I’m Glenna Gordon, an American photographer and journalist, presently commuting between West Africa and Brooklyn. Previously, I lived in Liberia. And before that, I lived in Uganda. I’ve traveled and worked in over a dozen countries in Africa.
This blog is named after a found object — a plastic lion that was in a crate of discarded items a friend and a few other artists had gathered. I sat on their roof in Nakasero, Kampala sorting through the crate. On that day, I was looking for something. “You are lost!” a Uganda might say. But, I’d found this discarded kid’s toy, made in China on the cheap, that somehow ended up in East Africa. Something about the hollowed out, paint-chipped figurine appealed to my understanding of this place: I’d never seen a real lion, after all.
... on Why Invisible Children can’t explain away this photo 
In an interesting move, Finance Minister Ezra Suruma is banning the import of thin plastic bags and increasing the tax on thick ones by 120%. The ban will begin July 1 but traders have until September to get rid of their existing stock.
Enforcement? Hmm…. I’m curious how this one will happen…
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The 27th Comrade says:
Enforcement is easy. This is an imported material. And it isn’t a drug or something …
Anyway, maybe it is. This is an attempt to reverse decades.
[Reply]
— June 19, 2007 @ 5:16 pm
Scarlett Lion says:
It may be an imported material, but it’s an awfully common one. What will people put chapati in? And groceries? I don’t really see receycled paper bags coming to Uganda any time soon…
It’s good to try and save the environment, but this to me seems like another misguided effort. What about emissions from factories and cars? Or the huge amount of garbage all over Kampala???
[Reply]
— June 20, 2007 @ 8:14 pm
DeTamble says:
Write to the west and demand they send their green bags, like these.
http://www.greenbag.info/green-bag_products.php
they’re good for shopping and everything else, you can even put small kids in them, I know, I put my friends sister in one and carried her around.
[Reply]
— October 17, 2007 @ 3:17 am