There should be a global outcry against the Tea Party for this one.

Apparently they want to change American school textbooks to make slavery look like it really wan’t that big a deal in our history. A Huffington Post article quotes a spokesperson:

According to reports, Hal Rounds, the Fayette County attorney and spokesman for the group, said during a recent news conference that there has been “an awful lot of made-up criticism about, for instance, the founders intruding on the Indians or having slaves or being hypocrites in one way or another.

Hmmm…”made-up criticism.” Let’s think about that. Did our founders “intrude on the Indians?” Intrude might not be the right word. How about “come crashing in, in a genocidal sort of way?”

And our Founding Fathers DID own slaves. That isn’t “made up,” and that needs to be a part of the conversation. Hal went on to say:

The thing we need to focus on about the founders is that, given the social structure of their time, they were revolutionaries who brought liberty into a world where it hadn’t existed, to everybody — not all equally instantly — and it was their progress that we need to look at,” Rounds said, according to The Commercial Appeal.

Yes, they were revolutionaries, and they did bring a new form of governance into the Western world (there is evidence that the US Constitution was significantly influenced by the structure of the Iroquois Confederacy, which existed long before the fledgeling United States). They did bring liberty into the world for some, but let’s keep in mind that abolition movements had been happening in various part of the world for millenia, so it was not a new idea that slavery was wrong. The idea was there, so they could have fast-tracked it a bit more if their own slaves weren’t helping them to stay rich.

To look at History without the “ugly parts” destroys the opportunity to learn from History. The world constantly struggles with threats to human rights. The complex web of issues that both nurtured slavery in the States and led to its downfall can give us insight into modern-day struggles for human rights.

Read more about the issue of slavery in textbooks in Texas.

Mark D. Jordahl

Related articles

• The Tennessee Tea Party Wants to Do What? (tinfoilhatman45.wordpress.com)
• Tea Party Groups In Tennessee Demand Textbooks Overlook U.S. Founder’s Slave-Owning History (kaystreet.wordpress.com)
• Oh Isn’t That Nice! The Tea People Want us to See Slavery in a Cheerier Light… (zwingliusredivivus.wordpress.com)
• First Tucson, now this: Tennessee Tea Party ‘Demands’ That References To Slavery Be Removed From History Textbooks (classroomconscious.wordpress.com)

Elephant in Murchison Falls NP

Here is a great article I just came across in the Black Star News that highlights the important and complicated issues around human – elephant conflict in Africa. Elephants traditionally ranged over thousands of miles. As population growth in Uganda presses in on their breeding and feeding grounds, conflict is inevitable, which is bad for agriculture and wildlife conservation.

The author sums it up well in this statement:

People are being displaced again, not by marauding humans but this time by elephants. The people lose their crops, livestock, property, and sometimes their lives. The animals, which are already endangered, will likely be killed in retaliation or to prevent future conflicts. And, if solutions to conflicts are not adequate, local support for conservation also declines. In order to be truly effective, prevention of human-wildlife conflicts has to involve the full scope of society: international organizations, governments, NGOs and in particular the communities who bear the brunt of destruction to property.

As I have stated many times on this blog, wildlife conservation in Africa is not straightforward. It is always a balancing act between the needs of people and animals.

Mark D. Jordahl

I’ve been thinking about the Band Aid song a lot lately, because if you listen to a Pandora Chrismas mix, they seem to play it about every third song.

Here are a few of the things that bug me about the song:

1. The whole premise of “do they know it’s Christmas.” An estimated 48% of Africans are Christian. That means more than half of Africans are not Christian. Based on that, a better question would be “do they care it’s Christmas?”

2. The line “tonight be glad it’s them, instead of you.” Holy sh%$. Could there be a more selfish, uncaring line in all of songdom? I would rather wish nobody was suffering in the world rather than just being glad I’m sitting by my fire sipping a hot buttered rum while other people are starving.

3. The impression it gives that everyone in Africa was in the midst of a terrible famine at the time the song was written. Africa is HUGE. Nearly every environmental condition you can imagine exists there at the same time, from bare sandy desert to lush rainforests to year-round glaciers. It is just the typical country-fication of Africa, where we all see it as a single place full of starving children and big animals..

