Kuelimika

Greet Me

2012-01-30T16:30:00.000-05:00

Man on sixth Avenue, NYC by Rebecca Thom

I live in New York City where legend warns that people are hard and don't look at each other in the street. Although you can find this phenomenon in certain regions and blocks of the city, for the most part, I've never been somewhere with more eye contact. Though greetings are usually kept for those special moments of madness in the subway when someone does something shocking or unforgivable and you just have to look at your neighbor and have a word, many are ready to exchange and are just waiting for the opportunity. It's true that more and more we are living in a world of digital communication, where people find themselves enraptured by their cell phones, email, tweets and instagrams (I have been loving witness people taking photos of the little things they notice, this app actually seems to make people more present). Yet, I am a firm believer in the old school tradition of greetings. Having lived in Africa I am actually quite fanatic about them. Should you find yourself in an elevator with me, I will probably talk to you. There is an old African proverb that says;

Haraka Haraka Haina Baraka
Hurry Hurry has no blessings.

In many countries throughout the world you would be considered impolitefor not greeting the person you pass in the street. You are theretogether, so why not? It is those moments in between rushingaround the city, or getting to the gym that make up your life. There arehuman equivalents of angels everywhere, you just have to look up and say hello- You never know what you might find in the other person. And yes,sometimes people will look at you as though you're mad, but most of the timeyou will be greeted back and somehow, between all the technologicalinterchange, you will feel more human.

Babu. Kasulu, Tanzania, 2010 by Rebecca Thom

Note: For the streets of Tanzania there are varied ways of addressing that pay respect to age, gender and class. For example, an elder is to be greeted with 'Shikamoo' which literally means, 'I take your feet' to this, the elder or respected individual responds, 'Marahaba' which means, 'I thankfully accept your respect.' Even the chosen intonation denotes a quality of submission; often making the 'Shikamoo' resound in an emphatic, 'Shhh' falling off into an almost silent 'kamo' The use of accentuation is sometimes even paired with body motions. A child greeting an elder, for instance, may dip one knee and downturn the gaze in order to further illustrate their respect. This particular greeting goes straight to the heart of understanding Swahili culture.

Learning on this Land

2011-07-30T20:54:00.011-04:00

In June I had the fortuity of traveling through the vast expanse of historic territory that is South Dakota. It is a state with a population of 812,383 (2009) and contains seven severed reservations, cut-up squares where the Oglala Sioux people now live. In the southwest corner of the state there is a reservation called Pine Ridge Agency which sits in the barren expanse east of the sacred Black Hills, and stretches north to the dramatic temper of the Badlands - the place where the Lakota Ghost Dances were before soldiers prohibited them. The tragic history there runs as deep as the landscape so aptly named. But the most devastating part of the story is written in the faces of youth today, whose dream might be just to live beyond 50.

Badlands, Rebecca Thom, 2011

The three counties that make up Pine Ridge are among the poorest in our Nation. With some of the highest infant mortality rates, lowest life expectancies and unemployment rates exceeding 80%, the people of Pine Ridge live in a deep poverty only imagined beyond our borders. No, this is America. These are the first Americans. This is the heart of our Nation and we should be looking more closely at the devastation here. In the late 1800s, as Indian land was sold and swindled all remaining, diverse bands of Native Americans were moved into the confines of the Reservations.

"...And we made these little gray houses of logs that you see, and they are square. It is a bad way to live, for there can be no power in a square. You have noticed that everything an Indian does is in a circle, and that is because the Power of the World always works in circles, and everything tries to be round. In the old days when we were a strong and happy people, all our power came to us from the sacred hoop of the nation, and so long as the hoop was unbroken, the people flourished."
- Black Elk Speaks

We drove down to Pine Ridge one day in order to visit the burial ground and memorial center of the 1890 Massacre at Wounded Knee, in which hundreds of innocent Lakota people, including women and children were shot and killed by soldiers one snowy day. The burial site is a mass grave on the top of a windy hill, surrounded by chain-link fencing and other graves of people that died too young. At the bottom of the hill there is a circular building, the 'museum.' Despite daylight, inside the rotunda you could hardly read the story under one naked light bulb that hung from the middle. The tragedy is pieced together through prints of photos, hand written cardboard and painting on the wall. It is hardly a museum, but a relic of the devastation - of the thievery that has occurred amidst these people. Four young men stood at the entrance, welcoming us, urging us to buy one of their hand crafted drums or dreamcatchers - neither with any authentic appeal. They were desperate, but quiet. One of them was highly informed, yet shy. Another of them was drunk, yet intently sober - he was the one who sat with us outside and spoke.

The Burial Site at Wounded Knee. By Rebecca Thom

We rolled our tobacco and then offered it to them because that is what you do. Then, over a cigarette this young guy in his early twenties, with a face scarred with acne and anguish, described life on the Res. He started out with words of gratitude for the greenness of the rolling hills that surrounded us as only a slight portion of the Native land is any good for anything, the landscape is usually harsh browns or white with snow. But this summer the rain had been a plenty and the land was bright and lively. A sickly looking dog slept below us, a bootlegger passed by selling alcohol out of his mini van (alcohol is illegal on the Reservation) and the young man continued on, his breath smelling thick of booze, he spoke slowly. He told us that he worries for his sisters, he fears they'll commit suicide. He described the other ways that people live and die there; Cancer is rife and the hospital care is poor, alcoholism takes people if they don't go first in car accidents. We asked him his dream and he went quiet for a while,

"I guess it's to live longer. You know, live beyond 50."

Yoga in Schools

2011-03-28T11:22:00.004-04:00

There is no doubt in my mind that youth today need to learn more ways of coping with stress from technology, overwhelm of information and over-testing. Parents and teachers say that student's are lacking focus, the ability to concentrate. But what kind of practices are we offering as examples? What resources are we giving students so that they might access peace of mind?

There is no better place to practice focus, and discipline than on the yoga mat. It's lessons can be incorporated into all realms of one's life. Yoga literally means, 'Union,' which takes us back to the Greek understanding of paideia - in which the first focus of learning is that of the body, beginning only with gymnastics and music, and later progressing to theory. The body soul union has largely been forgotten in schools.

Did I mention that 1 in 5 American children are obese? The radical adjustments we need will come from reprogramming diet and exercise cravings, which are like addictions in brain function . This kind of change will only come through practice, re-circuiting what is good and abandoning that which weighs you down.

Nuclear Power: We have a great deal to learn and become responsible for.

2011-03-23T23:17:00.004-04:00

Mother and Child sit in the wreckage of Hiroshima, 1945.

The Essential Resource

2011-03-23T23:04:00.004-04:00

March 22nd is World Water Day.

Water is life's matter and matrix,
mother and medium
There is no life without water.

- Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, a Hungarian Biochemist, 1937

The Authentic Woman

2011-03-09T16:49:00.008-05:00

I liked Arianna Huffington's post to commemorate yesterday's International Women's Day. She reflected on the invaluable lessons that her mother taught her and how she applies it to her work and family life. Her story touched me, as does her capacity to nimbly dance the line between deal-closers and motherhood, with elegant femininity.

I thought I could also write about my mother today and all the other woman that have inspired me throughout my life. Then, as I recognized there are just so many that continue to awe me each day; my sisters, aunts, cousins and dear friends around the world, I realized it's just too much for one story -
So today I will focus on just one.

She is also a mother, a grandmother, a sister, an activist, intellect, brazen beauty, confidante, friend, survivor, globe-trotter, entrepreneur, extrovert and full of all the best kinds of true grit. She was introduced to me by my mother and I was instantly taken by her stature and fashion of speaking; a sort of clarified Bostonian accent, with clear syllables and the invocation of French when English just wouldn't do. She handed me her card once, with beautiful embossed letters declaring her position: MATRIARCH. I was instantly enchanted.

This Matriarch is part of what has been coined the 'Silent Generation,' those who were born during The Great Depression and World War II. They say that members of this generation were "withdrawn, cautious, unimaginative, indifferent, unadventurous and silent." My dear friend and Matriarch couldn't be a further departure from these qualities - au contraire! She is the kind of person that makes new friends wherever she goes, who says what she thinks and does what she says, she is ageless, and wears many (metaphorical) hats. She had her first child in a hospital in Morocco in the early sixties, moved triumphantly through her husbands unforeseen suicide and her own bout with cancer, raised her three children and is a continual inspiration and friend for her grandchildren and fabulous people of all ages and creeds throughout this wild world. She is simply a vivacious, unstoppable woman.

She has taught me many things and offered so many experiential gems, but there is one decree she once shared with me that is of utmost importance to women today.

Be Authentic.

I think of these words each time I am faced with some New York moment of superficiality, or when feeling insufficient or provoked - I think of her when I feel actualized, unafraid and in joy. There really is no excuse not to be authentic, to be oneself entirely. If not that, than what?

Poetry of Revolution

2011-02-23T11:27:00.002-05:00

“A man in his forties/ thin/ handsome today/ stroking his black beard/ steps firmly on the ground/ tells the TV camera/ with a budding smile/ that today/ for the first time in his life/ he felt he was Egyptian.”

- Sharif S. Elmusa of Egypt blogs about the poetic, political nature of Revolution. You can read more here.

Power of the People

2011-02-21T23:20:00.008-05:00

There have been outbreaks of violence since Antigovernment protests arrived in the Libyan capital, Tripoli today.

In the first months of 2011 we have seen a familiar call for freedom. Spread from out of Northern Africa to the Middle East, calling out with force for liberation from the iron fist.
In the U.S. 170 million Americans are angered at the proposed elimination of federal funding for public broadcasting. Citizens are also speaking out against the amendment passed by Republican-led senate on Friday, which would stop all funding for Planned Parenthood. And on February 11th, the same day that Mubarak stepped down Republican Governor of Wisconsin quietly commenced an attack against public sector unions. All the protests that have ensued in recent days are asking Government officials to honor their right to civic participation.

This wave of radical political alteration reminds me of Amartya Sen's notion of 'Development As Freedom,' in this thesis Sen approaches freedom and the developmental process as intertwined dynamics. The more freedom people have, the more likely they are to partake wholly in their society with greater happiness and health - the more freedom people have the greater the productivity.

Freedoms are not only the primary ends of development,
they are also among its principle means.' – Amartya Sen

People must be granted the Right to speak out, share information and assemble peacefully. Public Broadcasting is on the line, and it is the people's source to reliable news and the capacity to . Do what you can for Public Broadcasting, call your elected official by going to this site. Public Broadcasting allows people to participate in the political process as informed citizens - And to have choices other than Fox News when seeking out unbiased coverage.

انا فخور لسكان البلاد Proud of the People of Egypt

2011-02-09T19:46:00.006-05:00

It has been more than two weeks since the advent of the protests in Egypt, yet the gathering of people in Tahrir Square and the strength of their feelings are escalating. The Middle East is entering a New Wave, in which the Y generation is stirring the murky waters of antiquated power. Yet, it is not just the youth - it is everyone who desires to live in 2011, to keep up with the fast changing world, to be part of it. As we can see in Tahrir Square, the faces of the protesters range in age, class and creed - They are Egyptians, and they are demanding to be heard.

It is People's revolution; they are not calling out in the name of Allah or ideology, these people are calling out for their freedom in today's world. The following tweet was posted to the Lede blog in the New York Time's, which brings together a nice montage of reportage from blogs, cellphones images and people's accounts. It is amazing to see the spread of information and imagery via the web, and I feel fortunate that we have access to such a vast array of news sources, unlike the propaganda that is rife on television and news in Egypt.

I love Thomas Friedman's Op-Ed, 'Up With Egypt', here he gives the uprising a sense of hope and humanism.

The Tahrir Square uprising “has nothing to do with left or right,” said Dina Shehata, a researcher at Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies. “It is about young people rebelling against a regime that has stifled all channels for their upward mobility. They want to shape their own destiny, and they want social justice”

From the Lede NY Time's blog: Taken with a blackberry this sign, on the Parliament gate reads
'Closed Until Regime is Toppled.'

I am distinctly proud of the protesters of Egypt and feel grateful to bare witness to this important moment in history.

Hirondelle; Media for Peace and Human Dignity

2011-01-28T08:58:00.009-05:00

Hirondelle is the word for a swallow in French.

It is also the name of a Swiss-based NGO that works with journalists and citizens to bring Independent media to post-conflict zones in various nations throughout Africa. Presently Foundation Hirondelle operates or supports six radio stations. The mission of Hirondelle is to provide credible media, through rigorous and factual reportage - to the people, for the people. Hirondelle supports the people's right to a credible news source in their National language.

Photo by Jean Claude Capt, for Hirondelle

In 2008 Hirondelle became a 501c(3) in the USA. Based in New York and with a growing board of directors, the USA looks to support the work of Hirondelle and to cultivate partnerships with media and human rights non-profits while participating in relevant policy conversations.

It is a critical time for Independent local media, especially in the face of supposed democratic change. In Sudan, for example, in the wake of the referendum and with the impending separation of the South from the North - the people must have access to a credible and just local news source. The six stations, which can be streamed online are in Tanzania, Liberia, Sudan, the Central African Republic, The Democratic Republic of Congo and Sierra Leone. You can go to their respective sites by clicking on the links below or by visiting the Hirondelle website, or Hirondelle USA. There are currently more than 30 million listeners who tune in each day. Access to independent news should be a right. I support the vision of Hirondelle wholeheartedly; to see that more people have access to the credible news they need, and the opportunity to engage in dialogue in order to build a more peaceful civil society.

Meditation in Schools

2011-01-27T12:04:00.006-05:00

A the Ross School in the Hamptons each day begins with breakfast all together and then some kind of meditative practice; tai chi, yoga or meditation. I have long been an advocate of creating the space for some kind of quiet time, like the compulsory naps of preschool. What makes schools think that students don't need to take 20 as they get older? Au contraire, I think with the pressures of schoolwork, peers and adolescence it becomes more important for students to cultivate a quiet practice.

There is a great deal of research out there proving the benefits of transcendental meditation (TM) in reducing stress, trauma, increasing concentration, fostering healthy communication and ameliorating test scores and anxiety. The renowned Director Producer David Lynch has been practicing TM for over 30 years and in 2005 founded the The David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace. It's mission is:

To fund the implementation of scientifically proven stress-reducing modalities including Transcendental Meditation, for at-risk populations such as underserved inner-city students; veterans with PTSD and their families; American Indians suffering from diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and high suicide rates; homeless men participating in reentry programs striving to overcome addictions; and incarcerated juveniles and adults.

David Lynch calls the 20 minutes of TM practice, 'Quiet Time.' From more privileged students at the Ross School in the Hamptons to the youth hailing from agitated school zones - Every child, teacher and principal, All of us, could benefit from some kind of meditative practice. I can't say that I am a practitioner myself, but I know that I am negatively affected by the intensity of the world we live in today. I know that I will benefit greatly from giving myself 20 minutes twice a day. As an NYU Alumni I am also aware of the frighteningly high rates of suicide that take place within the institution each year; the pressures of school and parents, the high costs of city living, the over-bombardment of information and technology - We need more ways to check in with ourselves, to access the breadth and calm that lies below. Change, Lynch echoes, begins within.

مطلب التغيير - A Call for Change -

2011-01-21T11:02:00.007-05:00

Symbols and Social media illustrate the contrastive movements of revolution in the 21st century.

North Africa is bustling with change at the moment. It is a fascinating lesson in understanding modern day Independence movements. The final results of south Sudan's recent referendum to split the North from the South will be announced at the end of the month. The vote, which remained reasonably peaceful is an enormous stride for a country devastated by civil war again and again since Independence. Sudan has one of the lowest literacy rates, at about 20-27% of the population. Thus, the voting was done using symbols to represent 'separation' and 'unity'.

Sudanese voters choose their vote by marking on of the circles with their fingerprint.

A bit further northwest Tunisian citizens are also stirring change in the 'Jasmine Revolution,' which was sparked in December when a 26 year old man lit fire to himself in protest after police tried to seize his unlicensed vegetable stand. He was a well-educated, unemployed young man trying to make a livable wage. Tunisians have been under the seemingly untouchable police state of Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali for 23 years. But this month all that changed. The people of Tunisia are taking to the streets without fear and demanding democracy. They have successfully ousted Ben Ali, freezing his bank accounts and removing close cabinet members from power. And the means they have been using to do so? Discontentment, and social media, including telephones, twitter, messaging and online forums. Harnessing these tools are the way forward in 21st century revolutiona, granting more freedom to the people. As we witnessed last year in Iran, for the first time people are able to use the internet and cell phone cameras in order to speak out and expose beyond the boundaries of tyranny.

The Washington Post points out other leaders in the region who are increasingly out of touch with the next generation of youth;

All around him is a depressingly familiar pattern. Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi (68 years old) has been in power since 1969; Yemen's Ali Abdullah Saleh (64) has ruled since 1978 and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak (82) since 1981. Algeria's Abdelaziz Bouteflika (73) is a relative newcomer, having been in power only since 1999.

May these elderly autocrats take heed of the changing times as people in the Arab world and North Africa are becoming increasingly fed up with decades of marginalization and are using all their resources to call for change.

Tunisian woman stands up in a recent revolt, Tunis.

If you'd like to read more about the Jasmine Revolution I tend to recommend Al Jazeera for Arab news because it is covering it much more widely than the NY Times.

Martin Luther King Jr. on Mutuality

2011-01-17T22:00:00.009-05:00

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial "outside agitator" idea. Anyone who lives in the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere in this country."

Martin Luther King Jr's emphasis on inclusiveness holds lasting pertinence today, especially in relation to the integration of minorities throughout the world. As globalization accelerates, the movement of people, both involuntary and freely is increasing like never before - we must continue to undo the separatism of the past, and understand how to flourish together. America, a Nation committed to its tagged 'unity' is ever-divided.

King's wording of "outside agitator" prompts my feelings of the recent immigration debate.
In America one recent proposed federal legislation, that was not successfully voted in is The Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act, known as the DREAM Act.

This bill would provide certain illegal and deportable alien students who graduate from US high schools, who are of good moral character, arrived in the U.S. illegally as minors, and have been in the country continuously and illegally for at least five years prior to the bill's enactment, the opportunity to earn conditional permanent residency they complete two years in the military or two years at a four year institution of higher learning.

On December 18th 2010 the DREAM Act failed to pass its reintroduction to the House of representatives, which, in my opinion is a glaring disavowal for this Nation's people and state of affairs. Taking away opportunities from youth who have been schooled in America is a disservice to the country's future and our economy. We should all be allowed to Dream big.

Afghan Women's Writing Project

2011-01-12T00:45:00.005-05:00

I just discovered this amazing online magazine forum; The Afghan Women's Writing Project, an entirely volunteer run collective that 'empowers Afghani women to have a voice in the world despite a deteriorating security situation.'

I want to write, I want to write about
my dreams which never come true,
my power that has always been ignored,
my voice which is never heard by this deaf universe,
my rights which have never been counted,
my life decisions which are always made by others.
Oh my destiny, give me the answer, what am I for in this universe?
What does it mean to be an Afghan woman?
Hmm, I know you can’t provide me with an elegant answer so
Just give me the pen, the hidden pen
So that I can write, that is all I am asking for!...

Excerpt of poem written by Emaan.

The AWWP believes that the right to tell one's story is a human right. Increasing the freedom of women strengthens their capabilities and is an undeniable way towards human and societal development. Every woman has a story to tell. This online magazine and mentorship program between women writers throughout the world is giving voice to those too often hushed. There is nothing like the pen as a tool, as remedy, as revolution. Do take a gander at the site and support these women by commenting, letting them know that they are being heard.

