Cool!

http://www.theage.com.au/national/wham-bam-drawing-on-islam-20111230-1pffk.html 

"The scriptwriters, who have also written for Batman, Star Wars and Ben 10, are incredibly talented, Mutawa says."

I like all of those!

My folks are here guys!

Yay

RIP Christopher Hitchens

An oldie.

Here's a man who could write. Who else but Hitchens can work in "dispiriting tampon surrogate" so effortlessly?

And one more on the great P.G.Wodehouse.

"As it is, one so often bumps into lost souls who claim to have "tried" Wodehouse and not got the joke. These are the unfortunates who in early and impressionable youth were handed a duff anthology by a well-meaning but mirthless aunt (or, admittedly, uncle)."

There are still Wodehouse votaries in this generation (Thanks in some part to Stephen Fry and Hugh Lawry) though they seem to be dying lot. I, for one, must be grateful to Dad for introducing Wodehouse to me. How often do you read an entire book with a silly grin on your face.

The hardest part

Miranda, my housemate, just left for the US. Shira left a few weeks ago and Frankie about a week ago. I am now sitting in my bed with a copy of 'Speaker for the dead' and 'Ok computer' on Spotify in a lonely apartment. It's lonely for miles. Everyone is gone.

Good news is that Frankie will be back in early Jan along with all the other friends who have left for Christmas. Bad news is that Miranda and Shira will not be.

Over breakfast, I got myself quite depressed thinking about the middle of the year when all these people will be leaving for good. There will a vacuum created by their sudden departure. All together. All at once. Making friends is easy but making good friends is extremely difficult. Will I have the strength to make friends again knowing they'd also be leaving or will I resign to watching TV episodes and finishing the Ender's Game series? 

This lack of continuity has to be the toughest part of this job. Meaningful, lasting relationships are near impossible and all friendships seem transitory.

Luckily, my folks arrive tomorrow night! We have a packed itinerary full of treks and safaris which will keep me distracted till next year.

The GOP Horse race

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2011/10/horse_race_politics_an_animation_of_the_2012_republican_campaign.html

US politics from a distance

I love election season. And by elections, I mean US elections. What else? Even with Obama running for a second term, there is no shortage of drama. As an Australian, I have the luxury of taking it all in as I would a season of 'The Wire' - a pervert, a raging homophobe, an ignorant christian theocracy advocate, a defensive mormon and a messianic incumbent president. Oh... and now you have Newt! You can't make up this shit!

Most of the articles I come across show Republicans to be absurd and disconnected with the average person. Though looking at poll results, I am starting to question what the average American looks like. I guess I have only met the ones that either travel or live in major metropolitan cities and both of these demographics tend to be quite liberal.

To be honest, I am not fundamentally opposed to certain republican policies such as libertarianism, smaller government and less taxation but they lose me with their fanaticism on religion (prayer at school), gay and lesbian rights (or lack there of) and abortion. You remove these and I might actually be willing to listen to the republican nominee on foreign policy, economic reform and possibly even healthcare reform. Instead I am forced to disassociate myself from the right and am left little choice but to look to the left. All I see there are dashed hopes and disappointment. Every article like this must be a devastating blow to every liberal's dream of a gutsy government making decisions based on research and rationality. 

Objective number 1 for the Obama right now seems to be to alienate as few demographics as possible so he can win a second term. Maybe things will be better once he wins the next term.

Geez... I'm starting to sound like I actually care about this more than for an occasional laugh. I don't. It's hilarious... and as Michael J. Smith said in his blog:

Me, I'm hoping for the looniest Republican of the pack, whoever that might be -- somebody who will be for the American presidency what Elagabalus was for the Severans.

Africa you don't hear about

PR for Africa has been poor. The impression most people have is of one massive failed state (Yes state. This is another thing that really gets me riled up. I remember being at this fundraiser and the 1st prize was a holiday for two to Africa) riddled with war, disease and strife even though evidence for a few years now has been to the contrary. Economies of at least a dozen countries in Africa have expanded by more than 6% a year for six or more years. Ethiopia will grow by 7.5% this year, without a drop of oil to export (economist).

My first impression of Uganda with it's cinemas and bowling alleys was how far ahead it was economically to Ghana. I was not comparing apples to apples. It has been almost 3 years since I left Ghana. Ghana had an incredible GDP growth of 7.3% in 2008 and has seen steady growth around 4 to 5% since. A new mall with cinema was due to be opened the month after I left.

It's far from perfect. There are many issues still to be resolved from kleptocratic governments to poor incentives for new businesses but it's not the doom and gloom story of a decade ago. With comparative peace and advancements towards democracy, the future is brighter than ever.

Today, I came across a great article in the New Yorker which collates the "10 biggest positive africa stories of 2011". Everyone should read these and talk about it. Let's dispel the antiquated myth of "the hopeless continent".

And for god's sake, if you hear someone refer to the continent as a country, hit them over the head with the hardest thing you can get your hands on.

Maharajah Sayyaji Rao III

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-16051168

Who doesn't like insolence in the face of tyranny? But just as I started giving mental hi-fives to this guy...

even though he wrote a letter of apology soon afterwards which said that if he had not seemed to conform to the ritual, it was due to "nervousness and confusion in the presence of Their Majesties".

Oh well.

And very interesting:

"It is not recognised much now because nationalists campaigning for Indian independence at the time and in later years did not want to be associated with princely rulers," Prof Farooqi said. "Their perceived decadence was a source of some embarrassment.
"They wanted that part of the independence struggle to be be deleted from history because maharajahs were seen as too closely associated with the worst excesses of the Raj.
"That is why today in India so few schoolchildren know about the rulers of princely states. Princely India simply does not exist in the textbooks".

I for one know very little about princely India. It might be something to add to my reading list.

