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.