Longing

On the weekend I watched 'Black Hawk Down' for like the sixth time. It's violent and graphic and propoganda and I know all this but I still like the movie. Sometimes when I feel that I'm getting a little to full of myself, a little too self righteous concerning politics or the war I sit and watch a movie such as this. It helps to provide a differing perspective that causes me to stop, reflect and think a little. I'm always struck by the people out there who will give their lives for another often without a second thought.

This time I got a little more interested in the situation itself. So I hit the internet and Wikipedia and read up on the Battle of Mogadishu as well as Mohamad Farrah Aidid along with some of the soldiers involved. I also read about Somalia and the ongoing problems the people there face. In reading these things I can't help but feel inept, weak and selfish. I watch and read as a reporter visits Mogadishu in 2005 and is faced with the pain, anguish and anger that still resonates twelve years later. It gets me thinking that I should 'walk the walk' if I'm gonna 'talk the talk' so to speak.

I want to be a teacher. I hope that in two short months I will gain my acceptance to teacher's college and then finally acheive my modest dream. I also want to see the world, to go beyond the one hour radius in which I've lived 99% of my life. I want to see the things I've read and learned about in school (history major). I want to experience different cultures and people, to experience a different perspective on life and the world. I also want to leave this world thinking that I've made a difference, even if it's a small one. That was one of the reason's I wanted to be a teacher. It's one of the reasons I work at a homeless shelter for teens.

Almost a decade ago I wanted to go on a short-term missions project with World Vision. I'm no missionary, I know that but I do think I could help. The opportunity was to work for ten weeks in a sports camp for Palestinian children in the West Bank. Each of these trips cost the volunteer money which I was unable to raise in time to go. I think back often on that missed opportunity and try to imagine what impact it might have had on my life (perhaps none).

I had thought that I could use my teaching degree to see the world. Teach in foreign countries either through exchange programs or by working at an international school. I think I need to rectify things slightly. Perhaps I can do those things but I think I can also get back to something I started ten years ago. I looked on the World Vision website tonight and they have several short term projects going on. One was even renovating classrooms in Tanzania. Which sort of brings this hole post full circle. Africa.

By God's grace and mercy I was born in Canada, a rich country that wants for reletively nothing. I've been given a desire to help and hopefully in the next few years I'll also have the means (monetary) to help as well. So why not experience the world by giving to those who need it the most?

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In searching for pictures of Palestinian children I was saddened to see the prevelence to show them with bombs, guns and dressed up as 'terrorists'.

Reactionary pacifism

When is it right to use violence? This is a rather big question and one whose answer says much about a person or nation. Recently there has been violent demonstrations around the world as a result of the Muhammad cartoons controversy. There are a lot of issues tied up in this one incident: respect, self-censorship, freedom of the press, freedom of speech. It's a complex issue with varied consequences yet the violence that erupted from a minority of the world's Muslim's overshadows much of what Islam is about and what its adherents hold dear. We tend to label all Muslim's as reactionary, violent, fundamentalists and perhaps uncivilized. This is unfortunate.

A coworker and I were discussing the idea of when violence is a viable option for change. He has a friend who lives in China who has come to the point of advocating for violent revolt within China. He feels that China is so repressive and secretive that violence is the only option left. I don't know. My first thought was of this ...

For half an hour a lone Chinese man stared down a line of tanks and won. The protests that occured in China's Tiananmen Square during the spring of 1989 were seen around the world as was the courage of this lone individual. What would have been the outcome if he had lobbed a molotov cocktail at the tanks? He would surely have been killed on the spot. Instead of violence he chose non-violence and won. Violence begets violence we are taught.

Another great example of non-violent resistance is the Salt Satyagraha by Mahatma Ghandi in the spring of 1930. India was suffering under the represive British colonial government and yearning for its freedom. One of the ways in which the British kept the people under thumb while propping up the regime was through a salt tax. To protest not only the represive tax but the represive regime, Ghandi marched 240 miles to the sea and made salt, illegally.

This is marked as a turning point in the struggle for Indian independence. Ghandi knew his opponent when he said "that the British Government, powerful though it is, is sensitive to world opinion which will not tolerate repression of extreme political agitation which civil disobedience undoubtedly is, so long as disobedience remains civil and therefore necessarily non-violent." The power of his actions came not from violence but from non-violence.

Another famous example of non-violent civil disobedience is the march from Selma to Montgomery Alabama in the spring of 1963. Martin Luther King Jr. was a strong adherent to non-violent action and as a result with the help of millions of like minded Americans helped to change their country for the better. The civil rights movement of the 1960's was perhaps the most important issue in America over the past half century and it came about due to non-violent action.

