Retrospective 07: Bizarro Burkina... or Not?

In brief, the normally complacent country of Burkina Faso is now three weeks into its own social crisis. While there have been brief mentions in US newspapers like the New York Times about universities being shut down. Most of the anglophone coverage is brief, not exceeding two paragraphs. You can read more in English here about the situation as it develops (since I am no longer there).

Now, let us wander into hypothesis land where I may or may not sound like I make sense, but this is how I interpret the situation, how it's developed, and how it may or may not progress. Please note, that I might be grossly off base, but this is what I have put together with the things I do know from the dark recesses of my mind and some speculation. Please don't take any of the following as absolute fact.
---< speculation >---
The student named Justin Zongo passed away in late February, police claim the cause of death to be meningitis. Witnesses, family, friends and his peers suspect foul play, corruption and a cover up. Chaos ensues.

Oversimplification and exaggeration of series of events:
• Girl and Guy 1 don't generally get along (for unknown reasons, but I suspect unrequited love).
  
• Girl says something to annoy Teacher.
  
• Guy 1, class president, says to Girl that that was inappropriate.
  
• Girl says something that annoys Guy 1.
  
• Guy 1 slaps Girl.
  
• Girl complains to Guy 2, her boyfriend, and a formal complaint is filed with the police.
  
• Guy 2 happens to be a police officer and uses his police officer powers to incarcerate Guy 1, keeping him away from girl and also paying him back for the slap.
  
• Guy 1 is fined 10000 CFA which he has no money to pay, each time he goes to the police station to ask for more time, he pays off his interest by being slapped around and being arrested.
  
• Guy 2 accidentally kills Guy 1 in his rage.
  
• Guy 2 claims that Guy 1 died of meningitis.
  
• Country calls BS. Guy 2's bosses say it's true, deh! Country calls double BS.
  
• Country implodes in protest.
  
• Guy 2 and other people are fired/thrown into jail.
  
• Girl is mortified by how stupid guys are.
  

This is not the first time someone has died in police custody in recent years. Last June, another youth died in police custody. This youth was a gold miner who was reputed for selling confiscated drugs on behalf of the police. Unlike the incident in Koudougou with Justin Zongo, this incident in Gaoua with Arnaud Somé only resulted in localized protests. Both cases involve police corruption and violence leading to death. However, the difference is social function (miner vs. student), timing (summer vacation vs. middle of school year) and also reason for arrest (drug possession vs. student fight). Also, Justin's last name is Zongo, which reminds many people of the journalist Norbert Zongo, an influential investigative journalist whose suspicious death (many believe assassination) occurred while researching the presidential family's ties to a murder.

Protests for the Gaoua incident were localized and pertained to the community. However, the Koudougou incident touched the country as a whole regarding student rights. A disciplinary issue that should have been dealt with by the school was blown out of proportion due to the girl's connections. Nationwide rioting by students led to destruction of government buildings, especially police stations. This combined with the overall frustration with government corruption and the potential for future government corruption by the same people has led many of the unions to support the protesting and to protest themselves this week.

To really understand where this is coming from, one has to go back to the rise of the current president Blaise Compaoré and take a look at his government. Prior to being president, he was a close friend of his predecessor Thomas Sankara who he helped become president in a somewhat bloodless coup d'état in 1983 (i.e., the deposed president is still alive). Many Burkinabè revere Sankara's philosophy (making the country self-reliant as opposed to relying on foreign aid for things that Burkinabè could resolve on their own through austerity); however, some of his policies were controversial (stripping traditional privileges from tribal leaders, tribunal courts, etc.) and led to his assassination in 1987. Compaoré placed himself in power after this coup and reversed the majority of the policies that Sankara had in place (most notably, lifting limits on government employee salaries and benefits and inviting foreign aid back into the country).

Compaoré ruled the country under a military regime until its first election in many years in 1991. In Burkinabè fashion, the election was boycotted by the majority of the people who opposed the bloody coup that Compaoré used to seize power. Thus, he won his first and second elections in 1991 and 1998. In 2000, the constitution was amended to reduce the terms to 5 years. Note that the term limits set in 1991 was two terms, and the term limits set in 2000 was two terms. The judiciary system decided that the amendment could not retroactively count Compaoré's terms despite the fact that under prior to and following the amendment, he should not be eligible to run (if one follows normal logic and reasoning, though the argument on Compaoré's behalf was that he had never served two five-year terms). Bizarrely grandfathered in as an incumbent, Compaoré was deemed eligible to run in the 2005 and 2010 elections, both of which he won.

