The South American Tour : Part 1

  Summer 2011 : What a short but sweet summer, or should I say winter... On July the 7th, right after taking my final exam, I was off to the Far East. I ended up visiting Japan, Singapore where I spent some valuable time with my mum's family, and last but not least the Philippines for a family wedding. Unfortunately, this trip lasted only ten days. I had to return back to Delaware to undergo a teaching assistant training program. The program sucked. I didn't learn anything, however, we'd get paid just for showing up for 2 hours a day between mid-July and mid-August.

 Classes were scheduled to start on August the 31st. I had 2 weeks to spare. I wasn't doing anything in Delaware anyways as it's pretty much dead during the summer.  This was the perfect time to head back to my favourite continent: South America. Yes, it's winter over there, but who cares? 10 degrees Celsius is decent, and would be a welcome change from the burning temperature on the East Coast in July. Initially, I was meant to go to Brazil with a friend next January, but we decided to pre-pone our trip.

 Off we were.  First stop on the continent was Buenos Aires, Argentina. We arrived there on a Sunday morning, the day of the Parliamentary Elections. Alcohol was banned in public places in order for voters not to be influenced. Buenos Aires is a fantastic city! The "good" nieghbourhoods are full of restaurants with cafe terraces, as well as public places with a lot of shopping malls. In short, you have the feeling of being in France or Italy. The "bad" neighbourhoods are places to avoid, but there's a lot of charm to such areas. You can really see how some people are still suffering from the economic meltdown in the early 2000's. While the situation is much better now, inflation still persists and keeps on increasing. Back in 2008, the first time I was in Argentina, $1=2.90 pesos. Three years later, $1=4.20 pesos. You'd tend to think this is good, as you now get more pesos, however the inflation is so high that you end up losing.

  We stayed in Argentina for 3 nights.  Monday night was brilliant. Who goes out on a Monday night anyways? Well that's what most of you would say, but Buenos Aires never sleeps. It's much more active than NYC! To begin with, people only have their dinner at 11pm and end up going to the bars from 1.30 am to 5/6/7/8 or even 9am! After having some good local Argentine food (Pork BBQ), we headed to the  Irish Pub 5 blocks away from the hotel.  Met a lot of different people that night, and that's where the fun began! For the french speakers, let's just say ouverture du score a l'exterieur. We ended up going to bed at 10am, slept throughout the day, got up at 8pm and ended up going to different bars. The Heskey was having a field day!

The next day, I was off to Montevideo in Uruguay for few days, while my friend was on his way to Rio De Janeiro in Brazil. Uruguay is a small country where 1/2 of the Uruguayans live in the capital city (approx. 1.5m inhabitants). Crossed the River Plate and within three hours, I was there. Spent some time with my uncle and his family, visited the city, and ended up doing what I loved the most from this tour : go for local football games! Montevideo is a primitive but beautiful city. It has a lot of European heritage, just like Buenos Aires. I ended up spending 4-5 days in Uruguay. I still had a week to go before I returned back to the States. This was the perfect time to go visit Brazil.
More to follow....


Here are some pics from Argentina and Uruguay:

 

RIP Amy Winehouse.

  As most of you are aware, one of Britain's most talented singer has passed away yesterday. The potential Amy Winehouse had was unbelievable. I was never a fan of soul music, but over the past years, her music was so powerful that it helped me get into it. She also contributed in revitalizing British music. Her albums Frank (2003) and Back to Black (2006) were huge successes not only in the UK but all over the world. This was just the beginning...Well that's what we thought.

 Unfortunately, her career will be tainted by her drug addiction. She was hospitalized at various times due to overdoses of cocaine, crack, ecstasy etc. Throughout the years, her health kept deteriorating and so was her musical talent. She had to cancel numerous concerts, and was even booed by fans on stage. Why did it all go wrong? No one knows. While it is always sad to see such a talented person die, we need to realize that her death is not at all a surprise. Furthermore, she's been accused of assaults, violence and disorderly behavior. I can understand why some people don't have sympathy regarding her death, but she had so much talent. It's hard to judge someone we do not know personally. Yes she struggled with drugs, but does that necessarily make you a bad person? Drug addiction is an illness and you need to be treated properly. Unfortunately, it was too late and she couldn't overcome it.

  The cause of her death has not been revealed but only one thing would come to mind : Drugs. If only she said yes to going to rehab? "They tried to make me go to rehab, I said, "No, no, no"" ironically comes from her most popular track "Rehab". Britain is now stuck with Adele. Let's hope she doesn't go downhill. I'm not her biggest fan but she now carries Britain's shoulders in the music industry.  Last but not least, RIP Amy; gone too soon. This is my favorite track of hers :

India : In need of a social change...

