Needless to say I've learned a bit from three years ago.  I have a few thoughts to add about water and making it clean, with the added slant of think about low cost, simple, very user-friendly, locally built, technologies for the developing world which (hopefully) can be income generating.  

I'll mention a bit about the tech I witnessed during the BioFilter training, then talk about some of the other problems and solutions I've found and considered, an then talk a bit about the reason I'm an "appropriate technology" fiend now.  

The Center for Affordable Water and Sanitation Technology (CWAST) is a Canadian NGO that focus on the impacts of water on life.  There hallmark is a device called a BioSand Filter, which was created by a Canadian Doctor in the 1990s.  Since it was developed, it's gone through 10 revisions and it's a open patent and they use CreativeCommons for documentation.  It's now a 120 pound concrete pedestal that uses a combination of biological predation, natural death, mechanical trapping, and adsorption to *Filter* water.  I was skeptical when I first heard about it because I was used to a paradim of screening and adsorption via things like Reverse Osmosis, or Carbon based filtration, or clay filtration, etc.  This is what you'll see in most modern filtration and purification (the difference being that filters don't remove viral and small bacterial particulates).  A BioSand filter has no such items, as the pedestal is more or less filled with two types of larger rocks at the bottom, a bunch of sand above, and a diffuser plate above the standing water (to aerate the water).  I was asking myself how this can produce clean water when things like Cryptosporidium, viruses, and cysts can be near .5 microns which even things like Reverse Osmosis don't always stop.  The answer is that it plays the small and large waterborne pathogens against each other.   The "Bio" portion of the filter is a biologically active layer that allows, nay encourages, these pathogens to eat each other.  Like in the ocean, where light doesn't penetrate below a certain depth and things grow differently, the sand naturally layers into a non-biological layer where (with time) the carcases create that smaller and smaller space that physically filters more of the pathogens out and which leaves you with water that is extremely clear and more importantly more or less drinkable.  

Now one of the big things I didn't cover in my previous blog post was the notion of the stages from dirty to clean water.  Think about as if you were camping or not in an urban environment.  To treat the water, you first need to get water that's not apparently coming out of a mine or industrial plant (maybe get the sticks and big stuff out of it), transport it, then you need to remove a majority of the particles (inorganic, organic, metals, and pathogens), but it's not clean as some of the real small stuff can cause problems yet so then you need to disinfect the water before you find a clean place to store it.  One useful set of technical terms for this is: Source Protection, Sedimentation, Filtration, Disinfection, and Storage.   

What a CAWST BioStand Filter does is specifically to Sediment and Filtrate the water.  It's not disinfecting the water, although it will remove between 85% and 100% of Bacteria, Viruses, Protozoa, Helminths, Turbidity (Dirt), and Iron.  Not perfect, but an order of magnitude improvement over drinking it straight from a bore hole, river, lake, or tap out here and it's not overly expensive (developmentally speaking).  It means you aren't going to get nearly as sick (diarrhea reduces to 10% of previous levels).  

That's just the tech.  They also do a training on sanitation, including things like germ theory, how to use soap, the important of latrines/toilets, etc.  This is both Source Protection (i.e. feces draining into the water supply) and Storage (A clean jerry can stays clean with clean hands, etc).  There are methods of disinfecting the water cheaply (Solar Disinfection using natural UV in a P.E.T. bottle, or wrapping bottles in black and leaving them to heat to disinfection levels over hours, or boiling, or if you can get it Chlorine).  
I didn't attend the entire training, as (big surprise) I was more interested in the tech.  I did however spend a fair amount of time over the last several days reviewing the water info I previously understood and added to it.  My point of view has dramatically changed.  I am still a clean water nut, but now I want to find an use water tech that is cheap, ubiquitous, and darn simple.  

Tomorrow I talk about why that last bit is extremely important to me these days.

Literally right after the game, as I was writing my comments on the game ending, someone indicated there was a bomb blast in Kabalagala, just mins away from where we were. The taxi that we prearranged was stuck in the industrial area going cross town to get to us because of it.  We diverted to another cab and took the long way round, but had to go past the Rugby club (and we hoped we could).  By that time we knew of two blasts and that one was in Kyondo at the Rugby club and another in Kabalagala.  As we past the Rugby club, we saw a large crowd of people on one side of the road, and plenty of armed men both police and military, some interviewing people others looking at the crowd.  Thankfully we were able to move right along and get home.  

