Conflict mapping and EGAP 2009.

On October 16-18 the International Conference on Conflict Mapping took place in Cleveland, Ohio. In brief, we discussed: 1. How to get conflict data, 2. How to process this data, and 3. How to present and disseminate this data. Some notes:

- An amazing combination of: people working in the developing world, computer wiz kids, academics, and people from international organizations and government institutions.

I also visited the October 16-17 EGAP 2009 Conference at Columbia University; a conference on experiments on governance and politics. Some notes:
- A closed meeting with the top 20 people in politics on this topic. Because I helped Macartan Humphreys organize the conference, I was allowed to join. It was great!

- Confirmed that I am extremely interested in "experiments" and "causal inference". It is great to see how rigorous academic work can be put to practical use. These techniques will definitely be part of my dissertation.

Peter goes Cleveland.

From 09/25 - 10/05 I was in the Netherlands. Because I had been flying a lot I told my mom that I experience it as similar as taking a bus. This was a dangerous thing to say.

Last Thursday (10/15) I would fly to Cleveland, spend the rest of the day reading and walking through the city, present at a conference on Friday (more in the next post), fly back in the evening and attend a conference organized by Macartan Humphreys (ibid) on Saturday.

Well, almost.

At 4am I was in the bus in order to catch my 6am flight from La Guardia to Cleveland. At around 5am, just before arriving at the airport, I noticed that I had forgotten my passport! Consequently, I had to wake up my roommate who jumped in a cab and had to race to La Guardia.

But it gets better. In the terminal I tried to obtain my ticket. After several failed attempts at a ticketmachine I agitatedly asked somebody from American Airlines behind the desk. She looked... "But sir, your flight is in 2 weeks". I had booked the wrong flight! Changing it or getting a new flight was $700+; too much for me.

So, at 10am that same day I left the New York City Bus Terminal and after an almost 14 hours busride I arrived in Cleveland exhausted. Unfortunately, I still had to prepare my presentation, and after yet another evening of 3 hours sleep I arrived at the conference at 8am. After my presentation that morning I could only visit one more talk because... I had to leave again; another 13+ hour ride back to New York ahead. I arrived on Saturday around 630am; just in time to take a quick shower and be at Columbia at 8am; Macartan's conference was about to start.

Flying is not the same as taking a bus.

African condom commercial.

From a colleague with whom I lived with in the DR Congo I got a link to this African condom commercial: Great!

Clowns in the Congo.

I just read this post on IRIN News (a great news source by UNOCHA on humanitarian affairs worldwide); Clowns without Borders touched ground in the DR Congo. I strongly dislike clowns myself, but if it makes people (read: children in conflict zones) happy; I am in! Interestingly enough, on the one picture that comes with the story only one of the around 16 children seems to be smiling. The others seem to think "Who is that weird white guy?".

Windmills in Africa.

In July this year, when I was in the DR Congo, I was surprised that while several villages I visited were located in very windy locations, they did not make use of that fact. That is, there were no windmills in the east of the DRC. Well, one can no longer argue that me thinking about this was one of my Dutch defects. One can also no longer argue that there are no windmills in Africa. A bit belated, but please read this story. It is great to read something positive from the Continent.

Those damn keys.

Last December Captain Moussa Dadis Camara seized power in a coup d’état in Guinea* after the death of the longtime dictator Lansana Conté. Last week Monday (September 28), tens of thousands of citizens gathered in the capital Conakry to protest plans by Camara to run in January’s presidential election, after promising he would not. In response the Captain's troops went on a brutal rampage; shooting, stabbing, and raping in public in broad daylight. More than 157 people are said to be killed and thousands have gunshot, bayonet, or other injuries. Three days after the massacre Camara luckily convincingly explained why he did not stop the rampage. He could not find the keys to his pickup. Those damn keys. I also lose my keys once in a while.

* Ok, don't feel too bad that you do not really know what country Guinea is and where it is located. I have problems with it, and I hope to earn my living one day by working on Africa. Guinea is in West Africa; it used to be called French Guinea until 1958. Don't mix this up with the country French Guiana that lies in Latin America and borders Suriname and Brazil. Also don't mix it it up with Papua New Guinea, which is a country in Oceania that occupies the eastern half of New Guinea. New Guinea from 1949 to 1962 was also known as Dutch New Guinea. The latter should not be confused with Dutch Guinea, which was was a portion of coastal West Africa that was gradually colonized by the Dutch beginning in 1598. Also don't mix up Guinea with the countries Guinea Bissau or Equatorial Guinea. The first is Guinea's neighbor to the north and west. The latter is located on the same continent, but more to the south.

