On rabid dogs

April 10, 2009

I always hate it when they kill a dog. Today they clubbed a dog whose pups are about 6 weeks old. She looked and acted like she had rabies. She was normally good natured but a couple nights ago I noticed her attacking dogs that usually would attack her. Yesterday I noticed she was running around a lot and snarling at her pups when they wanted to nurse, even nipping them. I tried to feed her last night but she seemed to have trouble eating, she'd eat a little and then have to stop and cough. She was obviously hungry but seemed unable to eat. This morning she was chasing everything - cats, chickens, other dogs and running a lot. She kept coming back though and smelling her pups front and back. By midday her mouth seemed frozen partly open, though she did come and let her pups nurse once.

They clubbed her just now. There is no cure for rabies and if she were to bite anybody it would be a disaster. Even so we don't know how if any of the other dogs she attacked may have become infected. Her puppies may also already be infected. Sigh.

The teenage boys plan to eat the dog.

Rabies in humans is a big problem in the second and third of my worlds and there are usually a few dozen deaths each year from rabies. One 10 year old boy in thos village died a couple years ago from a puppy bite - a puppy they did not know had rabies. The post-bite vaccines are available but apparently are expensive and can only be gotten in a big city where there is electricity. Poor rural folk find the cost of the vaccines and the cost of getting to the city and staying there for the duration prohibitive. And sometimes you don’t know the dog is rabid.

Elections...again

April 4, 2009

Elections seem to be occuring more and more frequently. When I was here last October/November there was also a campaign going on for regional head. Next week are national elections where the people choose representatives to the provincial and national parliments. The roads are lined with an incredible number and variety of flags and posters. I am told that there are 44 parties each with different candidiates.

I should also explain that in the presence of many languages, and a high rate of minimal literacy, symbols and pictures are very important here. Each party also has a number which is very important as they will be listed on the ballot by that number. In the past, the ballots consisted of the symbols of each party printed on a page and the voter poked a hole in the symbol of the party he chose. This time the system is being changed slightly. Instead of poking a hole, they will now have to use a pencil and mark (check or x) the symbol of the party they are choosing. The ballots are quite large (poster sized) because of the large number of candidates and will require special folding.

At the school where I have been teaching I saw a letter posted on the bulletin board from some interchurch body. It said that they had been asked for guidance on voting so they got together and came up with several guidelines. According to them, you shouldn’t vote for a party which was likely to receive less than 2.5% of the vote as your vote would essentially be wasted since such a party couldn’t win. They also said you should chose a party that wasn’t aligned to a particular religion but should instead vote for a party committed to the rights of all people, and they listed several examples. Then they said you should look for experienced parties which had experience in governing and they narrowed it down to two. Lastly they said you should not belong to the “white party”, the euphemism for those who don’t vote.

When discussing that letter with one guy, he objected strongly to the narrowing the choices down to two and he also felt that telling people it was wrong to not vote was wrong too. He felt that people should have the right to not vote if that was their decision.

Out in the village I heard further discusion of the matter. Many said that 44 parties was way too many, how could you even know what they stood for. Some felt that not voting was the best option in the midst of too many choices. One guy opined that you could easily eliminate a lot of them because they were religious parties and had cresent moons and stars in their symbols. (Indeed, it did look a bit like they were electing the Minister of Religion rather than parliment representatives.) I also noticed several posters which had Arabic writing or ladies in headscarves. So eliminating those would narrow the field down quite a bit. Many of the people running are well known in the area. One popular traditional party has as its candidate a former governor. But that governor was on trial for corruption not too long ago. I assume he was cleared or surely he wouldn’t be running for parliment but some locals seemed to write him and his party off because of that case. They apparently assume he was guilty.

Perception is everything.

April 30, 2009

Election day cane and went. Several people at the last minute decided not to vote. Others who did go expressed concern that they had done it incorrectly. As the counts come in, people in general seemed glum. The largest recipient of votes (the party of the current president) garnered only 20% of the votes which means 80% of voters are disappointed. Some expressed amazement that that party had gotten that many votes and immediately speculated that the counting had been rigged. Stories were out about various losing candidates becoming clinically depressed or even suicidal. Only the top 10 of the 48 parties are listed as potentially winning parlimentary seats.

Oh, well, there's another election coming up later this year. That one will be for president. Interestingly, no one seems quite sure when it will be...

Traffic, uh, Flow

(Some of these posts are delayed because of power and internet issues.) 4 April 2009

While teaching these past three weeks, I have had the interesting experience of driving a motorbike and experiencing up close – very close - the traffic patterns here. Every town has its unique characteristics even within the same country. Traffic in this country tends to resemble a stream gurgling over and around rocks on its relentless path down the mountain. But it seems in recent years some serious eddies, whirlpools, and riptide rapids have developed in this town.

