Image from Flickr
I heard the roar from below, at a distance
Loud, like an elephant in the water or a boat being pulled up on shore.
Looking for the source, I saw nothing until I saw the cloud
Of small birds
A cloud of birds
Moving, turning in sync.
Silent, small birds, together make a roar.
Couldn’t we do the same?
Mark D. Jordahl – Kampala
They came first for the Communists,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew.
Then they came for me, and I looked to see who would speak for me
but by that time no one was left.
A silent voice is a voice for the oppressors. I have not written about the homosexuality issue in Uganda – partly because I have too much to say and partly because I find it so unbelievable, that I keep expecting to blink my eyes and find that none of it happened. But the recent publication of a list of “Top Homosexuals” in Uganda printed along with a banner saying “hang them” compels me to use my voice and not continue to support the oppressors through my silence.
Homosexuality has long been illegal in Uganda, but the issue has been ramped up in the last year after the arrival of some loud-mouthed American missionaries led to the introduction of a Bill that would provide the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality.” After a huge international outcry, the Bill has been quietly set aside, but the issue still rankles and it seems that many Ugandans would be very happy if it had been put into force.
Ugandans say that homosexuality just “isn’t part of the culture” here – that it was “imported” by Europeans and doesn’t have a place in Ugandan society. Besides the fact that it isn’t true, it is denying the possibility that a culture can evolve and grow.
Gay Rights are Civil Rights
What if all societies were allowed to just stagnate and remain stuck in old belief systems? In the United States for much of the time leading up to the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s, it was illegal to marry or have sexual relations with someone of another race (miscegenation). There were still anti-miscegenation laws in 16 states when the Supreme Court finally determined them unconstitutional in 1967 in Loving v. Virginia. What if people in the United States had decided that equality for black people just “wasn’t part of the culture?” What if slavery was allowed to continue because it was so deeply rooted in the culture of the southern states?
I would imagine that many of the same Ugandans who want homosexuals to be killed would be furious if they were told that they were not allowed to marry someone they loved who was of another race/tribe/religion. Why is it so difficult to see the fact that homophobia is no different from racism in this way? It is a form of oppressing a group of people for who they are.
No, Gay People are NOT “Recruiting” Kids to Become Gay
The big scare tactic here is saying that gays are going into the schools and “recruiting” kids. It is truly amazing to me that intelligent people can actually believe that. I don’t even know what that notion is based on, and have never seen any mention of this actually happening in the schools. It is a smoke screen, pure and simple. If you want to get people worked up about an issue anywhere in the world, tell them that their kids are threatened. If anything, people here should be concerned about all of the 40-year-old men who pick up young girls at the boarding schools. You can’t “recruit” someone to be gay, anymore than you can take a gay person and make them “ungay.”
It’s Not Easy Being Gay Anywhere
This is not an issue only in Uganda. Gay people are still fighting for their rights throughout the world. Even in the U.S., where we have made great strides towards equal rights for homosexuals, there is still a lot of resistance. I was inspired to write this post partly because of an e-mail that my mother forwarded to me. She had received a virulently homophobic message from an old friend of hers, and she took the courageous step of responding with this message:
“I wonder how many of the people you sent this to are gay or have a child or brother or sister or close friend who is gay. How would you like to live in a world in which it would be illegal to be heterosexual, let alone get married? How would you like the government coming into your bedroom and telling you how you can and cannot have sexual relations? What kind of spiritual love, or the religion that has come to you since your healing, encompasses and encourages this kind of reactionary response to others who are trying to express love in the only way that feels right to them? Gays aren’t trying to tell us to stop heterosexual love, why is it right for us to tell them they can’t express their love? Perhaps you think it is a choice to be homosexual. I don’t. I also don’t think it is productive to try to make people hate themselves for what they are, unless they are doing something to hurt others. I don’t see gays trying to do anything to hurt others, but rather just trying to live their lives in peace. Live and let live. Life is too short and too precious to feel hate. For your own sake, please try to recognize that you can disagree without the negative emotions. Those hurt you as well as others. This world needs more love, not less.”
How often do we just “let it slide” when a friend of ours says something that offends us? I think it is often more difficult to confront someone that we care about than to respond to anonymous “others.” The person who had written the original message wrote back to her saying she had “lost her Midwest values.” Well, if hate is a Midwest value, then good for her!
I also don’t understand why the anti-gay movement gets so much support by Christian churches. What happened to “thou shalt not judge?” Is there an 11th commandment that says “Thou shalt hate others for who they are?” I don’t understand how spreading hate is a Christian value. As my mother wrote in her message, “This world needs more love, not less.”
Homosexuals WILL Win Their Rights
The world is inexorably marching towards civil rights and equality for more people. There are occasional steps backwards, like the case of the rights of homosexuals here in Uganda, but overall progress is being made. Ugandans are intelligent people, and there will come a time when they say “I can’t believe there was a time when it was illegal to be gay,” just like it is hard to believe it was illegal for a white person to marry a black person in parts of the United States a mere 40 years ago.
In the meantime, though, homosexuals are being attacked, beaten and threatened here as they struggle for their right to live.