'During-comps-motivation', and is the NL full?

'During-comps-motivation'

As I noted in a previous post, during August I studied intensely for the comprehensive exams. 4 weeks and 450+ works; books and articles. Luckily we have a group of good friends that are great in motivating each other; I received this picture from Ph.D. Comics about a week before the exams. Thanks guys!

Is the Netherlands full?

Immigration is a hot topic in the Netherlands. Knowing that the Netherlands is one of the densest populated countries in the world this question is often answered in the affirmative by opponents of immigration. In a great post (as always), Chris Blattman had an interesting link that showed maps of the Netherlands with the Dutch population size at LA and Manhattan densities here.

Interestingly, that same day I listened to a great show by one of the better Dutch standup comedians here (sorry it is in Dutch). At minute 9:20 Theo Maassen notes "When we talk about asylum-

seekers the Netherlands is full, but but if someone tells she is pregnant we congratulate her."

The comps, and the (non)usefulness of academia.

Last Wednesday I finished the written part of the comps. In brief, the comprehensive exams are a test about everything you learned during the first two years of the Ph.D. I did mine in comparative politics (CP) and international relations (IR). I now know the name of the author, year of publication, the argument made, etc. of well over 450 works; both books and articles.

I studied for a month; little compared to my colleagues who had more time. Although for many this sounds horrible, it was quite nice. Not only did I read many works I otherwise would not have read, it also makes you think of a diverse set of questions. For CP, for example: What political system is best? Is nationalism good or bad? What leads to democracy? Is democracy a good thing? What leads to a large welfare state? Why are people poor? How malleable is one's identity? Etc. And for IR, for example: Why do countries fight wars? Do nuclear bombs bring stability? Why do countries comply with international law? Etc.

But, all in all, after reading the broad field of Political Science, I am not very impressed with what the academic field has achieved so far. To give a telling example from IR. One of the summaries that we made for a 1998 article by Stephen Van Evera said the following: "This article is based on SVE's PhD thesis, which is probably the most widely cited thesis in IR." It continues saying that the prime argument of the book is: "War is more likely when conquest is easy". That is it! This is the conclusion of one of the most seminal books in the field of IR! If I say this back home to my family I am sure to hear "DUH!!".

Let me give one more example. One of the things we did for IR was the preparation, presentation and then discussion about diverse topics. Most of the topics consisted of many slides and often we discussed the topic for a long time. About one topic, however, we were relatively very brief... "The Causes of Peace". Does this tell something about the field, and the usefulness of academia?

Now, what did academia - especially the social sciences - contribute to the world; not including the many piles of paper? The Democratic Peace Theory (DPT) maybe comes closest to the 'real world'. This theory - going all the way back to Kant - argues that democratic countries do not fight each other. Consequently, democracy should be promoted; exactly what Clinton emphasized in his 1994 State of the Union. But, there is also quite a bit of evidence against the DPT. Moreover, does the US promote democracy because we academics tell the policy-makers it is a good idea, or does it happen simply because hegemons promote always seem to promote their own convictions; like Victorian Britain promoted "free minds, free markets, and Cristian morality".*

Anyhow, all in all, I wasn't very impressed with the Political Science literature. Let's see whether I can contribute something in upcoming years. ;)

* I am currently reading "Africa and the Victorians" by Ronald Robinson and John Gallagher (1961).

Obama's birth certificate.

Most people in the world live in poverty, wars are still being fought, and I can continue with this list ad infinitum. But, what keeps the people of the United States - the country in the world that is best placd to do something about these things - occupied these days... the President's birth certificate! For a great discussion, please see this short part of the Daily Show here. Even in Harlem it is the topic of the day. This sign currently hangs outside one of the major churches here in Harlem:

This is wrong on so many levels. The fact that this is what keeps the people here in the United States - even in Harlem - occupied. What about separation church and state? Etc.

[I published this already on August 12, 2009 at 1024am on petervanderwindt.eu/blog.htm]

Back in the hood.

