The last time I was in Ouaga I was walking down the street and saw a Michigan T-shirt hanging from a stall of a street vender. I didn’t go to U of M, but I still got a little excited, a slight feeling of familiarity and recognition, from spotting the shirt. It might not be my school, but it’s still my state. I get that same twinge of excitement whenever someone talks about Asheville, NC, or a shot of the reflecting pool and the Lincoln memorial are portrayed on TV or in a movie and I think “Hey, I played ultimate there!”. Well, now Burkina has joined the ranks of places I call home and get excited when they get a shout out in the media. Unfortunately, the media I spotted Burkina in was a Foreign policy magazine issue on failed states.
It seems that every year the magazine puts out their rankings on the top 60 failed states in the world. How is a state determined to be a failure? It’s based on an index of 12 indicators- demographics, refugees, illegitimate governments, brain drain, public services, inequality, group grievances, human rights, economic decline, security forces, factionalized elites, and external intervention. My beloved Burkina Faso was ranked the 35th failed state in 2010. Not too bad, we are better off then Haiti, Iraq, and North Korea! And according to a world map titled “mapping crisis,” Burkina is “In Danger”, but that’s better then being “Critical”! Lets just say that Peace Corps volunteers have their work cut out for them- this is definitely a country that needs us and we can feel good about working here.
Unfortunately, Burkina was mentioned a little more in the issue. In a article by George B.N. Ayittey titled “The Worst of the Worst,” he goes through all the men in charge of the failed states, saying that they are dictators and ranking “the worst of the worst”. Blaise Compaore, president of Burkina Faso, in power for 23 years to date, was placed as number 18. Ayittey writes:
“A tin-pot despot with no vision and no agenda, save self-perpetuation in power by liquidation opponents and stifling dissent, Compaore has lived up to the low standards of his own rise to power, after murdering his predecessor, Thomas Sankara, in a 1987 coup.”
If this is true, it would seem rather unfortunate for the Burkinabe as this is an election year and, on November 21st, Blaise was reelected for 5 more years. I’m not allowed to follow politics in BF, as a volunteer, nor do I have a political opinion. Politics has never been my cup of tea anyways. This is in no way my own opinion, nor am I routing for or against Compaore; I give the respect any political leader deserves- It’s a hard job. I am only reiterating what I read in a Magazine for my friends and family, this is only that one authors opinion. I was one of the people who had never heard on Burkina Faso until a week before I got my assignment, and I know most of my family knew very little about the country, so now whenever I see it highlighted in the media, for good or bad, I feel it is good to educate those who are invested in my life here.
The election was rather anti-climatic. Campaigning was all but non-existent with a few meetings here and there and some posters decorating the bigger cities. There was a campaign part in my village but I was not in town for it, not that I could have gone anyways, but afterwards a bunch of my petites were sporting Blaise gear. As a PCV, we are not allowed to be involved in politics in any form; we’re not even suppose to associate with US military for fear that it will be thought we have a political agenda. The day came and went like any other day and Blaise was reelected to no one’s surprise. Voting took place at our local school, but I had a flat tired so I didn’t leave my house and in downtown village there was no excitement. The only sign of the election was a dyed fingertip that I spotted when Roger came to help me with my bike- I believe either you vote by dipping your finger in ink and giving a fingerprint (this could be because some people can’t read or write their own name, so a fingerprint is the alternative to a signature) or you have to dip a finger in dye to mark that you voted, I couldn’t quite understand what Roger said. But elections wise, everything was quite on this front.
For more information on failed states or the articles I read, please see Foreign Policy July/ August 2010 issue.
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