Happy New Year

2010-12-23T13:50:00.005-05:00

Lately I have been catching myself making greetings like, 'Have a Merry Christmas!' and then remembering that I live in one of the most diverse cities in the World - with a rich woven myriad of creeds. I have come to the understanding that a lovely, and universal greeting to recall is the New Year. Although the calenders of some cultures vary in its time, all people understand and celebrate renewal each year. Here is Happy New Year greetings in a few languages from around the world.

Happy New Year!

سنة سعيدة - Kul 'am wa antum bikhair
Arabic

Shana Tova ראש השנה
Rosh Hashanah, the 'head of the Year' is Jewish New Year.

Bonne année
French

Feliz año nuevo
Spanish

'С Новым Годом! - s Novym godom
Russian

新年快乐

Mandarin
Chinese Lunar New Year/Spring Festival -

Heri za Mwaka Mpya
Swahili

Our Most Untapped Resource

2010-12-21T22:42:00.003-05:00

"Educate a boy, and your educate and individual.
Educate a girl, and you educate a community. "
- African proverb via Greg Mortensen

"When women thrive, all of society benefits, and succeeding generations are given a better start in life. "
- Kofi Annan

"Women hold up half the sky."
- Mao Tse-Tung via 'Half the Sky' by Nicholas D. Kristof

*All photos by me, Rebecca Thom (Tanzania, Togo and Ghana)

Give a Little, It Will Mean A Lot

2010-12-08T17:09:00.006-05:00

Emilie from Chad lives in the Bronx with her husband Bour

Another organization I can wholly support this holiday season is the work and efforts of the IRC. The International Rescue Committee works with refugees who have fled violence and persecution in their home countries. A fortunate few are granted sanctuary in the United States, where the IRC helps families resettle in a world very different from their own.

We prepare adults to become self-sufficient by offering job skills training, English classes, job placement assistance, cultural orientation to life in America and practical advice including help negotiating public transportation and navigating financial systems.

We invest in children by making sure they enroll in school and have access to tutoring, mentoring and recreational activities.

We strengthen families through parenting classes and counseling. And we ensure every refugee has access to health services.

We provide emergency housing assistance while refugees work to secure employment so that homelessness is never an option.

Give a holiday gift that helps refugees in your local community:

Your donation will support these efforts and will help newly resettled refugees in your community move beyond surviving and start thriving. And, when you choose one of the following gifts in honor of friends and loved ones by December 15, IRC will send them a personalized holiday card in your name.

A $25 gift can provide a backpack full of supplies for a refugee child starting school in the U.S.

A $75 gift can provide essential household supplies for a newly resettled refugee family including blankets, sheets and cooking utensils.

A $150 gift can provide emergency housing assistance to a refugee family.

A $300 gift can provide job training to help a refugee woman become a certified home daycare provider.

Conscious Christmas Shopping

2010-12-07T17:07:00.007-05:00

I live in New York City - Where the month of November is but a gearing up for Black Friday, in a country where people leave their homes before digesting their turkey in order to get in line for the grand sales of the next day.

Yet, our country is edging towards a 10% unemployment rate. Couldn't we be doing more this season than just dashing for the next sale?

Here are just a few sustainable initiatives which have sparked my attention this Holiday Season, among others:

- Heifer International - You can give a Heifer, sheep or flock of ducks along with many other livestock, which provides someone in a developing nation with means to a sustainable living.

- Kate Spade and Women for Women International have created a partnership in Afghanistan and Bosnia, making quality goods while providing high wage jobs.

Both of these Afghan-made knitwear products can be bought in Kate Spade Boutiques in New York.

Ten-Thousand Villages also has goods from all over the world using Fair Trade Practices.

The World in 2011

2010-12-07T14:56:00.010-05:00

This week I had the utmost pleasure of volunteering for The Economist's Annual Conference: The World in 2011 in New York City. In attendance were great thinkers and architects from disciplines across the board, and viewpoints voiced from around the world. Between speakers the two screens on either side of the stage played videos from citizens in Moscow, Shanghai, Jerusalem and Antarctica giving their predictions for the world in 2036.

Although some of the talks were dismal in news, a few speakers really caught my attention. Here I will only name two.

The first was a panel of remarkable women,

Mu Sochua, Member of Parliament, Cambodia,
Zainab Salbi, Founder and CEO, Women for Women International
and Kah Walla, Director, Strategies S.A.

This talk made up the 'Women's Economy,' the most untapped, and fastest growing sector. The resounding message was clear; Women are taking the helm. Marcia Reynolds recently blogged a similar mantra in the Huffington Post titled, The Decade of the Woman is Upon us. She writes;

"In addition to the powerful worldwide consumer force that women represent today, factors such as urban migration, increased access to education, mobile technologies, micro-credit and low-market entry costs will create a global "she-conomy" where over one billion women will enter the workforce or start businesses by 2020."

Mu Sochua started her predictions naming women, the "she-economy" as the way forward in 2011. " As she as in economy, and she as in business," she said. Zainab reiterated, marking the need for inclusion for women not only in the micro- but also the macro- levels. Women need markets that are provided by the private sector. For example, Kate Spade, who has started outsourcing to a community of Afghan women, creating jobs while also responding to the consumer's demand to information and fair production. This is the way forward.

Girls in Kigoma, Tanzania, 2010.

Click here for more about the Women for Women and Kate Spade Partnership in Afghanistan.

Another deeply interesting speaker was Nick Shore, Senior Vice President of Strategic Consumer Insights and Research at MTV. His research of late has consisted of deep inquiry into the Millenial generation. The Y-gens are the single largest generational cohort in the history of the US, he started. They're rather narcissistic, he described, and yet they are the most powerful influencing factor propelling change. And research suggests that change is already here.

Take the nuclear family for example. In the past the configuration was the children radiating from the parents at the nucleus. Now he said, the children are designated the nucleus of the family. The children have become the main focus, and the family now operated more like a democracy, or 'peer-ocracy' than traditional family structures of the past.

Kids are living in an era of 'peer-ticipation' and 'peer-iarchy,' where everything is broadcast to friends and family. Youth have a voice more than ever, Shore said.

As social interface holds no boundaries this also means that increasingly youth do not find the time or space to reflect or spend time alone. I believe this new social paradigm will require changes in schools, to provide students with opportunities to quieten their brains from all of the information and chatter. Learning meditation or some other mind-body conditioning seems a healthy way for students to have the opportunity to check in with themselves, not to mention their bodies.

Another fantastic conference from The Economist community.

Why I'm loving 'Stones into Schools'

2010-12-03T11:01:00.005-05:00

"Haji Ali spoke. ‘If you want to thrive in Baltistan, you must respect our ways. The first time you share tea with a Balti, you are a stranger. The second time you take tea, you are an honored guest. The third time you share a cup of tea, you become family, and for our family, we are prepared to do anything, even die. Doctor Greg, you must take time to share three cups of tea. We may be uneducated but we are not stupid. We have lived and survived here for a long time.’ That day, Haji Ali taught me the most important lesson I’ve ever learned in my life. We Americans think you have to accomplish everything quickly…Haji Ali taught me to share three cups of tea, to slow down and make building relationships as important as building projects. He taught me that I had more to learn from the people I work with than I could ever hope to teach them."

— Greg Mortenson 'Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace... One School at a Time '

Photo from 'Three Cups of Tea'

Haji Ali was the Pakistani village elder that found and hosted Mortenson when he became lost after a failed attempt at climbing K2. The respect and integrity of this first relationship became the foundation for Greg's vision to help build schools in the far reaches of Pakistan, and eventually Afghanistan. Greg understood that in order to work with the communities he would have to build deep relationships, understand the complex tribal customs and languages and employ local members of the community. His team in Pakistan, the dirty dozen, he calls them, is made up of numerous different tribes and professional backgrounds. Some are educated, others are former Taliban members. Their common goal is to help build schools for children.

Greg Mortenson's NGO, the Asia Institute has built schools, and community-led projects throughout deeply rural areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan. His story, told in both adult and children's versions of 'Three Cups of Tea' and the more recent, 'Stones into Schools,' accounts how balanced education is actually a mode of peace building, reducing the occurrence of students getting recruited into extremist Madrassas.

Mortenson understands the importance of working respectfully with local custom. His contracts with new projects always commence with the Islamic prelude,

'Bismillah ir-Rahman ir-Rahim'

(In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the beneficial)

Then, he underlines why they must build a school (i.e. Usually because the government has not provided one). 'The Central Asia Institute will provide building materials, skilled labor, school supplies, and help with teachers' salary and training,' he writes,
while, 'the local community, under local governance agrees to provide free land, subsidized manual labor and support for teachers.'

Then, they promise that the exact terms will be worked out after a jirga is convened. A jirga is a traditional council session, a formal gathering of elders sitting in a circle on a carpet, or under a tree, and as a rule the participants are forbidden from adjourning until consensus has been achieved around a decision. This means that it is only with the full support of a community that a project will get underway.
,
Other than his adept character, ceaseless work and courage, Mortenson understands the importance of sitting with the village elders, of taking the time to do it right. His approach has allowed him to build hundreds of schools in one of the most removed and dangerous regions of the world.

It is a lesson in Peace.

Elders, they're good n' plenty

2010-11-18T17:07:00.005-05:00

My first friend in America was Ruth Henderson, a small, bright-eyed woman with soft white curls around her face. I had arrived in Oregon from England during the spring of first grade, and Ruth was one of the first people at school not to bother me for my accent. From the onset of our first discussion we commenced a dear friendship. She was 93. Despite her age Ruth was agile and vibrant. I went for tea at her home on a few occasions and can remember vividly the smells, her artwork and books stacked on the walls and shelves and the life in her voice when she told me stories of world travel. Even as I got older Ruth would visit me in my other classrooms when she would come back to volunteer for the first grade reading program; One day she brought me a little jewelery box filled with good n' plenties and a tiny gold ring with a small ruby embedded. I still wear it now, on my pinkie. I still remember Ruth everyday, though it's not because of the ring, it's because she was my first memorable mentor.

Perhaps I was a strange child, but I have always loved intergenerational closeness. It seems to me that elders and youth share a sweet, mutual sub-didactic. That is, there is a great deal of communication, learning and engaging - on a very elemental level. There have been times that I have connected deeply with an elder in the absence of a common language. Youth need elders, and elders need youth. It is a basic and age old formula.

Fez Orator tells a story to a group of young men. Morocco, 2007. -RT

Yet, we have forgotten. Western custom today dictates separation between ages. Kids in school are separated by age, rather than passion and our elderly are politely put away in retirement homes. It is my humble opinion that placing our Grandparents and Parents in homes only diminishes prospects of longevity. It cuts them off from life.

I just read about a superb program in Oklahoma, where they built a preschool classroom encased in glass, in the heart of The Grace Living Center, a Retirement home foyer. The retirees were naturally interested in the sprightly kids and some offered to volunteer time. That being so, Book Buddies was conceived; a partnership of elders and preschoolers who read to them aloud. The reading levels have since soared and many of the retirees diminished their doses of medication as a result of surging levels of vitality.

Are we tapping into our intergenerational treasure-chest enough? I don't think so. I believe it is an essential move in fostering greater understanding in an era when things are changing more quickly than we know how to grasp. We need the dialogue and shared learning between generations; A first grader can give technological support to a 90 year old, and the elder can help the child master reading, listening and the ever-valuable offering of engagement.

You can read more about the Grace Living Center partnership with Oklahoma Public Schools ain this edutopia article, or where I discovered the story, in Sir Ken Robinson's book; 'The Element; How finding your Passion can Change Everything.'

Single-Use Plastic is of no use.

2010-11-14T23:45:00.005-05:00

Although the world's oceanic gyres are largely imperceptible from land, these are the kind of systems that youth need to be grappling with. How does Consumption lead to Pollution, Circulation, Accumulation and Ingestion?

Ocean Gyre : is a kind of vortex, a large system of rotating ocean currents, particularly those involved with strong wind movements.

Plastic gets caught within the forceful currents of these gyres and, because it is made to last, will stay in the ocean for decades, not degrading, but breaking down into smaller bits. The North Pacific gyre is most heavily researched for plastic pollution - It spans roughly twice the size of the United States, though it shifts in mass and shape with the sea and changes in ocean current. There are efforts being made to understand these vast bodies of collected debris, yet, the real difference will take place from efforts on the ground. It is our habits that must change. We honestly have no use for single-use plastics. Can you eliminate them from your household?

Light on Plastic. South Eastern Coastline of Ghana. 2009

The most devastating aspect of the disposable-products era is that the inventions of the west have been shipped abroad. Most developing nations have survived throughout the ages without plastic, but now it is ubiquitous in markets, littered along the sides of the road and strewn across beaches such as this one in Ghana.

Here is a fantastic educational website about the oceans 5 Gyres. I learned a great deal about the ocean's health this weekend at TEDx Brooklyn; Here is a blog written by one of the speakers which focuses on plastic reduction.

Learning on the streets of Fez

2010-11-09T15:55:00.005-05:00

Or, 'An Introduction to Globalization Education...'

Fez is Morocco’s spiritual capital. Like Morocco’s larger cities Fez is divided between the medina, the ancient, walled city and the new city with its supermarkets, boutiques, cafés and high-rise buildings. The call to prayer chimes and echoes throughout the city five times daily, reminding all of their place. However, unlike the uniformity of the prayers, the people are contrasting – Even within one family. Walking down the cobbled street there are three women, three generations walking arm in arm. The grandmother is covered from head to toe in a black burqa, leaving only her eyes visible, her daughter is wearing a simple hijab, leaving only her face exposed, while the granddaughter is dressed in the latest fad of jeans and a soft, form-fitting blouse. Her hair is exposed, blow-dried into a large coiffure, much like Egyptian pop singers on television. She is speaking French into her cell phone. As I look at them I recognize the significance of our time. We live in a global era, where modernity clashes with tradition and boundaries are no longer dictated by the nation state. There has been little foresight for the unprecedented scope of globalization we have entered. Tradition and culture are fluid and ever changing and schools too, must make changes to prepare and empower youth to be citizens in the 21^st century.

"…what a difference it would make to our understanding if we looked at the world as a whole, a totality, a system, instead of as a sum of self-contained societies and cultures; if we understood better how this totality developed over time; if we took seriously the admonition to think of human aggregates as “inextricably involved with other aggregates, near and far, in weblike, netlike connections.

- Wolf, Europe and the People Without History

BK Recycles

2010-10-27T14:13:00.008-04:00

In Oregon most homes are provided with, and make good use of a few plastic boxes in which you neatly separate all your recyclable goods, even plastics. Then, once a week you put your boxes out on the street and the Recycling truck swings by, smiling, and takes them away. It feels good. It's a system you can have faith in.

Needless to say, when I moved to NY three years ago I was horrified by the notable insufficiency of Recycling here. For my first year in Lefferts Gardens I was one of the only tenants who placed my bottles and tins outside, separated from the rubbish. Then I moved to Bushwick, to an old industrial hood in an expeditiously developing area. My landlord promises me that the private garbage company separates recyclables from trash - but my conscience just can't take the mindless mingling of garbage, paper and bottle all in one place.

Asf I settled into living here, gradually noticing the depth of my ecology - I started to uncover a very productive recycling system at play. New York City's garbage sector is run by private enterprise; thus, it operates very much like a business - and is quite difficult to grasp. However, there is a folk system occurring on the streets. Intricately run by immigrant families, and those who have caught on and need the extra dimes to make ends meet. NY's garbage piles on the streets and in rubbish bins provide a plethora of potential petty cash.

Immigrants make up 37% of New York's population and 48% of its labor force. Earlier in August a report was released that the effects of the current Recession are effecting immigrant unemployment at a greater rate than Native citizens. The unemployment rate among immigrants in the country was at 4% at the beginning of the recession, and rose to 8.8% during the first months of 2010.

I decided to follow the system at play in my own neighborhood and found staggering results. Each night and early morn people from all over the world walk the streets of their communities in Brooklyn and collect recyclable materials from garbage heaps. Families will separate around neighborhoods, then rejoin, like flocks of birds - ending at places like the 'Redemption Center' on Flushing Avenue. It is a processing hub for old cans and bottles to be separated and amassed with corresponding brands; the result is a stockpile of thousands of cans of Red Bull, Bud or Papbst bagged together, which will actually get returned back to their respective corporations. The people congregate there, separate their goods and are redeemed for the work with a 5 cent bottle return. Some families come with vans full of industrial size garbage bags, containing thousands of bottles and cans.

We must each analyze the system at work in our own neighborhoods and decide the best way to take part. We can all separate our recyclable items, and even make them more readily accessible to the people whom are using the system to all of our benefit.

The Right to Speak

2010-10-26T21:25:00.007-04:00

Language is our soul.
(Aunty Rose Fernando, Gamilaroi Elder, 1998)

Image by Alex Simpson, flikr

Thousands of Tibetan Students gather in Western China to protest the proposal to eliminate Tibetan language from schools. From Beijing to the Western, Tibetan Plateau students and activists are gathering peacefully, in the name of preservation. The curbing of indigenous languages in schools is not a new, nor novel occurrence -

The sheer elevation that makes up the Tibetan plateau makes it the highest region on earth, often described as the 'roof of the world.' It is home to the indigenous Tibetan people, among an increasing diversity of others - and operates as 'autonomous areas' within the People's Republic of China. Invasions of this antiquated, culturally astounding home to Tibetan Buddhism and way of life have been occurring for centuries - and from many directions. Prior to and throughout the span of the 20th and into the 21st century the Tibetan people have been subjugated by outside forces. Despite proclaiming Independence in 1915, China has kept a strong-hold rule on the region's people, culture, and now, economy.

The decision to wane the use of Standard Tibetan in schools is just another incarnation of Chinese cultural domination. It is a gradual removal of the very heart of the Tibetan People. To speak your mother tongue is to be empowered. China has been making efforts to strengthen the economy with greater expanse, throughout more regions. However, we live in an era in which the knowledge economy is a deep component of economic development. Thus, the perpetuation of mother-tongue languages in schools could actually empower the people themselves, within their own communities. Issuing freedom is a profound passageway to development - whilst fostering self-determination.

This is a very unshrinking Tibetan blogger's view .

Kahil Gibran; On Teaching

2010-10-26T16:29:00.004-04:00

by Kahil Gibran of Lebanon, 1883-1931

No man can reveal to you aught but that
which already lies half asleep in the dawning of your knowledge.

The teacher who walks in the shadow of the temple,
among his followers,
gives not of his wisdom but rather of his faith and his lovingness.

If he is indeed wise he does not bid you enter the house of his wisdom,
but rather leads you to the threshold of your own mind.

The astronomer may speak to you of his understanding of space,
but he cannot give you his understanding.

The musician may sing to you of the rhythm which is in all space,
but he cannot give you the ear which arrests the rhythm nor the voice that echoes it.

And he who is versed in the science of numbers can tell of the regions of weight and measure, but he cannot conduct you thither.

For the vision of one man lends not its wings to another man.

And even as each one of you stands alone in God's knowledge,
so must each one of you be alone in his knowledge of God
and in his understanding of the earth.

A New Kind of Placement Testing

2010-10-21T13:49:00.009-04:00

A view of Manhattan from Bushwick, Brooklyn, by Rebecca Thom.

I'm currently reading an amazing book that my best friend, an environmental educator, bestowed on me years ago -
'Deep Ecology; Living as if Nature Mattered.' It provides great breadth to notions of ecology through exploration of 'the philosophical, psychological, and social roots of today's environmental movement.'

I like this self-scoring test on basic environmental perceptions of place. Though, it may be more complicated for the average urban inhabitant, it is nevertheless a very good idea for all of us to ask ourselves...

Where you at?