There is something ennobling about the strength, determination and character that these people express through their actions that a multitude of violent protesters just can't match. When a person's inner strength is so intense and their identity as a human being so keen that despite what other's do to their bodies their inner strength and dignity shines through their wounds all the fiercer people cannot help but be changed.

To me the preeminent example of this principle is found in the person of Jesus. Not only did his actions change minds and hearts, nations and empires, he changed me.

Random thought generator

Just a few random thoughts most likely having no relevance upon each other.

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I visited the Canadian Museum of Civilization over the past weekend. Previously I had taken a course in university on how history is used and presented by the public and in the public realm. One of the things we studied was museums and specifically we studied this particular museum. It was fine. Some things were of more interest than others but that is the nature of the beast. I was struck by a particular presentation in the First Peoples exhibit. A woman was talking about wanting to share her aboringinal culture and heritage with her children. She said that she wanted her children to experience old growth forests, nature, etc.

Old Growth Forest

The term 'old growth forest' struck me as being rather odd. 'Old growth' was serving as an adjective for forest which implies that it is trying to differentiate it from another kind of forest. To me it was differentiating between 'old growth' forests and 'new growth' forests. It struck me as being somewhat sad that we had deforested the planet so much that we had to develope a term to differentiate between two types of forests. At one time there was only one term for forest; forest. Don't get me wrong I think reforestration is vital and important, I just thought it odd that we live in a time that has to make that distinction.

Reforestation in Costa Rica

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I was flipping through the channels last night and came across a documentary on CBC Newsworld called Naked. The focus of the show was on "Nudity as a strategy for change - social and political activists shed their clothes for greater media attention." I guess its an intresting way to create buzz and attention for a particular group or problem but I wonder if its very effective. There seems to be some history to the notion of prostesting naked (warning: nudity conatined on linked website), going back to Lady Godiva. However I'm watching these two young women being interviewed and they are constantly interupting their message of protest against our oil dependent society and the war in Iraq, to heckle people who have stopped to stare at two completely naked young women in the middle of a public park.

Sex is a huge issue in our culture and those who are completely able to disassociate sex with nudity are seemingly rare. So here are these two women standing naked in public in an effort to have their message heard and are only being stared at. They were no longer pontificators for social change but the apple for the voyeur's eye. I found it absurd that they were upset by this. In my opinion, one would have to be incredibly socially naive to believe that they could stand outside naked and not be gawked at. In the end I think their nakedness detracted from their message rather than supported it. Perhaps I'm in the minority though.

***

Just an update. I am continuing to write about utopia. The story and structure is evolving. It is quite the challenge trying to construct an entire society within one's head.

The weekend past

Here are some photo's I took over the weekend.

I think I'm starting to get the hang of it.

Now all I need is a camera all my own.

Today

Today I went for a walk in the snow. It was breezy and cold and wet. I stopped my internal complaints when I saw the ducks huddled together on the ice. I took some photos which I'll share later.

Today I'm gonna continue to work at envisioning Utopia. I began to do so some time ago but it wasn't until I began writing that, while I had decided on a structure for the story, there were few elements of society that I had really tackled. I'm finding it to be a good exercise. Here is the openning so far ...


ASCENDANCY

The sun broke the surface of the horizon casting its yellow light across the plains and towns once again. Night had been gradually becoming day for some time as the sun transformed the sky from black to greenish blue. The earth and sky looked clean and new, the previous nights rainfall had washed everything as though they had been newly born. The day’s routine began throughout the town and across the fields. Birds and squirrels could be seen foraging for food in an effort to feed their young. Mothers and fathers arose with the sun preparing their children for the days events. The town came to life slowly yet purposefully, rousing itself from quiet night to calm morning.

Today was special, for it was the first day of the second month, the Day of Ascension. As the sun continued to rise, a calm morning evolved into a frantic afternoon as people busied themselves ensuring that everything was in readiness for that evenings festivities. Wherever one looked people were abuzz with anticipation and weeping memories, their faces etched with joyous eyes and infectious smiles. This was the one hundred and twenty-ninth Ascension festival and the people of Doran were determined to make it the best one yet.

Groups of people, both young and old, wound their way throughout town cleaning, polishing, decorating and rehearsing. The Firstuns were busy finishing off the banners and flags that they would carry during the opening procession. The Wederas busied themselves by finishing off their honourary tokens, which they were to present that evening. The Peodnes were divided up into groups and assigned to an elder, under whom they roamed Doran ensuring that any and all that required help, received it. The people’s anticipation rose as the sun traced its descent towards the day’s completion. The sky tinged red, violet and pink as the people set aside their chores and worries and took up their joys and pride, as well as their forks.