People drive on the left side of the road so for those of you from right-handed places, just think the opposite to get the same effect. In other words turning right here is like turning left for you. The majority of vehicles on the road are motorbikes but there are also plenty of cars, and some trucks and horse carts and man-pushed carts.

The single most important unwritten rule seems to be do not ever stop if it can at all be avoided, and its corollary, avoid slowing down. Thus we have people wanting to turn right (left) who won’t stop and wait for a gap in traffic, they just turn right (left) and drive along the edge of the road on the wrong side of the road waiting for an opportunity to finally zoom over on the proper side of the road. I have seen people 2-3 blocks later still driving down the wrong side of the road who haven’t yet been able to get over. (Had they stopped and waited there was a big gap in the traffic coming up but since they couldn’t wait, they end up following the crowd and can’t get over.)

This of course produces hazards for others. As you drive innocently down the road on the proper side you may have to squeeze uncomfortably close between those right-turners driving down the wrong side of the road and people in the oncoming traffic who are in a big hurry and swing way out into your lane to pass someone.

Passing is wild too. People pass on the right and on the left. A wise driver never swerves because you never know what might be coming up behind you in a big hurry. While vehicles here do come equipped with turn signals, it appears to be optional as to whether you use them. And even if they are on there's no guarantee that the correct signal is on. You must learn to read minds as to whether the vehicle ahead of you or in the oncoming traffic is planning to turn and you must keep your foot near the brake at all times as precious seconds count when you guess wrong.

There are several traffic lights in town now too. The lights rarely all function and with the constant blackouts, they often don’t function at all. From observation, it appears that a yellow light is mere decoration. A red light means keep going as long as somebody ahead of you is still going. You don’t want to be the first vehicle stopped at a light. People turning right (left) tend to start turning from half a block back cutting across the oncoming traffic’s lane and pose serious hazards to the first vehicle stopped at the red light since they nearly get clipped by the folk turning.
In addition, people waiting at a red light to turn right (left) typically start a new right (left) turn lane on the oncoming traffic’s side of the line. Usually this is just motorbikes but sometimes even cars will do it. As you can imagine, this can cause serious traffic blockages as the oncoming traffic has to squeeze through what’s left of their lane. Last Friday I had to sit through three cycles of red lights because of this type of gridlock. And this is NOT a big city.

This behavior is not just young high school kids. I have seen government workers in uniform do the same. I have even seen policemen do it. And it is not my imagination, I have talked to several others (natives) who see the same things I do and complain about it.

Several years ago before the internet was very common in SE Asia I used to have to babysit a computer that would receive an international phone call every night some time after 10pm with the bundled email for our office. We had the only phone with a modern line capable of receiving digital signals with minimal garbling. I had to make sure the computer was on and booted up and then would wait for the call and make sure the info was completely downloaded before turning it off. While waiting I would play games that were installed on it. I remember noticing at the time that playing the games had noticeably improved my manual dexterity which had sort of gotten rusty after several years of village living. I think it was also helpful in improving hand eye coordination and helping me in my driving now especially as I try to anticipate moving targets, etc. My impression: a certain amount of video gaming may be beneficial for driving!

Addenda 4-30-09 It occurred to me the other day that the basic thing going on is that people drive like they walk. People on foot do not stop, nor do they bother with lanes or staright lines, they just walk around obstructions and cut across to where ever they are going, whenever there’s an opening at whatever angle it takes, but they never stop walking.

Avoiding dengue fever--

It is 8:15pm and the temperature in my room has finally dropped to 90 degrees. Earth Day or Hour or whatever it was has passed and we DID have power so I spent it sitting in front of the fan! (I'm off to the village tomorrow seeking some slightly cooler place.)

I am teaching a class on cross cultural communication and one thing we talked about is how people can see the same event and have very different perceptions of it. Or people have the same experience and interpret it very differently. Today when I arrived to teach I was almost overcome by the strong chemical/pesticide smell. The place I teach is a large school complex with several hundred students from kindergarten through high school and college. Apparently government workers had been by earlier in the day and sprayed for mosquitos for the prevention of dengue fever. They sprayed while all the kids were present. Some of the children had vomited.

Not only was I practically gagging at the odor myself, I was horrified that they had sprayed with the kids all there running around. All sorts of questions flood my mind - do they not know that the spray is poisonous? Why don't they spray in the afternoon or on a weekend? I wondered if the sprayers even take any protective measures themselves? Etc.

But I was apparently the only one who was upset. Everyone else just laughed or said that that was just the way they do it here.

I suppose so. Just like the article I read recently which said gold miners on a neighboring island sometimes rub mercury all over their skin to make them strong....