Last week my 5-person U.S. Army Reserve team arrived at the site of a devastating landslide in Bududa, Uganda. At the request of the Ugandan Government, we were diverted from our normal mission in the northern Karamoja region (where we have worked for 6 months) to respond to the disaster. While the U.S. Embassy had allocated $50,000 to the Ugandan Red Cross for relief efforts, we ourselves had no resources or funding as such to contribute upon arrival. Our mission would be a limited one: we were to support our counterparts, the Ugandan People’s Defense Force, in our capacity as civil-military relations specialists, and to determine opportunities for future military-to-military disaster support.

But if there is one thing that we have learned in Uganda, it is that it is difficult to limit expectations or manage perceptions – especially in uniform. This is not Iraq or Afghanistan: our ACU uniform does not help us blend in with the landscape or with thousands of other soldiers. We are often the sole representatives of the U.S. government (and certainly the powerful U.S military) in the areas where we work – and by this virtue and others, we are a spectacle everywhere we go. This does not put us in danger, but it means that we must limit the time we spend on the ground assessing a potential project, for example, so that our presence does not start to raise expectations as well as eyebrows. Read the rest of this entry…

Somewhat related to Barak’s post last week about how to ask a question is this cartoon by PhD Comics on how to report the answers.

I wish I could think of a more original reason for this besides blaming CNN for creating a negative feedback loop as reporters strive for ever more news to fill the 24/7 cycle, and the public becomes more and more jaded about the quality of the news, and instead flips back to the Daily Show on DVR, but right now I can’t.

Actually, no this post isn’t, but there is a post at Gartner that makes the claim: the iPad is better than OLPC.

Having never even seen an iPad, I can’t say that the premise – that it is easier to use than the XO (which is pretty easy to use) will help bridge the digital divide with the elderly.

The ‘digital divide’ is the general term for the gap between those writing blog posts about the digital divide and those who won’t or can’t as easily adopt every new technology. Common reasons include price, education level, applicability of services, and lack of support infrastructure. Andrea DiMaio, the post’s author, makes an excellent point that the digital divide has an element of usability, not just availability.

What is intriguing about the iPad is not only the friendly user interface and the great Internet surfing experience, but also the likely usage patterns and the unlikely users. Many commented that this device will be carried around in the home (also depending on what accessories will be available to ruggedize it). But I would argue, it could be used by people who would never use a computer.

Read the rest of this entry…

It’s been a crazy last half of the year for the Democracy and Society Crowd – we started D&S.com, put out a new call for papers, helped DG students host the very successful Dictators and Demonstrators symposium, welcomed new bloggers, learned how Barak spends his evenings, criticized the government, influenced foreign policy, and started a few fights.

In honor of all of our activities, here’s our list of Top Posts to review the year.

Top Posts

• The war on Flying
• Kosovo as a model for Afghanistan?
• Obama needs a vision check
• Why do people protest?

And while the stats aren’t in yet, Barak’s ‘Development first crowd‘ series is likely to be a hit as well.

Most Commented

‘Obama needs a vision check’ also has the distinction of being our most commented post of the year.  Other top commented posts include:

• Growth without government
• Another coup government consolidated in Africa

Thank you for making it such a great year, but I think we can all agree it’s time to move on to the next one.  Happy New Year from all of us at D&S and Georgetown CDACS!

based on the number of retweets I’ve seen of his ‘War on Flying‘ post.

…and I see nothing wrong with that.  Why else would anyone have a blog anyway?

HT to Bill Easterly. Happy Snowpocalypse!  Stay safe everyone.

In light of our excellent conference on media, dictators and democrats last week, I thought this cartoon might be appropriate. (big scary fish is labeled ‘Iranian Govt’)