Arriving, we booted up and I can say that facebook is slammed right now. It took a while to dig up the Somali connection, as I've been in Burundi for the last month and haven't heard about the threats from Harakat al-Shabaab Mujahideen on both Uganda and Burundi based on the troops they have in Somalia. The reports varied all over the place and the third attack in Ntinda surfaced and still remains vague.  Later via the AP, CNN, and the local paper call the Daily Monitor I managed to piece together one bomb hit a restaurant called the Ethiopian Village in Kabalagala was attacked leaving 13 people dead, the Rugby club had 10 dead, and including the vague Ntinda attack the wounded/dead totals near 100.

I noted in a comment on Facebook, that I was confused about the targets.  Even with the alleged al-Shabaab connection, I'm not sure I understand why they choose there targets.  I don't really have enough to speculate, but I wondered about a relation between the Ethiopian restaurant and the rivalry between Somalia and their neighbor.  I saw pictures of the Rugby club, which lead me to believe they were after the international crowd and an easy target, but again this is speculation.  

I suspect that being in Burundi could be safer then being in Uganda for a time, but I'm worried about Burundi because of it's involvement in Somalia too.  Andrew & people are still there, but frankly I'm no longer worried about internationals in Burundi relating to the election (unless they are plain stupid).  The grenades and alike that are going on there are related to internal politics and they don't want international incidents like what we are seeing here in Uganda.  (Just to underline what International attention brings you.)  I am now worried that the bombers will be dumb and try and work on Burundi during this already high security time in Burundi.  Not an easy target, but not an overly hard one either.

I'm very curious to see if we will get sensible reactions out of the International countries who lost citizens tonight, and I'm very very curious how Uganda's government will react.  I'd like to see something smart about trying to fix the food, drought, general security issues that has driven Somali's to both become pirates and be inclined towards terrorist with money.  I fear I'm likely to see something about pulling out (in 6 months), or a retaliation, or strange security precautions taken in and around Uganda which seem unlikely to do much to hinder the motivated.  

In that vein, I'm somewhat curious if this was a one time shot, or if more bombs seem likely.  Obviously the city is going to be flooded with police and troops, but are more already in the pipe line?  

I have to admit that, although I thought what Alex and I saw at the embassy briefing in Burundi was a bit silly when you start mentioning wine and speed scrabble, the whole bit about not going to clubs, bars, or public places might be sensible for a while.  There are to many residences to hit simltaniously, and bombers want crowds.

Quick update on affairs here in the land of the great lakes (African Great Lakes that is), Burundi is nearing it's next election.  HROC is preparing to finish it's training of it's 120 observers/citizen reporters/Peace & Democracy group members and hopefully we are going to distribute cellphones next week.  The catch is that we could use some more cellphones.  We have a goal of 75 cellphones worth in donations, and we'd like to get it distributed by next week.  Although if we don't get it in time for the Presidental election, there's still 4 more elections in the coming months to go.  (Yes months, not days, or weeks but months.  It's a long run of elections).  

Although we are distributing the cellphones, HROC still owns them and will be getting them back from the people.  I've spent way to much time inventorying some oddball and wacky phones that have been donated.  For the time it took, the dwindling percentage of phones due to wrong frequencies, the not unlockable phones, the bad batteries, and the ones missing chargers, as well as the hassle of a bunch of phones that aren't translated into french (or kurundi), and the cost of unlocking those not already unlocked, we probably should have just bought the cheap phones Leo is providing.  At 15,000 Burundian Francs or about 12.5 dollars, it's hard to argue that spending 4-5,000 on unlocking plus the ones with missing batterys, bad batteries, and the time it takes to organize it, plus trying to teach new-to-phone users how to use a Sony phone that predates the Sony-Ericsson merge, a nokia sliding phone that took me an hour to find the sim slot on, some a random NEC, etc, etc, etc… you get my point.  

Anyway, for two Mickey D meals, you could buy HROC a phone that will help us keep informed of what's happening on election day, help us keep our citizen reporters them informed, and help them coordinate in their own communities (as I partially explained in my previous post).  Please donate a phone or two if you can spare a few dollars for keeping this far flung country a bit more peaceful.  

