King Leopold’s Ghost and Apocalypse Now.

I just read Adam Hochchild’s King Leopolds Ghost. It deals with the exploitation of the DRC (then the Congo Free State) by King Leopold II of Belgium at the end of the 19th century. Not only gives the book an impassionate account of the attrocities commited by the Europeans in order to obtain ivory and rubber, but also of people like George Washington Williams, William Henry Sheppard and especially Edmund Dene Morel who make the world aware of these attrocities.

King Leopold’s Ghost

There were several things that caught my attention; one of them was how similar the situation is now compared to then. Two examples:

First, the Belgians made use of forced labor to obtain ivory and, especially, rubber. The book discusses in much detail how women were kidnapped so that the men had to collect rubber, and the harse punishments if not enough rubber was collected (villages were burned, right hands chopped off, women raped, etc). It shocked me how similar this is to messages we receive today from Voix des Kivus where we consistenty receive messages indicating how villagers are forced to carry loads for FARDC or FDLR troops into the forests. Other reports confirm this as well. In a recent report from Global Witness regarding mining in the DRC they note how “Local human rights organisations have reported cases where civilians have been arrested and tortured for not complying with soldiers’ orders to work for them, for not satisfying their military “bosses”, or for denouncing extortion, theft of minerals and other abuses by themilitary.’ (p. 39)”

Second, Edmund Morel – who a.o. led the campaign against slavery in the Congo Free State – found out about the attrocities while working for Elder Dempster (a Liverpool shipping firm) in Antwerpen. He noticed that ships leaving Belgium for the Congo carried only guns, chains, ordnance and explosives, but no commercial goods, while ships arriving from the colony came back full of valuable products (ivory and rubber). I hope you all saw the movie “Darwin’s Nightmare”...

Apocalypse Now

The book mentioned that the movie Apocalypse Now - a movie about the Vietnam War – is based on Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. So, yesterday evening I watched the movie; it could not have been more obvious:

Apocalypse is set in a beautiful country, but where conflict is rife (like in the DRC). The US soldier takes a boat up the Nung river [the Congo] to find Colonel Walter E. Kurtz of Special Forces [yes, they even kept the same name] who went insane [Conrad’s Kurtz also went insane and is also lording over a small tribe as a god]. At minutes 1:15 and 2:20 we see stakes with severed heads on it [the same is what Marlow sees when looking at Conrad’s Kurtz's house via his binoculars]. To make things even more obvious, when Colonel Kurtz dies he screams “The horror! The horror!” and shortly after that we see that he wrote in his book "Drop the bomb. Exterminate them All". In Heart of Darkness Kurtz screams the same thing when dying and had written down "Exterminate the brutes!".

The question now is why? Is Francis Ford Coppola indicating that the US regime was like the one of Leopold II? Does he want to show us the darkness of the human psyche: "the heart of an immense darkness"? Or did simply think (correctly) that using Heart of Darkness would bring in lots of money? It is a great movie.

Passports don't like washing-machines.

First, I'm flying on January 5th to the DRC via Kigali where I'm staying over 1 night. I therefore need a visa. Today I was contemplating whether to go through the hassle of going to the Rwandan Embassy in the Hague, do the paperwork, etc. or just to go to Kigali airport and buy a visa at arrival, of course, with the possibility that the latter is not possible. About an hour ago I decided to go for the latter. Second, when we travelled together, my ex-girlfriend would often tell me how badly I took care of my passport. I don't have a protection cover, I just keep it in my trousers, from the outside one can't see it is an EU Dutch passport anymore, etc.

There we go:

I just took my passport out of the washing-machine and spend about 30 minutes with my mom's hairdryer trying to save my visas and stamps. Yep, I had forgotten to take my passport out of my trousers. Luckily, I can still see that it is me on my US visa and the words on it are quite readable. Fortunately, the Dutch part is made of a washing-machine resistant material. And, magically, the DRC visa - which is nothing more than a stamp - also survived soap and bubbles. I do miss 20+ stamps. Especially the stamps one gets at US customs (the ones where they write an "F1" inside the stamp) are noticably absent. At the moment, I have a lot of lonely "F1"s in my passport. :)

So:

First, I think I will be going to the Rwandan Embassy tomorrow. Second, as always, my ex-girlfriend was very right.

Google and the FDLR.