Life in America through Jay Z's eyes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpA2r0yVFTE

I don't know what to think. Would love to sit in on of the classes though.

HIV sucks

While at Baylor for a UNITAID logistics meeting, Evan pointed out of the window at a young boy of about 10 being helped up the stairs.

"That's a child not on ARVs".

His muscles had degenerated to such an extent that he could not walk up the stairs. His knees buckled at every step as he was assisted up by, who I presume was, his mother . His gaunt face with those spaced, sunken eyes was frightening to look at. A surge of guilt made me look away. The imbalance of me staring at him through a one way mirror from a distance filled me with shame.

Full-fledged AIDS is a terrible sight to behold. AIDS is children is just devastating. It's just not fair.

Game Theory anyone?

Just signed up for this course: http://www.game-theory-class.org/

Super excited!

Great visual - facebook

China is all dark and so is a lot of Africa. Interestingly, the right half of US seems to be much heavier users that the left.

On downloading music

Have a read of this article: http://www.voxeu.org/index.php?q=node/7274. Let us assume for a moment that the results of the study are correct. Is stealing music ok if it doesn't hurt the things we value? Are somethings inherently unethical or does the most probable result of an action determine if it is unethical? Is it unethical to drive a car drunk? Is it more unethical if you drive a car drunk and hit a person?

Is "music illegally downloaded" just a market variable? As downloading increases, profits decrease and the incentive to produce music decreases. That's the theory. Inferring from the article, it seems that the incentive to produce music might be something other than pure profits. In a world that downloads music, we will have the same number of artists and the same quality of music but fewer rich producers and giant record labels. If we are happy to live in such a world, does it mean that the act is ethical?

Framed another way, is there a value in ethics above and beyond the utilitarian? 

Education pays

As someone on Hacker News said in relation to this article: "correlation is not the same thing as  causation". Nevertheless, it's very interesting:

SOURCE: http://www.bls.gov/emp/ep_chart_001.htm

Excerpt from Rushdie and Terry Gilliam interview

Two of my heroes!

On Don Quixote:

There’s a great translation of Quixote. Most translations ofQuixote into English suck. They make the book seem about as deadly dull as it’s possible to be. And then at one point, a couple hundred years ago, the novelist Tobias Smollett translated Quixote and his Spanish is not perfect. If you’re looking for a literal translation, it’s not. It’s the only translation in English that feels as rambunctious as the original feels in Spanish. It opens up the book completely.
There’s a wonderful sentence at the end of Don Quixote the novel, where Quixote, old and dying, has come to his senses and understood that he’s been nuts all his life. And the phrase he uses to describe his madness is: “I’ve been looking for this year’s birds in last year’s nests.” Which seems to me a wonderful description of both insanity and the movie industry.

On arriving in US for the first time:

There was a time when I had hair, too. And about the time you came to Europe, I made my first visit to America. Actually, on an advertising gig. I was being asked to write travel advertising, encouraging people to take their vacations in the United States. But I had never been in the United States. So the American government, I guess under Nixon, kindly sent me on a free trip around America to have a vacation so I could go home and write about having one. I arrived in San Francisco with long hair, no beard, but a Zapata mustache—remember those? I mean, that’s how long ago it was. And there was a sign in the immigration office saying [mimics flat American accent] “A few extra minutes in customs is a small price to pay to save your children from the menace of drugs.”

We’re standing in line, and in front of me there’s this kind of classic, American redneck guy with a very red neck about this wide. [Holds out hands almost a foot apart.] He turned around to me, and with a complete change of heart, he said, “Buddy, I sure feel sorry for you.” And he was right. I mean, I got taken to pieces. I got strip searched, I got everything. And I arrived in America, you know, for the first time, trembling. There was this tiny lady standing at the bus stop waiting for the bus, and she saw that I was trembling. She said, “What’s the matter, dear?” and it kind of all poured out. And—this was the other side of America—she did this amazing thing, she apologized on behalf of the United States. She put her hands in the elocution position. [Holds out hands in front of chest, fingers interlocking, pinkie to thumb.] She looked like Grandma Clampett, this tiny old lady. And she made a formal apology on behalf of the American people. And it fixed it, you know. Then it was all right. Then I could go and enjoy America.

Here's the full article if you're interested: http://www.believermag.com/issues/200303/?read=interview_gilliam

The hardship assignment

I find it very awkward when I'm the subject of adulation for the 'sacrifices' I am making by living in Kampala. Usually I mumble something about it not being that much of a sacrifice but stop myself as it is often misconstrued as false modesty. I would like to talk about the joys of Kampala in the hope that people realise that I don't really need to fend off man-eating lions and bloodthirsty gorillas on my way to work everyday.

Life is Kampala is easy and comfortable. Here's how yesterday was spent.

I woke up late. Thursday and Friday were spent at the Rainforest lodge in Mbira forest for the CHAI retreat which were two long exhausting days. I had earned myself a sleep in. I joined Ann Marie, Liz, Lorne and Leah for breakfast at 11. Leah works in Burundi as a Global Health Corp Fellow and is in town to sit for her GMAT and the rest work for various NGOs around Kampala. We did a quick swing past the ATMs at Lugogo Mall and had breakfast at the Farmer's market. Zack makes the best bread and cheese in Kampala. I bought a baguette, some ricotta and home made hummus and sat down for a full english breakfast with a side of loose leaf tea and a glass of freshly squeezed juice. I met Nora and Hugo there who were relaxing on the grass after their Yoga class and Shira dropped by to pick up some supplies. 

We split up after breakfast. Few of us went to Endiro cafe to do some work while the other went to check out this new second hand book store in Kisamente, which turned out to be a bit of a disappointment. Next, we drove to the Bahai temple since none of us had been there. We relaxed at the beautiful parks surrounding the temple for an hour or so before meeting the rest of the group and going to FashionCore. An expat had this brainwave of buying the choicest clothes from Owino, the biggest and most congested second hand clothes market, doing a few alterations and re-selling them out of the her more muzungu friendly house in upper class Kololo Hill.