Assuming we get enough phones, during the next two months they Citizen Reporters will be able to call the other 120 people for free, text them for free, text in to "Bureau HROC" our SMS information center, and generally become more engaged in the wider world.  Via another portion of the budget we've already got the funding to place all the phones on a group plan which facilitates this (for 11,000 Burundian Francs per month per person! You try pricing a plan like that anywhere else in the world. Of course most burundian's don't have nearly 1/3 of that as disposable income per month.) This is an immediate project, but that has a long term vision of being used to help tie multiple communites in this war torn country together with each other.  We have a few other programs in mind that involve cellphones, trama healing, income generation, and general community building.  The more phones the better. Leveraging twitter like chatting within more distant communities to help dispell rumors and improve relationships, as well as slowly (due to the learning curve) introducing new options like information menus, health updates, gather useful statistical and market information, etc we hope to help bridge the gap in the few communites that HROC is able to work with.  

It's a small difference to make, but it's one that HROC (and FWA) are good at making in the people they reach.  More updates soon. 

You can also donate to AGLI (and tell your friends) via the HROC Mobile Peace Building Facebook Cause

Overall it was a successful training, but I felt ill prepared for this. Thankfully Andrew was around, and I also had two Jessica's here to help. One Jessica Heinzelman is doing her MA at Fletcher on mobile tech in such situations as we are doing (mostly incorporating the Ushahidi platform) and just happened to be willing to come from her several months in Keyna to help us out for a week. Jessica Brown is here in Burundi for 3 months with HROC as part of her MA in Conflict Resolution. Andrew of course is invaluable for a variety of reason, but briefly the ones that come to mind include the fact that he speaks french and a bit of kurundi, he is very familiar with the HROC program and it's people, he help write the grant for this election monitoring, and he knows how to deal with me. This is in addition to Florence who's one of the prime movers at HROC and was learning and helping teach.

This confluence of people helped us bounce ideas and form a training that wasn't perfect in the least, but at least conveyed the concepts. I've taught people how to use technology for 10+ years, and I am fairly good at making K.I.S.S. decisions, but none of us has done this. According to Jessica H. few people have integrated such a system of election monitors that leverage previous training in community peace building, election monitoring, and mobile technology.

For most of you, sending a text might be relatively simple, but I don't expect it to be easy for rural Burundian's who desperately want a cellphone (even if they have to walk an hour to get it charged), but haven't the $12.5 USD to purchase a phone and the regular (and more expensive) ability to purchase airtime. Consider the first time you were introduced to a cell phone, now add the idea that we need them to send a text which has one piece formatted properly ( an @ symbol followed by a word at the preface of their message) to a specific number. It seems easy, but it's easy to assume it's simple if you've learned it, but it takes patience and time to teach people to use it. It's easy to make mistakes too, as it can't be “@ word” or “subject @word” or “@word+errant character”. You might also remember that mosts of these people speak some level of French, but mostly they work in Kurundi and donated phones don't work in such a language. (Some local mobiles have been regionalized into kurundi). The great thing is that they are eager students.

We'll get the 60 cellphones we have out to people and they'll ask people in there village and the trainers how to use them. And they won't want to give them back… but we'll see what happens. We are actually thinking, and even planning on using this in the future to keep in contact with communities and help them talk amongst themselves. To use a non-quaker term, we are looking at it being a force multiplier for peace.

So, what's next? Well I have to get the system to work as optimally as possible in these extremely aggravating mobile phone conditions. SMS'es irregularly take mins, hours, or in some cases weeks to get delivered, the power generally goes out at least once per day here during the dry season, and even inter network calls don't go through sometimes. (Oh and the local provider Leo formerly Ucom formerly Telecel-burundi gave us blank stares and the silent treatment when we asked if we can purchase a Short Code, ARRGGH!) You'd think this idea of immediate feedback via mobile won't work, but it's Burundi and they are used to aggravation and take it in stride (a trait the industrialized world could learn from). This on top of FronlineSMS being a quirky and the least obnoxious localized SMS platform of the choices. (Column sorting doesn't work!) It's not going to be like the Keynan election a few years ago, but it'll be a step forward.