So, I live in Harlem. After being away from my neighborhood for two months what are my first thoughts again? Well, the people are very loud; screaming from one side of the street to the other, and singing (read: screaming) rap-lines while listening to their ipod. Also, people are big; many of them simply obese. The latter is not that strange. After a long day of studying for comps, I wanted to get a take-away. I walked for several hundreds of meters over 125th - the main street in Harlem - and found several Mac Donalds, Burger Kings, Dunkin Donuts, etc. Nothing 'healthy'. So, I ended up at the Chinese and ordered a General Tso's Chicken (mom, I took additional broccoli).

The Chinese there are - with the exception that ones in a while they think I can't count and then keep an extra dollar change - hardworking and friendly. Anyhow, there was this guy there. He wore a multiple-colored, fur hat; despite the fact that today it was over 90 degrees in NYC (don't ask me what that means, I only know Celsius, but I read that in the NY Times today). He had rasta-type hair up to his butt. He wore a multi-color suit, which was too short. And he had a lot (a lot!) of bling-bling; I've never seen such a big, fake, and ugly watch in my life before. His shoes were of crocodile-leather, way to big and they had green shoelaces in them. Actually, all in all, it was a fantastic sight! Anyhow, this guy was clearly drugged and had a fight with the Chinese who were standing on the other side of the counter. He was angry. Very angry! He tried to break the lock of the gate separating him from the Chinese. He tried to kick in the windows several times. In the meantime we were waiting for the police to arrive (and I was also waiting for my food). During all this time the guy just kept on screaming and cursing at the Chinese. I didn't really know what he screamed to the Chinese, but it could not have been very flattering. Anyhow, after about ten minutes, and right after trying yet again to kick in a window, he screamed to the Chinese what are now legendary words for me... "you guys look like clowns".

I just couldn't stop laughing. Picture this shabby Chinese take-away place in Harlem, a guy that is angry and looks like a clown screaming at some Chinese that they look like clowns, and then among the 20 people (who are all quiet and tense) the only white guy just can't stop laughing. Absolutely brilliant; I still have a smile on my face.

A bit less nice, though. There was a mom with four kids between the age of 7 and 12. Once that guy was gone these kids - instead of saying "mom, that was a bad man" - started imitating the man; coppying his words and doing karate-kicks themselves against the gate and windows. They thought the man was cool. Instead of the mom - who was big - saying something to her children, she didn't. She didn't even look at the them, because she was looking at herself in the mirror already for many minutes while at the same time screaming along while listening to her ipod. Yep, I am back in my hood.

[I published this already on August 10, 2009 at 1146pm on petervanderwindt.eu/blog.htm]

Spanish, French, Franish, Sprench. Aargh!

Up to several months ago I had a girlfriend from Mexico. Because I was crazy about here I studied Spanish; I took evening classes at Columbia, read Spanish books, made sure to speak Spanish to the shopkeepers here in Harlem, etc. However, only a few months before I would be fluent in the language two things happened: 1. We broke up. 2. Macartan asked me to work for him in the Democratic Republic of Congo; i.e. a country where the people speak French. The DRC, and working for Macartan, was (and is) a great opportunity. Also, wanting to be an Africanist, I have to be fluent in French. Finally, there was nothing that kept me to Spanish. So, I had to study French. But, I only had French at secondary school . Worse, I had forgotten most of it. Therefore, just before leaving to the DR Congo, I went to Montpellier to speed-study French. After two weeks of intensive (private) classes in Montpellier - where with much difficulty I switched from "tambien" to "aussi" and from "y" to "et" - and two months of French in the DRC, I am now at a French-level that is equal to the Spanish-level I had several months ago. That is, not yet fluent. So, what's my point with this post?

Well, it sucks. This evening I bought some bananas at the corner-shop. The shopkeeper recognized me and she said in a friendly tone ¿Cómo estás? I replied "très bien!" She continued in Spanish, and I started talking in Franish or Sprench; whatever you want to call it. Aargh! So, steps ahead: 1. First, kicking ass in the comps at the end of the month. 2. Then, asap after that: get French fluent. From September 1 onwards, I'll reserve two full days a week for it.

[I published this already on August 8, 2009 at 1124pm on petervanderwindt.eu/blog.htm]

www.petervanderwindt.eu/blog.htm

I quite enjoyed writing and uploading posts these last two months. Therefore, I'll continue in upcoming years while writing my dissertation at Columbia University: www.petervanderwindt.eu/blog.htm

HELP ASKED! My dissertation topic.

