Politics, finally

written Sunday, 27 May 2007

 

 

Since coming to Senegal, I've had almost no exposure to what's going on in the rest of the world (except now for my weekly Christian Science Monitor, thanks!) and pretty much no one to talk to who's interested in politics.

 

But today I had an interesting discussion with one of my sisters, who asked me if America is still fighting in Iraq.   She knew that Saddam Hussein had been executed, and wanted to know why we're still there.  She said, "it's the oil, right? America wants Iraq's oil.   But doesn't America have its own oil?" 

 

I think it's really interesting to find out what bits of world news make it to uneducated people in isolated villages like this one.   I tried to talk to her about Sudan as well, but she'd never heard of it - I had to tell her it's another country in Africa.  So it wasn't exactly the kind of political conversation I used to have with my friends in DC, but it was interesting for me nonetheless.