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

[rhys daily <shadow at teuton_org>]

On Fri, 25 Jul 2003, Nathan Swartzendruber wrote:

> "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.

o see, i didn't see the 'not' in there before.

> 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)

true.

that makes sense.  i see it too (the revolve around me-ism) but i also
know it's there in a lot of places.

i just can't write american completely off as uniquely self-centered. it's
jsut more visible cos they/we are so much more rich.

> 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.

memory,., then  - responsibility, awareness. that makes more sense to me
to call it that in my head. but i figure guilt probly has all that rolled
up in it and i just can't see it so well.

> >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 did not. it was a response, a thinking out loud much like you did.
that's where my train of thoughts take me. i did not say that you did the
stating. or even the guiding. i've just seen a lot of people come back
from africa and other third world countries and go down this road, and end
up at a noble savage mentality.

> I don't think bravery on the battlefield is the same as bravery in the
> classroom.

i think they are both the same in a war torn country

since the kids in uganda have to be brave to go to school when they could
be kidnapped. brave to fight - no. they are not. they were kidnapped
drugged and brutalized into figthing.

> Different categories, not necessarily different levels. We take so many
> basic needs for granted, which is natural.

yea. like the freedom of women to walk around alone (for the most part).
some ofthe refugees from afghanistan, and the things that i've heard make
me glad glad glad to be living here. my dad didn't keep me indoors for 6
years so that i would not be killed or stolen.

> 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?

true also. human all the same, when you get down to it -yet.

i don't think any one person is better worse or more valuable than
another. that gets close to worth and whether wes hould help so'n so's
country.

> >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.

rhetorical question.

> >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.

is it? sorry, i didn't know. honest.

i mean. i've got family from the third world. i'm soon to have family (in
laws) who are missionaries *to* third world countries.

it's harder for me to abstract it.

> 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.

yes it is. it's something bigger enough that you (the general generic not
to be confused with You you) need to have abstracts inorder to *think*
about it in a constructive and accomplishing manner. at least i need to do
that.

> > > 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.

but that's just it - how did it get to the point that it was about only
one corner of a state? instead of People in general? that's what i don't
follow.

but at the same time, things are too big to always be looking at them in a
big way. you miss details. if i only remain aware of the fact that people
are the same allover, i miss the fact that *mothers* sing to
theirchildren, cook for them ,pray over them ,worry for them, because
while looking only at the big picture, imissed the experiences around me
that would shape m ability to *see* a big picture.

or something.

> 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.

don't understand.

> I'm not trying to defend Paul Simon's lyrics. But maybe he might turn
> people on to some of those better reactions.

true. i would defend his lyrics though (:

i *like* them

like the words images an dmusic

> Maybe seeing that rerun of SNL of Paul with LBMambazo will get people
> curious.

true

> >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.

it is sneaky
hard to explain too.

> 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.

yea that is what needs to happen

> 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...

i'm sure you are righ t- personal realites are harder than cultural - but
cultural reflcets a lot of personal realities.

rhys

-- 
End hunger
Save the whales
Free the mallocs



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