The Key To Progress (From Tanzania, Africa)

"We are the future leaders of Africa"

A book of statistics can reveal interesting things about a country. The infant mortality rate, the gross national income, and the yearly income of an average resident. But usually overlooked is the literacy of the country. A small number that can reveal so much, especially over time.

Education, education, the key to progress.

This percentage can separate the developed world, from the developing world. A little number, so easily overlook, but so important to every country. In the United States, a place where not going to school and gaining that education is punishable by law, it is too easy to forget our luck. Yes, America has poverty, and homelessness, and lots of hunger, but the literacy rate we can boast is outstanding.

As I walk the streets of rural Tanzania, I'm amazed by the energy that exudes from these kids. I've been here four days, giving out toys, learning names and teaching lessons, and they are always eager for more. They don't think about the presents we give them, or the amazing new things we bring to the school. They show up whether we are there or not, and this is simply amazing. To think in a country where a child is lucky to get an education, these children are so eager to get just that.

Education, education, the key to progress.

We listened to them sing us songs today. They had it all figured out. The poems they wanted us to hear, the formations, chanting and beautiful rhythm. I thought is was cool that they could memorize, but i was more astounded by what they were actually saying. "We are the future of Africa!" they screamed. "We love our teachers, we love our school, we love you, our humble guests".

Education, education, the key to progress.

I can't seem to stress what ran through my head at that moment, when through the thick accents I understood what they said. They get it. And their brilliant. One of these kids could lead Tanzania into the light, and into the 'developed' world. I was staring at Tanzania's future. Its only future.

Education, education, the key to progress.

And so, as I continue to walk the dusty streets of Africa, towards a beautiful school, with four children hanging on each finger (you'd be surprised by how literal I'm being), I don't see despair in their faces, but joy at their most proud possesion. Their minds. And as I walk from the orphanage every night, I can't shake their smiles from my mind. We walk down these humble paths, smiling, and giggling, as slowly they chant:

"Education, education, the key to success"

7/31/2009
Jackie Lungmus

A Youth Rallies

Guess I’m not done yet!

My picture is of a youth rally. In the picture you see a large group of young adults, holding cameras and obama support posters. They are all smiling, which leads to my conclusion that they are in support of Obama’s administration.

This is interesting to me when looked at alongside a history of presidential races. Only in the last century have people really begun to rally around presidential candidates. For a long time Americans struggled with the idea that they could really have an effect on their government, and change the way things played out in their world. But people are starting to get it.

This world is too precious not to have a say in it. You see the newer generations becoming more active in things like human rights issues. Young adults, from early ages, are beginning to think about their world, and form opinions on difficult issues. It’s increasingly common for people to take those extra steps to change their world. To plant a tree, to write to a government representative, or to go to a rally like this one.

This shows progress in America. This is a good thing, when people, young and old, are realizing their point of view counts. It’s important that Americans value the ability to vote, and their freedom of speech, and their freedom to assemble. We are very lucky, and American’s are starting to realize it again.

I wonder what compelled these students to go to this rally. I wonder how many people showed up to the rally. From the picture it looks like a very large group. And I wonder if this trend will continue in this way. I sure hope so!

“You must be the change you wish to see in the world” ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Thanks for a great year!!

Good Night and Good Luck

Wow.

Another year flies by. It’s hard during the year to think about whether or not it was a good one. For me, it usually takes a while before I can fully appreciate, or not appreciate, a school year or a summer vacation or something like that. But I have good feelings about this one.

For one thing, when I think about my year as a whole, I can’t help but smile, which probably means I’ve had a good one. But its just so weird to think it’s over. My third year.

But I can’t help but say the one thing I feel like I missed this year, while I had a good out of school social life (I always had something to do with my free time) , I can’t help but realize that I have formed very few bonds with the kids in my classes. Maybe it’s because three of my four classes were majority sophomores. Maybe it’s because everyone is so wrapped up in “junior year” that we didn’t really stop and enjoy the people around us.

I know that sophomore year, I made friends with people that, to this day, I still spend all my free time with. I have so many great memories from my classes, meeting people, and laughing so hard in class the teacher yelled at us. But I’m not saying I don’t have good memories from this year!

I especially liked all my teachers this year. I got along well with every single one of them, and that makes me either really lucky, or….. really lucky. I know I’m going to miss my chemistry teacher a lot, and both of my American Studies teachers. I just have to keep telling myself I’ll see them around school.

Overall, I have to say, junior year wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. Sure there’s the college thing, but I am way too excited about college to even have time to be nervous or stressed about it. While this year at times was annoying, disorganized, and confusing, I’m lucky to have kept my sanity. I know kids that have cried every night for like, the last two months! I’m grateful for my sanity.

