tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65326781058674278842011-04-21T15:00:35.483-05:00a blog about my experiences conducting research in Rwanda, and my general musings about how the westerners perceive Africa.Susan M. Thomsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13825121011749681576noreply@blogger.comBlogger431100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6532678105867427884.post-32827504780695587372007-07-28T07:11:00.000-05:002007-07-28T07:59:51.640-05:00

Recently, the government of Rwanda has legally abolished the death penalty. This has been lauded by international human rights organisations and activists as proof of "... the political and democratic commitment of the country towards national reconciliation" (statement made by European commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid Louis Michel). I remain troubled by the unabashed

Susan M. Thomsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13825121011749681576noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6532678105867427884.post-51149653710664968472007-07-26T08:36:00.001-05:002007-07-26T09:08:13.806-05:00

David Cameron, leader of the British Conservative Party, is currently in Rwanda. Yesterday, he spoke to the Rwanda's Lower Chamber where he called for increased trade between "Rich" and "Poor" Countries (See, for example, http://allafrica.com/stories/200707250331.html). I won't even comment on this as his arguments for increased aid transparency and a reduction in conditionality not only ring

Susan M. Thomsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13825121011749681576noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6532678105867427884.post-74473732464606675612007-07-23T05:22:00.001-05:002007-07-23T06:09:20.094-05:00

i am bloody sick and tired of all these so-called Rwanda experts (what self-respecting expert uses the title expert anyway?) who say the country is back on track and doing it right. They fail to define 'it'. If they mean oppressive and authoritarian practices that piggy back the so-called success of the government in restoring peace, generating social harmony and reconciliation and promoting

Susan M. Thomsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13825121011749681576noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6532678105867427884.post-13571197675277824312007-07-20T09:37:00.000-05:002007-07-20T09:57:29.585-05:00

So, the recent issue of Vanity Fair magazine has done a full feature issue on Africa. The general theme of the issue is a celebrity bonanza of what is being done to save Africa. My pessimistic feelings about celebrity activism aside, who is kidding who in this arrangement? Bono as the guest editor. Really? Brad Pitt interviewing Desmond Tutu. Strange combination as Pitt clearly used someone

Susan M. Thomsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13825121011749681576noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6532678105867427884.post-87798280536391537102007-07-16T08:24:00.000-05:002007-07-19T09:44:54.265-05:00

I am increasingly concerned about growing rifts between the Rwandan government and critics of the gacaca process. Gacaca courts were established by the government to clear the backlog of individuals detained on charges of crimes committed during the 1994 genocide. Suspects are judged by a panel of twelve judges in their home community courts. All participants in the process, the judges, the

Susan M. Thomsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13825121011749681576noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6532678105867427884.post-18030082817498886802007-07-13T07:12:00.000-05:002007-07-13T09:00:29.423-05:00

Recently, the ECA voted to allow Rwanda and Burundi to become members. Surely big news for both countries as the official line is that membership has it rewards.I am always bemused when these countries pony up to the big boys because they, particularly Rwanda, has a habit of punching above its weight. Yes, membership with the more economically and politically stable markets of Kenya, Uganda and

Susan M. Thomsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13825121011749681576noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6532678105867427884.post-61832885862526857842007-07-11T19:49:00.000-05:002007-07-11T20:10:15.982-05:00

In March of this year, I was publicly denounced as a "master of disinformation" by the Rwandan Ambassador to Canada. He was speaking to a group of graduate students and faculty at Dalhousie University in Halifax when he mentioned my work as "very dangerous" and "not to be tolerated". After much to-ing and fro-ing with the Rwandan Embassy in Ottawa, I decided to stop posting for a while... My

Susan M. Thomsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13825121011749681576noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6532678105867427884.post-30858143091498380192007-05-10T11:38:00.000-05:002007-05-10T11:40:05.637-05:00

Post-Genocide Rwanda : Achievements and Challenges November 2-3, 2007 California State University, Sacramento. The Ethnic Studies Department at California State University at Sacramento is organizing an interdisciplinary conference on Rwanda. Confernce organizers are soliciting papers in all fields of Rwandan studies : politics, history, economics, culture, education, justice, public