Most rebel groups have a website. Of course, also they have to spread their 'noble' objectives to the wider world. Also, the FDLR (the Forces Démocratiques de Libération du Rwanda) has a website. In their own words, the FDLR are [things within square brackets are mine, the rest is from the FDLR website]:

"[mainly Hutu-based] Rwandans [living in Eastern Congo] determined to defend their motherland [Rwanda] kept under constant threats of extermination by a tyrannic and barbaric [Tutsi-based] regime [in Kigali, Rwanda]. The FDLR are a response to contempt, arrogance, ruthless and bloodthirsty repression, and fascism of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) [the current Tutsi-based ruling party in Rwanda and led by the country's president Paul Kagame] and to the opposition by the RPF to diverse initiatives taken in favour of a political dialogue, open democratic activities, and respect of fundamental human rights in Rwanda."

Especially the last sentence is informative. I must have been wrong then for all that time; I always thought that the FDLR was accused by many (human rights workers, the UN, and countless Congolese civilians) of mass rape, murder, forced recruitments, child soldiers, using slaves to illegally exploit minerals, etc.

When I typed in "FDLR" into Google this evening I got the following message:

FDLR - [ Vertaal deze pagina ]
Deze site kan schade toebrengen aan uw computer.
FDLR, easy homepage, Homepages erstellen ohne Programmierkenntnisse, site dynamique sans programmation.
www.fdlr.org/
- Vergelijkbaar -

The second sentence means "This site can damage your computer" in that beautiful language Dutch. Is Google indirectly telling us something here?

Back in the Netherlands: finally internet again.

After three weeks without decent internet, I am sitting on the couch with a cold Dutch beer and final read - instead of quickly scan - my favorite news sources:

• Africa is a country; a great source on about everything with regards to Africa; especially the more cultural things.
  
• Congosiasa; a great blog with information on Congo.
  
• Chris Blattman is professor at Yale, does very interesting work, and he keeps a great blog. How every academic should be.
  
• IRIN news; humanitarian news by OCHA.
  
• Project Syndicate; lots of commentary by often really good academics.
  
• Reliefweb; a UN website that provides information to humanitarian relief organizations.
  
• Texas in Africa; blog by Laura Seay; great commentary on Africa.
  
• Wronging Rights; brilliant commentary on serious issues.

From these sources (I know, I just recycle), hereby five interesting things:

• For my dissertation I am, among others, interested in natural resources and it's relation to conflict. I read the solution to Congo's mineral problems... drones! Of course, I should have thought of that.
• On a much more serious note, last summer Simon and I befriended a very bright Congolese student; he is studying to become a priest. Already some days ago he sent us an email on recent attacks on Catholic priests and nuns in Eastern DRC. The above sources wrote about it as well, one linked to this. Please also read the post by Texas in Africa who discusses the importance of the Catholic Church in Eastern Congo.
• Some nice pictures and postcards from Africa.

• In my previous post I had a link to a documentary regarding DRC's gold on CBS' 60 minutes. Please also check this out for three problems with the documentary.
• Finally, Chinese in Africa. Indeed, last summer when I was in the DRC, each public goods project - although few in number - had at least one Chinese walking around there as well.

Four things I like (a belated post).

• A short movie on the DRC's gold on CBS.
• A recent International Peace Institute event with SRSG Mr. Alan Doss as guest.
• The UN ends Kimia II. Finally!
• A recent report by Human Rights Watch on Eastern Congo.

Eurolines.

I’m in rural Austria with limited internet connection. It was quite a trip to get here from Montpellier (>24 hours in public transport): 1 tram in Montpellier, 3 busses to get to Munich, and 2 trains to get to Fuegen. As always, the bus part was interesting.

It had snowed for the first time in France the evening before, and the bus’ window-heater didn’t work (the bus came from Spain). Also, we were stopped by German police for passport control. Both made me miss my train in Munich. We drove at night, which doesn’t mean one can sleep because the bus driver has to stop every 2 hours or so for a break; i.e. lights on. On top of this, I had to change bus twice; i.e. waiting in the freezing cold on an empty parking lot praying that the next bus will arrive soon (of course those busses also had delays).

But this is usual for travelling by Eurolines bus; that’s why it’s cheap. And, despite all this, it was not a hellish ride, because there is something else usual about these rides.

I sat next to an interesting German girl my age and we had a long chat; not in English or German, but in French. Right in front of us sat a boy and a girl; she from Germany studying Spanish and he from France studying German. A bit later during the trip I overheard their conversation: she was teaching him "naamvallen".

