Africa Vision 39

Africa Vision 39

November 22, 2008

Abundance of thoughts

Percolating thoughts dribbling through the mind.
I came, I saw, I hatched an egg?
Introspection on the why of mankind.
Surely not here to neg!

Questions asked about living the core.
With which there is no need for more.
What answers that quest?
The path to the inner child answers best.

Leave behind the fear of the unknown,
Bask in the glory of exploration.
Enjoy the sound of a giggle around
The sight of smiles abound.

Where the child goes there is the desire to know,
To play, to seek the edge.
Knowing and feeling that all are one
People equals mischief and fun.

Somehow when we grow rules impede
Behavior is expected.
Why is abolished.
Darkness enters
Fear of the heart
Loss of innocence and joy.

But then you turn the focus inward.

Enlighted souls are deemed to have an inner light
We all have the potential
Less is more
In scarcity abundance
Be the change you want to see in the world

Be the inner child
Come out of the hiding
Be the child
Be

Or be a bumblebee

Namaskar
Ashis

Africa Vision 38

Africa Vision 38

January 22, 2008

Abundance of water

My next-door neighbor forgot to close his tap. As a result his apartment flooded as did his down stair neighbor’s. Two carpets and two couches are waterlogged. Waiting for the dry cleaner. Also for 24 hours the water overflow ran down a hose creating a waterfall for the courtyard kids to play in. The kids had a ball, but the owners of the shop downstairs must be fuming. To show his power the son in law of the owner of the building came to tell me that from now on the gate would be closed at 21.00 and that any later arrival would be unacceptable. As we say in the Netherlands: ‘The soup is never eaten as hot as it is served’ I just called in my magic genie Faizal to sort out my small issue.

Mr. Tree, Mr. Forest and Mr. Brahma rooster had the good fortune to bump into one another again. Their fixer left them in a fix. Paper work to travel delayed, plane tickets to Abeche not arranged. Somehow Mr. Mubarak (the fixer) must have thought that in my spare time I double as a fixer. Well eventually we did trace down Mr. Mubarak mid air to find out he did not arrange anything. So some phone calls left and right and around 16.30 we stumbled into the right place to make plane reservations to Abeche. Just two days extra in N’Djamena for them. Well I mentioned before that the Arc de Zoe has had its impact on the travel, permits of all foreigners working or traveling in Chad. Thanks again bunch of bungling bums from France.

So I had the ultimate chance to be immersed in the business model for the future. The community based value added model. Instead of adding money the model is based on adding value to a service or an article. An example of that would be a company selling water and the entire profit going to clean water projects around the world. A consumer can decide to buy corporate Coca Cola water or water with an ideal. Pricing would be the same but no hoarding of money by fat cats but direct return to where the needs are.

It is great to jam about building model houses for refugees in such a way that skills are transferred, that the houses will be sustainable, have solar energy, water filtration and rain water catchment systems, a green house, solar powered heating/cooking and potentially even a lap top. It may seem far-fetched but the vision of visionary may be the dream of many or the impossibility of some or the reality of now. What may be considered fancy or high-end technology is not always so high tech.

While we were at UNHCR Ann took the time to have a discussion with us. She is responsible for all external contacts and has seen hundreds of groups and individuals pass bye. She made several great observations. If the mission’s goal was to look at education it should be secondary education or vocational education (masonry, carpentry etcetera). There should be a component for the host population as well, because often they are not much better off than the refugees and in fact they may be worst of in certain ways. The local community and the refugees should collaborate and it should be researched if this business model can be applied in different countries around the world.
Today I will take them to the hospital. I still have some classes to plan and some people to meet there of which news will come later.

Namaskar

Ashis

Africa Vision 37

Africa Vision 37

January 19, 2008

World abundance.

For the second time in two weeks there has been a problem with leaks coming from my apartment. This time with a lot of noise the down stair neighbors threatened to have me chucked in jail for water drops spoiling their previous stock. So with un-Chadian speed we got two guys in to check the pipes and cement my kitchen floor again. For the last month I have been waiting for a qualified technician to replace the lock in the door. Alas! To no avail. The television in my living room is I use as an extra area to dump my clothes. I just wished these professional also did doors, satellite hook ups and even the purchasing of a laundry iron. Charcoal, the electrical ones tend to blow all the fuses.

