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It Happened on the Way to War: A Marine's Path to Peace

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(2011)

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  • @furukawa1
    10 years ago
    The book, It Happened on the Way to War, is an autobiography of Rye Barcott that describes his personal experience living two worlds: one as a marine and another as the founder of a non-governmental organization, Caroline for Kibera. Mr. Barcott’s compelling narratives of lives in Kibera Slum, the largest slum in Africa, provide excellent insights in to the challenges facing urban development and planning in major African cities. Kibera, located in the heart of Nairobi, Kenya is home to about 500,000 individuals in an area approximately 0.25km2. Due to the economic development focused in the capitol, Nairobi, many poor individuals from outside of Nairobi immigrate to the capitol with hopes of economic advancement. Unfortunately, there are few success stories and many face immense challenges just carrying out the basics of essential living. Mr. Barcott’s book depicts his interactions with Kibera, first as a college student from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and then as a marine and NGO founder, in a way that brings light to 4 central urban planning problems in Kibera: the informal nature of Kibera and disputes on land rights, sanitation and water, safety, and economic development and jobs. The most crucial issue lies in the informal nature of Kibera. During the times of colonial rule by the British, one ethnic group, the Nubians, fought alongside the British in the King’s Rifles of Africa Division. As reward for their prowess on the battlefield, members of this tribe were given swaths of land in the area that is now Kibera. Following independence, the tribes that came to power refused to recognize the Nubian’s claims to these lands and there has been a dispute over ownership since then. As a result, this area never fully developed alongside Nairobi and had no formal access to city water, sanitation, and electricity services. With the rise of neoliberalism and an influx of poor people from the rural areas into Nairobi, they naturally flocked to the cheapest area of Nairobi, Kibera. As it quickly outgrew its capacity to sustain the growth, it transformed into a slum. To this day, the government does not formally recognize Kibera as part of Nairobi despite the massive numbers of people that live there, the large golf courses, research centers, hospitals, and railway systems that lie adjacent to or traverse through the slum. As such, there is no formal development of sanitation systems, roadways, water connections, or police presence. Individuals desiring public services such as education, healthcare, or government services need to leave Kibera to access these things. The government has made efforts to build housing for some of those in Kibera and has a plan to eventually develop the areas around it and move residents into high rises. This process is unfortunately slow and many residents who are offered a spot at these high rises cannot afford them and choose to continue to live in Kibera regardless. Perhaps the most pressing consequence of not having access to public services is the massive problems the inhabitants of Kibera face with respect to sanitation, waste removal, and clean water access. The situation is quite dire and illustrated by the fact that Kibera has merely one pit latrine per 150 individuals. The ‘infrastructure’ of sanitation in Kibera consists of only a handful of trenches the people openly urinate and defecate in that are washed away whenever there are rains. Unfortunately, people also throw their garbage in these trenches as well and the mixture of human waste, household waste, and especially plastic bags ensures that this rudimentary trench system frequently floods with even the slightest rains. In some areas, the trenches are so compacted with waste, it prohibits them from functioning. As a result, residents resort to defecating into plastic bags and then throwing them into the walkways outside of their homes. With each change in the weather from dry season to rainy season, the rains flood the narrow passageways and introduce fecal matter into adjacent homes. The result is frequent spikes in the incidence of fecal-orally transmitted diseases such as typhoid, shigella, and hepatitis A and E. Due to the moderate slope of Kibera which ultimately leads to the heavily polluted Nairobi dam, those living downstream tend to be the most affected by infectious diseases due to poor sanitation. Residents of Kibera have been able to illegally access water from various rigged pipes which tap into the municipal water supply. However, such access can be dangerous as frequent ebbs in the water pressure allow for backflow and seeping of dirty water from the surrounding polluted groundwater to leak into the system, thus spreading more dirty water. Kibera itself is riddled with multiple hazards that make carrying out the most mundane tasks quite dangerous. For instance, due to the absence of building codes, informal settlements are poorly constructed and in close proximity to one another. There is a massive problem with frequent fires as there is little ventilation or safe areas for cooking to take place. Indoor fires are a frequent cause of injury and death and are unfortunately multiplied to the shoddy construction of nearby houses and absence of a municipal system to effectively put out fires. The pathways the run through Kibera are littered with garbage and obstacles that make walking around hazardous as individuals frequently injury themselves from falling or running into sharp or biohazardous waste. A memorable example of the sheer ridiculousness of some deaths in the slum includes those who die by electrocution. Since there is no formal connection to the city, most residents provide electricity to their houses through self-fashioned wires that connect to nearby power circuits on power lines. They are rarely insulated properly and during the rainy season, they electrify many of the tin roofs. Several Kibera results, many of them children, die each rainy season from electrocution from touching the roof or any of the houses built from corrugated metal. Kibera also faces several safety problems that have their roots in poor urban planning. While there is a large informal economy present within Kibera to cater to the needs of its inhabitants, it is not able to provide the population within Kibera enough suitable jobs, leaving as many of 80% of the youth unemployed. Due to the absence of good educational opportunities for youth from Kibera slum and absence of productive outlets for them, they form gangs and actively roam the surrounding areas for ways to make money. This often involves petty robbery to elaborate kidnappings and home break-ins. Due to the absence of a police force in Kibera (the police are afraid to enter the premises of Kibera), most dangerous individuals can operate within Kibera without consequence. There are occasional incidences of mob justices which are usually extreme with the example of a mob killing a young man for stealing a cell phone worth $10. With the relative absence of health services, there is little access to family planning and so young women end up with multiple children from delinquent fathers and have no way to support their children or send them to school (Kenya, like most Africa countries, charge high fees for even primary education due to the neoliberalism imposed by the IMF and World Bank). With a restless youth, there have been instances of outburst of violence which usually falls along ethnic and tribal lines. In 2007, there was a contested election resulting in ethnic violence that displaced millions of Kenyans from their homes with some of the worst violence originating in Kibera. In the absence of economic opportunities and a tenuous existence for youth, many of them are attracted to the promise of easy money from those with ties to unsavory individuals. Indeed, the Al Qaeda linked group Al Shabab offers youth the equivalent of $240, an amount many have never seen before, as an initial ‘signing bonus’ to lure them into training in Somalia. Many, including non-Muslim Christians, take the offer out of desperation and become radicalized anarchists. Despite being an outsider and a foreigner, the author, Rye Barcott, offers a fascinating view into the daily challenges faced by inhabitants of Kibera and highlights how his organization attempts to build local leadership to find solutions to these pressing problems. The insights that he shares with the reader through his book are borne out of decades of experience working in Kibera and drawing from the lives of its inhabitants that work closely with him. Despite all of the challenges faced by the residents of Kibera, they are incredibly proud of their identity as residents being able to survive and live despite such squalor. There are stories of perseverance and deep community bonds within Kibera that allow for support from others when a community member falls on troubled times. While there are many sad stories to be heard from Kibera, there are also great stories of friendship, hard work, and triumph over adversity.
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