Thursday, January 24, 2008
the thin line
When I first came to Kenya, I was really struck by how narrow the margins are – cars tear past each other with less than a hand’s breadth space; pedestrians walk across roads by timing traffic perfectly to cross between vehicles. The gap between the rich and the poor may be immense, but the space between us is minimal compared to the States – slums are right next to posh areas. The difference between a good harvest and a disastrous one is one rainfall away. The gap between a live chicken and your dinner is generally always smaller than in the States. Even the thin veneer between life and death seems even thinner here.
I guess I adapted to narrower margins. I walked the streets without getting hit; I rode the matatus without constantly tensing for a crash; I got used to passing desperately poor people as I walked towards the Hilton for yet another government negotiating meeting.
But in the past few weeks I have been struck again by how thin the margins really are. In the formal sector, scores of people have already been laid off – a few weeks of slow business because of protests and political turmoil has left most small and medium businesses crippled and unable to keep on full staff. In the informal sector (newspaper sellers, shoe shiners, folks who sell vegetables and fix cars, make crafts and mend clothes), families are simply going hungry.
At the hiss of a tear gas canister, protesters turn into mobs. A car becomes an inferno. A small business is transformed into ashes. Frustration becomes fury, and the desire to destroy something, anything.
How thin is the line between tolerance and hatred? I’m still not sure. Most of the killing, especially the mass killings at the beginning, was definitely organized, and committed by gangs of young men who were possibly paid by politicians. But still, the anger and vehemence that comes out when I talk politics with folks is breathtaking. At times, it seems like the conflict is only peripherally about whether the election was rigged – rather, it goes all the way down and back to land and resource disbursement during colonialism and during the initial post-colonialism years. And more than the actual initial disbursements would be the perceptions of different communities – of why and how people have acquired land and power.
We're all hoping that something comes out of the "talks" currently happening between the two sides (there is debate whether they are 'mediation' or 'negotiations' or what. Also, the two sides have not yet sat down together - the mediators shuttle back and forth). Uganda's Museveni is here, talking supposedly as a mediator, but compeletely separately from the Kofi Annan- led talks. Well, one way or the other, there needs to be resolution and a strong call for peace and reconciliation.
I guess I adapted to narrower margins. I walked the streets without getting hit; I rode the matatus without constantly tensing for a crash; I got used to passing desperately poor people as I walked towards the Hilton for yet another government negotiating meeting.
But in the past few weeks I have been struck again by how thin the margins really are. In the formal sector, scores of people have already been laid off – a few weeks of slow business because of protests and political turmoil has left most small and medium businesses crippled and unable to keep on full staff. In the informal sector (newspaper sellers, shoe shiners, folks who sell vegetables and fix cars, make crafts and mend clothes), families are simply going hungry.
At the hiss of a tear gas canister, protesters turn into mobs. A car becomes an inferno. A small business is transformed into ashes. Frustration becomes fury, and the desire to destroy something, anything.
How thin is the line between tolerance and hatred? I’m still not sure. Most of the killing, especially the mass killings at the beginning, was definitely organized, and committed by gangs of young men who were possibly paid by politicians. But still, the anger and vehemence that comes out when I talk politics with folks is breathtaking. At times, it seems like the conflict is only peripherally about whether the election was rigged – rather, it goes all the way down and back to land and resource disbursement during colonialism and during the initial post-colonialism years. And more than the actual initial disbursements would be the perceptions of different communities – of why and how people have acquired land and power.
We're all hoping that something comes out of the "talks" currently happening between the two sides (there is debate whether they are 'mediation' or 'negotiations' or what. Also, the two sides have not yet sat down together - the mediators shuttle back and forth). Uganda's Museveni is here, talking supposedly as a mediator, but compeletely separately from the Kofi Annan- led talks. Well, one way or the other, there needs to be resolution and a strong call for peace and reconciliation.
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