Everyone knows that there exists corruption within the government, especially embezzlement, bribery and abuse of political status and privileges. Not everyone is corrupt, but many are. At the very top of this corruption pyramid is the president. Whether or not he is corrupt has yet to be proven in a court of law. However, one could argue that by turning a blind eye, he is not proving himself to be a responsible leader, and thus some may consider him just as culpable of corruption.

Everyone also knows that there is a high likelihood of Compaoré pushing through an amendment to abolish term limits or changing the term limits to two N-year terms (where the natural number N ∈ (1,4] ∪ [6] ∪ [8,∞), or more simply, N ≠ {5,7}).

Back to the current situation... These protests are no longer about one student's death and its subsequent cover-up. These protests are about the corruption that is prevalent in the government of Burkina Faso. These protests are a not-so-subtle warning to the president of what will happen if he tries to change the constitution in order to run for office again. Recognizing this, schools have been shut down at all levels, not just the university level as some U.S. news sources might have you believe. That means students will spend less than three days in March in the classroom... if and only if the protesting ends.

Either way, it's the students that lose.

---< /speculation >---
No morals of the story today, just thoughts:
• Justin Zongo hit someone. Regardless of the situation, he should not have hit someone.
• If you have been following me, then you know that in December, all students had the opportunity to receive free meningitis vaccinations. If he did receive this vaccination, which I suppose would be easy to verify with eye witnesses, then something clearly doesn't add up.
• Three lefts might make a right, but many wrongs don't make things right.
• I wonder when (if ever) the Ibrahim Prize will be awarded to a Burkinabè leader.

Retrospective 06: Health & Education Working Together

Burkina News:
A lot of Burkina is still in a lot of outrage over death of student in police custody due to police-claims of meningitis and the subsequent loss of life in initial riots following his death. Major cities still have striking and rioting, including burning down police buildings and allowing prisoners to escape. Some pro-CDP areas (supporters of the President) have had little public reaction and students have started going back to schools.

I'd rather not get into opinions about politics because it just ends up making me angry. So, let's talk about what sparked this whole problem: the alleged meningitis.

Some people join the Peace Corps because they believe they can save lives. I was more realistic upon arrival (I hope). I believed that I could maybe change some people's lives. I would love to claim that I saved lives in Peace Corps, but as a Secondary Education Volunteer, I don't think I saved any lives because my students learned some math. I might have saved some lives in the long term because my students learned to think a little bit more critically and creatively and also the importance and proper use of using condoms.

Upon reflection, though, I might have saved some lives from meningitis and other diseases by just being there... emphasis on might. The advantage to being the Nasara is that people want to see you and want to be taught by you. The disadvantage is of course you are basically a celebrity. Some people want to use and abuse you. Also, when you're not actually white but considered white it can lead to an identity crisis... more about that later I promise (as I have for the last couple of posts, I know).

Why is the Nasara effect important in the classroom? It brings people in to events (including school) and people pay attention to you. Once they get over the initial glamor of being near you (imagine yourself in the presence of your all-time favorite celebrity in the known universe), they still hang on to every word you say and hold it close to their hearts to be repeated over and over again. Even the troublemakers who normally don't show up to other classes, will come just to be in your presence. If they cause trouble, as they are often bound to do, and are kicked out of class they do everything possible to stay in the classroom and be in the presence of the Nasara. As a good educator though, you must look beyond the promises of "I won't do it again" and be stern in the beginning. With time, the Nasara effect will fade, but if you have used it to your advantage, it will be replaced with awe-tinged respect (especially if you can kick any of the other teacher's behinds in logic).

You can use your powers as a Nasara to discuss health issues (including sex!), something that the majority of teachers are unwilling to do. (I was lucky and had multiple teachers that were unashamed of talking sex, discrimination and other sensitive subjects at my school. Some were actually bashful in the beginning but transformed as they realized the only way to solve a problem is to talk about the problem and possible solutions. I would love to claim credit for their awesome, but the reality is that they are just awesome open-minded individuals.)