1. Trace the water you drink from precipitation to tap.
2. How many days until the moon is full (plus or minus a couple of days)?
3. Describe the soil around your home.
4. What were the primary subsistence techniques of the culture(s) that lived in your area before you?
5. Name five edible plants in your bioregion and their season(s) of availability.
6. From what direction do winter storms generally come in your region?
7. Where does your garbage go?
8. How long is the growing season where you live?
9. On what day of the year are the shadows shortest wear you live?
10. Name five trees in your area. Any of them Native? If you can't name them, describe them.
11. Name five resident and any migratory birds in your area.
12. What is the land use history by humans in your bioregion in the past century?
13. What primary geological event/process influenced the land form where you live?
14. What species have become extinct in your area?
15. What are major plant associations in your region?
16. From where you are reading this, point north.
17. What spring wildflower is consistently among the first to bloom where you live?
18. What kind of rocks and minerals are found in your bioregion?
19. Where the stars out last night?
20. Name some beings (nonhuman) which share your place.
21. Do you celebrate the turning of the summer and winter solstice? If so, how do you celebrate?
22. how many people live next door to you? What are there names?
23. How much gasoline do you use a week, on the average?
24. What energy costs you the most money? What kind of energy is it?
25. What developed and potential energy resources are in your area?
26. What plans are there for massive development of energy or mineral resources in your bioregion?
27. What is the largest wilderness area in your bioregion?

(The test originally appeared in CoEvolution, no. 23, winter 1981 - and was adapted for 'Deep Ecology, 1985)

Unaffected beauty

2010-10-20T18:48:00.008-04:00

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. I am grateful to the images posted around New York City; they are riveting, prepossessing and raw. Exposing the truth is transcendent.

If you know someone who has been diagnosed, there is a beautiful and courageous duo of women in Oregon, Sharon Henifen and Becky Olsen who started a non-profit called Breast Friends which is an immeasurable fount of support to women and families who are facing a diagnosis of breast cancer, ovarian cancer and other women's cancers.

Local, Organic and Sun Powered

2010-10-19T11:53:00.008-04:00

"Shipping is a terrible thing to do to vegetables. They probably get jet-lagged, just like people." ~Elizabeth Berry

I recently visited Hepworth farms in the Hudson valley. It is 400 acres of pristine, storybook farmland overlooking the Hudson river. The family has been tilling the soil there since 1818; that's seven generations. Amy Hepworth is now at the helm, and has been transforming the tradition of the farm since the early eighties when she returned from Cornell with a more holistic view of agriculture. Amy and her partner Gerry now run the most flourishing independent organic farm in New York. Amy has aptly been named a 'rockstar' farmer.

Amy and Gerry Hepworth with one of their employees.

As we drove through the fields on her tractor it became clear to me that for a vision of this propensity and courage to work; the farmer must be dedicated to her people, to the integrity of organic farming - and she has to be willing to work hard and against all forces of weather and mainstream agriculture. Hepworth is all of these, and she eats maggots as well as sharing her softer side to the three men I am visiting with; the founders of Brooklyn Salsa - who source most of their ingredients directly through Amy.

Hepworth is at the forefront of sustainable, organic and local farming.

In the field outside her simple processing office there are three enormous solar panels, tilted toward the beautiful early-October sun. Amy has been exploring solar power since the eighties. She is a fount of knowledge, with a wide understanding of where the food industry has been, and where it must go. She is a real woman holding strong to her creed in REAL FOOD.

Brooklyn Salsa Guys; Matt, Rob and Casey get excited over Solar Power.

The Hepworth family story is an inspiring one, and would be a great lesson in science or understanding food source, the interrelations of people and place. For example, if we take two pieces of fruit; An apple from Hepworth and a pink lady apple from New Zealand and traced their stories back - asking questions of source - What would we find? I believe that by tapping into our local folk and food sources, we are able to learn more about the industry that feeds us and how it effects the greater ecology. At Hepworth it's all about ecological sustainability; refusing to sell more of just one thing because she persists on diversifying her crops.

Amy Hepworth's personality style is not for the faint at heart; she is hardcore, intelligent and brazen (and loves operating big machinery). I believe she is an amazing teacher. A handsome rendition of the modern farmer. Of course, she doesn't have time to teach kids about what she is doing, but I do ..and you might too.

You can read more about their farm and story here. Or buy her unbelievably inspiring produce at Whole Foods or the Park Slope Food CoOp in NY.

Inter-generational exchange of Ideas

2010-10-13T19:00:00.006-04:00

The Economist is currently running a series of Conferences that duly make up the Ideas Economy, 'bringing together the top thinkers, and you to discuss the most important issues of our time.' Most recently there was a conference in New York City, which centered on the theme of 'Human Potential.' The speakers and debates were focused on ideas about human nature, education, entrepreneurship, technology and economy. You can read more about the Economists' 'Ideas Economy' here. Or read my post on the new Economist Ideas blog.

One debate, on education in NY especially piqued my interest. It was a flavorful exchange from the esteemed education historian Diane Ravitch and the Charter School Queen Eva Moskowitz. It was especially interesting because Diane speaks from a perceptive historical background, while Eva is on the ground, trying to make things work in the city. Both can agree that education has gone too far astray with the test-based system, and that in order to manage, education must become more individualized. Change must begin with the teachers. More cooperation between teachers and unions is needed. But the real change, Ravitch said, is changing the idea of prescribed learning, a return to learning before bureaucracy.

At lunch the talks continued, and people had the opportunity to share ideas they had - then everyone voted.

Most of the debates and speakers were representatives of the boomer and X generations. However there was a visible presence of the work-force-emergent Y-generation. The topic of one debate concerned Generation Y and questions of Social Media and cultural trends with this wave. The panel included such Generation experts as Tammy Erickson, the author of 'What's Next, Gen X,' and Linda Stone, a Writer and 'Generalist.' I love this term, Generalist. Both of these women were intelligent, engaging and inspirational. What's more, they both spoke as if they understood and celebrated Generation Y - which wasn't the case with the majority of the speakers. Various other speakers had referred to the Y-gen with all the blanket myths, they're 'lazy,' 'without talent,' 'too casual' etc. Stone was pleased with the confidence that 20 and 30-somethings have today.

It was important to have a few Y-generation representatives on the panel - Which both challenged and affirmed different beliefs about the group. But in reality, there is a broad spectrum of people and ways of living within each generation - Yes, there are some trends and historical alterations, but generations must not be held as something determined. This was illustrated within the group, in the great range of values within and between us.

That is why is it so essential that the dialogue involves many voices, from across generations. Especially in idea-harvesting, we can really benefit from the diverse talents and belief systems of all ages and upbringings. I was very grateful for the opportunity to speak on the panel, to be part of the dialogue surrounding the cultivation of Human Potential.

We live in Brooklyn

2010-10-11T09:47:00.004-04:00

Exploring Place-Based Education in Schools.

I met a vivacious Science teacher this weekend. She is a biological anthropologist, and thus roots her curriculum in the all-pervasive notions of ecology. Tisa is an inspired and passionate science educator at the Green School in Long Island City. You can read more about her impassioned teaching style at her blog. She described to me how she uses recycled, locally made salsa jars from the Brooklyn Salsa Company as pen holders in the classroom. These recycled wares actually kick off further conversation with her students about such movements as local food, organic, and direct trade - which can also all be integrated into a science lesson. What better way to start talking about place than with food? Understanding the local, which is real to the students - is a prime way to go on into discussing the global.

Ecology comes from the Greek words : οἶκος, meaning "house" or "living relations"
and -λογία, the study of.
It is the scientific study of the relation of living organisms to each other and their surroundings.

Understanding ecology is at the core of understanding life. So what a better place to start than with place-based learning? Most school text books do not employ the study of place, or go on to paint a picture of the land when teaching history. But, the land where the war was fought has everything to do with what happened there. Ecology teaches us that nothing can be so neatly compartmentalized, that locale has everything to do with everything. We look to place as a relic of the past and an indicator of the future. What does the area look like? What is the health of the soil? How old are the trees? What kind of trees are they?

Times square used to be a beaver pond. What was the course of events that transformed it into one of the busiest, electricity-powered places of the 21st century?

National Geographic compares Manhattan in 1609, before Henry Hudson with Today.

“The goal of the Mannahatta Project has never been to return Manhattan to its primeval state. The goal of the project is discover something new about a place we all know so well, whether we live in New York or see it on television, and, through that discovery, to alter our way of life. New York does not lack for dystopian visions of the future…. But what is the vision of the future that works? Might it lie in Mannahatta, the green heart of New York, and with a new start to history, a few hours before Hudson arrived that sunny afternoon four hundred years ago?”

You don't need to venture far to offer students a picture of place. Even in some areas of Brooklyn, where there are few trees - any shrub or tree hosts an abundance of life. If students have the opportunity to work with the soil in their neighborhoods they may access a story layered beneath what, at the onset, looked just like 'dirt.' Students will feel a greater sense of ownership to their learning if it involves their own turf - a story that they can access with their senses. Everything, however far-fetched or global in nature, can be traced back to basic ecological insight. Even global fashion trends and business transactions are affected by place. All you have to do is look! And you probably won't find it in [text] books, unless it is literature, poetry or art written by people about places. And those are some of the best ways of uncovering history, through the wide-ranging voices of the people themselves. Not just white men, about white men, which tends to be our text-book tendency.

Dewey sees the need to integrate geography, history and nature study, for human events unravel in particular times and places. He writes:

"When the history of work, when the conditions of using the soil, forest, mine, of domesticating and cultivating grains and animals, of manufacture and distribution, are left out of account, history tends to become merely literary - a systematized romance of mythical humanity living upon itself instead of upon the earth."

You don't have to go far to break down notions of 'mythical humanity,' just look up from the American History Text, shift the gaze toward one another and outside.

The Gravitas of Independent Media

2010-09-28T10:35:00.005-04:00

'We will not be silent' is a slogan that dates back to the 'White Rose Collective,' a nonviolent group of intellectuals who spoke out against the Nazi Regime. Their movement became characterized by leaflets which rendered the voice of the people, rather than of power. This mantra has been necessitated again and again, in every language, as people vie for their right to know in the face of dominant State propaganda and corporate media.

Last night I had the opportunity to see Amy Goodman, journalist extraordinaire and famed host of the Independent News program, Democracy Now!. She spoke at Calhoun, a progressive, Independent School on the Upper West Side. Goodman doesn't use detailed notes when she speaks, she is a vivid storyteller - linking true accounts from history with what's happening on the ground today. Her recent New York Times Best Seller, 'Breaking the Sound Barrier' is a collection of columns and stories that elucidate our deep-rooted need to hear the truth on the ground. Democracy Now! is one of these silence breakers, giving what they call the 'war and peace report.' Their aim is not to stand on the sidelines of news, but to really catch the voices and experiences of those in question.

"Where are the experts in their own communities?" she asked.

Let them be heard, she reiterated. In her talk Goodman gave voice to several different youth in brief anecdotes and quotations. These stories of inspired young people give us hope.

"Dissent must be encouraged."

Youth need to know that it's ok to speak out, and to question the status quo. We have essentially been fighting a war since the September 11th attacks in 2001. Yet, Goodman asked the audience quite seriously;

"Do kids get to talk about War?"

The answer is clear. Even some seniors, who are old enough to fight wars for their country, are forbidden to discuss war in their classrooms. Here in the United States we are carefully fed highly controlled information. Goodman knows this directly from experiences like the time when her and several colleagues were arrested during the Republican convention, despite their press credentials or another instance, being stopped and exhaustively interrogated at the Canadian border. Surveillance and patriotism in this country are more prevailing then ever. But these actions are a violation of 'Freedom of Press' as well as the 'Right to Know,' Goodman declared. The image at the top, 'We will not be silent' in English and Arabic was written on a T-shirt worn by an Raed Jamal, an Iraqi blogger and activist when he passed security at JFK. They forced him to turn the T-shirt inside out, saying that it was like going to a bank with a T-shirt that reads, 'I am a robber.'

'Independent media is dangerous because it challenges stereotypes,' Goodman said. Rather than depicting a recurrent, well-crafted image of the 'other' you are given the opportunity to find common ground.

"It is not about one person, it is about movements." Each person just becomes part of the momentum that is the wave, the change or awakening. You can become part of it by becoming involved, by supporting Independent Media and grassroots organizations. Amy Goodman conjured Woody Allen's famous remark that, " 90% of life is just showing up." It's true. That is what independent reporters are aiming to do; to show up at the front lines and offer a genuine account of the story unfolding there. Youth, with all their potential to bring about change and their need to be informed need to be given opportunities to see what's happening in the world firsthand. Goodman told a story of a high school girl who skipped school in order to attend Rosa Parks' funeral, despite the fact that she probably wouldn't be able to get in - 'the good stuff usually happens on the outside anyway,' Goodman winked. The girl called her school that day and left a message saying,

"I won't be in class today, I'm going to get an education."

We will not be silent. Thank you to Calhoun and to Amy Goodman of Democracy Now!

*You can access news and interesting programs from the field at democracynow.org

Or, if you are in NY you can listen to the radio at 8am, M-F on WBAI 99.5 FM

Education as Eros

2010-09-27T10:36:00.007-04:00

One of my favorite professors, a philosopher of education with antiquated languages tattooed on his forearms, commenced our first lecture together by inscribing, in large chalked letters the ancient Greek word:

Ἔρως,

Eros, he said, means Love. And seduction of the mind, which is education, is erotic. Education as Erotic? Hmmmm...He's taking it a bit far, I thought - but I was deeply engaged, almost to the point of perspiration, and I listened on carefully to his argument. The Greeks believed that knowledge was best derived through bodily interactions with the world; Hence the emphasis on music and gymnastics until a scholar was readily developed in physique.

Music and gymnastics were the subjects taught first in order to establish a strong attraction to knowledge. Activating the body through gym and the mind through music brings the body alive. It is an embodied encounter. The mind body dualism was essential to the foundation of Ancient Greek education; the mind mediates toward the body, and the body mediates toward the mind. Therefore, education begins as an inner dialectic. A dialectic with the body, the embodied and the world. Later, when the mind has developed and is agile and nimble from it's music and bodily training, it is ready for dialectic with the teacher.

What is a dialectic? Historically, it is a shared, mystical experience in which Socrates served as a sort of psychagogic midwife; assisting in the divulgence of new ways of thinking through asking questions, through seduction into 'seeing' what is already there. It is teacher as guide and corruption of the mind, or seduction as learning.

Seduction in Latin is: SE DUCERE - lead towards / EX DUCERE - to lead out of

So, my Professor had written the word EROS and essentially led me towards the understanding that the attraction to learning comes through bodily interactions with the world. We were sitting in a classroom, in neat little chairs beneath fluorescent lighting and breathing controlled air while learning about how embodied knowledge and mind-body dualism can actually make education an erotic experience. I believed him, though not because he was telling me it was so - my body already held the wisdom for knowing it to be true. My deepest moments of learning have always occurred when I have been in direct, embodied contact with the world. Whether traveling, falling ill, through touch or taste, a piece of music or the exchange between a merchant, and especially through communicating with others of all ages and creeds.

Couldn't we transform schools with this little philosophic quip?

By giving students the opportunity to connect with learning, through some deep interface with the world? Wouldn't this inflate a sense of responsibility to their community? This is exactly what Greek Education was all about. The word for education, paideia, actually involves a triad understanding of education, philosophy and the polis or community. Paideia was holistic in approach, and emphasized involvement with ones society. Which, today, is not bound to a metropolis, but to the world. Therefore, schools must deliver some interaction with the world in order to make their students fall in love with it, and to be drawn toward their own illumination.

Pressing Forward: 21st Century Skills

2010-09-24T10:24:00.006-04:00

What is the purpose of schooling?

Fernando Reimers, a contributor to 'Educational Leadership' writes that the 'purpose of schooling is to prepare students for life in the real world in their communities and societies, both in the present - while students are in school - and in the future - after they leave school behind.'

So, good educators today must be adapting outmoded systems in order to reflect the interconnected and interdependent nature of life as we know it now. Educator's must be leading with a new set of skills. One American organization; the Partnership for 21st Century Learning is working to provide a new framework for teaching and learning in our era. They redefine the three r's of learning (reading, writing, r'thmatic) into a broader configuration which includes the integration of the four C's, critical thinking/problem solving, communication, coolaboration, creativity and innovation. A fusion of these is necessary to cultivate effective student outcomes. Elizabeth Burmaster, State Superintendent of Public Instruction in Wisconsin breaks down the new demands as the following:

"Students need to be technologically proficient, globally aware, civically engaged and financially and economically literate to most effectively use their creativity in the 21st century."

See the interactive version of this rubric at Route 21

The demand for global competency is more dire than ever. If students want to be a dynamic part of the global workforce and competitive in the economy a sense of global proficiency is essential.

"I define global competency as the knowledge and skills people need to understand today's flat world and to integrate across disciplines so that they can comprehend global event and create possibilities to address them. Global competencies are also the attitudinal and ethical dispositions that make it possible to interact peacefully, respectfully, and productively with fellow human beings from diverse geographies (Reimers, 2009)"

Cell Phones Have No Boundaries

2010-09-20T11:52:00.005-04:00

Image from an article on elearning; Mobile Phones revolutionizing education in Africa, Kevin James Moore.

The last time I visited Tanzania one of the grandiose changes that I witnessed was the looming presence of cell phone towers, high on hills and in the remote skylines of National Parks. However unsightly the 'vodacom' spires are, they are making cell phone reception possible from the slopes of Kilimanjaro to the distant bush of Serengeti. This kind of accessibility is unprecedented - in places where there are no schools, or running water - there is mobile reception. One reoccurring style trend around the world today is the mighty cell phone, clasped in hand.

Last week here in New York I had the opportunity to take part in The Economist's Ideas Conference on Human Potential. There was much sprightly discourse on new ways of thinking and doing. The Economist has recently launched an initiative called the ‘ InnoCentive Challenge’ in which the floor is opened to unconventional ideas which press forward. The last challenge was focused on the challenge of ‘21^st century Cyber Schools.’ The challenged winner is awarded a small grant, and be given more opportunities to present the proposed idea at the upcoming Economist conference.

The winner for the first challenge in 21^st century cyberschools is Andrew Deonarine, a Public Health and Preventative Medicine resident at the University of British Columbia, a facility reputed for the sciences. He won for his proposal on “Educell,” a start-up that uses cell phone technology as a platform for basic literacy through “phonecasting.” A teacher anywhere in the world can use the mobile medium to write and load curriculum in multiple languages using simple coding. The lesson is then published to a server, compressed and sent out to cell phone users in audio and video format (obviously necessary for literacy learning).

Deonarine is pushing the limits by bringing together medicine, biology and computer science in order to advance learning across demographics. The beauty of this idea is that most people around the world have access to and are willing to invest in a mobile phone. Even some of the most rural areas in India and Sub-saharan Africa, where there is no running water or electricity, people have access to mobile phones and coverage. This would be a fantastic move, and not unrealistic to do, especially in teaching basic literacy and rudimentary health promotion.

Most teachers prohibit the use of mobiles and texting in schools, however, might this be one of our most untapped, and tapped-in resources? Students send hundreds of texts a day, they access information and engage with one another. Could we be using cell phones, which are available to youth throughout the world and across demographics to foster more dialogue, and to spread more conscious learning initiatives? This is an idea that could help push things forward in both western, and developing nations.

Texting could also be used between students in classrooms from Kentucky to Kochi.

September 11th Prayer

2010-09-11T23:16:00.005-04:00

Reflecting on humanity,
Remembering the brave souls,
and the countless lives lost since and because of those lamentable acts of 9 years ago today.

A prayer today for more interfaith dialogue

Y-generation

2010-09-11T15:46:00.006-04:00

beep bep bob beeb bep beop… Crraaaarrrraarr… Crraaaarrrraarr… Crraaaarrrraarr…

If the seemingly prehistoric sounds of dial-up Internet were a part of your childhood experience – then you are probably part of the Y Generation.

