Systems.

September 3, 2013

I want to explain further why food is so expensive in South Sudan.  It is an issue of food insecurity and a lack of infrastructure.

People do not want to grow crops because chances are that someone will come along and steal the fruits of their labor.  This includes the military and police forces because they still need to come to an understanding that their function is to protect people and not to benefit from people. 

There are also very few miles of road in South Sudan and during the rainy season most of those miles are impassable because of the muddy road conditions.  Therefore crops that are grown, if there is excess that might have gone to market to help feed other people, rot where they are.

Food must be imported from Kenya, Ethiopia or Uganda.  It is brought up the Nile River or, sometimes, flown into Malakal.  This makes is very expensive. 

I am seeing the imprint of what has become known as Toxic Charity on Africa.  One manifestation of that in Ethiopia is that local Ethiopian people literally beg from white people school tuition fees for their children.  The school system in Ethiopia, as in most African countries, is very poor.  People want to send their children to private schools in order to obtain a good education for them and launch them into their lives with the ability to make a good living.  One of the problems I see with education being financed by foreigners in this way is that the Ethiopian, or the South Sudanese, or the South African, people are not rising up and demanding that the governments provide a good education within the public schooling system. 

Well meaning people are helping to keep a broken system in place.

Blessings,

Debbie

September 2, 2013

I sat with a Chinese man at the South Sudan Embassy office last week when we were both applying for visas into South Sudan.  We were going into the country for very different reasons and at the same time we had a very enjoyable conversation.  His English was excellent and I have lived in Nanjing so there was a good basis for that conversation.

One of the many things that we discussed was colonialization.  He felt that first the Dutch, then the English and then the United States had conquered the world.  Both of us agreed with the assessment that many of the world’s problems can be laid at the doorstep of the British. 

He said something from his unique Chinese perspective that I found intriguing.  I also admired him for saying it as in my time in China, Chinese people are very rarely critical of their own history or their country.  He said that in two thousand years that his own people had been a part of the blood thirst and murdering that comes with colonialization.  Chinese civilization began as a very small area of land and over the course of that two thousand years people groups were conquered and absorbed and China grew into the country that it is today.

Moving on from that particular conversation one of the things I gave thought to this week was the costs of imported goods.  I had found cheap and sweet, ripe Golden Delicious apples in Pretoria.  I found GD apples here in Addis Ababa for about twice the cost.  I was told that they are imported and that accounts for the cost.  That gave rise to the realization that apples must be grown in South Africa and although I was told that Ethiopia does grow some apples, the particular ones that I was eyeing were apparently not home grown. 

Now, I thought about the fact that we have imported food in the United States.  I know that this is true because say in the Seattle area, we will have food that is “out of season”.  Often times these foods will come from a Latin America country and what I have noticed is that usually they are fairly cheap.  This gave rise to the thought that probably the difference in the costs of the imported goods in Africa and in the United States has to do with treaties.  I have often heard it said in social justice circles that Fair Trade agreements are not so fair to the people who are pawns in the government games of tariffs and subsidized food goods, etc.,  going across international borders.  I am also aware that most food in South Sudan is imported and it is very, very expensive.

There is also the problem of foods that are subsidized by governments that can be sold very cheaply going into countries where the indigenous people are trying to earn a living by selling their home grown crops.  When they cannot compete with the prices of the cheap imports there is another initiative towards independence that is thwarted.

Blessings,

Debbie

Systems.

September 3, 2013

I want to explain further why food is so expensive in South Sudan.  It is an issue of food insecurity and a lack of infrastructure.

People do not want to grow crops because chances are that someone will come along and steal the fruits of their labor.  This includes the military and police forces because they still need to come to an understanding that their function is to protect people and not to benefit from people. 

There are also very few miles of road in South Sudan and during the rainy season most of those miles are impassable because of the muddy road conditions.  Therefore crops that are grown, if there is excess that might have gone to market to help feed other people, rot where they are.

Food must be imported from Kenya, Ethiopia or Uganda.  It is brought up the Nile River or, sometimes, flown into Malakal.  This makes is very expensive. 

I am seeing the imprint of what has become known as Toxic Charity on Africa.  One manifestation of that in Ethiopia is that local Ethiopian people literally beg from white people school tuition fees for their children.  The school system in Ethiopia, as in most African countries, is very poor.  People want to send their children to private schools in order to obtain a good education for them and launch them into their lives with the ability to make a good living.  One of the problems I see with education being financed by foreigners in this way is that the Ethiopian, or the South Sudanese, or the South African, people are not rising up and demanding that the governments provide a good education within the public schooling system. 

