Dikembe blocked

I realize people all make mistakes and are far from perfect, but I still expect a certain level of integrity. Especially some people paint pictures of their good-will and charity to others. Then they are found to be profiting personally from it....that is just incomprehensible.

What I'm talking about is an alleged gold-deal between an army General wanted by the International Criminal Court and Dikembe Mutombo.

Dikembe's gold deal

Dikembe, if this is true...shame on you! How many people were raped and abused in the gathering of this gold! And using the profits for humanitarian activities? That's absurd...do you realize how hypocritical and ridiculous that would be. So much that I don't believe it...you have millions already and greed just knows no limits. I'm sorry to hear this, as Dikembe has done lots of good for some people in DRC and he has been a role model for many Congolese, which is in desperate need of community servants and solid role models. You just lost a lot of respect...

The 3rd Republic continued

I'm not in exile anymore, but I'm not in Canaan either. We've moved past the election period and seemingly nothing has changed except the creation of more uncertainty. The legitimacy of the current regime is in serious question after seriously flawed presidential and legislative elections. Nobody quite knows where to go from here...political parties are busy molding their own versions of truth and clamoring for the rest of the power.

Meanwhile, conservation will continue to be extremely difficult in this political environment. The vast majority of Congolese depend directly on natural resources (what they can hunt, grow, or gather) and are living in abject poverty. Therefore, poaching and mining in protected areas will continue at a high tenor, because the justice system does not function. Poachers spend 3 days in prison, pay off the prison-guards and are back in the forest causing chaos for elephants, as well as native pygmy populations. The pygmies are greatly affected by poaching, as they're either obliged to guide the poachers or they're threatened by them. So one can sometimes ascertain the safety of the forest by which/how many pygmies are living along the road. Conservation faces an uphill battle - in reducing poaching and destruction of ecosystems and species pyramids. Unless things change, it will continue the overexploitation that has been seen in many previous civilizations, but somehow, very rarely in Africa. This reminds me of how few American bison were left before American settlers realized they had to stop and put some controls on their hunting.

Persistent insecurity will not favor the growth of the tourism sector anytime soon, with Virunga NP and Kahuzi-Biega National Parks being the only accessible options in DRC. No matter how you cut it, there is only a very small number of intrepids who are going to take the risk and hassle of coming to DRC. But they should! Its an interesting place, very beautiful, and yet, troubled.

In Exile (observing elections from a distance)

For DRC's recent elections, there was a lot at stake – the rule over a country of 70 million people, which borders 9 countries (Angola, Zambia, Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda, Sudan, Central African Republic, Republic of Congo), and has vast resource wealth. However, the state institutions are being rebuilt after corruption and wars devastated the country. DRC remains impoverished, recently being rated 187 out of 187 countries in the Human Development Index, which measures such indicators as literacy, maternal and infant mortality, life expectancy, and wealth.

The Congolese population has the most at stake as they've have been waiting a long time for their government to start functioning and to stop preying on them. So given recent wars, continued instability, and significant tension, we acted with a lot of precaution. Offices were shut down from Dec 3 – 10, while the election results were tallied and final results announced. I went into exile in Uganda on Dec 4, while waiting for the results to be announced on Dec 6. The electoral commission however delayed the announcement 48 hrs to Dec 8, which was delayed at the last minute until Dec 9. These delays were due to logistical problems and also general disorganization that reigned from the start of the campaigns to the end of voting.

The wait was a bit intense, though we all knew who would be re-elected, as the incumbent stuffed ballot boxes, used state resources and institutions for his campaign, put friends in all major election commission and supreme court positions, and touted democracy the entire way. Shameless! But, given the possibilities (literally anything you could imagine has already happened in DRC), it was still interesting to follow and also to try to gauge what the reaction would be.

Beni, the eastern city where I pass through on my way out of the country, seems like a relatively calm place, but my friends who live there often here gunshots at night, and insecurity is chronic. On voting day (Nov 28), a large group of armed men attacked the central prison, killing the prison guards and freeing over 400 prisoners, allegedly so that they could go vote! Then on the morning of the original results proclamation day (Dec 6), a militia attacked and released more criminals. But then things returned to normal in a few hours. We knew the situation was volatile, but with very isolated incidents across a huge country. Any more disruptive reactions to elections might bend toward a longer-term trajectory or take part in the capital city over 1000 miles west of me. So, I returned from exile for about 8 days. On our return, we passed through an area where a bus had avoided a roadblock set by unidentified armed men and one passenger was killed when they shot through the back windows. This was yet another sobering reminder of the insecurity that plagues the country.

