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Troubled Waters
Lake Victoria's waters have begun to fall dramatically in recent years. Climate change, hydroelectric dam projects and increasing pressure on its threatened resources have some environmentalists suggesting the lake may be destroyed within twenty years.
As featured on PBS's Foreign Exchange with Daljit Dhaliwal.
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Common Language Project Blog, 2008
Ailing in Addis
A classic form of torture is the practice of ripping off the fingernails of the victim until the information is forcefully and mercilessly extracted.
For a CLP reporter, a single fingernail torn out by the quick bite of a rusty folding chair, to the smell of unpalatable spaghetti, only evokes sympathetic questions.
And while such a bloody episode is more often dealt with by the likes of a fictional character played by George Clooney in the sociopolitical montage Syriana, my encounter was very real, any scandalous or covert activity notwithstanding.
On the contrary, my absurd experience at St. Gabriel's hospital in Addis Ababa exposed me to the realities of healthcare in Eastern Africa, and provoked me to look further into healthcare availability and costs while comparing the Ethiopian system to healthcare realities in the United States.
The Most Dangerous Men in Kenya
NAIROBI—The first thing I thought of when I saw the scorched whitewash, shattered windows and collapsing skeletons of businesses in Kisumu's downtown was my father's furniture store in Seattle, Washington.
Poking through the remains of doctor's offices, electronics shops and grocery stores—plastic vials and discarded packaging cracking and rustling beneath my sneakers—I imagined the nights of heartbreak the owners of these business lived through in the anarchic weeks following Kenya's most recent elections.
Off the Record: World Water Crisis
Water is the new oil. I've spent the last four months reporting stories on water from Ethiopia and Kenya, two countries at the forefront of the world's coming water crisis . And while western politicians and consumers fret over the declining economy and increasing oil prices, the news from East Africa is that with a growing majority of the world living on less than a dollar a day, the liquid that fuels bodies is becoming even more contentious than the liquid that fuels cars.
Running on Hope
Ethiopia has been a dominant force in long distance running for decades. Despite a shortage of training infrastructure, athletes have excelled thanks to hard work, the high altitudes in their home country and the purity of the ancient sport, where whoever runs the farthest and the fastest, wins. Alex Stonehill's photo slideshow offers a taste of training in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Being Typical
Nairobi, KENYA - One of the first pieces of advice I received before leaving on this reporting project was from an Ethiopian diplomat in the States that requested that I "not be a typical journalist" in my coverage of Africa. What he meant, and what he went on to say more specifically, was that he didn't want to see any more stories about African poverty in the news.
Heading South Part 1: A Night on the Road
We stood in the pre-dawn glow of the street lamps, greeted by intoxicated heckles from the previous night's most diligent drinkers. A battered, extended cab Toyota Hilux pickup pulled up, carrying a mound of mysterious goods under a green tarp and bearing faded Ethiopian Red Cross decals on its doors. Seeing that there were already three passengers inside, I almost threw in the towel right there and sent my colleagues Ernest and Julia on without me, motivated as much by the practicalities of fitting so many people into such a tiny space as I was by the thought of my still warm bed waiting for me just down the block.
Heading South Part 2: A Night in the Bush
When our four-wheel-drive pickup truck vroomed off the town of Negele I knew I was in for a giant adventure. Well, I must quickly clarify that I was not here for adventure; Negele is of course not one of those places you go site-seeing. I was here to work, following stories on water scarcity and how it had impacted the people of Southern Ethiopia.
Heading South Part 3: A Night at the Yabello Motel
The white Toyota Hilux glowed as it pulled up in the middle of the unrecognizable night to what was the small, destined village of Arero. In my comatose daze, I was astounded by the reality of our arrival, our minds and bodies unscathed, curious, and ready for a warm bed and an Aspirin. At that moment, I realized that part of me believed we would navigate the nebulous, jarring road forever, the truck jerking to and fro rapturously, repeatedly, sending our bags up in the air before stopping urgently to change another bald tire. Such an experience erases all consciousness of time, all understanding of place. Yet, once the moment sinks in, its unfamiliarity can create a sense of peace even amid chaos.
Heading South Part 4: A Night Under the Stars
The word travel traces back to the Middle-English word travailen, meaning to journey, labor, strive and most importantly, to torment.
