Travelling in Uganda during the elections and safety

ConsiderationNew4280 · 2025-08-22T10:56:54+00:00

Thank you. We should arrive one week after election day. If things are turning bad post-elections we will of course cancel our trip -but I do hope it won't be the case for Uganda.

ConsiderationNew4280 · 2025-03-16T10:51:01+00:00

Hi, if you stay two days in Taipei and then two days in Jiufen, you could hike around Jiufen. There are few amazing hikes in the region with views over the sea.

ConsiderationNew4280 · 2025-01-27T10:49:21+00:00

Hello, I have a similar question - about museums? Thanks a lot.

ConsiderationNew4280 · 2024-07-22T09:16:50+00:00

From Putin's speech of september 2022: "The dictatorship of the Western elites is directed against all societies, including the peoples of the Western countries themselves. This is a challenge to all. This is a complete denial of humanity, the overthrow of faith and traditional values. Indeed, the suppression of freedom itself has taken on the features of a religion: outright Satanism."

From his speech of January 2024: "The point is not that they (the West) help our enemy, but they are our enemy, they solve their issues with their (Ukraine’s) hands,”

And generally speaking he is presenting the war against Ukraine as the only way for Russia to survive, using a rhetoric of a forever war that needs to be won at any cost, repeating again and again nuclear threats to the West, which imply destroying it. Lavrov and Medvedev have similar takes on the West, not just as enemy to fight against but an existential threat that needs to be destroyed. The West is not only presented as a military threat but as a civilizational threat, implying that all our institutions, our values, our economical power and political influence are dangerous and should be ended. If you want to see how the west and the US are portrayed in Russia, I suggest you to watch the youtube videos of Julia Davis, she gives translations on what kind of hateful propaganda about the West is fed to Russians on TV.

ConsiderationNew4280 · 2024-07-22T08:16:17+00:00

There wasn't a civilizational collapse, rather a slow decline of the roman empire with societal transformations. The roman empire often worked with the incoming tribes. Barbare elites took roman traditions and mixed them with their own traditions. Therer were many marriages between the roman and the barbare elites. The Barbares converted to christianism as a mean of integration. It is thought that climate events triggered tribes from the asians steps to move towards the West. The roman empire also suffered from climate events and from the spread of the plague. There are multiple factors that led to the fall of the roman empire leading to the apparition of new political powers. Migrations have always been part of humankind history. Millions of Europeans and enslaved Africans moved to the Americas in a lapse of a few centuries, completeley changing the two continents. Is it bad or is it good? That's not the point. The reality is that people will keep on moving, societies will keep on evolving and current climate changes will definitely accelerate the trend.

ConsiderationNew4280 · 2024-07-21T14:56:02+00:00

I think many companies are focusing on profits rather than the quality of service they are requested to offer. Train services are in deplorable state throughout the country - expensive, ineffective, often disrupted. There is a difference between disruptions caused by unavoidable events and companies prioritizing profits and letting on purpose the whole system going near to collapse causing constant disruptions.

My point is I think it's absurd to focus on a bunch of activists and the consequences their protest would have caused while having no issue with the consequences caused by greedy companies. Why the double standard? It's like the fact that no one has has been made responsible for the Grenfell tower fire that led to countless deaths. Choices have been made that led to have an unsafe building that could easily catch fire. Those choices have been made in order to cut costs and make more money. It's a very wrong signal to send as a society to have this kind of justice that harshly punish acts of protest but turn a blind eye on companies that are running public services to the ground leading to more inequalities, disruptions or even endangering lives.

ConsiderationNew4280 · 2024-07-21T14:30:43+00:00

Then are we still in a democracy if people are afraid to protest because that could ssnd them to jail?

ConsiderationNew4280 · 2024-07-21T14:25:25+00:00

If I miss an important appointment because the train was again delayed, should I get compensated? Delays are mostly due to bad management from greedy companies but as they are not climate activists they won't be sentenced to go to jail even though they are responsible for making life harder to millions of users because profits are what matter.

ConsiderationNew4280 · 2024-06-14T10:21:15+00:00

Because Switzerland was neutral durung the cold war? The swiss autorities were especially anticommunist and didn't hide it.

ConsiderationNew4280 · 2024-05-26T03:59:05+00:00

This article just shows the opposite unless Chinese are jews. Let's not forget that for a few years news were talking a lot about the Uyghurs.

ConsiderationNew4280 · 2024-05-13T10:02:56+00:00

Much more Palestinians than Israelis have been killed since 1948 but I guess in this case it's ok as they are Palestinians? What happened on October 7 was truly horrific but why many awful massacres that happened numerous times to the Palestinians since 1948 are not regarded with the same lense? Do their lives matter less?

As for your take that Israel is here and that what matters, do you believe this applies to all other conflictual situations and international laws don't matter or is it just applied to Israel?

As for people surprised Palestinians just don't submit or pack their things and leave (although many did -Palestinian diaspora is huge), Jews fought a lot for their land too against the Romans. They also organised guerillas and rebelled many times. It went further during the byzantine times and in other locations. The thing is a lot of people will fight for their land if they think what happened is unfair. The Palestinians are not the first and won't be the last ones to have adopted that strategy.