Some years ago The Economist wrote that (paraphrasing) while the European Commission had done its fair share, it was especially the cheap airlines and buscompanies in Europe –Ryanair, Eurojet, Eurolines, etc. – that benefits European integration. It was that thought that kept me warm while freezing at the parking lot in Lyon and Karlsruhe. ;)

Montpellier.

Because I want to be a proper Africanist I have to speak French; not only the language of love, but also the language that is spoken in 31 African countries. I forgot most of my high school French so here I am, taking classes for two weeks in Montpellier, France.

Montpellier is a gorgeous city from the Early Middle Ages first mentioned in a document of 985. The city - the capital of the "Languedoc-Roussillon" region - is relatively small with around 250,000 inhabitants. Thank you Wikipedia. I've been here now for about two weeks; unfortunately with very limited internet connection. Hereby some pros and cons of Montpellier:

pro: walking
I love to walk around late at night when there is nobody on the street (it clears my head and makes me think). Montpellier is perfect for this with its many small narrow streets, old buildings, etc.

pro: books
I found two really massive bookshops! One of them even has a large amount of second-hand books. This all in addition to many antique bookshops I've seen. Hurrah!

con: pooh
Unfortunately Montpellier kept one bad Medieval habit: there is pooh lying all over the place.

con: closing times
My school here - Accent Francais - closes at 6pm. And the internet cafe - together with most other shops in Montpellier - closes at 8pm. How I miss New York.

Do I have nothing to say about Montpellier's culture, nearby-located villages, etc.? Actually, no. I'm taking the ‘intensive’ package here: class in the morning, (private) class in the afternoon, dinner with hostess in the evening to practice speaking, and homework after that. Of course, work for Columbia continues, so I try to do that at night.

In a few hours I hop on a bus that brings me to Muenchen, Germany (arriving the next morning). From there I take a train to Jenbach in Austria where I plan to meet up with my family (mom, dad, brothers, aunts, uncles, granny, cousins, etc.) to spend a week together in Austria. Can't wait.

Au revoir la France! Hallo Österreich!

Books & All Things Must Fight to Live.

Yesterday morning I arrived at Schiphol airport; first a month in Europe and then finally back to the DR Congo.

In Europe: 1. I'll study French (tomorrow I'll be heading to Montpellier for two weeks), 2. Work on R (I took John Fox's "R and S-Plus Companying to Applied Regression" with me), 3. Work on causal inference (I also took Morgan and Winship's "Counterfactuals and Causal Inference" with me), 4. Prepare for the Congo.

For in the DRC I packed quite a few books (I know I should have bought a Kindle):

• Adam Hochchild's "King Leopold's Ghost"
• Ben Okri's "Famished Road"
• Samual Popkin's "Rational Peasant"
• Frederick Forsyth's "Dogs of War"
• Adam Roberts' "The Wonga Coup"
• Robert Klitgaard's "Tropical Gangsters"
• Nicholas Shaxson' "Poisoned Wells"
• Bryan Mealer's "All Things Must Fight to Live"
• Dambisa Moyo's "Dead Aid"

I finished Bryan Mealer's book already in the airplane from New York. Bryan Mealer worked and travelled for three years in the Congo and wrote about his experiences. A very impressive piece of work! I do hope the other books are not that good, otherwise I am out of books before I arrive in the DRC. ;)

Flatland (again).

A short addition to my previous post on Flatland, I just read this on Wikipedia:

"Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions is an 1884 satirical novella by the English schoolmaster Edwin Abbott Abbott. Writing pseudonymously as "a square", Abbott used the fictional two-dimensional world of Flatland to offer pointed observations on the social hierarchy of Victorian culture."

Nice!

Visa for DR Congo.

The day after tomorrow I'll leave New York for 2+ months: two weeks in France to study French, one week in Austria to ski, one week in the Netherlands with family, and then for more than a month back to Eastern Congo for work. I can't wait.

Of course one needs a Visa to enter the DRC. Last time I took the official route, which took lots of time and lots and lots of paperwork. For example, the website notes that an invitation from somebody in the DRC is necessary in order to obtain a Visa. The document I obtained in the summer contained 5 stamps (including one of a notary public) and a large number of signatures.