Back to meningitis and neglected diseases... if you play your cards right you can twist the arms of these adoring children into coming to class on Vaccination Day. Sure all students love to hear talk about sex, but who really enjoys being stabbed by a needle? (Masochists and drug users aside.) These vaccines and also chemotherapy (read: medication) against neglected diseases save the lives of people every day. This is important because few people use the health clinics, especially in rural areas. The tendency towards self-treatment and suspicion of "modern" medicine (I really hate this term) is still prevalent with the majority of births happening at home. However, as the enrollment rates increase, the ability for organizations like the World Health Organization (Organisation Mondiale pour la Santé) to turn schools into key disease prevention sites has also increased. Campaigns going door-to-door are also effective (especially for Polio which is nearing eradication, but that's the hardest part), but time-consuming and difficult if there is not enough humanpower. The key role of the educator at this point is not to do the actual vaccinating or the medicating, but to help the students understand why they are being vaccinated, and why it's important. And also, to make sure that each and every student is vaccinated and swallows their medication.

The exciting thing about meningitis is that it used to be an extremely expensive vaccine, but now it isn't and was distributed for free in December! Schools were used as vaccination sites, with priority to students and personnel first, but then people in the general community also lined up to be vaccinated. You can read more about it here.

Now, if we could only get a malaria vaccine, people would expect to live beyond the age of 60. The median age of Burkinabè would be over the age of 17. People would have less kids and at a later age because they wouldn't fear the early deaths of themselves or their children.

In the mean time though, any incoming PCT should know that you will find yourself in the face of death, especially those who will be working in Health. Sometimes, the life of someone very close to you will be taken unexpectedly. There is nothing that can really prepare you for the death of anyone in your life, but you should know that it is very unlikely for a PCV to leave the country without knowing someone who died.

May they all rest in peace and continue to be our inspiration to live and to serve.

Morals of the story:
• Always use a condom.
• Get vaccinated.
• I saved lives by glaring.
• You can't save everyone.
• Create a malaria vaccine and you will be a hero.

Culture Shock 05: International Women's Day (Continued)

This post asks @Google why only today is Pegwoman available? Sure they are doing lots of other great things and encouraging people to think about women and bridging the gap (quite literally).

I am thoroughly disappointed by the lack of coverage on International Women's Day by American news sources in the past 24 hours (yes, I did the search only about 320 hits for "women's day" + America in the last 24 hours, most of which aren't from America) as of this post very few of which were from American sources.

The key contributor is @The Huffington Post. While @Washington Post, @Village Voice, @Search Engine Roundtable, @Christian Science Monitor, @NPR, and @Forbes all have some commentary on it. I was excited to see an ABC hit, but then realized it was ABC Australia. Sure there will probably be more coverage as the day goes on, but really America.

I am very disappointed that this isn't even a blip for major financial newspapers like Wall Street Journal and other male-dominated industry papers. Fail since my parents actually subscribe to the WSJ and I looked thoroughly for the love.

Also a link to my buzz about some publicity from BF. Rock on BF for taking strides towards educating more girls. Frowning at American publicity stunts. Only after living there for a while and really with the people can you see how much some things are twisted to make Americans happy. I don't think that's the way to go.

Sebraogo Kiendrebéogo, aka Seb

Seb was my APCD on paper for three years, but in reality he was so much more. He was a mentor, a friend, a brother. I made the mistake thinking that there would be more time with him. So, I put off seeing him. I had already seen him during parts of his illness and it was just too hard to see him when he was unwell.... So, I went and visited other parts of the country because I thought there would always be more time. More time to laugh, more time for him to be at important events in my life, more time to make memories. I was wrong. I didn't want it to hurt, but either way it would hurt just as much.

So if you are looking to some cause to donate to, please donate to his family. He leaves behind his wife and two young children, but also all of his extended family as well.

Death of a Laptop

My laptop is dying. The fan doesn't work. The power jack appears to be short circuiting all the power adapters that plug into it. I think the motherboard is short circuiting by the power jack. Help. Dell Latitude why are you failing me now?