This is my final post (at least for now), and it is directly addressed to all of you.

Over the last weeks I noticed that this blog is read also by people that I do not already have contact with. Knowing this, and knowing that we live in the digital age where sharing information is both crucial and possible, I would like to ask the following:

Do any of you have a good idea or any suggestions for a dissertation topic?

At the moment I am doing my Ph.D. at the Department of Political Sciences at Columbia University. Being since a few days in my third year I have to start thinking about a dissertation topic.

It is not that I do not have any ideas of my own (on the strong contrary), but knowing that people read this blog with whom I normally do not have contact with and because I am very open for other new ideas, I hereby bluntly pose the above question.

For the people that followed the blog, I am interested in Africa, in poverty, in violence, in natural resources, in economics, etc. Please reply by either leaving a comment below, or by sending me an email at pv2160@columbia.edu.

Whether you reply something or not; this being the last blog post, I would to thank you for reading the blog. I have to say that I enjoyed posting the blogs a lot. It was also a good excuse to keep me away from studying comps; the latter I have to focus on now this month. Oh joy!

Penultimate post.

[This post was written yesterday while on the plane from Amsterdam to NYC].

Ok, and I know, it is quite an abrupt end to two months of blogging on the DRC. But, I don't think it will be the end of me and the DRC (and certainly not me working on Africa).

Going back to the Congo.
Why? Well, I think the country, its people and its problems are fascinating. I am sure that there is much to write about for a great dissertation (see my next and final post). Simon and I are not even close to finished with our work; it is likely that one or two more visits are necessary (also for La Voix des Kivus). Also, Macartan 'bought me out' as his RA; I therefore do not have to teach upcoming semester, giving me some freedom to travel. In other words, I'll be heading back to the Congo and its continent; and I am already looking forward.

What a f*cked up world.
Over the last two months I was in the east of the Congo; a region plagued by poverty and violence. Let's put it like this: I have seen my fair amount of shit during that period. Several hours ago I boarded the KLM plane from Amsterdam to NYC, and I was told that my seat was upgraded. At the moment I have a seat in the World Business Class; that is, the second floor in those Boeing 747s. I am sitting next to people that probably paid thousands and thousands of dollars for their seat. My leg space is that of the economy class, but then times 8. I can choose from a collection of champagnes and wines specially selected for us by KLM's experts. There are 12 buttons I can push to electronically change the position of my chair. We are only airbore since 1 hour, but the lady already asked me 9 times whether I want something. The chair is also a massage chair. And I can keep on going like this. F*ck! The day before yesterday, I was in a country where by far the largest majority of its people live below the povertyline, where women are afraid to go to their fields to works because they will get raped, etc. The day before yesterday I visited Jean Pierre; a guy that has worked 6 years straight (no holiday because you get fired) and received no raise in those six years (if you ask for it you get fired) and he gets $150 a month. He has to support his family of 4 children. Let me not start how expensive Bukavu is, the schooling fees he has to pay to get his children to school, etc. It's a f*cked up world!!

From Nairobi Airport, Kenya.

I wrote this post while sitting on a plane from Kigali (Rwanda) to Nairobi (Kenya). At the moment I am in Nairobi; there is WIFI here. :). Yes, Simon and I are on our way back home. Yesterday morning, at 8am, we were picked up by an IRC car, passed the DRC-Rwandan border, got our usual amount of stamps and signatures, and arrived at Kamembe airport.

Breaking rules.
The flight from Kamembe (Rwanda) to Kigali (ibid) was arranged by IRC’s logistics department. At arrival at Kamembe airport, unfortunately, we noticed that my ticket was missing. Of course, my booking should be in a computer somewhere. The question was: Where? The computer at the airport was (of course) old and the network was (of course) down. After a lot of calling around they verified that I had booked a ticket, but they couldn’t find my ticketnumber. The latter was crucial (at least for them), and without it I was not allowed to board. After waiting for a while, the plane standing ready to take off, having slept little, and myself having a tendency not to like waiting, I weighted my bag myself, and told them that I was getting on the plane, and that they can fill out the ticketnumber later on. Also my bags were untagged; following the rules, the security officer couldn’t let me through. I gave her a stern look and I told her that there are only 11 people on the plane and that I would be able to find my bag back. I then walked to the plane and boarded. What is the moral of this story? Westerners constantly complain (me including) that there are no rules in Africa, and if there are rules nobody follows them. Well, in contrast to the DRC there are rules in Rwanda. Of course, who is the first person to break the rules after just entering Rwanda… me, the white guy. :)