Much of traveling does feel a little like torment and as the strange bug bites, desperate trips to the bathroom and embarrassing cultural misunderstandings mount (who knew that blowing raspberries was one of the rudest things you can do in traditional Ethiopian culture?) I often wonder how I've found myself so far away from home.
Heading South Part 5: A Dawn with Dion
Jessica's audio blog explores the challenges of reporting on the impoverished southern Ethiopian community of Dillo. Especially while Celine Dion is blasting in the background.
An American's Water Shortage
Addis Ababa, ETHIOPIA —The water in our new house in Addis has been turned off for days and my back is so sore I've been squirming around on our dirty couches all evening begging for a position that doesn't hurt.
It's shameful how annoyed I am by the conjunction of these inconveniences given why I'm in Ethiopia at all. I'm here to research and write on water scarcity issues. In the past three days I've interviewed a woman whose son died of typhoid and a man who held four of his children as diarrhea from waterborne dysentery drained the life from their small bodies. I watched an old woman fall to her knees and kiss the ground in thanks of water.
Ethiopian Epiphany: Timkat in Addis Ababa
According to Ethiopia's unique calendar, the year 2000 started last September. Christmas was two weeks ago, on January 7th, and this weekend, at the end of the twelve days of Christmas, the country's 33 million Ethiopian Orthodox Christians celebrated Timkat, or Epiphany, a commemoration of the baptism of Christ. CLP Audio Producer Jessica Partnow brings us this report from the nation's capitol, Addis Ababa.
My Romantic Reunion with Africa
Close to 40 hours after leaving Athens, Ohio, I arrived to my destination in Addis. My Emirates flight was not exactly that long...I had two stopovers - four hours in Hamburg and 12 in Dubai. It is the kind of thing you have to contend with when you make a decision to fly cheap.
I made my time in Dubai a little productive, making calls to family and friends. I also had a chance to visit the Dubai Duty Free - perhaps one of the finest testimonies of the huge capitalistic market Dubai has turned into. Then I took some time to catch a beer at The Irish Village right at the airport. It was a very good decision I must say, one which reunited me with my colleagues of The Common Language Project. I had lost contact with them more than ten hours earlier in New York, when they took a different flight. The happy Reunion seemed to prove a point: there is always a way to smoke out drinkers.
Dawn in Addis
Addis Ababa, ETHIOPIA -- 5:30am and still dark. But the rooster knows the sun is coming and his crow trills up past the sulfurous street lamps into the still night sky.
He's woken the dogs, and suddenly their frantic howling seems to come from the top of every hill in Addis, making the city seem surrounded by their feral packs.
The sharp barks are soon undercut by the rising moan of the muezzin. He sings the same words that have woken me around the world, but his melody here is unique, more of a monotonous chanting than the sung declaration I've heard before.
Passionate Politics
A Behind the Scenes Look at a Kenyan Presidential Election Rally
Meru, KENYA-- Raila Odinga is brave to be holding a campaign rally here. This PNU (Party for National Unity) territory, and Raila represents the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) – the opposition party in December's elections. Kenyan politics are both colorful and violent – and venturing into another party or politician's territory can be dangerous.
The people here in Meru are terrified that Raila will win the election. Most locals back Kibaki, the PNU incumbent, and fear that if Raila wins he'll cause a civil war. His campaigns have been reputedly steeped in violence; many fear his push for majimbo – a federalist reorganization of the government around a weakened central authority.
Third Country Nationals
Cell Phone Videos Reveal Untold Stories from Ramadi
Mohammad reached across the bar and handed me his mobile. He told me to press start and play the video on hold.
I opened it with apprehension, knowing full well that one of the major ways news is spread in Iraq is through violent depictions sent via cell phone. This is of course how Saddam Hussein's hanging was captured that created such a thunderstorm of anger over how he was heckled in his last moments.
Surrounded by blood red walls, cigarette smoke and fellow drinkers, I was sitting in my favorite pub with two Jordanian friends, Mohammed and Nabil, who were on leave from Iraq. They'd been telling me about their experiences translating for American troops while we curled up to the bar and listened to Red Hot Chili Peppers playing on the Jukebox.