Well meaning people are helping to keep a broken system in place.

Blessings,

Debbie

September 2, 2013

I sat with a Chinese man at the South Sudan Embassy office last week when we were both applying for visas into South Sudan.  We were going into the country for very different reasons and at the same time we had a very enjoyable conversation.  His English was excellent and I have lived in Nanjing so there was a good basis for that conversation.

One of the many things that we discussed was colonialization.  He felt that first the Dutch, then the English and then the United States had conquered the world.  Both of us agreed with the assessment that many of the world’s problems can be laid at the doorstep of the British. 

He said something from his unique Chinese perspective that I found intriguing.  I also admired him for saying it as in my time in China, Chinese people are very rarely critical of their own history or their country.  He said that in two thousand years that his own people had been a part of the blood thirst and murdering that comes with colonialization.  Chinese civilization began as a very small area of land and over the course of that two thousand years people groups were conquered and absorbed and China grew into the country that it is today.

Moving on from that particular conversation one of the things I gave thought to this week was the costs of imported goods.  I had found cheap and sweet, ripe Golden Delicious apples in Pretoria.  I found GD apples here in Addis Ababa for about twice the cost.  I was told that they are imported and that accounts for the cost.  That gave rise to the realization that apples must be grown in South Africa and although I was told that Ethiopia does grow some apples, the particular ones that I was eyeing were apparently not home grown. 

Now, I thought about the fact that we have imported food in the United States.  I know that this is true because say in the Seattle area, we will have food that is “out of season”.  Often times these foods will come from a Latin America country and what I have noticed is that usually they are fairly cheap.  This gave rise to the thought that probably the difference in the costs of the imported goods in Africa and in the United States has to do with treaties.  I have often heard it said in social justice circles that Fair Trade agreements are not so fair to the people who are pawns in the government games of tariffs and subsidized food goods, etc.,  going across international borders.  I am also aware that most food in South Sudan is imported and it is very, very expensive.

There is also the problem of foods that are subsidized by governments that can be sold very cheaply going into countries where the indigenous people are trying to earn a living by selling their home grown crops.  When they cannot compete with the prices of the cheap imports there is another initiative towards independence that is thwarted.

 Blessings,

Debbie

Systems.

September 3, 2013

I want to explain further why food is so expensive in South Sudan.  It is an issue of food insecurity and a lack of infrastructure.

People do not want to grow crops because chances are that someone will come along and steal the fruits of their labor.  This includes the military and police forces because they still need to come to an understanding that their function is to protect people and not to benefit from people. 

There are also very few miles of road in South Sudan and during the rainy season most of those miles are impassable because of the muddy road conditions.  Therefore crops that are grown, if there is excess that might have gone to market to help feed other people, rot where they are.

Food must be imported from Kenya, Ethiopia or Uganda.  It is brought up the Nile River or, sometimes, flown into Malakal.  This makes is very expensive. 

I am seeing the imprint of what has become known as Toxic Charity on Africa.  One manifestation of that in Ethiopia is that local Ethiopian people literally beg from white people school tuition fees for their children.  The school system in Ethiopia, as in most African countries, is very poor.  People want to send their children to private schools in order to obtain a good education for them and launch them into their lives with the ability to make a good living.  One of the problems I see with education being financed by foreigners in this way is that the Ethiopian, or the South Sudanese, or the South African, people are not rising up and demanding that the governments provide a good education within the public schooling system. 

Well meaning people are helping to keep a broken system in place.

Blessings,

Debbie

September 2, 2013

I sat with a Chinese man at the South Sudan Embassy office last week when we were both applying for visas into South Sudan.  We were going into the country for very different reasons and at the same time we had a very enjoyable conversation.  His English was excellent and I have lived in Nanjing so there was a good basis for that conversation.

One of the many things that we discussed was colonialization.  He felt that first the Dutch, then the English and then the United States had conquered the world.  Both of us agreed with the assessment that many of the world’s problems can be laid at the doorstep of the British. 

He said something from his unique Chinese perspective that I found intriguing.  I also admired him for saying it as in my time in China, Chinese people are very rarely critical of their own history or their country.  He said that in two thousand years that his own people had been a part of the blood thirst and murdering that comes with colonialization.  Chinese civilization began as a very small area of land and over the course of that two thousand years people groups were conquered and absorbed and China grew into the country that it is today.

