting the Messiah to pick a side so that they can kill each other in the final war of Armageddon. They figure that once the Messiah chooses a side, the first order of business will be to tear down the mosque and build the much-awaited and prophesized new temple.

But instead, the Messiah looks up at the golden dome of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and says: “Beautiful temple. Great work, everyone!”

4. Dying to Win: The strategic logic of suicide terrorism

by Robert Pape

Pape lays out a logical, statistical, and proven theory of what motivates suicide bombers. Looking at every suicide bombing from 1983 to 2003, Pape discovers that all suicide bombers share one common characteristic: they are all from communities that are occupied by foreign powers.

Dying to Win debunks western myths about the religious motivation of suicide bombers, showing that Islam is merely a convenient cause (he considers the suicide campaigns of the LTTE – Hindu separatists in Sri Lanka). Pape also traces the educational levels of suicide bombers, demonstrating that most are middle-class and educated. Stereotypes and fear-mongering is eradicated by Pape’s research – and every politician that thinks they know diddily-squat about the so-called “war on terror” damn well better have read this.

5. King Leopold’s Ghost: A story of greed, terror, and heroism in Colonial Africa

by Adam Hochschild

A non-fiction documentation of the atrocities committed by Belgium’s King Leopold in the “Congo Free State” of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, this book reads like a horror novel. The narrative flows smoothly, following key characters, drawing on sources that are often ignored from this time period.

It’s almost unbelievable what Leopold and his cadre of capitalist colonialists did to millions of Congolese. And even worse is discovering that Joseph Conrad’s description of Mr. Kurtz and his spiked heads in “Heart of Darkness” wasn’t fiction – it was based on Conrad’s travels on the Congo during this period, and very real ivory and rubber traders that earned a fortune while amputating limbs of any African that refused to be a slave.

6. The Shock Doctrine: The rise of disaster capitalism

by Naomi Klein

Klein traces the history of capitalist exploitation in the neo-colonial period, looking beyond the elements of power and deeper into the big business, free-enterprise U.S. government and corporations. Klein documents the influence of the Chicago Boys in Chile, the open season on Russian markets after the fall of communism, and follows it through contemporary events that use disasters to manufacture markets for big business, from Iraq to Katrina.

Klein’s book is a warning to anyone who might think that the days of Blackwater contractors and Halliburton no-bid contracts are passé. The facts are there, Klein makes it easy to read, and sometimes you just wonder how it could all be possible. How could profit be prioritized over human life? (And this I’m wondering 100 years after King Leopold in Congo…did we learn nothing?)

7. The Beautiful Tree: A personal journey into how the world’s poorest people are educating themselves

by James Tooley

Tooley breaks new ground in his recent book, showing that public education is often falling short – and that private education by the poor for the poor is often a better solution. Tooley discovers thousands of private schools in the slums of India, Africa, and China – and proves the development “experts” wrong who claim that private schools are only for the rich.

Tooley takes it too far, and begins to sound the bugle of “free markets” and the voucher system, naively believing that governments and the international aid committee need not waste money on public schools. The answer – like everything else – is somewhere in the middle. But Tooley shows that a serious re-evaluation of how aid money is spent on education is needed, and he has the data and insight to prove it.

8. Train to Pakistan

by Khushwant Singh

Singh is an Indian legend. Already a reporter at India’s independence in 1947, Singh is still alive (though I’m not sure how, given his affection for whiskey and women). Train to Pakistan is a classic fictional novel – but set against the backdrop of mass murder during India’s partition in 1947.

Train to Pakistan follows several characters and their struggle to survive the communal slaughter of a million people when Pakistan was partitioned from India after British withdrawal. Set in the Punjab, where most of the atrocities occurred, Singh shows the difference between those who are charged with protecting life, those who TALK about protecting life – and those that actually do.

9. Unspeak: How words become weapons, how weapons become a message, and how that message becomes reality

by Steven Poole

Poole takes Orwell’s “newspeak” to another level, using contemporary examples to show how governments and interest groups squash debate by framing issues and using selective language (or avoiding it). Unspeak is an intelligent take on spin, and should be a glossary for every analytical global citizen trying to wade through the morass that is our mainstream media.