Kigali.
After a short flight, and a stopover in Giseny (a big Rwandan city next to Goma), we arrived in Kigali; the capital of Rwanda. There are four things Simon and I immediately noticed: 1. Most roads are paved; incredible! 2. Security agents have shotguns instead of AK47s. 3. There are buildings that are higher than 1 story and are not about to fall down! 4. There are no soldiers on the road, and the police that is around actually seems to know what it is doing.

After passing by the bank (in contrast to Bukavu, we can get money here), and checking into hotel Okapi, we visited the 1994 Genocide Memorial Museum; this was very impressive. We did some work in the hotel’s restaurant (with some Primus and salty peanuts). We had dinner at an Indian place (great food). We watched an episode of The Wire (Avon Barksdale was being shot at). And after a ‘nap’ of two hours, we were picked up at 1am by a taxi to bring us to Kigali International Airport.

Warm shower.
There is a very important thing that I should not forget to mention. We had a warm shower! After two months, we had a warm shower! With warm water! Absolutely brilliant! Just before 1am the following sounds could be heard from our bathroom:
“f* brilliant!”
“I feel alive!”
“Incredible!”
“This is f* amazing!”
It is a fantastic experience to take a warm shower after two months of taking cold-water bucket showers.

Today.
So, today we will be flying from Kigali to JFK. We left our hotel this morning at 1am and are expected to arrive at our apartments on the island at around 11pm. That is, with stopovers in Nairobi and Amsterdam, this will be a trip of around 28 hours! It is 634am now, so 'only'22.5 hours to go. Oh Joy!

Coltan, et al.

Several weeks ago Simon and I were at the UNHCR. We had a chat with the security guard; Jean Pierre. Very nice guy. He had lived in South Africa and did artisinal mining with some friends. I also lived in South Africa, and am very interested in the mining in general. The latter because much has been written on how the mining of coltan, casserite and recently even charcoal fuel the current war in the east of the Congo.

http://www.globalwitness.org/fwag/ on casserite and coltan.
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=85462 on charcoal.

Last Tuesday, just before I left to Kalehe, I met up with Jean Pierre again. We visited an AIDS clinic, met his brother who works in the church and had a long talk regarding mining. This morning at 7am I picked Jean Pierre up from his nightshift at the UNHCR and joined him to his house and family where we had tea, and he gave me several precious metals. Here we go:

Topaz:


Turmaline:
Iron:

Grena Rouge:

Amatheist:

And yes, coltan:

And casserite:

So, why do I have these things now? First, I am interested and probably will do a bit of research on civil wars and natural resources, so I should see what I will be writing about. But, having these metals, isn't that a bad thing, knowing that it is fuelling conflict? I gave this a bit of thought, and answer in the negative. It is artisinally mined; by Jean Pierre himself. As the aforementioned report notes:

"Global Witness is calling for actions targeted specifically at those parts of the mineral trade which are controlled by armed groups or military units and has developed the aboverecommendations with this goal in mind. A crackdown on this part of the trade would not have significant negative effects on the civilian population in the long term, as the profits currently derived from it serve primarily to enrich the elite of businessmen, the military and leaders of armed groups.

Global Witness does not take the position that mining activities in eastern DRC should cease altogether. Nor does it advocate a boycott or embargo of the trade as a whole, as such blanket measures would adversely affect the sections of the mineral trade which are not controlled by any of thewarring parties.

The aim of Global Witness’s campaign, therefore, is not to stop artisanal miners from trading, nor to close down mines in eastern DRC, but to exclude the warring parties, and their intermediaries, from the supply chain and trading networks, so that miners are able to sell only to legitimate, civilian buyers who do not have connections with any of the warring parties.Global Witness also aims to highlight, and ultimately stop, the

grave human rights abuses committed by the warring parties involved in the exploitation and trade of minerals."

Dinosaurs in the Congo.

On Tuesday morning, during breakfast, I spilled Nutella on the table. But... it looks like a Brachiosaurus. How cool!!