In my village, it was business as usual, though election chatter dominated among my colleagues because the opposition and different observation groups contested the results. After working and planning what needed to be done over vacation and early in 2012, I left again to pass a few days in Beni before vacation officially started. When I arrived there, rumors circulated of imminent attacks, so my bosses told me to just go!

On Tuesday, the incumbent was sworn in while only one head-of-state attended, Robert Mugabe, the 173 year-old Zimbabwean dictator who destroyed their economy. That was a strong sign of the illegitimacy of this regime. Even their closest allies like South Africa, Rwanda, and China were noticeably absent.

Meanwhile, the main opposition leader apparently held his own inauguration ceremony Friday. He was not allowed to hold it in a Kinshasa football stadium as originally planned. He's basically under house arrest, which is fine because he's 78 and likes his house a lot. It seems we're in for a political crisis, which we hope won't degenerate. DRC can't afford it. But they also can't afford for democracy to get trampled all over. Where will the rule of law and justice begin with an administration that abuses it? Development cannot happen without it.

Pre-electoral period :

(written Nov 15, 2011)

I've just returned to DRC during the month of campaigning prior to Nov 28 presidential and national elections. There is a lot of anticipation in the air, and frankly lots of worry. There is nothing concrete that gives us reason to worry but it's just uncertainty, volatility, and immaturity and cutthroat nature of politics in this region that has people concerned. There are clear signs that these elections will be fraught with intimidation, voter fraud, and muscling in whatever way possible, as the rules of fair play are difficult to enforce here.

For good coverage of the elections, there is a good blog by Jason Stearns, an American human rights researcher, who has a network from which he acquires credible information. I'm keeping my eye on his blog these days, just to get a feel for the situation.

Voting is done by emotions here – so if the incumbent hands out $10 or pieces of printed cloth to a group of poor citizens a few days before the election, they can easily forget the 5 years of corruption and ineffectual governance that has plunged DRC to the very bottom of the Human Development Index, while insecurity at the hands of the national army persists.  Even nations like Niger, Chad and Mali, who have few resources and dictatorship government, are ahead of DRC. It is quite sad, as there is so much potential here…but its only that. I now see the negative sense of the word "potential" – when everything is there, but nothing has yet been done. I'm talking about the state government. Congolese themselves are survivors, habituated to making the best of any situation. They've never been able to expect anything from government, as it has always functioned to siphon off of the people rather than to provide services. Dictators have come and gone and come again, but opposition isn't able to clearly break from this system. So the system may not change no matter what happens. Congolese will survive, but what level of suffering will they be able to endure?

Birds on the brain

Thanks to July’s trip with my parents to western Uganda, my long pathetic search for a hobby has finally yielded something. Ornithology! - simply the science (?) of identifying birds! Given my choices in life, I am living in a mega-hotspot for birds - frequently traveling in the Albertine Rift which bridges the Congo Basin and East Africa's savannahs.

