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A response and addition to the last entry
Entry 43 of 133 | show all | print this entry |
Hello again everyone. Well, if anyone ever needs to know anything about Kampala, I'm your man. Once again I am back home in Backpackers. Will DJ ever get out of this city? Stay tuned... (As an aside, I love how my travelpod map has become this squiggly little knot in the middle of Africa.)
I mentioned in the last entry that I feel like I'm a student again. I have always found that everyone in your life can teach you something, good or bad, and I have always valued good conversation for that reason. In my last entry I talked about the tearing down and invasion of the shantytown behind the hostel where I was staying. I wrote from my own perspective as a white, western, left leaning person. But, as hopefully most people know, rarely is the world simply black and white. A friend of mine wrote a response to that entry giving her own perspective. To preface this, this is a friend who I have incredible respect for as a person, for her intelligence, and her belief in standing up for what is right. She also is from Nairobi, having grown up there until her 20's. She has allowed me to copy her response, and in the spirit of continuing to try and learn and be open to other ideas and perspectives, I offer it to you. Thanks to everyone who writes me through this blog thing. I know it can seem a bit impersonal at times, but it is very personal for me, and you are all part of the trip I am on. Thanks again.
My friend writes:
"Keep up the travel log. Very interesting perspective on the shacks. These are the people who have driffted into Nairobi from the rural areas and from other surrounding countries. There are a lot of these people who are genuine and hard working. However, there are others who are using this maze as a place to launch their robbery and killing activities. They use these to moniter and scout the residences and the businesses. After the attack, they come and hide in these dark shacks amongst the mass of human beings. Difficult for the police to go in there and get them. Wherever, they have dismantled these, the crime rate has drastically gone down. The solution is for the Govt. to provide a lot of cheap and decent housing estates for these people in certain areas. They are an eyesore, destroy people's landscaping (green hedges rot as they use them for their bathroom facilities) also they harbour rodents and other germs. Perfect place for outbreak of diseases such as cholera. Their presence discourage shoppers from coming to these areas as they fear they will be robbed. So businesses lose money and contribute to further unemployment.
This is my perspective from my experience and relatives and friends who live there."
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| 43. | A response and addition to the last entry - Kampala, Uganda Jan 29, 2007 |
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