Sotho

The LaunchPad: Where Is Lesotho?

Lesotho is a small nation that is surrounded by the country of South Africa. The King and Queen of Lesotho have invited Johannes Amritzer and Mission SOS to do a Festival for their people. The first Festival was held there in October of 07 and 17 new churches were planted.

This coming week, a second series of meetings will be held there. Here’s a video report of the October meetings and a reminder to pray for Johannes, Peter, and the Mission SOS team this week.

Did the King and Queen really invite these folks to Lesotho for a festival? They said it… what… on TV? They sent an email to invite them? Published the invitation in the paper? Picked up the phone and called them? “We want you to do a festival for our people!”

The clip shows Basotho being healed miraculously. The clip shows the visitors, the healers, through the grace of God, giving sick Basotho their sight back, their legs, their hearing. And it shows the healers insisting that the healees have now been forgiven and saved.

I do not disbelieve in miraculous healing. I have been touched by it. But I disbelieve healers, and this disbelief stems from my conviction that if there is a God, then God is not biased, and will not reveal Him/Herself to a bunch of people at the expense of another bunch of people. This goes to the root of what for me being is all about, and that is if I am and you are, then by God we are. As a result, you can’t have Knowledge and Power if I don’t, and vice-versa, because we are.

If there’s any healing that must go on, it’s not going to be through a bunch of rich visitors to a poor nation. If anything, if Christianity and religion have any meaning, then it must be the opposite, the materially poor must be able to heal the materially rich. Why would God bypass my local preacher and instil in someone I don’t know who comes from a place I don’t know the power to heal me? It’s senseless, albeit dangerous.

N.B: I wasn’t there so I can’t say if collection plates were passed around — but I’d love to know from those who were there.

I wonder if the royal couple did invite these people to Lesotho. If so, then they shouldn’t have. I doubt Basotho need more hoodwinkers at this stage, having enough on a political level as it is. What Basotho do need is the subject of another discussion, but I can stuff it into a nutshell as Work, Political Stability, Economic Vigour and Health and Hygienic Awareness. Plus a little luck from the skies in the form of regular rain.

Did the healees know that their healers have a profitable business behind their action? Who are “the unreached peoples?” And are their melanocytes rather active? (1) Is this about race? Have people with less active melanocytes been reached? (2) It doesn’t seem to be about race, as there has been at least one festival in a European country, Bulgaria. So is this about money? Why are these folks doing this? Do festivals occur in richer, “white” countries? France, England, Italy, America, Spain? If not, why not? Questions and more questions.

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Thrive Africa:

“It’s amazing to see what God is doing in the lives of these people.”

I wish missionaries or aid volunteers would quit saying this. It gets on my nerves. Every one of them says it, and my big question is, “What?” Drying the country? Inflicting AIDS? Mismanaging the country? Now, is it really God, or is a little politics involved? Why would God distribute riches and geographical phenomena unequally?

I think people who willingly get on the boat to go and “help” should do just that, go and help. It stands to reason. They shouldn’t do it to go and feel good about themselves, or to please God. They should do it to help if they can and if it’s necessary, and God will be pleased.

Chatoyance:

Books will fly through the air for children (Tag, you’re it!):  In honor of all those folks who’ve tagged me with memes (or are memes now all called “hooplas”?) this year and had to listen to me grumble, I’ve got a twist on the theme of meme. I read Doris Lessing’s Nobel speech through TIV’s blog — the speech where Ms. Lessing discussed the hunger for books in Africa — and it left me feeling weak.

And so Lori decided to do something about it. I encourage you first to read more, then to participate and make this venture successful. But let’s ask this, why would this realisation make Lori feel weak? Well, I suspect that she knows how in today’s world you’re as good as dead if you don’t possess knowledge in the form of information, after all, this is the Information Age.

Information is obtained at school from teachers (the knowers), but increasingly more and more from books (the knowledge carriers), and even more increasingly from the World Wide Web (knowledge). Poor people can’t afford school, and certainly can’t afford the Internet as we know it today. That leaves books.

If they can’t even get that, then it leaves people like Lori feeling cold, because then it means poor people are dead meat, and that’s literal. As for us who are more fortunate, we certainly can’t afford school and the Internet for everyone (well, some of us can’t), but we can surely afford books. This is a super project and I encourage you to support it. A heartfelt thanks to Lori and to all those who are taking part in this.

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“I keep hearing from white africans [sic] that they know blacks (Africans) since they are from Africa and that they have the mentality of teen agers [sic]. They insist that they are difficult to educate and have hard time [sic] understanding basic procedures. They also claim that blacks are irresponsible and won’t do what is necessary for success. They did differentiate somewhat between westernized blacks and not. Many said they thought the west should stop all aid and just pull out and let the continent sort itself out and that it will probably become mainly tribal again. What are your comments on these assertions.”

This is a comment I received earlier today on my post, “Why is Africa Poor?” The sics in it are not to belittle the commenter, but to assure the reader that I quoted faithfully and did not insert or remove things. Now, where to begin? The comment was left by JK, with an email address that I have not bothered to use. So I’ll address my comments to JK him/herself. My aim with this post is not to attempt to show why Africa is poor, but to settle a commenter’s questions.

JK, your comment, and the assertions of your friends, as you put it, have been said and made a thousand times, and I and other people have tried as many times to address them, and lay such thoughts to rest. Let me just cut to the point here and say that this kind of talk is idiotic and shows shallow thinking and unfounded conclusions. Nobody who considers themself civilised should be pushing such rubbish. OK? Now, let’s get started.

