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Recently in education Category
The first of May--thousands of people are walking the streets to protest Arizona's legislation which requires police officials to stop anyone who may "look" like an immigrant. This legislation teaches hatred, fear, suspicion. Who "looks" like an immigrant? What does this do except to oppress and discriminate.
The United States Immigration Policy Center has years of research to prove that immigrants "are LESS likely to commit crimes or be behind bars than the native-born" ( CLICK here for article).
My familia, like thousands of other immigrants, came here to escape poverty, war, and today they also come to escape the violence caused by narcotrafficking. They come here to work hard, to begin a new life. In 2009, the CATO Institute conducted a study showing that there could be a $180 Billion dollar benefit to legalizing undocumented workers ( CLICK here for article). The article emphasizes that "simply enhancing border enforcement and applying restrictive immigration laws would actually hurt the U.S. economically."
I hope for a country without fear, suspicion, hatred. I hope for a country who places generous and loving creativity first as the way toward sound legislation.
May this legislation be reversed soon so that we may truly work toward a sound and productive solution.
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In 2003, The Second Congo War ("Great War of Africa") that began in 1998, ended with the installation of the "Transitional Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo." Yet since 2003, rape, murders, malnutrition, disease continue. The latest count since 2008: over 5 million deaths. The photo above is the main street of Bunyakiri, which is known as "The Red Zone" where fighting, brutal rapes and murders are constant. Bunyakiri's population is around 142,000 with only one hospital and 27 poorly staffed, under supplied healthcare units.
Jackson's film focuses on the victims of torture rapes: women who have suffered gang rapes, rifles, knives, brutally shoved into their vagina/uterus, anus--destroying their reproductive organs, destroying their lives, destroying their families, communities, culture. Torture rapes leave their bodies and spirits broken--and this method of brutality is a weapon of war--a war to destroy a culture. It is genocide. Imagine all the children in this area born since 1997. All they have seen and experienced is this brutality. This is all they know. How will they be able to grow up and live peaceful and productive lives? This film legitimates these women as they articulate what happened to them. It is a step toward empowerment for them. For us, it is a step in honoring their voices and helping others become aware of these atrocities.
In her article, "Rape and Sexual Abuse of Women in International Law," Professor of International Law, Christine Chinkin (London School of Economics and Political Science) writes, "Rape in war is not merely a matter of chance, of women victims being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Nor is it a question of sex. It is rather a question of power and control which is structured by male soldiers' notions of their masculine privilege, by the strength of the military's lines of command and by class and ethnic inequalities among women."
Even though I live in Lincoln, Nebraska (and you may live in Lincoln or other places in the United States), far away from sites of such brutal conflicts, chances are your city is involved with refugee programs. Since the 1980s, Lincoln has welcomed and resettled 5,500 refugees from Iraq, Kurdistan, Afghanistan, Sudan, Congo. Many of these refugees are victims of torture. (Read Mary Pipher's book, The Middle of Everywhere.) Maybe your city or town does not have a refugee program. You can still take action--we all can take action----
Taking Action: (1) SIGN the Petition to pass The International Violence Against Women Act (IVAWA - S. 2982, H.R. 4594): Sign Petition Here.(2) INFORM yourself about the International Criminal Court: click HERE(3) Subscribe to the ICC daily synopsis at icc-info-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Thank you kind readers!
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These are three Haitian individuals in the aftermath of the earthquake--more than one generation of Haiti looking at the camera. They may look fine and safe but we cannot know the loved ones they have lost, the pain they are experiencing. In my last blog regarding Haiti, the early estimates of fatalities were at 50,000. Now estimates are anywhere from 100,000 to 200,000. And how will Haitians ever know what happened to their loved ones? No one is recording numbers, taking names. The dead are being carted off in bulldozers. Cemeteries cannot hold all the dead. Many are being cremated. It is difficult for me to imagine my partner, mother and father, mother-in-law, my sister, daughter, nephew, my friends carted off in bulldozers. But I try. I feel I must try to imagine this kind of deep anguish in order to have just a faint semblance of understanding--what these individuals are suffering, enduring. People are dying from broken arms, from simple cuts that can be healed quickly with antibiotics. But antibiotics aren't getting there fast enough.
Last night George Clooney organized a telethon which was broadcast from London, New York City, and Los Angeles. Actors read testimonies, singers sang. Sting sang, "How can you say that you're not responsible? What does it have to do with me?" (" Driven to Tears"). In my classroom, I often hear "What does it have to do with me?" regarding issues in history or current events. I try to bring my students into a globally-linked framework of thinking. It's so difficult when we are so far away both geographically and mentally. I am hoping that now with texting, Facebook, blogging, skyping, etc.--people will feel more linked, closer, neighborly, connected.
I post Partners in Health because of their longstanding connection and presence in Haiti. Below is a picture of one of their medical doctors inside their makeshift medic tent. Just $5, $10, $25 will contribute in the effort to help them construct many more medical areas and will also help these medical personnel have access to medicines and supplies their patients sorely need.
In his song, "Driven to Tears," Sting sings: "My comfortable existence is reduced to a shallow meaningless party/ Seems that when some innocent die/ All we can offer them is a page in some magazine/ Too many cameras and not enough food . . . What's to become of our world/ who knows what to do." I think many people have thankfully responded and for those of us who cannot get out to Haiti, supporting Partners in Health and other organizations is the answer.
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On Saturday, November 14, I had the privilege of listening to Bill Ayers in Omaha at the Academic Freedom Coalition of Nebraska (AFCON) Banquet. He spoke eloquently about the importance of Academic Freedom, about the freedom to express and exchange ideas.
Bill Ayers is a Professor of Curriculum and Instruction at The University of Illinois at Chicago. But maybe you remember that last year as the presidential election heated up, Sarah Palin called him out as one of Obama's "terrorist friends." This sudden media attention (and revisiting of Ayers' former days of involvement opposing the Vietnam War, namely his connection to the Weather Underground) caused an uproar right here at The University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL). UNL had booked Ayers the previous year to come and speak to the faculty and students on the topic of education. But because of the media hype, suddenly Dr. Ayers became "Professor Non Grata" and he was disinvited.
Faculty and students protested. Professors Chris Gallagher, Julia Schleck, Steve Ramsay, myself and graduate students Mike Kelly and many many others helped to organize a teach-in regarding Academic Freedom and also wrote a letter explaining how Ayers' disinvitation was a breach of Academic Freedom.
We still hope that Professor Ayers will return to UNL to give that talk on education.
Photograph below: Amelia Montes, Bill Ayers, Julia Schleck, Mike Kelly, Steve Ramsay
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