Unlike the X generation, which begins after the baby boomer era and ends in the eighties, 1961-1981, the dates of the Y generation are still debatable. The Y-geners appear to be those born between 1976 and 1996. But, more generally we can say that the Y generations are the first of those to come of age under the flowering of the Internet. That is why they are sometimes referred to as iGen, net generation, Internet generation as well as echo boomers and millenials. What we can be sure of is that this generation has been under the constant influence of technology.

Some have been honing their technological literacy since learning to read. They have literally had the world [wide web] at their fingertips. The world has been in a period of steady, dramatic and accelerated change in the past thirty years; so it wouldn’t be surprising to confirm that this generation is now refashioning what it means to be a ‘twenty-something.’ And they’re in no rush to grow up. The New York Times recently published an article called, ‘What is it about Twenty Somethings?’ which introduced the possibility of a new developmental phase called ‘emerging adulthood,’ a term coined by Psychologist Jeffrey Jensen Arnett, and brought about by the social and economic changes of our time. The article is a well-written exploration on what is means to be an ‘emerging adult’ today, and whether it’s helpful or just a setback to use the twenties as a time of self-discovery and continued dependency. The article was written by a regular New York Times contributor in her 50's.

The articles negotiations between pros and cons illustrate just how little we understand this generation of youth. Come to think of it, do Generation Y-ers understand themselves? It seems they are caught between the conventions and pressures of their parents, and the limitless opportunities of the world today. They are supposed to discover themselves in ways that their parents were never able, but at the same time expected to get the degree, the job, and the family before expiration (a date that is protracting more than ever). The Y generation and the world have changed, but the architecture of our schools and institutions are lagging behind. So, what can we learn from this generation in order to better bridge schooling with the work force, and world? Because, come on, these twenty somethings don’t have the time to mess around – they want to reinvent jobs to work for them.

As a bonafide member of the Y generation and a scholar of ‘21^st century education’ I have a few ideas about who we are and what kind of support we need in order to thrive:

1. More learning outside of the classroom; schools are still operating from an Industrial Revolution style model of learning. What students need is more access to real world relationships, work experiences and relevant pedagogy.

2. Support Youth to take a Gap, or Bridge Year ; Princeton is at the forefront of this movement in America, encouraging prospective students to apply and then take a year ‘on’ of public service. This gives youth the support they need to engage in self-discovery, volunteer, as well as ensuring continuation in school.

3. Beyond-the-office training; How much work is really performed during office hours? How much money and management is needed in order to monitor how many times people check their facebook accounts on the job? This generation doesn’t want to be confined to offices, professional attire or the 9-5 nightmare. So how can we reinvent the wheel? We need more a innovative approach to work… How to guides on thriving as a freelancer, entrepreneur and actor in the 21^st century workforce.

4. Capitalize on Capitalism; the NGO trend is a swing in the right direction, however, people working for them are often burnt out and underpaid. Social entrepreneurship is the way forward, and the Y generation is at the helm. People are much more likely to give money when there is a cause attached (see cause and cone marketing). Enterprise redesigned.

5. More cross-cultural/inter-generational interface; One of the major issues of our era is the growing gaps between rich and poor, cultures, and generations. As the world is changing at ever accelerating rates more efforts must be made to foster dialogue between civilizations (see dialogue among civilizations). Using technology in schools to promote discourse between students around the world is one way of cultivating global competence (see Global Nomads Group).

6. Environmental and Social Responsibility; The eighties and nineties commenced a period of exposure to global crisis unlike ever before. New media started to uncover war, famine, genocide, and environmental degradation, in ways that make it impossible to turn a blind eye. This generation has a unprecedented responsibility, and if they haven't realized it, or are too overwhelmed with information - some real focus and guidance is needed.

7. The willingness to change; If we want to continue to be competitive in the global economy we must take action to change the architecture of old systems. The future of our success may not greatly resemble structures of the past. The Y-generation is not willing to go along with outmoded ways of working and living - and that should be OK.

We are constantly learning how to adapt and integrate news ways of doing in the 21^st century. The Y generation is still emerging on the scene with their gadgets and an epoch-making sense of autonomy. Rather than trying to hold on to convention, and ideas of what it means to ‘grow up,’ let’s nurture the sense of immeasurable options that youth feel today. Take the advice of Ken Robinson, the author of ‘The Element’ who writes,

“My contention is that creativity now is as important in education as literacy, and we should treat it with the same status.”

So, with the last wave of the Y-generation entering college it would be a good time to put trust in evolving the new technology they are already so intimate with. As well as creating opportunities to bring innovation into the academic methodology – such as cultivating the skills that employers are looking for; innovation, self-starter attitudes and experience – all of which comes from direct work and experience in the world. The Y-generation may be seemingly gradual in reaching adulthood, but personal evolution in the twenties may be a step toward unlocking human potential in our era. So let’s be kind to the Y-generation, in a world of constant growth and flux, they’re still getting to know themselves.

Sometimes, the Y generation is even known as Generation, 'Why'? for the ways they are shaking up notions of workforce. Often met with an attitude of skepticism by older generations, this era of youth and their inclination to query and taking their time should be treated with heed - the importance of questioning obsolete conventions may be a step forward in building ones that work.

-Rebecca Thom

La Belle Sauvage

2010-09-02T12:30:00.006-04:00

Rousseau's notion of the Noble Savage views the natural as the ethical base of man. He believed that schooling should begin with the soil, not in the clouds.

In Rousseau's discourse on Education, or Emile, he describes the development and individual tuition of a fictitious boy/young man in line with the principles of 'natural education.' The treatise is comprised of five books, and a sixth on Sophie, the female scholar. Each book describes the appropriate way to educate the boy according to life stages. The second phase, ages 2-12 is the 'age of nature,' in which the child receives only 'negative education,' no moral instruction, and no verbal learning. He believed the mind should be left undisturbed until all its faculties have developed. One of the lessons in the second book involves tending to a garden plot in order to understand notions of property, and cultivation. It is a lesson in culture.

The tutor is merely an witness to the child's discovery of its natural habits.

The cultivation of a garden has continued to be a departure for learning in progressive education. Dewey believed gardening, the hands-on, democratic approach teaches responsibility and recognition of the individual's place in society. Dating back to Aristotle, tekne or the intelligence of agriculture was an essential skill for understanding necessity, ergo life and death. Understanding the interconnected nature of plant growth and nourishment also teaches about sustenance, dependence, money, exchange, use and responsibility. Therefore, it is also a place-based way of teaching about globalization. Increasingly in the 21st century we are recognizing the importance of understanding the growth of our foodstuffs; learning about food is learning about life.

Gardens create a dynamic learning environment for not only teaching, but involving students with their locale, creating awareness about the natural environment and food. It is an essential feature of 21st century education.

Age

2010-09-02T11:38:00.006-04:00

~ Mkoba wa mzee hauishiwi kabisa ~

An elders handbag is never completely empty

*Photos by Rebecca Thom

The world at our fingertips

2010-08-23T14:46:00.002-04:00

The children of immigrants make up 20% of all youth in the U.S. These children become interlocutors, speaking the mother tongue at home and navigating the way in the new language and culture for their families. Many immigrants and children of immigrants experience what is called 'dual-consciousness,' or viewing the world with binary lens. As bilingual education is still on the margins of acceptance in the U.S., many children only have the opportunity to speak and learn their mother tongue at home. Most educative experiences for bilinguals do not promote balanced knowledge of two languages, but rather emphasize English at the expense of the native language.For this reason America, the melting-pot, has also been referred to as the cemetery for languages.

Yet with over 300 languages spoken in America the notion of literacy becomes one of culture, as well as multilingualism. It is interesting that parents and teachers alike are recognizing the importance of learning a second language, almost before bilingual or 'mother tongue' education has taken root in our country. In some New York schools Chinese is taking precedence over Spanish. Illustrating how we no longer live by the confines of borders, but by the ebb and flow of global order.

Learning a foreign language has actually never been so accessible. Especially outside of the classroom, in the limitless world of the web. You can read the news in one of 32 languages or do language learning on BBC, get online translations, skype, watch films - and today I discovered a library of children's books at the 'International Children's Digital Library' where you can read and look at thousands of books from around the world. Some of the books are bilingual, which can give the reader a vignette not only into the language, but also the related culture. As a book-lover and proponent of utilizing technology I am beholden by the site and its vision.

Have you heard of the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis?

It is the belief that language is relative, both structuring and patterning our ways of thinking and acting. This would make the learning of language an important part of understanding other cultures and vs versa.

* All images are from books available to read online at http://en.childrenslibrary.org/

Unschooling

2010-08-18T09:19:00.004-04:00

Image from Cyfernet.org

"What children need is not new and better curricula but access to more and more of the real world; plenty of time and space to think over their experiences, and to use fantasy and play to make meaning out of them; and advice, road maps, guidebooks, to make it easier for them to get where they want to go (not where we think they ought to go), and to find out what they want to find out."

~John Holt~ Teach Your Own

As the world is rapidly changing and schools lag behind, many parents are taking their children's education into their own hands. This morning in the New York Times Parenting blog, Chandra Hoffman describes her choice to home school her eight year old son this year. Her personal decision mostly comes down to her want to actually connect with her beaming, bright and cheeky son, rather than constantly falling into the role of nagging parent. Other parents feel strongly that the school, as an institution, has a damaging effect on children. And frankly, most schools are not preparing students for the world they live in. I believe that much of this has to do with the exacerbated American trend of our last two presidencies, standardized testing.

The emphasis on testing, overcrowded classrooms and poor results makes it difficult for teachers to bring life to their curricula - they are too busy trying to 'pass the test' themselves. The most tragic proof that we are not getting it right in schools is this;

"When student's are asked today to finish the question, school is ________, the word they most often use is boring. (Suarez-Orozco, Learning in the Global Era: International Perspectives on the New Millenium)"

This is because we are still using methods of educating that represent the factories of the industrial age - They even resemble factories and most employ rote methods of teaching and learning. But memorization of fact becomes obsolete very quickly in our era. If we want students to thrive, to pass the test, they need to be engaged with the world as they know it - the world as it is today.

The great progressive educator, John Dewey said, 'Education is life.' He is the modern father of experiential education; He believed that student's need to be empowered in their individual learning experience as well as active participants, preparing them to become effective members of a democratic society. Dewey argued that a one way, authoritarian style of teaching will not give students the preparation they need. It will require direct 'educational experiences that enable them to become valued, equal and responsible members of society.'

I argue that this requires more contact with the world, the invitation to use their hands, to do it themselves, and to develop artistry in communication with fellow human beings. Does this require 'Unschooling'? No, I don't think so. But, there is increasing evidence that mentor-style relationships are an important resource for the amelioration of learning in today's world.

Addressing religious pluralism in schools

2010-08-12T17:44:00.007-04:00

Are public schools the proper place to consider religion? Although we might agree that religion needs further discussion, a reader and former teacher rightly questioned how this might happen.

How can we engage in religious studies when so many students struggle with basics like simply reading? she asked. What religions would we choose to teach? These are utterly valid and common questions from teachers, parents, and pedagogues, including myself.

It takes me back to the memory of sitting in a classroom on September 11th of 2001. It was the first time that my predominantly white, suburban, privileged class had ever engaged in such riveting dialogue. Because we were forced to wake up. Those atrocious acts of religious fundamentalism 'changed the geopolitical-religious landscape forever (Robert J. Nash).' Suddenly, youth and adults alike were compelled to further question 'Why? why had this happened? And 'what do Muslims really believe?' and 'What is the difference between Shiite and Sunni? These events and the continuing war on terrorism around the world makes it clear that we are now forced to reexamine the core of what we teach in schools in order to make students more globally aware.

I return to Professor Robert J. Nash, who teaches religious pluralism at the University level, who writes, "...Much of what we in the United States believe to be moral - or immoral - is largely a legacy of the Judeo-Christian heritage, as well as of the European Enlightenment." And this is visible today. Let's go to the Texas school board this summer, for a frightening example of how religion in schools can go wrong. Allow me to introduce Cynthia Dunbar, who is part of a coalition of Christian evangelicals who have taken over the Texas School board.

Dunbar and her education board is on the brink of changing what kids in Texas learn. She said;

"We are fighting for our children's education and our nation's future. In Texas we have certain statutory obligations to promote patriotism and to promote the free enterprise system. There seems to have been a move away from a patriotic ideology. There seems to be a denial that this was a nation founded under God. We had to go back and make some corrections."

Some of these corrections drop references to the slave trade, while highlighting the considerable efforts of Confederates and sidelining Thomas Jefferson. This is when religion in schools gets scary. Unfortunately, Texas also has a great influence on text book production because they buy so many. So, if Dunbar is so close to changing history with the strength of her Conservative Christian cohorts, then the rest of us should be able to make some more liberal minded adjustments too?

I don't believe the important dialogue that is needed will come from text books, or policy change, although that would be helpful. It will come from teachers willingness to engage in the subject. It will come from the integration of religion into other core subjects, such as global studies or literature. Hindi and Arabic texts were never in my school curriculum, but are immensely rich. It will come from reading the daily news and then discussing fact. I'm talking religious literacy. Like, what is Jihad? Perhaps this kind of sensitive exploration can only commence in Secondary School, though I would imagine that the younger the children, the more open they are to speak and listen without fear or dogma. Teachers are masters at speaking with a voice that holds no bias, thus, discussion about religions can be carried forth in casual, factual dialogue.

Nash, in his exploration of religious pluralism often begins by raising the Hindu insight that although religious truth may indeed be one, there are an infinite number of ways to reach, interpret, and practice that truth. Rig Veda, the oldest and most sacred Hindu text puts it this way:

"Ekam sat vipraha bahudha vadanti"

or Truth is one, but the wise call it by many Names" (Rig Veda 1.46.46).

The only way youth will begin to operate with that mind set is when we are free and capable of discussing religion. The best time to do this is when it is relevant; either on the news, or on the day of some religious holiday or ritual. When children see people walking around their city with ash smeared on their foreheads, they should be able to have a discussion in school about its significance. We need our children to be literate for the world they are entering. I am no authority on the subject, or its manifestation in schools, but I am a strong believer in educating citizens for global awareness.

Ramadan

2010-08-11T07:09:00.009-04:00

'Ramadan Kareem'

Ramadan is Generous (greeting)

Today marks the first day of Ramadan, 2010. More than 1 billion Muslims around the world begin their holy month of spiritual purification through fasting, self sacrifice and prayer. According to Islamic tradition, the month of Ramadan represents the time when Allah revealed the Qu'ran to the Prophet Mohammad. During this month people over 12 years old fast from sunrise to sunset. The meal before sunrise is called sahur, and the breaking of the fast is named iftar. Travelers, the ill, and menstruating women usually do not fast.

The Arabic word الامتناع for fasting literally means to refrain, not only from food and drink but also from all physical desire, profane language, and gossiping. It is an overall awareness of the body and a complete Surrendering of the soul. It is an important time to reevaluate ones convictions and deeds. It is time to forgive and be forgiven, to mend and nurture relationships and refocus toward Allah, الله‎ (God.)

"The act of fasting is said to redirect the heart away from worldly activities, its purpose being to cleanse the inner soul and free it from harm. It also allows Muslims to practice self-discipline, self-control,sacrifice, and empathy for those who are less fortunate; thus encouraging actions of generosity and charity." -Zakat

This year, as with most there is uncertainty about the exact starting day of the fast. It depends on the moon. The Ramadan moon looks like this;

A waxing crescent at about 3%. The month of fasting will commence Wednesday, August 11th and end with a three day festival called Eid ul fitr on September 9th. Based on sightability of the moon in North America, some say the fasting will begin and end a day later.

Even if we don't live in a Muslim country, or hold the same beliefs as the billion people who embark on purification today - it is good to recognize practice of purification, as with other sacred customs around the world. Islam may be the most misconceived religion of our time, especially illustrated by fanatic acts. But truly Islam means Submission to God, and that in and of itself is a peaceful conduct.

Although I live in a Secular Nation, I do believe that in a world of such great and ever developing pluralism - We should be teaching religion in schools. Dialogue is needed, understanding is needed in order to prepare students for a life characterized by diversity and hybridization. This is not about promoting one religion over another, but engaging in a comparative consideration of all major religions. It is an essential base for understanding history and current global happenings.

What is Global Competence anyway?

2010-08-09T16:50:00.011-04:00

Today I am loving the Asia Society's 'education and learning' stockpile. Asia society has created efforts across domains to form the Partnership for Global Learning. It is an innovative educational movement.

"As a membership network, its purpose is to provide leadership and structure to move international education from the margins to the mainstream by connecting policy and practice to prepare American students to excel in an interconnected world."

The interconnected programs and schools are pushing boundaries in order to advance global competence in youth. So, what exactly is global competence? Broken down, it works like this....

Investigate the world

Children are naturally curious. A Montessori school toy.

Students investigate the world beyond their immediate environment.

This means they are able to Generate and explain the significance of locally, regionally or globally focused researchable questions.

Identify, collect and analyze the knowledge and evidence required to answer questions using a variety of international sources, media and languages.

Weigh, integrate and synthesize evidence collected to construct coherent responses that is appropriate to the context of issues or problems.

Develop an argument based on compelling evidence that considers multiple perspectives and draws defensible conclusions.

Recognize Perspectives

Image from Pieterse's 'Globalization and Culture'

Students recognize their own and others’ perspective.

Recognize and articulate one’s own perspective on situations, events, issues or phenomena and identify the influences on that perspective.

Articulate and explain perspectives of other people, groups or schools of thought and identify the influences on those perspectives.

Explain how the interaction of ideas across cultures influences the development of knowledge and situations, events, issues or phenomena.

Articulate how the consequences of differential access to knowledge, technology and resources affect the quality of life and influences perspectives.

Communicate Ideas 传达想法

deel Ideeën mee

communiquez les idées

Teilen Sie Ideen mit

Επικοινωνήστε τις ιδέες

Comunichi le idee

考えを伝えなさい

아이디어를 전하십시오

Comunique idéias

Связывайте идеи

Comunique las ideas
Kuwasiliana wawazo
لإيصال الأفكار

Students communicate their ideas effectively with diverse audiences.

Recognize that diverse audiences may perceive different meanings from the same information.

Use appropriate language, behavior and strategies to effectively communicate, both verbally and non-verbally, with diverse audiences.

Explain how effective communication impacts understanding and collaboration in an interdependent world.

Select and effectively use appropriate technology and media to communicate with diverse audiences.

Take ACTION

Image from Change.org on Social Entrepeneurship

Students translate their ideas and findings into appropriate actions to improve conditions.

Recognize one’s capacity to advocate for and contribute to improvement locally, regionally, or globally.

Identify opportunities for personal and collaborative action to address situations, events, issues or phenomena in ways which can make a difference.

Assess options for action based on evidence and the potential for impact, taking into account varied perspectives and potential consequences for others.

Act creatively and innovatively to contribute to improvement locally, regionally or globally both personally and collaboratively.

*all of this information came from Asia society, 'What is Global Competence'

Pay Attention

2010-08-09T11:18:00.003-04:00

Unveiling Humanity: Sebastio Salgado

2010-08-06T18:29:00.004-04:00

Refugee in Mali, 1986

A Community above Chimborazo, Ecuador 1982

Mali, 1986

Korem Camp, Ethiopia, 1985

Ethiopia 1984

'All that is solid melts into Air'

2010-08-06T11:04:00.011-04:00

"Constant revolutionizing of production, uninterrupted disturbance of all social relations, everlasting uncertainty and agitation distinguish the bourgeois epoch from all earlier times. All fixed fast-frozen relationships, with their train of venerable ideas and opinions, are swept away, all new formed ones become obsolete before they can ossify. All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned, and men at last are forced to face with sober senses the real conditions of their lives and their relations with their fellow men."
- Marx, Engels, The Communist Manifesto

Gutter being dug and filled with concrete, Kigoma, Tanzania, 2010. Par Moi.

