Memories of an African trip

In Mali, playing with happy kids, seven years ago

Yellow fever shots. Malaria pills.
Africa.

How can you not love kids

Seven years ago this month, I was preparing for a trip of a lifetime.
Thanks to a former student at OSU, now Dr. Shelly Pepper Sitton of the OSU Ag Com Department, I joined a group of journalists on a week-long trip to Mali. It was a State Department-funded trip to help bolster the media in that poor, West African country, a rare democracy and friend of America in the Muslim world. I went along as the newspaper journalist.
Perhaps it didn't work, because since then there has been a military coup, and an uprising in the Saharan north that split the country. If the French hadn't intervened, Al-Qaeda might have the entire country now. Of course, what prompted much of the turmoil was the overthrow of Libya's Gaddafi to the north, destabilizing the entire region. But we were not concerned with politics when there, and welcomed by people where ever we went.

Poor but proud

Lots of miles and wrinkles since then, I still am thankful for what I experienced and learned. I would go back, if I could, so powerful was the trip.
I wrote  and photographed  extensively about it, if you want to see more photos.

• From a rooftop in Mali 
• Terry Clark reporting
• Sorrow in Mali
• Memories of Mali

St. Paul, knights, 'Bogie', the 112th blog country

"And later we learned that the island was called Malta.And the people who lived there showed us great kindness, and they made a fire and called us all to warm ourselves..."--Acts 28:1-2 

Every time I think this blog has reached about all the countries it's going to, a new reader in a new country clicks in. So it was this week, when the stats, show a reader from Malta, the strategic island in the Mediterranean, south of Italy and Sicily, the 112th country on this blog list.
Most people probably know of this island republic because of the account in Acts where St. Paul is shipwrecked there, or because of the famed Knights of Malta, or the 1941 movie starring Humphrey Bogart, "The Maltese Falcon."
Beware when your country is small and strategically important. Every major political power wants to control you. That's the history of Malta, which didn't gain its independence until 1964 from Britain, becoming a republic in 1974.
So I don't know who among  the more than 400,000 residents clicked on this blog, but thanks, and you live in a beautiful place with a long history and rich heritage.

Its name may go back to the Greeks, "Myelitis," a derivative of "honey-sweet," which may have referred to the honey there. The Phoenicians, Romans, Arabs, Normans, Hapsburgs, Spain, French,  others, and British have ruled the islands, 50 miles south of Sicily and 207 miles north of Libya. In the 1530s the islands were given to the Knights Hospitaller, a military religious order now known as the Maltese Knights, driven  out of Rhoades by the Ottoman Empire. Their rule ended with Napoleon. Today's Maltese Euro carries the Maltese cross.
It has long been an important naval and air station in wars and peace. Paul, a prisoner bound for trial in Rome, was shipwrecked there in about 60 A.D., according to Luke. Malta was one of the first Roman colonies to convert to Christianity. There is today a St. Paul's Bay on the northeast shore of the main island.

It's a very civilized country, with the second highest voter turnout in the world since 1960. --the highest for countries without mandatory voting. The official languages are Maltese and English, and the largest minority is retired British. Though relatively small, it has the largest number of car registrations per capital of anyplace in Europe. The country has both public and private health care, and it is ranked fifth in the world for health systems by the World Health Organization (America is 37th).

The red and white flag carries the Cross of King George from 1942. An alternative flag is red and carries the cross of the Knights of Malta.
What a neat place in the world. Check out the country's site for photos and more great information.

The veteran I knew best--Memorial Day thoughts

Because my Dad lost his leg jumping a freight train in Tucumcari in 1932, he did not serve in World War II. But three of his brothers did. Rex, Mike and Champ. Rex and Champ were in the Army, Rex in England, and Champ in the Aleutians. Mike joined the Navy.
It's uncle Mike who became my favorite uncle, me carrying his name as my middle name. He was the bachelor, the traveler. He sent me a balsawood, battery operated PT boat from Japan while he was serving in Korea. He taught me how to kick a football in Fort Worth. From me, he caught the mumps when we lived in Albuquerque. He showed slides of his travels to Machu Picchu and other places, working for the state department teaching English in Ecuador, Libya, Iran, Mali, Tunisia. He settled in Santa Fe, teaching at the famed Institute of American Indian Arts until retirement, making friends on all of the pueblos. Then as the years passed, we lost touch, until about 15 years ago  when I needed him most, his Santa Fe home becoming a place of refuge. 