1. …they have the mentality of teen agers [sic].
   What I have heard from most people is that it is Americans who have the mentality of teenagers, not black Africans, not white Scandinavians, not green… Martians, which is why Americans roam the world toting machine-guns and playing cowboys ‘n injuns. But seriously, almost all the Africans I know, black or otherwise, act responsibly and in a civilised manner under normal circumstances. They help each other, respect their parents and their elders, are satisfied with little if it is enough, have a God (or gods) that they do believe in, not on TV but in their hearts and huts, and even in the dark when they’re alone. Most Africans I know worship other things: God, family, spouse, country. Not money. Most Africans I know will die to keep a promise to a friend. If all this sounds like teenagers to you to your friends, then right, I agree with you.

2. …they are difficult to educate and have hard time [sic] understanding basic procedures.
   Why would anyone say that a certain group of people, from a certain piece of soil that floats in a certain region of the ocean, is hard to educate? Is the capacity to absorb and learn new things based on that? On the type of soil? On the shape of the continent? On the salinity of the surrounding waters? Even if this capacity to absorb and learn new things were based on culture, Africa is a huge land with more than fifty countries and more than a hundred different cultures. Don’t even mention the number of languages.

   People should in fact quit saying things like, “Africa is a nation that suffers from incredible disease.” There aren’t any legitimate grounds for grouping Africans and labelling them in a certain way. Nor any other group of people, for that matter. Not culture, and not skin colour, the latter of which depends on the activity of a certain type of skin cell called the melanocyte. Otherwise I’ll lump you with Canadians and Mexicans and Inuits and call you a nation. If skin colour is to be used to determine intelligence (the lighter the skin, the smarter the person in it), as you your friends suggest, JK, then all the albinos in America are smarter than everybody else there, and all the albinos in Africa are smarter than everyone in Africa.

   Let me not stop there. I’d also like to point out that by “understanding basic procedures” you your friends mean becoming white, so to speak. White people scrambled for and got Africa, then they decided the African had to abandon African ways and learn European/Occidental ways, or “basic procedures.” Any resistance to this is labelled as you your friends label it.

   I know few Africans who speak only one language. “Difficult to educate?” I’m writing this in your language because if i wrote it in any other you probably wouldn’t understand, and I’m “difficult to educate?” How many languages do you speak, JK? How far have you gone in your studies? These aren’t real criteria for determining intelligence, as in other countries diplomas can be bought, for example, but you must understand that I’m struggling to prove my non-stupidity here; so you will have to pardon me and pardon my antics. Haeba u utloa hore na ke reng, ha ke bua tjena, u se u tla ntšoarela he, monna. Ou peut-être tu parle français, comme beaucoup d’africains, ce peuple qui est si “difficile à éduquer.” Enfin, pourquoi pense-tu que t’es meilleur que les autres, seulement parce que tes mélanocytes sont moins actives?

3. … blacks are irresponsible and won’t do what is necessary for success.
   What is the white person responsible for? The hole in the ozone layer? Slavery, racism, global warming, the holocaust, colonialism, what have I missed? The KKK, skins, non-skins, what have you… come on, JK, don’t make me laugh. Africans have lived on and with their land for millenia without screwing it up. What are you trying to sell me, here? Africans are inherently responsible for each other, and real communities exist where each member is responsible for all the other members. That is until the white man showed up and forced us to learn “basic procedures.”

   Exactly what do you consider “necessary for success?” Becoming white Learning your “basic procedures?” If Hannibal, the African general who conquered Spain and the south of Gaul (France), in about 220 BC, had succeeded in conquering Rome fully (…he inflicted one of the worst military defeats the Romans had ever known [source]), then the roles would be reversed today. I’d have enslaved you, then colonised you, raped your women, burned your lands, destroyed your religion and your culture and your livelihood, then dragged you to Africa to work in my cotton fields for nothing, and you’d have had to learn my “basic procedures,” and I’d have called you stupid for taking time, or simply refusing, to do so. And I’d have let this drag on for centuries, until the late 1960s (Do this quiz and you’ll understand)

   And even then, I’d still hang many of you (don’t visit this site if you’re weak hearted) who tried to be smart, or who were more handsome than I was and got the girl. And afterwards, I’d continue by denying you your humanhood, denying you decent work and giving it only to the black nation. And then when you started making it, despite everything, I’d ridicule all laws meant to level the playing field, and call them reverse discrimination, or whatever else they’re called. Then I’d post comments on blogs suggesting that white people were stupid and irresponsible.

4. …They did differentiate somewhat between westernized blacks and not.
   Oh, goody! Let me guess, by westernised blacks you mean like Michael Jordan and Bill Cosby? Miles Davis, Andrew Young, Stevie Wonder, Malcolm X, Oprah Winfrey, Martin Luther King, Marvin Gaye, Muhammad Ali, Spike Lee, Rosa Parks, Maya Angelou, Ray Charles, Michael Jackson, Tiger Woods, Naomi Campbell, Duke Ellington, Dr. Patricia E. Bath, Alex Haley, Billie Holiday, Quincy Jones, Denzel Washington, Morgan Freeman, David Dinkins, and hundreds of others? In other words, those you your friends couldn’t keep from succeeding you’ve decided to “differentiate somewhat”? Why? What basis do you your friends propose for doing so? Culture? The activity of melanocytes in the skin?

