Money, Magic, and Mutilation

Albinos, defined as people with a melatonin disorder who lack color in their skin, eyes, and hair, in Africa not only suffer from intense pain and burns from the scorching African sun on their sensitive skin and eyes which causes cancerous tumors and blindness, but also must fear being mutilated and murdered for their body parts. An albino man in his twenties living in the village of Ilungu is now the last of the three albinos in his village left who have not been killed. He knows he’s next on the list and carries a whistle in his pocket at all times as his only hope of protection. Eunice Bahati was only eleven years old when she was butchered in front of her two sisters in the family’s hut. Almost a year later, ten year old Bibiana, an albino, still lives in terror after watching a man walk out of their house with her 8 year old sister’s leg over his shoulder and then watched her sister bleed out until she finally died. In Segese Village, a 9yr old girl was murdered. The assailants entered the family’s hut in the night and drug her outside. They proceeded to chop both her legs off with machetes and also took the girl’s hair. A nearly identical crime was committed against a six-year-old albino girl. Her father, who thinks the girls are freaks, has been arrested for involvement in the killing. He had told the killers where to find and how to kill his daughter so that he could get part of the money that would be traded for her body parts. This is not the only case in which the fathers are involved. In many cases the fathers completely reject and abandon their families once an albino child is born. It is considered a taboo and a curse on the family to have an albino child in these parts of Tanzania. To make these crimes more heinous if that is even possible, the killers do not kill the victims but instead butcher them alive and leave them to bleed out in a slow, painful death filled with absolute terror. Albinos in Burundi, a neighboring country of Tanzania, are being slaughtered and their parts sold to Tanzanian witchdoctors. More than fifty-four of these killings, in Tanzania alone, have been reported since 2007 but the actual number is expected to be significantly higher since the vast majority of the deaths are not reported. The rough estimate of the number of albino citizens actually residing in the country is 169, 000 more than the registered number, which makes keeping track of the body count very difficult. Tanzania has a black market for the blood, hairs, bones, genitals, organs, and limbs of albinos because witchdoctors have managed to convince much of the population that these individual’s body parts make extremely powerful magical potions. There are areas in Tanzania that are very superstitious so it wasn’t difficult to persuade these men to kill and the money they get in return just acts as further incentive. The parts are said to bring luck in love, life, and business. The witchdoctors sell these potions for between $500-$2000. Average yearly income in Africa is $450, which makes rich businessmen and politicians the only ones who can afford these potions and in most cases they are used to “direct them” toward large amounts of gold in the mines and to secure election. Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete is fighting to keep people suffering from Albinism safe but this is not a simple task and since the statement he issued about his plan to save the people suffering from Albinism, the killings have actually increased slightly. The murderers seem to be killing more frequently just to remind Kikwete that he ultimately has limited power to prevent the crimes. The only semi-safe place for these people is a school, Mitindo Primary School for the albino and blind, in northern Tanzania but that only takes care of some of the children and none of the adults. Here the kids can feel a little safer and be given a shot at obtaining an education. There are security guards constantly stationed outside doing their best to provide protection and they have been pretty successful in doing so thus far. Albinism occurs in roughly 1 in 20,000 worldwide but it seems to be far more prevalent in Tanzania. A way you can help is by supporting the following highly reputable organizations. Under the Same Sun and Positive Exposure are fighting to help these people through education, scholarships, and projects to rid the country of the stigmatism and discrimination towards people living with Albinism. Both of these groups accept and appreciate donations.

Yussuf Elias holding his only sense of security, a whistle. If blood curdling screams don't save people, how comforting do you think knowing the only chance you've got at survival is the sound of an old whistle?

Death By Drought

 

Her name is Hidaya Abatemam. She is 6 years old. She weighs 17 pounds. Enough said.