I digress, I'm also working on getting the parts to make a more redundant power situation for the office (via Solar or Mains, but including batteries), we are moving ahead to build a simpler design on the CAWST Bio-Filter using local materials (clay pots) so locals can build and create filters for under $12, working with FWA on there wireless and on the new medical records system they want to build, building a clay oven for the house where HROC office/guest housing is, to finish fixing a 3 or 4 computers (did I mention my 6 month old Asus eee netbook inexplicably died on me, I think the heat of Eastern Africa killed the processor, random BSOD and can't install ubuntu now. Bad computer, no Donut!!).  I'm also teaching HROC how to use FrontlineSMS to broadcast, setup new groups, and harvest information and most importantly writing the training manual for the above mentioned non-phone-using-Burundians first experience with a cellphone (with plenty of input and guidance from Burundian's).

So many projects so little of me, my money, and my time…

I've got bunches of thoughts going on (mostly on water), but many of you asked if I'm headed back to the US soon.  I'd have to say that, assuming things remain okay, I'm not likely to head back anytime soon.  To many interesting things going on in Eastern Africa, much to work on, to little money to make it to the US and return to E. Africa.  I could make it one-way, but I think I'd go more crazy at home then I would working on things here.

Hopefully I'll get more updates soon.

If your Congressional staffers and there employers are effected by such cognitive bias devices as the Framing effect then is our government actually making rational, considered, and sane policy and legal choices about our lives?  Are we making similarly misguided choices in our own day to day lives and in our political existence?

If you reading history about the founding of America, you’ll realize that, like today it was politically fueled and perhaps from the perspective of the enactors at the time, equally absurd.  Much of what they created is argued about and rightfully so as we can never understand fully what all the enactors of our Constitution were thinking, but I have always gotten the sense that some of them were aiming to make a more rational government.  One that decided things based on facts and realities rather then beliefs and traditions.  It’s not the only one, as the US Constitution was modeled on others through out history.

Yet as I implied above, the one notion that we’ve only recently begun to more fully understand is that nature of human decision making.  In many respects this understanding has been most fully driven by advertisers and marketing types, as to persuade humans it’s best to understand humans, and over the decades or centuries, human psychology has exponentiation increased in our ability to pursuance others to act/believe/perceive in a certain way.  To our detriment, you can see the impact of marketing and it’s persuasion in American (and other countries now) consumeristic tendencies.  Using our cognitive biases against us marketing can change the probability of a purchase, so it has influence.  Influence is power, as the old saying goes.

In this way you can see how lobbying on the part of organizations (for a political belief, economic motive, ethic group, etc) can have a modifier effect on the outcome of policy decisions.  They change by probability and add those increments up.  You should also be able to see how time becomes a factor in this, specifically in monetary terms.  The more time you can metaphorically purchase of the decision makers (via lobbyist and marketing), the more the issue is cognitively processed the more likely it is to be acted upon.  So money equals an open ear, which equals influence, which equals power.

I don’t believe that the US system of government is rational and fair in a way that represents the people of the United States, at least insofar as I don’t believe the government is actually following the popular views.  Of course the populous is just as influenced by the same tactics as lobbying on a mass scale (hence a billion dollar presidential campaign) so can we achieve a government that is making decisions without bias?

I believe such as system is possible. Although we are irrational beings that believe we are rational, we do have the capacity to make some rational decisions.  We also have the ability to modify our environment, otherwise know as make tools.  Can you envision a set of tools (language is a tool don’t forget) which, if you begin to understand your own biases, can help you to mitigate your own irrational decisions an help you make more rational ones?  Can we devise such as system that governs us?

Yes, and the models that have shown the most promise are scientific ones.  Although irrational humans are the drivers behind science, the results of scientific discovery are a day to day practical reality. As you may already understand, science is about the immovability of the laws that govern nature itself.  Simply said, the laws don’t fluctuate, so if you test a million billion times, they should never change.  What this means is understanding based on testing is possible, and more importantly that building tools based on this immutability is possible.  Indeed our bodies, the food, the chairs, everything is hinged upon the notion that the number of atoms in a carbon molecule never just ups and changes.

So even though what we understand may change based on the way we perceive things, the things themselves a reliable enough to be trusted.  In this way we can externalize some of our decision making factors.  Conceive of thoughts that are based on tools and realities that are not biased in the same way our brains are.  They are repeatable and reliable because nature is repeatable and reliable (or we wouldn’t exist).

A question you might ask is that “We are a result of evolution, which developed an imperfect machine, but one which is capable of surviving. Why would we want to tamper with that?” In fact I don’t propose that.  I propose a notion that mimics that evolutionary capability in our laws.  Although our legal/political structure mimics this somewhat, I am suggesting we make it more efficient by making it a system based on models that have provide the most usable realities in our existence.  We use our ability to make tools, to make use more viable and cosmologically sustainable.

