The Audacity of Politicians

I received the following comments in email from a friend today. They make a good follow-up to my last post.

I've kept somewhat of an eye on the political season but I'm not fully engaged nor do I expect to be. My confidence in the political system is at a low ebb. I've come to the conclusion that the major parties are not driven by aspirations to benefit the country or the population at large. Rather, they are to benefit the special interests that leverage them into power. The system is readily manipulated by corruption and misdirection with power players on all sides gaming the system for their own benefit. There's lots of Orwellian liberty taken with the speeches -- less is more, war is peace, etc.

As much as the Republicans tout that they are the party of fiscal conservatism, the national debt soars when they are in office and we have little to evidence any beneficial investment of the money spent that created the debt. Democrats aren't any better. They pander to folks saying that government will solve their problems.

Both parties kick the serious issues into the future rather than deal with them in a rational planning manner now (social security, health care, etc). If one side starts to gain momentum on solutions, the other side yanks the rug from underneath so as to undermine any credit to other side.

I can't recall who said it but I like the motto "that government governs best which governs least". Fat chance. We haven't shrunk government since George Washington was president.

Enough.

Pretty glum, but accurate, I think. Interestingly, Obama makes exactly the same argument in his book The Audacity of Hope. Whether he can do anything about it (or truly wants to) remains to be seen. If there's going to be change, it has to start somewhere, but I see no evidence that any of our four presidential or vice presidential candidates are starting.

Vote Early, Vote Often

I'm paying more attention to this year's Presidential campaign than I ever have previous ones. I always follow the basics, but little more. This year, I decided to read books by the two presidential nominees (I bought two by each when I was in the States over the summer). I've also watched some of the key speeches and interviews on the Internet.

I found Obama's VP pick interesting--I remember Joe Biden for his sharp questioning of witnesses at the Watergate hearings (one of which which I actually attended) back in the '70s. I was stunned and fascinated by McCain's pick of Sarah Palin. At first I thought he had lost his mind (literally). Now I recognize its political brilliance. Whether it will succeed or not is anyone's guess at this point. Two historic candidates--the first black nominee political, and perhaps social, backlash. Not so with Palin, because she's not part of an activist movement that expects to win and feels slighted when they don't.

I am still undecided, but I have to make up my mind soon. My absentee ballot should arrive any day now. A friend and colleague from Chicago has already received his! (So, he actually does get to vote early--though, I presume, not often--as the old Chicago quip went.)

Grounded!

Last night was hot, so I got out of bed and plugged in an extra fan I had bought used from friends. It was an American fan, so it needed a plug adaptor to fit into the European-style recepticals here. It roared on. I couldn't find a switch to change the speed. A few seconds later there was a pop, the fan stopped abruptly, and my bedroom instantly filled with the aroma of burning oil and rubber.

Alas, I had momentarily forgotten that a plug adaptor is not the only thing you need to run an American electrical appliance here. You also need a power transformer to dial down the 220 volts that is the European standard, to 110, the American standard.

Despite opening my windows and turning on two other fans, the room continued to smell so bad I had to sleep in the living room.

********

I am less than educated about electrical principles. The only electrical tutorial I've been able to handle is the highly entertaining and nearly farcical There Are No Electrons: Electronics for Earthlings, by Kenn Amdahl. It's one step below Electricity for Dummies (if there is such a book).

Amdahl admits that no-one understands electricity, though a lot of people understand a lot about how it behaves. He finally undestood the principles after a dream he had one night, in which a large green man appeared to him and explained the true nature of electricity: there are no electrons, there are only Greenies, like him, trying to get to the next groovy party on the electrical line. The book is a hoot, and it effectively explains electrical concepts sans electrical jargon, introducing scientific terminology ("this is what other people call an 'amp'," "some people call this 'resistance'.") only after he's made the concept abundantly clear using Greenie-talk.

******
I am not alone in my lack of electrical prowess. Senegalese electricians are also missing--or ignoring--some basic electrical concepts. Such as what that third prong in electrical plugs is for. Though appliance cords and extension cords here all have three prongs, and the sockets, of course, have a hole for the third prong to fit into, it turns out those holes aren't wired to anything. This means the outlets aren't grounded.

Until I moved here, electrical grounding was a vague mental construct. Why electricity can't simply go down one wire, into an appliance to do its work, and straight out the other wire is a mystery to me. People do it! We walk into our office buildings, do our work, and walk out.

Well, grounding is no longer theoretical for me. It is a visceral, physical experience, because whenever I touch (for example) an input jack on my laptop while my bare or socked feet are touching the floor, I get shocked. One can also get shocked by touching a refridgerator. My favorite: the friend who got shocked when he touched a cement wall in his house.

