Dear Friends-
Today I watched a documentary by the television show Frontline on the genocide in Rwanda, that happened ten years ago this year.
And as I watched as Hutu people hunted down Tutsti children, women, and men...
As over 800,000 people were killed in 100 days...
At a speed 5 times that of the Nazis during the Holocaust...
And the United Nations, who had stationed a peacekeeping force in Rwanda...
Who were the first to receive the message of the genocide...
Pulled out after international pressure...
And the disinterest of political leaders in "just an African" country...
I realised how important it is that we stay informed to the needs of the world.
Ethnic tensions exist the world over - it is difficult to find an area on earth that is devoid of them.
We, who know that Unity in Diversity is REAL...
Who know that the execution of a Youth by 750 rifles was not in vain...
That the sufferings of 20,000 people in Iran 150 years ago weren't for naught...
The afflictions heaped upon the Revealer of a New Revelation were for the betterment of the world...
And not for the denegration of humanity to a lower state...
We know that the sacrifices made by the worldwide Baha'i community...
And the Friends in Iran...
That these are for the spiritual upliftment of the world of humanity.
The world has suffered through generations of oppression...
Through genocide...
And war...
Through rape...
And carnage...
Through displacement...
And oppression...
To arrive at this Day...
In this Hour...
And we have the Remedy the world needeth.
We cannot forget our charge.
30 June 2004
29 June 2004
"Race" is like an avocado
In my LOVELY social/cultural anthropology class (which I am taking this summer along with a five-hour field botany course), we are studying "race" - or, to be precise - the social construct of classification (i.e. stereotyping) of people based on physical characteristics.
And today I learned that race is like an avacado.
Before I continue, and to leave you chomping at the bit for a minute, I also learned a few other things. Things which we all know to be true, but can always use a bit of reiteration:
1. Race as a biological function is a myth. Read it: M-Y-T-H. That's right - no foundation...
2. So of course, all of those racial categories that we have to check on censuses are based on fallacy. So don't classify yourself. Fill in "other."
3. There is more differences that exist among "racial" groups than exists between different "racial" groups!
4. Anthropology as a discipline denounces racial classification in its entirety - and although some anthropologists operated under the false impression that races DID exist, and in an hierarchy to boot, there have been Anthropologists, like Franz Boas, who have fought against racial stereotypes and classifications since the early beginnings of the science. I love it!
So on to avacadoes...
The article we read had to do with the social perceptions of race in Brasil as opposed to those in the United States. Without going in to too much detail, and thus forcing you to click on the pop up ads, what is considered to be "black" in the U.S. can be "white" in Brasil, although the "black" U.S. individual may be lighter in skin tone than the "white" Brasilian! Just like an avacado is considered a vegetable here (and eaten in salads), in Brasil, it is seen as a fruit, and eaten for dessert with sugar! The avacado is the same, but it is the SOCIAL perceptions of it that change!
How cool is that!?!
I love you all! Go have some avacado - and try with sugar this time!
love,
~liz
And today I learned that race is like an avacado.
Before I continue, and to leave you chomping at the bit for a minute, I also learned a few other things. Things which we all know to be true, but can always use a bit of reiteration:
1. Race as a biological function is a myth. Read it: M-Y-T-H. That's right - no foundation...
2. So of course, all of those racial categories that we have to check on censuses are based on fallacy. So don't classify yourself. Fill in "other."
3. There is more differences that exist among "racial" groups than exists between different "racial" groups!
4. Anthropology as a discipline denounces racial classification in its entirety - and although some anthropologists operated under the false impression that races DID exist, and in an hierarchy to boot, there have been Anthropologists, like Franz Boas, who have fought against racial stereotypes and classifications since the early beginnings of the science. I love it!
So on to avacadoes...
The article we read had to do with the social perceptions of race in Brasil as opposed to those in the United States. Without going in to too much detail, and thus forcing you to click on the pop up ads, what is considered to be "black" in the U.S. can be "white" in Brasil, although the "black" U.S. individual may be lighter in skin tone than the "white" Brasilian! Just like an avacado is considered a vegetable here (and eaten in salads), in Brasil, it is seen as a fruit, and eaten for dessert with sugar! The avacado is the same, but it is the SOCIAL perceptions of it that change!
How cool is that!?!
I love you all! Go have some avacado - and try with sugar this time!
love,
~liz
24 June 2004
Woohoo - two in a row!
I can't recall the last time that I wrote for two consecutive days! Of course, there'll be lapse of about three or four days, now, to make up for this...
Tomorrow, I will be going on a Field Botany camping trip to Southern Illinois. I am taking this class (which is SO COOL) in hopes of learning a little bit about botany & other exciting earth sciences since dear old Alma Mater doesn't have a ethnobotany major (ethnobotany is the study of plants and the way that people use them).
Plus I like camping.
This will be a 3-day trip, and normally, Nathan would be able to go with me, but there is going to be a fundraiser at the Baha'i Center on Saturday in which he will be helping. Plus, he is working for a bottled water company right now, delivering bottled water.
I have a lot of weird little things to say, but all of them require much explanation... so I will choose my favorite:
After this past weekend (the Hip Hop PA weekend) I have felt really transformed. A lot of intense emotional time, as well as a 26+ hour round trip, has allowed cool insights to surface in my brain. However, often I think of transformation as an airy light-filled process - like a butterfly undergoes... the result being a beautiful winged creature.
However, THIS transformation has left me feeling like MOLTEN LAVA! Hot and powerful and full of potential.
