Guerrillas in the Midst

Uganda, I am told, has more wild gorillas than the rest of the world combined.  I'm not going to see any of them.  I am going to the area in the northeast, around Mt. Elgon.  Mt. Elgon has the world's only known population of cave elephants.  I'm not going to see them either.   Historically Uganda has been home to a number of savage warlords, and fortunately, I'm also not likely to encounter any of them.

This is a country about the size of Oregon, and like Oregon it has many diverse regions beyond what usually comes to mind.  I'm going to be working with a group known as DCI, or Development Companions International.  This is a Christian organization, but most of their efforts have little to do with racking up more converts.  Christians are a substantially larger portion of the population in Uganda than in America.  DCI's efforts are more involved with that other stuff Jesus talked about - seems to me there was something in there about helping the poor.

And there is an interesting problem.  Uganda has gained some notoriety for laws against gays.  Though they've backed down somewhat, homosexual behavior remains criminal as it does in about half of Africa.  Several recent documentary films suggest that such attitudes are the result of American missionary groups, although I highly doubt it.  The laws have been on the books since the British occupation, and most people are quite capable of forming their own prejudices.  Technically, such acts still have a mandatory prison term in Virginia where I live, although the Supreme Court ruled enforcement of that law unconstitutional just ten years ago.

For my part, I tend to think that what somebody else does with their naughty bits really isn’t any of my business.  But there are those that argue working with a Christian group will lead to greater oppression by strengthening radical church groups and their agendas.  Some gay rights groups suggest spending any money in Uganda will only continue the oppression - what we need is a full scale embargo until they respect human rights.  Strangely, no one suggests cutting relations with Saudi Arabia or Afghanistan where the laws are much harsher.  I might mention that the Ugandan Parliament has a much higher percentage of women members than our own congress, but that's another issue.

A little less than a hundred years ago there was a similar argument between Winston Churchill and an American businessman named Herbert Hoover.  (This was several years before either man entered politics.)  The Soviet economy was failing. People were starving by the millions.  Churchill felt that the suffering and death were necessary to end the regime and to prevent the spread of Communism.  Hoover, a practicing Quaker, argued that it was our Christian duty to feed the hungry, clothe the poor and comfort the sick.  Politics could wait, the hungry could not.

Ultimately, the world listened to Hoover and America shipped huge quantities of food to Russia.  We don't know if the Soviet Union would have fallen sooner without the aid, but we do know that millions of people would have died almost immediately. Poster from PBS documentary on US Aid during Soviet Famine of 1921.

I’m afraid I have to side with Hoover on this one.  There are a lot of people in this world whose opinions I find deeply offensive.  I should do what I can to encourage respect and human rights. But my obligation as a human being comes first.  If I came upon a car accident and found someone bleeding to death I wouldn’t stop to ask his political affiliation.  We need to work to make a better world, but that starts by setting a good example.

You can also follow the story of my Africa quest on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/notes/jerry-griffith/guerrillas-in-the-midst/10151728064588603

Solving for Variable Why

One of the more difficult questions people have been asking me lately is, "Why the heck are you going to Africa?" Actually with my friends it's usually not heck.” 

The short answer is that I'm going to be creating a series of informational end educational videos on development efforts in the area around Mt. Elgon in Eastern Uganda. That's interesting and honest, but it doesn't really answer the question.  I told you what I expect to be doing, not why. 

 Mt. Elgon, Uganda (left) is officially two feet shorter than California's Mt. Shasta near where I grew up.  Maybe I should stack up a couple of rocks. 

 When there's a major disaster in the developing world the devastation can be immense.  Sometimes tens of thousands of people lose their homes, their livelihoods and even their lives.  When stories of these tragedies reach the industrialized world many people open their wallets and that's wonderful, but it really only helps with the immediate problem.  The lack of education, jobs and many aspects of a functioning society are still missing.  People will be hurt just as badly when the next disaster comes along.  It is only by creating a functioning infrastructure and economy that a stable self reliant society can emerge. The videos I will be creating our going to help with projects involving healthcare, literacy and community leadership. 