A less amusing example occurred at my old apartment building, a few blocks from campus. A colleague was on the roof using the washing machine. (Don't ask me why the washing machine is on the roof--I don't know. But it's there, inside a thief-proof cage of heavy iron bars.) My friend was nearly electrocuted when she touched the washing machine while standing in a small puddle of water from the previous day's rain. How she survived, I'll never know. . . 220 volts delivers quite a jolt!

So, the next time you insert a three-pronged plug into a three-hole socket, be thankful that that third hole is connected to something called a ground, which takes some of those shocking green Greenies back outside where they belong!

Skyline

Here is one of my happiest efforts as an amateur photographer. Can you identify the subject? (For some hints, followed by the answer, read the top entry in the column at right.

photo (c) 2008 by R. Jay Sappington

I have been justly admonished for my lack of photos in recent posts. I plead extenuating circumstances: my cheap camera broke, my expensive camera is too heavy to carry except on specifically photographic outings, and I have had a hard time getting "back on the horse" after losing thousands of digital pictures when my third laptop in four years bit the dust in 2006. I will try to make up for my delinquency with some of the pictures that managed to survive that unwanted purge.

Fuel for the Economy

This just in from an American friend here who is his organization's governmental liason:

New fuel prices went into effect Saturday, September 6, 2008 at 18:00.
Super gasoline went down $0.01 to $3.75 per gallon.
Diesel went down a whopping $0.20 to $3.52/gallon!

Note: I've converted the CFA francs/liter prices he provided to USD/gallon prices based on today's (September 10, 2008) exchange rate as reported at www.Oanda.com. (The exchange rate has improved by $0.15 in the last few weeks!)

Stormy Weather

A strikingly beautiful scene illuminates my bedroom window. The northern sky is a distant sheet of steel, with small gray puffs and stark white egrets passing silently in reverse silhouettes. The soccer field, sporting its new, thin coat of grass, reflects yellow-gray light from the west with an eerie glow. Vultures hunch in trees, while leaves explode in the wind like billows of smoke. Lightning rends the steel sky. All is darkening slowly, the colors muting but not lost in the deepening storm twilight. Finally, it is all but night, and I begin to see my reflection in the glass, insulated from everything but the occasional thunder.

Another view of DA's Soccer Lake. This is almost the view
from my window--just closer to the field, and perhaps 5 yards
to the left. Photo again courtesy of co-worker Lois Clark.

Exchange Rate Tool Bites the Dust

I removed the second Exchange Rate program I had installed at right because it apparently prevented people from accessing the blog (including, sometimes, me!).

You Rain What You Sow, or, How to Make a Hurricane Without Really Trying

Photo of DA's recently flooded soccer field (at least
it has grass!) by my colleague, DA math teacher Lois Clark.

A few days ago, I learned that Senegal recently began managing a cooperative project with other West African nations to “seed” clouds in an attempt to increase rainfall in this seriously under-watered portion of the continent. Over here, the sky isn’t falling, and that’s a problem for subsistence farmers! Or it was. The cloud seeding project appears to be working.

Can you guess when the project started. (Hint: think “Katrina.”) That’s right! In 2005, when Dakar saw the most rain it’s seen in 30 years. And when numerous storms from Senegal and surrounding countries crossed the Atlantic, becoming hurricanes on the way.

For the following two years, apparently, no seeding was done, and rainfall dropped precipitously*. But this year, the project is apparently back in action, and we’re getting solid rains almost every night. And the Caribbean and North America are getting big hurricanes again!

The friend who first told me about the Senegalese use of cloud seeding was amused because this news pretty well puts the kabosh on theories that global warming is simultaneously causing the drought in West Africa and causing the increased rain storms in West Africa that lead to hurricanes.

Apparently, however, it is fairly well established that certain kinds of storm conditions here in West Africa do lead to the formation of hurricanes as they head west across the Atlantic Ocean.

If true that the seeding is working, and true that some of the storms turn into hurricanes, then human intervention in the weather to help starving people on one continent is leading to loss of life and massive destruction in North America.

* For those of you who don’t remember your high school Earth Science class, or who took something silly like Physics or Chemistry instead, “seeding” a cloud is a process in which some substance is injected into “pregnant” clouds—ones containing lots of tiny water droplets that are too light to fall as rain. The injected substances range from sodium iodide to dry ice. (I’ve heard that even cement powder has been tested). The effect is that the water droplets either freeze or combine to be heavy enough to fall as rain (or concrete, as the case may be).