Moving on from that particular conversation one of the things I gave thought to this week was the costs of imported goods.  I had found cheap and sweet, ripe Golden Delicious apples in Pretoria.  I found GD apples here in Addis Ababa for about twice the cost.  I was told that they are imported and that accounts for the cost.  That gave rise to the realization that apples must be grown in South Africa and although I was told that Ethiopia does grow some apples, the particular ones that I was eyeing were apparently not home grown. 

Now, I thought about the fact that we have imported food in the United States.  I know that this is true because say in the Seattle area, we will have food that is “out of season”.  Often times these foods will come from a Latin America country and what I have noticed is that usually they are fairly cheap.  This gave rise to the thought that probably the difference in the costs of the imported goods in Africa and in the United States has to do with treaties.  I have often heard it said in social justice circles that Fair Trade agreements are not so fair to the people who are pawns in the government games of tariffs and subsidized food goods, etc.,  going across international borders.  I am also aware that most food in South Sudan is imported and it is very, very expensive.

There is also the problem of foods that are subsidized by governments that can be sold very cheaply going into countries where the indigenous people are trying to earn a living by selling their home grown crops.  When they cannot compete with the prices of the cheap imports there is another initiative towards independence that is thwarted.

 Blessings,

Debbie

Systems.

September 3, 2013

I want to explain further why food is so expensive in South Sudan.  It is an issue of food insecurity and a lack of infrastructure.

People do not want to grow crops because chances are that someone will come along and steal the fruits of their labor.  This includes the military and police forces because they still need to come to an understanding that their function is to protect people and not to benefit from people. 

There are also very few miles of road in South Sudan and during the rainy season most of those miles are impassable because of the muddy road conditions.  Therefore crops that are grown, if there is excess that might have gone to market to help feed other people, rot where they are.

Food must be imported from Kenya, Ethiopia or Uganda.  It is brought up the Nile River or, sometimes, flown into Malakal.  This makes is very expensive. 

I am seeing the imprint of what has become known as Toxic Charity on Africa.  One manifestation of that in Ethiopia is that local Ethiopian people literally beg from white people school tuition fees for their children.  The school system in Ethiopia, as in most African countries, is very poor.  People want to send their children to private schools in order to obtain a good education for them and launch them into their lives with the ability to make a good living.  One of the problems I see with education being financed by foreigners in this way is that the Ethiopian, or the South Sudanese, or the South African, people are not rising up and demanding that the governments provide a good education within the public schooling system. 

Well meaning people are helping to keep a broken system in place.

Blessings,

Debbie

September 2, 2013

I sat with a Chinese man at the South Sudan Embassy office last week when we were both applying for visas into South Sudan.  We were going into the country for very different reasons and at the same time we had a very enjoyable conversation.  His English was excellent and I have lived in Nanjing so there was a good basis for that conversation.

One of the many things that we discussed was colonialization.  He felt that first the Dutch, then the English and then the United States had conquered the world.  Both of us agreed with the assessment that many of the world’s problems can be laid at the doorstep of the British. 

He said something from his unique Chinese perspective that I found intriguing.  I also admired him for saying it as in my time in China, Chinese people are very rarely critical of their own history or their country.  He said that in two thousand years that his own people had been a part of the blood thirst and murdering that comes with colonialization.  Chinese civilization began as a very small area of land and over the course of that two thousand years people groups were conquered and absorbed and China grew into the country that it is today.

Moving on from that particular conversation one of the things I gave thought to this week was the costs of imported goods.  I had found cheap and sweet, ripe Golden Delicious apples in Pretoria.  I found GD apples here in Addis Ababa for about twice the cost.  I was told that they are imported and that accounts for the cost.  That gave rise to the realization that apples must be grown in South Africa and although I was told that Ethiopia does grow some apples, the particular ones that I was eyeing were apparently not home grown. 

Now, I thought about the fact that we have imported food in the United States.  I know that this is true because say in the Seattle area, we will have food that is “out of season”.  Often times these foods will come from a Latin America country and what I have noticed is that usually they are fairly cheap.  This gave rise to the thought that probably the difference in the costs of the imported goods in Africa and in the United States has to do with treaties.  I have often heard it said in social justice circles that Fair Trade agreements are not so fair to the people who are pawns in the government games of tariffs and subsidized food goods, etc.,  going across international borders.  I am also aware that most food in South Sudan is imported and it is very, very expensive.