And so, as I venture into another patch of unknown waters, I look back and remember my good year, and my good luck, and look forward to a crazy summer ahead. As what will probably be my last post of junior year, and my last post for my American (Integrated) Studies course, I hope I made a good impression on the people around me, and that I don’t just become another student that took American studies one of those many years. I could ask for nothing more, for everything else has been given to me already. And so I conclude, Good night, and Good luck.

I can't think of a title for this, but read it anyway...

Last weekend my sister got confirmed into our church. It was a happy event and the whole family was there, but the one thing I really remember from the weekend is that I took way too long getting ready!

Not only am I not a morning person, but I, in a classic girl move, couldn’t for the life of me figure out what to wear! I had a dress and a sweater but it was missing something. As I rummaged through my mom’s draws of her vintage clothing I found it. A beautiful Chanel floral silk scarf, a perfect accessory to the simple white dress I was wearing.

Now that’s all nice and interesting but that’s not what I’m writing this blog post to talk about. I want to talk about fashion and clothing as a symbol for social class.

This scarf had a pretty and simply floral pattern, but in the center was a huge Chanel symbol. It is by far the biggest image on the scarf and draws a lot of attention. I soon realized that this is one of the reasons the scarf is so pretty, and why I was so drawn to it. Yes, it’s shallow and materialistic of me, but I love the fact that I was wearing a vintage Chanel silk scarf. Of course, this symbol represents something to most people, at least to most girls. It’s a great symbol for wealth, sophistication, and social standing, whatever all three of those terms actually mean.

So I thought of all the people that spend thousands of dollars on clothing and accessories. But why? Is it because of the quality of the merchandise? I don’t think so. We pay for labels. It’s a simple as that. We like Chanel and Coach and Louis Vutton because we have this idea in our head that they’re high-class.

I think this something important that needs to be taken into account when looking at American’s views of social class. It is possible to find people, who live on the verge of poverty, but are still going to pay to have the nice clothing, because at least it gives off the idea that they care about their image, and they can afford to keep it up. It’s an interesting glimpse into American society and how much we obsess over our public image. We want to look wealthy and respectable, so we pay for those random labels that to a lot of people don’t actually mean anything at all. And I think it’s a simple as that.

Small and Mighty

The American Flag. What does it symbolize, what does it mean?

I ended up going away for mothers’ day this weekend, up to Kohler, Wisconsin, which was convenient because if there is only one thing I’ll ever remember about Wisconsin-ites it’s that they love big American Flags. Really big American Flags. I’ve made the drive to Kohler about three times a year since I was like five, and we probably pass five huge American flags on the way there. Actually now it’s only four since the insurance company headquarters we pass took theirs down (which is interesting within itself).

However, the picture I took was not of one of those flags. It was of a much smaller flag. Actually, it isn’t a flag at all; it’s a painting of a flag. This painted flag, as you can see, is placed atop a silo. An interesting place for a flag. Or is it? The first thing I wondered was why there? Is there anything particularly American about silos? Well, yes there is. We’re one of the bread baskets of the world. But then I thought about how the farmer who owned said silo had to make the conscious decision to have that flag on top of his silo. Maybe he believes he is doing something particularly patriotic. Making food for Americans and foreigners alike. There is something strangely idyllic about an honest farmer, who lives off modest means and owes everything to the land. This is the way most American’s through history have lived, but actually, it’s kind of dying. American’s are no longer majority farmers. And with the industrialization of farming, both crop and livestock, the lifestyle of the American farmer is drastically different than it once was.

So was does this flag on this silo say? That this is America? These are its roots, its core, and its true citizen? This flag struck me, because it seems to, despite its size, demand attention. Close to the highway and high in the air, in a perpetual state of motion, it titles its farm “American”. But is it American? Is the rural America still the American heart, as this silo, and a surprisingly large amount of Wisconsin silos claim?

Or is farming a dying art, and with it, a dying form of patriotism?

My Intro

Here is my intro:

Cult: a group or sect bound together by veneration of the same thing, person, ideal, etc.