Service Interrupted (2)

A week ago on Friday, we had the first of our last three ceremonies (which I have been able to attend). Traditionally, every seven days, there is a ceremony. Though, in modern times, this is occasionally abbreviated. Last Friday, was the seventh seven day ceremony. If you do the math, this means that the seven day periods were abbreviated.

Before that, though, there were many activities to be had. Each morning after paying our respects to my grandfather, my family was busy planning for both the small and big ceremonies. As I mentioned earlier, we bring offerings each morning such as fruit, my grandfather's favorite snacks, etc. This is not burned in offering, but large amounts of paper money and the paper lotuses are. Last Saturday, we had an additional ceremony to wish my grandfather good health in the afterlife, as well as to give him his home and seemingly a ton of sacrifical money. You can see a photo below of the house that we had constructed. Not included in the photo are representations of some of his favorite activities (mah-jongg and fishing). The model house was quite large and fully furnished. I say was because Saturday night we burned it in offering. Since it was large, and also the immense amount of sacrificial burned, we used the temple's incinerator as opposed to the traditional firepot.

 

On Monday, was the official ceremony for all of the people who aren't in the immediate family. Before it started, I took a bunch of pictures of the flowers and drinks that people sent. In return for attending a funeral, a towel is given to the attendee. I don't have any pictures of that.

   

This ceremony lasted quite a while and my brother and I were part of the procession even though we are "outside" grandchildren (i.e. we do not carry the name of our grandfather since he was our maternal grandfather - we were clothed in a manner to indicate this though I don't have any photos of that). One of the most difficult parts was seeing my grandfather lying in his coffin. After everyone paid their respects (which involved lots of incense, kneeling and bowing on lots of people's parts), we saw him again. However, everyone who wanted to see him one last time saw him with us and my grandmother. It was so strange because less than a year ago I saw him alive. There really are no words to describe how I feel about it. As poor as his health had been in recent years, my family was not ready or really expecting this to happen.

We escorted the coffin outside to the hearse. All of his "direct" family (except my grandmother and me) went to accompany his body to the funeral home that will house his ashes until my family is ready to transport them to the temple they have elected on the south side of the island. I went with my grandmother to help her with the offerings and prepare for their arrival. Afterwards, we paid our respects once again. We "washed" ourselves. The rest of my relatives went back to the temple, while my first aunt and I took care of burning the last of the sacrificial money for him. There was a lot left and we were burning out of our improvised offering cauldron - a rather large mixing bowl on the rooftop of my grandparents' apartment building. Being rather windy, and with a rather large stack of ceremonial cash to go through. This took us all the way through to dinner time since it was just my aunt and me.

After the services, most of my relatives left for home within the days following. My brother and I went to see my paternal grandmother yesterday after paying respects to our namesake my paternal grandfather at his temple on the south side of the island, and then visiting the technical school he founded and my dad's childhood home.





I think my grandma looks great for someone who is turning 97 this year. You can also see the quality of my camera with these photos. It stitches panoramas for me fairly well. It's got loads more megapixels, but I don't know if this is necessarily an advantage.

Well, back to your regularly scheduled programming starting Sunday.

Service Interrupted (1)

Merry Christmas! Joyeux Noel! Sheng4Dan4Jie2Kuai4Le4!

If you search Google for information regarding Taiwanese funeral customs, you see a fair mix of information. Here is one site that I have found that accords with some of my family's practices. Practices and beliefs differ from group to group (even from family to family) within Taiwan due to the wide mix of people on the island (they may all look the same to you, but to me there are Taiwanese, Chinese, the indigenous peoples and others). I thought I would blog about my experience to share a little about my experience with Taiwanese culture and also to document it for my own sake.

General things you should know about my family and me. My parents immigrated from Taiwan before I was born. For the most part, my family (grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins) lives in Taiwan. More so on my mother's side than my father's side. When together, my family speaks a mix of Taiwanese/Mandarin/English/Japanese (due to the Japanese influences on Taiwan). I am practically illiterate. I attended Chinese school for a few years as a child. I can write my name, numbers, and a handful of basic characters. I figure out pinyin/characters through a combination of the internet, phonetics, vague memories and the power of deduction.