When I boarded the small Air Tanzania flight to Kigoma I found my seat in the back of the plane, next to a Chinese man. The seats behind us and before us were also filled with Chinese men in their 40s. None of them spoke Swahili and the man next to me spoke very little English. I was able to uncover that he had been living in Dar es Salaam for ten years. He doesn't like it. He travels back and forth to Tabora in the middle of the country, where he buys a particular hard wood, which he then sells to China for fine-furniture production.

There have been Chinese in Tanzania as early as 1891. With waves of migration to Zanzibar in the 1930s, workers sent by the government in the 60s and 70s and continued interest from private entrepreneurs and traders who began doing business there in the early 90s. Since the era of Julius Nyerere there has been a bilateral relation between the two Nations. In 1965, China and Tanzania signed "The Treaty of Friendship between the People's Republic of China and the United Republic of Tanzania", as well as many other agreements on bilateral co-operation in the fields of economy, trade, culture and health. Nyerere, like other Nationalist leaders across the continent, looked to China as an example, as quoted in Donald Robinson's 'The Hundred Most Important People in the world Today, he said,

"You don't have to be a Communist to see that China has a lot to teach us in development. The fact that they have a different political system than ours has nothing to do with it." (New York, 1970)

That was one era of the relationship between Tanzania and China. Back then it was seemingly linked more with ideology and the Chinese government. Now, it is more of a relationship between Tanzanian government and Chinese corporations. China needs Tanzania's raw resources. Does Tanzania need China? The reply is undoubtedly divided between government, the corrupt and individuals who are called to work under the Chinese business thrall. It is both an interesting and imperative relationship to examine. Is it a mutually beneficial relationship, or neocolonialism? We don't want to reflect upon this era with remorse.

"The bourgeoisie has resolved all personal honor and dignity as idyllic into exchange-value; and in place of all the freedoms that men have fought for, it has put one unprincipled freedom - Free Trade." (The Communist Manifesto)

Mythological imagery by Nick Brandt

2010-08-02T09:50:00.008-04:00

Nick Brandt has been taking photographs in East Africa since 2000. His method is to use medium format film, and to get as close to the animal as possible - he doesn't use telephoto lens in order to see the animal in the expanse of its environment.

East Africa's bush is an iconic and magical world, and represents a kind of wild that most children will not know in their lifetime. I propose the use of photography, especially such riveting and romantic images as these, to grasp the attention of students. Free-writing about these unique images and then further studying the greater, more tragic accounts of the animal's impending decline is a alluring way of bringing disciplines together.

Brandt writes; "They're are my elegy to a world that is steadily, tragically vanishing."

See more of his photos here.

Edutopia - there IS such a place

2010-07-29T18:28:00.007-04:00

Education has several root words, educare; to draw out from within, rear, or educere; to lead.
Topia; a place, it differs from Utopia - which derives from ou+topos, or 'no place.'

In 1991 The George Lucas Educational Foundation founded an online fountain of resources for educators. The website, edutopia, designs and distributes content across multiple media platforms. It is now a flourishing harbor of online dialogue, sharing and innovation across educational spheres.

It is an example of motion towards 21st century education.

Why? Because it is offering a place where educators can feel a sense of community and support in pioneering new methods and inspired ways of engaging students today. The architecture of schools and classrooms needs restructuring in order to be pertinent to both students and teachers. The old models are not working. In education and economics, the United States is gradually being overshadowed by other nation's supremacy. This is a call to action. Obama too is insisting that teachers across America rise to the occasion and become masters in their field.

In his address to the National Urban League last week Obama said,

“Our goal isn’t to fire or admonish teachers,”
Rather, he said the “Race to the Top” program, which provides additional federal funds to local schools that meet administration standards — and a companion effort to overhaul the nation’s 5,000 worst schools — were ultimately aimed at giving good teachers higher salaries, more support, from supplies to smaller classes, and more training to provide them with career opportunities and financial rewards. About $4 billion is being invested in each initiative.
“All I’m asking in return, as a president and as a parent,” Mr. Obama continued, “is a measure of accountability. Surely we can agree that even as we applaud teachers for their hard work, we need to make sure they’re delivering results in the classroom. If they’re not, let’s work with them to help them be more effective. And if that fails, let’s find the right teacher for that classroom. (NYT's article)”

He then went on to explain that this is very different from the Bush legacy of 'No Child Left Behind,' which commenced a sort of punishment or failure policy for schools. Obama said the Federal government will be working with the entire community. I agree that the education debate must become more of a community affair. Teachers have too long experienced a sense of isolation and lack of support.

It is encouraging that George Lucas is using his advanced post in the media world for educational evolution. I believe that more of us, across disciplines, can cross the threshold. Education is not just for teachers and students. It is for our collective future. The more involvement at a community level, the more advancement in schools. So, even if you aren't a teacher, maybe check out edutopia and start dialoguing, sharing and promoting 21st century education in schools. It starts with educating ourselves.

In Paris, a daily paper for kids

2010-07-27T09:51:00.004-04:00

'Daily Paper for kids Defies the Digital' -Paris Journal in the NYT's

To me, there is still a distinct difference between reading a book or the paper, compared to getting news on the computer, ipad, or iphone. It may be environmentally sound, yet, the tangibility of getting world news on paper is irreplaceable. And so what about the present generation of youth? Will they not know the sense of empowerment that is possible from browsing the daily paper?

In Paris, François Dufour, a successful entrepreneur in the field of education founded 'Mon Quotidien,' or My Daily, a newspaper for 10-14 year olds. The newspaper was started in 1995, and within three years circulation had reached over 50,000 copies. The paper's success allowed them to branch out with two more papers, one for 7-10 year-olds and another for 14-17 year-olds. There are a few full time adult staff, but everyday a group of preadolescents sit around a table and discuss content. The paper boasts interesting, quirky, and positive happenings that both appeal to and inspire youth. It also has games, cartoons and headlines.

There is something very clever and unique about this approach in our specific era. The fact that youth are being engaged in the formation of the daily paper means that it will be relevant to the targeted audience. Also, too many youth in too many nations are not participating in civic affairs and therefore are not developing a sense of responsibility or stake in global matters. We cannot afford to have uninformed citizens anymore. So I applaud François in using the money he made in the early 90's in such an encouraging way. Although numbers of French citizens who buy newspapers is diminishing, it seems that parents still value the substance of a good paper for their kids. Ah bon!

Don't forget to bring your visa to school

2010-07-25T14:30:00.001-04:00

"Three decades after the Supreme Court ruled that immigration violations cannot be used as a basis to deny children equal access to a public school education, one in five school districts in New York State is routinely requiring a child’s immigration papers as a prerequisite to enrollment, or asking parents for information that only lawful immigrants can provide."
- New York Times, 7/22/10

The United States has the greatest number of immigrants worldwide, and almost one quarter of all youth are of immigrant origin. The stories of these individuals cannot be translated in simple terms, immigration is a family affair that webs with complex and sometimes traumatic turns. Children are the veritable fruit borne of immigration, says Marcelo and Carola Suarez-Orozco, NYU professors of Immigration. Children are often the driving force behind a parent's choice to immigrate, they take on responsibilities in the new country, and all too often are tragically separated from their families.

"What are the consequences of this systemic wreckage on the lives of children?"

The reality of Immigration in the United States is a crisis. Suarez-Orozco, in their Huffington Post blog, define the system as 'broken.' And Carola Suarez-Orozco goes on to describe the kind of psychological affects this broken system has on the lives of children. In the United States there are 11 or 12 million undocumented immigrants, the sheer proportion of this number elucidates a great breach in our system.

"They unmask a policy architecture that is at once misaligned with the realities of global migration and plagued by unclear, contradictory, and unrealistic objectives. The result is an immigration system largely irrelevant to any rational labor market objectives, the integrity of the family, the vicissitudes of labor and business, and the requirements of citizenship and social cohesion in the 21st Century."

The issue of immigration has for too long been steeped with misinformation and irrelevance. The fact that children are potentially being deprived of their right to education is unconstitutional. In anticipation of Federal Immigration Reform many States have passed their own initiatives; some of these, like the Visa requirement in schools in NY state are a perpetuation of racial profiling and discrimination. Rather than providing the necessary continuity of schooling, children without proper papers are continuously plagued with fear; Fear of family separation, and the unease of a watchful eye at school.

The immigration debate is one that must be talked about in classrooms. Children and teachers need to be prepared to face and unpack the reality of immigration today. Almost one quarter (16 million) of youth in the U.S. are of immigrant origin - And it is predicted that over 1 third of youth in 2040 will be of immigrant households (Suarez-Orozco). So, how are we fitting this reality into the picture? Both our schools and policy need dramatic restructuring.

Helping classrooms face the world

2010-07-19T13:07:00.000-04:00

"Facing History's work is based on the premise that we need to — and can— teach civic responsibility, tolerance, and social action to young people, as a way of fostering moral adulthood. If we do not educate students for dignity and equity, then we have failed both them and ourselves."

This organization actually engages the darker side of human affairs in classrooms and communities through innovative, incorporated history lessons. Their mission is grounded in participatory pedagogy that links the individual to their world and shared global history. They have developed original curriculum which is used in more than 120 countries by over 50,000 educators. Their teaching models use a human-based approach and engage issues of identity in learning how to link the past with the present, thus gaining forethought for the future.

It is of essence that youth are given the information they need to make the right choices for a peaceful future for all people. This will require dialogue, the capacity to face oneself, and bitter lessons of history.

"We all have these elements within us the ability to be a Perpetrator, bystander or hero.
This class says you have have a choice. It prepares you to do the right thing.
It teaches us to acknowledge the suffering of others and do all we can to stop the violence that causes such suffering. That's all you can ask of yourself."

-Student, Facing History and Ourselves

Their website provides a fount of resources for teachers.

Sudanese Proverb

2010-07-13T23:58:00.000-04:00

We desire to bequest two things to our children--
the first one is roots;
the other one is wings.

Eggers speaks for Sudan

2010-07-13T23:26:00.000-04:00

Image by Stephanie Augustine for the NY Times

Ebb does not follow ebb -- flood is in between.
-Sudanese proverb

Dave Eggers, the author of 'What is the What' wrote an Op-Ed in the New York Times today called 'In Sudan, War is Around the Corner,' concerning the war torn land of Sudan. It was a plead of sorts, for America to use its diplomatic leverage to aid Sudan before the foreseeable possibility of a faulty, violent outcome to their National elections in January. The Nation has long been divided from the Islamic government of the North and Khartoum, and the South, where the majority of the Nation's oil lies. If the election goes poorly then violence will surely erupt between the two. There has been a slight lull in the intensity of bloodshed since the United States helped wager a comprehensive Peace Agreement between the North and South in 2005. Eggers now calls upon America to use its standing to prevent the violence before it arises.

He summons the memory of Rwanda, in which President Clinton regrets he did not step in sooner. The International community did not intervene before all havoc and bloodshed had been done. Indeed Sudan has been through one of the most tragic civil wars of the 20th century, it is still vulnerable to devolution. I enjoyed the informed and political summons of this editorial.

Kampala Bombings, Global Problem

2010-07-13T16:25:00.000-04:00

The Kampala bombings are not necessarily an American issue at this time, but the incident represents a global problem and could use a more attentive eye from the world.

An 18 year old American from PA who was injured in the bombings. See full article in the NYTs.

Again, conflict strikes in the Great Lakes region of East Africa. This time seemingly surrounding the World Cup festivities in Kampala, Uganda. Yet, it didn't take long for fundamental Islamist group, the Shababs, to claim responsibility for the suicide bombs that killed 70 and wounded countless more.

Kron and Ibrahim's New York Times article today chimed a familiar story with global reach. The Terrorist group may originate in Somalia, the war torn country that has been without stable government for 20 years. Both Uganda and Burundi have received terrorist threats from the Shababs for their alliance with the African Union in their efforts to secure the Somali region. Though the majority of Somalis are peaceful, the article warned against a pattern of Somali-American immigrants and refugees and their fragility to joining forces with terrorist groups.

Terrorism that lives and trains in America or travels to Uganda represents the deterritorialized reach of fundamentalist movements. Thus, it should also reminds us of the issue of inclusion here in America. Are we creating a nation that involves all of its people? Do minority populations have a voice? Dialogue is needed.

I feel like this article could offer a potent classroom discussion; It engages the breadth of globalization as well as conflict, international intervention, terrorist networks, immigration and social inclusion.

The issue of participation

2010-07-08T00:09:00.000-04:00

A school teacher with hope, Arusha

An emerging young woman in Kigoma.

Dusty road of Kasulu.

Tanzania is a developing nation. Like many post-colonial nations, poverty is rife. Throughout the republic there is a complex web of Non-profits, religious and governmental development initiatives. There are as many organizations as ways of doing things and it has become important to look more closely at the work of others, and to learn from it. Not all development organizations lend force to the people and local culture, not all money filters to favorable cause, but, there are many who are doing noble work in all domains.

The Nobel prize winning economist, Amartya Sen explores development theory with a lens of freedom as development. This includes the central issue of participation. Are the people free to represent themselves? To Act? To Action. 'The people directly involved who must have the opportunity to participate in deciding what should be chosen,' Sen writes, thus development as we know it may be harmful for traditions and cultural heritage.

A quiet elder on the boat to Gombe, Lake Tanganika

So, let the people lead themselves. Some non-profits and initiatives are beginning to engage participation and partnerships with local volunteers. The UNHCR is making efforts to extend that right to displaced individuals. More and more, it seems NGOs in Tanzania are lessening their overseas volunteers in order to make efforts more sustainable.
Chellie Kew, a dear friend and the founder of The Q fund inspired me early on to be awake to the deep contrast that is alive in this era. She spoke of her time in South Africa with such gaping darkness and extreme luminosity, depicting the real chiaroscuro of progress and devolution. We must always look closely at both.

Furaha.

The Hundred Languages of Children

2010-07-07T23:59:00.000-04:00

The Hundred Languages Of Children

The child
is made of one hundred.
The child has
a hundred languages
a hundred hands
a hundred thoughts
a hundred ways of thinking
of playing, of speaking.
A hundred always a hundred
ways of listening
of marvelling, of loving
a hundred joys
for singing and understanding
a hundred worlds
to discover
a hundred worlds
to invent
a hundred worlds
to dream.
The child has
a hundred languages
(and a hundred hundred hundred more)
but they steal ninety-nine.
The school and the culture
separate the head from the body.
They tell the child:
to think without hands
to do without head
to listen and not to speak
to understand without joy
to love and to marvel
only at Easter and at Christmas.
They tell the child:
to discover the world already there
and of the hundred
they steal ninety-nine.
They tell the child:
that work and play
reality and fantasy
science and imagination
sky and earth
reason and dream
are things
that do not belong together.

And thus they tell the child
that the hundred is not there.
The child says:
No way. The hundred is there.

Loris Malaguzzi
(translated by Lella Gandini)

*All images taken with my Canon 35m

June 20 is World Refugee Day.

2010-06-21T16:07:00.000-04:00

Hundreds of thousands Uzbek refugees need clothes and water after fleeing violence in which 171 people have died in Kyrgysztan (Guardian.co.uk).

"You can take away my home but you can't take away my future. (Theme 2010)"

The 1951 Refugee Convention establishing UNHCR spells out that a refugee is someone who "owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable to, or owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country."

There were 43.3 million forcibly displaced people worldwide at the end of 2009.

Of these, 15.2 million were refugees, asylum-seekers and 27.1 million internally displaced persons.

10.4 million of these are under UNHCR protection. (UNHCR, 2009 Global Trends)

These Internationally ordained days of awareness; such as World Womens day, day of the African child and Day of the Refugee are helpful ways of having a collective discussion of underrepresented persons. It is a fantastic opportunity to initiate dialogue in ones community. I especially think its a helpful way for teachers to incorporate issues of social justice into learning. For example, surrounding this day, teachers could have the students engage in few personal, written or historical accounts of stateless persons. After a class discussion and sharing around ideas of citizenry, ethnicity and human rights students could write their own stories, poems or drawings that reflect the notion of statelessness. It is of great historic import that we begin to broaden ideas of belonging in order to fit the increasing millions of people that are forced or choose to migrate. As our environmental systems continue in the direction of demise there will be increasing numbers of people fleeing their homelands. All of these aspects must be apprised across the lands.

Refugees too should be given the opportunity to tell their own stories. I have found self-narrative and, creative writing and poetry a powerful way of teaching English as a Second Language to refugee clients. Whether it is the story of the flight from their country of origin, or just a life account it is important to give every person a sense and right to Voice, and being heard. Storytelling also builds community.

Even when people are resettled, repatriate or are re-naturalized the journey of perseverance does not cease. The rebuilding and cultural detachment, grim realities of come of resettlement dreams. But despite challenge, making decisions everyday in order to give family a chance a new life and a brighter future.

We can do things too. These are just a few organizations that help refugees in their process of seeking protection to rebuilding lives :

The International Rescue Committee

Refugee Council, USA

Human Rights First

UNHCR

Do donate to The KYRGYZSTAN & UZBEKISTAN crisis by clicking here.

We Could be doing more for the displaced among us.

Day of the African Child

2010-06-16T11:41:00.000-04:00

On this day 'Africa observes the Day of the African Child, in memory of thousands of black school children who were maimed and killed in the 1976 Soweto uprising, as they took to the streets to protest the inferior quality of their education and to demand their right to be taught in their own language...' You can read more on the endpoverty2015 site.

This day provides us for an opportunity to remember children and their mothers, and to reflect deeply and act upon the progress for child welfare in Africa and around the world. I think its especially important to recollect the reason why those school children in Soweto moved to the streets; They were asking for relevant education, taught in their language. Too many nations, including Tanzania, are teaching in the language of the colonizer. I believe that the security and health of children greatly reflects the state of the world. We all have a great deal of work to do. Children, like all people, have a right to flourish.

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, "Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?"
Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God.
Your playing small doesn't serve the world.
There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that
other people won't feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine, as children do.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.
It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give
other people permission to do the same.
As we're liberated from our own fear,
our presence automatically liberates others."

- Marianne Williamson (many, including myself, have attributed this to Nelson Mandela, which I have discovered is incorrect)

World Society perspective in Schools?

2010-06-14T13:27:00.000-04:00

“The international system of peoples and states is characterized by such extensive interdependencies and the historical crisscrossing of fates and fortunes that the scope of special as well as generalized moral obligations to our fellow human beings far transcends the perspective of the territorially bounded state-centric system… I shall defend the perspective of a world society as the correct vantage point from which to reason about obligations across borders.”
(Seyla Benhabib ‘The Rights of Others; Aliens, residents and citizens.’)

Benhabib takes an important stand in political theory in the modern age, in which notions of state and citizenship are undergoing transformation and disaggregation. In an era when unprecedented numbers of people are moving, or being displaced the needs of migrants and the murky waters of Nationalism are issues of paramount importance.

Refugee camps and transit centers provide important insight into ‘The rights of others,’ the dismal reality of life with an obscured sense of citizenry. What is our moral obligation to education? As I have made mention, the camps that I encountered in western Tanzania have operated National education programs; Congolese curriculum and exams in the Congolese camp, and Burundian curriculum (when education was still active in the Burundian camp) respectively. This is supposed to give the country’s nationals a sense of belonging, and an institutionalized recognition upon their pending return. So, although the community initiates much of the education informally, the systems eventually put in place are national, operated from inside the borders of the countries they left.

Here is a perfect example of how far we have to go before transcending state-centrism; Schools still operate as an instrument for nationalist ideals, while humans themselves exist far outside straightforward ideas of territory and selfhood. When will schools begin to demonstrate the scope of human experience? When will notions of selfhood and the community be integrated into curriculum? As people continue to move and are increasingly displaced we will be asked to face these questions.