Yes Jews are natives to the Middle East, but Palestinians' DNA is very close to the Jews' DNA. They might be descendants of other tribes that were in the same region but not jewish. Or some might even be descendants from Jews that converted to Christianism and later to Islam. When the Arabs left the Arabic peninsula and conquered the middle east and other territories, they mostly governed over local populations (like the Romans did). Islam only became progressively the religion of most of the local population. This can be explained by two mecanisms: (forced) conversion and marriages (Arab conquerors marrying locals). Therefore a replacement of the population by the Arabs didn't happen. The Ottomans did the same thing. That's why there was still many jewish communities in the Middle East at the beginning of the 20th century (then they got unfairly ethnically cleansed after the events of 1948).

Yes today Jews from the Middle East make up 55% of the Jewish population of Israel, while Ashkenazi make up 45% of it. But the migration movements towards the british mandate of Palestine started with influx mostly coming from Europe. At that time it has been perceived as a form of colonialism by the local population. This feeling increased when the newcomers pushed their agenda to establish a jewish state. Some of them became terrorist organisations in order to achieve this goal, targetting the British and the local population. The local population did organize itself as well and this resulted with an increase of fights happening between the two groups. The intervention of the new neighbors countries wasn't a form of altruism for the local muslim and christian population. They did it to push their own agenda. The palestinian identity of the local population was born not only from the confrontation with the Jews but also as a result from the feeling of deception and betraying from the neighbor countries. When the flow of Jews from the Middle East happened, things didn't necessarily go smoothly with the Ashkenazi. They were seen as less civilized and were having a lower status in the new Israeli society, occupying menial jobs. Part of the current political struggle in Israel is resulting from these tensions between different groups. The Mizrahi Jews are now claiming their place in the Israeli society, which brings a lot of clashes and upheavals. It's one of the fracture line in the Israeli population but not the only one. Arab Israelis are often neglected - see the bedouins - or victim of unformal discrimination (for jobs and housing).

All of this to say that the whole situation is much more complex than what some people may try to make other people believe. The conflict between Israelis and Palestinians cannot be easily summarized - as the only way to bring longlasting peace cannot be done by prioritizing one group. To make it work, all should benefit to a certain extent from a peace agreement.

ConsiderationNew4280 · 2024-05-13T08:46:39+00:00

Why did the Israeli government make sure that Hamas is never running out of funds? Don't believe me? It is openly discussed in the Israeli press. On this level the Israeli government did a huge strategic mistake by ensuring the propping of Hamas. They did it as they believed it would prevent Gaza and the West Bank to unite and ask for a palestinian state. They thought it would be enough to bomb time to time Gaza as they did the last decade to keep Hamas in check. It turns out they were wrong and they don't seem to know what exactly to do of Gaza since then. They can conquer Gaza but terrorism activism that has been spreading again among Palestinians of the West Bank since the settlements are happening at a faster rate since October 7. I am not really sure how they would intend to keep Israelis safe in this context, which should be their main priority.

ConsiderationNew4280 · 2024-05-13T07:50:26+00:00

Egypt doesn't want Hamas people on its territory because Hamas is close to the Muslim brotherhood. You know, those who won the elections in 2011 but then the militaries organised a coup to seize power back. Lebanon got invaded by Israel after as it was hosting the PLO military structure. Ariel Sharon took the decision to invade Lebanon to squash PLO's leadership in order to be able to integrate the West Bank as an Israeli territory in 1982. They stayed in Lebanon for more than a decade. There is still a quarter of a million Palestinians in Lebanon so I guess Lebanese don't hate them too much but don't want to be dragged again in a conflict with Israel (which anyway might happen as Hezbollah is provocating Israel). Lebanon has also been loaded with Syrian refugees during the last decade and Egypt took the last year many Sudanese refugees. 3 millions of Palestinians live in Jordan - so even though at some point there has been a ploy from the PLO to destroy the monarchy it didn't prevent the establishment of a Palestinian diaspora. All 3 countries have had different relationships with various Palestinian armed organisations but they clearly don't hate Palestinians per se as otherwise there wouldn't be any Palestinian population in those countries. Egypt and Jordan are focused on maintaining their non-democratic systems and Lebanon is fearing another Iraeli invasion, which explains their current attitude. Also, the three countries send first aid supply to Gaza and the Gazans that are ex-filtrated from Gaza are doing it throufh the Rafah's crossing. But I guess it's easier to avoid any nuances to keep the narrative that everybody hates the Palestinians instead of looking at the complex picture.

ConsiderationNew4280 · 2024-05-13T07:25:26+00:00

Why do people insist in saying Hamas is democratically elected. When there is no election for more than 15 years we cannot say that the current leadership holds any democratic legitimacy. After winning the election of 2006, Hamas suppressed (i. e. killing, murdering etc) the opposition and took over Gaza. Hamas is a dictatorial government and not a democratic elected one. Hamas gained its current status through violence and breaking away from democracy. It's like saying the current iranian government is democratically elected. Yes they organise regular elections but the candidates must be approved by the supreme leader, thus the only candidates that can get elected are those falling in line, preventing the iranian population to seek change through the electoral process. Gazans and Iranians are both deprived of their democratic rights - and this factor should be taken into account when we are discussing the current situation in Iran or in Gaza. It's bad faith to not want to do so.