Mark D. Jordahl – Kampala
Here is a response I received from John Beaton, the Texas, East Coast, and Middle America Assistant Regional Manager for Invisible Children after my earlier post. It sounds like they have made some commitments to take action in their next tour season to ensure that reporters get accurate information for stories about their events:
Hey Mark,
I appreciate you taking the time to get back to me. One of the five “pillars” of Invisible Children is that “We love a good idea.” And while we have sent press releases in the past, for the majority of our screenings, we have expected journalists to portray the information we portray accurately, or to do the research themselves. As you have pointed out, and much to our annoyance, as well. Many local papers gets some basic facts wrong.
So, I went and talked to a couple of other people within the organization and we are going to put together a “fact list” / generic press release to give to all the people who host screenings beginning next tour. The instructions will be to make sure anyone, from school newspaper to national media sees this fact list if they want to do a story about the screening or the cause etc.
In short, thank you for the good idea, Mark!
John
Thank you to Invisible Children for quick action on this. I look forward to seeing accurate information about Uganda in future stories!
Mark D. Jordahl – Kampala
Wild Thoughts from Uganda was recently selected as a “Top Uganda Blog” by Go!Overseas, a site that provi
des information about living, working and volunteering around the world.
The website has links to some other great expat blogs from Uganda, so go check it out.
Even more interesting are the many great blogs written by Ugandans. There is an incredibly vibrant blogging scene here in Kampala, with people writing about everything you can imagine. You can find out about many of these by checking out Afrigator (maybe by giving the site a plug here, I’ll actually register on their radar finally!).
Happy Reading.
Mark D. Jordahl – Kampala
Why is it that every time there is a news article reporting that the Lord’s Resistance Army is still active in Uganda, it is talking about an Invisible Children event?
It makes me want to scream every time I read articles like this recent one titled WHS students raising funds to aid Uganda’s ‘Invisible Children’ which states:
“”Invisible Children” are children who are running from child soldiers in Uganda. They are not able to go to school or live in their homes because they are always in hiding. They often become “night commuters” which means they walk all night to find a safe place to sleep during the day.”
So, basically, students at Windsor High School in Colorado are putting their hearts and souls into raising money for a situation that doesn’t even exist anymore. The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) has not been active in Uganda for five years, and the “night commuters” are a thing of the past here.
I’m not saying that everything is peachy in northern Uganda. Communities were torn apart during the conflict, the economy has not recovered, and many people are returning to burned-out homes and overgrown fields and now need to rebuild their lives. And the LRA is still doing horrible things in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Central African Republic and need to be stopped.
Invisible Children did an incredible job in the mid-2000s to raise awareness in the West about the atrocities that were taking place here in Uganda during that time and during the previous 20 years. I absolutely respect and appreciate that.
But now I am starting to wonder about their motives. Perpetuating the idea that the war is still taking place in Uganda doesn’t help anything except their own massively effective fundraising efforts.
I have written directly to Invisible Children about this issue. Their response is that they have so many people volunteering for them and spreading publicity that they just can’t control it. If that is true, it seems totally unprofessional to me. If false messages are being put out in their name, they should want to have tighter control over it.
They should demand that all public events showing their films or being hosted by their clubs get approved through their central office and they should require that any information being given to the press should be accurate. In fact, they should have a press sheet that gets sent automatically to local media that represents the current situation in Uganda accurately.
Which brings up another issue – why aren’t these local reporters doing any fact-checking before posting their stories? It’s not that hard to do a quick web search to find out that the conflict is over here in Uganda.
The other possibility, one that I don’t want to believe, is that they realize it is in their best interests to have people believe the war is still happening here. Invisible Children is very much associated with northern Uganda, and they may be afraid that their fundraising efforts will suffer if people realize the LRA has moved on to other countries. If this is true, it makes me even angrier because they are preying on the young people who are fundraising for their work based on false information.
I am sure I will hear from somebody at Invisible Children about this post, reaffirming that they just can’t control their press. But, there are dozens of organizations working on the redevelopment of northern Uganda and Invisible Children is the ONLY one that I ever see associated with statements claiming the war is still active here. Why are they the only organization that can’t control their press?
Mark D. Jordahl – Kampala
UPDATE: Follow the link to read a Response by Invisible Children
Image of Wal-Mart Parking Lot
I guess it was just a matter of time…
By Glenn Ashton
Date posted: 6 October 2010
So it looks like Wal-Mart may establish its African beachhead in South Africa. Rumours have flown around the South African business community for more than six months that Massmart, the South African based retail giant that includes well-known brands such as Dion, Game, Makro and Builders Warehouse, was a target for acquisition by the world’s biggest company, the retail behemoth Wal-Mart.
View the rest of this article online here: http://www.sacsis.org.za/site/article/560.1
What do you think about this?
Mark D. Jordahl – Kampala
Image of Santa and his List
I realize that this might seem like the wrong season for this post (and, frankly, a bit off-topic for this blog). But, really, it shouldn’t seem that way. For those of us in the United States, we still have two major holidays between now and Christmas – Halloween in October, and Thanksgiving in November, not to mention Hannukah (I’m step-Jewish by marriage) and Kwanza somewhere in there. No matter how early the retailers try to convince us to start our Christmas shopping, it somehow feels like we don’t really need to get prepared until after Thanksgiving.