There are many others, but off the top of my head, these stood out. Each book addresses an issue we need to solve together – all communities, all nations, all people – if the process of globalization is to outlast human greed and corruption.

Tags: Steven Poole, Khushwant Singh, Hot Flat and Crowded, The Beautiful Tree, train to pakistan

On June 2, I will return to the United States after four years abroad – 10 more weeks (I’m counting down the days to Mexican food…). Going with this theme, I will do a countdown from 10 – starting with this week at 10, and ending with 1 the first week of June when I depart India. And then that’s it – the end. I’ll ride off into the sunset where all the other former bloggers have gone, where we all comfort each other in the realization that no one noticed…

This week – the number 10 – as in the 10 countries I’ve visited or lived in since I left California in 2006.

1. Costa Rica

As you go through the immigration controls at the airport in San Jose, there are billboards warning visitors that “Sex with children is illegal” and that “Offenders will go to jail.” It’s a bit disconcerting, knowing that the first thing the Costa Rican government wants to tell newcomers is to “leave our children alone.”

It’s too bad, because there is so much to see in Costa Rica. The jungles feel like something straight from The Lost World, and there are natural hot springs to soak in at the base of an erupting volcano. The pristine beaches and temperate water offers a range of spectacular fish, up-close encounters with sharks, manta rays, eels, and dolphins. There are horseback rides deep into the jungle, where one can zip through the treetops hanging from a cable and get a bird’s eye view of the rainforest. The people are friendly and living the pura vida, ready to share with visitors the wonders of their country.

But the Costa Rican government, instead of letting the billboards in the airport focus on their rainforests, beaches, and eco-tourism attractions – find themselves forced to warn pedophiles to not sexually assault their children. (Rush Limbaugh: consider yourself warned.)

• SEE: La Fortuna
• AVOID: Tamarindo Beach

2. Japan

It’s simultaneously one of the greatest and worst places in the world.

Japan seems to have figured it out. They have a clean environment. Outstanding education for all citizens, regardless of income. Universal health care. A healthy diet. Efficient public transportation. Safe cities (I mean ridiculously safe). A social commitment among people that looks out for the community instead of just themselves. A grasp of the non-destructive role alcohol can play in society. The very few homeless people that do exist take their shoes off before entering their cardboard box (I’m not kidding).

But yet the country feels so inhibited, controlled, sanitized, and rigid that it drives you crazy. Women are still considered second tier, treated and paid accordingly. “Snack Bars” (basically fronts for prostitution) are endemic, even in the smallest of towns. Pornography is sold in vending machines. Independent thought, creativity, and critical analysis is discouraged. Information is tightly controlled through a homogenous media. Anything non-Japanese is assumed to be inherently inferior (including people).

What it comes down to is this: If you’re Japanese, and raised in Japan, there is no better place in the world to live. But that assumes that you’ve never experienced the human potential for creativity and individualism that exists in so many other countries – and that, like everything else, the answer is not an extreme but somewhere in the middle.

• SEE: Nagasaki
• AVOID: Youme Town Malls

3. Thailand

It’s like Hawaii without the high prices. Developed, modern, clean, safe – but with a long history, intriguing people, and solid tradition. Bangkok is a city of so many different people it was sometimes hard to remember what country you are in, especially when gliding along the monorail through the city.

The ancient capital of Ayutthaya is an odd mix of modern buildings and 1,000-year-old temples. Just before dusk is the best time to wander through temple ground before stopping off at a street stall for a dish of Pad Thai (really, Thailand is worth it just for the food).

• SEE: any place with Thai food
• AVOID: dogs

4. Cambodia

The border town of Poipet, where you have to find transport on to Siem Reap, the ancient city of Angkor, is a madhouse. Unless you want to pay $40-60 for a private Toyota Camry to drive way too fast on the dirt road for 3 hours, you are inevitably stuck on bus with backpackers. Which, of course, “breaks down” a few times, stops for dinner at a roadside shack, and conveniently pulls through an iron gate into a guest house after dark in Siem Reap, where you feel a little like you’ve just been detained. It was nearly impossible to leave the property and find our own guest house – I was surprised the gate wasn’t locked.