** Wow! Did you catch that double pun? I’m impressed with myself!

Typing with a Different Type of Type

I'm testing a new font size and color in hopes of increasing readability. Let me know what you think. (Unfortunately, eblogger often doesn't do quite what you tell it to, even when you select options from its own menus, so there are and will continue to be some inconsistencies.)

Currency Converter Replacement

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by clicking the POSTS button at right.

I couldn't get the previous Currency Converter to work, so I've replaced it. To see how the fluctuations in the dollar are affecting me, just do the following.

1. Click in the FROM field, press the "U" key 5 times to choose USD, and press ENTER.
   
2. Click in the TO field, press the "C" key once to choose CFA BCEAO Francs,* and press ENTER.
3. Click the GO button (above the FROM field).

* INTERESTING TECHNICAL DISTINCTION: CFA BCEAO Francs (Bank code: XOF) are West African Francs, used by 8 countries, including Senegal. CFA BEAC Francs (Bank code: XAF) are used by a different consortium of 5 CENTRAL African nations. Both currencies are tied to the Euro, and at the same exchange rate, but you can't use XAF Francs in XOF countries, or vice versa. In addition, a few other countries in the region have their own currencies, and do not accept either XOF or XAF Francs! (For more details, including color-coded maps, search for "CFA Francs" on Wikipedia, the source of the info in this paragraph.)

Good news: as of today, the dollar has rebounded from its recent low of 400CFA to the dollar to (today) 446CFA to the dollar. So a box of breakfast cereal today cost only $7.84 instead of the $8.75 it cost two or three months ago. And a pound of bananas is down from $1.50 to $1.34.

I don't know if any of you are interested in all this, but I am--especially the cost of food!

It's raining, it's pouring...

As I write, I can hear a downpour of refreshing rain outside my open windows. This is the best rainy season West Africa has had since it spawned Hurricane Katrina a few years back. Recently, we've had rain every day or two!

Food supplies are still low for many Senegalese, but there's good hope of a good harvest ahead!

Currency Converter

I've just added a currency converter "gadget" at the left--under the SUBSCRIPTION buttons. You, too, can watch the value of the dollar go up and down in comparison to West African Currency! Just press the CONVERT button for the latest exchange rate.

UPDATE: This converter didn't work so I replaced it. For instructions, see my August 28 post.

Your Support Dollars at Work

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Friends often ask me about the cost of living in Dakar. It depends a lot on how I choose to eat.

FOOD. I generally buy western food imported from Europe and, sometimes, the US. I went grocery shopping today and bought the following.

1 box of breakfast cereal
2 large boxes of skim milk powder
2 boxes of fruit juice
4 fruit yogurts

My total bill was 17,110 cfa. Even at last week’s improving exchange rate of 450cfa/dollar, that’s $38.00!

If I consistently ate Senegalese style (mostly rice, with various vegetable or meat sauces very high in oil content), I could eat for about $3.00 per day.

FUEL. Today, I saw gasoline for sale at 798cfa per liter, diesel at 808cfa. That comes to $6.71/gallon for gas, $6.80/gallon for diesel. Most vehicles here use diesel.

I don’t often buy fuel. When I need to travel around town, I either take a taxi—$3.50 to $5.00 per trip, one way, depending on distance and traffic—or use a school vehicle and reimburse the school about 70 cents per mile.

SUBSCRIBE to my blog!

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NOTE: The ALL COMMENTS button doesn't do anything since I don't have this blog set up to accept comments from readers. But eblogger didn't offer the option to suppress the appearance of that button.

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And the word is...(the envelope, please)...

to find the mYsteRy word, which I unwillingly omitted from the August 15 post, check this paragRaph--simply find The capItal letters scattered aBout, reveRse their sequence, and there you'll hAve it.

Who Benefits? (Part 2) Or, That's Water through the Dam

A magazine article I read last year complained that western companies come to Africa, harvest the natural resources, and then take those resources elsewhere for further processing, refusing to let Africans take part in the more lucrative steps in the manufacture of goods. That sounds selfish until you realize that the infrastructure here (I speak of West Africa) is not reliable enough to run large-scale processing and manufacturing plants.

The following story amazes and saddens me.

The Republic of Guinea is extremely rich in natural resources, including minerals and water power. Some years ago, a foreign nation donated huge amounts of engineering expertise and enormous quantities of cement to design and construct a dam on one of Guinea's major rivers. This dam, I am told, could have provided enough electrical power for the entire country, with some left over to sell to neighboring nations. It had the potential to completely revolutionize Guinea's economy.

