My name is Madeline Hauenstein, and for the next three weeks, I will be doing a three part column focused on the United States of America and Botswana, their commonalities, shared struggles, differences and relationships.
I am a second year university student at Pitzer College–a small liberal arts college of about 1,000 students outside of Los Angeles, California–working towards a double major in International Political Economy and International/Intercultural Studies. I arrived in Botswana mid-August for a semester abroad. My first month saw spent in the rural village of Manyana, living with a host family and learning Setswana. From there, I flew to the Okavango Delta for a week of safari, followed by a week in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe–a comparison to the conditions in Botswana. Upon return to Botswana, I spent three weeks in Lobatse working for Bomme Isago, a non-governmental organization devoted to helping HIV positive women and children, developing sexual education pamphlets for at risk children. One more study trip to Pretoria to supplement my understanding of Botswana, and now I’m in Gaborone for the final month, interning and writing for the Sunday Standard.
While I cannot claim to be an expert in anything Setswana, I write from my experiences here, in the other countries where I have lived and my homeland. If there is one thing I can say definitively from my time overseas, it’s that we are all more similar than different, and that the majority of the struggles found in the international community are also reflected in the daily lives of many Americans. Ignorance and misconceptions are found on both sides, as well.
When I first told my mother I was considering to study abroad in Botswana, her first question was,”Where in Botswana?” followed by “Oh Maddy, you can’t go to Africa! You’ll get Ebola!” Before heading out, many of my friends, coworkers, and family members inquired into my safety–ironically unaware that most major US cities are far more dangerous. I do not blame my mother or my friends for showing misjudged concern about my safety; their concern stems from what they’ve been told about this mass continent of over 50 countries. I do blame, however, the cloud of misinformation and generalizations that keeps people separate.
On the other side of the Earth, here in Botswana, I’ve heard sweeping generalizations about my home country. America: the land of prosperity for all; America: the land of dreams. While there is an elite class of Americans living the glamorous life portrayed in movies, the vast majority of Americans struggle to make ends meet and are worried about their family’s future, as fundamental resources such as education and healthcare become even more unobtainable. If you’re wondering if America is like you see in the films, the answer is no, not really.
Botswana and the United States struggle with several of the same issues, including drought and property. However, there are also areas where Botswana excels far over the United States and “The American Dream.”
California, the state that houses shining Hollywood, is drying up. For the past five years, the West Coast has been in one of the most severe droughts in its history. A State of Emergency was declared in 2014, and in April of this year Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. of California issued, “the first-ever 25 percent statewide mandatory water reductions and a series of actions to help save water.” The drought has had especially severe impacts on California’s agricultural sectorÔÇöthe largest in the country and a multibillion dollar industry. With water running quickly out in one of the most populated areas of the United States, an area with 22.6 million people, the American government, like Botswana’s, continues to struggle to find a solution, but is not doing enough. (Sources: California Drought; Western Farm Press)
Not everyone in America is rich, in fact, most are far from it. While Botswana’s poverty rate has decreased over the past several decades to 19.3 percent per UNDP reports. The Atlantic showcased that in 2014, 14.9 percent of AmericansÔÇöalmost 47 million peopleÔÇölive below the poverty line. The numbers are disproportionately high for Latinos and Blacks (23.6 and 26.2 percent respectively). Chris Matthews of Fortune summarizes the findings of wealth inequality in the United States. He reports that, “in America, the wealthiest 160,000 families own as much wealth as the poorest 145 million families,” and that gap continues to grow. Stateside there are many people who feel financially insecure. It’s not a land of plenty many believe it to be, despite its perceived glory.
In several regards, Botswana excels far beyond the United States, including cost of higher education and affordability of health care. I was shocked, and then highly impressed, when I learned that Botswana offers free primary, secondary, and tracery education to its citizens, even when they chose to study out of the country. The cost of high education in the United States, to put it bluntly, is astronomically ridiculous. By the end of my four years of college, I will be over US$20,000 (~P200,000) in debt and I’m lucky; my generation of university students will average US$28,000 debt without the guarantee of getting a job. The ticket price makes higher education unobtainable for many people. For those like me who are taking out loans, the cost of higher education will be felt well into our adult lives.
The health system in the United States is flawed beyond belief with the cost of basic health care and medication being unaffordable to those without quality, private health insurance. Employers can refuse to cover family planning and contraceptives in their insurance policies on religious grounds. When I was in Manyana, I had the privilege of shadowing in the local clinic. I was amazed by the affordability of the high quality care, not to mention the ease of family planning and resources for HIV+ individuals. If the US could do even a fraction of what Botswana does for its people, the country would benefit greatly.
Though this is a superficial analysis into the struggles of both countries, I hope it gives a little more insight into their commonalities, breaking down the over generalized images. Just as we all know that Botswana does not have Ebola, I hope an understanding of the complexities inside the idealized United States can be reached as well. Maybe, instead of looking towards the United States as a country of perfection, the West should look at Botswana and the strides it has made, though, like every country, there is still a long way to go. Though there are countless great aspects to my home country, it still has a long way to go to be the country that the outside believes the United States to be.