Susan M. Thomsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13825121011749681576noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6532678105867427884.post-73559403943097701192007-03-07T14:12:00.000-05:002007-03-07T14:17:25.718-05:00

i have been getting a lot of emails about what some see as an obvious contradiction in my posting about the Gates Development Foundation. People want to know if I have investments, and if I do, are they socially responsible. I am the first to admit that it is difficult to rectify investment planning with social justice but hey, I have two kids so am saving for them (and let's be honest, for me

Susan M. Thomsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13825121011749681576noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6532678105867427884.post-1055960922943481632007-03-02T20:23:00.000-05:002007-03-02T20:47:56.860-05:00

last week, i attended a conference on "peacebuilding and trauma recovery" at the University of Denver (http://www.du.edu/con-res/center/February2007Conference.htm), and co-hosted with the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at Eastern Mennonite University (http://www.emu.edu/cjp).i gave a presentation to a room of about fifty scholars, ranging from graduate students at the Master's level to some

Susan M. Thomsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13825121011749681576noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6532678105867427884.post-67599738311761207422007-02-16T10:10:00.004-05:002007-03-02T20:22:51.499-05:00

I recently attended a roundtable sponsored by the Canadian Consortium on Human Security in Toronto, Canada where I was asked to present the research that I conducted in Rwanda between April and October 2006. Some of my remarks focussed on the difficulties of carrying out research in places like Rwanda where psychosocial trauma abounds, and is compounded by poverty and other social inequalities.

Susan M. Thomsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13825121011749681576noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6532678105867427884.post-40461713863695831342007-02-06T19:56:00.000-05:002007-03-02T19:58:43.054-05:00

I recently was asked to participate in conducting survey research on the imaginings of the American public on Africa. I am not an American, but was asked through one of my research working groups to participate as imagining the other is one of my research interests. I think a survey that will consider and assess what Americans think when they think of Africa is a good idea. It reminds

Susan M. Thomsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13825121011749681576noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6532678105867427884.post-58473143276283954642007-01-29T19:54:00.000-05:002007-03-02T20:22:28.035-05:00

On 7 January 2007, the LA Times ran a piece that was the result of an investigative report on the contradictory practices of the Gates Foundation. Its development programmes are financed by investment income reaped from some of capitalism’s most rapacious companies. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-gatesx07jan07,0,6827615.story The story caused quite a burn to the

Susan M. Thomsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13825121011749681576noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6532678105867427884.post-3379799806738317092007-01-15T10:12:00.000-05:002008-12-10T06:05:27.697-05:00

Susan M. Thomsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13825121011749681576noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6532678105867427884.post-41848443034824792082006-11-19T19:54:00.000-05:002007-03-02T20:22:08.313-05:00

ok, i am a HUGE Borat fan. i’ve been watching and recommending his comedy for years now. i first came across him (ok, sasha baron cohen as Borat as well as Bruno and Ali G) on the advice of an Irish friend in 2002. so i was pretty chuffed to learn that a movie was coming out. i even waited to see the movie with a friend who also enjoys Borat’s social critique of the U.S. and A as well as his

Susan M. Thomsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13825121011749681576noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6532678105867427884.post-15608185801112515562006-10-24T19:53:00.000-05:002007-03-02T19:54:00.860-05:00

this is an amazing website: http://www.politicaltheory.info/about.htm this is a great website for anyone interested in the relationship between politics and philosophy. it is overflowing with information onon political theory across a variety of approaches and on a multitude of subjects. Enjoy!

Susan M. Thomsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13825121011749681576noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6532678105867427884.post-24019854427342279772006-10-19T19:52:00.000-05:002007-03-02T20:21:47.716-05:00

for all you fellow book nerds out there, check out this website: http://thenonist.com/index.php/thenonist/permalink/hot_library_smut/

Susan M. Thomsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13825121011749681576noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6532678105867427884.post-38650890346987712822006-10-07T19:51:00.000-05:002007-03-02T20:21:01.245-05:00

iving in rwanda for about 6 months gave me lots of free time to read NOVELS. i love to read but have always neglected novels because i read so much academic stuff that i usually prefer to watch Ab Fab or Seinfeld in my down-time. i read some doozies. great books that i simply have to recommend. one that left a big impression is Michela Wrong’s I Didn’t Do It for You: How the World Betrayed a

