Devon Whittle » Africa

Travis Kavulla on AIDS relief and culture

devonwhittle — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 12:12:34 +0000

Aids Relief and Moral Myopia by Travis Kavulla is definitely worth a read for anyone interested in the intersection between ‘Western development’ and local cultures.

Kavulla articles addresses how and why current Western approaches to AIDS aren’t working in Africa due to differing cultural approaches to problem solving.

Whereas in the West we have dealt with AIDS with primarily technical solutions like condoms and ARVs (which have worked!), Kavulla writes that we can’t just transplant to Africa and expect good results, as it fails to take into account the non-Western approach to problems which involves more than just material/technical solutions.

He argues that we need to understand the role spirituality plays in African societies to be able to really tackle AIDS, and that we need to be willing to advocate the altering of behaviour rather then just rely on ’scientific’ or technical solutions to problems.

Some good quotes:

The lesson the public-health community derived from this experience was that widespread sex and drug use is an immutable fact of life. In this light, the main task of the public-health community was and is to give risky behaviors an appliqué of safety, not to seek to alter behavior fundamentally, lest stigma and alienation result. This attitude is rigorously enforced today in such circles; at the 2007 worldwide conference on AIDS in Mexico City, a number of scientists emphasizing behavioral change over condom use were actually shouted down. …

Go to any district hospital in Africa today, and you will find two clinics: one for AIDS—built, funded, and perhaps even staffed by the donor community—and the other for everything else, supported by whatever invariably cash-strapped and corrupt government presides. Bruce Dahlman notes, “Medical officers in either clinic will be seeing the same conditions, because those HIV patients come in with colds and flus and everything else, but they’ll be treated as a separate category because of their status.” So, in addition to the prospect of being medicated for life, Africans who develop AIDS and need intensive treatment become taboo figures—the lepers of this century, you might say, though exquisitely looked after by comparison, much to the resentment of those who must make do with regular health care.

It’s a great read to see how important our cultural blinders can be when trying to ‘help’ others.

There is an obvious danger of condescension and hypocrisy in “telling Africans to abstain and be faithful”, but I think Travulla’s argument is more nuanced then this sort of paternalism. It recognises that for an approach to work it needs to be rooted in the local culture and make sense to the people its designed to help. And I think all to often Western assistance fails because it just doesn’t make sense outside of the donor country.

Travis Kavulla on AIDS relief and culture is a post from: Devon Whittle. You can contact the author at devonwhittle@gmail.com.

Problems with participatory constitution making

devonwhittle — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 14:27:29 +0000

Post-conflict constitution making is really difficult. How do you draft a document that serves as the “law of last resort”, that everyone agrees to, in a society that has just experienced massive division that resulted in a conflict?

I recently read an article by James Thuo Gathii that contrasted the experiences of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Kenya in drafting a new constitution.

In the DRC the draft constitution had relatively little input from the public, yet was overwhelmingly passed in a 2005 referendum. In Kenya despite widespread consultation and public input, the draft constitution was defeated in a referendum the same year.

IMG SOURCE: ZimTelegraph

Gathii posits that in the DRC the new constitution was seen as a break from the conflict of the past, and so was readily accepted; whereas the “participatory constitution making” undertaken in Kenya actually served to further fracture the country and left it more ethnically divided.

This adds another complex layer to post-conflict legal reconstruction. While it would appear obvious that constitution making should be participatory and open to public debate, Kenya’s experience shows that we also need to be conscious of how that debate takes place and where the dividing lines fall. Conversely, widespread public acceptance of a constitution doesn’t mean the people actually agree with or like the document.

So while enacting a constitution is often seen as the birth of a nation, as people overcome their differences to work together as one country, getting to that end point can be a dangerous process – public participation can result in increased division, and people are liable to approve a constitution for a variety of reasons apart from actually agreeing with it – and given the supra-law status of constitutions, it is a very important process to get right.

Problems with participatory constitution making is a post from: Devon Whittle. You can contact the author at devonwhittle@gmail.com.

Saying hello to the hawkers

devonwhittle — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 06:31:53 +0000

The first few times you walk down any main street in Arusha your bound to be greeted by many ‘Mambo!’s, ‘Hello!’s and handshakes from all the hawkers and street vendors on the lookout for tourists. It seems that quite a few people here are “painters” or own a store that they’d love you to come visit and get a “big discount” at.

photo source: loukreu
On a few occasions, I have struck up a conversation with someone on the street, only to then have them try to sell me something for the next fifteen minutes, during which time the price drops from $25 to $5 as long as you keep saying you don’t want it. At the end of that sort of hard sell it can be hard to say no (we have one dodgy painting in our apartment from this tactic so far).

While it’s easy enough to just walk fast and ignore them and the paintings, newspaper, maps and jewellery that they are selling, it’s hard not to feel rude doing this sometimes.

After three months here, my wife and I are well known enough so that most hawkers don’t bother trying to sell stuff to us on the streets, and the people we see at the market are now comfortable striking up a conversation with us (and giving us non-exploitative prices). In fact, Clare has even managed on a few occasions to sit and chat with some locals after doing some shopping at the markets. Her knowledge of Kiswahilii probably helps in that regard too.

I’ve been told off twice now for being “too busy” and for not replying to a Mambo. So maybe I need to start practising my Kiswahillii – Poa (cool) and hapana sante (no thank-you). Hopefully I won’t be coming home with a too many more dodgy paintings bought at crazy prices.

Saying hello to the hawkers is a post from: Devon Whittle. You can contact the author at devonwhittle@gmail.com.

World Vision is more than fundraising

devonwhittle — Tue, 26 May 2009 11:38:15 +0000

I was almost run over by a white World Vision SUV today.