   What will it take to get you your friends to understand that the white man f*cked Africa over, and that the African who goes to any place that is less f*cked over, makes it? What will it take to understand this? I thought you your friends could understand “basic procedures.” And, in all honesty, this here is really basic, JK.

5. ... they thought the west should stop all aid and just pull out.
   If only. Give me a date and I’ll throw a party. Except the west may stop the aid, but it’ll never pull out. The stakes are too high for that, especially today. What with China and India penetrating into the African continent with proposals for partnerships? To that, the Bush administration came up with Africom, and appropriately sat a man who has highly active melanocytes at its helm. The west won’t, repeat, won’t pull out, JK, until Africa has been sucked dry.

   On the other hand, America is stumbling, isn’t it? Why? Because for the past eight years its resources have been targeted at and focused on war(s), just when these two giants that are China and India, or Chindia, as experts aptly call them, were awaking, just as they were rubbing their eyes, yawning, and scratching their balls. Now what?

   What is intelligence based on, JK? Ask your pals. All I can tell you is, it’s not based on the activity of melanocytes in the skin, nor is it based on culture. I suspect it is based on a wide array of factors. I suspect every hamlet has its own village idiot, in America as well as in Africa. Remember that “IQ depends on your culture, class and gender because of the way tests are written [source].”

Isaac Asimov, who had less active melanocytes than black Africans, and wrote sweetly (he wrote some of the most incredible limericks) has said, and I urge you to listen to the man, JK:

What is intelligence, anyway? When I was in the army, I received the kind of aptitude test that all soldiers took and, against a normal of 100, scored 160. No one at the base had ever seen a figure like that, and for two hours they made a big fuss over me. (It didn’t mean anything. The next day I was still a buck private with KP - kitchen police - as my highest duty.)

All my life I’ve been registering scores like that, so that I have the complacent feeling that I’m highly intelligent, and I expect other people to think so too. Actually, though, don’t such scores simply mean that I am very good at answering the type of academic questions that are considered worthy of answers by people who make up the intelligence tests - people with intellectual bents similar to mine?

For instance, I had an auto-repair man once, who, on these intelligence tests, could not possibly have scored more than 80, by my estimate. I always took it for granted that I was far more intelligent than he was. Yet, when anything went wrong with my car I hastened to him with it, watched him anxiously as he explored its vitals, and listened to his pronouncements as though they were divine oracles - and he always fixed my car.

Well, then, suppose my auto-repair man devised questions for an intelligence test. Or suppose a carpenter did, or a farmer, or, indeed, almost anyone but an academician. By every one of those tests, I’d prove myself a moron, and I’d be a moron, too. In a world where I could not use my academic training and my verbal talents but had to do something intricate or hard, working with my hands, I would do poorly. My intelligence, then, is not absolute but is a function of the society I live in and of the fact that a small subsection of that society has managed to foist itself on the rest as an arbiter of such matters.

Consider my auto-repair man, again. He had a habit of telling me jokes whenever he saw me. One time he raised his head from under the automobile hood to say: “Doc, a deaf-and-mute guy went into a hardware store to ask for some nails. He put two fingers together on the counter and made hammering motions with the other hand. The clerk brought him a hammer. He shook his head and pointed to the two fingers he was hammering. The clerk brought him nails. He picked out the sizes he wanted, and left. Well, doc, the next guy who came in was a blind man. He wanted scissors. How do you suppose he asked for them?”

Indulgently, I lifted by [sic] right hand and made scissoring motions with my first two fingers. Whereupon my auto-repair man laughed raucously and said, “Why, you dumb jerk, He used his voice and asked for them.” Then he said smugly, “I’ve been trying that on all my customers today.” “Did you catch many?” I asked. “Quite a few,” he said, “but I knew for sure I’d catch you.” “Why is that?” I asked. “Because you’re so goddamned educated, doc, I knew you couldn’t be very smart.”

And I have an uneasy feeling he had something there [source].

Difficult to educate? A hard time understanding basic procedures? Bah!

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Yay! We’ve got more time…

We’ve just gotten word that the deadline to make donations to Menu For Hope food blogger charity campaign has been extended through the weekend. So if you missed out in entering the raffle for our fantastic prize package, or any of the dozens of other prizes that are up for grabs, you still have time to do so.

If you missed it, now’s the opportunity to help some children in Lesotho. And you might win something grand in the process. Please visit: www.tasteto.com and www.cooksister.com for more details.

Health workers all revved up to hit the road and beat HIV - Times Online:

Not one baby in Lesotho will be born with HIV in 2010. That is the ambitious pledge made by Mphu Ramatlapeng, the new Health Minister in this tiny African kingdom, which has been ravaged by the virus. And Riders for Health, the international charity chosen by The Times for this year’s charity appeal, has a crucial role to play in her quest to conquer HIV-Aids.

In a unique partnership Riders, the Elton John Aids Foundation and the Lesotho Government will ensure that hundreds of nurses, doctors and health workers are mobile by the end of next year – essential if HIV is to be eradicated. The Elton John foundation will provide 120 motorbikes. Riders for Health will teach health staff how to ride and guarantee to keep the bikes on the road with its preventive maintenance programme.

“Not one baby in Lesotho will be born with HIV in 2010″ is a tall statement, but perhaps we need tall statements in Lesotho, as tall as the mountains of the Malutis, in order to get half that much done. This is a forward-sounding project, and we need forward-sounding projects to beat what we’re up against. What we’re up against is starvation, drought and AIDS/HIV, and finding good governance, which is in reality necessary to get tall statements and forward-sounding projects implemented successfully. How do you see it?