Joshua Tree a corporate humanitarian with the frame of a defensive line backer decided to explore my kitchen last night. Given it was dark due to a power cut he never realized he entered a sinking pit of setting cement. It took two buffalos to pull out the foot size 10.5 hero of the night. He likes to talk at 200 miles about a host of topics and I like the Hulk. He and Jeremiah are friends who have come to Chad with Gabriel (but two days later) and there are in Africa for the first time. There idea is to help set up a secondary school in a refugee camp by the refugees themselves. One or the most important driving force for them is gratitude. Doing the things you love and finding/hiring the best of people possible that can do the things that you are not an expert. All you need to arrange is a minimum cash flow. Hearing from two guys who implemented gratitude in their business, who see Gandhi, Einstein, Galileo, Copernicus as inspiration parts of their life story was great.

Motto: live in the present. As if I heard myself talking. It was a pleasant surprise to hear that both of them do the same type of meditation (holosync, the Divine and the Immersion) as I do. It helps me focus a lot.

And focus was one of the revolving themes we discussed yesterday and I am sure we will re-enter the same discussion today. Clearly one can identify one thousand different needs in Chad of which a hundred may even be urgent. However to address an issue there can be maximum of impact by digging deep into one or limited topics.

We ended up in the Carnivore for dinner, jazz and some lighter discussion. I went home buzzed with ideas and challenged in positive way. What is the single most important thing in my life with which the maximum of impact to make the world a better place can be made?

Today I want to introduce them to Ruben my Chadian American friend working on English classes and an English library in the neighborhood of Moursale. Should bring in some nice dynamics to hear them talk about the different aspects of organizing educational. And I will take my friend Faizal as well. It is good to see others exchange vision and experience in organizing grass root humanitarian interventions.

It will be a pleasant afternoon I am sure. Twisting by the pool in the Meridian always is. My body yearns for a swim and my mind for sparkling debate. I cannot wait until the afternoon comes.

Namaskar

Ashis

Africa Vision 36

Africa Vision 36

N’Djamena, January 15, 2008

Stop genocide now is in the country.

Why did I listen to the receptionist at the Meridian? I was quite sure Gabriel and his friends were staying there but the lady informed me there was no Mr. Gabriel in the hotel. Later I found out through another friend that he has been in the hotel since yesterday. Well tomorrow morning I will call him. Time flies when you are having fun and it does seem only weeks ago I was playing with him and his family soccer on the beach. Perhaps we can play again with Gabo on the beach soon. Gabo is his young son and he made a very nice gesture this time around. To several of the refugees in the camps in Chad he presented his favorite toys. What an adorable guy he is.

Talking with Gabriel and Katie-Jay is like a homecoming. They are similar spirited people taking the problems of the world head on. Or heart-on! Their organization does several things amongst which the following:

1. Field visits to the refugee camps in Chad
2. Camp Darfur in the USA

About the first there are several things that happen during a visit. First of all there is a live blog online. Where 5-8 minutes video-blogs are posted every day. It is about the journey but mostly about the refugees in the camp. Free rolling filming of the life of refugees in the camps. Inter-activity is the keyword and in that category follows the following. The installation in the refugee camps of kits of laptops, satellite phones, software and web cam to make it possible for the refugees to interact directly with peers in the USA. This month the first kit should be operational. I hope that a long distance friendship between the kids in the camps and the kids in the refugee camps can develop.

To assure there is more attention to the field visits several celebrities have lined up to join hands. I believe in March Macy Gray will be hopping around in Chad and one or two NBA basketball stars have visited as well. There interest is to help provide secondary schools in the refugee camp.

Camp Darfur is a collection of tents, photos, videos and mostly two to six activists traveling around the USA to bring attention to the plight of genocide in the world. When I was in the USA I had the good fortune to attend one. It is in the interaction with young and old that these camps become very interesting. There are misconceptions about how little one person can do about the situation is a country far away. I would argue the contrary every person can make a huge difference. There is an opportunity right now to build a coalition, a caucus against genocide in the world today. No more toothless resolutions by the UN but a grass root citizen driven movement to implement strict rules and regulations against perpetrators of genocide but more importantly prevention of genocide. Including the mandate to implement these rules and regulations.

Talk the talk and walk the walk.

There is a lot of hope in my mind a spiritual or humanitarian or human awakening that as humanity we can progress beyond violence and anger. First on a personal level then on a group level and finally on the global level.

No guts no glory. Why let the bullies in the world dominate the world. Why not let the kids and the elders rule?

Love is all we need.
Not a cliché but a profound truth.

I am off to meet two more team members of stop genocide now.