In America water is a readily available resource.  It is wasted in outrageous amounts every day. It doesn’t even occur to us ninety nine percent of the time that there are places in the world that are not this lucky. They are not only thirsty every single day of their lives but they are inconceivably malnourished. Plants cannot grow without water. Animals cannot live without water. People survive off of food which we all know comes from plants and animals. This is common knowledge. Thus, the lack of water is causing these people to starve to death. Ethiopia, as well as others, are being robbed of their fair share of the Nile. Egypt controls a staggering majority of the Nile’s water supply and Sudan is the second highest beneficiary. Together they claim 88% of the water. Ethiopia and the seven other riparian countries are stuck trying to share the remaining ten percent. Another mentionable fact is that the section Ethiopia gets is one that constantly suffers from extreme drought. The strangest part of this arrangement is that 85% of the water hoarded by Egypt is on Ethiopian land! Egypt and Sudan like their position of control over this vital resource and have shown a persistent unwillingness to agree to a new deal where the water is at least somewhat more evenly shared. Dr. Mohamed Nasr Eldin Allam has recently replaced Mahmoud Abu Zeid  as the Egyptian Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation. He seems to be more willing to talk negotiations with Ethiopia. The problem is that Egypt’s idea of helping, at least at this point, does not seem to extend far past providing Ethiopian water officials with training. Ethiopian official, Asfaw Dingamo, has accepted this offer made by Egypt but still aims to limit the wasteful use of the shrinking resource by Egypt and Sudan. Saying water supply is a huge issue in these countries would be a colossal understatement! Efforts have been made in the past to get food to the starving people in these areas but the vast majority are not being reached and there is not nearly enough being sent.  It is true that getting aid to these countries is no small feat. There are a lot of factors involved. What I don’t understand though is why it is so difficult. America has an overwhelming food supply. Yes we have people starving here too but it has nothing to do with a lack of food availability in our country. We have unnecessary amounts of food. There are grocery stores stocked full of all different types of foods and markets with specialty foods, restaurants and fast food franchises on every corner, and pantries and refrigerators packed with food. We even have the luxury of choosing foods we actually enjoy eating. We know what we like and don’t like because we’ve had the opportunity to try so many different things. We have pretty much anything we could want or need available to us in this country. We have obesity rates that exceed every other country in the world! The world has not suddenly run out of food. This area is just not a fortunate one. They did not choose their fate. They are too poor to leave and too weakened by illness and lack of nourishment to be able to help themselves even if there was a way to do so. Experts have found that roughly HALF of the food produced in America each year  is WASTED. Every time we throw perfectly good food away or buy it just to end up watching it expire before it gets eaten, we should consider all of the people who, with that food, could be doing something other than struggling with every ounce of energy they have left in their emaciated bodies just to survive the day. I’m not saying we should forget about the people starving in our own country. There is even less of an excuse for watching them suffer since we walk past them every day. I’m not suggesting handing money to the homeless or hungry on the streets but donating food or money to shelters or food banks definitely wouldn’t hurt. What I’m trying to get at is that it may be a challenge to get help to people in need in these countries but it’s not impossible and someone has to take on this task. There are many people trying to help and working hard to get these people what they need for survival but without more awareness and willingness to take action and lend a hand, not much can be accomplished. A large part of the problem is that many Americans (although they are not completely alone in this) place too high a value on making money and not enough on compassion for others. Egypt and Ethiopia will hopefully come to some sort of understanding very soon so that some spec of hope can be seen for the future. Aid from the more fortunate parts of the world would make a tremendous impact if only they were willing to open their eyes and their wallets.

