AFRICA

Radesh, one of my housemates and Anna’s boyfriend, says that there are supposed to be 40,000 cases of cholera in Zimbabwe. The number has increased since I left. Have you heard of the group Physicians for Human Rights? Go check them out. They are saying that the cholera epidemic is so bad that action should be taken with the International Criminal Court.

Ghana just had its run-off election in December while I was gone. The incumbent New Patriotic Party offered candidate Nana Akufo-Addo who beat the National Democratic Congress (NDC) party candidate John Atta Mills by a small enough margin that the rules required a run-off. In the runoff, Mills won 50.2% of the vote compared to Akufo-Addo’s 49.8%. Wow! That’s close. It’s supposed to be the smallest margin of victory in Africa’s (the continent’s) electoral history. Asia and Africa have shorter electoral histories than the Americas and Europe but that’s still something. It seems they have developed a two-party-dominant political system there which is reminiscent of the States.

Many were watching Ghana with hopes of showing that Africa can have a peaceful election compared to Kenya or Zimbabwe or even strife in Nigeria a bit ago (not as bad). But Akufo-Addo admitted defeat quickly after the election results were announced, and the current president Kufuor (of the NDC) also conceded for his party. So though there were some reports of intimidation and attacks at the voting polls (and the police had to use a water hose to tame a brawl), there were less reports during the run-off as such. And international observers were happy with the decision. This is good news.

In all honesty, I was never worried about Ghana erupting in violence. They have had democratic rule since 1992 and have been doing a good job. They also discovered offshore oil in 2007 which some worry will lead to the type of corruption in Nigeria. I doubt it though as Nigeria had oil before it ever had democratic rule (correct me if I’m wrong). But Ghana’s oil discovery and resulting revenues came under democratic rule. It’s a different story.

Ethiopia’s started the withdrawal of its 3,000 troops from Somalia. They’ve been there for about 2 years with the U.S. encouragement. Somalia’s president Abdullahi Yusuf resigned on the 29th of December, so now the country is led by an interim government. There will be a – correction – there are talks of a new presidential election within weeks. But we will see how fast that can be done. People hope a new deal between the moderate Islamists and the interim government can be achieved now that Yusuf, who many thought promoted or supported warlordism. I wonder about the fanatical or extreme Islamists. I feel like these are the people that should be brought into any peace deal negotiations.

The 1600 Ugandan and 1300 Burundian peacekeeping troops will pull out as well unless they are reinforced by other promised AU troops (Nigeria, Malawi, and Ghana who have not yet honored their pledge of troops). Can I say that I am SO proud of Uganda and Burundi. They are not really in the best position as countries; they each have their own set of problems and both have dealt with Hutu-Tutsi problems/relations. And even in their state with no outside support from the UN militarily or the “West” they are taking initiative or at least taking action in their region to help promote peace and send troops (not that sending troops will work; we need something more lasting). That is so amazing to me. If you get the chance read up on Burundi’s history or Uganda’s. The U.S., India, China, and Europe have all decided against military intervention inside Somalia.

So that leaves the scary possibility that with Ethiopia gone, there is a winner-takes-all situation, a “power vacuum” as the Economist calls it. Who will gain control? Who will the radical Islamists side with? The radicals (like the Shabab organization) or with the warlords and transition government? It’s anyone’s guess. There are many independent groups from rival clan elders who are loyal to warlords, moderate Islamists, radical Islamists, private security groups, gunmen up for hire, etc. It’s a sad situation. And it is one we will keep watching and pursuing a solution.

GLOBAL ISSUES

I think I have written before on the seven different biological events that cause aging or, rather, are aging itself. These range from the mutation of DNA to the increase of what we call free radicals (ask later) in the body. Some of the things that slow the aging process actually address some of them. Nothing out there today deals with all seven. However, if I could somehow slow it down to live to the end of this century (to around 2100) I am not sure I would want to be here.