But the ancient temples are well worth it, and far more fun and exciting to explore than any other ruins I’ve been to. Buried in vegetation and giant banyan trees, it’s like being in your own Indiana Jones movie. The artistry of the temples is still visible, and there are still plenty of places inside the temple complexes where the only sound is the static of cicadas.

• SEE: Banteay Kdei Temple in Angkor
• AVOID: giant buses of Korean or Japanese tourists in white gloves

5. United Arab Emirates

At night, Dubai lights up reminiscent of Las Vegas. The city is not for the income-challenged: money is evident everywhere (the bus stops – small little booths on the side of the road – are air conditioned). And it’s sometimes hard to find actual Emiratis, since nearly 90% of the city’s population are immigrants. But you’ll run across the occasional young Arab male, complete with a traditional keffiyah and thoub, blasting music in his white SUV as he cruises the streets with friends, hopped up on Mountain Dew.

A bus ride outside of the city to the border town of Al Ain takes you into the Arabian Desert. Endless dunes stretch on either side, and it’s easy to imagine the Bedouins that first crossed the inhospitable sands on camel. The modern road, a 90-mile highway with nary a curve, has an irrigated and vegetated median the entire way – a man-made oasis strip. Proof that it’s possible, with enough money, to green the desert.

• SEE: Spice Souk in Dubai
• AVOID: tank tops and shorts

6. Afghanistan

Spending time in Afghanistan makes you wonder how the mainstream media has gotten it so wrong. Turns out, there are actually people living there (not just terrorists or victimized women) – and even more surprising, they are happy to meet Americans (not to say they agree with U.S. foreign policy). Afghans have a warm sense of humor and like to joke and laugh a lot (unless they are taking a photo, at which point they instantly become very serious – even if they want you to take the photo).

But there is a glut of foreign development agencies, and the division between Afghan and foreigner is growing. The NGO workers, UN staff, and private contractors travel around in the back of their SUVs, set apart from their drivers and co-workers, moving from secure compound to barbed-wire guest house with little exposure to real Afghans or their lives. Aid agencies send out lists of “security approved” restaurants, but the list is divided: there are those restaurants open to all – and those open only to “non-Afghans” (not because they are dangerous, but because they illegally serve alcohol).

• SEE: Old Kabul marketplace
• AVOID: Taliban

7. India

India is an explosion of life. It may not be “Western” by traditional measures, but India has an individuality and pride that meshes well with American character. People are free to do and think what they want, and that includes visitors and foreigners.

India has Japan’s sense of community without the Japanese conformity. People live, eat, work, and play together. Everyone has the freedom to live how they think best fit. If you want to sell somosas on the sidewalk, go ahead – no one will stop you. Want to light firecrackers at midnight for a wedding? By all means, enjoy. Want to butcher a goat for Eid in the apartment stairwell? Feel free. Need to dispose of bodily fluids in public? Go right ahead. Care to gawk at someone’s personal business? Join the crowd.

India has its share of problems – endemic poverty, a horrible public education system, corrupt government and police, a stupefying bureaucracy – but they also have more than one billion innovative and entrepreneurial people that are figuring out solutions. Everything in India is compounded by scale, so it will take some time. But in the meanwhile, enjoy the chaos. It’s human nature.

• SEE: Singalila National Park in the Himalayas
• AVOID: Mumbai trains at rush hour

8. Uganda

Far and away, the friendliest, most comfortable place I’ve ever been. I felt like I was insulting someone if I just asked for directions – I needed to first say hello, inquire about their day, offer an opinion about the weather, my trip, etc., before actually asking a question. And the best part is that (just about) everyone speaks English.

Kampala, perched at about 4,000 feet in elevation next to Lake Victoria, has a pleasant climate (well, compared to Mumbai). The pterodactyl-sized storks of Kampala that perched in the trees were a little intimidating, but I now see where we got the “stork brings the baby” fairy tale.

Outside of Kampala are all the wonders we hear about Africa when growing up: lions, elephants, hippos, chimpanzees; verdant plains and thick jungle; small towns with tasty banana- and sweet potato-infused snacks. Uganda is the hidden gem of East Africa.