Following the advise of my professor, this time I took a different approach. I went to the DRC Mission at the United Nations myself yesterday. They asked me for a letter of invitation, which I told them I didn't have. They then asked me for information on where I would stay. So, I wrote the following on a document:

[name of a friend]
IRC House #5
Quite close to Lake Kivu
Bukavu, DRC

She took the piece of paper, looked at what I wrote down, thanked me and tomorrow I can pick up my passport with Visa. Awesome!

Flatland.

I just finished the book "Flatland"; written in 1884 by Edwin A. Abbott. The narrator - himself a square - lives in a two-dimensional world called Flatland. His wife, like all women in Flatland, is a line. The more sides one has the higher one is in the hierarchy. Indeed, the circle is the highest class. In an amazing way the book not only guides one through the implications of life in two dimensions, it introduces the reader to perceiving dimensions.

The narrator, for example, visits Lineland (a one-dimensional word) and while he is a square he is perceived solely as a point because people in a one-dimensional world like Lineland only have north/ south; this in contrast to north/south, and left/right in Flatland, and in contrast to north/south, left/right, and up/down in Spaceland.

Similarly when a sphere from Spaceland (a three-dimensional world) visits Flatland he is perceived as a circle. Indeed, what people from Flatline understand is solely a single plane cutting through the sphere:

People in Flatland (Lineland) just can't perceive the idea of there being more than two dimensions (one dimension). Is there a fourth dimension out there that we as people living in Spaceland just can't perceive?

Bono, and Thanksgiving.

A few days ago a great and funny article was posted on William Easterly's blog "Aidwatchers" under the header "African leaders advise Bono on reform of U2". Please click here to read it.

Also, today it is Thanksgiving. Indeed, the day that all the Americans have to eat turkey, have to shop on Friday, and everybody has a holiday. Not for graduate students, they think (I got this from a Facebook post of a collegue in the Economics Department): "sweet, Thanksgiving, four days when I can get some research done without being bothered with other things." It is so true.

Gentlemen Of Bacongo.

"A new photo book by Daniele Tamagni explores the phenomenon of sapeurs, a clique of extraordinarily dressed dandies from the Congo. In the midst of war and abject poverty, these men dress in tailored suits, silk ties, and immaculate footwear."

I saw similar pictures about a year ago in IS (the Dutch government's international cooperation magazine), but Chris Blattman recently posted the following link on his blog. Incredible!

European Union.

While it of course depends on the setting one is in, I feel more European than I feel Dutch. I am a big fan of the European project. Last Thursday, without much fighting among the 27 European Heads of State, the first President and Foreign Minister of the EU were chosen. Together with Pierce (Irish) and John (British) I drank a beer to celebrate this, and to reflect on the quite historic fact that we now share the same President.

I would like the President and the Foreign Minister of the EU to be powerful and charismatic; two people that should bring the European project forward (like Jacques Delorse) and sell it to the people on street (like nobody yet). Unfortunately, I don't see the Belgium Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy and UK Eurocommisioner for Foreign Trade Catherine Ashton do that. I really hope they prove me wrong.

Voix des Kivus.

A lot of research on conflict suffers because of poor quality data. Researchers often rely on events data collected by media and official organizations or on recall based questions in surveys. In addition, development organizations - especially those in Eastern Congo - often have a lack of good quality information, which inhibits them to respond to events in a timely and effective manner. We are now running a pilot in Eastern Congo – called Voix des Kivus – to see whether it is feasible to collect systematic data on conflict events through a system in which large numbers of phone holders in remote areas (conditional on phone coverage) register conflict events on behalf of their communities in real time through an automated SMS system. A few days ago a five minute presentation that I gave at the October 16-18 International Conference on Conflict Mapping in Cleveland came out:

Weapons to the FARDC.

As ReliefWeb notes here MONUC recently handed over weapons and ammunitions to the DRC Armed Forces (FARDC), which were recovered during the different phases of disarmament and demobilisation of combatants in Ituri. On November 12 they even had a ceremony at the MONUC Bangladeshi contingent camp in Ndromo. So giving weapons and ammunition to the FARDC is a good thing?

Lake Kivu, the CIA and collapsing governments.

This December (2009) and January (2010) I will head back to Eastern Congo; I can't wait. Unfortunately, if it is not the fighting it is other things that will keep my mom worried: here a recent story by the New York Times on mazuku; "evil wind" in Swahili. That is, a story about the bubbles of carbon dioxide above and around Lake Kivu that are the product of large reservoirs of methane and carbon dioxide inside the lake.