But when I visited Guinea last December, I found that even parts of the capital city lacked electricity. Entire neighborhoods lighted their markets with kerosene lamps at night. Why? Because the folks in leadership when the dam was being built apparently stole much of the cement powder for their own personal projects and those of their friends. Once the dam was built, it was determined that the cement was so diluted as to be too weak to hold back the river. So, the dam was never put into operation. Now, decades later, this country is still stuck in poverty.

NOTE: I heard the dam story while I was in Guinea. I have done no follow-up research, so it may be off in some particulars either from errors by those who told it to me, or resulting from my less-and-less reliable rememberer, or both. However, I believe it to be true in at least its basic outline. I welcome corrections.

Who benefits? (Part 1)

As much as I respect the Senegalese government (see previous posts), the poor delivery here of such basic services as electricity baffle me. I want to ask someone, "Why are you doing this to your own people?"

During the rainy season (July-December), the power is cut, unannounced, several times a week--sometimes daily, sometimes more than once in a day-- for anywhere between 15 minutes and 10 hours. Apparently, the government, which subsidizes the power plants, frequently doesn't pay the bills on time, so the power company shuts down the plant--or has daily, rolling outages around the city to reduce output.

If there were even a schedule of outages published, it would be immensely better. Then individuals and businesses could at least attempt to plan activities requiring electricity for the times it would be on. (In fact, I'm told this was tried a few years ago, but the schedule was so seldom kept, it was more frustrating than having no schedule, so they quit publishing it.)

I suppose in a predominantly pre-industrial environment, reliable technological infrastructure is not crucial. Much of Senegal qualifies for that description. Farmers and carpenters who use hand tools, vendors with street-side stalls, even taxi drivers in diesel-fueled cars don't care whether the electricity is on or off.

But unlike much of the country, Dakar is not pre-industrial. There are factories, grocery stores, restaurants, banks, and many other businesses that depend on electricity to function--not to mention safety features such as traffic lights and street lights. Computers are common in businesses here, too. Cutting the current without warning is incredibly disruptive to life, businesses, schools.

The president promised last year that power outages would end on a specific day in October. And, in fact, they became very rare for several months. It was wonderful. You didn't have to wonder if you could perform a task (typing, printing, photocopying) at any point during the day. But the stoppages ramped up again in the spring, and have been horrible in the one week I've been back in town.

So, who benefits when the power goes out? Somebody must gain or it wouldn't keep happening.

Suppliers of generator fuel, perhaps? But aren't they the same people who supply fuel for the electrical generators (though perhaps at a lower,bulk price). "I expect," surmised one of my stateside relatives, "that the 'in crowd' (whoever that may be) gets great benefit for maintaining the status quo rather than for improving it. Parties with solutions could be threatening to the in crowd so their barriers to implement solutions are kept high." This is the most plausible explanation I've heard.

Whatever the cause, Africans suffer daily. And, year after year, entire nations pay the price of such infrastructural unreliability. See my next post for a sad example.

Mystery Word

Has anyone determined the word missing from my last entry? Here's the sentence, again.

I'm not a fan of [Frank Gehry's] abstract, seemingly * style, but it is striking.

Email me with your guesses. I remembered it as I drifted off to sleep the other night, but didn't turn on the light and write it down, so it's drifted away again.

Jay the Tourist

TOURING FRIENDS AND FAMILY. I have returned to Dakar from an 8-week visit to the States. I've been wondering what to write that would be of general interest. I can summarize my trip simply by saying I got plenty (!) of rest, saw a number of family members, a number of friends, and met a few new folks. It was great to see "everyone"!

I put "everyone" in quotes because, to my frustration and in some cases embarrassment, I did not see everyone I wanted to. Thanks to a college-era alumni newsletter, word had gotten around that I was coming to town, and people I haven't seen in 20 years contacted me. As a result of a volatile travel schedule, and also of eventual burnout, I didn't get to connect with all of them. If you're one of them, my apologies. Next time, I hope!

JAY THE TOURGUIDE IN DC. I had two, thoroughly enjoyable, touristic voyages. First, I had the unique pleasure of playing tourguide to four Dakar Academy alums and their father (my former English8 team-teaching colleague) during their 12-hour layover in Washington, D.C. We perused the National Mall between the Capitol and the Lincoln Memorial, taking in numerous memorials and some International Folk Festival exhibits and foods. I may become a docent when I retire.

JAY THE TOURIST IN CHICAGO. Later, in Chicago, I went to Millenium Park--built since my last visit, entirely with private money--for the first time. I didn't know what to expect, but I wasn't really expecting much. I was wrong! It's a destination! Sculpture, indoor and outdoor theaters, gardens, plazas, and more!