The future scares me a bit. By that time we will have probably reached our peak global population at around 9 or 10 billion ( according to World Bank VP for Europe J. Rischard who also predicts a population of 8 billion by 2025 which implies a slowing of the growth rate towards the maximum population which makes sense). I can begin to imagine the water wars predicted by some novelists and columnists. Though I’m not sure there will actually be war over water, I do foresee skirmishes and small disputes (I’m not sure about a world war over water). You never know.

With Obama’s inauguration looming, many are saying he has a tough position. Reporters and commentators say that he has inherited a tough situation. So I wanted to look over what are the challenges facing Obama, the U.S., and the world in general. Specifically what are the global challenges? Though they may not be domestic challenges only, they are automatically domestic challenges to the U.S. whether or not it realizes that its fate and destiny is inextricably bound to that of the world.

A group of economists led by Bjorn Lomborg (a Danish economist) came together to form the Copenhagen Consensus they performed a cost-benefit analysis to prioritize the potential solutions to the world’s problems. Remember that for this list, if something is ranked low, it doesn’t mean it’s not important. It just means the potential solutions (currently out there) have less of an impact to reduce the impact of the problem than solutions to problems with better rankings. Does that make sense? Here it is.

http://copenhagenconsensus.org/

1. Hunger and malnutrition
2. Climate change
3. Conflicts
4. Financial instability
5. Water and sanitation
6. Subsidies and trade barriers
7. Population/migration
8. Communicable diseases
9. Education
10. Governance and corruption

You’ve seen the Millennium Development Goals before as we have talked about them. These 8 problems that the UN member nations pledged to address by 2015 seem to have the better of us. As of today we are behind on those goals. I won’t list the specific benchmarks they wanted to reach in reducing the problems, but here are the 8 areas to compare to your list of top 5.

1. Eradicate poverty and extreme hunger
2. Achieve universal primary education
3. Promote gender equality and empower women
4. Reduce child mortality
5. Improve maternal health
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
7. Ensure environmental sustainability
8. Develop a global partnership for development

The MDG’s led to
One Campaign http://www.one.org/
Data http://www.data.org/
Micah Challenge http://micahchallenge.org/


J. Rischard (mentioned earlier) made his own list under 3 categories.

6 Ecological Problems—Sharing Our Planet—global warming, biodiversity and ecosystem losses, fisheries depletion, deforestation, water deficits, maritime safety and pollution

6 Humanitarian Problems—increasing fight against poverty, peace-keeping (including conflict prevention and combating terrorism), making education for all, eliminating global infectious diseases, reducing digital divide, preventing/mitigating natural disasters

6 Regulatory Problems—reinventing taxation; creating rules for biotechnology; updating global financial architecture; stopping spread of illegal drugs; improving rules for trade, investment, and competition; creating protections for intellectual property rights; developing rules for e-commerce; improving regulations for international labor/migration

Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback church in California and author of best-selling book “The Purpose-Driven Life” created the five-point PEACE plan (PEACE is an acrostic from the bold words)

1. Spiritual emptiness to be solved by Planting churches to proclaim the Christian gospel (8)
2. Selfish, lazy, ineffective, corrupt leadership which is solved by Equipping servant leaders (8)
3. Poverty addressed by Assisting the poor through various humanitarian aid (1)
4. Diseases addressed by Caring for the sick (4,5,6)
5. Ignorance addressed by Education the next generation (2,3,7)

This information comes from McLaren’s book “Everything Must Change” so I’m following his number system as well. The numbers in parenthesis show the connection to which MDG it corresponds to. Do you start to see the connection between all the lists? One more.

The United Nations University (research arm of the UN) made another list of, this time, 15 global challenges which they phrased in the form of questions to the world.
How can. . .