I don’t suggest my system is perfect, but here’s my suggestion. (Mitigated somewhat by the need to be somewhat politically feasible.)

Rather then having a political system that elects people who create laws/execute laws/judge laws, I suggest we modify this to elect people who create goals which itself creates a body which studies and try to achieve those goals. I would also include a body that assess the impact of these laws as objectively as possible.  The study and try body would be given a goal, say reduce Automotive fatalities by 50%. They would devise various methods of implementing this, test them in the working reality that we live in.  (i.e. Colorado would try one thing, California another).  The notions would be check, refined, synthesized. Then checked, refined, and synthesized until you have achieved the goal.

The assessment body would then aggregate the data and perhaps could help the goal making body find and define what areas are most worthy of resource allocation and improvement in understanding via setting a goal.

Some would argue that you can’t test a law on the public, as you are endangering peoples lives, but the reality is that government already does this.  It does not however have a dedicated system of refinement, rather it’s based on the will of the regulators, congress, judges, lobbyists and people.

Perhaps there are better implementations of a government which embodies the notion of a rational tool that has the goal of keeping humanity sustained and I challenge you to devise it.

I wanted to highlight  a few things based on my experience at FCNL, in DC/Congress, and in my understanding of human nature from this excerpt of this article in the NY Times about Bank Debit Fees being limited. (Underline emphasis added by me.)

The Senate approved a series of amendments unfavorable to the banking industry over the last week, but this one was widely regarded as the most surprising. Meddling in dealings between businesses generally is anathema to Republicans and a relatively low priority for Democrats.

And this was not an easy vote. Lobbyists for the wounded but formidable banking industry made clear to some senators that this decision would affect future campaign donations, according to people who participated in those conversations.

But retailers mounted an unusually effective yearlong campaign to frame the issue as a chance for Congress to help small business. A leading trade group for chain retailers worked with small-business groups to make sure that every time a senator held a town hall meeting back home, a local business owner showed up to ask about card fees.

The industry also rode the support of Senator Richard J. Durbin, the Democratic whip, who wrote the amendment and pushed the sponsor of the banking overhaul bill, Senator Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut, to allow a vote on the Senate floor.

The winning margin was provided by several conservative Republicans. Senator Johnny Isakson, Republican of Georgia, told SunTrust, the largest bank in his state, that this time he planned to vote against the bank and with Coca-Cola and Home Depot, two other Georgia companies that had lobbied him fiercely.

“This was really a decision between helping out small business or helping out large banks,” said John Emling, a lobbyist for the Retail Industry Leaders Association. “No one wanted to pick between friends and they had friends on both sides, but because of the momentum, we just felt that if Durbin pushed folks to the vote we would win.”

Part of what this article is describing is what FCNL and other similar lobbying organizations try to teach there members and try to affect regularly.  The Retails Industry Leaders Association, change the forum of debate by “framing the issue.” It’s a buzz phrase that you hear regularly in D.C. and one my old boss Jim Cason loves, and he’s right.  In addition to using multi-path communication and persuasion based on their advantages (which I’ll talk about later), the RILA changed what staffers and there senators were comparing.  Whether or not it succeeds in the House, it’s an ideal chance to talk about framing and the other parts of effective lobbying.

Rather then looking at the Bank industry’s impact on the economy and how it’s fair to them (given it cost something to maintain the debit card system), the RILA put in terms of the retailer’s much larger effect  on the Senators voting constituent.  Small businesses employ over half US population, so it’s a very, very large base.  The fees at issue may directly impact the profits of the banks, but with the bail-out and sentiment in general being very low for banks, this is a perfect opportunity for retailers to point out that these fees have a far larger proportional impact on people then does the bank’s dividends and it’s employment base.

A point of psychology to remember, and one that makes the framing that I just did in the previous paragraph so important, is that humans make irrational decision because of the way our brain perceives and processes information.  It’s call cognitive bias, and in particular we are biased in the way we compare things.  This is referred to as the Framing effect, and it means when you receive information, you compare it and make decisions based on perceived loss and gain, but that we rate a loss higher then we do gains.  Although the options might be equal from a purely quantitative or qualitative point of view, we will choose differently based on the description of both options. In this way, although congress is indeed swayed by rational arguments in a one page fact sheet, the staffers and the Senators will be swayed by a “superior” framing of an issue.   In this particular case your perception of loss on the part of the banks should be smaller then the perceived loss of the larger group of retailers, even though we are talking about the same money in both cases. The shining glass monuments of banks can deal with it but the struggling mom and pop shop on the corner can’t.  I may feel this way but it’s perception not fact when I speak in those connotatively driven terms.