But Santa’s no chump. He’s not easily suckered. This morning my son woke up singing a Christmas carol – you know, the one about him knowing when you are sleeping, awake, being good, being bad, when you are picking your nose and when you told your boss you were sick so you could go fishing.
And then we got talking about THE LIST. And then we got talking about when, exactly, he starts working on that list.
And it came to me. Sh*#!!! I have to start being good now! If Santa knows all these things about us, then presumably he doesn’t wait until after Thanksgiving to start his surveillance.
So, let this be a gentle reminder to you – it’s never too early to start being good.
Mark D. Jordahl – Kampala
My favorite source of inspiration, Orion Magazine, has an on-line department called “The Place Where You Live.” I was very excited this morning to get their e-newsletter and notice that my entry on Uganda is one of their featured pieces.
Check it out here: Orion Magazine – nature / culture / place.
Mark D. Jordahl – Kampala
Image: Elephant in Murchison Falls National Park
Nobody really knows what effect oil drilling will have on wildlife in Uganda. Most of the national parks and other protected areas are slated for drilling, and much of the oil is being found in the Albertine Rift, one of the most biodiverse regions on the planet. In Murchison Falls National Park, most of the current and proposed test wells are in the areas with the highest concentrations of wildlife and, while efforts are being made to gather some baseline data on the animals to measure impacts against, population numbers are estimates at best, and behavioral studies of the animals are limited or non-existent. If the natural heritage of this country is going to be protected, a lot more information needs to be gathered.
One thing that Uganda can do is look to studies that have been done in other places that are farther along the oil journey. Gabon is another country that is drilling in its national parks, and it has many of the same species of animals. A study was published this year in the journal Biological Conservation that looks at Oil Prospecting and its Impact on Large Rainforest Mammals in Loango National Park, Gabon. The species they looked at are elephants, gorillas, chimpanzees, monkeys and duikers – all species that can be found in Uganda as well.
The researchers were specifically looking at the effects of noise disturbance from seismic testing in an 80 sq. km. study area. The method of seismic testing used by the oil companies involved setting dynamite charges below ground at 50 meter intervals along transects through the area. According to the report, “The sound level pressure of this type of seismic oil explorations reaches usually up to 210dB next to the explosion site. This is about 10,000 times louder than a jet aircraft flying by at 300 m altitude.” Yikes.
Learning a Lesson from Oil Development in Gabon
A rainforest is very different from a savanna, and the potential impacts of oil development go far beyond the noise created by seismic testing. However, there are aspects of this study that I believe are important to keep in mind as Uganda moves forward with its oil development. The reality is that animal behavior is complex and it is important to approach it in that way.
The researchers confirmed that not all animals will respond to impacts in the same way, so it is impossible to generalize whether or not an activity is having an impact on animal behavior based on observations of one or two species. They found that those animals with large home ranges (i.e. those that could move – like elephants and gorillas) did move (active avoidance), and those with more limited ranges (like duikers and monkeys) did not leave the areas where seismic testing was happening. This is important to consider when measuring impacts of oil development
Looking Deeper into the Subtleties of Animal Behavior
Avoidance of habitat is easy to measure. It is easy to say that before the blasting, elephants were found in the area and afterwards they weren’t. Even four months after the seismic blasts were finished, the apes and elephants had still not returned to their normal patterns (although they acknowledged a lack of solid information about “normal” migration patterns for these species).
The flip side of this is the ability to look at the animals that don’t move and say there isn’t an impact from oil activities because those animals have not left the site. Unfortunately, the researchers point out that if a species isn’t able to leave their home area, either due to biological characteristics or threat from others of their own species holding territories bordering of their own (as in the case of chimpanzees who sometimes kill intruders from a different clan), they might be subject to more stress even though it doesn’t result in moving out of the area. In order to determine these more subtle impacts, they recommend looking at factors such as changes in breeding success and physiological stress indicators such as hormone changes.
Recommendations for Wildlife Monitoring in Uganda
Based on this article as well as other sources, here are a few important things for the monitoring bodies to be looking at in terms of the impacts of oil development on wildlife that might not be getting attention yet:
Uganda Needs More Data
As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, there is a serious lack of reliable data about the wildlife in the national parks here. It is unfortunate that many of the observations of behavior patterns are just being conducted now, after oil exploration has already started. There are many committed people who will do their best to gather baseline data, but frankly there just isn’t time to get solid data since it takes a number of years to account for annual changes in rainfall, cycles of breeding success, etc.
Perhaps the most important thing to keep in mind, though, is that even with the best data in the world, Environmental Impact Assessments, monitoring protocols and environmental regulations are only as strong as the will to enforce them. Ultimately, none of it matters if the government cares more about the oil money than it does about protecting the environment the citizens depend on.
Mark D. Jordahl – Kampala
Wild Thoughts from Uganda 