The sculptures looked odd or downright silly in tourist brochures, but were, in fact, terrific. The shiny silver "Cloud Gate" (shaped like a huge pinto bean) is both fascinating and fun. One side yields a dramatic, bowed reflection of the Chicago skyline. Up close, you see yourself and other gawkers in humorous distortion. Underneath, you're lost in a magical and indecipherable kaleidescope of reflections.

Though I missed the open orchestra rehearsal at the Jay Pritzker Pavillion, the outdoor theater designed by Frank Gehry, it was a visual blast. I'm not a fan of his abstract, seemingly * style, but it is striking. And the creation of a distinct audience "space" through use of a grid of widely spaced arches over the lawn seating, is both interesting and impressive. (Alas, I missed the wandering BP Bridge, also by Gehry, which looks cool in photos on the Park's website.)

Jaume Plensa's Crown Fountain--twin glass-brick monoliths spouting water into a sloped plaza, and projecting huge video close-ups of Chicago residents--is quirky, but worth the visit just to see the screaming children vying for a position under the foot-wide streams of water coming from the mouths of the citizen videos.

The one disappointment was the Lurie Garden. Entirely walled off by tall firs or junipers, it's invisible from the outside, and it's a good thing. A gently sloping plot perhaps half the size of a football field is criss-crossed by sunken, walled paths. In the remaining patchwork of plots are planted the homeliest weeds and grasses, in the least aesthetically pleasing arrangement imagineable--Nature has never done so poorly on its own. The tallest plants were often next to the sunken paths, obscuring the vegetation further in. My main color recollection is gray, though I was there at the height of summer.

I see from the park's website, http://www.millenniumpark.org/, that I missed a lot. It's on my list for more attention next time I'm in Chicago!

JAY THE ALMOST-TOURIST IN CASABLANCA. Finally, on my return trip to Dakar I had a 12-hours layover in fabled Casablanca, Morocco. Alas, I can neither deny nor confirm rumors that the city does not live up to the romantic reputation it's earned in the US from the movie of the same name. The airline, I had been told, would provide a hotel or a tour of the city. I was going to choose the tour, but it wasn't being offered anymore, so instead I spent the day in a very decent airport hotel in the middle of brown scrubby no-man's-land, with no city in sight. I watched part of the Olympic opening ceremonies on TV (Mini-Review: fantastically creative and clever in places) and ate a lunch of delicious Moroccan food at the hotel's buffet.

* The missing word in this sentence is one of my favorities, but also one
of the hardest for me to remember. I used to keep it written in my wallet to
keep me from being frustrated to the point of distraction in conversation. I'll
fill it in when I finally think of it again.

Political Apologies

I heard a very interesting lecture on the radio tonight. Entitled "The Meaning and Value of Political Apology," it was an insightful analysis of the reasons for, and the effects and limitations of "political apologies"--when a government apologizes for the nation's past actions, perhaps decades or centuries after the fact.

The text of the lecture is available as a pdf file at the following site. It is fairly brief (8 pages, with lots of white space), and worth reading if you've ever wondered about the value, or even the legitimacy of such apologies.

http://www.ony.unu.edu/middayforum/May%2023%20Apology/Political%20Apology%20Speech%20Handout%20Version.pdf.

The author and speaker was French Jean-Marc Coicaud, a young but experienced diplomat, who has co-written several books on international law and human rights, and who currently heads UNU's New York Office (UNU-NYO).

Photo of Jean-Marc Coicaud unattributed.
Source: http://update.unu.edu/archive/issue34_21.htm

Statesman Abdoulaye Wade

If you read the recent National Geographic article on the Sahel--the transitional region between the Sahara desert and the tropical forests of Africa that stretches across the continent, you know that this strip has been gradually moving south, leaving once-arable lands unproductive.

I was interested to learn today that Senegal's President, Abdoulaye Wade (pronounced Wahd), will be giving the 2008 U Thant lecture at United Nations University (UNU), a Tokyo-based school and think-tank. His topic will be "Climate Change and African-led Initiatives."

According to the UNU website,

President Wade will speak on climate change and Africa, and specifically on how African-led initiatives, such as la Grande Muraille Verte (the Great Green Wall) can contribute to combating desertification. . . [I]n his recent speeches President Wade has highlighted the importance of the sharing of experiences, of collaborative effort, and of innovation to the success of these initiatives.

