Just a quick one - Google Alerts told us that my previous article had been picked up by someone from 'capitaleritrea.com' and cited as reporting water shortages in Asmara.
Well that's kind of what it did, but I think I should point out that we're probably just seeing the results of a sensible water-rationing program, just now, given that we are in that time before the rains.
And yes, so far it's only really caused me more effort fetching and carrying buckets from our garden stand-pipe and it's really not much worse than the water efforts which have to be made here year-round.
The main point of the previous post was our consternation over work-permits, of course.
P
Monday, 23 March 2009
Saturday, 21 March 2009
Getting near to The End?
Before getting to the point, just a note to say that Caroline realises that, following a particularly plaintive Facebook status update, she now owes a lot of people replies to emails. However the MoE’s internet connections disappeared a couple of days ago and she can’t get to the British Council due to the flu this weekend. So she asks for patience.
To get closer to the subject above our worries about both Eritrea and VSO’s programme here were magnified by our water tank choosing to remind us this week that it’s not bottomless after all. So we’re using the now-trickling garden tap when we can and we’re in the world of bucket flushes and solar showers (actually those are spectacularly good, bordering on the too hot if you use them immediately).
Before I say any more let’s just calm the cries of “you Asmarinos always have it so easy and now you’re complaining about lack of running water” or similar, from other Eritrea volunteers. Yes, it was just a crude device to introduce a theme - OK?
Of course it just symbolises the way we're feeling and, in fact, Eritrea battles constantly with water shortages as volunteers in remoter parts will tell you. Now the shortages have reached Asmara, in large part due to it being the time of year just before the rainy seasons have really got going.
The big news concerns the new volunteers who arrived in January and who have now been told they are not going to be given work permits. Meaning they are not going to be given residence permits, meaning they are going home. Quite apart from the impact on somebody’s life who has given up a job, maybe a home and said goodbye to friends expecting to be away for a prolonged period this must also have implications across the board for VSO here … we just don’t know exactly what yet.
Ironically, I received an email from VSO London asking if I would be prepared to be interviewed by an online IT magazine (it was sent to all current IT volunteers, I think). The resulting article would probably be along the lines of “How some IT people side-stepped the recession and saved the world at the same time while simultaneously avoiding being mired in self-pity following redundancy” (I may have over-extrapolated there). For me it wasn't like that, though. We have been saying we would "do VSO" someday for years and finally got around to initiating the process in early 2006 - quite a long time before the financial industry noticed that it had accidentally underpinned it's entire being with trillions of dollars-worth of unrecoverable debt.
So I would feel a bit of a fraud responding. Perhaps I should just reply asking for ideas on where my next volunteer / NGO IT job could be.
Interesting times, watch this space!
Climate change and East Africa
------------------------------
I had intended that the above be the post but ... I had a lot of rubbish going around in my head this week – best to let it out!
Having read George Monbiot's latest post on climate change and thinking about Eritrea's constant battle with water shortages I was just wondering how raised global temperatures and accompanying shifts in climate patterns might affect this region given that it is already on the edge (in more ways than one) climatically.
I know that it's not that simple given the interwoven complexities of this planet's dynamic systems and that the region could become wetter but what if a small shift sent things the wrong way? A few years of missed rain and it's Sahara-time for at least the Eritrean lowlands.
Historically migration due to shifts in climate patterns must have been the norm and, in fact, a lot of the lowland peoples here are semi-nomadic. But there's a problem: in recent times arbitrary borders have become more important and greatly increased human populations mean much more contention for resources. So what was once a normal migration pattern now becomes a border violation and a fight with a sitting population.
Forced migration due to climate change must be coming to this region sooner or later; let's face it we need more conflict here!
On the other hand, if you take the really pessimistic view that it's already too late, that the Earth's systems are so large and have such inertia that winding them back with the quite pathetic measures that are being mooted is impossible, that the planet's human population is already way too large then maybe it will only be small, remote, groups of people who use resources efficiently who will survive the mass starvation to come and this region will have to populate the world again in a few hundred thousand millenia ... after the Earth has cooled again.
Ok, Ok I'll try and stick more to what I know next time.
P
To get closer to the subject above our worries about both Eritrea and VSO’s programme here were magnified by our water tank choosing to remind us this week that it’s not bottomless after all. So we’re using the now-trickling garden tap when we can and we’re in the world of bucket flushes and solar showers (actually those are spectacularly good, bordering on the too hot if you use them immediately).
Before I say any more let’s just calm the cries of “you Asmarinos always have it so easy and now you’re complaining about lack of running water” or similar, from other Eritrea volunteers. Yes, it was just a crude device to introduce a theme - OK?
Of course it just symbolises the way we're feeling and, in fact, Eritrea battles constantly with water shortages as volunteers in remoter parts will tell you. Now the shortages have reached Asmara, in large part due to it being the time of year just before the rainy seasons have really got going.
