Flying the Friendly Skies

African aeroplanes labelled 'flying coffins'

The link above is a dramatically written story in English that follows up on an article from La Tribune emailed to me by a colleague in Kinshasa last week.

The substance of the French article, for which I do not have online access, was an announcement of airlines banned from flying over Europe (which will not affect flights within Africa or within national boundaries). The list includes African, Asian, and Middle Eastern countries.

Of the 92 banned airlines, 55% are Congolese:

CORÉE DU NORD : Air Koryo.
COMORES : Air Service Comores
AFGHANISTAN : Ariana Afghan Airlines
KAZAKHSTAN : BGB Airlines, GST Aero Air Company.
KIRGHIZISTAN : Phoenix Aviation, Reem Air.
THAÏLANDE : Phuket Airlines.
RWANDA : Silverback Cargo Freighters.
RÉPUBLIQUE DÉMOCRATIQUE DU CONGO : Africa One, African Company Airlines, Aigle Aviation, Air Boyoma, Air Kasai, Air Navette, Air Tropiques, ATO (Air Transport Office), Blue Airlines, Business Aviation, Butembo Airlines, CAA, Cargo Bull Aviation, Central Air Express, Cetraca Aviation Service, CHC Stelavia, Comair, Compagnie Africaine d’Aviation, CO-ZA Airways, DAS Airlines, Doren AirCargo, Enterprise World Airways, Filair, Free Airlines, Galaxy Corporation, GR Airways, Global Airways, Goma Express, Great Lake Business Company, ITAB (International Trans Air Business), Jetair (Jet Aero Services), Kinshasa Airways, Kivu Air, LAC (Lignes Aériennes Congolaises), Malu Aviation, Malila Airlift, Mango Mat, Rwabika Bushi Express, Safari Logistics, Services Air, Tembo Air Services, Thom’s Airways, TMK Air Commuter, Tracep, Trans Air Cargo Services, Transports Aeriennes Congolais (Traco), Uhuru Airlines, Virunga Air Charter, Waltair Aviation, Wimbi Diri Airways.
GUINÉE ÉQUATORIALE : Air Consul SA, Avirex Guinee Equatoriale, Coage (Compagnie Aeree de Guinee Equatoriale), Ecuato Guineana de Aviacion, Ecuatorial Cargo, GEASA (Guinea Ecuatorial Airlines SA), Getra, Jetline Inc, KNG Transavia Cargo, Prompt Air GE-SA, Utage (Union de Transport Aereo de Guinea Ecuatorial).
LIBERIA : International Air Services, Satgur Air Transport, Weasua Air Transport.
SIERRA LEONE : Aerolift, Afrik Air Links, Air Leone, Air Rum, Air Salone, Air Universal, Destiny Air Services, First Line Air, Heavylift Cargo, Paramount Airlines, Star Air, Teebah Airways, West Coast Airways.
SWAZILAND : Aftrican International Airways, Airlink Swaziland, Jet Africa, Northeast Airlines, Scan air Charter, Swazi Express Airways

The scary thing is, I haven't heard of over half of the Congolese airlines, and of the others, my colleagues in Kinshasa have used a minimum of four, and I have traveled on two of them (if you count Hewa Bora, which 007 In Africa reports to be on the list of airlines banned from flying certain types of aircraft, then it is three). Up until now, I think my former agency banned travel on all except one, which may now be added to the list.

Even when I traveled with MONUC, the UN mission in DR Congo, I flew in a 1970s model Russian helicopter for 2.5 or more hours, to a destination that takes less than an hour on a regular passenger plane.



And, for some reason, aid workers are expected to take these risks, and do take these risks.

A colleague from Senegal refused to get on a flight at one point, after his baggage had been loaded and everything. He saw the aircraft out on the tarmac, turned around, and got a ride back to the office.

It is such a dilemma -- work is interrupted when we make decisions like that, but no work is worth risking one's life, right?

And, there seems to be this expectation of single folks to take risks that others wouldn't...Is the life of an aid worker (or anyone else) without a family more dispensable than one with a family?

Elections in DR Congo postponed

Well, I didn't want to believe that it wasn't going to happen on time this round.

This time last year, it was obvious. The Independent Electoral Commission (CEI) had barely landed. Voter registration had not been organized or begun. Emotions were running high but everyone with whom I spoke anticipated the delay.