I can't read French-language newspapers fluently enough to follow daily political developments in Senegal, but more and more, I am learning about President Wade's statesmanship on crucial world issues. At a conference of Islamic nations held in Dakar in April, he stood firm against calls to make Senegal an Islamic republic, and gave a reasoned but urgent plea for respect and cooperation across religious lines, holding up Senegal as a (in my mind, valid) example.

Photo shows President Wade addressing the UN General Assembly, September, 2007. UN Photo/Marco Castro. Source: http://www.unu.edu/ (June 24, 2008)

Quote source: http://www.unu.edu/uthant_lectures/#wade (June 24, 2008)

Dakar Academy: What and Why?

This video by professional John Brill (no known relation to my brother) of Colorado introduces you to the purpose and a few of the people of Dakar Academy, my home, and will make you thirsty for more. Fortunately, Brill is producing a longer video to quench that thirst! Stay tuned.

Fine Fun Art

For some amusement mixed with a sense of wonder, go to http://users.skynet.be/J.Beever/pave.htm and select any of the thumbnail pictures there. Unlike most trompe-l'oeil exponents, British artist Julian Beever paints his eye-tricking images on streets, not buildings. You may have seen some of these which have made the rounds in the past year or two via email, but there are several here I'd never seen, plus they're always worth a second look. You can also watch a time lapse video of Beever creating one of the scenes at http://media.cnpapers.com/chalk/

Fine Fine Art

We just held our Middle School Fine Arts Festival, which consists of a juried art show (judged by three international artists), a short drama presented by each grade (6, 7, 8), and a handbell performance by each grade. I had no part except to observe and applaud, which I did a lot. (I teach middle school in the fall, but not the spring.) Even in budding adolescence, some of these kids have extreme and already-developed talent. It truly amazes me. They're so good, I hope to purchase a few of the pieces! I certainly don't remember anyone in my junior high school being so gifted or skilled.

The High School Fine Arts program is next Saturday, and will be even more impressive. I did purchase an entry from this show my first year here--a striking, quirky, highly detailed ceramic set--a triangular vase, candy dish, and candlesticks, and a set of (square) coasters--all now prominently displayed in my living room. I do have a formal role in this event--conducting our 11-member Chamber Choir. They will perform 6 selections:

• Kafal Sviri--an exciting and difficult Bulgarian folk song (their favorite)
• Love You--a little known, a capella, American pop song from the 1970s (their other favorite) that I "discovered" when it played over the credits of the film Stranger than Fiction
• O Shenendoah--American folk song (which none of them had ever heard!) in a very pretty and subtle arrangement
• Windsong--another film tune, this one with an African flair (the text is in Swahili), written specifically for Mighty Joe Young--which they grew up on, but I had never seen or heard.
• Hitch a Ride--a light-hearted song in the style of a black spiritual
• Chantez a Dieu--a 17th century, Huegonot, fugue-like setting of Psalm 96 (or maybe this is their favorite)

I'm looking forward to the concert. They have worked hard, they are ready, and they sound great!

The Generosity Jam: Daily public giving, or secret unregulated giving?

Islamic Almsgiving

Alms-giving is one of the four pillars of Islam. Every faithful Muslim is expected to give something to someone in need every day. But, one is only required to give once, and it may be a very small donation.

Living in a Muslim country for five years, it has been interesting to learn a little bit about how this works out in practice.

The daily experience of letting go of something that is "yours" (usually money) is a good thing. Giving something away every day develops a habit and a mindset in which giving is a natural experience, and therefore, a more likely option when a need arises. It can loosen of our grasp of material wealth.

A second benefit of required daily almsgiving is de-stigmatization of the begger. If I am required to give, there must be someone to give to. The fact that I am required to give to them in some sense legitimizes their need. A life of begging, if not pleasant, is at least not dishonorable.

Another aspect of this Islamic pillar--that you are only required to give once each day--yields a third benefit: it de-stigmatizes not giving. Though every begger is ostensibly engaged in a legitimate practice, and is worthy of assistance, once you have given to one person, you are under no compulsion to give to another person in the same day.

Most beggers in Dakar respect this. For example, if I decide not to give to someone begging at my car window, I find that if I look directly at the individual, smile slightly and shake my head (usually also holding my clasped hands to my heart), the person will smile--often broadly, give a slight bow of the head, and walk away. Each of us has respectfully acknowledged the other--I haven't ignored her or her need, but have instead acknowledged her existance, her humanity, and the validity of her station as a beggar. And, though she naturally expects me to give alms to someone today, she accepts that I don't have to give to her.