The big news concerns the new volunteers who arrived in January and who have now been told they are not going to be given work permits. Meaning they are not going to be given residence permits, meaning they are going home. Quite apart from the impact on somebody’s life who has given up a job, maybe a home and said goodbye to friends expecting to be away for a prolonged period this must also have implications across the board for VSO here … we just don’t know exactly what yet.
Ironically, I received an email from VSO London asking if I would be prepared to be interviewed by an online IT magazine (it was sent to all current IT volunteers, I think). The resulting article would probably be along the lines of “How some IT people side-stepped the recession and saved the world at the same time while simultaneously avoiding being mired in self-pity following redundancy” (I may have over-extrapolated there). For me it wasn't like that, though. We have been saying we would "do VSO" someday for years and finally got around to initiating the process in early 2006 - quite a long time before the financial industry noticed that it had accidentally underpinned it's entire being with trillions of dollars-worth of unrecoverable debt.
So I would feel a bit of a fraud responding. Perhaps I should just reply asking for ideas on where my next volunteer / NGO IT job could be.
Interesting times, watch this space!
Climate change and East Africa
------------------------------
I had intended that the above be the post but ... I had a lot of rubbish going around in my head this week – best to let it out!
Having read George Monbiot's latest post on climate change and thinking about Eritrea's constant battle with water shortages I was just wondering how raised global temperatures and accompanying shifts in climate patterns might affect this region given that it is already on the edge (in more ways than one) climatically.
I know that it's not that simple given the interwoven complexities of this planet's dynamic systems and that the region could become wetter but what if a small shift sent things the wrong way? A few years of missed rain and it's Sahara-time for at least the Eritrean lowlands.
Historically migration due to shifts in climate patterns must have been the norm and, in fact, a lot of the lowland peoples here are semi-nomadic. But there's a problem: in recent times arbitrary borders have become more important and greatly increased human populations mean much more contention for resources. So what was once a normal migration pattern now becomes a border violation and a fight with a sitting population.
Forced migration due to climate change must be coming to this region sooner or later; let's face it we need more conflict here!
On the other hand, if you take the really pessimistic view that it's already too late, that the Earth's systems are so large and have such inertia that winding them back with the quite pathetic measures that are being mooted is impossible, that the planet's human population is already way too large then maybe it will only be small, remote, groups of people who use resources efficiently who will survive the mass starvation to come and this region will have to populate the world again in a few hundred thousand millenia ... after the Earth has cooled again.
Ok, Ok I'll try and stick more to what I know next time.
P
Tuesday, 17 March 2009
Of rain and books
The small rainy season has arrived and the ground smells wonderful. Let’s hope the rains are good this year. Last year they weren’t and the food situation in the countryside is very bad now.
In the UK I take a constant supply of reading material for granted. Libraries and bookshops have always been a constant in my life. There is a huge supply of books in the VSO office passed on by volunteers over the years and I am possibly reading more now than ever. And I take it as normal. Yet to Eritreans a book is a luxury. An English novel given to a student was accepted as if it was golddust, and read by the time of the next lesson, a week later. I am constantly asked by colleagues for novels. The male friend who asked yesterday told me that he particularly liked to read detective stories. However most men, when asked what they like to read will say “love stories” (honestly!) and give Danielle Steele as their favourite author. I’ve no idea how this came about but as far as I’m concerned any reading is better than no reading so I’m happy to feed their habit.
C
In the UK I take a constant supply of reading material for granted. Libraries and bookshops have always been a constant in my life. There is a huge supply of books in the VSO office passed on by volunteers over the years and I am possibly reading more now than ever. And I take it as normal. Yet to Eritreans a book is a luxury. An English novel given to a student was accepted as if it was golddust, and read by the time of the next lesson, a week later. I am constantly asked by colleagues for novels. The male friend who asked yesterday told me that he particularly liked to read detective stories. However most men, when asked what they like to read will say “love stories” (honestly!) and give Danielle Steele as their favourite author. I’ve no idea how this came about but as far as I’m concerned any reading is better than no reading so I’m happy to feed their habit.
C
Thursday, 12 March 2009
Crisis what crisis?
It's time for another bit of a rant I'm afraid.
Reading the online versions of newspapers it really does seem as if the developed world is falling apart. Things will get worse before they get better, economic suicides are on the rise, job losses are on the increase. Crime, especially cybercrime, is predicted to rise as legitimate means to make a living become scarcer and now (and this is the really horrific part) the world's richest people are getting poorer.
Here, in a country with no major means of earning foreign currency and with limited reliance on aid, the effects of a global downturn are more difficult to see. The variety of foodstuffs on offer is already small, the streets are already largely traffic-free and people already wear shoes and clothing until they fall apart.
And yet why is it that in a country which, on the world scene, also gets nothing but(probably deserved) bad press, the people are friendly, help each other when they can and live their lives to a high moral standard? Life grinds on at the same low level, prices go up and nobody ever gets pay rises (not since 1991 in the case of public employees) but nobody steals and most people just get on with life with a cheery disposition. Some things just defy explanation.