It is also important to recognize that countries of conflict or civil war may not have a reliable education system, or more often, schools are used as training grounds for the next soldiers, or compatriots of insurgent forces. Therefore, we must ask ourselves, what is the appropriate curriculum for pupils who exist outside the Nation?
I am an advocate of the development of Place-based education. As always, the reoccurring issue of evaluation, and popularity of the National exam prevents this from being easily established.

Roots and Shoots on the Ground

2010-06-08T12:16:00.000-04:00

-The Jane Goodall institute in Kigoma also has a division that promotes HIV education and family planning. UKIMWI is the Swahili word for HIV/AIDS.

The Jane Goodall Institute has also founded numerous education and conservation initiatives that have greatly evolved in the last twenty years. Roots and Shoots clubs were launched in Dar Es Salaam and Kigoma as educational motivation that advanced care and concern for animals, the environment and the human community. Now roots and shoots is active in over 100 countries.

It mostly works with school children, who are facilitated by a peer or teacher volunteer to root-out a club vision that is relevant to their community. They select their own leadership amongst themselves, including the role of an investigative journalist who will track their work and the state of affairs in their community. Then the children become advocates for their vision, for educating others and for building a sense of responsibility for their environment and its people.

I have already written of this initiative a few times now, but will continue to emphasize my support. When people, especially children are called forth to participate in decision making it is much more likely that the initiative will be effective. I will later expound upon this notion of participatory assessment and its particular importance for disadvantaged communities. Refugees, for example, must be allowed to participate in the decisions, findings and protection of their unique communities. Especially women, otherwise they will likely be exploited.
Roots and Shoots were previously working with children in one of the camps that was recently closed. And although the refugees who were consolidated into new camps are no longer in contact with an official structured club, because the program was 'student run' some students continue to share their knowledge. He showed me drawings from students who once learned about health and the environment through the roots and shoots program, and who still promote the information they were entrusted.

Here are a few examples of their work/social messages from letters they sent to the Program manager, their friend:

- Don't just cut trees, plant them.

- Hunting/poaching is not sustainable. Raising your own animals is.

- Don't go to the bathroom outside where your waste will contaminate the environment you live from. Build a proper long-drop instead.

Gombe Stream National Park

2010-06-08T12:00:00.000-04:00

Fifty years ago the famed paleontologist Louis Leakey sent his assistant, Jane Goodall to a remote area in Tanzania. He encouraged her capacity to observe the chimpanzee population with fresh eyes, not yet burdened with science. It was then that Jane commenced her work with the Chimps at Gombe Stream, where she would advance research on, and create relationships with the primate whose DNA most closely resembles humankind.

Through her diligent work and familiarity with this forest and its habitants, Jane has developed an extraordinary grasp of the interconnectivity of people, animals and environment. Goodall’s study of the ‘shadow of man,’ the relation of predecessor with descendant, developed into an increasing foresight regarding the future. Dr. Goodall has committed herself to becoming the spokesperson for our predecessors, and our children. She travels 300 days a year, giving talks and initiating programs (Roots and Shoots among others) which foster guardianship in children; for people, animals and the environment. Gombe Stream is now a National Park, where researchers still observe and protect the 106 Chimpanzees that reside within its forest.

If you travel by boat from Kigoma in two hours you will reach the rocky shore and white-sanded beach that is the entrance to Gombe Stream. Jane’s house is still there, untouched since the 70s when it was built, simple and sturdy. It is modest, as is the Park’s resthouses; small bandas with grated windows to keep baboons out. You don’t need much; it is paradisiacal on the shore of Lake Tanganyika, the beach met by thick, rich forest that rises into lush hillside. The friendly guides take visitors into the forest, communicating with trackers by radio; they strive to give you a marked chimp experience.
Like most who visit, my encounter was rife with close contact.

Along this great waters edge
I walk the rocky shore,
All shades and shapes of stone
worn smooth with time,
the constant crashing of waves,
the sun and moon rotations,
imprint the eternal present
on this lakeshore.
The forest extends to the water.
Green woodland, white stone, blue lake
I step onto the earthen pathway and
all thoughts are left behind
this kingdom extends beyond the mind
saturating my perception
with the fecundity of wet earth
morning’s dew and sunshine on foliage.
Decaying leaves blanket the ground in hues of dusky brown
littered with fallen flowers of pristine white
as though some child scattered them with delight
so the butterflies flit and whirl, quiver and dart
with flawless lightness of being
calling me to do the same.
A close relative to our kind lets out a few cries
then arrives on the path on all fours
and swaggers to a nearby tree
reaching around the soft white bark
with five long fingers
not too different from my own
He climbs to the highest limbs
where the morning sunlight can bask him
sitting quietly in lotus pose
chewing leaves,
picking them off like grapes from the vine.
Time does not exist now
it is perpetual morning;
simple filling of hunger,
the warmth of sun following night.
And when he is satisfied
he propels along the canopy top
a black shadow of swift movement
bringing sticks, leaves and his excreta earthbound
Then he is here again,
sitting in a tree at eye level
as though getting some amusement from the shock
of his waste on my clothes.
We lock eyes,
historical time fuses
and then he is gone
only his scent remains
Arousing my senses;
the morning forest
perfumed so sweetly with dew, damp soil, decay,
Life
So strangely familiar are these smells that seemingly
cocoon me.
the womb of my mother?
Or perhaps the memory of our forest predecessors
still singing from my bones.

Kasulu

2010-06-04T09:56:00.000-04:00

People prepared me for my journey to Kasulu. ‘Oooh, it is very dusty there!’ they warned, as though I was mad for making the journey. But this particular destination has been calling me since I first met Burundian families at the IRC (International Rescue Committee) who described the settlements where Grandmothers raised two generations before leaving. Those camps are closed now, the 1972 Burundians have repatriated, resettled or been integrated as citizens throughout Tanzania. Only two camps remain in the region that once hosted ten. Slowly slowly the government is closing asylum space, ceasing almost all services in one of the camps and urging for voluntary repatriation. Yet, between the two camps there are almost 100,000 Congolese and Burundians that linger still amidst two worlds.

I get on the dala dala after an hour of waiting while young hustlers fill the small van to its utmost. Once we finally set off I realize that there are at least (that I can see from my spot in the back) 25 people in the van; 5 infants, 6 school children, 4 young women (including myself) 4 mothers, 3 grandmothers, one boy, one man and one driver. We speed along a dirt road with dust as fine as flour and red as blood, it enters the windows like smoke. Luckily, the women have warned me and I have covered my face and hair in a wrap, only my sunglasses exposed. I can hardly see the landscape through the dust, but every so often we stop to let someone out – they are returning home to a place that seems like nowhere.

Three hours later we are in Kasulu and I get a motorcycle lift to the UNHCR (United Nations High Commission for Refugees) where my host greets me. Susan is an Iranian/Dutch lawyer who loves her job. I only met her last weekend and already she has taught me a great deal about Refugee Rights and the politics, joys and trials of working in the field. That night we have a late dinner with a woman from the IRC and I am all ears, and questions.

I am awestruck by the ubiquitous nature of the IRC woman’s beauty. She was raised in India, by her English mother and Japanese-American father – I begin to notice a theme concerning place, or placelessness amidst people here. When she finds out that I am interested in education at the camps she exclaims with passion,
– Well have you Heard the situation? !
I have heard so many different things in the past week that I am not sure what situation she is referring to.
– There haven’t been any education programs in Mtabila camp for over a year!
I have heard this and I’m very glad she is bringing it up. Mtabila is the Burundian camp. In hope to accelerate ‘voluntary’ repatriation, the government of Tanzania has been nonchalantly bringing services to a close. Approximately 35,000 people live in the Mtabila camp and it is probable that nearly half of them are children. First they closed the Secondary schools, not long after they closed all primary schools. What happens when children have nowhere to be? Let your imagination go wild.

The NGOs that work in Kasulu cannot dissent the government, but can only deliberate until some resolution is made. Only now, a year later have the education responsibilities been handed over to the IRC – who is permitted to facilitate informal education – that is, games. Yes, organized play will at least gather the children together, accounting for them, providing a basic need, their right to protection. The hope is to integrate informal education and empowerment through the games, and soon injecting numeracy and basic literacy.

This is all happening now. As well as a hand over from one NGO to another of the responsibilities related to education. Unfortunately the politics and pedantic bureaucracy in place will prevent me from visiting the camps themselves. I do not feel downcast, as there are some local volunteers and UNHCR family members who have been here for months without ever entering. Instead I meet with and talk to people who have committed their lives to the situation, people who have found their place amidst the placeless. Instead I walk around and talk to children in the area, their faces and hair reddened with the dust of Kasulu.

What is the What

2010-06-04T09:48:00.000-04:00

Do you know what the What is?

I’m still not quite sure, but Dave Eggers book, ‘What is the What’ is one of the most illuminating accounts of one boys life I have ever read. Achek Valentino Deng is a Sudanese ‘Lost boy’ who spends most of his childhood running from conflict, and all of his adolescence in refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya. Eggers based the book from Achek’s unimaginable true story that represents the constant battle of so many boys whose childhood was robbed in the face of civil war and whose resettlement in America only presented a whole new set of challenges.

If you haven’t already, read it.

For Achek and so many others, education becomes the one salvation from the toils of the camp and the nightmares of the past. He is schooled in camp and his success and enthusiasm gives him further opportunities, such as joining a theatre troupe. To me, this is one example of a fun, informative and informal teaching model. You take a group of interested youth leaders, outgoing and/or willing to be empowered. You then take relevant issues that are greatly affecting the community; such as, arranged marriage, HIV/AIDS, traditional medicine, rape, poaching –
Then, you write a potent theatre piece about one of these topics. The youth present it to their community, reaching everyone from youth, to elders, and the illiterate.
I am an advocate of theatre for social change. It was this theatre troupe that first took Achek Deng and his compatriots outside of the Kakuma refugee camp walls to Nairobi for a drama competition. It was the first time they had left the barren land of their camp since their arrival more than seven years before. It changed them forever to have the opportunity to share, to be listened to. These are the sorts of programs that really give voice to the disadvantaged. Storytelling, one of our oldest traditions, must continue to be drawn on as a tool for educating.

I am grateful to Achek Vaentino Deng for telling his story, for making his existence and the plight of his people known. And I am beholden by Dave Eggers capacity to write.

A Promise

2010-06-04T09:39:00.000-04:00

The Sun sets on Lake Tanganyika, sinking behind the mountains of the D.R.C.

The Ahadi (promise) Institute is located within the Newman Institute of Social Work; the only higher education center in the region. It is a very small institution, graduating about 16 students a year. The lovely Ahadi director, Edison, has been doing work with refugees since 1998. I will not go into great detail here about the origin of conflict that brought refugees from Burundi, Congo and Rwanda, but I will give a brief timeframe. The first camp was raised in 1972, for Burundians that fled ethnic conflict. This camp is separate from the others, and has been treated differently considering that two generations would be born inside the camp. In 2008 the Burundians were finally given a choice. Either they could become citizens, or voluntarily repatriate. The Tanzanian government naturalized about 160,000 Burundians, approximately 20,000 returned home and thousands more were resettled.
The other 9 camps followed in the wake of further conflict in Burundi, beginning in 1993, when the President died, through 1996. There were a smaller number of Rwandan refugees that arrived during the 1994 genocide, which were swiftly repatriated the next year. And, beginning in 1996, the Congolese camps were built.

It was in 1996 that the Ahadi institute was involved in initiating groups that would bring youth together, to protect, and in order to avoid delinquency. At first this was community-based, run by refugee volunteers, without solid structure in place. Then, it was decided that education should be based on the National systems of the people in mind. Thus, negotiations were made between the camps and the Ministers of Education in Congo and Burundi. They believed that National programs and pedagogy should be employed in camps in order to advance the youth and prepare them for reintegration into their countries of origin. The development of structured schools would also keep students engaged, rather than idle or exploited for labor. Proper books and exams were procured from the countries. Then teachers were identified from within the camp.

Teacher’s qualifications were assessed and then teacher training and examinations followed in order to ensure high standards. Then, a number of primary and secondary schools were built in the camps, with names like ‘Kilimanjaro Primary,’ showing all signs of conventional schools except that they were deterritorialized from their country. During exam periods representatives from the countries come and supervise, and to those who pass, a very formal certificate is bestowed on the student in order to ensure credit upon repatriation. People really value certificates here.
When students began completing secondary school the ‘Institute Superior Pedagogique (ISP)’ was started in order to occupy people and feed hungry minds. It provides higher education through distance learning. There have been many refugees who have written their dissertation from within camps, often focusing on issues that they are encounter every day – like the frequency of rape and its effects on women. I didn’t ask about the ratio of men and women in these programs, but it is my guess that most who reach the ISP level are men. The programs available focus on the socio-economic development of the region. ‘Managers, lawyers, economists, social workers, and teachers are all required to generate a well-functioning and prosperous society,’ the director emphasizes, pointing to a brochure.

This program could be reputed as ‘community-based’ as it has also established community centers in Burundi and Congo for students whose studies might be interrupted by repatriation. The degrees are launched and developed according to the needs and possibilities of the local environment and maintain focus on sustainable development and peace studies. It is my feeling that the program is highly encouraging, yet exists with insubstantial reach. Today there are only 2 camps left in Tanzania, one Congolese and one Burundian. The latter’s services, including all education programs, were discontinued by the Tanzanian government in Spring of 2009. Their ‘promise’ has been broken.

Secrets

2010-06-04T09:36:00.000-04:00

– There are many secrets in Kigoma. an American recently informed me.

I was trying to decipher the meaning, and covered a few things in my head before understanding what she was saying. Was she referring to a high prevalence of witchcraft? The region is known for this, it isn’t really a secret. Then, I recognized how many different people I had spoken to, whom did not mention their background while conversing, yet spoke perfect French. Par hazzare?

– People are hiding their country of origin.

It is no wonder that people would begin to conceal their country of origin if it was the reason that they fled persecution in their own country. Some of these people are perfectly legal residents in Tanzania, albeit still up against intensifying Nationalist sentiment in the country, and more often, longing to abandon an identity that does not serve them in moving forward. Again, like the ‘tribeless’ children in Ms. Sophia’s class – those hailing from Rwanda are at risk of intense questioning if they utter their birthplace. It also calls them to remember a past of conflict so thick that anyone would want to forgo their roots.

But what about the ‘Right to Human membership?’

Brothers of Charity

2010-06-04T09:17:00.001-04:00

In Kigoma town there is a seemingly modest building, with two classrooms near the road, built of thick reeds and thatch, a chalkboard and benches. On the sign that faces the road it is written, ‘Brothers of Charity’ with the offical seal, as well as the Ahadi (which means, Promise in Swahili) Institute, the Maendeleo (Progress) youth center, Chemchemi (Spring, fountainhead) education resource center and the Africa Development Education network. I was drawn inside, greeted and was soon in dialogue with the director. People are always very willing to talk here.
A Belgium man named Stanley started the center. He has lived in the Great Lakes region for over 30 years, first in Rwanda, then Burundi and briefly the DRC, as though following the circular nature of conflict that has plagued the region, before he finally settled in Kigoma – bringing with him some orphans from his previous homes. The center is alive. There are elders, children, teachers bustling to and fro, some seeking assistance or food, others helping. Soon I discover that it is not just a center, but also a boy’s home – 100 young men live here. One boy, Jean Michelle takes me around.

The 100 boys and young men are squeezed into dormitories with bunk beds. A few of them are playing outside. Jean Michelle points at one and explains that he has epilepsy, which in many African countries is not recognized as a medical condition, but a mark of black magic. Here, he is seen by the Doctor and taken care of by his brothers. Another boy is from Congo, which puts him at a disadvantage, as he has no papers and must conceal his identity in order to remain under care. Now he is a boy and can get away with it, but as an adult it will be far more complicated. I asked J-M if there are other boys from areas of conflict –
“Because of Tanzanian politics we hide ourselves if we are refugee.” he said.
There are groups of people around the compound doing various tasks, boys washing their clothes, a man cooking beans and ugali in giant pots over a fire, an elderly woman sitting on the ground looking out from eyes that seem to have lost their light. He tells me she has lost her mind. She can be at peace here. The programs range from providing basic needs to GED style academic programs that qualify young adults who were unable to finish school. They also provide clubs, like boy scouts and the Upendo (love) club, both which organize service trips to spend time with elders or orphans, as well as organizing outdoor activities.

Jean Michelle has been here for a few years. At first he was spirited with the aspiration to become a brother within the diocese. Now, he is unsure of his allegiance to this country, or faith in his country of origin. He has watched his family disperse around Congo and abroad. He has been alive just long enough to know the circulation of conflict that cursed his region.

“Je n’ai pas l’espoir en Afrique.” he says.

I organize a return, to meet with the director of the Ahadi institute for refugees.

Building from the Top Down

2010-05-30T08:12:00.000-04:00

One of the other schools I was able to visit in Arusha was a private Secondary school for orphaned youth called Peace House Africa.

There motto is ‘Educate. Nurture. Innovate.’

My first question for a school, organization or non-profit is always, who is funding? Who is behind this mission? This response alone is a far-reaching indicator about the nature of the work.
Peace House was started by a missionary and his wife who had sold off a successful bioengineering company and wanted to invest it into children in need in Tanzania. They worked together with the support of the Lutheran Diocese, a Rotary group from Minnesota and many short-term American volunteers and private donors – which they call volontourists. In just three years they have built a beautiful, well kempt campus about 5 miles outside of town, which now houses and educates 244 students. That is a large number of students. Each student was screened, in order to ensure that the applicant was indeed parentless and/or in need of support in order to successfully complete school.

Unfortunately the students were in the midst of an entire consecutive week of exams during my visit, so I was not able to visit any classes. Peeking in the rooms I saw upward of 40 desks per classroom, each pupil studiously leaned over their test. Tanzania, like many other countries in the world suffers from over-testing due to National requirements. In very much the same way that ‘No Child Left Behind’ surged the frequency and significance of multiple-choice tests. Here at Peace House if a student does not stay above 45%, they will be removed from the school and provided school fees for a public school. Of course that does provide incentive to succeed, but there are many other contingent factors that determine their ability to success. Like, who are the teachers? And are they being adequately prepared to think? Or just to memorize what will be on the test?

In Tanzania, like many other countries, the teachers themselves are not exceedingly qualified. They themselves have gone through an education, even higher education, that consists mostly of rote learning. They are teaching using English medium, yet, perhaps they never mastered the language due to poor instruction. I was able to speak to the Peace House Head Mistress, a Tanzanian woman who has worked in schools for over 15 years, she harped on this issue saying that one of the greatest challenges is hiring teachers who are ready to learn.

“You have to really cook someone.” she said, further articulating the need for teacher training. She used many buzz-words like, ‘student-centered learning,’ making ‘problem solvers’ and ‘critical thinkers.’ But these are words that are all too often thrown around, but very rarely put to use in such societies where the classroom modus opperandi is so deeply ingrained. I can see in her face that she struggles with this. Despite the challenges of classroom dynamics and teaching to the National examination, the school is doing a thorough job at keeping the students engaged on many other levels. They have sports teams, academic clubs and extra curricular activities as well as a very impressive school paper. Each day there are student led devotions and a requirement to attend Church.
And the Muslim students? I asked.

Yes, we have some – but they have to attend Church too, said the sweet
American girl who gave me a tour.

“We want to be the best school in the country…Even in East Africa.” The Head Mistress said to me with a smile. And you can feel that they do, they are quite obviously working hard to get there. And as I am looking around and reading, I am wishing that I wasn’t such a skeptic – yet this is a very stunning example of a top-down approach to school building. First there was money, a school and hundreds of students, and now they are slowly building their mission, their concept. This is not to say that they are not doing unbelievably noble and much needed work. They also have a scholarship program that has been providing school fees and uniforms to disadvantaged students for over 7 years. They are making an impact.