A few days ago I quickly wanted some general information on the DR Congo. I visited the CIA World Factbook. These guys recently updated their website and each country now has nice dropdown menus - "introduction", "geography", etc. - with the option to expand or collapse these menus if one hovers over them. When hovering with the mouse-pointer over "Government" (try it here) the website gives the option to:

Expand/ Collapse Government

A bit scary knowing we are talking about the CIA and the Democratic Republic of Congo. ;)

Conflict mapping and EGAP 2009.

On October 16-18 the International Conference on Conflict Mapping took place in Cleveland, Ohio. In brief, we discussed: 1. How to get conflict data, 2. How to process this data, and 3. How to present and disseminate this data. Some notes:

- An amazing combination of: people working in the developing world, computer wiz kids, academics, and people from international organizations and government institutions.

I also visited the October 16-17 EGAP 2009 Conference at Columbia University; a conference on experiments on governance and politics. Some notes:
- A closed meeting with the top 20 people in politics on this topic. Because I helped Macartan Humphreys organize the conference, I was allowed to join. It was great!

- Confirmed that I am extremely interested in "experiments" and "causal inference". It is great to see how rigorous academic work can be put to practical use. These techniques will definitely be part of my dissertation.

Peter goes Cleveland.

From 09/25 - 10/05 I was in the Netherlands. Because I had been flying a lot I told my mom that I experience it as similar as taking a bus. This was a dangerous thing to say.

Last Thursday (10/15) I would fly to Cleveland, spend the rest of the day reading and walking through the city, present at a conference on Friday (more in the next post), fly back in the evening and attend a conference organized by Macartan Humphreys (ibid) on Saturday.

Well, almost.

At 4am I was in the bus in order to catch my 6am flight from La Guardia to Cleveland. At around 5am, just before arriving at the airport, I noticed that I had forgotten my passport! Consequently, I had to wake up my roommate who jumped in a cab and had to race to La Guardia.

But it gets better. In the terminal I tried to obtain my ticket. After several failed attempts at a ticketmachine I agitatedly asked somebody from American Airlines behind the desk. She looked... "But sir, your flight is in 2 weeks". I had booked the wrong flight! Changing it or getting a new flight was $700+; too much for me.

So, at 10am that same day I left the New York City Bus Terminal and after an almost 14 hours busride I arrived in Cleveland exhausted. Unfortunately, I still had to prepare my presentation, and after yet another evening of 3 hours sleep I arrived at the conference at 8am. After my presentation that morning I could only visit one more talk because... I had to leave again; another 13+ hour ride back to New York ahead. I arrived on Saturday around 630am; just in time to take a quick shower and be at Columbia at 8am; Macartan's conference was about to start.

Flying is not the same as taking a bus.

African condom commercial.

From a colleague with whom I lived with in the DR Congo I got a link to this African condom commercial: Great!

Clowns in the Congo.

I just read this post on IRIN News (a great news source by UNOCHA on humanitarian affairs worldwide); Clowns without Borders touched ground in the DR Congo. I strongly dislike clowns myself, but if it makes people (read: children in conflict zones) happy; I am in! Interestingly enough, on the one picture that comes with the story only one of the around 16 children seems to be smiling. The others seem to think "Who is that weird white guy?".

Windmills in Africa.

In July this year, when I was in the DR Congo, I was surprised that while several villages I visited were located in very windy locations, they did not make use of that fact. That is, there were no windmills in the east of the DRC. Well, one can no longer argue that me thinking about this was one of my Dutch defects. One can also no longer argue that there are no windmills in Africa. A bit belated, but please read this story. It is great to read something positive from the Continent.

Those damn keys.

Last December Captain Moussa Dadis Camara seized power in a coup d’état in Guinea* after the death of the longtime dictator Lansana Conté. Last week Monday (September 28), tens of thousands of citizens gathered in the capital Conakry to protest plans by Camara to run in January’s presidential election, after promising he would not. In response the Captain's troops went on a brutal rampage; shooting, stabbing, and raping in public in broad daylight. More than 157 people are said to be killed and thousands have gunshot, bayonet, or other injuries. Three days after the massacre Camara luckily convincingly explained why he did not stop the rampage. He could not find the keys to his pickup. Those damn keys. I also lose my keys once in a while.