Frankie, Noorin, Lindsay, Ally and Faith met us at FashionCore and we made dinner plans. We met at Mamba Point Pizzeria at 8 and were joined by the Swiss crew, Lena and Alikhan's friends. Pizza and a few bottles of wine later we decided the night was still young. We dropped off Ann Marie's car at her place and went to Mayfair Casino. I walked away 10 bucks under from the roulette table but the free drinks got us all jiving. We moved the party to Cayenne at around 1AM. Everyone was there! Christoff, Emily and Aneri were all there showing some good form. We gave the floors a good polish with our badass moves before calling it a night at around 4AM.

Sacrifice? You're the ones missing out.

Who Wrote Shakespeare?

My main man Eric Idle(*) has something to say. From New Yorker : 21/11 edition

http://www.newyorker.com/humor/2011/11/21/111121sh_shouts_idle

While it is perfectly obvious to everyone that Ben Jonson wrote all of Shakespeare’s plays, it is less known that Ben Jonson’s plays were written by a teen-age girl in Sunderland, who mysteriously disappeared, leaving no trace of her existence, which is clear proof that she wrote them. The plays of Marlowe were actually written by a chambermaid named Marlene, who faked her own orgasm, and then her own death in a Deptford tavern brawl. Queen Elizabeth, who was obviously a man, conspired to have Shakespeare named as the author of his plays, because how could a man who had only a grammar-school education and spoke Latin and a little Greek possibly have written something as bad as “All’s Well That Ends Well”? It makes no sense. It was obviously an upper-class twit who wished to disguise his identity so that Vanessa Redgrave could get a job in her old age.
Many people believe that Richard III not only was a good man who would never hurt a fly but actually wrote “She Stoops to Conquer,” and that the so-called author, Oliver Goldsmith, found the play under a tree in 1773 while visiting Bosworth Field, now a multistory car park (clearly an attempt to cover up the evidence of the ruse). Oscar Wilde’s plays were written by a stable boy named Simon, though Wilde gave them both a good polish. Chaucer was written by a Frenchman on holiday, while Simone de Beauvoir wrote all of Balzac and a good deal of “Les Misérables,” despite the fact that she was not yet born when she did so. Beau Brummell wrote nearly all of Jane Austen, and two men and a cat wrote most of Charles Dickens, with the exception of “A Tale of Two Cities,” which Napoleon wrote while visiting St. Helena. Incidentally, Napoleon was not Napoleon but a man named Trevor Francis, who later turned up playing for Birmingham City.
Thomas Jefferson produced the Declaration with the aid of a ghostwriter, a woman of color named Betty Mae, who was a non-voluntary worker. “Moby-Dick” was written not by Herman Melville but by Herman Melbrooks, who wrote most of it in Yiddish on the boat over from Coney Island. “The Shorter Pepys,” a Penguin paperback, was actually written by the taller Pepys, a man named Doris Pepys, who was no relation but worked as a candle cleaner in Wapping (home of the Liar). Henry James did write all of his own works, because nobody else could be that boring, and, more significant, no one else has ever bothered to claim them.
Mere lack of evidence, of course, is no reason to denounce a theory. Look at intelligent design. The fact that it is bollocks hasn’t stopped a good many people from believing in it. Darwinism itself is only supported by tons of evidence, which is a clear indication that Darwin didn’t write his books himself. They were most likely written by Jack the Ripper, who was probably King Edward VII, since all evidence concerning this has been destroyed.
Paranoia? Of course not. It’s alternative scholarship. What’s wrong with teaching alternative theories in our schools? What are liberals so afraid of? Can’t children make up their own minds about things like killing and carrying automatic weapons on the playground? Bush was right: no child left unarmed. Why this dictatorial approach to learning, anyway? What gives teachers the right to say what things are? Who’s to say that flat-earthers are wrong? Or that the Church wasn’t right to silence Galileo, with his absurd theory (actually written by his proctologist) that the earth moves around the sun. Citing “evidence” is so snobbish and élitist. I think we all know what lawyers can do with evidence. Look at Shakespeare. Poor bloke. Wrote thirty-seven plays, none of them his.  

* (Most likely Michael Palin, really.)

Sartre in Fort Portal

I spent another weekend in country Uganda in a town called Fort Portal. Though it didn't do enough to dislodge Lake Bunyonyi from it's recently earned position of "most beautiful place in Uganda", it excelled in some of the categories. On Saturday, we did a bike ride to a waterfall, which we swam in, and followed it with a trek in pouring rain (which made it all the more fun) to some crater lakes and then biked back to town for pizzas.

On Saturday, I got some time to get into Words by Jean-Paul Sartre. Though I have read books and essays referencing his works, I have never actually picked up any of his books. How does a man get so bitter and cynical? There is the scene where he, as a young boy of maybe 6, is greeted by his grandfather at the train station with the expected exuberance. Sartre dissects this interaction to small pieces exposing the ugly innards. He spares no one. From his dead father, whom he did not know, to his grandfather, who brought him up. He even criticises the actions of his 6 year old self.

Though vaguely aware of Sartre contribution to existential philosophy, I didn't know that he was such a gifted writer. He writes with dispassion and insight. He narrates like it is chore and he tell his own story like it has nothing to do with him and he is weary of talking about it. Hhis bare-knuckled honestly is startling and refreshing. His words have an undercurrent of anger, at the lack of self awareness, and frustration, at being a victim of habit and circumstance.

Top links of the week

Firstly, Uganda is now the number 1 travel destination according to the Lonely Planet: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/europe/travel-tips-and-articles/76856. Get in on the fun and book your tickets today.