There are drawbacks to this system, too, however. As with any something-for-nothing system, required daily almsgiving encourages abuse. Apparently begging instead of working can be quite profitable. Some beggers in Dakar are said to live in quite remarkable homes. Some travel miles and miles to beg on a corner that is particularly lucrative (and where they won't be recognized as the owner of that fine house across the street).

A second drawback is the effective encouragement of very small giving. Any amount qualifies, so why give more than the least possible? Hand out 10 to 25 cfa (about 2 to 5 cents US), and I'm off the hook for the day. And, in fact, such amounts are considered sufficient. Granted, 25 cfa here has more buying power than 5 cents in the US--350cfa can buy a meal--but it's still not much.

Christian Almsgiving

What of the Christian approach to alms? While Jesus lauded generosity, he didn't mandate any specific frequency of almsgiving. There is no requirement to give every day. Moreover, most giving is to be done secretly, without public fanfare, or even public knowledge. This approach is less legalistic, and therefore, it seems to me, less likely to produce a large begging population. In fact, the Apostle Paul, actively discouraged begging. He wrote that he who doesn't work should not eat. This tends to promote diligence among those who can work.

But the Christian approach does lend itself to stigmatization of the begging class (which, Jesus said, we will "always have with us"). In FIDDLER ON THE ROOF, Tevye says, "It's no shame to be poor--but it's no great honor, either." Yet, I suspect many people do experience their poverty as shameful, and experience poor treatment and receive less respect from many of us who are financially better off.

The lack of daily practice can also abet our human tendency to hold on to what we have. If I'm not required to give, and I don't practice giving daily, I can easily never give. (If giving is secret, so too, a lack of giving can be kept secret.)

There is one more factor for the Christian to consider, however: the guidance and prompting of the Spirit of Christ (or Holy Spirit). In the 14th chapter of his Gospel, the apostle John quotes Jesus:

But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name,
will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to
you.

Having a relationship with one generous enough to give his very life for us should increase our desire to become more like him, including our willingness to help others materially. With this remarkable gift available to us, I opt for the Christian perspective on giving. Yet, I have something to learn from the Muslim example of daily generosity.

More Laughs

My last entry got me to thinking about some funny comments I've heard or read over the years. Here's a brief collection

When I die, I want to be cremated and have my ashes thrown in Ernie Martin's face.
--Playwright George S. Kaufman; Ernie Martin was one of his producers.

They weren't blind; they were just hard to see.
--A former colleague of mine
.

Guido Nadzo is nadzo guido.

--George S. Kaufman again, writing of actor Nadzo's performance in a Broadway play. Nadzo changed his name.

Yes! They won't let us rap, they won't let us wear boubous, and they won't let us jump high.
--A former student, in response to the question, "Are whites oppressed?" Note: Boubous are long, handsome, formal, shirt-like garments worn by many Muslim men in West Africa.

Not all alien abductions are bad things.
--Another former colleague

Embarrassing, but Funny

Remember the old joke where you walk up to someone and say, “Did you know that Mark doesn’t have a last name?!” The other person almost invariably replies, “Mark who?”

Well, I have a real-life reversal of that story.

I'm good friends with a family I'll call the McClendons. A few days ago, they sent me an email with a newsletter attached. I was delighted to hear from them, but I completely blanked on their last name, and couldn't find it in their message. It wasn't part of their email address. It wasn't in the body of the email. I looked in the attached newsletter--not there, either.

That night, frustrated and embarrassed that I still hadn't remembered their surname, I decided to ask a friend who also knows them well. The next time I ran into her, I said, "What's the McClendon family's last name?" As soon as it was out of my mouth, I realized what I'd done, and we both burst out laughing!

(By the way, I later learned the explanation for the case of the missing name...but I'm not going to tell you.)

Reprogramming the Automatic Response Bin

Have you ever changed jobs and found, on your first day, that you've driven half way to your old place of employment by mistake without realizing it? Or bought a new car and then spent half an hour looking for the old one in a grocery store parking lot? One of the things our brains are great at is doing things without making us consciously think about them. Occasionally, this comes back to bite us, but usually it's a great thing.

Imagine that dozens of things that have worked a certain way your whole life suddenly work a different way, and the action your brain has stored in the Automatic Response Bin is now the wrong action. For example, flipping light switches down turns the light on. Or you flush a toilet by pushing a button on top of the tank instead of flipping a handle on the front. These are little things, to be sure, but face enough of them at one time, and it can be surprisingly disorienting. That's part of what moving to a new culture involves. These little things add up to a bigger mental adjustment than one expects, or even consciously notices.

So, here are a collection of differences I've run into living in Senegal, some having to do with technology, and some not.

