Half-Way There

I can’t believe it’s already August. I don’t feel like the last two weeks has flown by, but 2007 in general is disappearing. It’s quite frightening because in the next few months I have so much to accomplish; much of it contingent on what I complete here.
Yesterday I took a semi-break from everything: research and volunteering. I woke up with all intentions of going back to the Ministry of Finance Library to continue reading, but once I got to the junction where I’d catch the bus there, something led me to my friend’s store instead. Once I got there, I chatted a bit with the people there and I became completely unmotivated to head into town.
Nonetheless, my day was still fairly productive because I read documents that I had previously downloaded onto my laptop and I began writing my literature review and drafting an outline for my thesis. This time off was helpful because I thought of some more avenues which I got explore in order to get the information I need. Next week I will definitely need to visit the Ministry of Education and Sports, the Economic Policy Research Center, and Transparency International’s Uganda Office. I found that beginning the writing process really helped me identify crucial information that I’m missing.
I also like spending time at the store because this is when I get to freely interact with Ugandans. While I’m traveling throughout the city I come into contact with people, but interaction is extremely formal and limited. At the store, people ask me whatever is on their minds and I am free to do the same as well.
For example, I have realized how much of an impact that American media has on not only American citizens, but the outside world as well. For leisure and entertainment, Ugandans prefer watching American movies and television shows on DVD as well as Nigerian movies (which I will tell you more about later). I knew that several American shows were syndicated internationally, but I was shocked to see the number of American shows that were watched here. They are not shown on television, but the local DVD rental shops all have pirated copies of the most popular movies and television shows. (Piracy is not at all regulated here.) Desperate Housewives, Grey’s Anatomy, 24, Prison Break, Law and Order: SVU, the OC, and almost any other popular tv show you can think of. Also action movies are very popular among citizens, so much so that there are DVDs with about 5 or 6 compressed films of famous action stars like Bruce Willis, Jean Claude Van Dam, Steven Segal, the James Bond series, and others.
Ugandans enjoy watching these films and tv shows during the evening hours after work, but I noticed that the impressions they have left in citizen’s minds about US life is a bit disturbing. I have been asked on several instances if I own a gun. And each time I am taken aback by the question because I in no way evoke thuggery or violence in my demeanor. However, they mention the fact that in many movies and shows you find common and seemingly normal people committing heinous crimes. And when I really considered this perception, I found it to be true in a sense. Much of American tv is littered with random violence, but Americans often realize the drama associated with television and don’t take it for face value. But as a foreigner, I can see how one should assume that what is depicted is a reflection of that society.
What I wish was depicted more was the inequality in American society. Most people do not believe me when I try to explain how poor some Americans are. It’s true that what I’ve seen in the slums and ghettos here is worse than anything I’ve ever seen in ghettos in the US, however, many people I’ve come into contact with do not even believe that extreme poverty exists in the US. They do not believe that people live without electricity, struggle to find a meal, or only survive because of government subsistence. I wish that some of these images and realities where broadcast more and made as widely available as the comfortable and posh living depicted in the OC and Desperate Housewives.
The only problem with that is that shows that do show the realities of poverty and struggling are usually filled with violence. Imagine if The Wire were shown here. I think all of my friends would be afraid to visit me since I live in Maryland. I also think they’d assume that every young Black male they met had a gun and would use it vicariously. So I guess in this instance it’s a Catch 22. When will more socially conscious, yet wholesome shows of the 70s like Good Times and The Jefferson’s return?