Secondly, Jon Corzine - What a tool: http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-november-8-2011/the-walking-debt

Radiohead is touring again though it seems just in the US for the time being: http://www.radiohead.com/deadairspace/

Weird: http://gizmodo.com/5857692/

Cultural differences: http://stopmebeforeivoteagain.org/2011/11/worth_a_thousand_words_4.html

Very cool article on the weirdo that was Steve Jobs: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/11/14/111114fa_fact_gladwell

You guys been following this whole thing with Joe Paterno? http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/13/opinion/sunday/douthat-the-devil-and-joe-paterno.html?_r=1

Weekend at Lake Bunyonyi & many ways to skin a cat

I spent the weekend at Lake Bunyonyi. I will resist the temptation to descibe the beauty of this place as I always fail to demonstrate it's haecceity, making it sound like the "other place" you visited. Objectively, it's the same combination of hills, lakes, foliage and avicular melodies which makes this place beautiful. Yet there is something in the early morning fog, the lone fisherman in his dugout boat and the reflection of the clouds in the calm waters of the lake that I would have been able to elucidate had I had a better mastery over the words.

Therefore I shall skip past the description of the place, leaving it for better men.

A lesson I learnt during my time in Ghana was that there are many way to live a life that can be labelled as fulfilling. I adduce the example of the Californian I met on Friday night. He spends 3 weeks at a time in Uganda (near Kabale) and Ghana (near Tema) teaching people to make bicycle frames out of bamboo. Check it: http://www.bamboosero.com/. He hires local craftsmen to harvest the bamboo and construct bike frames, imports and assembles the complete bike in the US and ships to a growing environmentally conscious market all over the world while making some decent coin. I was also reminded of the Czech ornithologist working at the foot of Mt Wilhelm in PNG. She had been there for 2 years researching the habits of a small bird with red plumage found only in those parts and seemed to have loved every day of it.

If my vernacular sounds abstruse, I attribute this to a book I am currently reading called "36 arguments for the existence of God: A work of fiction" which has an absurd, though eloquent, character by the name of Jonas Elijah Klapper. Jonas has grown on me and, like everything I seem to read of late, is having a significant impact on me (though the only apparent symptom seems to be my pleonastic turn of phrase.)

I apologise for this discretion; it should be worn off by the next post.

Just finished reading the 'Foundation' series

"It is the invariable lesson to humanity that distance in time, and in space as well, lends focus. It is not recorded, incidentally, that the lesson has ever been permanently learned."

No Salman Rushdie, but definitely a visionary. Loved all 3 books (the third one a little more than the others).

Calvin explain the economy

h/t: Chris Blattman

Great article on the goal of "OWS". I had it all wrong:

So we're not going to coalesce and harden into "demands", but instead continue to nurture a culture of a thousand different demands and recruit people and develop a hegemonic agenda (that we don't have yet!). But the promise of that power and hegemony is grander: democratic control over policy making writ large. Occupy Everything, until we get all our demands and we don't have to make any more.

h/t: Slack Wire

Another great article on what the OWS is all about:

The problem in a nutshell is this: Inequality in this country has hit a level that has been seen only once in the nation's history, and unemployment has reached a level that has been seen only once since the Great Depression. And, at the same time, corporate profits are at a record high.

With my favourite... graphs! Slide 20 negates some of my arguments in my previous post. Current model actually INHIBITS individual agency!

I just don't know

http://www.economist.com/blogs/dailychart/2011/10/income-inequality-america

I agree that there is an increasing gap between the have and the have-nots which needs to be addressed but how and towards what goal? What is the equation of utility that we want to maximise? It usually helps to consider the extremes.

Would we prefer to live in a world where everyone can afford an average sized house and a mid-tier car but nothing more or a world where some cannot even afford a boda-boda but others can own private jets?

You think the answer is easy?

How about this one - Would you like to be born in a world where, no matter how hard you work, it's near impossible to achieve your desired level of financial affluence but equally impossible to be in nightmarish poverty; or would you like to live in a world where the world is your oyster, where the harder you work the greater the return on it and there is no limit to what you can achieve while running the risk of being unable to afford a loaf of bread. I don’t believe financial wealth should be a measure of success but a man should be given the freedom to his definition of success.

The two scenarios seem to be two sides of the same coin.

What is the statement we want to maximise?

In Paretian welfare economics, if a particular change in the economy leaves at least one individual better off while no individual worse off, then the change is said to have increased social welfare. Looking at the graph above, each of the changes, whatever they were, while helping the "rich", are still assisting the "poor", albeit to a smaller degree. Is this 'occupy' unrest just a response to a bad case of "keeping up with the joneses"?

I’m sure the more astute will argue that, though it is not disputed that the current model increases over all social welfare, there are other models that are closer to Pareto efficiency. I am mixing concepts here I'm sure, but each change in the economy (through policy, what else?) should take us closer to Pareto efficiency.

Pareto efficiency is complicated further by the fact that new utility is being created. It is not just a reallocation of existing utility but the model for distribution of new utility that is also being questioned. What that Pareto efficiency point is in a model where new utility is constantly being created, I don’t know.

Maybe Paretian welfare economics is not the right model at all. Maybe, the marginal happiness for each unit of utility is higher for the poor than the rich and that should be reason enough to shift utility (tax the rich and fund the poor) to the poor. This will maximise total happiness at the expense of the rich. Will we as a society decide that an individual should give up his hard earned utility because someone else gets more value from it?  You all better send your money to Burkina Faso right now. Tax reform is required but there are other reasons for that besides transfer payments have their own side-effects.

If it’s a matter of individuals measuring their happiness, not by their access to goods and services, but by the difference between their capacity and that of the richest, we could modify the model by saying that increase in the utility of one individual reduces the utility of the rest. Not because a resource is taken away from the rest, that has already been taken into account, but because the rest "feels" worse off. This would imply that a person working extremely hard and aiming for greater financial success should be taxed to compensate for making the less successful feel bad. No, the model cannot be based on how one "feels". It needs to be more objective.