Awareness+Action=Education for Africans=Higher Likelihood of Peace

The heading you see above seems simple enough. There is no multiplication involved or long division and no complicated advanced calculus formulas that most of us cringe at the thought of. This problem is a simple math problem. We learned these concepts in elementary school. I am not only referring to addition but also the most fundamental of ideas that we are all deserving of the same opportunities and a child’s education is one of those. An important thing to remember is that this notion does not apply solely to Americans but to everyone in the world, which we seem to forget. We must recognize this need, this necessity, and we must offer effective assistance. As a result of that combination Africa should begin to see progress in the future. If we help them acquire resources to become educated, something they so desperately want to make possible, there would be whole new generations possessing the knowledge to clean up Africa and reshape the government.  The ignorance they have been trapped in for so long will be replaced with the knowledge they are so capable of and thirsty for. There will be less disputes resulting in violence and injustice. Africa can develop infrastructure and erase some of the corruption they’ve been held down by. This will lead to an increase in funds used to support their citizens. Africa will have increased potential and opportunity to climb out of the rut it’s been in for so long. They will no longer find themselves further inhibited from moving forward and prospering in life. The people of Africa can change the fact that they are largely cut off from vaccines that could save them and left without clean water, supplies, and food as well as fair chances at life, safety, and happiness. This is something that needs to happen and at this point, the assistance of outsiders seems to be the answer. We have the money, the resources, and the manpower to make the difference. There are so many things about America that African children could not even begin to wrap their heads around and vice versa. They are two completely different worlds. Schools are just another example of this. In America, it is commonplace that a child will go to school. They will have a school in their district equipped with personnel adequately trained and dedicated to the furthering of their knowledge. Whether the child’s family has money won’t matter. The school accepts them either way and they will be provided with the necessary tools such as paper, pencils, rulers, glue, books, anything required for learning or completing assignments. The child will even be put on a meal plan so that they can eat lunch everyday even if they do not have the money to pay for it. Not every school in America is a safe place to be and they are not all the most conducive to learning whether it be that it is a poor district, is in an unsafe area, or simply lacks the staff one would hope for. However, America has schools, they are all over the place, and in most cases they are safe and students are provided with opportunity after opportunity. Kids here generally love to skip school or have a snow day and we complain quite a bit about getting up early or walking to the bus stop. Children in Africa would LOVE to be given what we’re given and they would NOT take it for granted. Approximately 45 MILLION children in Sub-Saharan Africa do not get the chance to go to school. The majority of these children are girls, though not a staggering majority. It is not that these children do not want to go to school but the people of Africa, children included, are working non-stop fetching water, scrounging for food and on top of all of that they are preoccupied trying to stay safe from the rebel armies. Another hurdle is the lack of trained teachers. The learning materials aren’t available, the schools have been torn apart during the wars, the schools are so spread that for many, going to school entails walking miles and miles, which despite the fact that most are more than willing to do so, doing this is not always practical for them whether due to other responsibilities or danger. The need for schooling in Sub-Saharan Africa has, in the past, been superseded by the importance of mere survival. There are ways to help and now is as a good a time as any to take part since the war seems to be settling in Northern Uganda. Invisible Children has an incredible program. It is simple to get involved in and has made some pretty remarkable strides in the way of restructuring Africa’s schooling system and providing a sanctuary for the children. The new schools being constructed are environments the children can learn in and the teachers can teach in. The program is called Schools for Schools. It is a competition you enter your school in where you raise as much money as possible for the war-torn schools of Northern Uganda so that they can build schools and be provided with the resources they will need. The Invisible Children website (invisiblechildren.com) states their six main goals they aim to implement as a result of this effort: “student scholarships, construction of facilities, water and sanitation, supply of books and teaching aids, teacher capacity development, and the introduction of new technologies.” They also have a program related to this called the Teacher Exchange. The program is six-weeks long and takes place during the summer. A qualified, experienced teacher meeting the requirements of the program from the United States is given the opportunity to spend time in a Northern Ugandan school teaching a group of children twelve years and older. They have been quoted saying they were inspired by the way the teachers in Uganda would stretch their limited resources in a creative way so that they could find way to teach. The teachers in Uganda have expressed the feeling that they’ve benefited hugely since they normally have a very limited opportunity for further development, personal or professional. It seems to be a win-win situation. There are also ways to raise money towards scholarships for the less fortunate children in this part of the world. You can get involved through the Visible Child Scholarship Program, also run by Invisible Children. Invisible Children is a completely, 100% legitimate organization you can trust with your money. They have a professional website and provide proof of where all of your money is going. You can follow news and updates weekly and view pictures as well as videos. They have extremely riveting and educational, in-depth documentaries regarding these issues and efforts as well as an interesting account as to how they got involved and what propelled them to initiate this movement. I highly recommend visiting their site to learn more about the various ways you can educate yourself in, and/or contribute to, any of the numerous causes they take part in.

Your Assignment: Care enough to make a difference!