1. sustainable development be achieved for all?
2. everyone have sufficient clean water without conflict?
3. population growth and resources be brought into balance?
4. genuine democracy emerge from authoritarian regimes?
5. policymaking be made more sensitive to global long-term perspectives?
6. the global convergence of information and communications technologies work for everyone?
7. ethical market economies be encouraged to help reduce the gap between rich and poor?
8. the threat of new and reemerging diseases and immune micro-organisms be reduced?
9. we improve our capacity to decide as the nature of work and institutions change?
10. shared values and new security strategies reduce ethnic conflicts, terrorism, and the use of weapons of mass destruction?
11. the changing status of women help improve the human condition?
12. transnational organized crime networks be stopped from becoming more powerful and sophisticated global enterprises?
13. growing energy demands be met safely and efficiently?
14. scientific and technological breakthroughs be accelerated to improve the human condition?
15. ethical considerations become more routinely incorporated into global decisions?


Whew! Lots of problems. The question is what are you doing about it? Sometimes we view life as having a grander story for some a bigger part to play for a select few, and I definitely see that as true in earlier history. But there’s something different today. Today, it seems to me that we all have that grandeur within us (I’ll get more into this in a future update). I’ve been pondering lately how bad or good it would be if everyone (or almost everyone) just focused on these problems. Is that bad? I know it sounds bad. And I know we need people to do some basic things like producing food, shelter, clothing, good schools. But we have a lot of frivolous work in the world it seems. And I wonder if, say instead of pouring so much mental energy and time and money into things like campaigns, what would happen if more people joined in the essential fight for pursuit of life in its full measure for all peoples. I don’t think it’s that the few people who work for such things are the “chosen” ones. I think they are just the ones who understand its importance. No, “understand” is the wrong word. Realize is better. If we all did, maybe some work wouldn’t be as pressing or cogent. Perhaps what I say is nonsense. But I’m just thinking. It does seem, though, that because it is not recognized as pressing by a large portion of the able population, then the few who does realize must do the work otherwise, who will go? Who will serve? Who will act? Who will defend? Who will love?

I’m still trying to understand it in my head, but it’s the general problem of the doer and the funder. General thinking says we need person A, the one who goes out into the field into developing countries or in the streets/inner cities/rural areas of developed countries and works on infectious diseases and public health, primary education for everyone, peace and conflict resolution, ending hunger, etc. And then you need person B, the person who doesn’t work on any of that directly but gives money to person A to do person A’s work.

So if you remember, I’ve been criticized and asked “Who does more? You or Oprah?” To which I stumble and murmur and finally say “Oprah.” Then the response is “See. You should get a high paying job and then you can choose one child and fund that child’s education.” What does one say to that? Fund a child or teach hundreds of children? Who has more impact?

But it seems like if we all were doers we wouldn’t need funders. We all know there is enough money and enough food in the world that with proper redistribution none should go hungry while we transition people into healthy work and jobs and build the economies of regions around the world. But the political will to do it is absent. I always say we would not need such huge NGO organizations if everyone did a small part and took care of the poverty or homelessness on their street (granted, some of us live far away from that).

Do you remember one of my two crime stories in South Africa? Let me recant. There were homeless-looking people on the corner of my neighborhood that I would pass each day. They were on my heart. And I thought to myself and prayed “Lord, what can I do to help them in a lasting way. They’re here in my neighborhood. They’re my neighbors. What can I do?” Then one day someone broke into my house and attempted to rob us but flew the scene before taking things. The place was a mess and a few things broken. Well, one of the homeless people on the street gets food from our neighbor and gives information. He tells the neighbor who did it. Guess who? One of the guys I had been praying about to find a lasting way to help. Do you see the irony? I wanted to help these people in a lasting way. But before I could do that (or to them, since I was not doing that) my house was robbed. And I was robbed of stuff that I would have gladly given to him if he had asked—shoes, clothes, food, etc. I would have given it. But it gave me first-hand experience with the understanding that most crime is a symptom of need. In South Africa, with the 80% of the population (conservative upper estimate maybe) in dire need, the situation is drastically skewed more so than in any other country I have lived or visited. If our community had something to help provide for its people perhaps many of us would not have been robbed.