Anyways, with my parents, we visited Bigodi wetland which is a community conservation project just outside of the Kibale National Park in western Uganda. This project generates revenue for community members by leading tourists on guided primate & bird walks. Our young guide Alex was inspiring. Within seconds of debarking on our bird walk, he was shooting off cock-eyed looks through his binoculars and telling us which species we were seeing. A few minutes into the hike, Alex, exclaimed, “Oh, I hear a golden-backed thrush! I’m going to get him to fly overhead!” Then Alex whipped out his iPod and portable speakers and quickly played the call. The bird responded by flying directly overhead and repeating the recorded call. Wow! That was amazing!! As we proceeded, sometimes we’d hear birdcalls a long ways off. Other times we’d stop to talk and by chance, catch the glimpse of bird perched silently in the undergrowth close to us.
“What is that one Alex?!”
“It’s a blue-breasted kingfisher”; “It’s the larger cousin of the woodland kingfishers which you probably already know”
“What bout that one!!”
“That one is Ross’s turaco, one of three turacos found here. Frequently in groups of three”;
“Wow, this is your lucky day. That is a white-collared oliveback, see its white collar! OH wow! Even the female is here! I only see these about three times in a year! And we are getting such a good view of a couple!”
So this cool guy and fun experience convinced me that I should become an ornithology hobbyist! Other fun outings on the trip around Fort Portal crater lakes, Kabwoya Wildlife Reserve, and Murchison Falls National Park provided many new bird sightings! And back in Massachusetts, I went out with my new ornithologist friend Russ to a saltmarsh where we (read: he) identified 53 species in one day!
Now, I couldn’t hold the jockstrap of Alex (pardon me for trying to remember vulgar high school slang). I frequently search vainly for that incessant chirping in the forest canopy and viney tangles, but the darn bird won’t come out and show its beak! Oh SNAP, he just flew off! I can’t get my binocs to my face fast enough…and he’s gone….
Also, I have a very small capacity to forcefully imprint new calls into my brain. However, I find birding to be tons of fun! I wander all around Epulu with my binoculars and see things that I never cared to notice before. Having spent the better part of two years here already, I’m finding some birdsongs are already inprinted in my subconscious, but now I am matching the song to its singer by its color, size, shape, size, patterns, and behavior.
I was super lucky to have my new birding fetish coincide with the extended vacation of one the very few Congolese ornithologists. We went out birding together several times and he gave me some key tips and helped me with identification. Also, knowing that someone finds this interesting was important ego-booster. In fact, I’m not the first, second, third or fourth. Epulu has a rich history of conservationists (of whom I couldn’t humbly hold the jockstrap for) and ornithologists, who have successfully identified well over 300 species of birds in and around the central sector of Okapi Reserve!
To date, I’ve successfully identified about 25 of these birds, but my list is growing every day! There are easily another 25-50 that I wasn’t able to identify. And, I may be nuts, but I swear on my life that I saw the most seductive forest bird that one could ever imagine existed. Imagine a beta fish in bird form – black but with two long white tail feathers on either side of the tail, it was floating up in the canopy! There for 5 seconds before I took my binocs down and started running around in circles in excitement. Then it floated off, never to be seen again! But I know he and many others are still out there, waiting to be discovered.

PS. The little guy in the photo is a red-cheeked cordon bleu - a type of finch that we saw in Kabwoya Wildlife Reserve on the shores of Lake Albert in Uganda.

10 things I miss v. 10 things I like

Things I miss about America
1. Ice
2. Ice cream
3. My family!
4. Snowstorms
5. 24/7 electricity (not counting freak October snowstorms or hurricanes)
6. Instantaneous everything (Smartphones)
7. Driving
8. Flush toilets
9. Newspapers, nightly news & even local news
10. Sweet desserts

Things I like about being in Africa
1. Carol

2. Having a cook!
3. Exploring, hiking, birding, enjoying incredible nature
4. My cat Kidogo (my other kitty Minnie, Kidogo’s mother,died recently )
5. Simple village life
6. Awesome lightning and showers during thunderstorms
7. Not driving
8. Excitement of new experiences
9. When things work
10. Juicy pineapples, mangos, and papaya

Pre-Election Period

I’ve just returned to DRC during the month of campaigning prior to Nov 28 presidential and national elections. There is a lot of anticipation in the air, and frankly lots of worry. There is nothing concrete that gives us reason to worry but it’s just uncertainty, volatility, and immaturity of politics in this region that has people concerned. There are signs that these elections will be fraught with intimidation and voter fraud, as the rules of fair play are difficult to enforce here.

For good coverage of the elections, there is a good blog by Jason Stearns, an American human rights researcher, who has a network from which he acquires credible information. I’m keeping my eye on his blog these days, just to get a feel for the situation.

Voting is done by emotions here – so if the incumbent hands out $10 or pieces of cloth to a group of poor citizens a few days before the election, they can easily forget the 5 years of corruption and ineffectual governance that has plunged DRC to the very bottom of the Human Development Index, while insecurity at the hands of the national army persists. Even nations who have few resources and dictatorship government, are ahead of DRC.

Its sad for the Congolese people, as there is so much potential here…but its only that til now. Here we see the negative sense of the word “potential” – when everything is there, but nothing has been done yet.