Catch you later

Peace,

Ashis

www.stopgenocidenow.org

Africa Vision 35

Africa Vision 35

N’Djamena, January 9, 2008

Drunk as a truck.

The 16 year old rolling in on a motorbike between two friends is bleeding profusely from his eyelid. As he is carried into the examination room he needs to be constrained by 4 men as he is rolling all over the place. Spitting left and right and so drunk whenever he tries to sit up he comes crashing down. In between moans he is about to die and ready to be received in paradise he is able to tell us he was out drinking with three buddies and then got onto a bicycle to crash head first onto the road. His buddies were more or less ok but our youngster needs suturing under anesthetic otherwise he will not need to buy a Halloween suit he will look the part.

Luckily for him his family was forgiving (at least in the hospital). But after he spat at our nurse for the fifth time I called it a day. Our friend was to be carried to a isolated room, left guarded by 2 relatives, sleeping on a mat because he would fall out of a bed. The next day he could be operated.

Drinking is or has become a big part of life here in Bebedja. In the weekends and festive days but as the case shows also on a Wednesday. And it is not restricted to adults. Local beer drunk from a bucket with a straw is a good way to get plastered for very limited money by all ages. One of the nicest building in the village is a newly constructed bar dancing.

Dr Gusto is getting a well deserved rest in the afternoons as I do the afternoon, evening and night rounds. Today it seemed very calm in the hospital and one of the nurses told me that as people spent all their money during the festive season. For an admission to the hospital there is limited cash so many patients await their pay slip at the end of the month.

Another group of patients in the hospital are those with burn wounds. Right now we have two with burn wounds up to 40% of the body. Last night one of them woke up a relative sleeping in the room. It seemed someone was urinating in the room. But in fact her burn wound had burst open and likely an artery or a vein had burst. At least a liter of blood was scattered on the floor. And then the next morning you need all your negotiating skills to assure that one of the family members will give blood. Her haemaglobin had dropped to dangerous low levels. And then she had another bleed. At last a relative stepped up and offered to be a donor. As her bandage was changed I could not but feel how much pain the lady must be going through. She is an epileptic and had fallen into the fire while convulsing.

Good things also happen. An eight year old who had fallen into a waterwell 15 meters deep and then went in to a coma woke up today and he wants to drink and eat. Kids have such a capacity to rebound it is a pleasure to see. And then the young lady, HIV positive and the echo revealed she was pregnant of twins. As there are antiretroviral drugs she will start with the medication this week.

Bebedja always remains a good place to reflect. At 21.00 electricity is switched off. I have a great place to drink a fruit juice every evening. The nurses are fun to work with and I hope to start with some small trainings maybe even this time and otherwise the next visit. And my little bungalow is visited in the morning by my two neighbors goats.

Peace,

Ashis

Africa Vision 34

Africa Vision 34

N’Djamena, January 9, 2008

Back to Bebedja

In a wink of an eye we were in Mondou. Racing across the smooth road from Ndjamena I managed to sleep nearly all the way. Lady fortune decide to intervene and we spent 3 hours in a garage for Toyota old timers well at least we have a new cooling fan in the motor of the car now and I managed to plunge through Robert Fisk’s ‘The great war for civilization.’ If not to read it can double as a pillow. I went for a bike road across the neighborhood and now know how it must feel to win a stage in the `tour de France. From all nook and corners people popped up to watch the nasara (white man) rides a bike. There are plenty of nasar in Mondou but I guess most of them use a 4 x 4 or a donkey.

The first patient I saw this morning after the morning rounds was a 3-year old boy. As the nurse had taken a finger prick to establish the blood group and I put the stethoscope to the chest to listen to the heart there were no beats. No breathing movements, nor response of the pupils. The child had died. In the hospital we are very restricted in reanimation. Partly because of lack of materials or capacity to treat for example with a ventilator. Partly because patients are presented in such a late stage that the outcome would not be good. In this case the mother waited for a month to come to the hospital while the child had fevers and had not eaten for over a week. It is not always easy but it is as it is.

The burn patient I talked about earlier in the blog has slumbered into a deep coma. After 5 weeks of treatment the pain and the infections have become to much to bear and the family wants to take her home so she can die in peace in her own environment. The two nomadic kids with bullets left the hospital after several days doing well. Right now we are entering the period of meningitis and the first choice medicine ceftriaxone is out of stock. So far there are three cases in two weeks. One child brought in today may be having meningitis as well.