DUMB CRIMINALS

Speaking of crime, the guy who attempted to rob my place (remember he got away with nothing when my neighbors saw him trying to drag my oversized luggage stuffed with goodies he found in the house; he ran and left it all including his medical insurance card, wallet, cell phone, and ID [and clothes]) was reached in person. Earlier before I left they went to his house but he was on the run. But an article was printed on him in The Voice (a small publication that looks tabloid-like). The title was “The Most Stupid Criminals.”
And he keeps getting out on bail and being sent to rehab and then leaving rehab and being sent back to jail and then out on bail and then back to rehab, etc. His court date was set for the 20th of January the inauguration of Obama. We’ll see what happens!

INSPIRATION

I just wanted to share two websites, though there are tons of inspirational stories everywhere. The second one is of a shoe-shiner.

http://www.iamsecond.com

http://www.worldvision.org/news.nsf/news/shoeshine-clean-water-200901?Open&campaign=12653847&cmp=EMC-12653847&ppi=52780986&wvport=sg&wvsrc=enews

The last thing I wanted to say in thinking about the concept of misconceptions (earlier in update and in last update) and living the best life you can is this. I remember the conversation with the family friend who was talking to me about trying to life a frugal life, a life her daughter had chose. And I also think about people who use such things against you: “You want to help people, do you? You want to help people, huh? Well here is the BEST way to help people. . .”

The problem with that is that I don’t think I ever actual think like that. I don’t think I am going to try and lead a frugal lifestyle or I am going to try and help people. Those types of things (if I ever do them, and I don’t do them all the time) our actual outpourings or natural outcomes of something else. Helping people natural comes from my faith, or my relationship, rather, with God in Christ. I am not trying to help people. I am definitely not trying to live a frugal lifestyle. I just don’t ever think about buying clothes (which my family makes fun of me a lot for and we have GOOD times laughing about it [honestly]). I don’t think I’m frugal (in many ways I'm quite extravagant when it is something I care about). Maybe I am; I don’t know. I don’t think I am intentional about helping people. Maybe I am, but that’s not my aim or goal. It does happen though because I think Christ was like that. So I get into these weird trouble-conservations where that is used against me because people ask me to analyze myself. And it never seems to work for me to go back after the fact and try to figure out why I did something. Sometimes you can, but many times you actually put motivations and thoughts there were never there when you did; it’s possible to overanalyze.

Rather helping people or being frugal or whatever else people say about me or similar people is a result. And we’ll discuss the cause next time.

ARTS

Movies

Eagle Eye
I’m glad someone saw from his original Disney show that Shia could act. He can, and it’s good to see him move on to movies. He has a good career in front of him. This is a general action movie a bit out of the future, a little sci-fi, but good.

The Duchess
Keira did a good job. It reminds me of course of The Other Boleyn Girl, another true story that is good enough to make into a movie with some artistic guesses and embellishments of course.


The Lakeview Terrace
Samuel Jackson is funny to me because there was one year where he had the title of most movies in that year than any other actor. He is indiscriminate in his choice of movies. It really seems like he’ll make just about any movie you pitch to him as long as he’s not filming one at the same time. This one had an interesting story line though, and I recognized Kerry Washington as one-half of an interracial couple that moves into their first house next door to a Black cop whose wife was killed in a car accident possibly riding with a white man (possible affair? Who knows?).

Hancock
Woah! No one told me it was a superhero movie. I kept waiting for Will Smith to wake up from his dream. No joke. I also kept saying the whole time that that woman looked like Charlize Theron. You wouldn’t believe my surprise when I found it was her during the credits. There was something about her that looked completely different.

Traitor
I fell asleep. But I think it’s good. Don Cheadle is in it (someone just said I reminded her of him), so perhaps I fell asleep because it was late and not because Don was in it. He’s a good actor.

