Homeward Bound.

Tomorrow we are homeward bound for the holidays, or so we hope. Barring weather delays and grounded flights, we hope to board a plane and then another one and then another one to make it home in time for the holidays. Fingers crossed we experience a smooth journey. Afterall, it wouldn't be the holidays without Joannie's cookies to celebrate.

Via Chicago.

In my nostalgic dreams anyway...

Dream with me and Wilco here.

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Photo Credit: Andrei Sinioukov

Byeeee!

I just finished a pro-bono, year long contract with CARE International in Tanzania, and this was my parting gift.

Sing for Joy. Download for free here.

Ace of Spades?

I am feeling lucky today. Are you?

Driftwood.

 

I am asked almost every day by a number of people what our plans are, more specifically, when are you and Andrei planning to return to the United States? The reality is our plans will probably not entail an immediate return to the U.S., at least not as our next best course of action. It makes sense professionally for us to both continue to invest in time spent living and working in the field, where the more interesting work opportunities also happen to reside. A decision to stay in the field may provide us with a comparative advantage in this notoriously competitive field.

But this simple and logical explanation for our locational decisions, does not mean that I do not experience moments of doubt about the lack of formative plans on the near horizon, especially as my year long visa will be expiring in the next couple of weeks. In fact, I would be remiss to not admit that awaiting responses on career-related news and decisions that are not within our control, makes me feel wholly out of control.

In an attempt to gather personal clarity in the face of looming professional uncertainty, I found myself soulfully clinging to the words of this song today...I would like to be like driftwood, floating with the flow...being taken for a ride...

Paper Anniversary.

Andrei and I just celebrated our one year anniversary on September 11th. And what a year it has been. In commemoration of our paper anniversary, I share this song.

Happy Listening.

Do You Rue?

The hugely anticipated Rue Magazine opens on line this week and it promises to be good. For those lacking patience, here is a sneak peak. 

So, do you rue?

Happy Fourth of July!

As I am reminded of all of the great American traditions around 4th of July celebrations, including fireworks, summertime bar bq foods, cold beers, beach trips, I feel happy that, perhaps minus the traditional fireworks, we will be able to recreate an equally spirited celebration of our own this weekend, despite the miles that separate us from the American shores. This weekend we are planning to sail to an uninhabited island off the coast of Dar es Salaam, where we will bar bq, swim, relax, and camp overnight.

We will sail away in Jammie Dodger, no, no, not the popular British biscuit, but rather our friends' zippy red sail boat with a fierce attitude. We managed to convince even the most tentative among our friends to join us in this adventure, despite the fact that there will be no sinks on the island for proper hand washing. Yes, that proved an almost insurmountable concern.

Barring that we survive to tell the tales of this adventure, I promise pictures next week. In the mean time, I have included some photos taken from our balcony of the sail boat parade that followed the opening of the regatta season for the Dar Yacht Club. Jammie Dodger is the boat with the loud, red spinnaker.

Happy 4th of July!

Service with a Smile.

As most of you know, we recently purchased a "new-to-us" car. It is old and is nothing spectacular. But we love it, if not for anything else, but the new found sense of freedom the car affords us. As I have described in a variety of posts, this is a very difficult city to transverse on foot, bike, or public transit (no matter how loosely defined and laughable that term may be in this setting), and being solely reliant on taxis or tuk tuk drivers, while offering an added layer of luxury and convenience, can be distressing given the need to bargain again and again and again for a fair price. 

 

While the car purchase mitigated a major source stress in our lives, it also opened a new fountain of stress. With the new car, we inherited a mess of paperwork, including registering and licensing the vehicle with the government, securing insurance for the vehicle, and securing proof we were capable drivers. As with most things in this country those tasks were quickly outsourced to a local who better knows how to navigate Tanzania's complicated, bureaucratic systems. A handful of shillings later, we received our vehicle license, registration, and insurance, as well as a drivers license for Andrei. Yes, we were even able to outsource the driving test (the various components of which he "passed" in a satisfactory manner). And with that we were free to hit the streets of Dar es Salaam behind the wheel of our new automobile.