One of their volunteers was delighted to tell me more about another school in the area that was also started by a foreigner, a woman I once met on the subway in New York. The Indigenous Education Foundation of Tanzania is an entirely different model, on a much smaller scale. I’m sorry I wasn’t able to visit the school myself, but the girl who spoke of it starkly stated that it was a successful, bottom-up approach. She said they were certainly not working with so many students, but that the students were lively, engaged and had highly impressive English. When a program begins with the students in mind, and builds slowly up, it is much easier to manage, to maintain and evolve the mission. The woman who started it is often still there, and has decided to employ numerous overseas teachers, which is a debatable choice, but surely integrates new models of learning and better English.

I think Peace House holds immense potential, yet like other development initiatives it is always worrying when a program is so dependent on private donors and outside sources. They are definitely looking for ways to become more self-sustained, to increasingly grow and cooperate on a local level. This want is well represented in the development of their organic garden, which some of the students choose to work on. The school has a great deal of very beautiful land and many mouths to feed, including those who are HIV positive and must eat a balanced meal – this is one solid step in the right direction towards springing upward, from the ground up.

Greet Me

2010-05-30T08:04:00.000-04:00

I am an elder

and my skin folds

into weathered creases,

scars tell stories of manhood rites

take my tired feet

look into my eyes

orbed with faded blue

Greet me

I will smile

and for a moment our souls will meet in time.

I have been working in the shamba

digging the earth’s crust

with my hoe,

worrying about the rains

and the meal I will cook for

for my five children

after walking home along this dusty path

Greet me

I will smile

and for a moment I will forget.

I have been at school all day

sharing my desk with two others

copying notes from the board

heeding my teacher’s unmelodious lecture

wearing my uniform of blue and white

embroidered with the motto

“School is light”

Greet me

I will smile

and say ‘Good Morning!’

[Even if it is afternoon]

I am a Muslim

have been at the mosque

where I pray dutifully

to Almighty God

The divine, the merciful

for whom I wear this black burqa

and a downward glance,

Greet me

I will smile

with my eyes

I am Massai

these are my herds

eating the tattered grass

while I stand tall

in my garbs of royal purple and red

leaning on my stick

with poise

Greet me

I will smile

a teethless, proud grin

I am a fisherman

sitting beneath my hat

in my canoe

once carved from a tree

I work by darkness

slowly pulling in my livelihood

on a line

Greet me

I will smile

and show you my scaled treasures

I am a cripple

sitting in a chair

peddling wheels with my hands

sweating in the hot sun

I am lucky to have

all that I do

look at me as a man

Greet me

I will smile

and laugh! You do not need to pity me!

I am a woman

dressed in vibrant colours

that sway with my walk

a crown of fabric

halos my head

held high

You are a stranger in my town

Greet me

I will smile

and we will be better acquainted

Greet me, sister

and we will be better acquainted.

-Pictures and words by me.

The wisdom of youth

2010-05-27T08:48:00.000-04:00

After a brief and most wonderful weekend Safari with Ethan and some friends I was able to visit a few schools. I started the day at Saint Constantine’s International, where a new American friend teaches six year olds. It is one of three International schools in Arusha, and used to be the Greek school. The school starts at infancy and goes up to A levels. Their school being the least expensive of the three schools means that there is greater diversity of people and more accessibility for Tanzanians. Ms. Sophia, the children’s teacher has told me about her group over the weekend and I quickly notice them in the schoolyard early in the morning. They welcome me into their classroom, all with sweet, six-year-old openness and polite English.

Sophia runs her classroom in an American way, engaging the students in classroom discussion, group work and student-led presentations. Her kids have quite obviously thrived in the environment. They are also six and need to be free. During a math quiz the other day one of her students, an overt dreamer, raised his hand and asked permission to dance. Ms. Sophia allowed him. This makes me smile, aware that there are so many teachers that would not give their blessing to this kind of request.

The class commenced with a word on diversity. What is it? Sophia asked. A few hands were raised and some very apt responses ensued. Then we all introduced ourselves. There are fourteen children in this class and seven countries of origin represented; Chad, Indian, Lebanon, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Tanzania and their teacher from America. Christianity, Islam and Hindus. And though an obvious range of capacity, they work so beautifully together. They are not yet at the age when they discriminate or taunt each other.

This year Ms. Sophia had introduced the topic of genocide, or tribe, I’m not sure which one came first in their conversation – but the two go hand in hand. The students were highly interested in the issue and an active discussion took place. She found it interesting that some students were aware of their specific ethnic group, while others had no idea. The three girls from Rwanda were not aware of their tribe, which, as you may know is of high consequence in their country – where there has been a tragic genocide of over 500,000 people, largely Tutsis, by predominantly Hutu supporters of the government. This historical mass is highly complicated and colored by the Belgian colonies, who, upon leaving, declared the slightly creamier skinned Tutsis as the Governing force. Ms. Sophia didn’t go into specifics about this genocide or others, keeping it simple enough for her young ears. However, upon returning home, all three of her Rwandan girls asked their families from which tribe they were. One of their family members approached Sophia with force, telling her that ‘'We are Rwandan’ and not to engage such topics as ‘tribalism.’ The other girls couldn’t remember what their parents had told them by the time they reached school.

Teaching matters of genocide, social justice and diversity is a highly imperative matter for our era. We cannot avoid these topics. Yet, we must learn how to approach them, slowly and with support of our administrators. It shouldn’t be a topic that is suddenly introduced when students are ‘old’ enough. These difficult themes must become part of the dialogue at a young age so that later on students are able to think meta-cognitively about such critical subjects. I do recognize and try to understand that it is also difficult to approach themes that engage words like, ‘tribe.’ I learned in many of my African studies courses that this word, in its historical legacy has gained negative connotations related to colonialism. Yet, it’s hard to teach when carefully stepping around words and themes that could be offensive to someone. We can only learn history in its depths and engage in dialogue without fear or pride, so we might move toward competency in dealing with diversity – I don’t know the answer, or the way. But one thing I know is that we all have something to learn from the compassion and aptitude of a six year old.

Also, it should be noted that there are over 120 tribes in Tanzania, with equal proportions of Muslims and Christians as well as those with animist beliefs - However, I have still never been in such a nondiscriminatory place, with a history and general feeling of peace and cooperation.

Making Family

2010-05-27T08:42:00.000-04:00

Walking back through the market I saw the elderly man I had greeted earlier, the alley ways, lined with stalls were closing down for the evening and I moved to one side to let him pass. He grabbed my hand. Not like an offender would grab a woman, but like a father would hold his girl’s hand. Firm, but loving. ‘How are you baba?’ I greet him again, calling him father. He does not stop holding my hand as he begins to welcome and question me. How am I? Why do I know Swahili? Where do I stay? I ask him questions in return. He is looking intensely at me. I feel utterly at comfort with this old man, his hand gripped in mine. He tells me I should teach Swahili. I tell him I am confused at the moment, unsure of my course of work. He squeezes my hand and opens his eyes wide, “What is your true Desire?” He asks emphatically, this time in English. “What do you want to do?” I answer him with words, but really there is a conversation going on underneath. He really does feel like family. He is treating me like his daughter, or his niece. He is making me feel special and able, and my love of his language and culture is making him feel radiant. The sun is going down, the market is slowing. Instead of saying goodbye we both announce that we are happy and we thank each other. It is my first day in Kigoma, I have been here for only a few hours.

Kigoma is on the north eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika, the deepest lake in Africa and the longest freshwater lake in the world (although I don’t have running water in my hotel today;). The Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi and Zambia also share borders along its shore, and that is why Kigoma has become a major transit for and home to countless refugees hailing from conflict areas in the region. Presently there are only two camps left, in towns just north of here and a refugee transit center in town. Yet, the presence of aid workers, the UN and refugee organizations are still distinctly visible. Within my first few hours here I saw upward of five white land cruisers bearing the emblem of the UNHCR, The United Nations High Commission for Refugees. The area seems rife with various types of aid, conservation efforts as well as missionaries, especially from Germany and America.

Although there has long been a foreign presence here, dating back to the famed Dr. Livingstone in 1886, the area remains rather undeveloped, mostly due to its isolation. Apart from missionaries and aid workers, there is one other group of people that hold increasing interest in the region – the Chinese. I sat next to three Chinese on the plane ride over from Dar es Salaam, one of them spoke to me; He has been in Tanzania for 10 years, but doesn’t like it, he is in the lumber business, buying a hard wood from Tabora in Western Tanzania to sell for first-rate furniture in China. In Arusha as well the Chinese are visibly funding the construction of a brand new road that will lead to Nairobi. There was an effort to bring more electricity to this area, however, nothing has gone forward due to protection of innumerable species endemic to the Lake.

Luckily one of the stronghold personalities of this area is Jane Goodall, not only does she have her famous research center at Gombe stream, but she also has an educational institute and a branch of Roots and Shoots here. Her revolutionary work as a primatologist and environmental protection work has likely established a conservation mentality here. While I am so close I hope to be able to visit Gombe Stream, the area where Goodall commenced her work with chimpanzees, though it remains Tanzania’s most out of reach and expensive park – So, I’m looking for the best option in order to make it work. Where there is a will, there is a way. Either way, I know I am in the right place. The complex, fascinating and welcoming community, the presence of aid workers and missionaries and the breathtaking view from my hotel room, overlooking a lake with such reach that it could be a sea – though, if you squint, the mountains of the DRC paint the horizon with a soft blue. Three shades of the same hue, eggshell blue sky, mountain blue meets ocean. All surrounded by vibrant greens hillsides, which are fed with veins of red earth pathways and roads. There is a great deal to investigate.

Deconstructing the box

2010-05-20T09:45:00.000-04:00

Rote: n. mechanical or habitual repetition of something to be learned

When Ethan Kinsey isn’t on Safari he is training candidate guides to become experts in their field. At the moment he is working with about 20 guys, doing both field and in-class training about animals, birds and ecosystems. Yesterday he was describing the difficulty of teaching his Tanzanian men, despite their keen minds and aspiration to learn. He explains that they haven’t been taught to read, and discuss in order to understand. Their experience in the classroom has consisted of fear and memorization, Ethan states. It makes it difficult to have engaging conversations about the concept they are learning because Ethan doesn’t teach by writing definitions on the board to be repeated back verbatim. He wants them to deliberate and to really understand the impressions beyond the words. He struggles with knowing how to test them – as his style of teaching is so new, many of them are not performing well.

This archaic method of rote learning can be witnessed in classrooms across the African continent. Most times they are taught in English, and like the language, rote learning is a legacy of colonial times. The teacher dictates, writing the lesson on the board – the students copy down the notes. The teacher asks a question, the pupils, perhaps all in unison, upon standing, will recite the answer exactly as it was written on the board. Maybe they will raise their hands, one will be called on and say something slightly different, perhaps their own take on the word, or changing the order of the response. ‘No’ The teacher will proclaim, calling on students until the satisfactory answer is recited. In Ghana and other countries on the Gold coast they clap for one another when the answer is correct – there are different melodies for the different regions of the country.

As the majority of learning is done in this manner many do not have a real grasp of how to read and understand. Literacy, Ethan and I discuss, has such a broad scope. While some have learned to read, they may not have been taught how to makes sense of the words they put together. They may not be able to defend their opinion. Not all schools in Tanzania are like this, but the majority of the government schools are. Here in Arusha though, there is more diversity of people and therefore, more reach in kinds of schools. There are three International schools, and numerous privately funded ones. So much of the curriculum is based on the values of the benefactors. In one International school, which used to be the Greek school, the children are reading by age six and taught by comparatively progressive, western teachers. I met a few teachers of this school at a gathering of young expatriates, friends of Ethan. Their teaching experience is relatively democratic and innovative compared to the frustrations of others, who work in local schools and orphanages, where the children do not ask questions, even if they do not understand, even if they are failing.

Ethan goes on to tell me that even in University, the structure of learning remains the same. I believe it, last year, on my education course in Ghana I was explained that college courses were performed in great lecture halls – with not enough seats. Again, your success did not depend so much on what you read, but what you were able to hear and copy down, word for word in your book, in order to regurgitate the information for the final exam. The people who graduate from these schools are running the country, and government.

Rote learning is so different from progressive, western-style education where you are applauded for thinking outside of the box. But even in our self-proclaimed ‘democratic’ educative system in America, are people really taught to think critically? In many schools, yes, but not in most. In the past decade and with ‘No child left behind’ teachers are forced to stay closely to the curriculum in order to prepare students for multiple-choice examinations. This constant pumping of information leaves little time for free-thinking, for meta-cognition, for discussions and questions. It is a global pandemic in a time when we must be building minds that can think innovatively enough to sustain human development and solve the problems of our era. In order to do this youth will have to resist from harmonizing together the affirmative, “Yes, teacher.” And move toward questioning, “Why?” and “How?” or challenging the teacher when they are told something that is not true. But before that is able to happen we must first eradicate the fear. This will require confidence, first of the teacher then, the students may follow.

My cup is full.

2010-05-20T09:36:00.000-04:00

The Kinsey family live in the fecund foothills of Mount Meru, one mile above sea level. They live on a compound where they grow most of their food, have goats that supply milk for yogurt and cheese, beehives and an abundance of brightly coloured flowers that flourish amidst the greenery. The only sounds you can hear are of birdcalls and flight, buzzing of insects, roosters, cows and always children playing in the distance. It is a true paradise here and it couldn’t be so without the foundation of a beautiful family and a great deal, and long legacy of Love.

Erwin Kinsey came to Tanzania just after receiving his B.A. in animal science from the University of Vermont. He was very young, and sent to work as a dairy advisor on a large governmental farm in the Southern Highlands. A relatively new non-profit was providing livestock and technicians to this government breeding ranch, which, more than 30 years later is well recognized as Heifer International. Erwin later became the program director development in Tanzania and eventually the Africa regional Director for Heifer International.

Heifer International has become active in over 100 countries, providing livestock to individuals and families. It was founded by Dan West, who was distributing milk to people left poor and hungry by civil war – when he had the revelation, “Not a cup but a cow.” This notion has evolved into one of the most successful, and sustainable rural development programs in Tanzania. In the following days I will give more time to this work and what he is doing now, but first let me give you a picture of the whole family.

Erwin met Esther in the Southern Highlands, where her Swiss parents ran a coffee plantation. Her Great Grandfather arrived in Tanzania in the mid-twenties. Esther was a dedicated nurse, and midwife. After some time Erwin and Esther were married, and together moved to Northern Tanzania where they raised their family together. They had three boys, Ethan, Elliott and Eric, whom are undoubtedly African. When I met Esther in 2004, she immediately embraced me and I instantaneously adored and admired her. She carried the role of Matriarch with grace and power, caring for her mother who was bed ridden with dementia, making feta, yogurt and ice cream from the Nubian goats they raised (and selling it at a local school), concocting homemade calendula from her garden, baking bread and generally running this beautiful home and family. In my heart I felt deeply moved to quickly return to Tanzania and do an apprenticeship with Esther, on how to be a mother, a Christian and how to prepare such delicious cheese, among other things. Sadly, soon after I left Tanzania the Grandmother passed away and six months later Esther was diagnosed with advanced cancer. She battled and was treated for about a year before passing away soon after the whole family had been on a great Safari together. Their whole community supported them in love.

Back in 2004, when I showed up unexpected to their family holiday with their eldest son Ethan, they welcomed me with open arms. Ethan and I had met at the Safari camp where I had worked for a season. He had come to take over my position as manager. His first day in camp I remember climbing up on the thatch roof of one of the bandas with my binoculars, he was on a rock, with his binoculars, watching birds – I was staring through mine at him. Within days we had kindled a closeness I had never felt before and shared a powerful and swift romance, mostly amidst the magic of the bush. We were both immensely excited by the small things around us.

Although our time together was somehow brief and our romance ended when I returned to America I have always felt very close to Ethan, and great gratitude and love for his entire family. Their model of Christianity was inspiring and quite unlike any I had, or have experienced since. It is full of truth, love, compassion, community and deep faith. All of the Kinsey men are very talented, but altogether modest. I feel utterly blessed to be here again, to awake early and drink coffee (which comes from the same plantation that Esther’s father began) with the boys, to watch the birds and insects and to feel and know so clearly that God is alive in everything. I look forward to talking to Erwin more about his insight on development, he now runs an NGO that supports farmers in turning to organic farming and sustainable agriculture. Ethan is training guides to be experts in the bush and with clientele, and also runs his own Safari company (see ethan-kinsey.blogspot.com). Elliott is doing community development work in hunting areas and Eric is working at a gelato shop in Arusha (for now).

Everything changes

2010-05-17T14:34:00.000-04:00

I had every intention of heading to Kigoma by today, which lies in the far far west of the country. Then I discovered that it is not advised, and quite nearly impossible to venture the thousand miles by road. And the train route is only for those 'who value not their comfort, nor their possessions.' So, I decided to fly. Air Tanzania is the only airlines who makes the flight to Kigoma and had not been operating for over a week because of heavy rains. I heard this through word of mouth, since the ticketing office number was out of service. So, I went there today and discovered that there are no flights until the end of the week.
Everything changes, and so must I.

Luckily I felt inspired by a beautiful interaction with some students today. It was the first school day I have had since my arrival! Finally all the beautiful kids out in their pressed uniforms, white shirts and pleated shorts/skirts. As I was taking the ferry into the city I met three girls who go to Kigamboni Secondari, they must have been about 14. At first they were shy with me, but slowly slowly we began talking opening in a mixture of Swahili and English. Soon, we were friends. The motto at their school is 'education is freedom,' as written on the pocket of their school shirts, beneath the emblem. One of the girls began excitedly telling me about her view on her country, the corrupt nature of the government, problems of poverty, the need for education. She tells me the definition of 'absolute poverty' in perfect rote recollection. She wants to be a lawyer and I am already convinced that she is able.

I don't know much about the current Tanzanian government, but I am beginning to hear things. I hear that it isn't very different from the last one. And from my brief time here thus far I can see that there haven't been great infrastructural changes. For example, as I am talking to these girls we are on a ferry. For more than 10 years there has been plans and funding available for a bridge to be built over the small waterway that separates this peninsula from Dar Es Salaam - however there has been no headway. So, these girls, like the thousands of other people that cross the water using the ferry - spend a great portion of their day lining up and waiting to cross for work or school. It is just one small example of unrealized government-backed development. But now, crossing the ferry in the sun, talking to the girls about their views on education I am also grateful that we have this time shared together to talk.

As I cannot go to Kigoma this week, I will go to Arusha tomorrow to see an old friend in the foothills of Mount Meru. I look forward to talking to more students there.

Mission: Journey is the destination

2010-05-15T16:58:00.000-04:00

”What I do you cannot do; but what you do, I cannot do. The needs are great, and none of us, including me ever do great things. But we can all do small things, with great love, and together we can do something wonderful.” – Mother Theresa

Landing in Dar Es Salaam brings me joy in a similar, abrupt way as getting the wind knocked out of you. The beautifully robed Emirates flight attendants open the back door and a gust of warm, thick, wind enters the stagnant air of the plane – Instantly I know I am in Africa. Climbing down the stairs to the ground, the sun beating down and every Tanzanian airport attendant greets us with a smile. Their greetings are sincere, and when I respond in Swahili, they welcome me. The first foreigner I see is in front of me - she has numerous Tanzanian stamps in her American passport and so I talk to her. I discover she is going where I am going.
“Do you live here” I ask.
“I’m a missionary,” she responds with bright, wide eyes. "I come and go."
I always wonder what that means, to her, to the people she encounters. It can be so many different things ranging from Mother Theresa’s noble work and people who dedicate their entire lives to being part of a village in need, to the southern accents I’ve heard on return flights from Africa, loudly speaking on their cell phones upon landing,
“…We’re safe. Yep, a real success, we got 500 souls!”
But this girl seems genuinely honorable in her work. It makes me want to understand more, and judge less. Because it is easy to be a watchdog of some truth, but often times when we look deeper, our preconceptions are broken down. There has indeed been a long legacy of people bringing the word of God to this continent. Like any work, some of it has been good, some of it lost to ill faith.
This same sweet girl in front of me turns around and asks with eyes wide with wonder, and perhaps a touch of envy.
“Are you traveling alone?”
We go on our ways, each doing our own thing, in our own way. Mother Theresa said “if you judge people, you have no time to give them love.” In my experience of Tanzanians, in their aptitude for greetings and their faith in God, they choose to love. One of my goals for this time is to become informed before making judgments (of course I will do my best to love the people I encounter). It seems always and ever more important to not only love, but also to look deeply at what is before you, whether it is an education program, a government or a new person. One of the best way to do this is through using a practice that my boyfriend’s family is very good at…Ask lots of questions! This is what I am here to do.
I am safe, well and grateful for all the love and support I have received. I am presently getting over jetlag near the sea before embarking further.