Congo: Where the screams go unheard

In the last ten years hundreds of thousands of women and children have been savagely raped. Rape seems to be the weapon of choice for the soldiers in Congo. All of this began in 1998 with the start of the war. Laurent Kabila was the President at the time and not a very popular guy. Both the Congolese rebels and the Rwandan troops wanted to see him gone. The strange part though is that their goal was accomplished almost nine years ago yet the war rages on, more violent than ever. The issue that remains has a lot to do with economic problems as well as territory, natural resources, and conflicts between different ethnic groups. The severity and obscenity of this war has reached a level that citizens of America, sheltered and safe in comparison, could never even begin to wrap their heads around! One woman recalls a particularly horrifying incident in September 2000. She had an 18 month-old baby die in her arms on the way to a hospital, it’s body brutally raped and broken. You wouldn’t think anything more sickening could take place but the atrocities don’t stop at this one child. Women and children are brutally raped, sexually tortured, mutilated, and many are murdered on a daily basis in Congo. Some are taken as sex-slaves, others are forced to watch the dismemberment of their husbands or are abandoned by their husbands after being raped. Some are even left incontinent as a result of the brutality, the last of their dignity seemingly gone. Five million people have died as a result in the last decade alone and this is only counting the country of Congo! As if the experience of being raped wasn’t damaging enough, these Congolese women are literally torn up from the inside by use of foreign objects such as sticks, knives, tree limbs, and even machetes! They are left with mental, physical, and emotional scars and no chance of ever having a child of their own, which in this environment might not seem like such a practical idea anyway. Some women, the few that aren’t severely internally damaged, end up carrying the baby of their rapist, a constant reminder of the terror she had experienced. These women suffer in shame and silence, unacknowledged by the rest of the world. The soldiers responsible for these crimes can be summed up in one word, depraved! They claim that they must rape to win the war and overcome their enemies and that they have a magic potion that only works if they rape. The reasoning they give

Just another cry to go unanswered for the people of Africa

for their unforgiveable actions will never make sense and will never be enough for the victims and families left in their wake.

Killer Contaminants

The thought of deadly diseases is enough to scare anyone. Just look at how freaked out Americans get at the thought of Flu season. Well the truth is that there are places around the world that have much more to worry about than the flu! Inhabitants of developing countries, like the ones in africa, are crossing their fingers everyday that they will not become one of the millions killed by pathogens such as Malaria, Yellow Fever, Cholera, AIDS, intestinal worms, Snail Fever, Trachoma, Diarrhea, Typhoid Fever, and Hepatitis. Africa carries the burden of about ninety percent of all such diseases! In 2008, Zimbabwe suffered the largest outbreak of Cholera in fifteen years. At least two million people died as a result and the vast majority of victims were children under five. There are two million more deaths in Africa each year due to diarrhea. One and a half million people die of AI

Think about Africa next time you reach for your bottled water or Brita

DS each year in Africa, more than one thousand fifty times more than occur in the United States! The number of deaths Malaria is responsible for is also overwhelmingly high in Africa when compared to other areas of the world. The root cause of these diseases comes from lack of clean water availability, the risk of contaminated food, a poorly managed sanitation system, and the absence of medical personnel and preventative medicine. This problem is further exacerbated by the many refugee camps strewn about the continent. These camps become breeding grounds for disease. The refugees are not at fault. They have been displaced as a result of armed conflict and for most these camps are the only option. The bad part is that the water source becomes smaller and much more vulnerable to contamination that can quickly turn deadly for these already malnourished groups of people.  The saddest part of it all is that there is so much America, as well as others, could do to drastically change this nightmare for the people of Africa for the better. There are plenty of ways to get involved. If you aren’t a big hands on activist/humanitarian type you can always donate to the cause. It costs around five grand to build a well in many parts of Africa and this well will save thousands. Even a small donation is something, especially if everyone gave. If everyone cared and cared enough to take some type of action this world would be a much better place! Americans spend about 450 billion dollars each year on Christmas presents. Material items you can live without. That is 45 times what it would cost to provide the entire world with clean drinking water! This is a gift that is literally a life saver! Forget about that barbie doll or cologne or that infamous ugly sweater and put those dollars toward saving lives. Americans spend the same amount of money each year on ice cream as it would cost to provide the entire world with clean water, basic health, and nutrition! Unacceptable is the only word that comes to mind.