Most of you are aware that India's population exceeds more than one billion inhabitants. But did you know there are more honor kids in India than there are kids in the United States? Over the past three decades, the Indian government launched various policies to promote the concept of planned parenthood. Schools in major cities like Bombay, New Delhi and Bangalore to name a few are now offering sex education courses to students. However, the situation in rural areas is not promising at all, a change is needed.

According to the United Nations Children's Fund, 25 million children got married under the age of 18. India accounts for 40% of child marriage followed by Nepal. Children get married as early as they're able to talk in villages. It is part of a tradition in the region of Rajhastan. On the one hand, girls get married to men who are much older than them, and on the other hand, both parties get married at an early age. In such regions, it is not a surprise that children get married at the age of 5; as a matter of fact a 12 year old girl can get married to a 22 year old man. While child marriage in India is prohibited, authorities are unfortunately unable to prevent it. In India, a civil marriage is not mandatory. Religion is the dominant thought, and it is all that matters if you decide to get married. There are only 5 officials in charge of preventing child marriage in Rajhastan, a state with a population of over 60m inhabitants.

How is this practice justified by families? One of the main reason is that parents are not able to support their children financially and hence decide to get their daughters married at an early age. This simply means that these young girls are now dependent on their husbands. Once the girl settles into her husband's family, she becomes in charge of domestic work such as cooking, cleaning, farming etc. She also has to be at the full disposal of her mother-in-law. In villages, a marriage costs a whole year worth of salary. The parents then put pressure on these girls to become pregnant. Not only does it put the life of these girls at risk, but it also contributes in increasing our population. It is common in such areas, to see a 15 year old girl with 3 kids.

Child marriage is a phenomena that leads to a vicious cycle : lack of education, lack of independence, no usage of contraceptives etc.  India needs a social change and it's high time our government steps up its pursuit in fighting against such acts. A social reform is needed where education needs to be promoted in such regions.  Less than a year ago in Pakistan, a six-month old child got married to a 25 year old man.

People in rural areas pray to have a son. A daughter represents a huge financial responsibility as parents have to provide dowry to the family their daughter gets married to. A son brings dowry to his family, hence enrichment. In order to stop child abortion, India has implemented a ban on sex determination, as the number of girls in India to the number of boys is plummeting.

Cote D'Ivoire

"Mini Paris": This was the nickname of Abidjan, economic centre of the Ivory Coast, where I was born and raised. This country gained its independence from France in 1960, and was first led by Felix Houphouet-Boigny. Under him, the Ivory Coast achieved a lot : He developed the economy, made this country a stable, peaceful and beautiful place to live in. 

However, after his death in 1993, the country went on a decline. He was succeeded by Bedie, who didn't really help the Ivory Coast fulfill its potential.  Under Bedie, the country's economic growth began to decline. It is no secret that the government was corrupted and most officials would transfer the gains obtained from exports of Cocoa (world's largest producer) to their own personal bank accounts. 

Ivorians were unhappy, protests happened all over the country but nothing really concrete as Bedie was the leader of the PDCI-RDA, the ruling and most popular party. His rival, Alassane Ouatarra who served as Houphouet's Prime Minister was wrongly accused of not being of Ivorian decent, hence  barred from being a candidate. Bedie promoted the concept of "ivoirite". Without going into much details, this concept led to xenophobic behaviours where migrants from neighbouring countries (Burkina Faso especially) were targeted. People were upset that migrants would come to the Ivory Coast, accept lower wages, and hence "take our jobs away".

Nonetheless, Cote D'Ivoire still had its charm, attracting lots of foreigners who enjoyed living in this tropical country. All of this until 1999, where the situation went totally out of control. It all suddenly happened during Christmas Eve. The army, led by Robert Guei, launched a coup d'etat, and ousted Bedie out of the country. We spent Christmas at home, in the dark, with gun firing happening next to our house. Ivory Coast, which was stable since its independence, is now progressively turning into a war zone. This was followed by election disputes, led by countless civil wars, economic instability, frustration, corruption up to today.

The 2010 elections were meant to bring peace back. The main candidates were Gbagbo (who replaced Guei in 2001) and Alassane Ouatarra. The first round was a success in terms of organisation with no major incidents. Ouatarra was declared President with 56% of the votes in the second round. Gbagbo contested this decision, and claimed the results in the North of the country (Ouatarra's region) were rigged. He was adamant, and nothing could stop him. From November 2010 to January 2011, the country had 2 Prime Ministers and 2 Presidents. Ouatarra was recognised by the International community. This led to another round of riots, incidents where people lost their lives. Gbagbo was eventually sent packing with the help of the French troops. 

We can only wait to see what happens next, but it is hard to see peace return to this country. Being born and raised there for thirteen years, it hurts me to see the current situation. The values of Union, Discipline, Travail seem to have been forgotten.