Mad Developing World

The year was known as 2010. It was the moment in time when the human species utterly dominated the landmass of a planet they called Earth and the Big Bang was held as the best prevailing scientific model for the beginning of the Universe. They believed that there were more than 170 billion galaxies in the observable universe, and named their own the Milky Way. They reckoned their genus, homo, was about 2.3 to 2.4 million years old (though some doubted it).

They had many pending questions but also many convictions. Believers in Gods were divided among 2 billion Christians, 1.2 billion Muslims, 800 million Hindus and 700 million followers of other religions. Some suggested there had never been any God, some had sought to prove that the concept of God originated in their minds. Others, though, didn’t even think about it.

It was that time in the history soon after the discovery of the wheel. The people from the northern part of the planet came to the conclusion that it would be good to create a ‘vehicle’ to move faster along the planet’s surface or just above it, sending a rocket to a nearby moon. They loved to laugh at their ancestors’ mistaken beliefs, like the Sun orbiting the Earth, or hardly a century before, of the mounting problem of New York swimming in horse manure. People from the 2010 however rarely questioned their own discoveries and mindsets.



Many would wear shoes so as not to get their feet dirty or to appear higher than they in fact were. People actually quite liked to interact with nature; they would mow the lawn, paint their faces or wear sunglasses to protect their eyes from the sun.

Two hundred years was but a flash in their long history, a blink of the eye, yet it defined their present in so many ways. Some of the pale northern human nations ‘developed’ more or less 200 years beyond the others and subsequently tended to believe in their superiority. They were thusly convinced of their right to impose their mindset on the rest of the planet. Even instances of violence between the inhabitants of the same geographical region were reported with some groups feeling dominant over the others.

The ones who traveled to destinations that they considered ‘less developed’ did so for money, bad intentions or power (their own or the power of their ideology) – all in all, to take advantage of the other human beings. Consequently, some ate a lot and some died of hunger. Others sought in the ‘less developed areas’ mere entertainment or relaxation – as they reckoned – you could still find unspoilt and natural spots that used to cover the planet beforehand. The vast majority couldn’t afford travel or were completely uninterested.

Finally, there were those who believed it was paramount to develop the undeveloped ones. Their intentions were various too – from a need to provide a helping hand to pity or mere pretense.

Amongst the inhabitants the wisest used to gathered at summits which aimed at either the uniting of nations or particular interests of their countries. Many argued which was the right approach.

It was 2010. It was a moment in time.

A man from Ireland sipping a coffee from a paper cup turning a page of a magazine reads about hundreds of millions of gallons of oil spilled in the Gulf of Mexico. A girl driving her SUV vehicle to work, and thinking of the topic of her new post in a blogging competition. Another summit about the MDG campaign at the United Nations headquarters in New York.

An Ethiopian kid crying and shivering from hunger. A lonely mother from Djibouti gazing out of her window dreaming of sending her son to school. A smiling girl from Niger reading a leaflet on the work of the national parliament. A mother and a child dying during birth in Angola. A South African coughing up blood during the World Cup finale. 2010. China overtaking Germany to become the largest exporter but also the largest carbon dioxide emitter. Americans thriving in their global economy with just 0.16 of their GNI for the ‘developing countries’.

The promise. In 2010 some believed that a promise ‘would help’. That a campaign ‘would make it’. Every time more articles were being written, every time less was being done.

2010. A moment in time.

If you have any ideas how the planet in 2010 could be helped please send me an email or call to +353 876 18 33 21.

*According to the MDG Monitor the countries mentioned here are making the least progress in achieving selected MDG goals.

A quarter-century after

It was 13 July 1985, midday. Thousands of people gathered at the Wembley and JFK Stadiums. Queen started off with the “Bohemian Rapsody” and the crowds went wild. The clapping sequence of “Radio Gaga” left a mark on the history of live music. And so did the multi-venue concert.