My grandfather's funeral rites follow a mix of Buddhist and Taiwanese traditions. Since he passed away, my relatives have been going to the temple to pay respects to my grandfather. Each morning, they go to bai4bai4. This involves burning incense and giving thanks or offerings and general respect paying. According to Taiwanese beliefs, he is ascending to the afterlife but he has not taken anything with him. Each morning, after paying our respects by burning incense at his soul altar, we burn paper flowers (the steps for him to reach the afterlife) and sacrificial money (money for the afterlife). Basically, my grandmother's apartment is reminiscent of a paper/origami factory.

An auspicious day was chosen for my grandfather's funeral (07/01/08), unfortunately it is not so for my uncle's wife. A Buddhist ritual, two wooden-pieces are tossed to the floor. If they both land face-down, the answer is "No". One-up and one-down means "Yes". The internet (i.e. I don't know this person) tells me that having both face-up means that the spirit really approves. Though my family believes if they are both face up, the answer is also "No". Of all the days suggested to my grandfather (each one inauspicious for each of his children and his daughter-in-law), he selected the one that was inauspicious for my uncle's wife.

Yesterday, we went to select my grandfather's urn. Well, really my grandfather had already "selected" (same eight-ball method) his urn, but we went to inspect it for flaws. My grandmother and mother wanted a perfect one of course, but after much careful inspection, they realized that all of the urns had their own particular flaws (of course, you can't expect anything human-made to be perfect - that would imply that humans are capable of perfection). So, the family decided on the original urn.

Ancestor worship may be unfamiliar to some of you. The concept is even more difficult to explain in French to HCNs who for the most part think the three choices for religion are Christianity (Catholic or Protestant), Islam, or Animist. In fact there is a joke that the sum of the distribution of religion is 2 (and not 1) because everyone is animist. Really the closest in village I could come to describing it was animism.

Anyway, speaking of respecting my elders, it is getting late and I need to go to bed.

From Doha, Qatar (Posted in Hong Kong)

22 December 2007 - 1855 GMT
Doha, QATAR

Early this morning, I left Ouagadougou for Casablanca, one fantastically named city for another made famous by the movie of the same name. I have only ever seen the last scene. This is the first time in more than six months that I have left the country. I wish it were under better circumstances. As I mentioned previously, my grandfather passed away two weeks ago. The news came as a shock because after almost six months of serious health problems, it looked like he was finally on the upswing. I actually found out several days after he died due to poor network coverage. On holidays and weekends in Burkina Faso, text messages are hit or miss. And unfortunately, they missed me for several days in a row.

Originally, I was planning to holiday in Ghana. My entire stage (training group) is going, with the exception of the ETers, a couple people, and myself. Also, my neighbor and a few other PCVs are heading down there as well. I was planning to spend Christmas on the beach, hike and river raft, and traverse the renowned canopy walk (this list is neither exhaustive or ordered). Also, HB is headed to Ghana to visit his family at conveniently the same time I had planned to be there. As fun as it is to think of might-have-beens, I decided that I need to be with my family.

Looking on the plus side, my grandfather lived a very long and successful life despite his penchant for smoking, drinking, and a rich diet (all three of which he gave up as the years went on). I did have a chance to see him back in March before his health started to give him problems again. I also will be with my family for an extended period of time, and I am very grateful for that. My colleagues (PCVs and HCNs) as well as the PC staff have been very supportive during this time, and I want to thank them for that. I have been distracted, distraught, and pretty much just doing what I need to get myself to Taiwan. I know, however, without the wonders of modern technology, I could in all possibility be finding out about this news even later than now. Or, alternatively, I could be trapped in an airport trying to pay my way between countries. Really, without the support of everyone, I would be a lot more worse for wear than I currently am (mild case of bronchitis). Being sick on top of it all, hasn't helped, but at the same time I think the being sick is related to the stress that I have been feeling. (Stress weakens the immune system after all.)

The flight from Ouaga to Casablanca was mostly a half-asleep blur to me. It left at 0330 after all, and I was exhausted (n.b. I typically wake up somewhere between 0400 and 0600). I am not as young as I used to be, nor have I been in the best health or sleeping well lately. I was not at the airport long before taking off for Doha, Qatar. I have to say that Royal Air Maroc had surprisingly spacious legroom, but the food left something to be desired. Qatar Airways had very tasty food and personal tvs. The flight was not full at all, so I sat back and caught up on some movies before dozing off. I am hanging out in the airport right now waiting for my flight gate to be announced. The layover is approximately five hours. I hope that the flight to Hong Kong is equally awesome, but I don't have my hopes up.