When we eventually leave Eritrea I, for one, will look at life in the developed world through different eyes. I'm sure that the whole thing will appear as one vast orgy of consumption even in the depressed state it will still be in in 2010. For example, I will look at the city streets packed with traffic and wonder why billions of dollars were set aside to rescue a motor industry which needs to shrink and change drastically before resources to run its products run out and before it chokes the atmosphere (yes, I'm still on the I can breathe a lot better in Asmara soapbox).
On the other hand I'll probably buy a new computer (well I still think we can solve all problems with technology) and add to the mountains of discarded electronic equipment and I'll probably put back the 7 kilos or so lost here, in one massive beer and bacon ingestion.
And then there's the question: in the unlikely event that one is available, do I really WANT another job in the banking industry? Perhaps we'll become serial volunteers (what I'd really LIKE to do is to help with a database / GIS project in a development - as in developing world - situation), hopefully it's still too early to have to make decisions / approaches but things can change.
Sorry for the unstructured ramble.
P
Reading the online versions of newspapers it really does seem as if the developed world is falling apart. Things will get worse before they get better, economic suicides are on the rise, job losses are on the increase. Crime, especially cybercrime, is predicted to rise as legitimate means to make a living become scarcer and now (and this is the really horrific part) the world's richest people are getting poorer.
Here, in a country with no major means of earning foreign currency and with limited reliance on aid, the effects of a global downturn are more difficult to see. The variety of foodstuffs on offer is already small, the streets are already largely traffic-free and people already wear shoes and clothing until they fall apart.
And yet why is it that in a country which, on the world scene, also gets nothing but(probably deserved) bad press, the people are friendly, help each other when they can and live their lives to a high moral standard? Life grinds on at the same low level, prices go up and nobody ever gets pay rises (not since 1991 in the case of public employees) but nobody steals and most people just get on with life with a cheery disposition. Some things just defy explanation.
When we eventually leave Eritrea I, for one, will look at life in the developed world through different eyes. I'm sure that the whole thing will appear as one vast orgy of consumption even in the depressed state it will still be in in 2010. For example, I will look at the city streets packed with traffic and wonder why billions of dollars were set aside to rescue a motor industry which needs to shrink and change drastically before resources to run its products run out and before it chokes the atmosphere (yes, I'm still on the I can breathe a lot better in Asmara soapbox).
On the other hand I'll probably buy a new computer (well I still think we can solve all problems with technology) and add to the mountains of discarded electronic equipment and I'll probably put back the 7 kilos or so lost here, in one massive beer and bacon ingestion.
And then there's the question: in the unlikely event that one is available, do I really WANT another job in the banking industry? Perhaps we'll become serial volunteers (what I'd really LIKE to do is to help with a database / GIS project in a development - as in developing world - situation), hopefully it's still too early to have to make decisions / approaches but things can change.
Sorry for the unstructured ramble.
P
Thursday, 5 March 2009
International Women's Day
A coffee ceremony was announced at work this morning for 10 o’clock to celebrate International Women’s Day on Sunday. By 11 o’clock we got started. Most people from the curriculum panels were there, it was basically just an opportunity to sit around, talk and eat cake. And talk in Tigrinya. There were about 80 men there, 8 Eritrean women, and me. Apparently they really wanted me to be there as the sole international woman, however no concessions were made. All the speeches were in Tigrinya. When I could eat no more cake I slipped out.
Women’s Day is a big event here. It’s a public holiday unless it happens to fall at the weekend, which is the case this year (no days in lieu either) and it is given a lot of publicity. But a woman’s lot is a mixed one here. Women fought alongside men in the Struggles and do hold some important jobs but this is generally only apparent in Asmara. In the textbook writing there is a gender fair policy which is scrupulously adhered to, yet there is a huge drop-out rate among girls in junior school due to early marriages and being needed to help at home. In spite of being outlawed a couple of years ago FGM is still practised. It is true that these sorts of change, which are rooted in the culture, take time and education to bring about. Unfortunately there are many people who will pay lip service to this spirit of emancipation but who, when pinned down, will defend the old ways as being “the way we have always done things.” As if that has ever been a defence.
We celebrate International Women’s Day here. That’s a good start.
C
Women’s Day is a big event here. It’s a public holiday unless it happens to fall at the weekend, which is the case this year (no days in lieu either) and it is given a lot of publicity. But a woman’s lot is a mixed one here. Women fought alongside men in the Struggles and do hold some important jobs but this is generally only apparent in Asmara. In the textbook writing there is a gender fair policy which is scrupulously adhered to, yet there is a huge drop-out rate among girls in junior school due to early marriages and being needed to help at home. In spite of being outlawed a couple of years ago FGM is still practised. It is true that these sorts of change, which are rooted in the culture, take time and education to bring about. Unfortunately there are many people who will pay lip service to this spirit of emancipation but who, when pinned down, will defend the old ways as being “the way we have always done things.” As if that has ever been a defence.
We celebrate International Women’s Day here. That’s a good start.
C
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