Sustainable Good

What do words mean?

As an advocate for Native Americans, I was glad to see that Sen. Brownback from Kansas introduced a joint resolution to "acknowledge a long history of official depredations and ill-conceived policies by the United States Government regarding Indian tribes and offer an apology to all Native Peoples on behalf of the United States." 

Finally -- SOMEONE representing the U.S. government will simply acknowledge the fact that our European ancestors committed awful crimes against humanity:  genocide against a people who have lived on this land for thousands of years before white settlers stepped foot on it.

SOMEONE will apologize for the forced removal of Native Americans from their homes and their sacred and spiritual spaces.  Someone will apologize for stealing lands and treasures and never returning them. 

SOMEONE will apologize for the forced assimilation techniques white people used to "kill the Indian, save the man."  This included separating children from their families and forcing them into boarding schools where they were punished if they spoke their own language or practiced their tribal customs.  This also included sterilizing many women and some men so that they could not bear children.

Khakis, Pockets and Adventurous Hats: Tourism and the Colonial Imagination

I needed an adventurous hat – khaki-colored with a broad brim, evocative of Indiana Jones. Such were my thoughts as I prepared for a visit to Kenya during a summer break from college nine years ago. The hat made me look incredibly silly and eventually I came to my senses, giving it away. But for a few weeks it made me feel like a bona fide swashbuckler.

A couple years later, as I shopped for clothes before going on an aid work assignment in Zambia, I went for the whole look – buying khaki trousers and shirts with hundreds of pockets. I looked like a bad caricature of the European explorer in Africa (see the photo of me by the taxi) but I felt dashing and exciting nonetheless.

As I have spent more time on the African continent I have begun to reflect on the absurdity of this behavior which is so common among North Americans and Europeans that come here.

Africa is Not a Country

Perhaps it shouldn't get to me so much, but it does.  Why is it that so many people from the US and Europe, when talking about Africa, speak of it as if it were single country?

"So... What's it like living in Africa?" people ask me.  I want to respond with "What's it like living in the Americas?" or "What is life like upon the Eurasian Continent?"  But I recognize that would be a bit cruel. People are often genuinely interested, starved for information about an enormous continent (over twice the size of the USA and Western Europe put together) that is scarcely mentioned in the daily news. For instance, in 2007 the New York Times published 144 articles about Uganda, a country of 26 million people, where I now live. They published 185 articles about Britney Spears and 204 about Paris Hilton.