The word cult conjures up strange images. For example, pictures of large groups of people with shaven heads talking in unison, or maybe even ideas of brainwashing and abuse. But in reality, the word cult means nothing more than a group of people with a common idea. Or at least the denotation does. We all know there is a lot more to the word cult than just that. According to Sociology, A Down-to-Earth Approach, a cult is simply “a new or different religion whose teachings and practices put it at odds with the dominant culture and religion” (Henslin, 529). This definition, if not less confusing, at least seems more tangible. It is hard to step away from reality, and look at the bigger picture, especially when dealing with something as personal as religion, but truthfully, the world’s most popular religions started as nothing more than cults. When telling of one religion, the same sociology textbook reads, “its handful of followers believed that an unschooled carpenter who preached in remote villages in a backwater country was the Son of God, [and] that he was killed and came back to life” (529). So then why is it that new religious movements, otherwise known as cults, are met with such hostility in America? We react with hostility towards new religious movements because we don’t know how else to react. It is due to the abnormal lifestyle many new religious movements require, the counter-cultural values often held within these groups, and the fear we feel when presented with the unknowns of an entirely new religion.

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I guess the real problem is the length. I have always struggled with making my pieces short. I like putting words together and trying to make them sound nice, so it's always hard for me to get to the point with my essays.
It's a rough draft, and most of it will probably not be present in my final draft.

The real accomplishment this "weekend":
Getting my thoughts organized and getting a interviewee!

The Toon of Three Thoughts

So here I sit. Staring at a screen, with what I’m supposed to believe is a sound introduction to (supposedly) one of the most important papers I’ve ever written.

The future looks bleak. At least to me.

I mean, I’m sure it’s not that bad, and it’s not the introduction that scares me as much as the multiple paragraphs that must follow it.

I’m still trying to wrap my mind around the exact, perfect, interesting, and painfully specific direction I want my research to go.

Not to mention the fact that I awake almost every morning to the toon of three thoughts: 1) uggg, school again/uggg, track again 2) what is this thing poking me in the back, oh wait, that’s my dog… and 3) I need to find somebody to interview for my junior theme!!

It’s like this little feeling down in my chest that keeps me in a constant state of anxiety, and it doesn’t help when I look at the calendar and realize I have two more weekends to pull this together.

Excuse me!?

Oh and one more thing, the fact that I’m an independent learning that would probably learn about writing this paper by jumping off a bridge than by going in for help, frustrates me, especially when I realize my fourth quarter grade rests upon my ability to keep in touch with my teachers.

I need a hard slap in the face. I shouldn’t be sitting here venting to my American Studies blog. I should be doing something productive!

The million dollar question though, is what.

REAL LIFE PLANTATION!

I had the chance this week to drive across the heart of the South, twice. I have done this every year as long as I can remember, but I’m usually either asleep or watching a movie. But this time I decided to keep my eyes glued to the landscape. Well what I saw was pretty interesting. For example, driving down the freeway in the heart of Tennessee, I saw a sign for a “Real Life Plantation”. You could see it from the highway, it was a large house made out of what looked like cardboard overlooking about half an acre of land with a huge sign saying “Real Plantation” on the roof with a letter or two falling off.

After I overcame the sticker shock that they were actually advertising a plantation, I thought that if you’re going to sell yourself in that way, you could at least make it nice. Like make a real house on an open field, without the huge sign that needs a paint job. It really shows you how much this is a part of their identity. Even though plantations are widely considered a negative thing, it’s such a part of Southern culture and southern identity that they’d rather do it poorly, then not do it at all. It also makes you wonder about how “they” see plantations versus how “we” see plantations. I hate you use a broad term like “the north” but I have to in this situation. The North probably sees plantations as symbolic of oppression and rebellion, while a Southerner could see it as a symbol of the glory days, when the only thing larger than their property was their wallets. This resembles what we talked about with the south retaining their individual identity, completely separate from the North’s after the end of the war, and even after Reconstruction.

I’m not saying it’s a bad thing that they wish to draw tourist in this way; it’s just pretty interesting that that is how they wish to embrace their past. Could it truly be better to do it poorly, than not do it at all though?

He's always talking about Puerto Rico!

I walked into my living room yesterday to find my mom, brother, and sister all watching American Idol. I don’t really watch the show consistently, but I do know a lot of the people on it right now and when I came into the room the only Puerto Rican contestant was currently singing. I like him, he’s nice, modest, and with his modesty he ends up being quite funny, and after I announced this to my brother, he said, “I don’t really like him”. I asked why, and my brother said, “I don’t know, he’s always talking about Puerto Rico” (Keep in mind my brother is eleven). I laughed and jokingly said, “What are you? Racist?” My brother, in defense, turned and literally said, “What are you talking about Jackie, racism is between whites and blacks!” My jaw dropped, and I instantly asked him who told him that. He blushed, realizing he obviously said something incorrect, and I continued to explain exactly what racism really is.