Susan M. Thomsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13825121011749681576noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6532678105867427884.post-10395316679259442872006-10-04T19:46:00.000-05:002007-03-02T20:20:37.658-05:00

So it finally hit the fan last night. A soldier, armed with an aging AK47, shot one of his mates just in front of my house. I saw them take away the body this morning. He was a young man, maybe 25. I wondered what would come of his family if he was the sole breadwinner, or if he was perhaps a student at the university. The whole family may have had their hopes and dreams of future (

Susan M. Thomsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13825121011749681576noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6532678105867427884.post-3055062966946893932006-10-04T19:43:00.000-05:002007-03-02T20:20:05.554-05:00

so my access to the internet was blocked. i am a member of several list-servs and am always participating in one debate or another. i think the posting that did me in was this one that i made to a members’ only list at Queen’s University. a few days after posting, i was called to ‘account’ for my revisionism by both survivors’ organisations as well as some members of the government,

Susan M. Thomsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13825121011749681576noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6532678105867427884.post-10525730880521358432006-10-04T19:42:00.000-05:002007-03-02T19:43:34.845-05:00

or so goes power relations in rwanda. i was apprised that EVEN powerful ministers can fall afoul and they can too fight their way back, but with the appropriate apologies and enough contrition. i like the quote alot since it was reflective of how my time in rwanda has been going. one day i was up, all was well; next day, calls to present in the big offices of kigali, hat-in-hand,

Susan M. Thomsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13825121011749681576noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6532678105867427884.post-28211463492867797772006-08-22T19:41:00.000-05:002007-03-02T20:19:41.876-05:00

the government is at it again. about 3 weeks ago, a government order to close all kiosks and other informal road-side businesses, like newspaper sellers, water vendors, and the kids that sell sweets and biscuits from over-stuffed boxes they so carefully balance on their tiny heads. the logic is that these individuals are not paying tax and so cannot conduct business until they register

Susan M. Thomsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13825121011749681576noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6532678105867427884.post-15176292049753053042006-08-06T19:40:00.000-05:002007-03-02T20:19:20.631-05:00

one of my good friends, eva g, is a videographer with reuters in the drc. she recently reported on the elections there. check it out:http://www.blogger.com/profile/27413590

Susan M. Thomsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13825121011749681576noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6532678105867427884.post-83110205455066740012006-08-03T19:39:00.000-05:002007-03-02T20:18:55.426-05:00

National unity actually reinforces ethnic divisions by foisting ethnic identity on Rwandans. the core assumption of the government is that individual identity is caught up in being either Hutu or Tutsi (notice no mention of the Twa). But many Rwandans have not hardened around their ethnic identity as the myth suggests. I have spoken to Hutu who did not they were different from their

Susan M. Thomsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13825121011749681576noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6532678105867427884.post-84969954690956271462006-08-01T19:38:00.000-05:002007-03-02T20:23:18.294-05:00

Part of the code has been cracked. It is now plainly obvious how associational life works here in rwanda, or at least among the survivors. survivors are the bread and butter of the governments public face. Survivors are why certain policies are chosen over other ones; survivors are why the emotional blackmail about the failure to stop the 1994 genocide lingers and is a viable option

Susan M. Thomsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13825121011749681576noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6532678105867427884.post-72035069460379527242006-08-01T19:35:00.000-05:002007-03-02T19:38:13.338-05:00

a most interesting week of interviews with ‘Rwandans’ of all walks of life. they ranged in age from 18 to 56 years old. two were cultivators, considering themselves unemployed; another sold newspapers; one fellow works as a taxi-moto driver; my sole woman works as a cake decorator at a local restaurant. the last of my participants was a young woman, 20 years old, a secondary school

Susan M. Thomsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13825121011749681576noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6532678105867427884.post-17070675089081723442006-07-19T19:34:00.000-05:002007-03-02T20:18:24.020-05:00

some very interesting interviews of late and some common themes are starting to emerge. two recent observations…. apparently the government is keen on ICT as it is used to move their troops around and to manage various parts of the reconstruction effort. heard this from both demobilised soliders i interviewed. i took a look at the infrastructure set up as have been off line for the