• SEE: Kampala
• AVOID: crazy matatu drivers

9. Rwanda

Rwanda is about as serene as one could imagine. There are people everywhere, walking the roads, collecting wood, hauling goods, but everything feels relaxed. Not knowing French posed a bit of a problem, but it all works out in the end. The high elevation makes for a perfect climate, and restaurants serve tasty fried chicken and French fries for a decent price (though you may wait a while). Sitting on the upstairs porch of one small diner in Kigali, after waiting at least an hour for our food to show up, the waiter brought over a liter of beer – on the house – for making us wait. That is the ONLY time I’ve ever been given beer as a token of apology. Fantastic.

However, I could do without the abundance of western “soft rock” everywhere. Where is the traditional African music? There was too much no-talent, easy-listening rock imported from the West that seemed more apt for Utah than Rwanda.

Kigali itself is strange – the influx of NGO, UN, and aid workers since the 1994 genocide affect the atmosphere. There is a tendency of the elite in Kigali to assume that because life is good or improving for them, that it’s the same all over. But most of Rwanda is rural, poor, and living off of eroding land on steep hillsides. The government might be leaving rural Rwandans behind as it tries to turn Kigali into Africa’s IT hub. Part of the problem is everyone is a bit too quick to blame only “ethnic” or “tribal” tensions for the 1994 genocide, ignoring the role of economics and land use issues.

• SEE: National Museum in Butare
• AVOID: music

10. Kenya

Hell’s Gate National Park is a unique experience. You can rent a bicycle and venture into the large canyon on a dirt road. Soon you find yourself just yards from zebras, warthogs, giraffes, various kinds of antelope, buffalo, and baboons. The abundance of wildlife is unbelievable, and being so close to it – and not trapped in a motorized vehicle – adds to the aura of being one with nature.

Nairobi is a bustling metropolis, with good pubs (and lots of soccer fans). And the obsession with Obama will get a shout-out from many passers-by who suspect you may be an American.

• SEE: Hell’s Gate National Park on a bicycle
• AVOID: eating lunch in front of a baboon

All these countries had something in common: none were as dangerous, scary, or as full of disease as sometimes advertised in the West. There wasn’t a sea of pickpockets, con-artists, thieves, terrorists or boogeymen that the U.S. State Department likes to warn travelers about. Americans weren’t unwanted or hated as the right-wing xenophobes claim. In essence, there wasn’t the fear that we imagine exists outside of our comfy borders.

Internationalism requires contact with others – to explore and experience the unknown, the different, the potentially strange. Globalization is bringing the world closer, and that requires us to step out of our comfort range, to visit places other than Western Europe, to see and interact with people that don’t look like us, but with whom we share more than we think.

Tags: United Arab Emirates, India, Kenya, Rwanda, international

The “dumbing down” of the United States seems to be accelerating.

It’s not just the whacko Tea Party folks that have taken Rush Limbaugh’s calls to “wipe them (Democrats/Liberals) out” seriously and think it’s a call to arms (or, perhaps listening to Sarah Palin who said “Don’t retreat – reload”). Because despite the news media’s best attempts, members of the Tea Party hate group are a minority.

I’m referring more to the Attention-Deficit Disorder society that influences culture, media, and markets. A society of instant gratification, entertainment, and peer-driven intellect that has forgotten how to communicate or even think critically. A society now primarily influenced by my generation – Generation X.

Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain – an icon of Generation X – saw it coming.

In 1991, “Smells Like Teen Spirit” was released. Nearly 20 years later, Cobain’s insight and reflections on Generation X is proving prophetic. Because now us teenagers of the early 1990s are well into our thirties. Collectively, we have real jobs, real income, and real influence. And American markets, media and culture are reflecting the same values and emotions Cobain screamed about in 1991.

…Here we are now entertain us…

Perhaps it started with the Gulf War. CNN turned state-sponsored mass murder into a sanitized form of entertainment with their missile-mounted cameras and computer-generated graphics. With careful editing, reporting, and censorship, we detached ourselves enough to remove the victims from the equation, and were enraptured by the visuals, because, after all, it was still “reality” TV.