The hospital has received two state of the art echo-graphy machines. One will be placed at the delivery ward so pregnant ladies and those who have gone through a miscarriage do not have to be hauled all through the building. The old one has gone to the out patient department. So a quick echography can be done (that is off course only true if the solar panels are lit). I sped my morning going through all the goodies these new machines can deliver.

Our surgeon is still missing in action and the state doctor pops up or not depending on his blood sugar and/or his mood. Apparently there are some American social scientists working on HIV in Bebedja. I hope to meet them later today or tomorrow. The work art John’s Hopkins a nice public health school. As my fellow doctor Gusto has been all call all the last month he was quite happy to see me. Finally a day not on call. I guess most doctors working in Africa know that feeling. The work just never stops and if you want you can go on and on. We even managed to discuss a bit about telemedicine. There is a prospect of having Internet at the hospital so images and case history can be shared with experts worldwide. We also went into a potential area of our mutual interest: leishmaniasis. I think I might have found leishmaniasis skin test good to do some diagnosis here. And then we talked about potentially the biggest menace in the area HIV. We are thinking about a workshop for the nurses on the social aspects of the disease. The mixture of bars, money, poverty, lack of education, youth, curious believes is a good feeding ground for a HIV outbreak.

Peace,

Ashis

Africa Vision 33

Africa Vision 33

N’Djamena, January 8, 2008

The greatest Good

My buddies Victoria, Dawn and Ceasar made it back to N Djamena just on time to catch their flight, They had visited the refugee camps in the East run by IMC and it was good to hear their perspective on the medical care in the camps. Eye care is key in their assessment of the camps. There are so many young and old people suffering from eye disease it is hard to see where to start the work. A thing that caught their attention were the young kids hanging around the camp. There is no secundary school in most camps in Chad (11/12) but for the camp of Oure Cassoni near Bahai. And then there was a feeling of loss of hope. Refugees with infected wounds staying in their houses because there was no treatment available. I have not been to these camps but I can imagine that at a certain point in time there is a loss of believe in a solution of the core issues.

Four years now and a whole batch of children has never been to Sudan. Born refugee! While the world is well aware of what happens. Darfur has been a conflict with a lot of media coverage. Political initiatives are also numerous. The root cause of the conflict a murderous regime that has been in power for over 19 years however has never been addressed properly.

While we turn our attention to Iran (not for the first time by the way, thank you George W. Bush and thank you sheepish international media, CNN, FOX, IHT and other newspapers).
When Iran was invaded by Iraq in the nineteen eighties, in a gruesome lethal war the USA supported Iraq.
When Iraq used chemical weapons international eyes were closed.
When the US Vincennes shot down an Iranian civil airplane with 290 passengers without any reason Iran was to blame.
I have been reading Bob Fisk’s book and the parallels of history are uncanny and sad.

Geopolitics before anything.
And so I am trying to understand the value of a regime that has fought in the East, West, Center, North and South of Sudan for nearly 20 years.
A regime that uses rape as a common weapon of war.
A regime that uses malnutrition and starvation of civilians lightly.
A regime that bombs bravely with Antonovs from the skies.
A regime that uses proxy fighters to ravage entire provinces, villages and cities.
A regime that is so forked tongued that it cannot even speak truth anymore.
A regime that abuses religion as a reason for war.
A regime that should have been isolated and changed a long time ago.
A regime helping out only their own tribes.

And yet that same regime receives or has received weapons from members of the Security Council.
It flaunts international human right law.
It laughs at the UN, Ban Ki Moon, George Bush, Gordon Brown, Sarkozy and other puppets.
African Union troops are humiliated and killed.
UN troops are delayed and delayed until further notice.
Refugee camps are shelled and attacked.
Refugees are killed and raped under the eyes of peace keepers
While we sit quiet there will soon be an entire generation of youngster who have grown up in a refugee camp. The Lost boys of Sudan will have a sequel Lost Boys 2.

Why can Omer el Bashir get away with all his bogus?
What is his value in geopolitics?
Is he the bully of the playground that gets away with everything?
Or is there a strategic interest in Sudan? Oil, Uranium, Cobalt, water, trees?
I wish I could explain, but I cannot..

The greatest good would be a peaceful transition to benevolent democratic governments in Chad, Sudan and Central African Republic.
To have no children grow up with lack of a school, eye care or threat of rape and death.

Until the day the world musters the courage to say no to dictators around the world be it Burma, Chad or Sudan kids will suffer.

Peace,

Ashis