Twenty Three Years of Terror and Tragedy

Uganda, a country in Africa, has been at war for the past twenty three years! It is the longest running war in all of Africa. The conflict is between the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and the Government of Uganda (GoU). The government has been struggling against a lethal and unforgivingly cruel force, the LRA. They are a rebel army. They emerged as a result of a woman named Alice Lakwena and her claims of being spoken to by The Holy Spirit. She said it wanted them to rebel against the government. She was eventually exiled and when this happened a man named Joseph Kony stepped up and took place as leader. He claimed to be Alice Lakwena’s cousin. He turned what was originally the Holy Spirit Movement into what’s known today as the LRA. The Holy Spirit Movement and Alice Lakwena are what began the war. However, the ten thousand man army raised by Alice was accomplished without picking up a single weapon. Joseph Kony turned this uprise into an all out violent, bloody, weapon-filled massacre. About 90% of the LRA are child soldiers! This is the worst part about Kony and his associates. These children have been kidnapped from their homes in the night. Stolen from their beds, away from their families, their lives altered forever. These kids are tortured, threatened, forced to kill, and brainwashed! They LRA figured they’d use children to get their numbers up and they could control and twist children much easier than adults. Also, people are less suspicious of children and less willing to kill a child therefore making it easier for them to accomplish their goals. This danger of being taken is what spurred the children’s night commutes. They leave every evening and walk miles and miles to meet at one location. The building in which they stay is kept as secret as possible and is patrolled by armed adults. They sleep in masses with barely enough room to lay down. In the morning they make the long walk back home. This is a dangerous and exhausting journey but it is the price they are willing to pay to feel even a little safer. Thankfully, this night commuting is no longer necessary. Also, a good chunk of the estimated 1.8 million people displaced by this war have returned to their homes. This is because the GoU and the LRA have been engaging in a series of peace talks over the last couple years. The peace talks, called the Juba Peace Talks  (because they are taking place in Juba, Sudan), have been supported by special envoys from outside nations including the U.S. With any luck, these talks will continue and the long overdue peace will be reached for Uganda!

One of Joseph Kony's child soldiers

Blood: The Price of Beauty

Anyone who has seen the 2006 film Blood Diamond, (starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Connelly and Djimon Hounsou), already possesses some general knowledge on what is happening with these conflict diamonds and why they have earned the name blood diamonds. This natural resource that should be an asset has become fuel to the fire that is tearing Africa apart. Zimbabwe for example, has recently discovered extensive diamond mines that have been estimated to have the ability to earn them up to $600 million dollars in a month alone! They are in need of that to even begin to make some headway in fulfilling their goals to improve their country. However, Robert Mugabe, President of Zimbabwe since 1980, is so corrupt that the people are only seeing about 3% of that money. The rest of it is going to line the pockets of Mugabe and his accomplices who are not above murdering innocent people to keep their cash flowing. Zimbabwe is not the only place in Africa with this problem. Sierra Leone, Liberia, Congo, Angola and Cote d’Ivoire are all fighting this same issue. The people of these areas are not benefiting from anything related to the diamond wealth. They are being taken as slaves, treated brutally and many are murdered. Over 500,000  people were killed between the late 1990s and 2002 in Angola alone! The total body count stacks up to millions! The rebel groups are the ones actually forcing the citizens, children included, to become mining slaves and they are the ones doing the vast majority of the killings although much of the government can be held highly accountable since they are not doing anything to stop it. That would, after-all, mean less money for themselves. Corruption is so deeply engraved into the fabric of government here that the prospect of a real, positive change for these people in the foreseeable future is almost unrealistic. Blood diamonds are just one more way for the corruption to continue. Getting the diamonds has proved fairly simple with the help of the enslaved. Once these diamonds are obtained they are smuggled illegally into countries not deemed a war-zone so that they can be sold for lots and lots of money. This money is then used by the rebel groups to fuel the war and prolong the death and destruction. The money goes towards guns and other supplies. The main countries suspected of taking in these conflict diamonds and turning them “clean” are Venezuela, Guinea and Lebanon, two of which are not even located in Africa. The reason they are under such scrutiny is the fact that the number of diamonds they report as export is staggeringly higher that the amount the actually have in the country. They are basically selling things they couldn’t possibly have had in the first place. The concept of this trafficking and “cleaning” is very similar to money-laundering but with a more extensive death toll associated with it. It is highly suspected that Al-Qaeda is another military force benefiting from the blood diamond business. There has recently been much effort to control the trafficking of these conflict diamonds, decreasing the number of deaths as a result. At least that was the goal. A movement called the Kimberly Process was put into effect in 2003 and regulates nearly 100% of the world’s rough diamond trade. In spite of this regulation there is only so much these efforts can do. It cannot really stop this trafficking from occurring and there is no way to really know which diamonds are legitimate and which are “bloody”. It is an honest effort but not necessarily a very effective one. The main element seems to be trust. Trusting the countries who have agreed to be conflict-diamond-free and taking the word’s of the guilty members of the International Diamond Market is not such a great plan. Why would we think that the guilty, corrupt, money-hungry people would ever admit that they are in any way involved? Obvious answer. The inventor of the system, Ian Smillie, has recently thrown in the towel on his own operation. Zimbabwe’s diamonds have been controversial due to the fact that they technically aren’t termed as conflict diamonds since the proceeds are not going to rebel armies. They are going to a corrupt government though and hundreds of people are still being slaughtered. Mr. Smillie is quoted on this particular topic as follows: “They are blood diamonds, they have blood all over them.” This is Africa. Don’t think for a second that the diamonds are the only thing that is bloody. Unfortunately there is much more to talk about! 

