seven times two

Why I don’t mind the term “developing nation”

Here are a few photos from another awesome weekend in Kampala, UG. The weekend included a visit to Acacia Mall in the city (with a movie theatre, KFC, huge bookstore, and stores way out of my price range with $200 dresses and designer shoes), a Mexican restaurant and Coronas, my favorite coffee shop at Lugogo Shoprite Mall, a swimming pool at a beautiful hotel a mile from my village, and me almost running my car into a telephone poll on a bumpy village dirt road.

Sure, there are parts of the country without electricity, running water, or cell service (I’ve spent enough time in these parts to love them unconditionally). But, there are also booming industries, beautiful buildings, houses nicer than my own house in the suburbs of Washington, DC (and WAY nicer than the little old house I live in near our college campus……). There are art exhibits, book clubs, vineyards, spas, resorts, five star restaurants, and shiny new cars. And no, this isn’t how it used to be – Uganda and east Africa at large are ‘developing’. Progressing. Changing over time. And if you ask around, people are pretty proud of that. They’ll proudly tell you how their neighborhood has been built up from nothing, how their business nearly failed but was able to recover, or how their village is safer now than it once was. They’re proud of the effort they’ve put into their lives and their nation, and this is the effort that has allowed them to develop. Instead of pushing history under the rug, Ugandans really seem to embrace how much they have allowed for development. Their nation is developing.

It’s strange that a word that’s intended to mean progressing, growing, and improving is so stigmatized in the sense that we expect and assume more of 'developed’ nations than those 'developing’. Sure, there’s political violence here, but the homicide rate sits at about 10% consistently. That’s only about half the homicide rate for blacks in America (roughly 19%), and not much higher than the national cross-race rate in the US. Economically, there are clear struggles, but Uganda was just rated as the most entrepreneurial nation in the world by the Approved Index.

Personally, I find the levels of confidence placed in the terms 'developed’ and the 'developing’ to be quite alarming. I have to wonder, is the US really fully developed? With so many inequalities, problems, and tragedies, are we really prepared to claim that label and the mindset it comes with? Are we ready to accept that we have developed as much as possible and we are no longer developing?

“Watoto wote wana haki sawa!” “All children have the same rights!”

Some of my favourite East African cities!

The German photographer and artist Barbara Dombrowski is helping to build awareness about climate change by connecting indigenous peoples in the Amazon and the Arctic impacted by rapidly changing weather patterns through art, thereby creating a sense of solidarity and understanding between cultures.

As part of her project ‘Tropic Ice’, Barbara Dombrowski photographed Inuit people living among the receding glaciers of Greenland and the Achuar people in the forests of the Amazon in Ecuador whose way of life is threatened by oil exploration. “All people, the people in the jungle, the people in the Western world, the people in Africa and Asia, have only one planet. We have a chance now in this generation. If leaders don’t act, it will be gone. We don’t have a lot of time left,” she said.

Read more: http://bit.ly/2qUhKTY

6 key takeaways from the James Comey hearing on Trump and Russia

1. No one told Comey to end the Russia probe. The former FBI director said President Donald Trump and other officials never asked Comey to end the investigation into possible Russian hacking during the presidential election. Comey also confirmed Trump was not personally under investigation.

2. Comey said Trump pressured him to not investigate national security adviser Michael Flynn. As Trump asked other top officials to leave him alone with Comey, the former FBI director told the committee he was thinking, “I knew something was about to happen I needed to pay very close attention too. … Why would you kick everybody out of the Oval Office?”

3. He refused to say whether he believed Trump obstructed justice. Comey took Trump’s “let it go” comment about the Flynn investigation “as a direction.” Comey highlighted that Trump’s comment came the day after Flynn was fired. He also revealed, for the first time, that Flynn was under criminal investigation.

4. Comey tried to force the creation of a special counsel. He told the committee that he directed a Columbia Law School professor to leak the contents of his memos to a journalist to raise the chances a special counsel would be appointed. Mic confirmed this account.

5. The testimony was personal. Because of “the person” he was speaking with, Comey said he felt compelled to take notes after any conversation with Trump. He had not done that with two previous presidents. “I was honestly concerned he might lie about the nature of the meeting,” Comey told the committee. “I was so stunned by the conversation that I just took it in.”