The transition government, put in place in 2003, was given two years to organize and hold elections. For nearly two years, nothing happened. Once efforts began, time was short.

So, as the June deadline approached, we noticed the value of the franc congolais increase as law enforcers were paid so that law enforcement efforts could be stepped up in Kinshasa. International agencies made plans to advance pay, sequester, protect, and potentially evacuate their employees if necessary. We shopped as if we were stocking an underground bunker, filtered water and preserved it in jerrycans, battened down the hatches. I moved with my cat up to The American School of Kinshasa (TASOK) and stayed with a colleague, working under a grant deadline, waiting impatiently for the anticipated Independence Day riots to be over.

They did happen, in some parts of the city. There were grim reports of kata-kata, spoken of by colleagues in hushed tones and made cutting motions with their fingers when I didn't understand. Of course, I understood the descriptions of bodies found with missing limbs. The riots followed, when it was announced on June 30 that the elections would be postponed, for months or a year. Read an extensive piece about this time frame from the perspective of Bryan Mealer, an acquaintance of mine while we lived in Kinshasa, appearing in the April issue of Harper's Magazine, called "Congo's Daily Blood."

Thus it was, that only at the last minute did anyone admit that it really wasn't going to happen.

And with time to take a breath and plunge back in, the CEI began its work in earnest. Donations came in, materials were designed and printed, trainings initiated, voters registered, constitution written and referendum approval process commenced.

Now, the maximum of two extensions for a total of 12 months (after June of 2005) have been taken.

And the elections are postponed.

The reasoning on the part of the head of the CEI is that the decision to push the elections back by a week follows the extension of the deadline for candidates to register to run for seats in Parliament, thus affecting the entire election schedule. The extension was necessary, because for a legislative body of 500, only 100 candidates had registered. Now, the count is up to 400, and I believe that there are now nine presidential candidates entered in the race.

Despite all the challenges, I maintain hope for the longterm implications of the process, naive though some find it.

Slice of life: response to an inquiry about budgets in Kinshasa

"...[A]s you know some expenses are unexpected. For example, we have a toilet that is really bothering us and sometimes water leaks almost every week. The problem is its not easy getting good quality materials in Kinshasa to repair the mess once and for all. Second example, with have frequent power failures, sometime its like disco in the office , on/off . This blows some of the electrical materials we have and changes our whole planning."

Gee, a disco? Now I really can't wait to get back.

Free and fair elections

Here is a BBC photo from peaceful protests in Kinshasa yesterday:



From IRIN, a description of the march

The protests took place during Kofi Annan's visit to Kinshasa and were populated primarily by supporters of Etienne Tshisekedi, who may run in the presidential election scheduled for June.

The latter link has this explanation of the motives of the march:

"The aim of the march is to show the national and the international community the need for inclusivity of everyone if there is going to be peace and change," UDPS committee member Francois Beltchika told Reuters on the main boulevard.

Another complaint is that voter registration closed before they could register.

Why didn't they make the registration deadline?

Because Mr. Tshisekedi told his supporters not to support the election proceedings. Earlier in the process, several months ago, he was promoting a boycott to the election process and specifically the constitutional referendum. His primary concern: that granting Congolese citizenship to expats who had lived in the country for decades would constitute selling the country to foreigners.

So, unfortunately, many of the 'opposition' supporters did not weigh in on the constitutional referendum, and many did not register before the deadline. Now, Tshisekedi is trying to get more involved in the election process, though it is not clear that he will run for president.

And, his supporters are lobbying to reopen registration so that their votes can be counted, and the election can be termed free and fair.

EDIT: Apparently, there is discussion regarding extending the deadline for candidates to register as well.

Tshala Muana

Tshala Muana is one of my favorite Congolese singer/musicians. I can't quote the titles of any of her songs, or sing any lyrics, but I know her voice when I hear it. My housemates used to have a tape that got stuck in one of the cars, so each time we had that car for the week, I listened to Tshala Muana on a loop for seven days.

Interestingly enough, she is more than a musician.

She is also a nominated Member of Parliament in DR Congo.

I am not sure what this means, but according to the article she has been recognized for advancing the cause of women in Africa, and she is working in a campaign to unite artists prior to elections. I also do not know what the latter means.

If anyone knows more about Tshala's non-musical role, I invite you to share.