Books

I read two interesting books recently. Have you read them?
“A New Earth” and “Eat Pray Love” They were both so interesting I thought I would muse aloud. Though “A New Earth” was an Oprah Book Club book and the author of “Eat Pray Love” was on her show, I did not choose them because Oprah said they were good. I have never read any of the books she has recommended (well I don’t know what’s on her list). Someone gave me both books. And to be honest, I receive books every year and am never able to finish all the books given me. But I look forward to that day, still, when I have finished every book given me and can begin to read books for fun. Imagine that! Luckily I couldn’t take everything to South Africa and I had to leave an African-American fiction anthology (huge book), a biography of a U.S. general of whom I had no prior knowledge (huger book), and part of a book (the rest was torn away, thanks Elisa) by a theologian. I think those are the last 3, but they are not here so they don’t count. Here in South Africa. I have only 2 left to read. And yes, you guessed it, one of those was also from Elisa. Elisa gave me probably 4 books last year to read, and I love her more and more each day for it.

The most interesting part about both of these books is that they are supposed to be New Agey. I didn’t know this of course when starting to read them, but I went to an open-air outdoor concert with some Christian people from my church (redundant or not?) and someone commented on me reading those books. Anyway, I find it interesting whenever people join a group or religion and take on its name/label and decide to believe something other than its foundational beliefs or doctrine. I am ok with people believing what they choose. They have free will. But why call it by the name of a set of beliefs and then believe something else. It gets confusing. That’s why I found it interesting that Elizabeth Gilbert (the author of Eat Pray Love) says in the book that she is not a Christian because she does not believe that Jesus is the only way (a common stumbling point/block for many on the faith journey towards God or the Christian God). I respected that statement. At the same time, my understanding of this faith game has changed as I have learned more and these days I just feel it’s all about the relationship with Christ which she seems to have no matter how correct her theology is. So I imagine that it’s possible for someone to have a relationship with Christ-God and not believe something that Christ said (that he is the only way) or reinterpret it differently. In that way, she might label herself as a Christian. But I just respected that, according to a traditional view and a traditional orthodoxy with its fundamental or foundational beliefs, she refuses to label herself a Christian. Interesting.


Eat Pray Love
This was an interesting book. After a divorce and a break up from her post-marriage boyfriend, a woman/writer travels for one year pursuing pleasure (Eat, not sexual intercourse) in Italy, pursuing God (Pray) in India (studying meditation at an Ashram), and then pursuing balance (Love) in Indonesia. My favorite part was the pray part because there was growth from the start of the book through the end of the pray section. She really “came into her own” if you know the expression. An Italian woman I met said Italy would have been better had she been in a better place in Italy. And I agree, but she grew into India. And it was wonderful. Indonesia wasn’t as good or definitely had a drop I think. Granted, she and I have different values, and that’s fine. There are still lots of truth in her book. But I didn’t like her equating intercourse with a man to a relationship. In that case, all my relationships are negated and were non-existent. I think she had something with him without intercourse. I would also have loved to see her keep her vow throughout the entire year.


A New Earth
I thought this book was interesting because even though it was New Agey, there were parallels between that and Christianity. If he replaced the word consciousness by spirit (or the spirit realm) and the universal intelligence by God, it would be saying the same thing. The only problem is that he elevated the spiritual dimension above the physical one which is also characteristic of traditional Christianity. These days (especially with emergent views) even with traditional Protestant denominations people are more understanding that the physicality and our bodies are important to God as well and that we will have bodies in the New Heaven and the New Earth. It took awhile but the author brought us back to the dual importance of both the physical and the spiritual in the end. First he had to break of us identifying with the physical world, our bodies, beauty, materialism before properly setting us in it. I thought it interesting how he interpreting a lot of Jesus’s sayings and Biblical verses in completely different ways than I have ever heard. Some made me laugh. He thinks all religions may be similar. I think many are similar but some are very dissimilar (like Christianity). But he has a point when you look at the mystics of each religion. Christian mystics, Sufis in Islam (like whirling dervishes), Kabala in Judaism, etc. Those seem somewhat similar as they are focused on experiencing God over orthodoxy and theology.

Joy,
Victor

PS Off to the job market!

UPDATE - DECEMBER 14, 2008

Well, I don’t remember all I wrote in the actual update, but I’m home now. And it’s always funny to be back here. The house is different since Hurricane Ike as there is a lot of hardwood floors and large, ceramic tile for the kitchen floor. In winter without heated floors you want to make sure you still wear shoes or socks (before, I started the practice of taking off shoes at the door for the carpets sake or to say you were standing on holy ground; I’m not sure which).

