October 6, 2005

• Topic: Embracing it all

  
  

  I’m embracing this book, The Lost Boys of Sudan, which follows the lives of 4 refugees from Sudan who end up in Atlanta, trying to re-start their lives.  The book is written by a journalist and is giving me a great background in the history of Sudan and helping me to understand not just the present day situation there, but other politics regarding refugees and int’l relief.

  
  

  For example, it’s interesting to note that until the mid ’90′s, only about 1% of the refugees accepted by the United States were from Africa.  Black political pressure and Clinton began to change those figures.  But…why were so few refugees coming from a part of the world where there was one of the greatest needs for refugee relief?  Of course, it’s because humanitarian aid is generally a country’s #2 priority, behind political and economic motivations.

  
  

  In Central America during the 1980′s, Nicaragua, Guatamala, and El Salvadore all had people suffering from human rights violations.  Yet America only accepted refugees from Nicaragua.  Why?  Nicaragua was being run by Marxists, and the US gov’t wanted to highlight the abuses of that gov’t, while Nicaragua and Guatamala were run by right-wing politicians.  All 3 governements were awful, but we wanted to highlight the one w/ the economic positioning we opposed, so we took in Nicaraguan refugees to highlight their gov’t.  Same reason we took in refugees from Castro’s Cuba, but not Haiti.

  
  

  There are many factors involved in the Sudan refugee crisis.  The largest is religion.  The north is largely Arab and Muslim, the South is African and Christian.  As we’re seeing around the world today, the Muslims in power want Muslim law to be supreme in their land, and aren’t just looking to knock on doors to convert, they’re looking to knock on heads.  So they have been for nearly 50years, on-and-off, been raising hell for the Africans in the South.

  
  

  The varrying African tribes have been forced to trek into neighboring countries Ethiopia and Kenya, to find refuge there.  The long treks have divided families, and have resulted in many deaths from starvation, dangerous river crossings, and from Arab militia.  The North and South have only just recently agreed to peace, although the western region of Darfur is still facing problems, not to mention recovering from the effects of all the violence and relocations.

  
  

  In other news…

  
  

  I cleaned my room like a mad-man last night, throwing out old trinkets and papers, and dressed up my room a bit so it has a coffee-shop feel, and organized my books neat so it looks more like a Barnes & Nobles.

  
  

  Had a wonderful conversation w/ my dad’s best friend Steve, who came over for dinner the other night.  He poked me a bit to think about my life, although he is very similar to me in terms of living life a bit differently than the rules say you should.  His big question for me:

  
  

  “What problem do you want to solve?  That’s the key.  Don’t worry about what job you want to do, or you’ll just end up bouncing from prefession to profession, but what problem do you want to solve?”

  
  

  I thought about it for a while.  I’ve clearly been pretty focussed on solving problems, but have obviously taken on problems that were too big, focussing on helping too many people in too many ways.  Steve gave me another bit of advice:

  
  

  “First focus on helping one person.  That’s what I do as a teacher.  Then go for 2, then 3, and as you can, keep growing from there.  Figure out how to help a small number of people well.”

  
  

  What proble do I want to solve?  I’ve realized I’m not going to solve any monumental societal problems, even minor ones.  But…I started thinking about the question another way, and thought, “The problem I’d like to solve is how to help a small number of “young adults” 1) experience life abroad 2) experience an adventure.”

  
  

  I don’t want to re-create the wheel.  I don’t want to push for all people to do things a certain way.  I simply want to be a part of a program, that takes high schoolers, or those tired of college, and have them do something abroad. 

  
  

  Which is basically what my current company does and I feel like an idiot for not doing more w/ it.  But they’re mostly helping individuals find jobs abroad.  I’m more interested in travel abroad, and / or doing grassroots work abroad.

  
  

  and i’m spent…

  • 1:37 pm
  • 3 Comments