I’ve been reading the book “Law and Justice in a Multicultural Society: The Case of Mozambique. Interestingly I am only one degree of separation away from one of the authors of the book, former supreme court justice João Carlos Trinidade, through one of the student translators from our trip – Benedito. I don’t know if… [Read more…]
November 2, 2009
Hours collide, often with my head and bones aching, scrambling to eat breakfast, starting the day and ending it with the sentimental weather. (overcast, sunny, overcast, sunny…) I went to Chibuto and Xai Xai in Gaza province on Thursday. The landscape mostly flat, wiry trees and scattered crops passed quickly by the window. I wonder… [Read more…]
October 28, 2009
On Tuesday my group went to the Universidade Eduardo Mondlane again. My teammates and I spent some time on reflection and goal setting, then we waited to see our newfound contact at the school — a cheery Portuguese teacher who goes by his surname Goba. I found it hard to focus on new acquaintances and… [Read more…]
October 26, 2009
Portuguese, Changana, Echuwabo, English Elections, Observation Missions, Fliers, Capulanas Students, Orphans, Believers, Peddlers Embassies, Credentials, Maps, Interviews ………….. This Morning the class visited the U.S. Embassy. One of the diplomats made an appointment for us to interview the director of the law school of the main university in Mozambique, Universidade Eduardo Mondlane. We interviewed a… [Read more…]
October 20, 2009
It’s 4:11 a.m. I have a midterm to do for another class, intro to nonprofits. There is no way that I can finish it decently and also sleep, not die, shower and get dressed and on time to the airport tomorrow while also remembering to: eat, not forget my toothbrush which is lying out on… [Read more…]
October 9, 2009
I am listening to Radio Moçambique and cracking up. Partido Popular Moçambique – I think that was the one that just came on – had such a wonderful jingle sang by a man with a tenderly cracking, earnest voice, singing of beautiful coast… “Our Mozambique”…it was cute. Each party is getting a spot on the… [Read more…]
October 7, 2009
“The Politics of Peace in Mozambique: Post-Conflict Democratization 1992-2000″, is by Carrie L. Manning, who spoke in our class this week. The author elucidated something that many of us know intuitively but don’t always articulate our objection to. Manning wants the reader to understand that democracy is a process rather than an election. In the… [Read more…]
September 30, 2009
There are so many political parties in Mozambique. Just look at this list. I can think of a handful of US political parties: Democratic Party, Republican Party, Green Party, Independent Party, Libertarian Party, Socialist Party…there may be more. But it just doesn’t seem like we have enough to fill a page with. Many of Mozambique’s… [Read more…]
September 23, 2009
…Via late Latin from Greek dēmokratia, from dēmos ‘the people’ + -kratia ‘power, rule.’ I’ve been charged with asking myself what democracy means to me, and also with relating this relationship with democracy to what the same word and loose concept may mean to a Mozambican. In a derridian spirit I’ve chosen to begin with… [Read more…]
September 14, 2009
Mozambique is the theme of the Honors Seminar I’m taking this semester at Wayne State. The country was colonized by the Portuguese in the 1500′s, and in 1975 the country gained independence – headed by the mobilization efforts of FRELIMO (Front for the Liberation of Mozambique). Although the Frelimo bunch was trying to create a… [Read more…]
November 19, 2009
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