Since that time we have had 4 chance encounters with Dar es Salaam police officials (ie: we are running an average of being pulled over twice per month). The perception that all wazungus (white people) are rich heightens chances of being "randomly" pulled over for a routine check shakedown exercise. Two of these instances have been less than noteworthy, two instances were so hilariously noteworthy that it motivated this blog entry. 

Basically when you are pulled over, the police are seeking to ensure that your car has all proper paperwork and documentation, and that you are prepared for an emergency in the form of two reflective emergency triangles and a fire extinguisher. Of course there is an associated charge with each of these infractions should anything be amiss. When all checks out, there is basically nothing more they can do, barring of course an actual traffic violation. The two times I have been pulled over, the officer ran through the list of necessary things noted above, and then sent me on my merry way. 

When Andrei was recently pulled over, the officer ran through this same list of essentials. Everything was in order, as with the first two police encounters. 

But this time, the officer demands, "Give me 10,000 Tsh." 

"But why?" Andrei asks. 

Her reply, "For my dinner tonight."

Stiffling his laughter, Andrei says, "Well, the problem officer is that I do not have 10,000 Tsh."

"5000 Tsh then." 

Andrei shakes his head no.

"3000 Tsh then."

Still shaking his head no, he says, "I don't have any money." 

She tells him to get out of there. 

You gotta appreciate the honesty and the unabashed attempt at corruption.

While these first three encounters have been largely shakedown attempts, the last run-in with a police officer was actually merited. We were driving through downtown at night, where the streets are poorly lit, there are no traffic signs, and there are directional rules that change depending on the hour of the day. It was no surprise then that we made a wrong turn. We were immediately alerted to our mistake when a very large police officer with an even larger gun steps in front of our car and motions for us to pull to the side.

Andrei muttered under his breathe, "Ok man with a super large gun, I will be pulling over wherever you indicate."

We came to a stop, rolled down the window, turned off the distracting music pumping out of our ipod (made possible through cassette player adapter). 

"Yes-sir," Andrei says.

Puffing his chest, the police officer asks, "Sir, do you know why I just pulled you over?"

"No, sir. Is everything ok?"

"You just committed a traffic violation. Do you see that turn back there? You were supposed to go this way around the turn, not this way."

"Ok, I am sorry, I did not realize that, but I see my mistake now."

"We can either deal with this at the police station, or we can help you out and you can pay us right here."

"So how much will it be?"

"Well since you have committed three violations, it will be 60,000 Tsh total."

"Three violations?!"

"Yes sir, one for making the wrong turn, and there are two of you."

"And the second and third violation?"

"Well you made the wrong turn, and then you ajfkshtiney, and then hgajain haianaina."

Scratching our heads, we are mulling over our best bargaining tactic, when suddenly a second police officer comes running over to our car, and says, "Let us do you a favor, you can pay us right here instead of us taking you down to the police station."

Andrei, "Ok we will let you do us a favor and pay you directly, but I do not have 60,000 Tsh."

Officer, "How much do you have?" 

Andrei relies on his system of haphazardly dividing his money among various pockets, and hopes that he has chosen the pocket containing the lesser amount of small change. Bingo, he opens a fistful of money to reveal that we in fact do not "have" 60,000 shillings. The officer suggests that will be sufficient. 

As we drive away, he requests, please do not tell anyone about this incident. Um, right. We still have no idea exactly how much we paid them, but what we do know is that the pocket with in excess of 100,000 Tsh was left perfectly in tact. And so it seems everyone wins.

Intoxicating Love.

I was moved to tears yesterday upon learning of the murder of a beautiful University of Virginia (UVA) senior, female lacrosse player. A greatly accomplished athlete and academic, she seemed to have nothing but a bright future ahead of her. Instead, she met her untimely death at the hands of a violent and angry ex-boyfriend. Also a UVA athlete and student, he is currently the leading suspect in her murder case and he has been charged with first degree murder. Perhaps this news emotionally moved me because it struck so close to home. Her murder took place in the building across the street where I lived as a 3rd year student at the University of Virginia.

