WP reports:
With the U.S. economy in turmoil, his job as a truck driver no longer secure and his upwardly mobile life in the Dallas suburbs in jeopardy, James Odhiambo decided it was time for a change.
He wanted a healthier lifestyle for his family, less anxiety, fewer 14-hour days. So he recently traded his deluxe apartment, the pickup truck, the dishwasher and $4.99 McDonald’s combos for life in a place he considers relatively better: sub-Saharan Africa.
“Right now I’m no stress, no anxiety,” said Odhiambo, 34, relaxing in his family home in this western Kenyan city along the shores of Lake Victoria. “Think of it this way: When I was in the U.S., I was close to 300 pounds. Now, I’m like 200. The biggest thing for me was quality of life.”
Amazingly, impossibly, it seems that romanticism is alive and well in the heads of many black Africans? How else can we explain this kind of thinking, this going back to Africa for the purpose of obtaining a better standard of living? Tell me, how? Let’s do some quick calculations: According to Wolfram|Alpha, the GDP for East Africa is $320 Billion. The population of that area? 403 million. As for Texas? According to Wikipedia, last year that state alone had a “gross state product of $1.245 trillion.” The population of Texas? 23 million. Africa is no paradise. Let’s not play such nonsense games and just tell the truth: Why did you, this Kenyan truck driver, really go back to a land that is daily dogged by a poverty that’s as deep as it is cruel? And do not tell us that the truck driver was inspired by the horrible paintings of Caspar David Friedrich. Romanticism for the black Africa is the stuff of comedy.
Here, you really can live on about $5 a day,” Odhiambo said.
Instead of running a dishwasher, the Odhiambos wash their plates by hand. Instead of running an air conditioner, they open the windows. Instead of shopping for groceries at Wal-Mart, Odhiambo’s wife heads to the local market and bargains for fresh tomatoes, onions and the Kenyan equivalent of collard greens, sukuma wiki. She has dropped four dress sizes.
This is fucking nonsense. What does this report really show? That the image of the lazy and simple African of the colonial era still has currency in the age of transnational capital and the multitudes.
What it shows is that Mexico has gotten really expensive.
Calm down, it’s just one guy. There’s no trend.
nice.
keep kicking.
Why does he have to be lazy and simple? Working less and eating more natural food; sounds pretty good to me. Simplifying your life instead of working long hours to be rewarded with empty luxuries like Walmart seems neither lazy nor simple.
This isn’t just an African/Black thing. You can see something quite similar in “The Unbearable Lightness of Being”, which is set in Europe.
In the real word (as opposed to novels): there are always various back-to-the-land/commune movements where you find people moving from say, Chicago to The Farm commune. Some few decide to stay.
It’s the same as any American moving to a cheaper country like Thailand or Panama. It happens all over.
Jesus… who peed in your cornflakes this morning, Charles?
The guy left America to go home. Lots of immigrants and international expats do the same thing for a myriad of reasons.
Some because their jobs take them back, some because their family committments take them back, some because they were never planning on spending the rest of their lives in the US, some just because they’ve evaluated their standard of life and decided the American standard just isn’t worth it.
So, lemme see… we praise as virtuous and altruistic highly educated immigrants like doctors, nurses and skilled workers who leave the US to return to their 2nd and 3rd world homelands but the rather middle-class, middle-educated guy who does the same thing is… what… ungrateful? Delusional? Out to somehow fleece his fellow countrymen? Crazy because how the hell can a middle-class guy be at all helpful in shouldering the returning expat burden of helping the homeland propel itself upward in economic/healthcare terms?
‘Cause you know, right, that that sounds what you’re implying under all that wacky misguided rightgeousness – that the guy can’t make an independent decision that sounds pretty damned logical and realistic to me.
Or are your shorts in a knot because The Washington Post wrote this?
Verily, I know not where this wackedness comes from.
He went to a place where the culture and lifestyle don’t promote obesity and diabetes, where he can afford the things he wants, and where he isn’t so stressed out all the time. Sounds to me like he’s got the right idea.
Charles,
“Fucking nonsense”? Not sure of that. I agree with #2 & #7. Assuming he’s a Kenyan national, it isn’t too surprising he’s returning to the motherland. Heck, he’s lost 100 lbs and his wife has lost weight as well. I reckon they are healthier. Sounds like a good plan for them. On the other hand, many from Africa immigrate to the USA, Canada and Europe. All seek a better quality of life. This fellow and his family merely did the opposite.
Maybe it’s a generational thing. We know a family that immigrated from Turkey. The transition has been hard on the parents, both culturally and financially. But the kids, they came over very young and are Americans to the core. The mom and dad have considered going back to Turkey, but stay because their kids want no part of that. The kids didn’t just move here like their parents, they became part of here.
Perhaps Charles senses that some nefarious force is behind this article, like Lou Dobbs. There is a bit of an underlying message of “go home, foreigners!” to it.
After reading the article, I am not entirely sure it is real at all. It has some of the feel of being completely made up. A little too much rose tinting to it. Who was the guy from the NYT a few years ago that wrote these kinds of things, only to be found out later to be totally bogus? Jason someone?
Jason Blair. Sorry, had to wrap the first post in a hurry.
@4- I believe you totally missed the point of The Unbearable Lightness of Being.
Seriously, what is Charles pissed about. Some guy realizes that he can live like a king in a third world country and that eating less junk food makes him thinner.
Charles is a self-hating black man and it screams out loud in this post!! The fact that he can not see anything positive about living in ‘Africa’ shows how much he love the taste of Kool-Aid. Charles, I recommend therapy…
I’m reminded of Amish communities, Thoreau’s Walden, and my own parents’ low-tech hippie years. (My pop ate roadkill and brown rice before the 1980s.)
I shouldn’t think that romanticism for Black Africa is any less weird than the whiter versions of low-tech, poverty-embracing romanticism. I certainly wouldn’t call it any more comical. Though REALLY white myself and therefore getting this knowledge secondhand, I hear that escaping the omnipresent whiteness in American culture can actually be therapeutic for a lot of people of color. Africa IS huge and diverse, and people DO live there. Besides, there are cities like Nairobi to run to, should the pastoral life get too exhausting. So, why not Africa? At least temporarily, to see what it’s like.
I’m not saying that the Odhiambo family’s choice isn’t a weird hippie choice. To me, it totally is. (I mean look, I’m commenting on a blog. I CLEARLY love technology.) But I still respect their risk, their experimentation, and their apparent escape from American obesity and obesity-related diseases. So more power to them if they’ve found a lifestyle that works.
He’s going home with an American education, American job experience, and a modest amount of cash that seems like a big wad back home. That’s what winning looks like. Get in, get what you came for, and get out.
Working long hours to buy crap and eat crap is not for everyone. Reduce stress, increase your quality of life.