Saturday - The Fourth of July
Celebrating a US Holiday in Zimbabwe
Today I popped over to a 4th of July lunch for
Americans in Zimbabwe. Well, mostly the embassy staff and friends. I don't think
they exactly advertise in the papers. I only found out through my friends at the
French Embassy.
The 4th of July Lunch near closing time.
It almost felt like home. There was a blues band, a little football, hotdogs, and more. I ended up sitting down with the Ambassador, his Secretary and friends from the Embassy. I got a hard time for not registering when I come...I promised to next time :) I also learned a great deal about immigration policy (always the student)...we need to figure out what it will take to be able to bring students from Zimbabwe to the US for intensives. I learned mainly that they need to have a reason to return.
Of course, most of the visitors from Africa that we have had in the US want to return anyway. There are a few reasons. Mainly, they realize that the US is not the country they see on TV. They learn that a dollar doesn't go very far. Most that make it to the US are well connected in their own country (they have to be to get to the US) and find the US much less hospitable. They find that they have traded a rich sense of community for a separated and hurried existence. I asked Maina when he was coming back...his response was quick..."I am never coming back," he told me. Nearly every African we are working with sees themselves returning home someday...when the opportunity is right.
Africa is an amazing land, God's land, if you have the resources to see past the next week. Of course, most don't...But it doesn't have to be this way. The opportunity of the technological revolution is that it can be spread everywhere to everyone. It is cheap, accessible and portable. As opposed to the raw exports that are the staple of revenue generation here (a staple that de-values human resources)... this "product", media, can be harvested, refined and finished in-country with a Camcorder and a $799 iMac then Fed-ex'd on a DVD to a client anywhere in the world.
But the spread of media technologies is more than an economic development tool. It's more than jobs or revenue. It is the ability to change how we see the world outside of our own backyard. It is the opportunity for the people here to tell their own stories...To show us who they are through their own eyes...not something packaged by foreigners for 20 second servings to spice up the space between "The Laci Peterson Saga" and "Why americans are getting fatter". It is the true democratization of the media.
It is the possibility of a global conversation where _no one_ is left out.
The 4th of July Lunch near closing time.
It almost felt like home. There was a blues band, a little football, hotdogs, and more. I ended up sitting down with the Ambassador, his Secretary and friends from the Embassy. I got a hard time for not registering when I come...I promised to next time :) I also learned a great deal about immigration policy (always the student)...we need to figure out what it will take to be able to bring students from Zimbabwe to the US for intensives. I learned mainly that they need to have a reason to return.
Of course, most of the visitors from Africa that we have had in the US want to return anyway. There are a few reasons. Mainly, they realize that the US is not the country they see on TV. They learn that a dollar doesn't go very far. Most that make it to the US are well connected in their own country (they have to be to get to the US) and find the US much less hospitable. They find that they have traded a rich sense of community for a separated and hurried existence. I asked Maina when he was coming back...his response was quick..."I am never coming back," he told me. Nearly every African we are working with sees themselves returning home someday...when the opportunity is right.
Africa is an amazing land, God's land, if you have the resources to see past the next week. Of course, most don't...But it doesn't have to be this way. The opportunity of the technological revolution is that it can be spread everywhere to everyone. It is cheap, accessible and portable. As opposed to the raw exports that are the staple of revenue generation here (a staple that de-values human resources)... this "product", media, can be harvested, refined and finished in-country with a Camcorder and a $799 iMac then Fed-ex'd on a DVD to a client anywhere in the world.
But the spread of media technologies is more than an economic development tool. It's more than jobs or revenue. It is the ability to change how we see the world outside of our own backyard. It is the opportunity for the people here to tell their own stories...To show us who they are through their own eyes...not something packaged by foreigners for 20 second servings to spice up the space between "The Laci Peterson Saga" and "Why americans are getting fatter". It is the true democratization of the media.
It is the possibility of a global conversation where _no one_ is left out.
Posted: Sat - July 5, 2003 at 05:45 PM Africa, Summer (Winter) 2003 Email Comments
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Total entries in this blog: 31
Total entries in this category: 31
Published On: Aug 05, 2003 10:45 AM
Total entries in this category: 31
Published On: Aug 05, 2003 10:45 AM