My luxurious life in Lusaka

Hi all,

A big part of the reason I came here was to try to better understand global inequality, poverty, and the diseases that stem from them. I wanted to look suffering in the face. While I every day I see people who endure extreme hardship, I haven't made too much progress in this regard. Perhaps, the walls between us can be accounted for by the lifestyle to which I am accustomed and which I have adopted here.

I have nothing but gratitude for the generous people that have welcomed me into their homes. However, I need to emphasize that theirs are not representative of most Zambian homes. The most ostentatious example is the huge flat screen in the Kusensela house. It and the pile of speakers below it dominate the common room. MTV Africa is frequently selected from the hundreds of channels available. I've never been an MTV-watcher. The hypersexuality and materialism spilling from the TV is one of two incongruous foreign worlds that I experience from my perspective on the couch. There is nowhere to hide from the TV in this house.

The TV isn't the only mark of privilege in the house. It is a very comfortable place. Indoor bathroom, plumbing and electricity and an oven in the kitchen, Chileshe's spiderman-themed bedroom, etc.

The significance of these luxuries was clearest to me when I visited a friend's house and prepared dinner on his hotplate without the benefit of running water. Note that this friend is a clinical officer (essentially a doctor) in the clinic where I volunteer. Spending a cold night on the floor and going outside to use the squatpot the next morning was instructive. Mostly it showed me how much I enjoy and depend on luxury. I knew I failed to appreciate it, now I realize that appreciating it means coming out and saying that I don't want to give it up. I am extremely lucky to have been born on top of the global wealth pyramid, my opportunities and luxuries made possible by international economic systems in which the deprivation of the global poor is intricate.

I have to figure out what I want. I didn't do anything to deserve what I've been given in life. This is a fact. My relative (and absolute) privilege was ensured before I was born. Yet, despite knowing that the machine which produces my wealth is the same machine that impoverishes the people I claim to help, I don't want to give it up. I really like hot showers. I don't want to think about what I'd be willing to do to keep them (even the "hot" showers I enjoyed living in Riverside Plaza).

Am I willing to consent to the exploitative neoliberal political-economic system that drives global inequality?

For me this system means hot showers and coffee shops and medical school. For the kids in John Lang compound of Lusaka it means no healthcare, inadequate food, 10% HIV prevalence among kids, trash and broken glass under bare feet. I cannot endorse this system for a shower.