Tre cool.
okay - sit with that.
love you all,
~liz
Tomorrow, I will be going on a Field Botany camping trip to Southern Illinois. I am taking this class (which is SO COOL) in hopes of learning a little bit about botany & other exciting earth sciences since dear old Alma Mater doesn't have a ethnobotany major (ethnobotany is the study of plants and the way that people use them).
Plus I like camping.
This will be a 3-day trip, and normally, Nathan would be able to go with me, but there is going to be a fundraiser at the Baha'i Center on Saturday in which he will be helping. Plus, he is working for a bottled water company right now, delivering bottled water.
I have a lot of weird little things to say, but all of them require much explanation... so I will choose my favorite:
After this past weekend (the Hip Hop PA weekend) I have felt really transformed. A lot of intense emotional time, as well as a 26+ hour round trip, has allowed cool insights to surface in my brain. However, often I think of transformation as an airy light-filled process - like a butterfly undergoes... the result being a beautiful winged creature.
However, THIS transformation has left me feeling like MOLTEN LAVA! Hot and powerful and full of potential.
Tre cool.
okay - sit with that.
love you all,
~liz
23 June 2004
the afterlife is where we come from
The problem with spacing these out is thatt when I feel like writing - it all tumbles out.
Sort of like a really heavy rainstorm after months of drought.
I was walking out of the computer lab when the cover of a book that is stapled to a bulletin board in the Anthropology department - which alwyas cathes my eye - caught my eye.
The AFTERLIFE is where we come from
My friend Jessica Gaines is serving on the reservation (although I'm ashamed to say I can't say which one...) in South Dakota.
A Baha'i youth recently took his life there.
Death is a strange and sorrowful event. I fear it sometimes, but at other times - and I admit that these are rare - I feel almost comfortable with the idea.
We're only here for one hot minute.
And then we get going - we've got growth to do in the next world - that afterlife - that heaven - or, as it is in the Baha'i Writings, the Abha Kingdom.
Be that as it may - that comfort level I sometimes feel - if given a choice, I would opt for a few more years - there's still a lot of work to be done here. And a lot of that work is to be done by me.
Not in an egotistical sense - but that fact is that I've got stuff to do that no one else can.
So - I leave you with that - what do YOU have to do that NO ONE ELSE can do? I bet you'd be surprised to find out!
love so infinite that only the Infinite can give it,
~liz
Sort of like a really heavy rainstorm after months of drought.
I was walking out of the computer lab when the cover of a book that is stapled to a bulletin board in the Anthropology department - which alwyas cathes my eye - caught my eye.
The AFTERLIFE is where we come from
My friend Jessica Gaines is serving on the reservation (although I'm ashamed to say I can't say which one...) in South Dakota.
A Baha'i youth recently took his life there.
Death is a strange and sorrowful event. I fear it sometimes, but at other times - and I admit that these are rare - I feel almost comfortable with the idea.
We're only here for one hot minute.
And then we get going - we've got growth to do in the next world - that afterlife - that heaven - or, as it is in the Baha'i Writings, the Abha Kingdom.
Be that as it may - that comfort level I sometimes feel - if given a choice, I would opt for a few more years - there's still a lot of work to be done here. And a lot of that work is to be done by me.
Not in an egotistical sense - but that fact is that I've got stuff to do that no one else can.
So - I leave you with that - what do YOU have to do that NO ONE ELSE can do? I bet you'd be surprised to find out!
love so infinite that only the Infinite can give it,
~liz
gummy
Hi there, bloggy. It's been a minute...
My teeth had a vigourous flossing t his morning, and my gums are retaliating by swelling up a bit - creating alovely gummy feeling in me mouth.
I think I am going to take on a new format with this - write just a smidge evrey day or two and so keep updated - it's a formidable task to write an insightful & deep entry each time...
Nathan and I have just returned from Little Pond (http://www.littlepond.org) in Pennsylvania where we attended a weekend on hip hop (or hipi hopi, in Portugese).
It was wonderful.
I met some really amazing friends, which made me realise that I miss having a diversity of personalities in my life. As I said to Nathan, I am not used to being the funkiest of all my friends...
By which I guess I mean I am not used to being the loudest and most outspoken...
And by which I don't mean that I dislike having quieter friends. My husband - of all people, my best friend - is quieter than I. I think, though, that I am at a point where I am craving diversity. And spiritual stimulation from my comrades.
And by which also I mean I miss my dear friends of old - who are now dispersed across the country and the globe.
It is amazing how close people can get in only a few hours/days/weeks/months and years.
So to all of you abroad (meaning anyone not here - not just international) - I am thinking of you!
much love, and until later,
~liz
My teeth had a vigourous flossing t his morning, and my gums are retaliating by swelling up a bit - creating alovely gummy feeling in me mouth.
I think I am going to take on a new format with this - write just a smidge evrey day or two and so keep updated - it's a formidable task to write an insightful & deep entry each time...
Nathan and I have just returned from Little Pond (http://www.littlepond.org) in Pennsylvania where we attended a weekend on hip hop (or hipi hopi, in Portugese).
It was wonderful.
I met some really amazing friends, which made me realise that I miss having a diversity of personalities in my life. As I said to Nathan, I am not used to being the funkiest of all my friends...
By which I guess I mean I am not used to being the loudest and most outspoken...
And by which I don't mean that I dislike having quieter friends. My husband - of all people, my best friend - is quieter than I. I think, though, that I am at a point where I am craving diversity. And spiritual stimulation from my comrades.
And by which also I mean I miss my dear friends of old - who are now dispersed across the country and the globe.
It is amazing how close people can get in only a few hours/days/weeks/months and years.
So to all of you abroad (meaning anyone not here - not just international) - I am thinking of you!
much love, and until later,
~liz
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