One of my fears is for this project to go the way others have gone before: start off well, peter out almost immediately, and line the pockets of a few people. Please see this post. This does not mean help to Lesotho should be halted. It means help to Lesotho should be increased beyond the money, it means we need the money given to help Basotho, and for that the sponsors and donors must keep the books of the money they give. Else we’re sunk, as will the money. I’ll take this opportunity to wish Basotho Keresemese e monate, le selemo se secha se tletseng tšepo, khotso, pula le nala. None of those can really happen without the other.

37 hours left to help feed Lesotho kids — and win great prizes:

by Bonnie P. @ 2:45 pm on 20 December 2007.

As just about every food blog has publicized already, Pim Techamuanvivit of Chez Pim is once again spearheading the epic online fund-raiser Menu for Hope to benefit the U.N. World Food Programme. In 2006 she raised over $62,000. This year’s donations — which just passed $55,000! — will be earmarked for the school lunch program in Lesotho, a small country landlocked by South Africa, as an extra incentive to encourage families to educate their children.

Details here: news.myspace.com/living/organicliving and here: www.cooksister.com. It’s a good cause.

The Hays Daily News:

A few examples of aid-funded projects in Africa that have failed

Eds: For use Thursday Dec. 20 with BC-Rethinking Africa-A Bumpy Road. Also sent yesterday.

By The Associated Press

The World Bank’s private arm, the International Finance Corporation, has found that only half of its Africa projects succeed, and many donors have not done much better. Here are a few of the development projects in Africa that went wrong:
——–

PROJECT: Chad-Cameroon oil pipeline to the Atlantic Ocean DONOR: World Bank COST: $4.2 billion WHERE IT WENT WRONG: The pipeline was the biggest development project in Africa when it was completed in 2003. It was funded on condition that the money be spent with international supervision to develop Chad. However, President Idris Deby’s government announced in 2005 that oil money would go toward the general budget and the purchase of weapons, or else oil companies would be expelled. Now Deby spends the oil money on regime survival and rigged elections.
——–

PROJECT: Lake Turkana fish processing plant, Kenya DONOR: Norwegian government COST: $22 million WHERE IT WENT WRONG: The project was designed in 1971 to provide jobs to the Turkana people through fishing and fish processing for export. However, the Turkana are nomads with no history of fishing or eating fish. The plant was completed and operated for a few days, but was quickly shut down. The cost to operate the freezers and the demand for clean water in the desert were too high. It remains a “white elephant” in Kenya’s arid northwest.
——–

PROJECT: Lesotho Highlands Water Project
DONOR: World Bank, European Investment Bank, African Development Bank
COST: $3.5 billion
WHERE IT WENT WRONG: The project to divert fresh water from the mountains for sale to South Africa and for electricity began in 1986. But the electricity proved too expensive for most people, and the diversion of so much water caused environmental and economic havoc downstream. The development fund raised from selling the water was shut down in 2003. The courts convicted three of the world’s largest construction firms on corruption charges and the project’s chief executive was jailed. Tens of thousands of people whose lives were ruined by the diversion are still waiting for compensation.
——–

PROJECT: Office du Niger, Mali DONOR: France COST: More than $300 million over 50 years WHERE IT WENT WRONG: The goal in 1932 was to irrigate 2.47 million acres to grow cotton and rice and develop hydropower in the Mali desert. More than 30,000 people were forced to move to the desert to work on the largest aid project attempted by French colonial authorities. The African workers largely ignored French attempts to change traditional agricultural practices. By 1982, only 6 percent of the region was developed and the infrastructure was falling apart. The World Bank took over the project in 1985 and has shown limited success with rice farming.
——–

PROJECT: Roll Back Malaria, across Africa DONOR: Multiple agencies COST: About $500 million WHERE IT WENT WRONG: Roll Back Malaria, established in 1998, aimed to halve malaria incidence by 2010. The program said Africa needed $1.9 billion a year to slow the disease, but by 2002 donors had only come up with $200 million a year. By 2004 the infection rate had risen 12 percent. Experts say donors rarely followed through with pledges and some programs were subject to political considerations, such as what kinds of insecticides to use, whether to buy cheap generic drugs or how much poor people should pay for mosquito nets.

I was attracted enough by the title of an AllAfrica.com article to resolve to read it. The title read: “Uganda: Africans Can Overcome HIV/Aids.” I wanted to know how we could do so. If Uganda can do it, then Lesotho can, also, I reasoned. Lesotho has one of the highest rates in the world. I went home this year after 7 years away, and found many of my friends gone, compromised to AIDS and the folly surrounding it.

But I was quickly disappointed by the article, even if it spoke some truths that I would agree with. Shunning promiscuity is one of those. But the author also says things like, “since the condom is about safe sex and safe sinning,” it cannot be Jesus’ approach. Now, I don’t know if it would be Jesus’ approach — my worry lies in the fact that the author thinks condoms are for sinning.

Condoms are for safe sex that should be had by any couple if one of the partners is infected. We must remember that infection does not equal sinning, and that infected people should not be stigmatised like it has been done before. There are many ways to catch a virus. And even if someone catches the HIV virus by fornicating, sinning, cheating their spouse, our job is to help them, not to hurl Biblical verses at them, not to cast the first stone. That’s what Jesus said to the mob that wanted to stone that woman accused of whoring, right? Who are we to pass judgement?