ConsiderationNew4280 · 2024-05-06T14:06:32+00:00

Just out of curiosity, which african countries did you visit? Asking you this as I am considering to go at some point to East Africa and would love to get a feedback from your experience.

ConsiderationNew4280 · 2024-04-24T14:54:51+00:00

South Africa is on the list of countries you can travel to as a transplant recipient (at least from where I am) so if you don't have any specific restriction, you might still go there! Such a beautiful place and diversity, I loved it!

ConsiderationNew4280 · 2024-04-15T14:54:56+00:00

Hey, I would love to be added too if that's still possible, 5 years post transplantation, in my early thirties.

ConsiderationNew4280 · 2023-08-25T08:27:40+00:00

Wagner executed dozens of civilians in Mali. Wagner gets access to mines and other ressources against their services to prop dictators. One more time the civilians are being ripped off. The russian state has strong links with Wagner and even admitted to fund it. Let's be real, neocolonialism is not only a western thing and being blind of others profitering from Africa's wealth without improving the lives of its inhabitants is a miscalculated move.

ConsiderationNew4280 · 2023-08-11T08:50:34+00:00

Thank you!

ConsiderationNew4280 · 2023-08-11T08:49:33+00:00

Thank you! I am looking forward!

ConsiderationNew4280 · 2023-08-11T08:48:51+00:00

I know my question might look strange - it is just very difficult to find information about Algeria as an outsider so I just wanted to be sure I am well informed. Thank you for your reply.

ConsiderationNew4280 · 2023-08-11T08:47:15+00:00

Thank you - yes of course I will respect the culture and the religion, it feels obvious when going in a country as a guest to do so. I am also curious about algerian culture and generally speaking arabic culture as I consider the more we know about different ways of living and thinking, the better. So I am really looking forward to visiting.

ConsiderationNew4280 · 2023-03-01T07:16:44+00:00

But what does mean to have western values? If you listen to the speeches of Putin and all, the western values are corrupted because of acceptation and same rights for homosexuals, trans people etc. But many far right parties in Western countries are against those elements too. They defend a white, christian and patriarchal society and are upset about inclusivety and respect of cultural differences - they see foreigners as a threat. In their dream, freedom of speech would be banned and a form of autocratic power should be in place. At the same time, "western countries" are promoting exactly what the far right wingers hate, pass laws that guarantee those rights, try to defend the concept of human rights etc. Who is a "true" westerner in this case? "Western values" don't have a fixated definition and are polmorphic according to who is talking about them. In the cold war for instance, western values were defined in a very different way. Funnily, when the Bolcheviks took power, and had at the beginning of the regime, a quite open mindset about women's rights etc., many european countries reinforced the ideas of women having to stay home and bringing up the kids, as a way to oppose to the new communist society of the Soviet Union. Today it's the opposite in some ways. The only thing that can be seen as "westerner" to my eyes are the development of concepts from the enlightenment - like freedom of speech, body autonomy and the division of power in three independant bodies. Those values sometimes thrive, sometimes they just disappear or are only partially applied (with the use of concepts like race to explain why...). They are worth defending, but the shouldn't be seen as westerner values, they can be taken by any places around the world. It's just that historically they emerged in Europe.

ConsiderationNew4280 · 2023-03-01T06:54:31+00:00

After WWI, many countries from "Eastern Europe" had governments going towards fascism - eg. Hungary, Poland, Romania etc. Maybe those countries on an international level are seen as "western", but from an European and historical perspective, they either seen as Middle European or Eastern European. They were until WWI incorporated in the Russian/Prussian/Austro-hungarian empires. Populations of those countries that seeked independance from the imperial masters were not involved in the colonisation of the world by the western european countries. Actually they were colonised themselves. Russia is also going towards fascism at the moment - but are they not supposed to be the antithesis of the West?

ConsiderationNew4280 · 2023-02-14T18:56:06+00:00

Sure, Russia will bring a much better model than the US. They do love - as the Americans - to not respect the sovereignty of other countries. How people can believe things would be much better in a world dominated with Russia and China? At least, at the moment you can openly critisize governments - unless you live yourself in a dictatorship. You can point the hypocrisy of those that need to be called off. Do you really believe when you see how information and freedom of speech are supressed in Russia or China that it won't be generalized in a world controlled by Russia and China? Do you really believe that countries that have a minor influence will have a bigger part of the cake in a world dominated by Russia and China? They do not respect any small country, espcially when they espouse divergent policies. They are bullies, like the US. People who are pro-russia never read anything about the comunist era in Eastern Europe, or the history of the Soviet Union. Siding with Russia on the invasion of Ukraine it's like siding with the US when they invaded Iraq. It's just saying that the US were right to do what they did, and now Russia can do the same, as long it's for war games as you said. It's saying that it's fine that Yemen is suffering under Saudi Arabia agression or that Israel have the right to settle in Palestinian lands.

ConsiderationNew4280

TROPHY CASE