• Light switches: Up is "off," down is "on."
• Other power switches: Green is "off," red is "on."
• Hailing a cab: Holding your hand up and waving your hand means you don't need a taxi. Pointing down towards the road and waving slightly means you want one (you're saying "pull over here"). It's funny how much this throws me off, especially given how seldom I have taken a cab in the US, and how often I have taken one here.
• Toilet handles: Toilets here don't have handles. Instead, they have buttons on the top. Pressing the button flushes the toilet. (For a few, the water tank is attached to the wall above the toilet seat, and you pull a string to flush.)

Hee are a few more differences that aren't in the Automatic Response Bin category, but are nonetheless interesting.

• Honking: First of all, horns here don't honk, they beep. Secondly, when someone beeps at you, it doesn't mean that you're doing something unsafe, or that he's mad at you. Beeps are usually directed at pedestrians, and mean "I'm coming up behind you." Only in huge traffic jams where no-one has moved for a while do drivers bear down on the horn in disgust--but this is usually aimed at the policeman directing traffic.
• Door handles. Doors here have handles rather than knobs. Several times as I've entered or exited my office, the handle has slipped inside the front of my shirt and torn it.
• Getting directions. In Senegal, terenga [tuh-REN-ga], or hospitality, is a key cultural value. This has some interesting corollaries. To not help someone is virtually a moral failure. So, if someone asks you for directions, you must give him directions, even if you don't know how to get where he wants to go. Giving wrong information is better than being so rude as to give none!

This list was difficult to assemble, and that's part of the point. These aren't things you think about. They are so entrenched a part of the way one's world works that it's only when they work differently that they are noticeable.

Shopping Spree

On my way home from bird-watching yesterday, I stopped at a neighborhood grocery store and bought the following:

• 2 boxes of cereal
• 2 1-litre cartons of fruit juice
• 1 can of powdered milk
• 1 package of chocolate cookies*
• A candy bar...OK, five candy bars*
  
  *Studies have shown that dark chocolate is good for heart patients!
  Unfortunately, these were white chocolate cookies and milk chocolate candy bars...

The total for this shopping spree was 17,700 West African francs (cfa). At today's exchange rate of 400 cfa to the dollar, that trip cost the equivalent of $44US! When I arrived in 2003, the same items would have cost about 15,000 francs. With an exchange rate that hovered around 550 cfa to the dollar, this was equivalent to only $27US (and that wasn't cheap--$5 to $7 per box of cereal!).

So, yesterday's shopping trip cost about $17 more than it would have 5 years ago. Rising prices account for about $5 (15% if I've done my math right). The drop in the dollar accounts for about $12 (30%, give or take).

This makes me all the more thankful for my church and the friends who donate to my support each month. I am financially solvent because of your generosity!

"That's Africa for You"

A lot of things *in* Africa get blamed *on* Africa.

It is true that, for a variety of reasons, numerous things don't work as well here as they do in some other places. Since I am American and work mostly with Americans, we usually compare things here with things in the US.

Some typical complaints: the city electricity is frequently cut off without warning, for long periods of time. Meetings don't start "on time" as Westerners think of time. Bureaucracy can be paralyzing. The phone company sends out bills every few months, but may cut your service if you haven't paid before the bill arrives. Some governments officials are corrupt; bribery and nepotism are common.

"That's Africa for you!" folks exclaim when we encounter one of these circumstances.
But when things in the US don't work, we don't say, "That's the US for you!" We say, "That's the phone company for you," or "That's a politician for you." Why do Africa's problems get blamed on Africa, and American problems get blamed on individuals or organizations?
Consider the following.

I recently moved my office desk and computer a foot or two to the right. I had to unplug all the computer equipment to do so. When I plugged everything back in, the computer wouldn't turn on, though the monitor (which was plugged into the computer, not directly into the wall) did turn on! I tried everything I could think of to address the problem. I changed what was plugged into what (computer, power strip, regulator, wall socket) in every combination I could think of. No matter the combination, and no matter how many times I pressed the power button on the front of the computer, nothing worked.

Finally, I unplugged everything again (including the mouse and the monitor, etc.) and took the computer to our tech team who flipped a power switch on the back of the box, and it started right up. Apparently it had gotten bumped when I rearranged my office. But why are there two power buttons on the same computer? Sheesh! That's Africa for you!

Well, no, actually, the computer was bought in the US. That's the computer industry for you. That's the Secretary of State's Office for you. That's the Airline Industry for you. That's the Government for you. That's Republicans for you. That's Democrats for you. That's the human race for you!