To make sure their enslaved workers wouldn't steal, the Guerillas would cut off one of the workers' hands.

The Darkness Runs Rampant…

Africa is known as the Dark Continent because for a long time it was a land both mysterious and unknown to the rest of the world. Today, with technology bringing us closer together, we are more aware and more impacted by what happens everywhere else in the world. Africa, which once seemed so distant and so unrelated to our lives is now a world neighbor, a neighbor facing dire political and social problems. The fact that so much of Africa is so far behind technologically is a hinderance to their success. In much of Africa, there isn’t even the most basic infrastructure to build upon and they don’t have the funding to support progress. It remains a continent ignored by much of the world. I feel that Africa is still the Dark Continent but no longer due to the mystery of the unknown, rather it is darkened by all of the tragedies, injustices, corruption and turmoil taking place there every single day. The darkness brought on by these problems doesn’t stop at just one or two countries and it expands far past one issue or one battle. Africa has a history of conflict. This needs to change or we’re all going to see an entire continent of people with such a rich culture and so much to offer wiped out not only by disease and murder but by the biggest killer of all, apathy! So many things are taking place currently. People of Darfur, located in western Sudan are fighting genocide and mass rapes. Peace agreements are being worked on and have been for years but never seem to emerge with any success. In Uganda approximately thirty thousand children walk miles and miles each night to sleep together in a secret location. The walk itself is full of serious dangers but what they flee from is deemed worse. They do this because they are afraid the LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army) will steal them from their homes during the night and force them to become rebel soldiers and kill. There are unforgiving droughts and starvation in Ethiopia. Sierra Leone faces, among other things, the blood diamond issue. The continent’s environment serves as a breeding ground for serious disease like AIDS, malaria, yellow fever and East African sleeping sickness. The people need clean water (wells) and schools and basic supplies such as pencils. My point is there are countless serious, life-or-death matters at hand for Africa and its inhabitants. They need any kind of help they can get, more than they’re being offered. How can they be expected to do it alone when, for many Africans, everyday is a constant struggle of fear and want and survival. “Am I going to be murdered today if I leave my home, or even if I don’t?…How will I feed and clothe my children?…Is it safe for them to go to school today (if there even is one that has survived the violence and chaos…)?” Corruption in government is a major contributor to the prolonging turmoil. I could go on but I’ll stop here and save some for later. There’s so much more to talk about regarding Africa. In my future blogs I’d like to go into more detail on these topics above and share my interests and hopes for Africa.