Part of the problem is not money earned but money bequeathed. Why should one person be born to a red carpet path to success while another to hunger, poverty and illiteracy? In Australia, inheritance is taxed as capital gains at the income tax rate (max of 45%). In US (now this is ridiculous), it was REPEALED in 2010 and was reinstated by Obama in Dec 2010 at a ridiculously low top tax rate of 35% and an exlusion amount of $5 million. If anyone has figures on revenue earned from this over the years, I would love to see it. Before being repealed, the tax rate had steadily declined over the years while the exclusion amount increased.

Deep down I know that economic equality is the way to go but I would love to be able to defend it mathematically. I want a model where individual agency is not curtailed more than the current model, overall utility is increased and everyone feels bloody fantastic.

There has been a lot of food for thought this last week. Here another article: http://www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2011/10/24/111024taco_talk_kolbert

I won't discuss this here but here's something else to think about: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mere_addition_paradox

In Kabale

"Girlfriend, my booty is not his", said the bald, gaunt girl with an offended look on her face.

I haven't had a chance to watch any television in the last few months. Today, I am in Kabale for a workshop starting tomorrow and am enjoying a serve of Ugandan TV with my meal.

I feel like I'm getting an insight into Ugandan middle class. More so from the the table of 5 behind me laughing and exclaiming excitedly along with the show. The show is in English though the idioms are all mixed up and the slang is contrived.

Tomorrow I have a workshop with the Kabale Regional Referral Hospital to discuss the new ART guidelines and how to order ARVs effectively based on the new guidelines. The ordering process is paper based and, given the number of formulations available, prone to errors. Poor ordering mean insufficient drugs or expired drugs.

I just realised she's not bald but has a no. 1 Mr. T do. Sick!

Clinton Foundation Celebrity Brainstorm

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/71a3d4cccc/clinton-foundation-celebrity-brainstorm

Sid vs the Nile

I am lying in bed with a cracker of a headache that Noorin, the sinus expert in the group, tells me is due to me repeatedly inhaling the Nile in an attempt to breathe under water.

We did white water rafting today. Instead of starting at grade 1 or 2 like most sane people do, my first rafting experience was to be a grade 5. There are 6 grades and after reading the wikipedia page, I interpret grade 1 as relaxing in a spa and grade 6 as guaranteed death

After almost flipping on the first rapid but managing to stay on (Shira disappeared in flash of white), I was feeling pretty cocky. We swapped some rafters for the next rapid and I decided to go on the "100% flip" raft. The guide put all the heavy guys on one side and made us approach the rapid sideways. Guaranteed flip. After the initial confusion, I realised that I was under the raft. I tried to get out but the currents kept pushing me in all directions, making me lose my orientation.  As I struggled for air, a current pull me under and I panicked. After a few seconds of struggling (let me tell you, it felt like eons), I remembered to ball up and let the vest do the work. I floated to the top and took in a lung full of, highly underrated may I add, oxygen and was picked up by one of the other rafts.

My confidence was all but shattered.

Worst spill though was rapid #5, a level 5. The raft went straight up and Lindsay and Meg fell backwards on top of me and I lost a lot of air. After being thrown around for a few second, I found myself speeding down the rapid and the guide yelling "GET YOUR FEET UP". It eventually registered and I positioned myself with my feet pointing down the rapid, face looking up at the sky and arms crossed in front. A rescue kayak came and got me.

It was a whole new kind of fear. Not like sky diving, where the variables can be calculated, but a feeling of futility against forces too mighty that really leaves you deflated.

It was good fun though.

Here are some pics:

Approaching the wave

Getting smashed by the wave

Flipped

Top links of the week

I was talking to Shira about this very topic on Sunday and came across this today:
http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/1110/1110.1556v1.pdf

RIP Steve Jobs:
http://john.jubjubs.net/2011/10/09/steve-jobs/
http://blog.adamnash.com/2011/10/10/steve-jobs-bmw-ebay/

A letter from a psychopath:
http://www.twitlonger.com/show/dh5l3q

Travelling close to the speed of light:
http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-10-light-speed.html

UNITAID - Paediatric and Second line ARVs is what I manage:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tom-lines/global-health-innovators_b_998617.html

Hilarious:

http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/10/joe-the-plumber-is-running-for-congress.php

Little piece of India

I am in Jinja this week for a Ministry of Health national lab quantification meeting. At around 9PM, I walked down and around the corner searching for this Indian restaurant that Evan had suggested I check out. I actually dismissed the little hole in the wall and had to backtrack to it after I realised that it was the only Indian joint in the block.

I walked in to a no-frills room with a squeaky fan, fluorescent lights and plastic chairs. There were a bunch of Scandinavian backpackers at the back finishing their meal, a typical south Indian guy of slight built and oiled hair enjoying an after meal soda, and a lady in a salwar with her feet up chanting from a Durga prayer book, who I correctly guessed as the owner. As I scanned the menu, the lady suggested I order the Punjabi Thali. She said that first in Punjabi and then repeated in heavily accented English.

I ate one of the best daals I have had in a while viewing an episode of 'Don't worry chachaji' on Sony. 

I complimented the lady on the food and she in turn asked me where I was from. She pulled out an iphone and showed me the phone number of a close friend of hers in Melbourne. I took the phone from her and stared at the number not knowing what to do next. I gave back the phone and told her that Melbourne was a nice place. She asked me to come back everyday for a meal and gave me card which had the address of the other restaurant she owns, "Wel Come" (sic).

I bought a quarter pound of kaju barfi and walked back to my room.