It came speeding at me from down a pot-holed, dirt road. My first encounter with the this side of the aid agency world.

Back home in Melbourne, we usually see aid agencies via their marketing machines. Glossy brochures, flashy websites, appeals for donations. In Tanzania, I’ve been able to get a small insight into another perspective – not aid agencies as marketers, but as social welfare agencies.

I haven’t seen any advertisements for sponsorships or donations, or seen any tele-thons, but I have heard one 12 year old boy talk about how great his Canadian sponsors were because it meant he could go to school and maybe study law one day.

I’m not sure that this means much beyond being my anecdotal experience of living outside of a ‘donor country’, and it certainly isn’t enough to change my views, for example, against traditional child sponsorship, but I found it encouraging, especially given how maligned aid agencies are and how easy it is to find fault with them.

World Vision is more than fundraising is a post from: Devon Whittle. You can contact the author at devonwhittle@gmail.com.

Arusha prices

devonwhittle — Thu, 07 May 2009 11:10:02 +0000

My wife recently wrote a post on how much things costs here in Arusha. This was something I was always searching for when planning for the internship, so I’ve reproduced some of it below.

photo credit: will pate
On Saturday I went to the Sokoine Market where fresh fruit and vegetables are sold and spent about $13AUS on the items below:

1 cucumber (200 shilingi)

1 avocado (500 shilingi)

bunch of basil (100 shilingi)

cup of green peas (500 shilingi)

5 tomatoes (500 shilingi)

400g green beans (300 shilingi0

2 medium sized zucchini’s (300 shilingi)

bunch of watercress (100 shilingi)

medium bunch of spinach (purchased as someone picked it on my way to market) (200 shilingi)

7 apples (3500 shilingi)

2 oranges (200 shilingi)

6 potatoes (500 shilingi)

spring onion (100 shilingi)

6 small onions and a piece of ginger (500 shilingi)

1 coconut (300 shilingi)

a medium sized bunch of bananas (800 shilingi)

3 green capsicums (300 shilingi)

3 eggplants (900 shilingi)

8 carrots (300 shilingi)

Arusha prices is a post from: Devon Whittle. You can contact the author at devonwhittle@gmail.com.

SCRUTINIIIZE

devonwhittle — Tue, 05 May 2009 14:31:09 +0000

If you watch MTV for any reasonable amount of time here in Tanzania you are bound to see the SCRUTINIZE ad for HIV awareness. While HIV public health education in Australia is subtle to say the least, these campaign is in your face and loud.

It is almost incomprehensible to outsiders like myself, but the gist of the series of short advertisements seems to be to get viewers know and protect their HIV status and practice safe sex. The advertisements are animations of ‘township’ African characters who screetch their message across the television. “If a player is too drunk to put it [a condom] on, don’t put him in the game”, we are told, and the catch phrase is “Flip HIV to HI Victory!”. They are set in a variety of places, from bars to game shows, and are always eye-catching, amusing and not at all the typical dour pronouncement that public health announcements too easily turn in to.

What interests me in these ads is how culturally tuned they are. You could not play them in Australia and have any sort of impact – I doubt many Australian teens would even understand them. A lot of thought has obviously gone in to what would work here in Southern and East Africa, and it appears to be working.

SCRUTINIIIZE is a post from: Devon Whittle. You can contact the author at devonwhittle@gmail.com.

Overheard in Arusha

devonwhittle — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 15:56:51 +0000

I heard a school kid singing this song this week in Arusha.

Slave, slave, slave in America.

Working hard day and night.

Planting sugar, sugar and tea.

When I was in America.

See my hand, which is broken.

Working hard day and night.

Planting sugar, sugar and tea.

When I was in America.

If only I had a recording to share with you too. He says it’s a song that all the kids at his school sing. It’s quite catchy, but one wonders about the implications for international relations…

Overheard in Arusha is a post from: Devon Whittle. You can contact the author at devonwhittle@gmail.com.

Why a 'hippocratic' Africa policy wouldn't work

devonwhittle — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 02:16:46 +0000

Owen Abroad posts on a suggestion that the the USA’s Africa policy should start with “first, do no harm”. He concludes: “The literal application of the hippocratic rule prevents policy-makers from taking risks where there is a possibility of doing harm but where the good could massively outweigh it. If we adopt a policy of never doing harm, we will limit the amount of good we can do.”

Why a 'hippocratic' Africa policy wouldn't work is a post from: Devon Whittle. You can contact the author at devonwhittle@gmail.com.

Zimbabwe's Reserve Banker: "It can't be any worse"

devonwhittle — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 02:16:26 +0000

An interview with Gideon Gono, Zimbabwe’s central banker. It all makes sense now… Zimbabwe's Reserve Banker: "It can't be any worse" is a post from: Devon Whittle. You can contact the author at devonwhittle@gmail.com. Related posts:Chernobyl turns into nature reserve GreenPrint and EverGreen How to use Google Scholar with Melbourne University Subscriptions

Zimbabwe's Reserve Banker: "It can't be any worse" is a post from: Devon Whittle. You can contact the author at devonwhittle@gmail.com.

This would have been awesome

devonwhittle — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 09:54:44 +0000

Blattman calls it The Greatest Development Story Ever Told – a 1950’s idea to turn the DRC into an inland sea in Africa. This would have been awesome is a post from: Devon Whittle. You can contact the author at devonwhittle@gmail.com. Related posts:Awesome development data resources Oxfam's new fairtrade chocolate is awesome Development Tourists – good, bad or ugly?

This would have been awesome is a post from: Devon Whittle. You can contact the author at devonwhittle@gmail.com.