The Chickens of Tshikapa

DRC: 260 chickens, ducks die of suspected avian flu


Photo: FAO

I have not been eating meat since I arrived in my new city and started my new job in January. I have always been an opportunistic vegetarian, for health and political and environmental reasons.

When in the field, though, it has never been a question: Do as the Romans do. A philosophy that goes a long way, trust me. If you will partake of somebody's food and drink, you have paved the way to friendship and loyalty, or at least established a relationship in which you can say, "If you scratch my back, I'll scrach yours" and it usually works.

But the article above, in which it is stated that testing to confirm avian flu among the chickens of Tshikapa was difficult due to the fact that most of them were eaten, is cause for pause.

In anticipation of my next trip back to Kinshasa for work, I imagined getting everyone together and taking the drive, down the Blvd 30 juin, hanging a left at the big bird sculpture onto Ave 24 Novembre, and continuing for some kilometers into the Cite, away from downtown and through a huge rond point (rotary), bumping over crater-sized potholes, hoping to scrape nothing important off the bottom of the vehicle, veering over to the right because suddenly the road is two lanes separated by an island and you don't want to end up on the left side except in a flood, hang a left where half of the other cars on the road are turning, go up a city block's length peering in the dark till we see the barely visible yellow and red SKOL beer advertisement painted on the side of a building, turning very carefully on the road just before this building, over a couple of stone planks that cover the drainage ditch, down a dirt side street barely large enough for the oversized LandCruiser, into the back where our friends the uniformed guards will direct us into parking, and jumping down from the shock-free seats, making our way into the walled-off patio with awkwardly-proportioned metal chairs and tables (leaving no space to cross my legs), lounging back and waiting for SKOL and PRIMUS to be ferried out, immediately ordering 3 sides of frites and three sides of bananes and four butterflied chickens for which we will have to wait for an hour and that everyone will rip into with our fingers as if we never had better training, dipping pieces in mayo and dragging through pili-pili, washing down with more beer, waiting for the four musicians to come by and sing our favorite songs, working our names into their performance, after which we will put 100Fc and 200Fc bills in their guitar and on their foreheads the way New Orleanians pin dollar bills to the shirts of kids on their birthdays.



Top: Skol beer label; Left: Frites and makemba; Right: Mama Colonel's chicken

But now the chickens of Tshikapa are dying.

Shegues

When I was working in Kinshasa, a colleague of mine was managing a project called ORPER, which is run locally by the Catholic Church. The project helps street kids with shelter and sustenance, and reintegration into their families. It is difficult to pin down the number of kids who are homeless, but estimates range from 25,000 to 50,000.

Fifty thousand is the number of people living in my town now -- an entire city's worth of kids living on the streets of Kinshasa.

The word for street kids is shegue [sheh-gay], and you can find them everywhere. They guard cars for 100 francs congolais, or less than a quarter. J'ai faim (I'm hungry) is a common complaint, and they often pat their stomachs in a tired entreaty to be fed.

The phenomenon is not unusual, but in Kinshasa it is definitely more visible than other places I have lived and traveled. And I didn't understand how or why a project would reintegrate the children with their families. Part of the explanation came from reviewing an application for funding for ORPER.

And just today, I found this article, which makes it clear that children are being beaten, abused, starved, thrown out of their homes which brings all the hardships and dangers of living on the street, at least in part because fear of witchcraft is cultivated among their parents. Preachers are consulted as to whether the children are possessed. The consultation demands a fee, and the resulting 'exorcism' based on an answer of yes, your child is possessed, requires an additional fee.

The preachers capitalize on parents' fear, parents pay money, and even after 'exorcism,' children are thrown out.

In the article, one man comments that this scenario is not traditional, cropping up within the past couple of decades. He says that nobody knows how to handle it, which is a problem that ORPER has faced. They have had great success with feeding and sheltering kids, providing them with some medical care and some skills, but reuniting them with their families has proved to be a great challenge.

Edit: Here is a photo from a visit of Cardinal Mahony of Los Angeles from his visit to ORPER in October 2004. Oh, and that's my colleague Mireille to his right! Hi Mireille!


Photo by Kevin Hartigan, CRS

Positive moves in Rwanda and Kenya

Here is a link to a report on NPR's Morning Edition called "Rwandan Rape Survivors Find Solace in Shared History" with the following description:

Rwandan women who survived genocide, but suffered rape and abuse, are finding some solace in a neighborhood association of survivors. It's a relief for some of these women to share their stories, after long keeping silent.