4. The hairdos

Yes, Band Aid raised a lot of money to help famine victims in Ethiopia during a severe crisis. That’s great. But it could have raised the same amount with a less degrading song.

Mark D. Jordahl

Related articles

• Of course we know it’s Christmas (feministphilosophers.wordpress.com)
• Do They Know It’s Christmas? Fuck You. (todgoldberg.typepad.com)

This isn’t a surprise to those of us who have loved Uganda for years, but finally the “outside world” is catching on.

Lonely Planet, one of the leading publishers of travel guides, has ranked Uganda the world’s top travel destination for 2012:

#1. Uganda

It’s taken nasty dictatorships and a brutal civil war to keep Uganda off the tourist radar, but stability is returning and it won’t be long before visitors come flocking back. After all, this is the source of the river Nile – that mythical place explorers sought since Roman times. It’s also where savannah meets the vast lakes of East Africa, and where snow-capped mountains bear down on sprawling jungles. Not so long ago, the tyrannical dictator and ‘Last King of Scotland’ Idi Amin helped hunt Uganda’s big game to the brink of extinction, but today the wildlife is returning with a vengeance. This year Uganda also celebrates the 50th anniversary of its independence; Kampala, one of Africa’s safest capital cities, is bound to see off the event with a bang. Still, Uganda still isn’t without its problems. Human rights abuses aren’t uncommon, and the country breathes a collective sigh whenever President Museveni thinks of another ruse to stay in power for a few more years. But now, as ever, explorers in search of the source of the Nile won’t leave disappointed.

Of course, they do highlight one of the dark spots on Uganda’s reputation which, unfortunately, is what Uganda is becoming most known for internationally:

“There is very little social tolerance of homosexuality, which is illegal. There have been moves, initiated by a Ugandan MP, to introduce reactionary legislation that would further criminalise homosexuality and introduce the death penalty for some activity… you should be aware that homosexuality is generally seen as taboo and exists on the margins of society.”

Regardless, this is another well-earned recognition for what I believe to be one of the most amazing and least recognized travel destinations in Africa. There are few places that offer the diversity of cultures, landscapes and wildlife in such a small country. Follow the link for some of my pictures of Uganda to get a sense of what the country has to offer.

Now maybe Lonely Planet will finally come up with a decent travel guide for Uganda!

Mark Jordahl

April 11 – 21, 2012 I will be leading my seventh trip to Uganda in partnership with my wife’s organization, BeadforLife.

This trip to Uganda is full-immersion, and will be a very powerful experience. This is not Africa through the windows of an air-conditioned bus, but a chance to feel the red dust on your face and engage one-on-one with some of the most welcoming people in the world.

Here is a sample of what you will experience:

• Learn about the complicated issues of global poverty and BeadforLife’s holistic approach to poverty eradication.
• Visit BeadforLife’s Friendship Village to see the life-changing benefits of home ownership
• Go on a 4-day safari in spectacular Murchison Falls National Park
• Explore environmental issues and their impacts on people’s lives
  
• Visit an AIDS clinic and find out what living with HIV means in Africa

Follow the link to learn more about traveling to Uganda with Conservation Concepts and BeadforLife. And please forward this message on to your friends!

Mark Jordahl

Mountain Gorilla Image via WWF

Conservation organizations in Uganda have begun a new census to count the critically endangered mountain gorillas in the western mountains.

With an estimated value in tourism dollars of $1 million per gorilla per year, these animals are important both in economic terms and in biodiversity terms. Mountain gorillas only exist in Uganda, Congo and Rwanda, and about half of the approximately 800 apes left in the world call Uganda home.

Read more from the Worldwide Fund for Nature.

Related articles

• Dramatic Increase in Population of Critically Endangered Mountain Gorillas Confirmed by Census (prweb.com)
• Poached baby mountain gorilla doing well (calgaryherald.com)
• Uganda tourism destinations receive US funding | British Airways – Travel Industry News (travelnews.britishairways.com)