Two stadiums –Wembley in London and JFK in Philadelphia were full. An estimated 2 billion viewers from over 60 countries witnessed what was later to be described as the greatest rock concert in history.

It appeared completely innocent and the cause seemed so right. The 1984-1985 famine in Ethiopia decimated its inhabitants. Moreover, the success of the Band Aid’s charity single “Do they know it’s Christmas” (it became a number one and sold more than 3.5 million copies in the UK) indicated that such initiatives could gain a lot of attention.

You couldn’t stay indifferent confronted with those images. A video shot by Canadian Broadcasting Corporation showing starving and diseased Ethiopian children was broadcast to audiences around the world as well as to the crowds gathered in London and Philadelphia, after which the number of calls to the 300 phone lines manned by the BBC skyrocketed.

Amongst many, on the same stage of London Wembley Stadium performed U2, Dire Straits, Queen, Elthon John, David Bowie, The Who, George Michael, Sade, and Paul Young. On the other Black Sabbath, Santana and Pat Metheny, Led Zeppelin, Eric Clapton, Madonna, Duran Duran, Mick Jagger, and Bob Dylan, to name just a few.

The clarity of intentions of the superstars involved might be questioned. Many admitted that although an event of this magnitude had sounded improbable, they were eager to take part in it for the sake of the buzz it generated. The image of combining the culture of pop with the philanthropy appeared positive. The era of commercialisation of aid initiatives was on its way. The artistic expression was to serve as means of the protest against the policies of the governments and the consequences of the globalisation.

The initiative has not been without controversy. Although the words of Bono and the lack of transparency in the money allocation initially generated waves of criticism, the aftermaths of the concert were a time bomb. It wasn’t until June 2005 that Fox News television host Bill O’Reilly claimed that large amounts of the funds were siphoned off by Mengisty Haile Mariam and his army.

That critique was followed by another in March this year when Martin Plaut of the BBC reported that vast sums of the fundraised money was spent on weapons by rebels from the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front who allegedly posed as merchants (one of the rebel leaders estimated the amount of money diverted for $95 million).

Although Bob Geldof, the founder of Band Aid initially dismissed the claims, documents released by the CIA confirmed aid was “almost certainly being diverted for military purposes”.

Many critics have also underlined that similar events divert the attention of the global north from the trade reforms and put emphasis on uncritical boosting aid.

You can’t question however the undeniable role Live Aid played in the sensitisation of the global community, which ever since has been more critical and cautious than ever.

A quarter-century after Live Aid I invite you to enlist with me in the comments section the lessons that we have learnt during the course of the years.

WITCHCRAFT UNVEILED (3mp3’s)

‘May I come in?’ – ‘You are welcome, muzungu’ – I heard a low and dry voice.
‘So this is what a witch doctor’s ‘office’ looks like’ – I thought and sat in the chair opposite.

Dr. Picho was on a phone explaining the dosage to one of his patients…

•••

If I am being honest, I used to label all the practitioners as witch doctors and believed witchcraft was practiced by primitive people. I had also an impression that both Western doctors and the missionaries didn’t acknowledge the traditional beliefs and considered that by helping the locals wipe them out they would help Africa to take a seat among the civilized nations in the world. I wasn’t sure whose view was right and assumed the truth was somewhere in the middle.

So I treated it more like an experiment. From my fellow Ugandan journalists I got a telephone number to Mama Fiina – the Uganda’s most recognised witch. She didn’t seem to be willing to meet me – her secretary kept on calling off our appointment and I was a little scared by her creaky voice so… I just took a newspaper and looked through the ads.

Most of them showed one direction, Makindye so without further ado I jumped on a boda boda and we rushed through the jam up one of the Kampala hills…

•••



‘So you are a journalist!’ – said doctor Picho, a grandson of two Ugandan kings – ‘I am surprised! You, bazungu, usually come with health issues – there are many Americans visiting us – high blood pressure, diabetes, overweight - all sorts of problems. How did you know how to get here?’