Skewed to make us feel good

I was send this article yesterday: http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/-/688334/1245686/-/view/printVersion/-/12w2cipz/-/index.html

At a party at the muzungu house last weekend I had the pleasure of meeting a Norwegian medical student called Shetel. We were discussing his work and he lamented on the lack of basic supplies like syringes and bandages at the hospital. As an example, he told me about a man being asked to go to the local store to buy a little rubber tube and a pair of disposable rubber gloves that were essential for his treatment procedure. This is a tube worth 10k shillings while the man probably walked from his village to save 5k on matatus.

Bill Easterley in his book talks about the Principle/Agent problem. In aid, unfortunately the 'principle' is the people in the first world country and not the citizens of the developing country. What the people in the developing country want is not important as they don't vote in the 1st world country's elections.

HIV/AIDS is sexy. The population in the 1st world is willing to accept their tax dollars being diverted to to it as they feel good inside fighting this big bad disease. Who wants their money being spent on rubber tubes and disposable gloves, no matter how lifesaving they might be? In the developing world, ARVs cost about $100 a year for first line and around $400 a year for second line. The prevalence of HIV in PNG is around 1% and AusAID is committed to provide over $110 millions over 5 years to combat this disease. As heartless as it sounds, is the question not "How many lives can you save per dollar" or maybe "How many lives can you save over the next 10 years per dollar"?

I do not wish to trivialize HIV. I am well aware of the economic impacts of this disease and how quickly and easily this epidemic can spread. God knows that the 1st world was way too late to respond (party because of the Principle/Agent problem). All I wish to highlight is that there is a real skew towards what looks good in an AusAid brochure instead of what is really required. Such is the nature of foreign aid.

So coool!!

While dealing cards in a much contested game for 500, I was pondering out loud on the mathematics behind shuffling. How many shuffles till all the cards are back in their original position? What is the optimal number of shuffles?

To be clear, a shuffle is where you split the deck in two and combine the two halves with every second card being from one of the halves.

People had theories but couldn't mathematically prove it.

Then Shira and I asked Lindsay this question last night as we dropped her off at the gym after work. Lindsay studied mathematics at MIT.

This is the coolest thing I have seen in a long time. Enjoy!

One month report

People

Ugandans are easy to smile and love a laugh and a drink and boy can they dance. They are quite relaxed about most things except maybe the state of the roads. They aren't very confrontational and will rather avoid a topic that might lead to an uncomfortable situation. Their patience is limitless and is best demonstrated on the roads. Though the traffic is atrocious, rarely do you see people raging about what would be unacceptable road etiquette. They have waiting down to an art. Whether it be waiting for meeting delayed 2 hours, being stuck in a traffic jam or waiting for someone, Ugandans do it without any complaining.
Papua New Guineans weren't very entrepreneurial and had this caustic mindset of being owed something. It was always about compensation and their right to unearned goods based on some convoluted logic. Ugandans sell hangers at traffic lights and will provide "value add" services (like the key-cutter who picked up my keys, made copies and dropped them off) for an small fee. There are people selling cheap local fare of cassava, pumpkin, rice, greens, beans and fish unlike New Guineans who are happy to subsist on fried chicken, flourballs and kaukau despite the abundance of vegetables. People are always searching for such unsaturated markets which require little setup capital. It's not perfect but it's a vast improvement from PNG.

Weather

Temperature ranges from low to high 20s. It's wet season at the moment and it's at the lower end of the scale. On average, nights are cool and pleasant and even on hot days there is cool breeze.

Work

With only 15 odd people in the office, it's surprising how much work they get through. Workmates are intelligent and easy going and it's a pleasure working with them. The projects they work on are high impact ones and go about it quite efficiently.

Also I get to save babies. Job satisfaction has never been higher.

Security

This is mainly for mum. This place is extremely safe. Crime is low and the most dangerous things are Bodas. Work has a 5'5" security guard with a rifle which is half his weight and probably never been fired. I guess he could use it to club someone over the head. The point of this story is to show how much of a non-issue security is.

Home

I have a couple of kickass neighbours in Shira and Frankie. For a little over $4 a week, a maid comes to do the cleaning and washing. House has an inverter for when the power goes out and I bought a sandwich press. What else does a man need?

Top links of the week

I should really be sleeping after this:


Legend. Nuff said: http://biplavpradhan.com/2011/09/10/amartya-sen-on-growth-mediated-development-video/

Cool: http://atlantic-cable.com/Maps/1924SchreinerMap.jpg

Before you feel like doing good: http://goodmenproject.com/doing-good/why-you-shouldnt-participate-in-voluntourism/1/

Whoa!: http://gizmodo.com/5839481/the-most-wicked-optical-illusion-ive-seen-so-far

AND STOP REFERRING TO IT AS A COUNTRY: http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/2010/the-true-size-of-africa/

The Overweight Lover's in the house..

Last week was quite hectic. A lot of things were happening; There were meetings for lab quantification, ARVs forecasting for Q1'12, a stubborn cold and Sean Kingston. I struggled through the week with pretty much a constant headache and massive workload. I made small but numerous mistakes all week in my work. It was shabby and looked careless.

Next week should be better.

Sean Kingston concert was horrible. I walked on to the grounds and it had a music festival feel to it with the green grass, fresh air, stalls and a big music stage. The local acts were almost painful to hear. The start would have you thinking "That's a nice beat right there" and just as you start moving to the music, the MC would start screaming down the microphone. They were all tone deaf. Without the auto tune feature on their mixer they are lost. I thanked the Lords of Kobol when some of them would just play a CD and dedicate their energies to working the crowd instead with nuggets such as "Yeah... Uganda. Uh!". Sean Kingston was the biggest culprit of this. He's no Heavy D.

Mr. Flavour (it's actually a good song) came on stage for his one hit. He killed some stage time first. He spent 30 secs taking his shirt off, 3 mins to throw it into the crowd and then just walked up and down for 10 mins spewing inane shit like "Are you ready Kampala?". It was at 10:45PM and the concert had started at 7. WHAT DO YOU RECKON MATE?

