Canadian Culture?

 This week started off normally with school, course work, and slow evenings.  Luckily that ended on thursday with a cultural gala!  It is held every year here for the students and any cultural group can take part, which meant that most of Uganda's and some from the rest of East Africa took part.  As it was a competition each group had to sing the university anthem, sing a folksong from their area, recite a poem, sing a song, and preform their cultural dance.  In all it lasted two full days and even a heavy rain storm could not stop it.  I only lasted half a day of watching it.   

 The picture right is of the Mugandans singing the anthem. They were easily the largest choir, and arguments did break out about choir size.  All choirs wear the red robes you see, those are the official undergrad student robes of Makerere, yes I have one also. Sorry it is sideways, it cant be helped right now though. 

To the right is a student from the Acholi singing a sole.  He does have a little harp like musical instrument which he plucked.  As for his song it was about how the local brew is sweet, I have yet to try any of the local brews. 

 This is the Bunyoro group, I think.  Many of the traditional dress is cuts across cultures, only certain items such as the straw hats in this picture do not.  I do not remember what this song was about, but the man standing is acting drunk.  This was a theme that also cut across many of the cultures with many songs having someone act drunk for differing reasons. 


I was asked why I did not preform and could not think of any uniform cultural dances or folksong which represented Canadian culture.  From my education and experience the fact we do not have one culture but many is not a problem.  However songs and poems such as "Far Too Canadian" by Spirit of the West, "So you want to be Canadian, eh", and "We are more" by Shane Koyczan do show a single spirit.  Maybe I am naive, seeing something which I have only created in my mind, but try to explain why we line up, use the word eh, or  can live in 9.98 million square kms bound up by only a highway and a aging railroad.  Sorry, for this tirade but as Remembrance Day just pasted I hope this is on your mind.  Feel free to speak your mind on this topic.

In a totally unrelated story when buying food it sometimes comes in a plastic bag placed inside a paper bag.  The paper bag is usually just reused paper from somewhere.  The one on the left is in fact a ballot form for "Youth General Elections".  I thought it was random enough to post because in Canada it is illegal to remove the ballot from any election, yet here there are used to wrap food on my street.  Also the little pictures beside the party names are really random. 

Just some snaps!

 Good afternoon.  This is really just for pictures and hopefully your ok with that. 

Behind me is Freedom Square, is it where most of the large functions and other events are held including graduation.  The building in the back is the Main Building, disappointing name for what looks like an important building. 

 This birds are everywhere on campus and Kampala!  I will try and get a better picture latter but this will do for now.  Their nickname is "wise old men" in french, but the proper name is Marabou stocks.  Look them up, really crazy looking birds. 

One day I went to a debate on campus which was about multi-party democracy in Uganda.  Sounded really interesting.  I stayed for only one hour because only one of the speakers showed up!  The speaker know what he was talking about and added a lot of humor to it.  As it happens he is my crazy teacher in Security Studies. 

 These are pictures from the past weekend I spent with my sister, Alexandria, in Kabale.  You can read about it in my past post.  Check out the canoe and paddles; very different from Canada.  But it was a great time and lovely place to chill. 

Weekend Holidays and Political Participation

This weekend held many different adventures; all I am left to show for them are two blisters, an exit stamp from Uganda, and a crazy sunburn.   It all started when I attempted to visit my sister Alexandria in Rwanda.  Upon arrival at the Uganda-Rwanda border I was bounced back to Uganda.  Luckily, my sister was able to come to my side and we headed off to Kabale for the weekend.  You can access my sister’s blog by clicking on this --> http://designbyalexandria.blogspot.com/

 

Upon finding ourselves by Lake Bunyonyi we soon headed off to do some canoeing.  The lake was beautiful, surrounded by hills which is more akin to the Rwandan landscape than what I am use to in central Uganda.  The experience was made all the more interesting by the fact the canoe was a dugout and was touchier than what either of us are familiar with back in Canada.  We stayed out longer than planed but had a blast.  The weekend was concluded with a great dinner hosted by a friend in Kabale.  Truly, a fun and adventure filled weekend.  

 On Monday it was back to class made all the worse with some of the heaviest rain I have seen in Uganda.  Topics were interesting as always.  Gaddafi’s death was big and the role of NATO was hotly debated, most opinions were against NATO being in Libya.  My Refugees course studied the idea of integration for refugees into their host states and why it would not happen.  It brought to mind both Canada’s multiculturalism which brings both pros and contras.  It also brought to mind the refugees who came by boat to the shores of Canada, many of the issues in class paralleled the ones the media wrote about during that time; should we allow this, were there Tamil Tigers within that group, will this risk other lives when people attempt to journey to Canada by boat, are we doing enough to help?  Many questions, but when the topic is a social science there are not always simple answers.  