Condoms are also for birth control. If I have “enough” children, or if I don’t want to have children, full-stop, then naturally I use a rubber. There are many reasons why a responsible person would want to use a rubber. They may not want to infect their partner or be infected by their partner, they may want to control the size of their family, they may feel more comfortable having sex with a rubber than without, they may want to use a rubber in order to prolong the excitement of the act. And any of those are as valid as wanting to eat to live.

“Since the intervention of the condom hinders man and woman, whether married or not, to become one flesh, the sexual act that follows merely implies manipulation of among partners as conduits of sensual pleasure and masturbation. Thus the prevailing mistrust for abstinence and faithfulness among partners seriously betrays African cultural and Christian values in preference for secularism and utilitarianism.
[source…]”

I think it’s wrong to imply that who uses a condom sleeps around and cheats their partner (in bold in the quote above; the highlighting is mine). It is simply untrue. And the sexual act can be enjoyed only for sensual pleasure. It is an outlet of love that God has bestowed on us (and maybe on dolphins, too, I don’t know. And who cares?). The sexual act is the ultimate in acts of love. Ranks right next to dying for someone. Maybe that’s why they call it “the small death.”

I also happen to think that this is not a question for Christians, or Jews, or Moslems, or Atheists alone, but for humans. AIDS hits flesh and blood, not spirituality. So I think to look at the issue and make it Christian is beside the point. And that’s what the author is doing. HIV/AIDS is hot-blooded, and kills my Jewish neighbour as well as my Hindu friend. We need to address it in those terms. Go and tell their families what you think Jesus would want and they will tell you what they think their own saints would want. Where does that leave us, standing on this blue, vulnerable planet at the edge of a hostile environment? You tell me.

“The African solidarity with the infected and affected, augmented by the Christian story of the Good Samaritan will bring about the holistic physical and spiritual healing required.”

I dig that. But the article does not convey that meaning. The Good Samaritan stops to help without saying, “Huh, what faith is this one, and did they or did they not fornicate?” I’m a Christian brought up in a Christian home (It is true, but I have to say that here to give my point of view the benefit of being at least looked at by some. Much like running for President in the United States). But I don’t think anyone has the right to interpret either the Bible or the teachings of Jesus Christ for humanity. I accept the fact that there are other religions that do not necessarily agree with mine. I do not want to fight with followers of those religions (or those non religions), but would like to hold hands with them to face the difficulties facing our lonely, vulnerable planet. The only basic, universal truth here is that we’re in deep shit together. Now, how do we get out?
http://allafrica.com/stories/200712170390.html

TwinCities.com - Gates money leaving basic health care in dust:

MASERU, Lesotho - A neighbor shaved Matsepang Nyoba’s head with an antiquated razor. Blood beaded on her scalp. Tears trickled down her cheeks, but not because of the pain. She was in mourning, and this was a ritual. Two days earlier, her newborn baby girl had died in the roach-infested maternity ward of Queen Elizabeth II, a crumbling sprawl that is the largest hospital in Lesotho, a mountainous nation of 2.1 million people surrounded by South Africa.

One of the statements that caught and retained my attention is this one: “Many AIDS patients have so little food that they vomit their free AIDS pills.” In other words, we give them expensive medicine to cure them of AIDS, but they haven’t eaten in a while. Perhaps the money would be better spent feeding patients. Some of them haven’t got transport fare to reach hospitals to receive their free medication. It’s sad. What is the problem?

The problem is that money is pouring in to help cure AIDS and Tuberculosis, high profile diseases and high profile killers, it is true. At the same time, qualified personnel is driven from basic care toward these high profile killers (follow the money!) The result is that people are starting to die from asphyxia and malnutrition. A more thought-out solution is required.

Cook sister!: Menu for Hope IV - spotlight on Lesotho: I’m sure you have all heard of the wonderful Menu for Hope event that is the brainchild of Pim and takes place once a year around Christmas.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with it, the campaign involves food bloggers (and others) from around the world each donating something to be raffled off on-line for charity. This can be as simple as a cookbook or as elaborate as a foodie tour of a world-class city. It can be something you will lovingly make yourself (e.g. jams or framed photographs) or it can be something you have persuaded somebody else to donate (e.g. dinner at a smart restaurant) - see last year’s campaign to get an idea of what I’m talking about.

Once the raffle starts, members of the public can visit your site to read about your raffle items and then place a bid by going to Pim’s site. And at the end of the campaign, winners are chosen using a software application, after which the regional hosts will tell people the good news of what they have won. Surely this raises a lot of money, I hear you say? Oh yes - just over $60,000 last year! And what happens to the money? Well, like last year, the money will be going to the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and this year’s campaign is going to be particularly exciting.

This is because the WFP has allowed us to earmark the funds to a specific program. We am thrilled to announce that we have chosen a school feeding program in the mountain kingdom of Lesotho - which is situated bang in the middle of South Africa!

If you can participate, do. it’s a beautiful initiative and, as I’ve always insisted, is an example of the kinds of action that will get us out of the quagmire and cycle of poverty, ill-health, and dying land. Please contact jeanne AT 501 DOT co DOT za to tell her what you’d like to raffle, or how you may participate.

WHAT BASOTHO NEED

Great discoveries are often accidents. Roentgen was investigating something else when he realised that x-rays could project the skeleton onto a screen. An apple fell of Newton’s head and knocked him into understanding gravity. While what I’m about to say is no scientific discovery, and is no accident, the question remains: why didn’t someone think of it before?

