Looking through materials this morning regarding language use in Mozambique, I was led to a series of websites ranging from the Organization of Portuguese Language Countries, the Observatory of Cultural Policies in Africa, UNESCO, and now to an interactive map of endangered languages. (other wanderings can be found on my delicious page) I’m very passionate… [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…]
May 7, 2009
Last weekend I went to Mackinac Island for the Rotary District 6400 Conference. I was invited as a speaker, and also had the opportunity to spend time with another presenter – María José from Nicaragua. Larry and Sarah Wright were the wonderful hosts who drove me and María José to the island. Highlights: I was… [Read more…]
November 20, 2008
The public service employees are on strike, and have been since about the 11th of this month. Unfortunately I don’t have any striking pictures of the street parades, piles of garbage (no collectors!), posters or blocked off public works buildings. Yesterday en route to class in the morning, the bus I was on had to… [Read more…]
November 6, 2008
Synthesis of a week in my life, which isn’t over yet (the week nor my life): - I am applying to new universities in the US - deciding whether I should study Philosophy, Linguistics, Comparative Literature, Czech Studies, Native American Studies or Anthropology (there is a way I can do them all! [TBD]) - working… [Read more…]
September 23, 2008
This past Tuesday, the 16th of September, I went to Puerto Montt and the island of Chiloé in the southern part of Chile. I was lucky enough to stay with locals that I met through friends. Puerto Montt reminded me quite a lot of Alaska, many of the houses looked like cabins or wooden shacks,… [Read more…]
October 12, 2009
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