* Ok, don't feel too bad that you do not really know what country Guinea is and where it is located. I have problems with it, and I hope to earn my living one day by working on Africa. Guinea is in West Africa; it used to be called French Guinea until 1958. Don't mix this up with the country French Guiana that lies in Latin America and borders Suriname and Brazil. Also don't mix it it up with Papua New Guinea, which is a country in Oceania that occupies the eastern half of New Guinea. New Guinea from 1949 to 1962 was also known as Dutch New Guinea. The latter should not be confused with Dutch Guinea, which was was a portion of coastal West Africa that was gradually colonized by the Dutch beginning in 1598. Also don't mix up Guinea with the countries Guinea Bissau or Equatorial Guinea. The first is Guinea's neighbor to the north and west. The latter is located on the same continent, but more to the south.

'During-comps-motivation', and is the NL full?

'During-comps-motivation'

As I noted in a previous post, during August I studied intensely for the comprehensive exams. 4 weeks and 450+ works; books and articles. Luckily we have a group of good friends that are great in motivating each other; I received this picture from Ph.D. Comics about a week before the exams. Thanks guys!

Is the Netherlands full?

Immigration is a hot topic in the Netherlands. Knowing that the Netherlands is one of the densest populated countries in the world this question is often answered in the affirmative by opponents of immigration. In a great post (as always), Chris Blattman had an interesting link that showed maps of the Netherlands with the Dutch population size at LA and Manhattan densities here.

Interestingly, that same day I listened to a great show by one of the better Dutch standup comedians here (sorry it is in Dutch). At minute 9:20 Theo Maassen notes "When we talk about asylum-

seekers the Netherlands is full, but but if someone tells she is pregnant we congratulate her."

The comps, and the (non)usefulness of academia.

Last Wednesday I finished the written part of the comps. In brief, the comprehensive exams are a test about everything you learned during the first two years of the Ph.D. I did mine in comparative politics (CP) and international relations (IR). I now know the name of the author, year of publication, the argument made, etc. of well over 450 works; both books and articles.

I studied for a month; little compared to my colleagues who had more time. Although for many this sounds horrible, it was quite nice. Not only did I read many works I otherwise would not have read, it also makes you think of a diverse set of questions. For CP, for example: What political system is best? Is nationalism good or bad? What leads to democracy? Is democracy a good thing? What leads to a large welfare state? Why are people poor? How malleable is one's identity? Etc. And for IR, for example: Why do countries fight wars? Do nuclear bombs bring stability? Why do countries comply with international law? Etc.

But, all in all, after reading the broad field of Political Science, I am not very impressed with what the academic field has achieved so far. To give a telling example from IR. One of the summaries that we made for a 1998 article by Stephen Van Evera said the following: "This article is based on SVE's PhD thesis, which is probably the most widely cited thesis in IR." It continues saying that the prime argument of the book is: "War is more likely when conquest is easy". That is it! This is the conclusion of one of the most seminal books in the field of IR! If I say this back home to my family I am sure to hear "DUH!!".

Let me give one more example. One of the things we did for IR was the preparation, presentation and then discussion about diverse topics. Most of the topics consisted of many slides and often we discussed the topic for a long time. About one topic, however, we were relatively very brief... "The Causes of Peace". Does this tell something about the field, and the usefulness of academia?

Now, what did academia - especially the social sciences - contribute to the world; not including the many piles of paper? The Democratic Peace Theory (DPT) maybe comes closest to the 'real world'. This theory - going all the way back to Kant - argues that democratic countries do not fight each other. Consequently, democracy should be promoted; exactly what Clinton emphasized in his 1994 State of the Union. But, there is also quite a bit of evidence against the DPT. Moreover, does the US promote democracy because we academics tell the policy-makers it is a good idea, or does it happen simply because hegemons promote always seem to promote their own convictions; like Victorian Britain promoted "free minds, free markets, and Cristian morality".*

Anyhow, all in all, I wasn't very impressed with the Political Science literature. Let's see whether I can contribute something in upcoming years. ;)

* I am currently reading "Africa and the Victorians" by Ronald Robinson and John Gallagher (1961).

Obama's birth certificate.

Most people in the world live in poverty, wars are still being fought, and I can continue with this list ad infinitum. But, what keeps the people of the United States - the country in the world that is best placd to do something about these things - occupied these days... the President's birth certificate! For a great discussion, please see this short part of the Daily Show here. Even in Harlem it is the topic of the day. This sign currently hangs outside one of the major churches here in Harlem:

This is wrong on so many levels. The fact that this is what keeps the people here in the United States - even in Harlem - occupied. What about separation church and state? Etc.

