Washington - I was sitting in a small village with a group of fellow students in a rural area of Uganda. Our graduate work had brought us to this village, to speak with a sesame farmer about efforts to improve the international marketing of his crop. I had been interviewing for eight straight days in the heat and was exhausted when the farmer said, "The middle men, they are ruining us. Can you help?"
At that point, I put down my note pad. I wanted to know more.
"Who are these middle men?" I asked. And this is when I got a taste of what it's like for these farmers to live through an international economic meltdown in a place where terms like "subprime" and "toxic assets" mean nothing.
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