Uncle Mike, Susan and I at La Fonda a few years ago

From him I learned much about my Dad and uncles I'd never known, in our long talks at the foot of the Sangre de Christo Mountains as the setting sun turned them purple and red, viewed from his porch. Sailor's tales of WWII and Korea added to my knowledge of history and family. We'd "run up the rooster," as he would say. A former signalman, the semaphore flag for cocktail hour was a rooster. Rum and coke, "Cuba Libre," would add to the flavor of the evenings.
Now his ashes are buried in Santa Fe National Cemetery. We buried him Nov. 10, 2011 in the place he had called home for 30 some years, just across the highway from his home, and within sight of the Sangre de Cristos.
I know this about veterans on this Memorial Day...all of them have rich stories, all of them affect more lives than they ever know. Saludos a los todos veteranos. Muchas Gracias!

Mike's view of the Sangre de Christos

'To the shores of Tripoli'...a flag and country

Why are Americans surprised that news from Libya involves our country?
Consider the Marine hymn referring to the First Barbary War in 1801-06. Consider Reagan's bombing of Libya 20 some years ago. Consider our support of the recent revolution. Consider the tragedy at Benghazi and continuing political controversy.
But consider the fact that the people of Libya have a longer history than Americans.
So it is with pleasure that I found  a citizen of Libya became a reader of this blog this week. That's the ninth African country to have readers of this blog, and the 93rd country in the world.
Libya has a long history of turmoil, reflected in today's flag, of occupation and exploitation, going back to the Romans, whose ruins can still be found in the desert state. At the end of the Italian-Turkish war,  Italy occupied the country in 1911-12, and began colonization. As Italy turned fascist, local tribes revolted, and estimates of the number of Bedouins killed range from a few thousand to half of the population. Occupied by the Allies after WWII, the country gained independence in 1951 as the Kingdom of Libya, and adopted today's flag.

The black center with Islamic crescent and star was the banner the rebels carried fighting against the Italians, and as resistance in WWII against the Germans and Italians. The red symbolizes the blood of the Libyan people who died under Italian rule, and the green represents independence, hope, peace and prosperity or the future.
But the discovery of oil in 1959 changed the country's history. As is usual in history, monarchs sometimes don't share the wealth, and that led to a the "First of September Revolution" in 1969 when a military officer named Muammar Gaddafi took power. He changed Libya's flag to a solid green color, the only flag in the world without a symbol and of one color. And as is usual in history, those who overthrow strong leaders, often repeat their behavior.

Proud rebels and their flag, AFP photo

Following the civil war, with the rebels fighting under the original flag,  and NATO intervention in 2011, he was overthrown 42 years later.  Today's government is in transition, but has an elected assembly with a referendum planned.
Americans' memories are indeed short, or ignorant. Our media christened the revolution, and other uprisings across the area as "the Arab spring," but these people have been fighting for freedom a lot longer than that.  We also forget that when a power vacuum is created, whether in the USSR, Iraq, or in this case Libya, unintended results also affect us. The current turmoil in Mali and Algeria, and the attack on Benghazi, are just the latest examples. For the record, Libya is the 17th largest country in the world, one of the most arid--on the north edge of the Sahara, has some of the largest oil reserves in the world, and is home to about 20 tribal groups. 
On a personal note, my late uncle Mike taught in Tripoli in the early 1960s, teaching English for the Department of State. I have many of his slides of that area, including Roman ruins. 
And oh yes, check your history for the Barbary War, where the captured frigate USS Philadelphia was scuttled in Tripoli harbor by US Marines. The mast of that ship today can be seen in Tripoli, rising above a square.
 **
PS: Other African readers of this blog come from Kenya, Nigeria, Egypt, Algeria, Gabon, South Africa, Mali, Morocco