Re: third world connections (Re: I have no Halloween )

["Nathan Swartzendruber" <thefishpatrol at hotmail_com>]

> > I guess everybody has to decide what world they live in, and you can't 
>be
> > everywhere at once. But third world day-to-day is every bit as real as
> > home-of-the-brave America.
>
>no one said it wasn't.

"he has a Paul Simon quality to his voice, but sings about real things and 
not third world day-to-day events that don't mean so much to the average 
Joe, like Paul does"

That's how I read it.

> > Sure I think most media coverage of the third world is purely academic.
>
>to borrow a southernism, 'what newspaper y'all been reading?'
>
>i disagree.

Tragedy is celebrity. Whether regarding the States or life abroad, I know I 
personally see other people's plight as something I should get involved in 
much too rarely. That's a poorly written sentence. Not like I think we 
should panic about every problem that's out there. I just see the 
universe-revolves-around-me syndrome around me a lot. (Culture shock speaks)

> > Nobody enjoys guilt, though it's an emotion we're too unfamiliar with.
>
>is this what's called a white man's burden? i don't geti it, inever have.
>is it because of who my parents are? the colour of my family?

No, I'm thinking of guilt as a blessing. Sure, living here frees me to spend 
my time in other ways: writing, hiking, listening to music, reading books, 
coffee with friends, etc. And that's cool, that's good stuff. But I also 
need to be reminded that there are people who need help, and I can actually 
help them. Not just financially, and not because I'm white. I didn't choose 
my family, place of birth, etc. Just because I should. Guilt isn't the right 
word for all of this, but I can't just let myself forget, shrug it all off, 
either.

> > I think people living in the third world have a kind of bravery we're
> > not even familiar with here.
>
>brave? no more than you or i. brave? they get up and live, they know no
>differently.  brave? sure - living is brave, i'm not tryin got diminish
>them - but aggrandizing it into something magical is dangerous. there is
>no such thing as the noble savage, we do ourselves a disservice when we do
>that - both for us and for them.

Noble savage? Don't paste that on what I said, please. I don't think bravery 
on the battlefield is the same as bravery in the classroom. Different 
categories, not necessarily different levels. We take so many basic needs 
for granted, which is natural. But a lot of the things that might make our 
"how can you live without...?" list are a little absurd. We're all human, 
but does that make us all the same?

>they are flawed wonderful beautiful people. and so's your neighbour -
>which one is more blessed? more special? hard to say.

I'm not meaning to make that distinction.

>third world, yea it's a hard place to be. there's greed, corruption,
>selfishness, drugs, guns, knives, mutilations, beauty, smiles, and music
>and wonderful food, scenery like nowhere else, culture that dictates half
>of the listed things into normality.... sounds like any country i can
>think of

But it's so easy then to leave it in the abstract. Other countries...it's 
the same, really...but different.... I'm not sure how life can to such a 
degree be neither abstract nor communicative. Life is actual, everywhere.

> > And if people like Paul Simon can connect us to the rest of the world in
> > more human ways, we need to hear those songs.
>
>word. but there's better connections to africa.

Which is the point of my bit of rant. We should listen, we should sing about 
what People experience, not just the folks in our little corner of the 
globe. No, bombs in baby carriages isn't typical, isn't representative, and 
it's very dangerous to flippantly invoke images of a place/culture you 
aren't a part of. I'm not trying to defend Paul Simon's lyrics. But maybe he 
might turn people on to some of those better reactions. Maybe seeing that 
rerun of SNL of Paul with LBMambazo will get people curious.

>Salif Kaita
>oliver mtukudzi
>zap mama
>pap wemba
>ladysmith black mbazo
>orchestra baobab

>if you're not happy with yourself, what would you change?

Being in Africa, I changed, and without much knowing how as it happened. Now 
I'm back, and still trying to figure out the how. Sneaky stuff, apparently. 
Living in the discrepancy is...hard.

>a sad fact, if i gave all my money away to a village in africa to make
>myself less guilty, it would get used up and i woulda created a dependency
>
>dave, my fiancee, grew up in zegatta, C'ote Ivoire.  when he went back he
>made some 'friends' who knew him as a little boy. they write and ask him
>to send stuff. having an 'american' is a big dela.

I've seen that first-hand too. Finding orgs/projects that really help is 
difficult, but possible. Support infrastructure: clean water, sanitation, 
health care, etc.

>i'm touchy about mexico
>
>i think we all have some secret not so secret painful itchy area that we
>hate to hav touched, but wouldn't want to lose
>like a friendly scar.
>rhys

Yeah, I would and wouldn't, alternately. Maybe the personal realities are 
more difficult to come back to than the cultural, but the latter's just more 
apparent. Good someone graph this for me or something? The best laid 
plans...

Nathan

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