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has completed a historic purchase by buying maize directly from a group of small-scale farmers in Lesotho. (1)

Simple, as most good ideas are. Less red-tape, fewer Maloti wasted on transport and storage, more benefits for the local population, more jobs for them, too. Why didn’t we do it before? I’ll venture a guess. It is probably due to the incompetence of the people in power, who usually just go with the motions without rocking any boats. As long as they are comfortable, that is. Their keyword is maintenance, not improvement. How do I know this?

I know because there is virtually nothing that has changed markedly in Lesotho since the country became independent from Jonathan’s regime. In fact, things seem to have doubled back and taken a step in the reverse direction. Nothing daring has been done. Oh sure, we’re having periodic elections. But the streets are dirtier. People are poorer. There are more dust-legged boys begging in the streets than there ever were: you can’t park your car without at least two of them fighting over helping you park, all for the prospect of getting a coin or two in return. These kids should be in school or apprenticeship situations. What are we building, here?

Since Leabua’s regime, Maseru is more confused, it seems, and the taxis (what I call buxis, and what Kenyans would call matatus) are amok all over town. And right there in town, people sell food or clothing from car boots. I know that the drought and the HIV virus have done much to deteriorate the situation, but they haven’t deteriorated it for everyone, see? Just for the vast majority of Basotho.

What is worse in my eyes is that in a little more than two years the world cup of football is coming to South Africa. South Africa is Lesotho and Lesotho is South Africa, but do you think we will “make a killing” from the fans that’ll be all over the region? Think again. One of our potential sources of money is tourism, but tourists don’t just visit places. They want to be assured that they’ll receive quality rooms, transport, food, that they’ll be safe and well looked after, that they’ll have things to see. We must clean up our act, otherwise we are going to lose out big time.

“This is a win-win situation,” said WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran, speaking from the agency’s Rome Headquarters. “It helps provide income for small-scale farmers while saving money for WFP.” (2)

Damn right!

I have seen many documentaries on genocide and human atrocities. Movies too. Hotel Rwanda? Killing Fields? Roots? Schindler’s List? Been there, done that, and after each time I incredulously asked: “how did all the ‘good people’ allow this to happen?”
[Continue…]

The children far from urban Maseru, the children of the real Lesotho,

(A country of mountains, anchored in the sky with the stones of Africa,
a land of beauty, death and love,
Of corn and useless flowers, cattle and Aloe,
Of wild skies and serene earth,
And women stooped to sweep the dirt and weep,
Without tears or fear that will show.)

They have been nurtured into greed.

Trained by other passing fools
Who come in clouds of dry
Dusty ignorance and rented cars to pass, not pause,
where God stores storms for future cause.

(And yes, I am certain there will be storms,)

The children sprung from great Moshoeshoe
He who offered heart and tribe and land to the desperate
Devourers of his family.

He who tried to welcome Boers,
Knowing their guns and locust history,

They now plead and curse for whites to give them candy.
“Sweets” cry the youngest ones,
“Give Candy” the older
“Give me some Candy please” the educated, skilled and bolder.

Whose grandfathers fought betrayers,
Leaving bloody footprints in their land
Step by step back into the loving mountains
Where they made their stand,

These kids, beg with open hand.

It’s terribly amusing for some, fun without a fee,
To fling candy out the windows and turn to watch them
Scramble for their cut and learn to be like those of us
Who know greed sensuously and pray to god, “I want it free.”

So they choose, in innocence, how they want to be,
And I brooded on how to best respond, in ignorance, how to make them see.

Can I tell them of their Ancestors, the trials they had to face,
Or the courage of the mothers and fathers of their race?
I can’t, I’m ignorant, a passing shadow of useless noises when he speaks.
They will grow and learn for years and I’ll be gone away in weeks.

There were but two times I spoke to them and thoughts passed from me to them.
Once I greeted boys with “Dumelang bo-ntate”¹ and they laughed and clapped their hands delighted with the linguistic capers of this monkey from foreign lands.

But they need to hear, or I need to speak, of the price that they will pay
On their trip from past to future, before they lay in deep red clay.

How to help these tender ones in their search to be like me?
I decided to roll the window down and holler,
“Ke e jele!” ²

“Mankind protects and feeds the panda, but exposes and starves Darfur.”
~~ Rethabile Masilo.

I said that here.

Our bowls clanking
like ghost vessels,
we stand against sun and wind,
and death that loops over
to take our vision;
when all else has deserted us
in the blankness of the hour
the horizon, our last scene,
comes at us
from where no sun
will ever rise.
© Rethabile Masilo

This poem is in memory of Kevin Carter, and that little Sudanese girl in his snap.

The ANC has betrayed the masses of people, the poor, the vulnerable and most needy sections of South African society both in the urban and in the rural areas. HIV and AIDS are lived experiences for everyone in these areas. As someone said to me – we in the townships, the informal settlements, the rural areas all live with HIV – no one has friends, relatives and family who are either positive or who have died of AIDS – it is everywhere sometimes openly sometimes secretly amongst us but it is there and it speaks [Continue]…

Propos de Pascal Sevran: un dérapage inadmissible.

Dans un entretien à Var matin, publié mercredi 6 décembre, l’animateur de télévision, Pascal Sevran, est revenu sur son dernier livre “Le privilège des jonquilles” où il écrivait: “La bite des noirs est responsable de la famine en Afrique”.