Perhaps I was also emotionally drawn into this story given my most recent post, Valuing Life and Death, in which some of the very same questions I explored in that post seemed to resurface upon reading this tragic story. If he did in fact "murder" her, even if "accidentally," as claimed by his defense attorney, how could he have been so passionately caught up in the moment to essentially be delivering death blows to a girl he was once intimately involved with? How could his sense of right and wrong be so easily forsaken in the face of anger? Did he realize she was dead when he left the scene of the crime? Or did his conscious take over at a certain point and he got scared and fled the scene while she was still alive and she could have potentially been saved? What point was he trying to make anyway? How is this fair? Why did a bright young girl with a bright future ahead of her have to die so young? Likely most of the questions I pose here will never be answered. And even if "answered" in the courtroom, we will never know how far from the truth the story will grow to become.

My heart goes out to the family of this girl who now must grapple with some of these existential questions while grieving her loss. There is something wholly unnatural about a mother having to bury a child. But also, my heart goes out to this young boy and his family. His life will forever be changed. One passionate moment gone wrong (or right, depending on his motives) will be riddled with consequences that will chase him for the rest of his life, regardless of the outcome in the courtroom.

In cases like this, I think we tend to look for patterns, in part to create sense in this sometimes senseless world and to convince ourselves of our immunity to such tragedy. The media painted him as a young man with a temper, paying great attention to one alcohol-fueled episode of threats of violence against an arresting female police officer. In 2008, he is said to have verbally threatened this officer with a litany of racial, sexual, and other vulgar terms, saying among other things, "I'll kill you. I'll kill all of y'all. I'm not going to jail." Perhaps that act demonstrated a propensity towards violence, perhaps not. Attempts to create a telling pattern of this young man's inclination towards such untold violence (as surely the criminal prosecuters in this case will do) provide the security necessary to cope with this sometimes senseless world, but more importantly allow us to defend our own sense of judgement of character. I would certainly never fall victim to an angry, violent prone partner. Right? Hindsight is 20-20.

At the end of the day, perhaps it is not so clear what distinguishes those who are able to stay on the "right" side of the fine line between checked and unchecked anger or demonstrations of "machismo". We all know what it feels like to be angry and to feel an inclination towards violence, but what is it that keeps our emotions and anger in check? In her book,  It's Our Turn to Eat, Michela Wrong, provocatively suggests that perhaps deep down there is no distinction, we are all capable of such violence, "Evil lies dormant, like a smouldering ember, in the human soul, and it can be fanned into flame by the most ordinary human passions – the passion for power, for wealth, for a good life for myself and my family.”

In either case, I think that perhaps what is most surprising about this episode is that the victim here was an educated, empowered young woman, who presumably knew her rights, had a strong support network, and knew that she did not deserve to be threatened or beaten by her partner, while the suspect is an upwardly mobile, accomplished young boy with seemingly everything going for him. That is to say -- in the words of the Washington Post -- both were children of privilege from the lacrosse fields of affluent suburbia, on the verge of graduating from the public Ivy in Charlottesville. We may expect this of others, you know "those types", but certainly not of those hailing from a suburban white picket fence world about to be conferred degrees from one of America's most prestigious public universities.

Here in Tanzania, gender-based violence is a huge issue, one that takes many forms, including physical, sexual, psychological, and economic violence. Here, this problem disproportionately affects women over men, to the point that the term “gender-based violence” is often used interchangeably with the term “violence against women.” Gender norms and social and economic inequities that give privilege to men over women are the main causes for blame. Women have little influence over household decisions, in fact, women and girls often need permission from their husbands to even leave the home and to conduct work outside of domestic responsibilities. Also, educational and economic opportunities for women here pale in comparison to those of their male counterparts. For example, families in rural areas of very limited means often prioritize the education of sons over daughters, and daughters become work hands on the family farm or around the home. This leaves women with few financial resources to leave abusive situations and still provide for their families, heightening their vulnerability to forms of gender-based violence and domestic abuse.

However, despite its prevalence, gender-based violence continues to be a grotesquely underreported reality for women and girls in Tanzania. Because these practices are not openly talked about, treatment or support from authorities is rarely sought. Instead, violence is seen as an acceptable means of resolving family conflicts, or in other words, “punishing” or “educating” women for behaviors considered unacceptable. Many in Tanzania view rape as acceptable behavior for men and boys, including forced sex within marriage, which is not criminalized by the law and is not considered as rape by males. Rather wives are expected to provide sex to husbands, and both men and women here acknowledge that wives who refuse sex can expect to be beaten and/or raped.