There is also the problem of foods that are subsidized by governments that can be sold very cheaply going into countries where the indigenous people are trying to earn a living by selling their home grown crops.  When they cannot compete with the prices of the cheap imports there is another initiative towards independence that is thwarted.

 Blessings,

Debbie

Systems.

September 3, 2013

I want to explain further why food is so expensive in South Sudan.  It is an issue of food insecurity and a lack of infrastructure.

People do not want to grow crops because chances are that someone will come along and steal the fruits of their labor.  This includes the military and police forces because they still need to come to an understanding that their function is to protect people and not to benefit from people. 

There are also very few miles of road in South Sudan and during the rainy season most of those miles are impassable because of the muddy road conditions.  Therefore crops that are grown, if there is excess that might have gone to market to help feed other people, rot where they are.

Food must be imported from Kenya, Ethiopia or Uganda.  It is brought up the Nile River or, sometimes, flown into Malakal.  This makes is very expensive. 

I am seeing the imprint of what has become known as Toxic Charity on Africa.  One manifestation of that in Ethiopia is that local Ethiopian people literally beg from white people school tuition fees for their children.  The school system in Ethiopia, as in most African countries, is very poor.  People want to send their children to private schools in order to obtain a good education for them and launch them into their lives with the ability to make a good living.  One of the problems I see with education being financed by foreigners in this way is that the Ethiopian, or the South Sudanese, or the South African, people are not rising up and demanding that the governments provide a good education within the public schooling system. 

Well meaning people are helping to keep a broken system in place.

Blessings,

Debbie

September 2, 2013

I sat with a Chinese man at the South Sudan Embassy office last week when we were both applying for visas into South Sudan.  We were going into the country for very different reasons and at the same time we had a very enjoyable conversation.  His English was excellent and I have lived in Nanjing so there was a good basis for that conversation.

One of the many things that we discussed was colonialization.  He felt that first the Dutch, then the English and then the United States had conquered the world.  Both of us agreed with the assessment that many of the world’s problems can be laid at the doorstep of the British. 

He said something from his unique Chinese perspective that I found intriguing.  I also admired him for saying it as in my time in China, Chinese people are very rarely critical of their own history or their country.  He said that in two thousand years that his own people had been a part of the blood thirst and murdering that comes with colonialization.  Chinese civilization began as a very small area of land and over the course of that two thousand years people groups were conquered and absorbed and China grew into the country that it is today.

Moving on from that particular conversation one of the things I gave thought to this week was the costs of imported goods.  I had found cheap and sweet, ripe Golden Delicious apples in Pretoria.  I found GD apples here in Addis Ababa for about twice the cost.  I was told that they are imported and that accounts for the cost.  That gave rise to the realization that apples must be grown in South Africa and although I was told that Ethiopia does grow some apples, the particular ones that I was eyeing were apparently not home grown. 

Now, I thought about the fact that we have imported food in the United States.  I know that this is true because say in the Seattle area, we will have food that is “out of season”.  Often times these foods will come from a Latin America country and what I have noticed is that usually they are fairly cheap.  This gave rise to the thought that probably the difference in the costs of the imported goods in Africa and in the United States has to do with treaties.  I have often heard it said in social justice circles that Fair Trade agreements are not so fair to the people who are pawns in the government games of tariffs and subsidized food goods, etc.,  going across international borders.  I am also aware that most food in South Sudan is imported and it is very, very expensive.

There is also the problem of foods that are subsidized by governments that can be sold very cheaply going into countries where the indigenous people are trying to earn a living by selling their home grown crops.  When they cannot compete with the prices of the cheap imports there is another initiative towards independence that is thwarted.

 Blessings,

Debbie

Education.

August 28, 2013

Friends,

Today I leave Pretoria and South Africa.  I have been challenged and motivated and pushed to my limits here.  I need a vacation and that is not going to happen.

Yesterday numerous last minute, and just plain necessary, errands were “run”.  The kind that can’t be done before the last minute.  I did what I could packing last night and have finished it this morning.  My luggage is definitely overweight.  Theoretically I should have waited until I arrive in Addis Ababa today and for the next week there to buy food to take back into South Sudan with me.  The food prices here in South Africa are substantially less than what the prices are in South Sudan and I find myself purchasing, purchasing, purchasing.  There is also the truth that sometimes things are out of stock in Addis Ababa and I didn’t want to risk running into that.  The question I always have is: are the overweight charges that I am going to have to pay at the airport less than paying more for the food?  BUT the food is often not even available in Malakal anyhow.

I’ve taken to praying that God will just help me at the airport, whatever may happen.