And Generation X was front row. Addicted to television, the media fed our thirst for “real” entertainment. “The Real World” hit MTV, providing an inside experience of someone else’s reality – just detached enough to ignore the consequences, but personal enough to make us feel we were a part of it. We started turning the “ordinary” into the “celebrity.” Gossip magazines have always been around, but now they began to run headlines on “real” people. “Survivor” followed, Jerry Springer and his domestic-violence dramas, various millionaires searching for a wife on public airwaves, karaoke contests, plastic surgery makeovers, etc.

Entertainment needed to be instant. There was no longer time for writing, plot, acting. All media needed to turn the ordinary into the extraordinary was a camera. And Generation X began to believe that everything should be entertainment, regardless of substance. We all wanted our 15 minutes. We all wanted our names in the headlines.

So Facebook and the rest of the social networks complied. No longer would we have to actually communicate directly with friends. We didn’t even have to treat them as friends anymore – they became our own “fans” that surely wanted to know every insignificant detail of our lives. And what better way to make ourselves into celebrities than with our own headlines? It made us feel good to see ourselves referred to in third person, just like the cover of the gossip magazines.

“Tyler Jones went on a date last night!” our Facebook homepage announces to our circle of “fans.”
“Emily Smith just beat Tom in a game of Scrabble”
“Evan Parker is working on his car in his garage”
“Jenny Andrews just saw Avatar and was blown away”

Since 1991, when Nirvana made its big splash, the primary communication method for Generation X shifted from the telephone, to e-mail, to Facebook, and now to Twitter. Intimate, personal conversations with friends over the phone were replaced with e-mail, which was the first to give us the ability to Xerox our thoughts and distribute them en masse. But typing took too long, and didn’t feed our obsession with celebrity. Facebook enabled us to “mass communicate” – while at the same time eliminating personal relationships. And now Twitter – because we no longer even have the patience to type more than 140 letters.

Or is it that with no personal relationships and minds turned to slush from an overload of “reality” entertainment, we no longer have anything worth saying?

At what point will someone create a machine with 10 buttons that emit different grunts? Because, really, why even talk anymore? Just give me a machine with 10 internationally-recognized grunts.

…I feel stupid and contagious…

Does the “I feel stupid” part really need any explanation? With the influx of entertainment and disappearance of communication, debate, and thought, how can we feel anything but stupid?

But worse is that this stupidity is contagious. Since we can’t think for ourselves anymore, we rely on opinions of others. Why research the important issues of our day on your own if Rush Limbaugh or Keith Olbermann or Glenn Beck or Michael Moore can tell you what to think? (And they do it so entertainingly!)

Mainstream media news networks don’t even pretend to give you facts anymore. They are more interested in reporting the “latest results of our NBC/Wall Street Journal poll” because we need to know what the majority of others think – so we can adjust our own “opinion” accordingly. It’s peer pressure on steroids. Or some perverted form of democracy.

…I’m worse at what I do best
And for this gift I feel blessed…

The comparative adjective “worse” is significant. Despite opinions to the contrary, Generation X are hard workers. Too focused on profit and money – perhaps – but still hard working. We grew up during the Cold War, when our schools and culture were permeated with ideas about “pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps,” and myths that individual effort would be rewarded.

But we aren’t being compensated for our hard work. We are the first generation of Americans to make less than our parents. We work long hours and are better educated – yet the payoff isn’t there.

In spite of this, we are told by our politicians that we should be happy with our lives. Our “voluntary” military is fighting two wars overseas to keep us safe from the so-called “war on terror.” We are part of an “ownership society” (well, we were…I guess now it’s a foreclosure society). We are instructed to feel blessed for the privilege of US citizenship, the ability to compete in a capitalist economy for jobs that don’t keep up with cost of living, and (now) being fined if we can’t afford expensive, private health insurance.

…Our little group has always been
And always will until the end…

So Generation X has grown up. We are still a distinct section of our population, but we are now the dominant group. The Baby Boomers are retiring, and the Greatest Generation is passing on. American culture, media, and markets now reflect Generation X more than any other group – for better or worse.

What will we be remembered for? The Greatest Generation stopped Hitler and the Nazis, and rebuilt Europe and East Asia. The Baby Boomers built modern America, enacted civil rights, and saved our country from environmental destruction in the 70s.

Is Generation X destined to leave a legacy of only 140 characters?

Tags: social networking, tea party, Generation X, glenn beck, media