Pure Seed. Good Seed. Zam Seed.

It's not really the Peace Corps if you can watch the 7 o'clock news, is it? I turn on the (note definite article) channel, Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC) to catch the evening news. The news is news, usually business- or development-related, but what strikes me as far more interesting are the commercials. At least 75% of the commercials are about washing detergents; there is seemingly cutthroat competition for having the most suds, best smells, etc. My favorite is the Kuwasha (colloquial Bantu for "to wash") brand commercial, in which a cat reads the "Kuwasha News", after which three women proclaim the virtues of Kuwasha to the stars.

More interesting at the level of agriculture, or agroecology in the social sense, are the advertisements for maize seeds. The ever popular Seed-Co utilizes an cartoon-animated cob of corn named "Bwana Mbeu" (not sure of the translation, maybe "boss seed") who extols the virtues of Seed-Co seeds while moving about the maize field in a pair of gumboots. Zambia's warhorse of a seed company, the former parastatal Zam-Seed, also advertises its wares. However, the spokesperson is a very large man wearing what I would characterize as the "commercial farmer uniform" ... a long-sleeved khaki shirt worn under a tan vest with numerous pockets, with a round-brimmed hat perched on his head (also khaki). He laughs a lot while patting a bag of seed, alluding to the inherent cleverness in a farmer who selects the right seed for his or her area and is rewarded with a bountiful harvest. Common to both commercials, however, are the background vista of straight rows of mile-high maize, tractors pulling equipment through the field, and so forth. The popular perception of agriculture is a modernized version. Though it is understandable that marketing doesn't show some rail-thin farmer and his family toiling away with a set of hoes eking out a living from one or two hectares, it's important to recognize the distance between what is a farmer and what one is expected to be in order to be considered a successful farmer. It's small wonder so many farmers profess themselves as failures ... the bar is so high.

Humor for the day ... what being a PCV in Africa is like. This is actually frighteningly close to the truth.