Pascal Sevran, a déclaré : “Et alors ? C’est la vérité ! L’Afrique crève de tous les enfants qui y naissent sans que leurs parents aient les moyens de les nourrir. Je ne suis pas le seul à le dire. Il faudrait stériliser la moitié de la planète ! “.

Le Parti socialiste condamne fermement ces propos, véritable apologie du racisme et de l’eugénisme. Nous demandons également à Patrick de Carolis, Président de France Télévisions, de sanctionner sévèrement leur auteur, dont les déclarations réitérées ne sont pas compatibles avec sa participation au service public de l’audiovisuel.

Nicolas Sarkozy doit aussi dire publiquement s’il se désolidarise de Pascal Sevran, qui compte parmi ses soutiens les plus actifs.

Communiqué de Faouzi Lamdaoui,
Secrétaire national adjoint à l’Egalité et au Partenariat équitable

This is a loose translation of the above quote, with my own comments interspersed. Pascal Sevran is a French TV host. In his latest book, “Le Privilège des Jonquilles,” he says, “The black man’s dick is responsible for hunger in Africa.”

When you hear that for the first time you go… what?, and you try for a second reading. When asked to clarify such an outrageous statement, he said, “So what? It’s the truth! Africa is dying due to all these children being born to parents who have no means of feeding them. I’m not alone to say so. We’re gonna have to castrate half the planet!”

The above quote is from the website of the French Socialist party. The rest of the article just condemns Mr. Sevran and asks him to come out and apologise, as well as Mr. Sarkozy, a presidential hopeful backed by Mr. Sevran.

It took me a while to decide to blog this, and now that I’ve decided to go ahead, I find I have no steam to go full force against Pascal for what he said. My original reluctance of definitely-not-worth-it has come flooding back; and so I’ll leave it at this. The one thought that does keep bugging me, coming back, this little whispering voice in my head, is, “Wow… now they want to slice our dicks off.” Niger has done better than me, Niger has hauled Pascal’s ass to court. His employer has also asked him to apologise or quit.

Tags: Pascal Sevran; Le Privilège des Jonquilles; Racism

[…] Of course this isn’t really about Madonna. It is about a formula that well-meaning people have adopted in looking at Africa, a surface-only, let’s-ignore-the-real-reasons template that African experiences have all been forced to fit in order to be authentically “African.”

If I were not African, I wonder whether it would be clear to me that Africa is a place where the people do not need limp gifts of fish but sturdy fishing rods and fair access to the pond. I wonder whether I would realize that while African nations have a failure of leadership, they also have dynamic people with agency and voices. I wonder whether I would know that Africa has class divisions, that wealthy Africans who have not stolen from their countries actually exist.

I wonder whether I would know that corrupt African countries are also full of fiercely honest people and that violent conflicts are about resource control in an environment of (sometimes artificial) scarcity. Watching David Banda’s father, I imagined a British David visiting him in 2021 and I wondered what they would talk about.
Negrophile

SELECTION		VOTES
Just fine	32%	7
Not so fine	50%	11
Worsening	9%	2
Just plain bad	9%	2
22 votes total
Poll powered by Pollhost. Poll results are subject to error. Pollhost does not pre-screen the content of polls created by Pollhost customers.

 

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First of all, let me remind you to vote in our present poll about official languages in Lesotho.

The poll that is mentioned here is not scientific, and 22 votes is hardly enough to base an opinion on. But 22 people did vote, and this poll shows what they think, unrepresentative as it may be. Our national morale has just taken a hard knock, following the Mercedes Benz/Toyota Camry scandal that Idland and others exposed to the world. 

If you have more than a fleeting interest (pun intended) in Lesotho politics, read a post in our discussion group. It seems that a good part of Basotho feel that the recent scandal is a shame and a scam. Without the benefit of having listened to the government’s "explanation," I feel the same. It’s a shame because Lesotho was doing so well that people were referring to our government as the example, and as a trigger to the demise of corruption on the continent. It’s a scam because those who benefitted from the cruelly cheap, cheap sale of national patrimony thought they could get away with it. And it’s indecent because, one,  not every civil servant could purchase the cars, and two, we’re at war with the AIDS virus.

Has the government of Lesotho taken a leave of absence? Are our leaders out of their minds? Instead of acquiring a Toyota Camry, how about doing something for joblessness, for AIDS patients? What if the fleet of cars was sold at normal prices and the funds collected were used to build a hospital in a mountain village? What if… In a poor country, the possibilities are endless.

It is all the more weird when one goes back into recent Lesotho history. Ruthless dictator (Leabua Jonathan). Military coup d’état. Elections. Present government’s victory. Hope for Basotho, especially for the present writer. Illegitimate opposition uprising following elections. Quelling of uprising by SADC. And the next step is… government corruption?

Lesotho: Land of Contrasts
21 Aug 2006 

"Even after being in Lesotho, I still find it a bit silly that it’s a country. It really seems as though Lesotho should have been "acquired" by SA by now."
Look who they sent to my country, Tarzan. Someone who thinks it’s a silly country. Someone who thinks my country should have been "acquired" by another. What the hell is that supposed to mean? You mean like you acquired the land of the Red Indian? Or like China acquired Tibet? Or like you acquired Iraq?

The Kingdom of Lesotho is there because Moshoeshoe said it was gonna be there. Many tried to "acquire" it, but were unable to do so. Moshoeshoe was both a warrior (he kicked British butt in 1851 and 1852) and a statesman (The most important role King Moshoeshoe played as a diplomat was his acts of friendship towards defeated enemies [Source]), and was reputed to have a weakness for the latter. He talked to and won over his enemies, if he could help killing them, which was most of the time. He wouldn’t have given you a passport into Lesotho. Now, Try this quiz, and tell me how you fare.