(This part written in HK.)

Flight from Doha to Hong Kong was not bad. Though I slept a lot again. I will be with my family soon. Will probably be online until my battery runs out as I am hanging out in the HK airport until my next (and last flight). Thanks to everyone for their support.

PS, One of the down sides to traveling alone is the lack of people to watch your stuff while you run to the bathroom.

Fo Gou'ni

Fo Gou'ni Good morning everyone.

I am back online for the second time since... well, the last time I posted! Yesterday would be the first time but blogger was being persnickity.

These would be the only two pictures that my camera is willing to give up. The rest from Thanksgiving (food list to come) and pictures of my students refuse to be recognized by computers all around BF. I have some more photos of my house and pictures of a storm rolling in from September/October, but they are stored elsewhere so I will try to remember to bring them in tomorrow.



The first one would be one of two pies made for Thanksgiving holiday (that would be the apple pie) and the other is me after eating lots of tasty thanksgiving food. Even from the unflattering angle, it is apparent that my eating seven or more meals a day isn't helping. Yes, I do actually have first breakfast and second breakfast and sometimes if not often first and second lunch and don't forget the snacks, too! No, I am not a hobbit, but I do bike a minimum of 5k a day, if not more.



My schedule has been shuffled around a bit, and now I teach math and EPS (that would be PE/gym). I have Mondays off which works out well for me since Sunday is typically my big cleaning day. My villagers/fonctionnaires make fun of me because they don't see me all morning (and I get up before dawn) except to go to the water pump to get water. So, it gives me Monday to relax and run errands and whatnot. I am the professeur principal of 4e. That means I do the work of what computers do to calculate "GPA" or the "Moyenne". I did some programming on my dusty old TI-85 (literally it was quite dusty). Unfortunately, I remembered the limitations of that sucker in the process of programming. I remember back in high school how jealous I was with people with even TI-86's and let's not even talk about those TI-89's. I am sure technology has much advanced since then. What I would give to have Matlab and Mathematica running on something the size of a TI (and AAA or AA batteries)!!

I did not leave my village for the entire month of October, not even day trips to go to the "big city" or to visit CLM's village. In November I was finally getting stir crazy and had to restock on some tasty treats at the "supermarket" so I got to the "big city". I also played basketball, got beat up by some kids in it (not really), but I tried to turn a corner and I am just not as fast as the boys here, so I got knocked down. Banged up my glasses, knees, elbows and my head pretty good, but I am fully healed now. The glasses could be in better shape, but I still wear them in village because its better than having to switch between normal glasses and sunglasses. I am lazy, it's true, but I also bike 15k to play basketball all day and then bike back 15k afterwards, so I make up for it sort of. Internet by me has been broken since I last used it. So, I haven't gone in to the "big city" that often except to buy food for Turkey day.

Thanksgiving was amazing. Here is the list of goods consumed: popcorn, peanut brittle, beef stew, green bean casserole, candied yams, mashed potatoes, gravy, turkey and stuffing, pintade, fajitas, fried rice, pumpkin pie, apple pie, brownies, sparkling cider, sparkling grape juice, soda (I have now grown to be a big fan of tonic), yaw (dolo/millet bair). I am sure there were other things, but that is all my addled brain can remember right now.

December was kind of hectic with schedule shuffling and then grading and then calculating all my grades by Friday night so that I could leave Saturday morning. It has been hard for me because I found out on Wednesday that my grandfather passed away a week ago due to a stroke. I was planning on going to Ghana for vacation, but instead, I am trying to get to Taiwan for the funeral.

I don't have much more to say right now, except that I am a little sick and a little out of it due to the combination of events and sickness.

Moving Woes

So, I moved from California to New Jersey and since I own a lot of books, I shipped them media mail. Well, unfortunately two of the boxes never made it. I received two new boxes with a few things I've never seen before. Two of my newer yearbooks didn't make it. More unfortunate, one of my favorite paintings was in there.


I hope someone finds it and returns it to me.