Our last fieldtrip. :(

Last Tuesday and Wednesday we were in the field again. We went to two villages to implement La Voix des Kivus in the third and fourth (and final) village.

A weekend in Goma, and instruments from hell.

At around 3pm – after a comfortable, three-hour boat ride across Lake Kivu – Tracy, Simon and I arrived in Goma. The latter is a plagued city while it should be a paradise. The area around the city is fertile, the city is located next to a gorgeous lake, there are incredible parks with wildlife all around (a.o. Virunga National Park), the weather is amazing, etc. But Goma is far from a paradise. It is fertile because of volcanoes; and in 2002 one of them – Nyiragongo – erupted and sent a stream of lava (200 meters to one kilometer wide and up to two meters deep) through the center of the city as far as the lake shore. The nature reserves are nice, but there is one problem. They are also great hide-outs for rebel groups; and are used as such. Also, Goma is located in the east of the Congo on the border with Rwanda; the city was the hub for the refugees during the 1994 Rwandan genocide, because of its strategic position it saw lots of fighting during both the First and the Second Congo War, and recently it was almost overrun by Laurent Nkunda and his CNDP rebels. Oh yes, I almost forgot. It is located next to Lake Kivu, which is about to blow up (see one of my first posts).

Saturday.

After arrival, being picked up by an IRC car and driver, showing our face at IRC’s Goma-office, and checking into the Caritas hotel, we had a walk through the city. Although Goma is one of the bigger city’s of the DR Congo, there is little to do. The main attraction on our walk was a supermarket. There are – in contrast to Bukavu – several good restaurants in Goma. We ended up at a great Indian place, and I made sure that the leftovers was put in a doggy-bag.

Our hotel with view:

Sunday.

A friend and colleague in our PhD-program is from Goma; his family still lives there, and we wanted to visit them. Of course(!) when we tried to call them on Sunday morning, the Zain network was down. We therefore had to go for another walk through Goma, and then walked back to the docks as our boat left at 2pm.

Instruments from hell.

I am not talking about AK47s; I am talking about our boat on the way back to Bukavu. The boatride was horrible. The boat – with 2x 50hp Yamaha engines – was very small. The boat was overcrowded; instead of 14 people there were about 24. The lake was extremely rough; a lot of wind and high waves. Before we had even left a lady threw up, and shortly after taking off the captain's assistant hit his head again a pin in the sealing and had a well-bleeding headwound. The lady sitting in front of me was well over 240 pounds and, as a result, her seat touched the ground and the back of her seat hit the front of my seat; i.e. my legs (already not made for these types of boats) had absolutely no room and I had to place my legs in Tracy’s legs-place. I mentioned the lake was rough. I spent enough time on boats to know that at those moments – in order not to get seasick – one has to look at the horizon. And so I did. The people in the boat did everything but that. They were talking (read: arguing and screaming), looking inside the boat, etc. However, after several minutes, many of them turned quiet and started looking sick. In addition, when, after about an hour, I looked on my GPS device (great stuff) to see how far we still had to go, we were not even a quarter of the way! Combine all this with what I thought was going to be a mix of the the following odors: vomit, petrol, blood, and… the Indian food I brought on the boat (I already smelled it in my bag while on the shore), this boat was a vomit bomb ready to explode.

Then … Idjwi saved us. Idjwi is the world's tenth-largest inland island and stretches out over almost the whole of Lake Kivu. It took the wind - and therefore the waves - away. The boat picket up speed (the GPS device indicated we were going as fast as 45 km/h), the music went on in the boat, sodas were distributed and there was even a working television in the boat. Brilliant.

The boat on the way back:

In the end we arrived at around 530pm; of course an hour later than what the people at the dock in Goma told us, but we were very happy to be back on shore. An IRC car was waiting for us, and after going through customs (yes, each time!) and a short ride back home, Simon and I could finally... dress up. We were invited by our Voix des Kivus Field Coordinator and his wife to have dinner at their place. After a great Congolese dinner (foufou, fish from Lake Kivu, etc.) we arrived back at around 11pm; finally we could sit on a couch and be tired.

Two final random things:

- This is a great report: http://www.globalwitness.org/fwag/

- We asked Macartan to send us some money via Western Union. The latter told Macartan that there were no Western Unions in the Congo. Simon and I beg to differ as we have seen tens and tens of them in Bukavu, Lubumbashi and Goma. Hereby proof:

Friday, July 24.