Now, my brother is only eleven, but at the same time, he’s eleven! He’s not five, but he’s not yet a young man, so part of me expected it, and the other part was surprised he didn’t even really know what racism is. This got me thinking about the way race, and racism is taught, especially in junior highs. When I look back, I don’t actually remember ever talking about race in my junior high classes. That upsets me.

We are spending so much time talking about the banning of books for things like racial slurs. I think banning of any type of book is bad, not only because I think it’s the parents job to both monitor and push their children when it comes to reading and learning, but I don’t see what good comes from banning a book!

Honestly, banning Huckleberry Finn from high schools is not going to make racism go away, and it’s not going to make slurs go away either! In my mind, it’s actually going to promote ignorance! Kids, even young kids, need to embrace racial differences, because it’s our differences that make us human beings! (May sound kind of idealistic but hey) So what I think needs to be done, is just that. We need to stop banning books because they make us uncomfortable, use good judgment on the maturity levels of the students reading said book, and most importantly, acknowledge that we are all different! Yes we are equal, and YES we are all human, all deserving basic rights, but race, at least the social construction, is immensely important for self identity and much more.

And maybe if you want the idea of race to go away, better education on race and science will help show our younger generations that, though are skin colors are different, we all come from the same thing, the same core. We are all people.

Ticking Time Bomb

Last night my family and I taped a new episode of 24, and then stayed up late so we could watch it conveniently without commercials, and two things amazed me. One is this ticking time bomb scenario, which the entire episode was based around! Do you allow Jack to beat one guy’s face in, if it could (key word could) save hundreds of lives? Most people are against the idea of torture, but not if they’re told it could save many more lives, but what people don’t understand is there is very little room for compromise. It hard to say, “I’m okay with torture, sometimes…” Reality doesn’t work that way. If you say yes to torture in these situations, you’re saying yes to torture in every situation.

However, like in last night’s episode, it’s hard to look a man in the eye, know he could be the key to saving many lives, if only you could press a little harder. How do you justify the deaths of the people that could result from not pushing the suspect harder? But once again, there is little to no room for compromise. If you say no to torture, you say no to torturing everybody, no exceptions.

This is what governments have struggled with in our new “ethical age”. Our values are constantly changing, from decade to decade, administration to administration, and these issues change with them. So is there a “right” answer? Well no, because it’s an opinion, but is there a moral thing to do? I think this is one of those things we just can’t answer, but if we ever want to truly be the role model we need to realize we are, and then we need to approach these hard issues head on. Without compromises, no more picking and choosing appropriate situations.

Look for my other issue with the 24 special in my next blog post!

Live Breaking News!

I’m sitting here, watching President Obama's first official news conference, and obviously the main thing on his mind is our country’s economy. He said something that made my jaw drop. The amount of jobs we have lost is like losing every job in the state of Maine, and of all those jobs, more than half disappeared in the last month! Ouch! That is why we need the stimulus package. But do the ends of it really justify the means? People are freaking out about the amount of money being used in this package (with just cause as it somewhere in the trillions I think). I don’t really know where I stand on this issue though. We need the money, and we need it now, but you have to worry about the struggling families that are going to have to pull some of the trillion out of their pockets. At the same time it don’t even feel totally comfortable taking a stand on this issue because I don’t know how it feels. I don’t pay those taxes, I don’t need that money. To me, I have to admit, it is just a number, and it’s such a big number I can’t even actually realize how much money that is. But I don’t think this is wasteful government spending, because I don’t think this money will be put to waste. One of the few things I claim to understand about of failing economy is the fact that we need to work from the ground up. We need to get families back into houses, with a steady income, and off of welfare. But maybe a couple trillion dollars is too much money for creating four million jobs and “fixing” the economy (something that isn’t even a guarantee). Maybe it’s my naïveté, maybe it’s my gut, or maybe it’s a bizarre mixture of both, but I really can’t help but kind of trust our president on this one.

Beowulf Versus Gandhi!

As we discussed Rosa Parks today in class, the word hero came up a lot. Rosa Parks is indeed a modern day hero, but what type of hero is she? The myth suggests she a quiet, simple, loving, innocence, and I think most importantly, passive person. In her myth, a story that resonated across the country and still touches hearts today, Rosa Parks was a hero that was oppressed by people more powerful than her, and she rose up against them with non violence. We love this idea of a peaceful hero, and it seems that within the last decade or two, these are the ones that last. Rosa Parks, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, all non violent activists that spoke against injustice without a single violent act. But if you look farther back, it’s actually the opposite. Ancient heroes, the stuff of legends and folktales. I, for some reason, instantly think of Beowulf. He was written about as a hero, and in his tale, he was considered a hero by both his men and his followers, but Beowulf became a hero not through peace, but through bloody savage fighting. Even though Beowulf may be thought of today as a blood thirst warlord, this legend has lasted hundreds of hundreds of years, which means it obviously resonated when it was created (or it actually happened. It hard to prove if the stories of Beowulf are actually true).