[I published this already on August 12, 2009 at 1024am on petervanderwindt.eu/blog.htm]

Back in the hood.

So, I live in Harlem. After being away from my neighborhood for two months what are my first thoughts again? Well, the people are very loud; screaming from one side of the street to the other, and singing (read: screaming) rap-lines while listening to their ipod. Also, people are big; many of them simply obese. The latter is not that strange. After a long day of studying for comps, I wanted to get a take-away. I walked for several hundreds of meters over 125th - the main street in Harlem - and found several Mac Donalds, Burger Kings, Dunkin Donuts, etc. Nothing 'healthy'. So, I ended up at the Chinese and ordered a General Tso's Chicken (mom, I took additional broccoli).

The Chinese there are - with the exception that ones in a while they think I can't count and then keep an extra dollar change - hardworking and friendly. Anyhow, there was this guy there. He wore a multiple-colored, fur hat; despite the fact that today it was over 90 degrees in NYC (don't ask me what that means, I only know Celsius, but I read that in the NY Times today). He had rasta-type hair up to his butt. He wore a multi-color suit, which was too short. And he had a lot (a lot!) of bling-bling; I've never seen such a big, fake, and ugly watch in my life before. His shoes were of crocodile-leather, way to big and they had green shoelaces in them. Actually, all in all, it was a fantastic sight! Anyhow, this guy was clearly drugged and had a fight with the Chinese who were standing on the other side of the counter. He was angry. Very angry! He tried to break the lock of the gate separating him from the Chinese. He tried to kick in the windows several times. In the meantime we were waiting for the police to arrive (and I was also waiting for my food). During all this time the guy just kept on screaming and cursing at the Chinese. I didn't really know what he screamed to the Chinese, but it could not have been very flattering. Anyhow, after about ten minutes, and right after trying yet again to kick in a window, he screamed to the Chinese what are now legendary words for me... "you guys look like clowns".

I just couldn't stop laughing. Picture this shabby Chinese take-away place in Harlem, a guy that is angry and looks like a clown screaming at some Chinese that they look like clowns, and then among the 20 people (who are all quiet and tense) the only white guy just can't stop laughing. Absolutely brilliant; I still have a smile on my face.

A bit less nice, though. There was a mom with four kids between the age of 7 and 12. Once that guy was gone these kids - instead of saying "mom, that was a bad man" - started imitating the man; coppying his words and doing karate-kicks themselves against the gate and windows. They thought the man was cool. Instead of the mom - who was big - saying something to her children, she didn't. She didn't even look at the them, because she was looking at herself in the mirror already for many minutes while at the same time screaming along while listening to her ipod. Yep, I am back in my hood.

[I published this already on August 10, 2009 at 1146pm on petervanderwindt.eu/blog.htm]

Spanish, French, Franish, Sprench. Aargh!

Up to several months ago I had a girlfriend from Mexico. Because I was crazy about here I studied Spanish; I took evening classes at Columbia, read Spanish books, made sure to speak Spanish to the shopkeepers here in Harlem, etc. However, only a few months before I would be fluent in the language two things happened: 1. We broke up. 2. Macartan asked me to work for him in the Democratic Republic of Congo; i.e. a country where the people speak French. The DRC, and working for Macartan, was (and is) a great opportunity. Also, wanting to be an Africanist, I have to be fluent in French. Finally, there was nothing that kept me to Spanish. So, I had to study French. But, I only had French at secondary school . Worse, I had forgotten most of it. Therefore, just before leaving to the DR Congo, I went to Montpellier to speed-study French. After two weeks of intensive (private) classes in Montpellier - where with much difficulty I switched from "tambien" to "aussi" and from "y" to "et" - and two months of French in the DRC, I am now at a French-level that is equal to the Spanish-level I had several months ago. That is, not yet fluent. So, what's my point with this post?

Well, it sucks. This evening I bought some bananas at the corner-shop. The shopkeeper recognized me and she said in a friendly tone ¿Cómo estás? I replied "très bien!" She continued in Spanish, and I started talking in Franish or Sprench; whatever you want to call it. Aargh! So, steps ahead: 1. First, kicking ass in the comps at the end of the month. 2. Then, asap after that: get French fluent. From September 1 onwards, I'll reserve two full days a week for it.

[I published this already on August 8, 2009 at 1124pm on petervanderwindt.eu/blog.htm]