I am a very bad blogger. What I wanted to be a short post, is now one of the longest (and most boring). I know few of you will read it; even my parents won’t read it as they are going on holiday today (Enjoy!). Anyhow, here we go:

Wedding.
For the people that actually read the whole July 21 post “Regarding research, and other things”, you read the paragraph called “Peter and Ophrah Winfrey” in which I bashed those magazines that are unfortunately read by a large part of Western society. Anyhow, you won’t belief it, but I am actually going to say something positive about one of them. In 11 March 2008-issue of Best, there is an article called “Marriage madness?”. It concerns the wedding of the UK football player Wayne Rooney and the UK presenter Coleen McLoughlin who with “… a rumoured 2.5 million pounds on the table the couple will be out to impress. After all, Coleen’s 21st bash last year cost ½ million pound.” The article notes: a 200,000 pound ring, a 100,000 pound gown, and that Coleen is looking for “the biggest one-of-a-kind wedding cake”. Now, fantastically, on the same page, Best compares this to the wedding of Julie and Gary Ratcliffe who married for less than a 1,000 pounds, had everything they wanted and had a great time. Absolutely brilliant! To make an understatement, I am angry when I read how people misspend money while I know that just several meters from where I am currently writing this blog people literally die from cold, hunger, and diseases that can be prevented with extremely cheap medicines. I do not say that people shouldn’t spend money on a wedding, but please with some moderation. Wayne Rooney and Coleen McLoughlin please see something of this world, instead of only beaches and fancy hotels.

That's quite a bit of preaching on an early Friday morning. Don't I have anything else to blog about than a wedding? Well, yes, but it is not very spectacular as Simon and I have been working in either the IRC office or at home the last two days. So what did we do?

Yesterday and the day before.
We already got the software for Voix des Kivus working several days ago. However, several additional things we wanted to check. After some work we now know how to send credit from one phone to another; i.e. this is crucial as we have to update the credit of our phones in the villages. Also, with the help of the FrontlineSMS community, we are now able to make the computer 'do things' if it receives textmessages. For example, I programmed a (simple) code so that when somebody sends the text message OPENSTATA to my phone, Stata is opened on my computer. It is a bit geeky, but it can also be very useful. For example, we can have a dataset on our computer with information about the different villages. Then, for example, if somebody that lives in the village 1 sends the textmessage VILLAGE1, I can make the computer open the dataset, look for the information on Village 1, and have that information send – all automatically – back to that villager.

We did something else over the last two days. TUUNGANE - in all four provinces - is currently collecting GPS data on exactly where the LLUs, CDVs and CDCs are (more on this below). Of course, in the end, these locations should be projected on a nice fancy map of the DR Congo. Unfortunately, this is more complicated then we expected: 1. There are different so-called “datums”; that is, geographical coordinate systems. In brief, the world is not a nice round ball. It is therefore approximated by an ellipsoid. However, the datum is important as it determines the ellipsoid’s position with regards to the earth. There are literally hundreds of different datums. To make things even easier, this is not all. 2. There are different types of projections. While the world is kind of like a ball, a map is two-dimensional. Unfortunately, there are many different ways to go from the first to the latter. Depending on the projection, the locations that TUUNGANE obtained are either in the DR Congo, or - for example, in Latin America. :).

Yes, we have specialized software for this – ArcGIS – but that doesn’t make life much easier: 1. The program is not very user-friendly; I say this although I am already working with it for several months. 2. We obtained several maps of the DRC from the UN. Of course, these maps have different datums and projections than the locations TUUNGANE gives us.

Because we are not going to Maniema, the M&E officer in Kindu will now be responsible for conducting the pilot survey. That is, he has to train 2 people and take them into the field for several days. Yesterday and the day before, we wrote an extensive guide on how to train these surveyors, and exactly what the questions went. This document will also be useful for the final survey next year.

Over the last few weeks we noticed several inconsistencies in the 2007 baseline survey dataset, some answers were on the hardcopies but not in the dataset, etc. Consequently, last Monday we hired Junior to re-enter specific information from the (close to) 4,000 surveys into a data set. While we already made the template for the household surveys, we still had to make a template for the chief surveys.