It’s bizarre to look at the bigger picture, and realize how the idea

of a hero has changed with history. People like Beowulf, physically strong, brave, noble, and violent, versus Gandhi, weak, oppressed, strong willed, brave, virtuous, and peaceful. So which is a hero and which isn’t? Or are they both heroes? Well, I think the hero is all in the eyes of the beholder, the situation, and the time period. So basically, there is not cookie cutter hero. But what then, makes a hero a hero, and not just another really good person? That’s another post for another day.

The Bible Code: Yeah its confusing!

I just finished watching a television show on the Bible Code. The Bible Code is believed to be a mathematical system, in which you count the letters of the torah, and then, like a crossword puzzle, pull words out of the block of letters you get. Sounds confusing. Well it is. Those words then seem to come together to create prophecies and even tell the future, by bunching common words together. Sounds iffy. Well it is. Sounds controversial. Yeah, it’s that also. But I don’t want to argue whether or not the bible code exists, I’m far more interested in why we care.

Why do we go looking for a code like this, and why, once we find one, is it so intriguing? I believe it’s because we, as humans, all yearn for one thing. Purpose. When we find something like a code, that in a way makes sense of all the things going on in our world, and has the potential to tell our future, we feel drawn to it because it makes us feel like we have a path, it’s a meaning for our own existence.

As I watched this show, and all these people argued for their sides of the story, I was drawn to the fact that we are even having this argument at all. It’s so interesting to think about how much we love prophecy. Even if we think it’s completely unrealistic, we can’t help but listen. We can’t help but be shocked by those that for one reason or another come true, or others that frighten us. It’s classic human nature to want to know what our futures are, what the stars may hold for us, and I think it plays into our eternal drive and need for a purpose in life. Once again, it makes people feel like we have a path, a destiny, that we aren’t just wandering the earth blindly. In a way, if someone says they can predict our future, whether we believe it or not, it makes us feel like we have a future to look forward to.

Another Thought on Sins

Here's something else to think about relating to my last blog post. I talked about envy, and how it may be just misunderstood. I asked if envy could possibly be a good thing, a necessary thing, and not the evil thing we are taught from birth.

What about greed? Think about our economy, and Wall Street, and the materialistic community we are. Could greed be a good thing?

A Not So Deadly Sin?

Envy. It’s one of the seven deadly sins. It is something that, nearly from birth, we are trained is evil. It is often associated with the devil, sin, and bad people, but what about biology and necessity? I’m not talking about jealousy, because jealousy is linked with love. Envy, at its core, is disdain for another person because they possess something that you do not. So what role has this “evil” thing played in history?

Sure you think of warlords and medieval Europe, the whole my castle is bigger than your castle thing, but I’m talking positive. Is envy a positive thing? Sounds crazy right?

I don’t believe it’s all that crazy. I think envy is beyond important. At first it is hard to break out of our molds to think about something like envy in a positive way, but envy is actually biologically necessary. Imagine the earth a few million years ago, and a monkey is out collecting food. It comes home with three nuts, only to discover that another monkey in the tribe collected five nuts! That monkey gets envious of the extra food and vows to collect more nuts next time he is out. Now this story may seem like a stretch, but hopefully the main idea got across. Envy, in a way, actual wills the evolution process. Envy, a somehow trivial feeling, is anything but! Are brains may possibly be wired to be envious in a way to make us want to be better, and feel that it is necessary to be better than we are!

But that’s not all! Imagine its implications today, in modern society. Look at the United States, a completely consumer driven society. Think about the man the returns home from work, and discovers that his neighbor has purchased a new car. He instantly dislikes his neighbor for his new purchase, and the only way he can strike back is by buying a new, better car. So he works extra hard for that big bonus, helping his company, then buys that expensive car, therefore stimulating the economy!

In more ways than those two, envy is vital to our world. It could be vital to the very evolutionary process that made us what we are today and it is more than vital to running our country. 2/3 of our economy is run by consumers, and imagine what would happen to the economy if every person decided they were happy with what they had!
So wait. Is envy really as evil as we preach it to be? Isn’t envy the very thing that runs our countries, runs the animal world, and even our world? Or is it truly evil, something that makes us materialistic and bitter? Well that’s for you to decide, but I think this deadly sin deserves to be rethought a little.