I’m just trying to get adjusted to being here for the moment. My biggest project is job applications for the next step. We’ll see what that is and what it may be. I’m looking at anything and everything. I’m not narrowing too much in the initial casting of the net. I’ll choose from which fish are caught. So we shall see. I finish here somewhere between July 1 and September 1 depending on when the next job needs me to start and if I feel like renewing my visa again past July 1 to the actual 2 year date of September 1.

Other than that my family has me doing music at my father’s church and running some small Christmas program. I’m supposed to be working on that. So I haven’t gotten to do much of some of my smaller projects yet. I’m also trying to ease myself into seeing people. It can be overwhelming a bit when everyone wants to see you and you go from person to person to person. That’s why it was nice the last time I was here in February to have a dinner and whoever could come could come. And then I could try to see those who couldn’t separately.

Everyone is good. My sister got a promotion at the job she left. Jose-Miguel (biostatistician and con-artist) says that the best way to get a promotion at your current job is to leave and go somewhere else. This is exactly what happened. I don’t think she planned it but it’s a nice one. My brother is a recruiter for an educational institute (I think they give associates degrees). And my father is looking for work. My mom is doing volunteer work right now. So people are good and making. I still have Christmas shopping to do in the U.S. Wish me luck!

SOUTH AFRICA

I’ve been away for a bit but the biggest news I remember is still this new break-away party—The Congress of the People (COPE). The ANC is challenging COPE’s right to use that name. Meanwhile the COPE actually won more seats in by-elections last week than the ANC who, in my province of the Western Cape, failed to compete in 12 of the 27 contested seats. COPE won 10 and the Democratic Alliance (DA) won 9 of them. The ANC won only 3 of the 27. The interesting thing is that the ANC used to hold all of them. (pause, take that in for a moment)

So why it’s so interesting is that this is the thing I have told South Africans about when they ask me if their political situation will ever be different. I point to all other countries that have liberated themselves and I say one word: time. It seems like it is starting happen. What’s interesting is that this is not just any alternative; this is an actual black South African alternative. The DA is an alternative, but it is mostly a white liberal group. I believe the DA is happy about the formation of COPE as it weakens the ANC hold over politics and perhaps creates a political choice for Black South Africans who traditionally (though tradition is only since 1994) voted for the ANC, the liberation group. And if you actually make the Black South African voter think before choosing and sway some of them not to vote for the ANC, then it gives the DA a better chance of beating the ANC. I think the DA has not really wanted to join with COPE, though they could have done so and made a more powerful opposition group. I cannot tell you why, though.

The opposition groups here are still dominated by being against something instead of being for something. So I have no idea what the DA supports or believes. I say the same thing about COPE. And to be honest, I’ll say the same about the dominant party—the ANC. I mean I know who they are supposed to be for—the person on the street, in the rural areas, the worker, the domestic, the construction worker, the jobless. But things have not changed for them anyway. Perhaps some may say, “Let’s try something new. What have we got to lose? Nothing.” So we’ll see if this pans out. Right now, it still doesn’t seem likely that the COPE will truly contest a Zuma victory next year because I’m not certain of COPE’s appeal to people outside the Western Cape (50% coloureds) or the Eastern Cape (lots of Xhosas which Mbeki and Mandela are a part).

Many people welcome the addition of COPE to the political spectrum because it gives them a place in politics after losses at Polokwane (when Zuma won the ANC presidential race). Everyone is watching and waiting. Things do seem to be changing, but slowly. Remember, the only reason for these by-elections was due to people quitting the ANC or being kicked out by the ANC. So political differentiation has started.

In other news, we hosted the 2008 Miss World. I believe Miss Universe is more popular in the States. Here, and in many countries, Miss World is more popular. This year it’s being held in Johannesburg. I watched part of it when I came in to the States. This year Russia won with India (no surprise) and Trinidad and Tobago (no surprise) as runners-up.