We also did many small things: 1. We got our per diems from the IRC (we are in need for cash). 2. We asked Macartan to send us money via Western Union (for the thieves reading this. Money will be gone quickly as we have to pay our Field Coordinator, hire a car for next week, etc. Sorry!). 3. We double-checked with Junior. 4. We solved some excel-questions that the TUUNGANE boss in Haut Katanga still had for us. 5. We got in contact with a guy to become the collegue of Junior (it is more work then expected).

A final big thing we did was the writing of a template for the Sud Kivu territoire directors with questions for them to fill out regarding the LLUs. You are probably bored already. Warning: it will get even worse from now onwards.

LLU data.
LLUs are so-called “Lowest Level Units”. Let me explain. TUUNGANE works with CDVs (see one of my previous posts). These CDVs are not equal to actual villages; they are IRC-constructed entities of around 1,200 inhabitants. For example, if there are 4 villages of around 300 people 'close' to each other, they are together a CDV. But, for example, if the village is big and has say 6,000 inhabitants, the CDV only takes place in a part of the village; for example a quartier. All to make sure the CDVs has a size of around 1,200 people. This leads to weird things: some villages are split up, some villages have to work together in a CDV but are tens of kilometers apart from each other, etc. LLUs then are the entities that a CDV consists of (villages, sousvillages, quartiers, etc.). These CDVs get a project of around $3,000. Then these CDV are themselves again grouped together into CDCs; these guys get projects of around $60,000.

Anyhow, Simon and I have to create a clean database with information on these LLUs. This is not easy.

Some background information (in brief!): In 2007 there was a document with >5,000 LLUs from which the 600+ LLUs were chosen to be sampled for the baseline survey. Then in 2008 the IRC obtained information on the amount of people living in each of these LLUs and then grouped these LLUs together into CDVs and then these CDVs into CDCs. This newly created document was then used to for a lottery determining whether the CDC was going to get TUUNGANE. After that, IRC people found out that the population sizes of the LLUs were often very different than what they thought. Consequently, from 2008 to 2009 many CDVs were regrouped because CDVs should have around 1,200 people in there. So, some LLUs were kicked out of certain CDV and entered others, some LLUs didn’t exist and were deleted from the files, etc.

Therefore at the moment, Simon and I have to work with several files that are all different, but all have some interesting information:
1. A file from 2007 with information which LLUs were chosen for the 2007 baseline sample;
2. A file from 2008 saying in which CDV and CDC the different LLUs are in 2008;
3. A file - at the CDC level - with information on the lottery (what lottery bin, the date of the lottery, etc.);
4. A current 2009 file that tells us which CDCs have which CDVs.

Our job is to combine these files in clean database with information at the LLUs-level. If this sounds complicated, please read this. 1. Documents 1 and 2 have some strange reason not the same LLUs in there!? Merging the two gives a very bad match. 2. Document 2 has been documented at the provincial level. Many provinces do not have this document anymore, or are not sure how they grouped the LLUs into CDVs and CDCs. 3. Which CDVs changed composition? In which CDVs are the LLUs now? Document 4 is at the CDV level, and doesn't say anything about the LLUs.

After the aforementioned template is filled out, we have finished the province of Sud Kivu. That is, we have a do-file that is many pages long, we spend weeks on it, bothered the territoire directors of Sud Kivu many times., and... Sud Kivus is the easiest province!

Goma.
Over the last few weeks Simon and I worked each weekday and each weekendday. Knowing that we have less than two weeks left in the DR Congo, this weekend we take a 1.5 day break. Macartan, I hope you don’t read this. ;). On Saturday morning we take a speedboat to the other side of the Lake Kivu, stay over in Goma, and be back on Sunday. I should have some nice pictures on Monday.

Two great links.
Finally, two great links. The first is just for fun, and especially people from New York will understand most of its humor.
http://www.overheardinnewyork.com/
I have to say that this website is also good for my knowlegdge about the geography and history of the United States. For example:

Girl #1: “I hate my life! I need to go out there! Like drive to Hawaii!”
Girl #2: “You can't drive to Hawaii, you don't even have a license!”

20-something girl: There's this guy in my class who's like an Indian. But, I keep reading these things about how we were so horrible to the Indians and how there are none left, so where did he come from? Like, if there are none left, where did he come from?

Finally, the second link is a towards a great blog that also has some posts on the Congo (I stole the link from Chris Blattman’s blog):
http://wrongingrights.blogspot.com/search/label/Democratic%20Republic%20of%20the%20Congo