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Alec Burney's blog
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Related to country: Kenya


nothing much to say. sorry or the infrequent correspondence, everyone, but internet connections here are painfully slow, and we're too busy to use them much anyway. we've gotten a lot done. we finished with the Nakuru group and went to the game park. the flamingo (sp?) are dropping like flies there. our guides said they'd never seen anything like it. lots of dead birds. they say the pollution in the lake is killing them off quickly.

then to Naivasha (thanks, Goldsmiths). we talked to a nice general manager-type there, Grant, about their health issues. talked with some nurses there. we toured the facilities and looked at pretty plants. not much to say about that.
we bounced back down the road to Nairobi, and now we're with another group. man, that road is awful.
tractors have '50 kph' stickers. three-wheeled taxis are '60 kph.'
saw a speed limit sign. it's somewhere between here and Nakuru, when the road turns to dirt.
Kibera is a depressing place to see.
how come i can't think of any 'white' or 'western' countries that suffer from poverty to this degree? is it a racism thing, the ammount-of-time-since-independence? or just a developing-country thing?

July 12, 2006 | 1:40 PM Comments  5 comments

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makauwahi Lida Pigott Burney
July 12, 2006 | 4:57 PM
poverty
Good questions!
AuntEL Ellen Wade
July 12, 2006 | 5:49 PM
Traffic
People in Carteret County should do well, no turn signals here either. Speed limits don't matter here either.
Thelma is looking forward to seeing you in Rochester this winter!
Aunt Loraine and Uncle Eric can't wait to here Kenyan Ukeule players.
I admire your picture taking...... be careful.
Love you,
Aunt Ellen
dburney David Burney
July 13, 2006 | 3:08 AM
Read "Guns, Germs, and Steel"
I wish I could explain, Alec, why most of the people of the world are poor in 2500 characters or less, but the best I can do is to say read Jared Diamond's book on this topic. It is important to have a sense of proportion: it is not really "why are Africans poor?" it is "why are the majority of people in the world poor?" As Ghandi said, there is enough in this world for every person's need, but not enough for every person's greed. We have been blessed by a history that leaves us taking riches for granted, but the world is actually a hard place, full of people struggling. Americans can help a lot more than they do, that's for sure. Thanks for asking good questions, even if we don't have good answers. Take care.

Dad
paigetalvi Paige Talvi
July 14, 2006 | 3:33 PM
Or watch the video
Eric Devlin loves Guns, Germs and Steel and has a video produced for Public Television...I found it much easier to get through...Diamond spends lots of time on details. Diamond's theories help to explain cultural advances from a "scientific" point of view. When he meets the people impacted by the western advances though, he breaks down. So I'm sure the answer is somewhere in between science & social science.

Paige
AlecBurney Alec Burney
July 17, 2006 | 9:35 AM
guns, germs, steel
yeah, i saw the movie in eric's class this year.
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