Susan M. Thomsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13825121011749681576noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6532678105867427884.post-84029401632013514622006-07-17T19:33:00.000-05:002007-03-02T20:17:58.160-05:00

did a road trip this weekend. travelled butare-gitarama, gitarama-kibuye, kibuye-gisenyi, gisenyi-kigali, and kigali-butare. saw at least 1000 sheep and 3x as many goats. some bits of the countryside had such animal density that there were road signs marking their presence, just like those signs you see marking school crossing zones! now with all this talk about entrepreneurship and

Susan M. Thomsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13825121011749681576noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6532678105867427884.post-8264002070160614702006-07-13T19:32:00.000-05:002007-03-02T19:33:23.169-05:00

The last few weeks have been particularly hectic, with interviews 2 or 3 times per day. I am interviewing survivors of the genocide, ranging from individuals who are young adults now, 12 years after genocide, to women who are raising children who were borne of acts of rape committed during the genocide. I am also interviewing those children. To say the least, the stories have been

Susan M. Thomsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13825121011749681576noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6532678105867427884.post-23422252274751382452006-07-08T19:31:00.000-05:002007-03-02T19:32:24.899-05:00

this is the headline on page 2 of a recent article in a prominent Kigali english-langauge newspaper. the analysis goes like this, ‘compared to others in the region, Rwanda is a leader in the protection of human rights of its citizens.’ i’m thinking this, when your neighbours are burundi, DRC and uganda, reigning as the king of human rights in the region is not much of a feat!

Susan M. Thomsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13825121011749681576noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6532678105867427884.post-5099616998685091082006-07-05T19:29:00.000-05:002007-03-02T20:15:32.118-05:00

i go to Kigali 2 or 3 times a week. this means that i walk from my house to the bus-stop in Butare town between 6:30 and 7:30 am, depending on the time of my first meeting in the city. Butare is about 130 kms from Kigali, which makes for a 2 hour journey by bus. when i go to Kigali i always seem to happen upon the same group of primary school boys. the boys are dressed in their

Susan M. Thomsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13825121011749681576noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6532678105867427884.post-54640633449513571692006-07-04T19:27:00.000-05:002007-03-02T20:17:28.401-05:00

i have, living with me, in my ‘staff quarters’, a man in his 60s and works in the garden. he is blessed with enormous hands, and bears the hallmark sign of a life of poverty – wide, flat and calloused feet. his presence is the by-product of the rental agreement that i share with the owners of the house, self-exiled Rwandans living in Belgium. he is to act as their eyes and ears, while

Susan M. Thomsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13825121011749681576noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6532678105867427884.post-79051783918873388842006-06-21T19:26:00.000-05:002007-03-02T20:17:08.491-05:00

here is something amusing that happened to me last week. i have this habit of flossing my teeth. i sometimes floss two or three times a day. my teeth are very clean; i do it a bit obsessively since i had a tooth pulled last year. in rwanda, flossing is not really part of the oral hygiene landscape. people use toothpicks. they are on every table in every restaurant i’ve ever been to —

Susan M. Thomsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13825121011749681576noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6532678105867427884.post-46702935430054001712006-06-14T19:25:00.000-05:002007-03-02T20:16:38.373-05:00

i am amazed at the level of accessibility that senior rwandan officials provide. i am phoning senators, parliamentarians, ministers and other high-level officials on their direct line. it is very easy to track down the cell phone numbers of these people. drop them a phone call, make an appointment, and they receive me. and when we meet, they avail their time generously. we talk for up

Susan M. Thomsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13825121011749681576noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6532678105867427884.post-26139735115357614062006-06-13T19:23:00.000-05:002007-03-02T20:16:14.031-05:00

a poem on domestic-international borders, by polish poet Wislawa Szymborska, written in 1976, but taken from her 1995 collection, VIEW WITH A GRAIN OF SAND: SELECTED POEMS. translated from the polish-language by Stanislaw Barañczak and Clare Cavanagh Oh, the leaky boundaries of man-made states!How many clouds float past them with impunity;how much desert sand shifts from one land to