8	Citizen Control	Citizen Power
7	Delegated Power
6	Partnership
5	Placation	Tokenism
4	Consultation
3	Informing
2	Therapy	Nonparticipation
1	Manipulation

Somehow the most thought provoking topic was political participation.  This may not be a “sexy” topic as far as political science; however it can be a very important one and shows how democratic a population is.  A ladder system of eight rungs was given explaining participation and a corresponding explanation or reason.  The first question which came to mind was; where should Canada be ranked?  During elections our turnout just dropped to an all-time low, but do we make up for that in other ways?  Secondly, once a state reaches the top rung what keeps it there?  Are we going to slowly slip backwards down the ladder, will we wait until the next major political issue to wake up again?  Well, the limitless possibilities and theories are one of the reasons I enjoy political science along with the dialogues come that with all the opinions and theories.  

Have a great day, I am off to enjoy dinner and then start some coursework. 

Regionalism in Small Uganda

Hello, between classes, projects, and visiting friends I have fallen sick.  No worries, it brought new experiences and some interesting conversations. 

School has settled down for now and I will try to explain how a class or lecture compares to my Canadian experiences.  To start with most of my lectures are only one hour long, a few are doubles which are two hours.  I do not mind this because I live so close and the seats in the lecture halls are not that comfortable.  In SFU I dislike the short lectures because of the wasted travel time.  The other big administrative difference is the professor-student relation.  So far the relationship appears more formal and businesslike for the East African students.  For the non-Africans, we are able to drop in and out of offices with slightly more ease and issues are not dealt with a manner as formal as with the East Africans.  I make the divide between non-Africans and East Africans because the biggest group comes from within the East African community; Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Kenya, and Burundi, well the next grouping maybe the one I fall into, the non-African.  Secondly, the relationship and experiences seem to divide along these lines, the status of the non-African is normally a short, semester to two, term student and we are treated as foreign.  The East African is at Makerere for the full three years and is considered a local and has his or her regional-based community to fall back on in Kampala and Makerere.  

I will try to have pictures of some halls soon.  The halls themselves are smaller and most have a flat, not sloped, floor with wooden chairs or benches facing a slightly raised platform and podium and blackboard.  Of my lecturers teaching Refugees in International Relations, one teaches in a style similar to what I would expect at SFU in Burnaby.  One, Theory and Practice of Democracy in Africa, uses more of a discussion style which he is able to guide.  The final one is confused, he seems to understand politics very well but wants to teach philosophy with references to the topic; Security Studies - IR. 

Of the three lecturers, Theory and Practice of Democracy must be the most entertaining and interesting because it has opened up local or Ugandan politics to me through these debates.  The lecture will normally start with points given by the professor and then be debated.  These debates can cover such ideas as basic democratic practices and elections, formations of cabinets, and regional political relating to the Ugandan cabinet.  As it stands, the stats will be wrong but will provide an idea, two of the regional or tribal groups in Ug form over sixty percent of the Cabinet yet form only thirty-ish percent of the population of Uganda!  Interesting stuff, before you write this off as tribalism think of how Canada votes; where is the Green seat and support, what does the Bloc stand for, do the Prairies vote together?  Maybe the issues are the same in a different context. 

I will attempt to remember the most heated topics of each week and explain my view on them here.  However, it does help to have questions or topics which you, the reader, find interesting.  I will make sure my comment settings are correct. 

Thanks for reading, I look forward to hearing from all of you soon.

Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!  Hopefully you have all enjoyed it and the fun, friends, family, and food that comes with it.  I am sorry to miss seeing my friends and family, and of course eat such great food.  

This week has been no less busy than the last, just in a different manner.  If last week was the theory of university, this week was the practical.  Last week I was able to register for classes which fit according to the timetables I was able to pick up.  This week I experienced the power lecturers at Makerere University have.  Turns out they can come late, leave early, or not even show and students have little power to deal with this.  One of my classes has even changed times and to a Saturday!  I am still not sure why, rumor states it will change back in November.  There is five Europeans staying at Akamwesi Hostel who are in Social Sciences and we have been sharing advice and working together on these issues.  So I will be working on figuring out what to do; if I want to change courses to one that I know the timetable or stick it out with the course I wanted but am unsure of its future outlook. 