I learned some interesting things yesterday.  A new friend helped me getting printed material from the guest house to UNISA.  The boxes will go by courier to Juba and in Juba to the Mission Aviation Fellowship where they will then be flown to Malakal.  I am very grateful for this because the courier service from Pretoria is free to students.  I would not have been able to take the materials with me otherwise.

It was pointed out to me that UNISA makes a university education somewhat affordable to many, many African students on the African continent.  This is because there are not residential campuses, and there are no classes in a classroom.  This means that the infrastructure of UNISA is designed in a cost-saving way and that savings is then passed on to the students.

I had inquired as to why Stellenbosch, another well-known South African college/university is so much more expensive than UNISA.  I figured it was probably a private institution.  It is not.  It is because it is residential and there are actual classes held on the campus. 

The connection I made was that I as an American cannot afford an American education.  The African students that study through UNISA cannot afford an African education and even though UNISA is still costly by African standards, it is more affordable than other universities and colleges on the continent.  Both Stellenbosch and UNISA are public universities.

For me UNISA is a more affordable way to do work at a doctoral level.  I simply could not afford to do this work in the United States.  For the African students it makes higher study possible.  And we meet at UNISA because the tuition is less expensive than other institutions of study.  I can’t find the notes at the moment that I made about this yesterday so I hope that what I writing makes sense and has clarity.  It did make sense to me yesterday!

I think that it is not a good thing that education is beyond the financial ability of so many people.  Not everyone loves to study and that is fine.  For those of us for whom reading (for instance) is like lifeblood, how can learning in our own indigenous environments be priced out of our reach?  As with medicine.  I think this is a critical issue that needs to be looked at.  We are entering a global community that needs people with particular skills.  How can people acquire those skills if there is not an affordable way to do so? 

Blessings,

Debbie

The Marks of Colonization.

August 25, 2013

Each African country in which I have spent time, even briefly, has been different from the others.  So far South Africa seems to be the most European to me.  I find myself wondering often if it is because the Dutch, who originally colonized the country, stayed on.  In the cases of many countries, the colonizers seem to have returned to their European homes. 

In some countries, like Ghana, the indigenous people groups “won” their freedom from the colonizing country and took over the leadership of their country.  In South Africa it was different as the indigenous people groups did not “win” their freedom, instead they struggled through Apartheid and must contend with the colonizers on an ongoing, daily basis.  This is of course only my reflection from an outsider’s point of view, it is possible that South Africans themselves see their lives in a totally different way.  What I hear often from the descendants of colonizers is that they are from South Africa but they are not African.

In some ways this is like the United States of America.  The colonizers never left.  The Europeans continued to push into the Native American lands until they had implanted themselves from sea to shining sea.  And then America created an abysmal other part of history by bringing black slaves from Africa.  “We” pushed the indigenous population into reservations and then forcibly removed other people groups from their native country and forced them to live on this new soil with no hope of returning to their original roots.  The African Americans are not colonizers.  And what of the Americans that are of Asian heritage, or South American heritage?  They are not from colonizer stock either.  This is the first time that I have given thought to this kind of issue, and it has all stemmed from what I am seeing and experiencing here in South Africa.

In three days I will return to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for a week.  I will be staying with a good friend while I am there and, leaving behind my own time of being a student for a week, I will focus on my own lesson planning for the semester at the Nile Theological College that is upon me.  I decided not to go directly to Juba, South Sudan from South Africa because the culture shock would be too great.

I have found this to be true each time I have gone anywhere besides Nairobi or Addis Ababa.  When I returned to the United States last summer, 2012, I chose to leave via Dubai (UAE) and to return via Dubai.  It was a grueling journey that I won’t repeat because it required more hours in the air and more legs to the journey than a straighter shot would have; but it helped having a step in between the U.S. and South Sudan.  While Dubai clearly is not a developing country, it is a different culture.

Nairobi, Kenya is a different city altogether from Addis Ababa or Pretoria.  Nairobi is gigantic, mammoth, modern.  It is more European than Addis Ababa, without being a colonized city.  The colonizers I think perhaps conformed more to Africa than expecting Africa to conform to the colonizers. 

As I have more thoughts on these issues, I will continue to blog and to share them.  Perhaps you, my reader, will find them of interest.  Perhaps you have not contemplated these things before either and will value having a new perspective opened to you through my own perspective and my own eyes seeing things both in a new way, and just plain new things.  In this way we can share this continuing journey of mine.  Together.

Blessings,

Debbie