Susan M. Thomsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13825121011749681576noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6532678105867427884.post-59142153883726023562006-06-09T19:22:00.000-05:002007-03-02T19:23:45.906-05:00

the sexism stared about as soon as i got up. i went down, at 645am, to use the hotel internet. at about 730, half-way through my backlog of email, a french diplomat asked me to leave as he need the sole terminal to do his “business”. i replied that i would be finished in about 15 or 20 minutes. he then slamed down his briefcase on the small desk where i was sitting and told me that his

Susan M. Thomsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13825121011749681576noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6532678105867427884.post-45287866925812046892006-06-07T19:18:00.000-05:002007-03-02T19:20:02.718-05:00

everywhere i go, i meet people in rwanda who think that the country is very secure. there are no more night time raids in the hills. the economy is doing well. “i know longer fear to go home”. rwandans from all walks of life are joining in the chorus of security. i was reminded earlier this evening of the complexities of the meaning of the word ’security’. in butare, where i live, there are

Susan M. Thomsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13825121011749681576noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6532678105867427884.post-68265349954897594552006-06-07T19:15:00.000-05:002007-03-02T19:17:22.465-05:00

The Washington PostWith Web, a lifeline homeTechnology advances help immigrants track Somali crisis, aid familiesBy Sudarsan Raghavan Updated: 12:30 p.m. ET June 6, 2006Dayib Mohamud Sheikh lives on a calm, tree-lined street in Silver Spring, and his aging mother is thousands of miles away in a turbulent war zone in their native Somalia. Yet for the past three weeks, he has lived through her

Susan M. Thomsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13825121011749681576noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6532678105867427884.post-52201509842058716122006-06-06T19:13:00.000-05:002007-03-02T19:20:33.623-05:00

i just came across, while walking to catch my bus to Kigali, a scene that is common in the streets of rwanda. grinding poverty is the norm for at least 80% of the population. many are flushed out of the hills in an effort to meet their basic human needs. The street poor are people of all shapes and sizes – young, old; able-bodied, not; men, women, boys, girls. what ties them together

Susan M. Thomsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13825121011749681576noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6532678105867427884.post-11644669617837849142006-06-03T19:11:00.000-05:002007-03-02T19:22:22.784-05:00

having spent more than a week on foot in rwanda’s capital, kigali, i remain amazed that there are not more pedestrian accidents. the roads are teeming, and I mean teeming, with people. most people don’t own a car, and they come into the central business district by taxi bus. jam packed with commuters coming in from the surrounding environs, people pop out of any one of the hundreds, if

Susan M. Thomsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13825121011749681576noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6532678105867427884.post-80679976852226376772006-05-30T19:07:00.000-05:002007-03-02T19:10:18.517-05:00

i have been thinking about doing a blog for a long time. i’ve just never done anything about it until now. i decided to get started as my field research gets under way. i am doing a study that is designed to contextualise the lived realities of individuals in post-genocide rwanda. i am interviewing ‘ordinary’ rwandans on their lived experiences before, during and after the genocide of

Susan M. Thomsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13825121011749681576noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6532678105867427884.post-17936418785329026652006-04-07T19:28:00.000-05:002007-03-02T19:29:34.369-05:00

why didn’t you leave?” tell me that they really thought the UN would take care of them. one survivor, who lost her mother, sister, and three brothers, said, “we thought the UN was in rwanda, if the UN is here, nothing major will happen to us.” she clearly believed that the UN would protect her and her family; i have never heard a survivor say, ‘we knew the RPF would protect us.’ in fact the

Susan M. Thomsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13825121011749681576noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6532678105867427884.post-66000942408795063332006-04-06T19:14:00.000-05:002007-03-02T19:21:18.137-05:00

so blares the main headline from rwanda’s Newsline newspaper. in a country where it is illegal to discuss ‘genocide ideology’, meaning any references veiled or overt to the manipulation of ethnic identities that gave rise to the 1994 genocide, and in the same country which considers women the backbone of its reconstruction and reconciliation efforts, i am amazed that such a headline can go

Susan M. Thomsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13825121011749681576noreply@blogger.com0