A poem, by Li-Young Lee

2010-05-15T11:36:00.000-04:00

Self Help for Refugees
If your name suggests a country where bells might have been used for entertainment
or to announce the entrances and exits of the seasonsor the birthdays of gods and demons,
it’s probably best to dress in plain clothes when you arrive in the United States, and try not to talk too loud.
If you happen to have watched armed men beat and drag your father out the front door of your house and into the back of an idling truck
before your mother jerked you from the threshold and buried your face in her skirt folds, try not to judge your mother too harshly.
Don’t ask her what she thought she was doing turning a child’s eyes away from history and toward that place all human aching starts.
And if you meet someone in your adopted country, and think you see in the other’s face an open sky, some promise of a new beginning, it probably means you’re standing too far.
* *
Or if you think you read in the other, as in a book whose first and last pages are missing, the story of your own birthplace, a country twice erased, once by fire, once by forgetfulness, it probably means you’re standing too close.
In any case, try not to let another carry the burden of your own nostalgia or hope.
And if you’re one of those whose left side of the face doesn’t match the right, it might be a clue
looking the other way was a habit your predecessors found useful for survival. Don’t lament not being beautiful.
Get used to seeing while not seeing. Get busy remembering while forgetting. Dying to live while not wanting to go on.
Very likely, your ancestors decorated their bells of every shape and size with elaborate calendars and diagrams of distance star systems, but with no maps for scattered descendants.
* *
And I bet you can’t say what language your father spoke when he shouted to your mother from the back of the truck, "Let the boy see!"
Maybe it wasn’t the language you used at home. Maybe it was a forbidden language. Or maybe there was too much screaming and weeping and the noise of guns in the streets.
It doesn’t matter. What matters is this: The kingdom of heaven is good. But heaven on earth is better.
Thinking is good. But living is better.
Alone in your favorite chair with a book you enjoy is fine. But spooning is even better.
*You can listen to this yourself by the author himself, here

"The Rights of Others"

2010-04-06T11:57:00.000-04:00

Click on image to discover a socially active artists' blog.

"The declaration of Human Rights (1948) recognizes the right to freedom of movement across boundaries: a right to emigrate - that is to leave a country - but not a right to immigrate - a right to enter a country (Art.13). (Benhabib, "The Rights of Others)"

"The Rights of Others" is an important book about global justice, notions of porous borders, and ideas of citizenship and freedom.

Lifelong Learning in New York City

2010-03-23T12:07:00.000-04:00

Emile, Spring 2008 in Central Park

A Profile of two of my friends in New York City. Their story has developed since my writing this in 2008 and I'm now inspired to reconnect, and to elucidate their growth.

Every Tuesday and Thursday Nadoum Bour comes to an English language class on the 11th floor of the Chanin building on 42nd and Lexington. He says ‘bonjour’ as he walks past the office, and into the classroom for the adult literacy class. The caseworkers and teachers, all women in their twenties respond to his greeting with English enthusiasm and enunciation, ‘Good Morning.’ Bour has been in the United States for eight months. He speaks French, a bit of Arabic and a few varieties of Chadian dialect. He does not speak very much English and has difficulty writing; arthritis makes his handwriting shaky and barely legible. But Bour is determined; he attends the literacy classes, always sitting next to the other elder man in the class, Fieke, from Kosovo, who is also a refugee.

Bour is 6’3,” with a strong build and weathered, soft facial features. At 67, he moves slowly because of chronic back pain. And perhaps because he is from Chad, where the land and culture do not demand the same haste as here in New York. He has endured back pain for many years, since his days on horse and camel back, and driving land rovers over harsh terrain as a government official in the Saharan regions of Chad. Chad is a land-locked country in central Africa; officially the Republic of Chad in 1960 since its Independence from sixty years of French colonial power. Since 1965 the country has endured civil war between the North and South, countless coup d’etats. More recently, the Darfur crisis in neighboring Sudan has spilled over the border, creating further unrest.

Chad covers an area of 485,752 square miles, made up mostly of uninhabitable desert, semi desert, or savannah. The south is the only subtropical zone, and the majority of Chad’s approximately 7 million people live in the more fertile southwest, with a population density of only 77.7 per square mile. Bour had lived for many years with his two wives and family in N’djamena. Bour now lives with one of his wives in Bronx in the most populous city in the United States, with an estimated population of 8.2 million people within an area of 322 square miles – a population density of 26, 403 people per square mile.

Bour has not revisited Chad since he was forced to leave in 1994. Bour had only just been appointed as the Chief Officer of the Douane, customs and taxes, when rebels threatened his life, seized his position, and removed him. The Rebels wanted his desk and title because they wanted control of the country’s imports and exports. Bour had been one of the only Chadian officers working alongside the French during their colonial rule, putting him in a higher economic and social echelon. After Independence, and witnessing over 20 years of change and political turmoil, suddenly the rebels directed their attention towards him and his family. Bour left his first wife to maintain their kinship and property in Chad, while he and Emilie fled the rebels – commencing what would become a fourteen-year exile odyssey.

Chad is considered one of the world’s most corrupt countries. It has battled growing oil wealth, complex ethnic ties that transcend borders, the difficulty of removing Presidents who increase their term while in office, and then take military action when their secured power is challenged. Despite an ever-increasing insurgency Chadian President Idriss Deby has secured his Presidency since 1991.

Bour and Emilie sought refuge in Côte d’Ivoire with one of Bour’s sons, Pepe. They knew someone who worked for BAD, Banque pour Afrique Development (The African Development Bank) which normally deals with micro finance and training. Yet somehow managed to get Bour and Emilie into safety. According to the couple, they faced a great deal of discrimination from the Ivorian people. Emilie described their attitude as overly nationalist.
‘No one would ever say, ‘This is my country in New York City’ Emile said, putting her hand over her heart in exaggerated patriotism. In the fourteen years that they resided in Abidjan neither of them were able to find substantial work; Emilie, who is 20 years younger than Bour, was able to sell fresh juices and textiles earning enough to make money for food.

Neither Emilie, Bour nor his son Pepe were able to return to Chad. Their dire living situation in Ivory Coast compelled them to make desperate contact with the one person they knew in the States. Since the outbreak of ethnic conflict in the mid nineties, many Chadian have fled their country, seeking refuge in France, Canada and the U.S. Bour’s niece had from Chad, to Paris, and finally to New York in her youth and was able to help them by contacting the International Rescue Committee. The IRC helps refugees fleeing war or persecution by providing immediate aid, including food and shelter and education. Last August, after 14 years outside of their country, unable to return for fear of persecution, unable to contact their extensive kin, they were resettled in New York City.

“They told us that it would be the most expensive city in America...but they also said it would be the easiest for transport. We wanted to be here because of our niece, she is the only person that we know.” said Emilie. “It’s good. But my English! Ah, I don’t know English.”

Emilie no longer attends the literacy classes at the IRC. She suffers from hypertension, depression and anxiety, and the hour journey from their home in the Bronx to midtown increases her stress. Emilie only bore one son, who was killed a few years ago in Chad in a motorcycle accident. He was only 19 and had just past his baccalaureate – which was his reason for staying in Chad. Since his death Emilie has not been able to find a quiet mind. She is trying to conceive a child; it is the one thing that she feels like she can create in this new life. She says that the Doctors she has seen are harsh with their words, telling her that ‘In America women her age don’t conceive children.’ They tell her that her body is old. She makes a tsssk noise, putting her tongue between her teeth and says that God is the one she will listen to, not to the inconsiderate proclamations of Doctors.

Like her husband, Emilie is a tall woman, with high cheekbones, almond shaped eyes and a robust figure. She spends most of the day in their basement apartment in the Bronx. She buys vegetables and foufou flour in bulk, and cooks traditional West African stews for Bour and his son, Pepe. Their one-bedroom apartment was found for them by the IRC. It has a small living area in which they built a wall to create another room for Pepe. The exposed piping on the low ceiling echoes and clinks with use, but the heat escapes out of the thin paned windows. Emilie explains that the window allows mildew in, and that the superintendent always says he will come, but never does. Sometimes she yells as him, but he doesn’t understand French, and she can’t understand much of his English.

The apartment is cold, and there isn’t enough money to buy more blankets or space heaters. The couple has been financially independent from the IRC for over two months. The resettlement aid covers the first six months, after which the refugees are left to be self-sufficient. They receive food stamps, and Pepe works nine-hour shifts at a factory operating the machine that covers flat screen TV’s in plastic casing before they are inserted into neat boxes. Bour, in his age and health is unable to work and Emilie doesn’t have sufficient English or confidence to find a job yet.

Emilie is unable to read, like 87% of Chadian women, according to the United Nations Statistics Division. She is learning the English alphabet from the beginning, which is trying when you are in your late forties. In Chad Emilie only went to school for three years. She can’t remember why she had an aversion to school, but she didn’t want to continue, and so she stopped going at 8 years old, and became a full time pair of hands in her home. As the oldest child of six children (two others died) she helped to raise the younger ones, and maintained the homestead with her mother.
‘That is why I am such a good femme de ménage (housewife)’ Emilie says with a wink.

Emilie looks at Bour lovingly as he is trying to fill out a document and his handwriting is slow and shaky, “He used to write so well,’ she said, ‘you wouldn’t know that he used to drive around Chad in an issued Land Rover as the boss of the Douane...he has reverted back to being like a child.”
Not only in the regression of his handwriting but also economically; Bour has gone from being a powerful and wealthy man in his country, to an American life of food stamps and a slim retirement pension because of his age and health.

Emilie, too, faces certain, initiatory aspects of their resettlement, learning the alphabet and other, cultural norms for the first time. She now works on her English from home with a volunteer, struggling over each letter’s pronunciation. Between letters and friendly bantering in French, the television murmurs and flashes in the background with images of America, and such icons as Oprah.
“I like Oprah,’ Emilie says, clasping her hands together and placing them on her lap, decorated in weathered, fading colors of traditional African fabric.
“She is bigger,’ she says, motioning her long fingers like the exaggerated contours of a woman, “something you can hold onto.”

Like Oprah’s fluxing body weight, Emilie’s figure has changed greatly since her arrival last August. After spending the winter in their basement apartment, cooking and cleaning. Her eyes are tired with worry, her face and body swollen with the weight of unhappiness. Last summer and fall she would go to the ESOL (English as a second or other language) with Bour, dressed regally in her African garb. They walk in to class together and greet the other adult students, from Burma, Thailand, and China. She would join one of the other French-speaking ladies, her amies from Togo or Burundi. As fall turned to winter Emilie watched as her fellow classmates stopped coming to class because they were finding work. When the weather turned cold Emilie stopped going to ESOL at all.
The winter months passed with only Bour attending the classes, explaining in French that his wife is suffering from hypertension and depression.

The story of Emile and Bour’s persecution is kept quiet beneath their tired eyes. They only talk about certain aspects of the life that they left behind and are easily brought to discomfort when talking about the past. Although many refugees suffer from post -traumatic stress, in the United States there are few organizations that integrate mental health assessment and therapy into the resettlement process. Emilie and Bour’s story has been documented by a caseworker and then filed away, in an envelope marked as confidential.

The State Department is responsible for overseas processing of refugees. Generally, it arranges for an ‘overseas processing entity’ (OPE) to conduct interviews and to prepare cases for submission. Once the refugees are admitted into the country, they are allocated to a resettlement organization like IRC to handle their case and provide support for the first months. The organization is required to offer cultural orientation. When CO was first developed in the 1980s refugees were given a six-month period of language and cultural orientation training, now they receive a very brief, intensive cultural orientation, ranging in length from 1 to 5 days.

To become culturally oriented Emilie and Bour have relied mostly on family, their niece and occasional visiting family who have settled in Canada. Emilie, unable to read the subway maps and signs is afraid to travel around the city alone. With Bour frequently at his physical therapy, Emilie spends most of her time at home. The apartment always smells of cooking; lamb stew, or baked fish to accompany traditionally cooked rice or grain. Emilie, a natural host, finds delight in times when a visitor will stay for a meal, so that she may feel as though she is bringing sustenance to others in a way that is familiar and natural to her.

Both Bour and Emilie, without work, find a great deal of time to reflect on their life together, and a past that seems so distant. Recently Bour has been taking time to engage in the writing of his life story. He writes his story by hand, in French, to be translated by his brother (who is not of blood, but called a brother nonetheless) who also lives in the city. Three of Bour’s children have settled in French speaking Montreal. His other children and first wife still continue the family name in Chad. Bour was born unto a prestigious village leader who had nine wives; with Bour’s mother alone his father had eight children, and in all he had 37 children. Bour only took two wives, maintaining the tradition; he had six children with his first wife, and only one with Emilie – their son who was killed. Emilie has not seen any of her family since leaving Chad. She speaks to her mother on the phone from time to time; Her mother is 62. She was only 15 when she had Emilie, her firstborn. Emilie would like to find a job in New York so that she can send more money to her mother and family – She dreams of bringing her younger brother here, so that he could work too. She will probably never see her mother again, because as she said, ‘You cannot go back to a country from which you have already been saved. It would be dangerous, and we cannot sabotage our life here.’

Emilie is a devout Christian. When she married Bour she converted from her Protestant upbringing to Catholicism. She prays each day, the family prays together before meals, and sometimes she fasts – to consecrate needs for the family, for health or for the child that she yearns for. With Bour gone so often at the hospital, and little family near by, Emilie has a great deal of time to consider their life – and very little outlet for processing her thoughts. Some nights she doesn’t sleep at all, others, she sleeps for too long. She wants to become integrated, to find a job, to learn English. Yet, life presents continuous set backs and trials. Next week Emilie will undergo a minor surgery to remove uterine fibroids. Fibroids are the most common non-cancerous tumor of the reproductive tract. Merck’s online medical library states that ‘They occur in one fourth of white women and one half of black women.’ Emilie confirmed that they are extremely common among women in Chad, for reasons unknown. The operation affirms that her body can no longer reproduce.

On a recent spring day Emilie had a picnic in Central Park. The park was alive with people running, professionals walking, lovers loving, children playing. Sitting on a grassy knoll, Emilie was dressed in a traditional, tailored skirt and shirt in bright fabrics of red and green. She looked out at the baseball field and fondly remembered the Mets game that she and Bour went to on an IRC outing, when they first arrived. She noticed all the different kinds of people, making comments about their style, admiring the vibrancy of a few Indian women in their saris. Se watches a long line of NYPD vehicles pass, surveying the park from the tarmac road. Emilie is smiling, saying that the sun and heat reminds her of Africa.
‘I love New York.’ Emilie says with conviction, ‘It’s wonderful because no one is going to take it away from you. Rebels aren’t going to come and steal away your life or livelihood. You can live however you want.’

Freedom and Education

2010-03-23T10:42:00.000-04:00

...Without freedom they (the oppressed and oppressor) cannot exist authentically...
Paolo Freire

"A person's freedom of learning is part of his freedom of though, even more basic than his freedom of speech."
John Holt

"Let childhood ripen in chidren...let the germ of his character reveal itself freely."

Man is Free but is everywhere in chains."
Rousseau

Freedom in Education is as urgent as the idea of 'development as freedom,' for without self liberation how can we reflect and then create transformation and action in the world? The above illustration is from the cover of a book about the educational models of Paolo Freire, who is famous for his 'Pedagogy of the Oppressed.' His main ideas are focused around the practice of:

conscientização: learning to perceive social, political, and economic contradictions and to take action agains the oppressive elements of reality...

reflection,
action,
transformation,

humanization

Freire seeks to awaken the people unto themselves, using dialogue and reflection about the state of society and injustice. Furthermore, working to self-liberate and transform dynamics of oppression.

"Those who authentically commit themselves to the people must re-examine themselves constantly." -Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Freire's liberation of learning is in dissent to the industrialization approach to education. During the era of industrialization schools began to emulate the supply and demand approach to labor. There was a need for factory workers and so children were trained to be disciplined, to repeat back, and to copy. Rote learning and the structure of standardized testing are indicators of this archaic dynamic in classrooms today. Freire spoke out against oppression, especially of rural, local populations in Brazil. The change which this pedagogue was conjuring was a dialectic that stems from the people themselves. Community circles of sharing were an important way to learn the needs and wants of the village through the use of embodied speech, rather than empty word.
This calls for leaders to step forth and become actors in intercommunication.

Therefore, no change is prescriptive. What works for one group of people in schools, or learning, may not work for another group of people at another time and place.

"The starting point for organizing the program content of political action must be a present, existential, concrete situation reflecting the aspirations of the people."

In terms of education and development this issue of place-based initiative is of paramount importance. All too often western ideals of education are applied haphazardly to other nations around the world, while they are often incongruous to the culture of the place and people. Freire's notion of pedagogy is still revolutionary and inspires many to become masters of their own thinking.

Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity | Video on TED.com

2010-03-19T11:23:00.000-04:00

Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity | Video on TED.com

This video is one of my personal favorites on TED - Ted, in case you don't know it, is a nonprofit devoted to the spread of good ideas in Technology, Entertainment and Design. They have an annual conference in California, as well as events and talks worldwide. On their website you can access amazing talks from all different kinds of thinkers, and speakers. Every talk is 20 minutes. You can see Jane Goodall's TED talk by clicking on the link at then end of that post below.

Robinson's speculation hails apon Howard Gardner's approach to the notion of 'Multiple Intelligences.' Garnder's Multiple intelligences has immense educational implications because the student's success in school is greatly affected by the ways that the individual's strengths are either explored and nurtured or contained. Garnder focuses on the goal of education geared towards understanding and the student's direct involvement in the learning process. The empowerment of the student to engage meaningfully in their own learning is the schools most essential task. This is increasingly placed on the back burner as standardized testing and assessment take precedence in classrooms. Testing does not take human development into consideration, nor is it contextualized to culture. And the fact that tests are being standardized and applied to different cultures around the world, as a benchmark for intelligence is careless because definitions of intelligence are clearly shaped by time, place and culture.

Girls recall the day's lesson, via 'rote learning' after school in a sand-floored classroom. Keta Peninsula, Ghana, 2009

Are schools using varied methods of production, perception and reflection? Is the process being assessed, or merely the results in standardized form? How can youth be empowered to access and activate their own styles of learning, their individual talents?
These questions are not only for students in their youth, but for all of us who have been marked by the limited western notion of intelligence. Individually, am I actualizing my strengths, in the light of my specific community? Learning and the empowerment of individual capabilities is a lifelong process.

One particular tool that Gardner suggests is the time-honored tradition of apprenticeship. This relationship not only allows an experiential process to help guide and distinguish the student in their individual talents, but also offers the possibility of empowerment. Also, the mentor or master is able to witness the student in their approach and growth. The student's strengths should become the map for their educational development and learning style.