Despite being a world away, in a wholly different cultural, economic, and empowered state, this UVA girl found herself subjected to the same violence many women here in Tanzania accept as their reality and fate. This is truly tragic.

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References:


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/04/AR2010050402215.html

Betron, Myra.  Gender-Based Violence in Tanzania: An Assessment of Policies, Services, and Promising Interventions. USAID: Health Policy Initiative. November 2008.

Measuring Wealth and Success.

According to the CIA World Fact Book, approximately 36% of the Tanzanian population is said to fall below the poverty line -- a statistic that is particularly striking given that per capita income in 2008 stood at $442 (and presumably has remained just as low in the subsequent years). With average annual income so low, it seems difficult to imagine the conditions for those who fall below this so called poverty "line". On the opposite end of the spectrum, wealth in Tanzania confers a great deal of status and respect. "Mzee" is a Kiswahili term of endearment, not only reserved for use when describing elders, but also very respected and dignified men, or those presumed to have great wealth. While there are a number of international organizations focused on measuring poverty, I have recently learned of some very interesting cultural measures of wealth. Below I share a few examples of both historical and present-day measures of wealth from around the world.

Within the Tanzanian Maasai tribes, the extent of a man's wealth is measured in terms of cattle and children. A herd of 50 cattle is respectable, and the more children the better. A man without plenty of either is considered to be "poor." Similarly, within most tribes in Tanzania, there continues to be a tradition of a dowry, or rather, the money, property, or goods a woman brings as a gift to her husband in marriage, where cattle are often used as the "currency" for negotiations between the families of the two promised to be married (the bride and groom do not take part in these negotiations).

When cattle do not apply, there are a variety of creative measures to assess one's wealth applied around the world. In polygamous cultures, the number of brides one can “afford” indicates wealth and status. Islamic law allows for up to four formal wives, provided the man can afford to support that number of wives and the number of children that may imply. In Zanzibar, under the rule of the Omani Arab Sultans, while it was unusual for a man to have more than one formal wife, there were no limits placed on the number of concubines and slaves a man could purchase and keep. Until 1911, it was the practice of the Sultan to maintain a harem of around 100 concubines and sleep with five concubines per night in strict order of rotation. The wealth of the Sultans allowed them to exercise this privilege and father many children. In Thailand, until the practice of polygamy was outlawed by King Rama VI, it was expected of monarchs to maintain a harem of women consisting of numerous “major” and “minor” wives, as well as the fruits of these relationships, aka children. Demonstrating their wealth, previous Kings created some truly prodigious families. Rama I had 42 children by 28 mothers; Rama II had 73 children by 40 mothers; Rama III had 51 children by 37 mothers, eventually accumulating a total of 242 wives and consorts, Rama IV had 82 children by 35 mothers, and Rama V had 77 children by 40 mothers.

In India, there is a great cultural value placed on gold as a measure of wealth. Gold is considered as a status symbol, signifying great wealth. For a bride, it is believed, wearing 24 karat gold on her wedding day, will render luck and happiness throughout the married life. In all Indian weddings the amount of gold the bride brings in shows her family’s status and wealth and forms part of the dowry that is given to the bride (quite distinct from most dowries in Tanzania which are given instead to the groom). Accordingly, gold is the bride’s “insurance,” as it can quickly be turned into cash for use if an emergency arises.

So how then are wealth and success measured in America? Perhaps the measure of one’s wealth and success centers around the staples of the American dream – a house? a car? a college education? 2.5 children? Maybe even, a diamond ring and other jewels? Perhaps at the end of the day, culturally relative perceptions of wealth and success render comparisons of wealth and success between here and there mute.

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References:

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2843.htm

Northern Tanzania with Kilimanjaro and Zanzibar by Phillip Briggs (2006), page 200. ISBN 1 84162 146 3

Footprint: Tanzania Handbook, 2nd edition

Lonely Planet: Bangkok City Guide

http://hubpages.com/hub/Significance-of-Gold-in-Indian-Culture-indians-reasons