The weekend was the opposite, and was very simple and totally enjoyable.  Heading into the weekend the Uganda Football team, the Cranes, faced the Kenyan Stars in a must win game for Uganda.  The outcome would decide who ventured to the African Cup of Nations in 2012.  So of course I went, along with the five Europeans, one Kenyan, and two Ugandans.  We arrived at Namboole Stadium about four hours early to obtain good seats, which we did.  The crowd, even that early, was already pumped up for the match and showing it.  The match itself was truly African, with both teams fighting hard.  Sadly for Uganda the outcome was a draw which took away their hope of advancing to the African Cup.  Even with the outcome it was a fun event.

Sorry about the slowness of posts, I hope to be changing that.  Greetings to all. 

Paperwork

The weekend is almost here!  I started this week returning to Kampala for the opening of Makerere University and lectures.  After close to three weeks the lectures have called off their strike. The Government of Uganda has promised to restructure the body which controlled the lectures' salaries and pay all outstanding wages.

I now feel like I know all the offices in the Senate Building and both the School of Humanities and Social Sciences as well as the School of Arts.  Two of my three classes I had chosen for this term were not offered for whatever reason this year.  In addition to this my status as an Occasional Student, since I am here for only one term, meant that I had to registrar at the International Affairs office and the other two school offices where I will be taking classes.  Thrown into the mix was a Letter of Introduction so I may apply for a Student Visa to stay here for the full term.

Although it did contain a lot of walking, introducing myself, and my requirements, it was not all bad.  Many of the people I meet along the way were interested in why I am studying at Makerere and were amazingly helpful.  Through the walking around I now know the layout of the campus, it is more akin to UBC than to SFU in the fact the buildings are not connected and everything is spread out.  The great news is that I am now a student at Makerere University for the Fall Semester taking three courses; Theory and Practice of Democracy in Africa, Refugees in International Relations, and Hunger and Food Security. 

Not all of this week was work though.  In fact I have now joined the newly formed Scouts Troop at Makerere and I will be headed to the beach this weekend!  Wish you all the best. 

Politics and Parties

I have taken to reading the newspapers here.  Mainly I read the Daily Monitor, however today I picked up a copy of the New Vision.  I read the Monitor because it is the "leading independent daily newspaper" and sports the motto; "Truth Every Day".  The New Vision is a government-owned, really a public-private, paper and claims to be "Uganda's leading daily".  These days the big international story is Libya and how the war against Col. Gadaffi is going, I also hunt for news on Makerere.  In a letter submitted from the public it opened the discussion over the African Union's actions towards Gadaffi and the NTC and the fact that had NATO not stepped in the stories from Libya would be very different.  President Museveni of Uganda once questioned the very opposite, the lack of foreign action against Idi Amin.  Today's print of the New Vision also ran a letter submitted from the public, with the title of "President Museveni cannot betray Africa to please the West".  Arguing that the AU was taking action; which Museveni along with Jacob Zuma of South Africa among others were, supporting peaceful talks which should be understood to be a principled stance against war and the waste it brings.  Stating "no amount of civilization has, and will, ever inject democracy by dropping bombs," a quote taken from John F. Kennedy.  Both letters brought great arguments and information, however the stance of both papers became clear as the letters developed.  Although tragic in its nature, the Liberian conflict has become a political pivotal moment for the AU and a practical way for myself to understand some of the undercurrents in Ugandan and African relations.   

In other, non-political news, I returned to Fisher Branch this past weekend for their annual Scripture Union Party!  The program started formal; with the Uganda, Buganda, and Fisher anthems, and many speeches for a total of five hours.  Once this was done, the floor was cleared, the honored guests left and it turned into a massive dance party.  It was a total switch of modes, and yet seemed very practiced.  The picture left to the left is a shoot of the stage.  In front, covered in lace, was a cake, and presents which were auctioned off as a fundraiser for the SU.  

The picture to the left shows the new Chairperson taking her new office over from the last in addition to taking another office within the SU executive.  I do not have any from the dance half of the party.  But to answer questions I know will arise; yes, I did dance for a while with my normal ... skill. 

Finally, this is my new stove.  I have been using it increasingly as my skills are still improving on it.  Mainly I am cooking rice and pasta with sauce but with my improving skills will come an enhanced amount of dishes.  Note that it is outside so I will not be poisoned by the fumes.

Hope everyone is well!