Thanks to the Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS report for pointing to this link.


And again thanks to the Kaiser report, click this link, which is a profile of an American aid worker with PEPFAR through the US Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, who has been HIV+ for 27 years and open about it.



A quote from this article:

"When I first met Buck, I had to open my eyes wide to see the HIV in him -- he was the first white man I had met to tell me he was HIV-positive," said Elsa Ouko, 50, head of the Kenya Network for HIV-Positive Teachers. "And when he said how many years he has stayed with the virus, it made me accept my status more than I had before."

More press for the problem of obstetric fistulas in Africa

This article from IPS is from August of 2004, but provides a good synopsis of the problem in the context of Niger, citing a project in the capital city of Niamey that has taken strides toward eliminating obstetric fistula.

A more recent IPS article from last week cites statistics from Burkina Faso, Niger, and Bangladesh, but laments the lack of current data due to lack of attention to this persistent reproductive health problem.

This article cites a 90% success rate of fistula operations, while pointing out that the cost of such an operation is prohibitive for most women who need it, and many cannot even afford transportation to a health service delivery point that offers fistula repair.

A Special Report in this past Sunday's issue (Mar 5) of the Washington Times, Ethiopia's Trail of Tears (registration required), by Betsy Pisik, starts out:

BAHIR DAR, Ethiopia
It is a smelly, offensive and debilitating condition in which women injured in childbirth uncontrollably leak a trail of urine or feces.

The condition, known as fistula, all but disappeared in the Western world in the late 19th century, when Caesarean section births became widely available.

But in sub-Saharan Africa, the condition remains widespread, sentencing as many as 3 million women to a life of abandonment and enforced solitude.

"I thought it was something the doctors did to me, or maybe God," says Bireeh, a young woman racked by incontinence and infection after a three-day labor ended with a stillborn son.

Ms. Pisik visited the Hamlin Fistula Hospital in Addis Ababa, which was started several decades ago by a couple from Australia who were both gynecologists. When they realized what a problem obstetric fistula was, they opened this institution, which is run through charitable donations, which has grown to provide 1,500 women a year with fistula repair.

The documentary that I mention here was done by the BBC over a decade ago and features this hospital. In the film, Dr. Catherine Hamlin expressed concern that the hospital would not be able to continue its work without funding. Today, though her husband has passed, she is still involved in the work that she has done since 1959. The hospital is funded by the Kellogg Foundation and donations spurred on by an appearance by Dr. Hamlin on Oprah, and now has two satellite locations.

You can further explore Dr. Hamlin's efforts at the Hamlin Fistula Relief and Aid Fund.

Election News

EU troops to support the UN: Sweden and Belgium have come forward to commit troops for maintaining peace during the DR Congo election process, culminating in June. France and Germany are more reluctant, and Germany says that it ‘cannot imagine going outside of Kinshasa.’

Granted it is inevitable that Kinshasa will experience rioting and discord: it is a sprawling capital city of 9 million people. But if troops are being deployed, to say that Kinshasa would be the only place covered is laughable. You might as well stay home, troops.

An expat Congolese living in Massachusetts has decided to enter the presidential race. He counts himself in the group of 5 viable candidates among the 20 some registered to run, and has started a party called Union for the Rebuilding of Congo, through which he has begun campaigning for the election scheduled in June.

You can donate to his cause here.

The other four candidates are the current president, Joseph Kabila, two of his four vice presidents, and a former banker.

Because of his distance from DR Congo over the past 20 years, it seems that he may just have a chance. He is running in part on an anti-corruption platform, for which he has more credibility than someone coming from inside the current political system because he has spent less time stewing in the culture of corruption. I could be wrong, but it also seems that someone who has made a legitimate living and has been established outside Kinshasa for so long would be more likely to seek the presidency for legitimate reasons than some candidates running from inside the system.

Kashala anticipates that his campaign will cost $10 million, and is considering hiring a company to run it.

An agreement was signed today that will implicate both South Africa and Belgium in post-election restructuring. South Africa was confident enough to state that DRC polls 'don't need troops'.