Another point of psychology worth remembering that psychologically speaking, we forget things regularly. Your brain is designed to forget things as much as it’s designed to remember them, and it’s a mechanism that works to your advantage, as you forget the things you don’t need (a smaller database is easier to search then a larger one).  If you are not reminded of something within your forgetting interval then it’s generally gone (with a few major exceptions).  You can more effectively be reminded of something by getting it from multiple sources, i.e. a letter from one person, a conversation with another, maybe a cute toy that you associate with it, an odd jingle that goes with it, etc.  In this way, if the staffer and his Senator hear about an item from multiple-paths on a radio news show, by his staffer, as a letter to the editor, in the town hall meetings he attends, a object or toy that keys to the issue (debit card), during lobby visits he sits in on, from his fellow Senators, etc. they are more likely to take action or feel action can be taken.  This is particularly true in the case of Congress in general, as over the last 10+ years the amount of communication has increased 10 fold while the staffing to organize and deal with such communication has remained at the same level as 30 years ago.  They have a lot to forget and a finite amount of brain space to put it in.

The RILA took advantage of this and used a multi-path communication campaign aimed at the senators.  The retailers leveraged there mass and distribution of people throughout the country to make this Senatorially unpopular issue into one that senators took note of, and after a year long campagain the Senators felt it had momentum.  This is particularly significant as it indicates they were looking at it not from a strictly rational point of view, but rather were responding to the sentiments of the retailers and there fellow senators in a more emotional way.  Incrementally, they began to believe this was an issue that was important and therefore it became important.

In spite of this daunting task of engaging congress and changing laws/policies, one of the things I took away from D.C. before I left was a belief that you can change an issue as an individual.  The big “but” to this is, it can take years of your life to make it happen.  I’ve seen it at FCNL, I’ve read about it, and we’ve just seen it again.  You literally have to make your own luck, which is exactly what happen here.  By using the large base of people at there disposal, the retailers lobbying organization kept lobing different shiny things at the monkeys until they all picked up there nugget.

This sickness had me out of action and coughing like a very sick person (people kept joking that I had TB) and generally trying to engage in life through the haze of benadryl, and some major tears as well with my Grandmother in Sacramento dying.  I therefore spent a vast portion of my time in the last month plus indulging in comfort reading.  I re-reading/listening to all of Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan novels that I could stand, then started in on what I have of Andy McNab’s Nick Stone novels, and have finally switched over to more serious reading of a Longwalk to Freedom by Mandela.

You have to realize that I was a kid when I was last devoutly into the thrillers and the thought pattern they pervade.  I’ve always been fascinated with the military, it’s equipment, history, how it works, etc, but I’m a converted non-violent type.  I still am fascinated by it all, which means I some times sound like a gun toting conservative, but the reality is that money spent on the military, war, your police para-military, is something I’ve realize is absolutely counter productive.  Violence begets violence.  Period.

Doesn’t matter if it’s state on state violence or individual violence.  It’s cyclical and entirely a waste of brian power (those that die and those that spend time using/developing/implementing hostile methods) and more importantly a waste of money.  I just posted this thought on facebook:

How absurd does this sound? In 2008 the world spent $4 dollars per person of the world GDP on the UN, and $217 pp on the World’s military! Of that %41 of that is the USA. You bloody oboxious Tea Party Movement blokes are yelling about the wrong god damn thing!

Which illustrates the point.  Americans spend 16% of our GDP on healthcare and 4.06% on direct military spending plus another 2.6 to 5.4% (depending on the amount of the public debt you add) on other outlays.  So we spend some 6 to 9% of our 14 trillion dollar budget on the military, which creates more healthcare spending (peace time is bad enough with training accidents) and perpetuates our debt, enriches defense contractors, but is not generally increase our economic growth as compared to other areas. I see a big dent in our healthcare if halved our attempt at creating national security through force.  (More then enough to shut the Tea Party Movement up.)