So that's why it's important for me to go.  It still doesn't explain why I'm going.

I read an article recently about college entrance essays.  One of the papers evaluators dread is what they call, The Missionary Story.  They’re all about the same: they start with a young person going to some faraway place to work on a special project like building a school.  They tell a couple of stories and then end with some variation on the phrase, "I went to Gwandonaland thinking I could change things for the people there, but the one who ended up changing the most was me."

A little gaggy, but reasonably honest.  Traveling to places you've never been, meeting different people and doing something to help will certainly change the perspective of a young person.  Adventures and new experiences are what build memories.  But I’m not a young person, and my perspectives are fairly set.

Reasons aren't always easy to see even in ourselves.  The other day at the airport I stopped to help an old woman who was struggling with some large suitcases.  It seemed like the obvious thing to do, but I can’t really tell you if I did it because I was concerned about the wellbeing of a person I will never see again, because other people were watching, or just because I wanted to feel self righteously better than all the people who were just standing there.

From her perspective it didn’t make any difference why I helped her, she just needed a hand.  I suppose I could have walked up to her and said: "Madam I can see you are having a lot of difficulty with those bags.  I want you to know I sympathize with you in your pain, and I would be glad to help you, but I'm afraid I'd only be doing it to appease my own self righteous ego.  So rather than interfere for my own benefit I think it more honest to stand here and watch you struggle."

Probably the greatest fear for anyone who works in the arts is not being exploited or even the harsh financial challenges, it’s being irrelevant.  Making a series of web videos may not be the most creatively satisfying venture and certainly won’t be remunerative, but if they might help improve the situation of hundreds of people that means I’m relevant.

So, why am I going?  Because I want to.  Maybe I’m having a midlife crisis and this is cheaper than a Porsche.  Whatever personal justifications may be going on inside my head don’t really make any difference.  It's enough that the good gets done.  Oh, and there's also going to be a total solar eclipse I want to see.

Your Beast of Burden

It seems odd to me that in this modern world one of the main methods for transporting goods to the developing world is carry-on luggage.

"Ah, you're going to Uganda, here are 50 pairs of eyeglasses we need you to take with you."

Please note that the preceding sentence  doesn't start with, "Do you have room?" or even "How much do you think you can carry?"  Instead it's simpy, "Here are some eyeglasses.  Oh, and I need you to bring along a couple of laptop computers too."

"Well I'm only allowed two checked bags . . ."

"Oh, don't be silly, you can't put electronic items in your checked luggage, the customs agents will steal them.  And can you imagine what would happen to the eyeglasses in the baggage compartment?  You can just put them in your carry-on."

Somehow omitted in this discussion is the $9,000 worth of video gear I'm already planning on taking. But since I work for an airline I do have a pretty good idea of what would happen to glasses in the baggage comparment - they'd be on the bottom of the stack on the left.

The corruption is a bigger problem.  Every society is going to have a certain number of reprobates and when there's a relatively unskilled job in which you can make as much in a couple of bribes as the average person can make in a month . . . well they're going to tend to be drawn to those jobs.

"How about some fruitcake?  You know people in Africa have never tried my fruitcake, why don't you bring some of that in your carry-on luggage as well?"

Customs agents might not be that tempted by fruitcake.

The reality is I probably can find a way to pack most of this stuff, although I don't know how I'm going to convince a customs agent that I'm bringing two laptops for personal use.  I was going to bring one of my own that was actually for personal use, but I think that's out right now.

But I'm leaving out part of the reason for my resistance.  The truth is I was anticipating a ten hour layover in Dubai.  That's a whole day to explore the bizarre overdeveloped Sheikdom - site of a half mile high skyscraper and the world's only indoor skiing resort. Now I'm looking forward to ten hours sitting in a terminal watching a stack of luggage.

"Well, if that's how you feel, I guess I understand.  I could hardly expect you to give up a day of wandering  through the desert just so another 50 people would have a chance to see."

"Okay, I'll take your junk, but I'm eating the fruitcake myself."