I slaughter chickens and talk about nut allergies on my blog

I do a lot of chicken slaughtering and also talk about peanut allergies a lot. At least, those are the top things people are searching for when they come to my blog.

I took some time today to analyze some of the stats from my blog's 25 000 hits.

The top hit to my blog over the past year is people looking for advice on traveling in East Africa with a severe nut allergy (it's not as scary as it sounds.)

Other people are looking for information or photos of a girl slaughtering a chicken.

I have no qualms about my chicken slaughtering days. As far as I'm concerned, if I am going to eat it, I should be able to kill it.

Sigh.

And then there are those looking for travel advice.

And to you, I wish you would find this letter I wrote quite some time ago:

Dear 99% of mzungus (white people) who come to Uganda, 

Why are you all so weird? Would you really wear kikoi pants back in CanadaBritiainUSA?  

And to the girl sitting across from me drinking a latte in a mini mini skirt, in case you didn’t notice, you are in sub-saharan Africa and if pulling a Britney was mildly shocking back home, it is 10 times so here. 

Oh, and if you could perhaps run a comb though your hair that would be nice too. And to all you old white middle-aged has-beens with young Ugandan girls hanging off your arms who refuse to look me in the eye: stop using the amazing exchange rate to get away with things that would get you arrested back home and go back to your wives and children and donate the money that you WOULD have spent on your Ugandan hooker to a vocational training school that teaches girls useful skills. 

Finally, 99% of muzungus in Uganda, I know your wealth and power means that you have access to nice things like deoderant and perfume to mask your smell, but would it really kill you to take a bath?

peace and love.

Stop saying #FirstWorldProblems already

I once spilled a bit of coffee onto my lap while my brother Derek and I were pulling out of the driveway. It wasn't terribly hot or anything, more just annoying because then I'd smell like coffee the whole day.

I let out an exasperated sigh, and whined something to the extent of "Oh no!"

"First World problems, Amanda," Derek said to me.

And then all hell broke loose, and I poured the rest of my hot coffee on his head.

Okay--not really. But I did ask him if he thought a Kenyan or Rwandan (where they love drinking things like tea and coffee)--wouldn't be annoyed if they did THE EXACT SAME THING.

(Answer: of course they would! Being annoyed by something trivial isn't Canadian or Kenyan--it's human.)

We need to stop using the term 'first world'.

To start, it doesn't actually mean anything. There is no definition as to what makes a country "third world."

It began as a way to identity what countries were communist, and which ones weren't.

Wikipedia history lesson:

The term Third World arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either NATO (with the United States, Western European nations and their allies representing the First World), or the Communist Bloc (with the Soviet Union, thePeople's Republic of China, Cuba and their allies representing the Second World).

Third World is also a term that is pretty derogatory and stereotypical--"people in that country are so BACKWARD--they're literally three steps behind us Canadians who have it all figured out"--and it assumes that people in the "first world" have it all together.

Yeah, we totally have it all figured out.

As Valerie, a representative with Mennonite Central Committee in Uganda writes on her blog:,

Drug abuse, domestic violence, rape, gangs, gun violence, spiraling personal and national debt, eating disorders, depression, suicide, poverty, racism, loneliness and social isolation etc. are all very real problems that are present in the “first world.”  

Our media portrayal of the global village tends to exaggerate the positive aspects of life in the “first world” while also exaggerating the negative aspects of life in the “third world.” 

I hate the #FirstWorldProblems meme. I hate it because it assumes that people living in countries poorer than Canada or the US or the UK are somehow intrinsically different than people who live differently or who have materially less.

We're all human, guys.

I have a lot of friends (and people I think of as family) in East Africa who would certainly be considered 'poor' and 'third world' by my Canadian friends and family. They also like their tea--and would most definitely be annoyed if some of it spilled.

And yeah, the video of poor Haitian kids (seen below) reading out #FirstWorldProblems like "I hate it when I tell them no pickles and they still give me pickles" is also something I consider unhelpful, except maybe as a guilt-inducing fundraising-type thing, if you're into that.

Not to mention that one of the main memes used in the video is about cell phones-ironic because there are literally millions of people in the world who have better access to cell phones than they do to safe water and sanitation.

Faith, murder, CreComm

Wilma Derksen, whose 13-year old daughter Candace was murdered almost 30 years ago, came to talk to our journalism class last week.

Derksen is a former Creative Communications student herself--she shared with us what it was like to be not just the parent of a child gone missing--but a parent of a child gone missing who has a strong understanding of what's going on.

The biggest thing I took away from listening to Derksen talk was the importance of journalists being "sympathetic".

People who are victims of crime are already traumatized enough. They don't need a reporter--either intentionally or unintentionally--retraumatizing them by blaming them for their problems.

Derksen recently re-released her book with a new forward, "Have You Seen Candace?"

On one hand, the books lets reporters understand how they are perceived by some of the people they are reporting on.

On the other, it also underscores the importance of journalists being able to have enough of a background in issues of faith to be able to talk comfortably to a family for whom a major part of the story would be lacking if faith were not mentioned.

I took a journalism class at Canadian Mennonite University a few years ago. Being taught journalism at a Christian university was occasionally an interesting experience.

Maybe because I was looking for it, it seemed like tons of stories had a bit of a faith component to them. Now that I attend a secular institution, I can see how it's easy to say that faith is private, and not part of the story.

Except when it is, like in the case of Candace Derksen.

Jason Kenney: advocates for refugee health care are "militant leftists"

Uniting people against a common enemy is easy. Especially when that "enemy" looks different than us. Speaks different than us. Isn't easy for most Canadians to relate to.

Especially when we can say that "they" are taking advantage of us. Taking advantage of the social services Canadians enjoy and work hard for.

(You know, the refugee claimants who leave their war torn countries so they can steal dental care from Canadians.)

Are there dishonest people who fake refugee claims to get access to Canada? Yes. Are they the majority? No. Should all refugee claimants be punished for the actions of a few? Um, no.

"Canadian Doctors for Refugee Care and the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers launched a court challenge Monday, accusing the federal government of violating the charter and international obligations with its decision last year to change health-care coverage for refugee claimants.

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney dismissed the claims as "totally ridiculous" and the work of "militant leftists."

(Winnipeg Free Press)

Oh, Jason Kenney. I am not a "militant leftist." I just don't mind some of my tax dollars going to protect some of the world's most vulnerable people.

Not to mention you're implying that advocating for medical care is equated with being crazy--as I am assuming that "militant leftist" probably doesn't mean "rational."

"First they came for the socialists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for me,
and there was no one left to speak for me."

-Martin Niemöller, German pastor and theologian

 What do you think?