"As soon as you leave South Africa in any direction the roads just deteriorate and I always happen to be the person driving at that point. Electricity and thus streetlights are a luxury. So apparently are paved roads."
Yes, streetlights are a luxury in poor countries. Electricity is a luxury. Air-conditioning and midnight pig-outs on pizza and gas-guzzling liners on wheels and designer clothes are a luxury. But hospitality isn’t a luxury in Lesotho. Neither is respect, a lot of which I hope you picked up. Pride isn’t a luxury either. I’m sure you managed to see bunches of dirt-poor Basotho who greeted you with a smile, offered you something, and sang. No?

"I finally found the dirt road (and road being a term I use loosely) to the lodge we were staying at. Or at least that’s what the sign said. I absolutely hate driving in unfamiliar African rural countryside in the pitch black dark. After driving through farmers’ fields and across streams and over boulders we found the lodge (just go in the general direction of lights, in those rural parts not many places have electricity)."
Glad you found the lodge. But, say, what were you doing in Lesotho anyway, one of the poorest countries in the world, if you "hate driving in unfamiliar African rural countryside in the pitch black dark?" What kind of terrain did you expect to drive on? The 24 heures du Mans? And does that mean you looooove to drive in "unfamiliar American rural countryside in the pitch black dark?"

Did you not do your homework before leaving for Lesotho? I mean, surely you knew that it was a poor country, and that it had a lot of mountains… 70% of the country being rugged peaks called the Maluti and Drakensberg mountains. Surely you were aware of that! Did you know that Lesotho has the highest low point in the world? Yep. The lowest point in Lesotho is at 1400 m above sea level. That’s a mointain peak in many places. What did you think you were gonna be driving on? Route 66?

"All the people were dressed in their professional attire. Yet we were in rural Lesotho, so of course it’s just dirt paths everywhere. Everyone’s once nice shoes were quite dirty."
That’s just so terrible for the poor shoes! Good thing for some of the shoe-less locals, though. No dirt. What shoes did you wear that day? I bet they were of the dear kind… alligator or ostrich from southern Africa. That’s just like the unprofessional Basotho to hold a conference on dirt roads. 

"During one break I felt a bit out of place watching some traditional Basotho farm workers in the field covered in their blankets and walking along their donkey while I stood there in my nice clothes sipping some Coca Cola."
Exactly who are you, and why are you bent on insulting us? Coca Cola? And that’s your standard for sophistication? If I ever see you in my neighbourhood… No threats. If I ever see you in my neighbourhood I’ll encourage you to get out of my country and never come back.

"On Monday evening we were invited by the council of ministers from the SADC region to attend a little function of theirs. We were staying about 15 kilometers away and on the way there passed a few poor villages. These places didn’t have electricity, got their water from a well and lived in such small homes. The Lekahoe Club where this function was held was a different story – very fancy with free flowing drinks and food in abundance. After spending a day talking about the plight of the poor in Southern Africa, why not go see the government officials throw money at these sorts of functions where they try to convince the civil society sector that they really do care about the poor?"
Of course, African government ministers don’t care about the poor in their countries, but you do, n’est-ce pas, Mademoiselle Wanderingcrabb? That’s why you’re so concerned about the lack of electricity and other civilised things. That’s why those ministers should fix the road network, and that’s why you disliked the function at the Lekahoe [sic] Club, n’est-ce pas, Mademoiselle WanderingCrabb?

Lesotho is a country that has had to fight, most times literally, to exist. But we have never eliminated another people (you have), we have never conquered another country (you have), we have never declared war on another country (you have), we have never nuked anyone (you have), and we have never subjugated another race or ethnic group because of the amount of melanocytes in their skin (you have). Perhaps that’s why we don’t have tarred roads and electricity and you do? I’m just curious, what does your travelling companion, Corlett, make of all this poverty and lack of electricity in Lesotho?

When you decided to go to Africa, were you hoping to see Tarzan? You know, overflowing rivers gorged with greedy crocodiles and a white man clamping their awesome jaws with his bare hands — something the natives can’t do. But like Richard Pryor so rightly said,

"Tarzan wouldn’t last a week in Africa. They’d probably just call him ‘Crazy White Man.’ You’d go, ‘Where’s Tarzan?’ They’d say, ‘You mean the Crazy White Man? Eh.. he’s up in them trees with the baboons.’"

Somali Islamists have decided to ban the export of both charcoal and wild animals from their country. They bring up the reason of fighting deforestation/erosion and protecting rare animals [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/5274620.stm]. That’s a good ban if ever there was one, and a fresh one, too, as opposed to the usual ones against music or film or statues or women’s faces. 

Suppose the ban was targeted at Somalis for chopping down trees for firewood and killing rare animals for food? Then it wouldn’t be a fair ban and would have had to be fought. Apparently the main importer of Somali charcoal and animals is the United Arab Emirates. And shouldn’t the ban come from their side of the table? Shouldn’t they not import such commodities from a country that is still suffering, if they want to help that country?

Lesotho is heavily deforested, marked by dongas and gulleys, and devoid of wild life. We grazed our cattle on whatever grass was left, cut trees down to cook with, and ate the last rabbits and antelope. Nobody can say a word, unless they provide electricity and jobs. Nobody has a right t