‘I just opened a newspaper.’

‘OK, no problem. If you want, I can also show you the Owino market , cause I need to buy some herbs. Would you like to get some help yourself?’

‘No, thanks’ – I smiled.

This is the result of that first interview (if you use Firefox and can't see the sound click here) :



It was all very confusing – dr. Picho would denominate himself as a herbalist yet what he had in his offer seemed very far from healing popular illnesses. With his help I got to meet mr. Haji Sentamu, the president of the Uganda Medical Practitioners' Association. I was surprised to discover, the practice was legal and there were 250 thousand herbalists registered in 33 million Uganda population, with illegal workers outnumbering the registered ones. As six million Ugandans believe in witchcraft, a well-known healer can earn as much as 3 million Ugandan shillings (over $1300).
I was soon to discover priests and doctors were far from disregarding the achievements of the local healers. In Malawi I talked to some medical students from Ireland working for World Medical Fund, who convinced me about the healing properties of some of the African herbs and acknowledged traditional medicine as equally important as the Western one.



In Zambia I talked to one of the many priests that believe in supernatural powers – Salesian Father Eustace Siame, who considers himself an exorcist.



It also turned out that rich and educated people, among them political leaders make up a large number of the witch doctors customers.

•••

Behind the closed eye

For the next appointment with a healer I didn’t bring any recorder or camera. In fact, I didn’t go to a herbalist. I believed I needed something that would feel like real magic. A witchdoctor, not a herbalist.

I didn’t share it with anybody but a girl who introduced to the ‘sangoma’. In a remote location, in the outskirts of Kampala she showed me the way to the shrine. We sat on plastic chairs and waited, I then paid and we could enter the room. We needed to take our shoes off and kneel down in front of him as soon as we entered.

‘I would like to enchant a man so that he falls in loves with me’ – I uttered. He first inhaled something, then he put his hands above my head and started whispering words. I blacked out. When I woke up I was lying on the carpet. He was seated in his armchair and said he had seen my future and that if I had a man in mind, I should better get him out of my head. He predicted I was soon going back to Poland (at that time I thought I was to stay 2 more years) and that I would have problems with sinusitis.

I left that room convinced witch doctors manipulate reality. I was sure there was no difference between him and doctor Picho. The next day I was at home and while preparing a lunch I opened a drawer. Inside there was a small snake standing and hissing at me. I ran outside and called a boy from the local market, who came with a stick and killed the snake.

‘How on earth could the snake enter the wardrobe?’ – I was pretty emotional – ‘It was in the drawer inside a locked room and I was the only person who would have the keys to either, the drawer had no hole’ – I wondered.

‘Somebody from the neighbourhood has been doing magic’ - the housekeeper shrugged her arms – ‘Such things happen when the witchcraft is involved’.



•••

Sections of The Uganda Witchcraft Act of 1957 state: “Any person who directly or indirectly threatens another with death by witchcraft or by any other supernatural means shall be guilty of an offence and on conviction shall be liable to imprisonment for life”. It adds, “Any person who practices witchcraft or who holds himself out as a witch, whether on one or more occasions, shall be guilty of an offence and on conviction shall be liable to imprisonment for a period not exceeding five years.”

Recently, traditional healers petitioned in the Ugandan parliament to amend the act. They felt the vague definition of witchcraft undermined their work.

In fact, I am among many who, quite understandably, tend to confuse healers, because:

a) their scopes of work vary and some, in order to be able to work legally, call themselves herbalists, although they do practice bad magic;

b) witchcraft experience is not necessarily the first thing your Africans friends would share with you, if they know anything about it at all.

One thing we can’t deny is the absolutely vital presence of witchcraft in the society and the role it has played in the African history and the growing number of child sacrifice – something that has to be dealt with immediately.

You can read this post at:
http://development.thinkaboutit.eu/think3/post/witchcraft_unveiled_3mp3s