There is a lot of optimism regarding the elections in many sectors; South African Defence Minister Lekota says that the country is primed for democratic elections, who also made the cryptic and mysterious comment:

"Our optimism is not only based on air..."

Aid to Palestine for deficit vs. Aid to DR Congo for internally displaced and refugees

I know, I know, you will probably all think that I am comparing apples to oranges, which I do not deny. But I can't help but note the discrepancy between the European Union offering $144 million to prevent the potential 'financial collapse of the Palestinian Authority within two weeks' (link requires login) and the $16 million that UN agencies 'drummed up' for the 'more than 80,000 [displaced] people in the eastern Katanga and North Kivu provinces, with most of those displaced living in dire conditions at camps without adequate food or health supplies' and for those returning from among the 420,000 Congolese currently living in nine neighboring countries.

And, to compare apples to apples, from the first link comes this information: "Of the $144 million the Europeans pledged on Monday, about $47.4 million will pay energy bills that the Palestinians owe Israeli companies, $75.9 million will be channeled through the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees and $20.7 million is cash — direct budget support to help pay salaries."

So, $75.9 million goes for Palestinian refugees. But $16 million goes for Congolese displaced/refugees.

To put this in perspective, I checked out the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which claims that there were an estimated 4,283,892 Palestinian refugees as of June 2005.

According to the DR Congo article above, there are an estimated 420,000 refugees and 1.6 million internally displaced persons (IDPs), so roughly 2.1 million people who need assistance, or half of the number of Palestinian refugees.

So, my logic, I know, comparing apples to oranges, says that there should be at least $38 million made available to help the DR Congo refugees and IDPs, of which only $24 million was requested and $16 million secured.

Also, I can only imagine what feats might be accomplished if government salaries were subsidized in DR Congo.

International Health and Obstetric Fistulas

Here is a little bit about why I got into international health. First, I was attracted to the 'international' aspect. Fairly self explanatory. Second, I was still young enough to be in 'Save the World' mode, which is where the 'health' figured in. So, in this frame of mind, I went off to school.

The first class I took was called Obstetric Problems in Developing Countries. Why not jump straight in, right? My choice of career was affirmed during this jam-packed one-week class. I learned about lots of problems, most of which were preventable or treatable, and many of which had far-reaching socioeconomic implications.

One in particular was obstetric fistula, which, in my class, was contextualized to the Hausa of northern Nigeria as well as Ethiopia.

Obstetric fistula is a hole in the birth canal where tissue has died due to pressure on the tissue that restricts the blood flow and causes tissue necrosis. When the tissue dies, it breaks down and leaves a hole, between the birth canal and the bladder and/or rectum. What this means is that these women have no control over their bodily functions, and urine and/or feces leaks slowly but consistently out their vagina.

The pressure that causes a fistula in this case is from the head of a child that cannot progress through the birth canal. It usually happens to girls who are not fully physically developed and is exacerbated in women who cannot reach medical facilities during labor. In the case of the Hausa, they practice Sharia law, which forbids women from leaving the family compound, even during labor. The women tend to be married very young, and a fistula often results from a first pregnancy. In most cases, the infant dies.

So, the result is a very young woman with no marketable skills who may not be able to have another child, and thus is childless. She is leaking and so in addition to being useless as a vessel for children, she is also undesirable to her husband. Because of the lack of marketable skills, the woman's family will be reluctant to take her back. She is often divorced and cast out, leaving her homeless, a social outcast, and unable to provide for herself.

A fairly simple operation can close the fistula.

We watched a BBC-produced movie about an obstetric hospital run as a charity for decades in Addis Ababa, started by two Australian OB/GYNs who were a couple. They have trained some of the women they treated to perform the minor surgery as well. Since there are few places like it, women come from all over and often, even after the operation, cannot return to their families.

The story from this film that most spoke to me was of a woman who showed up at the hospital with a letter of introduction in hand. I don't recall who wrote the letter, but the doctors marveled that it was dated six years prior and asked the woman why she didn't come sooner. She said that it had taken all that time to save up the bus fare.

All this said, I was VERY excited to see the article below, which introduces a new film by a woman who has worked in international health and produced the documentary in Niger called "Love, Labor, Loss," link below.

The article:
Filmmaker Sharpens U.S. Focus on Fistula

The film:
The Film: Love, Labor, Loss

EDIT: Also very excited that there will be a screening in my town.