The people did not mind though. They were here for the spectacle and not the music. Charles (one of the drivers) had a blast. He felt he got his money's worth. I guess in retrospect so did I. It was only $26 and it came with 4 free beers, 2 sodas, 2 waters and food. I got exactly my money's worth and no more.

Bears Beets Battlestar Galactica

My eyes are heavy, my nose is running and my head aches but I'm too engaged in following Roslin, Starbuck and Apollo to Athena's cave to care.

While everyone is getting ready to go to Noa's party, I sit in bed waiting for this dose of psuedofed to kick in. Ugh! those two sneezes rocked my brain so hard that it's still ringing. Gauis is talking to No.6 about his future child. I really should sleep after this episode.

Miranda, Frankie and Shira say bye as they leave for the party while Helo and Boomer talk about reality.

I have brunch with a friend and many games of Settlers of Catan planned for tomorrow. I really need to be on top of my game. This shit is serious.

Oh great! Now I'm coughing.

Top links of the week

ARVs work b**ches: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IExRHL7D_NI

If you want to volunteer overseas: http://goodintents.org/volunteering-overseas/guideline-1

Principles of economics as limericks: http://www.limericksecon.com/2011/09/ten-limerick-principles-of-economics.html

Intro to US politics: http://crookedtimber.org/2011/09/03/american-electoral-politics-a-brief-introduction/

Cool visuals on the growth of Kiva: http://www.aviewfromthecave.com/2011/09/visualizing-kivas-growth.html

India/Pakistran border from space: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2033886/India-Pakistan-border-visible-space.html

I enjoyed this

From the New Yorker 5/09/2011:

As the senior alderman of the East Chemply, Pennsylvania, Town Board of Overseers, I, Walter K. Heblinger, would like to apologize to my constituents, and most especially to my family and my beloved wife, Kirsten, for sexting a nude photograph of myself to various citizens, and I would particularly like to apologize for circling my genitals, in the photograph, with red lipstick and adding vibrating exclamation points, thunderbolts, and the word “Yowza!” I would also like to apologize to my mother, Sylvia Heblinger, of Tassament, New Hampshire, for allowing her full-length oil portrait to appear directly over my nude left shoulder, and for permitting an unknown hacker to Photo-shop horns onto her forehead, along with a dialogue balloon reading, “Give it to me now.”

I also deeply regret the fact that my wife’s newly purchased floral linen duvet is visible in the photo, beneath an inflatable sex doll that is wearing, to my further regret, my wife’s wedding dress, a cowboy hat, and a ball gag. And I would like to assure our friends and neighbors that even though, in the photo, I am wearing Kirsten’s tortoiseshell headband and her double strand of pearls, I did so entirely without her knowledge. She also had nothing to do with the hand-lettered sheet of notebook paper I’m holding in the photo, which reads, “I’m prettier than Kirsten.”

I would also like to apologize profusely to my teen-age son, Walt, Jr., for initiating an online correspondence with his American-history teacher, Ms. Kelli Withers, in which I pretended to be John Boehner, seeking a ghostwriter for my memoirs and a participant in what I referred to as “some extra-spicy late-afternoon Embassy Suites boom-boom-pow.” I also apologize to Boehner for insisting, in my correspondence, that I had learned “deepwater love techniques” while I was a Navy SEAL.

At this point, I would also like to apologize to my lovely teen-age daughter, Jessica, for leaving messages on the Facebook pages of her best friends Haley, Ellyn, and Jilleen, using the name Jag Bronco, who I claimed was a quarterback and a triple-extreme snowboarder from a nearby middle school. I’m sorry that, as Jag, I also invited each girl to prom and sent all three a photo of my actual genitals, with the advisory “My genitals look older than the rest of me because of all the wear and tear from my triple-extreme snowboarding.”

But primarily I would like to express my most profound remorse for mass e-mailing a video of myself to all the registered voters in East Chemply, in which I simulated various sex acts, in a public park, with a bronze statue of Josiah T. Chemply, who founded our fine community some two hundred and fifteen years ago. I am appalled that at the beginning of this video I am dressed as Josiah’s lovely wife, Annabeth Bowers Chemply, wearing a mop wig and a disturbingly bosomy Colonial gown, and that as I rub myself against the statue I can be heard to moan, “Oh, Josiah, you’re so much hotter than your ne’er-do-well brother, Big Ned Chemply.” I am mortified to admit that, as the video progresses, and after chugging a container of something I refer to as “hundred-proof mighty-man-mojo juice,” I strip off my gown to reveal my sister-in-law Joyce Nersten’s hand-crocheted pink cardigan, which I’m wearing over a tank top with iron-on letters reading, “Joyce Looks Like Big Ned Chemply.” I am further horrified that, as blaring techno music is heard, I turn from the camera, dancing provocatively, and reveal that on the seat of my bikini panties I have scrawled the words “I wish I lived in West Chemply.”

I don’t know if I can ever properly atone for my many unfortunate actions, including using the credit-card information of my father-in-law, Otto Nersten, to order twenty cartons of sex toys, which I then floated in Otto’s aboveground swimming pool on the night before his annual Fourth of July rain-or-shine prayer-a-thon and barbecue. I am therefore, at least temporarily, stepping down as senior alderman, in order to enter a program of intensive rehabilitative therapy, especially in the light of this morning’s podcast, in which I’m wearing leather chaps, a harness, a military cap, and a bright-blue pageboy wig and demanding that the viewer address me as “Miss Smurfette, sir!"

Health centre visit

It is easy to forget that you are in Uganda.