My dad used to tell me that it’s worth going into personal debt for two reasons, buying a house or going to school.  His reasoning is that they are both investments in your personal future.  If you are going to borrow money, it should make you at least enough to pay the loan back directly or indirectly.   Perpetuating violence by spending on the military definitely is not an investment in the future, it is a bad investment thinking about the security of “now.” Given that violence is cyclical and will result in retribution, any investment in force will result in an increase rather then decrease of violence.

We are ridiculously protective of our children.  Americans would scream at drivers who speed through residential neighborhoods with children around, create laws that identifies pedophiles when the risk of such acts is far smaller then car accidents.  Some how that same care and consideration is lost on us when we speak of the future we are creating for them.

We think of a big stick, a big lock, and secure walls as our security, but like any security expert will tell you, your highest risk comes from people you trust. If you give them enough incentive they’ll break that trust, but the better they know you the more human you seem, the less likely someone is to resort to violence.

It’s an old story, but rather then building barriers, bridges make you safer.  Friends–national and individual–make your life more survivable, more informed, wealthier, and much, much more secure.

All in all I’m happy to be here in Uganda (even if I still get an occasional sinus infection) rather then being ridiculous frustrated in American society with the pace, our irrationality, and the slow march of useful change.

This Warden Message is to alert U.S. citizens to incidences of civil unrest that could pose a threat to your personal security.  On March 16 at approximately 9 p.m., the Buganda Kingdom’s Royal Kasubi Tombs were engulfed in flames.  The Police/Fire personnel at the scene were unable to extinguish the fire and the historical site was destroyed.  Police have been operating on a heightened alert due to the potential for civil unrest as a result of the destructive fire.

Earlier today at around 11:30 a.m., demonstrations adjacent to the Kasubi Tombs turned violent with reports of at least three demonstrators killed.  U.S. citizens should avoid areas where demonstrations have occurred and seek shelter immediately if you should come upon demonstrations or large crowds.

Currently there is a tense calm in the greater Kampala area with ongoing low-grade civil unrest and riot police stationed in the vicinity between Kasubi Tombs and the Buganda Palace in Mengo.  There are also reports of blocked traffic and ongoing student protests around Makerere University. Traffic is flowing normally in the rest of Kampala but, based on previous city-wide demonstrations experienced in September 2009, traffic could be severely disrupted with little notice.

U.S. citizens are advised to register and update their contact information with the U.S. Embassy in Uganda.  The U.S. Embassy is located at Plot 1577 Ggaba Road.  The phone number is (256) (0) (414) 306 001 or (256) (0) (414) 259 791, fax (256) (0) (414) 258 451, email: KampalaUSCitizen@state.gov, and U.S. Embassy Kampala website:http://kampala.usembassy.gov.  In the case of an emergency outside business hours, or during any suspension of public services, U.S. citizens may reach the embassy duty officer at the same numbers.

For the latest security information, U.S. citizens traveling abroad should regularly monitor the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Consular Affairs’ internet website at http://www.travel.state.gov/, where the current Worldwide Caution, Travel Alerts, Travel Warnings, and Country Specific Information can be found.  Up-to-date information on security can also be obtained by calling 1-888-407-4747 toll-free in the U.S. and Canada, or for callers outside the U.S. and Canada, a regular toll line at 1-202-501-4444.  These numbers are available from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern Time, Monday through Friday (except U.S. Federal holidays).

This email is UNCLASSIFIED.

With 3 million people in the city of Kampala, I have a long way to go, but I’m reassured by continuing use of the website and the incremental increase in posts by people. Certainly people are very excited by the prospect of having a website like craigslist or gumtree around. Actually, because of the reactions I’ve been getting and there feedback, I recently decide on putting up a Missed Connections section. Although I’ve been avoiding creating personals where sex could be sold, I was convinced that Missed Connections could provide a useful outlet perhaps be an amusing read, while at the same time be relatively harmless in propagating the already rampant prostitution here in Kampala.

Hopefully people enjoy the new area. I’m still trying to put the word out, less in a digital way right now–as I think I’ve penetrated my network of digital contacts in Uganda–and more on the ground in coffee shops, internet cafes, maybe an article in a paper (if I can swing it) and just glad handing as many people as I can.

I’ve been getting people and places to hand out cards about the website, but I’ve begun to consider the idea of some form of a gimmick. I haven’t figured out what, maybe a giveaway or a chance at featured ads maybe, but if you have a good idea, drop me a line! Things are looking good for the site though.