Last weekend, I found myself at a cafe in Lugogo mall sipping a cappuccino and reading Chinua Achebe's 'Things fall apart' (I'm about 40% of the way the way through the book and it is not clear to me if Okonkwo is being exalted as the best of men or being used to represent an out of date definition of what it means to be a man.). It was a cool and wet day outside just as it might have been in Melbourne. Coffee and reading is a Sunday morning ritual which has been seamlessly amalgamated into my Ugandan Life.

My first site visit on Tuesday made me realise how unrepresentative Kampala was of the rest of Uganda. My work took me to a health centre in Luwero. The health centre had single story buildings in front and to the sides and in the middle of the plot was a tree with a few goats munching on the only bit of grass in the entire compound. There was a pungent smell in the air which I later identified as goat dung.

Most of my time was spent in a bare office but before leaving we went through the paediatric ward to meet the clinician. This ward was not Baylor. Cots were squeezed in so tight that I had to walk sideways to slip between them. Instead of strong disinfectant, the smell of sweat and urine lingered in the air. A mother slept on the floor while her 5 year old with stared at me wide-eyed from his cot. The clinician's office was at the other end of the room and it had a plastic table and two chairs. Though I must add that the equipment shelf looked well stocked.

For lunch I had a rolex. The guy working the coal stove couldn't speak english so he called this old man (who I later found out was his father) over who spoke some broken english. As I waited for the rolex, the old man skipped the 'hellos' and asked me "Are you a protestant?". While I considered how to tactfully answer that, he rephrased "Are you a christian?". He really wanted to hear just one answer.

"I am"

"Oh that's great! That's great. We're same. Were brothers."

He showed me his dogeared Luganda bible with much pride. A few minutes later he pulled out his english King James and asked me to read a page from Romans II. I did.

Friday night out

It's 3AM and I have just returned from drinks with some of AMB's Global Health Corp crew. We started at Bubbles O'Leary, a mediocre Irish pub that I would never have partonised willingly in Australia. Yet, here I was. All the usual categories of expat dancers were represented. There was the carefree but awful dancer, the over enthusiastic carpet scorcher, the douche bag with the raised collar, the reserved shuffler, the self-conscious mover, the lyrics enactor and the tired stumbler. Why was I here?

After, we went to 'BBQ lounge'. During the day this place might actually be a purveyor of barbecued delights but at least on this particular friday night, it was a serving up some serious beats. People were moving to the music like only Africans can; with no reservation and leading from their hips. The packed crowd was moving with each beat, surging with every chorus. The building was not much more than an extended tree house but the energy was infectious and the music carried us.

Ok i can blog again

http://www.gabrielweinberg.com/blog/2011/08/why-i-blog.html

What I'm doing

Many of you must be curious what my job actually involves. I bring 14 million dollars worth of ART drugs into the country. The drugs and diagnostic consumables are donated by UNITAID and I do the quantification and forecasting of drug consumption with implementing partners, place orders and manage the import and delivery of these drugs. I also work with the government to improve their quantification of consumption and forecasting across the country.

So basically, I'm a drug kingpin.

Apparently there is more to the role but this in itself has kept me quite busy these last few weeks. Once the quarter's quantification and ordering process is over (in a month or so) I can start looking at other stuff.

On a side note, here is great article on trade ties between India and Africa: http://edition.cnn.com/2011/BUSINESS/08/25/india.charm.africa.china/index.html?hpt=hp_bn1

Ouch

I have been outed as a massive cliche.

I can't blog after reading that!

My first weekend

I went to my first “frat party” last weekend.

Who knew that the movies were true? There was beer pong and flip cup and for some reason guys started taking their shirts off at around 10pm and writing on each other. A sheep was roasted and t-shirts were sold that proclaimed in times new roman the existence of the party. The t-shirt also had a drawing of a sheep being roasted.

This is what my first weekend in Uganda was like. Who’d have thunk it?

Also, there seem to be a disproportionately high number of Americans here. What’s up with that?

TIL: why HIV is complex

Yesterday started at 2AM for me. It was either a howling dog, a tooting car or an overachieving rooster that woke me up. I forget which though all of them tried at some stage of the night. I tried in vain for a good hour to force myself back to sleep.

I learnt about HIV today. Specifically, the different categories of antiretroviral drugs and how each intervenes at different stages of the HIV replication cycle using different strategies. Fascinating!

I met one of the implementing partners (Baylor), went along to the National Drug Authority office to get a consignment cleared and finished back at the office to study the different first line and second line drug regimens. I hope to be able to rattle off HIV drug names and side effects by the end of the month.

The team works proper private sector hours. 8PM finishes are quite common and seem easy when surrounded by so much drive and passion. This has the pace and focus of consulting directed towards a goal I can feel proud of. The people are brilliant! Two of them went to Harvard [ed: one of them works at another NGO], one worked at Bain [ed: Oh! and two of them are engineers :) ]. Not sure about the rest but I'm sure they are equally well accomplished.

Also I had a banana.

It was the first thing I did yesterday.

I bought a bunch.

Jealous?

Welcome readers

My flight departs at 9:21pm tonight.

For those whom I have not had the pleasure of saying personal goodbyes, I'm sorry. It all happened quite quickly. Slowly at the start but very quickly towards the end. Five weeks ago I was offered a role at Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) managing supply chain of HIV medicine in Kampala, Uganda (Ed 23/08: It's actually forecasting, procurement of UNITAID donation of second line and paediatric ART drugs). I accepted with such alacrity that I'm sure records were broken.

During these five weeks, I have moved out of my place and back with folks, said numerous goodbyes, terminated a 6-year relationship with Accenture and even managed to squeeze in 5 days at the snow.

Unlike my PNG and Ghana stints, this is not a 'trip'. This is that final step towards a career in development that I have pined for. I have purchased a one way ticket and intend to be in Uganda for at the least a year but quite possibly more.

Like my PNG and Ghana stints, I will keep this blog to keep my well wishers informed of my life in Uganda.

Good bye for now! Next post from Uganda!