Africa, Abortion and the Globalizing of Ideas

So I decided to trash the idea about posting all of the free writes from my trip to Miami with Habitat. Even I dont care about what I did on Wednesday at 3pm. I learned a lot and it was a rewarding experience. The END.

But I was reading All Africa as I do every week, when I came across this opinions piece on abortion. It is a pretty liberal view about Kenyans not mixing the issues of abortion with the issues of religion. It was surprising to me because I have this idea of Africa (with the exception of a few countries)as being stuck in this conservative state where religion, politics and ethincity are so closely intertwined that ideas such as the ones stated in this article are chocked out. But I was wrong and pleasantly surprised. Whether or not you agree with the author, the fact that this discourse is happening is a sign of global progress. These ideas about life-saving abortions are ones that orginated somewhere else and yet are influencing poltics in countries once dismissed as being archaic. Hence when we talk about globalization, lets not just talk about commodities and corporations. Lets talk globalization and activism as well.

Day One. Religion and Community Service

Okay so its not actually day one. But it was our first day on the construction site. Yesterday was a day of tanning and frivolous fun at Miami's tourist-filled South Beach. But today, we got to see the beginnings of a little community, thirty or so single family homes all lined up, painted in soft pastel colors with gray roofs. It was so cute, but far from complete. To think this is how communities are built. There is no magic "suburb" machine that just spits them out. They are built, brick by brick, hand over hand.

Another surprising note! I didnt know that Habitat was a christian based organization and I didnt realize how international it is. I suppose it doesnt matter that it has a big religious following but something about it made think. Like today, when a pastor gave the daily devotional by reading a few words from the Bible and one of the groups from another school walked away before he had a chance to even ask us to bow our heads. I assumed they were jewish since the older man they were with wore a yomaka. I realized then that religion can be just as alienating as it can be uniting. But at the same time, I felt that it was rude of them to walk away during the pastor's speech. He was speaking to a group of over 100 volunteers, all united by a common cause and a call to labor for the betterment of the community. Maybe that should be more important than religious affiliation. And yet, I still wondered how religion and community service intersect. What would one be without the other? Habitat has been around for over 50 years and is an international force among the NGOs of its kind. But what would it look like if it didn't have that christian foundation?

I'm BACK from Miami with Habitat!

So for Spring Break, I decided to go with Habitat for Humanity to Miami. While I had an amazing time, the place where we stayed was way below par to say the least and needless to say I didn't have internet access so I couldnt blog. But as english297 suggested, I did do some free writing over break and was surprised by how my own reflections on each day spiraled into so many other topics. So I will post my ruminations, if only to share with the public sphere the journal of my "alternative spring break." Also I hope it will serve as a kind of therapy. I never thought that helping to build a house for someone else would be so rewarding. I was with my friends. I was working with my hands and learning in way that college students rarely get a chance to. I loved it and hopefully rereading my thoughts will inspire me to write our next opinions essay.

Sanchez, Poetry and Power

Okay so I never got to talk about my dinner with the AMAZING poet Sonia Sanchez. First, I must say that it was an honor and second, wow, she is so small in person:)But anyway the reading was amazing. I have been to poetry readings before, but Sonia Sanchez brings a whole different kind of energy when she reads.

Sometimes I think about how poetry has changed. In New York, Spoken Word is the newest thing among youth and its so powerfully performed that slams are attended by people from all walks of life. I fell in love with it when I was eleven watching Russel Simmon's Def Poetry on HBO. Artist like Sanchez inspired a whole generation of young poets, like myself, and activism is alive and well in their work. I'm so amazed by this thing called poetry and how it passes along certain traditions especially among urban youth. Where is their place in the public sphere? Where do they have power and access? And is the world willing to listen?

Mckee Misses Mark

I'm not sure what Mckee is arguing in his chapter entitled, "Spectacle." It seems like such an obvious argument that cultural difference should be accepted and visible in the public sphere. And last time I checked, they already were. At least in America, rap is no longer just a Black art form. Sure, predominantly Black people are the main rap artists, but the music is enjoyed by all races and ethnicities (and should I mention all parts of the globe). So who is Mckee arguing against?

His second point about rap being a form of political communication is a little outdated. Sure rap may have originally been a political medium, but anyone can see that it has evolved since then. Some types of rap have no political content and unfortunately that is what tends to be most popular in the public sphere today (just in America though). But Mckee seems to confuse art/music with serious discussion and communication. Its unfair to assume based on a historical context that Blacks prefers oral and performative traditions when it comes to talking rationally. Its music! It was never meant to be taken for true discourse. Its a form of expression. So why are we even justifying labeling it as spectacle.

Commercialization...Not Quite Buying It

This is a strange book. At first glance, the idea of commercialization is interesting. But the concept is so statist. There's too much of a top-down model analysis as if people have no say as to how they are portrayed, as if they have no choice in what they watch. Mass Media is not some omniscient untouchable thing. We created it and we define to some extent what it is and what it portrays. Now I do believe that there are people in more of a position to influence what we consume,but like so many institutions, media is hierarchal and that is where the problem is most apparent. If everyone can consume it but not everyone can produce it, then those at the bottom are portrayed through the lens of those at the top. And so the stereotypes of the working class and other cultural groups are reproduced.

ConnPIRG is Awesome!

I just wanted to give a shout out to ConnPIRG. I just saw a report on the news about how students from Connecticut College are doing a really creative advocacy campaign to support the bill for High Speed Rail. Five students are biking from train station to station and reporting their travels via Facebook and Twitter. How cool is it that college students are out there proving that we still have the political voice and activist mindset of our mother's generation. I just thought it was something cool and positive to report.

Reflections of Mckee: Introduction

I tend to agree with Gromm. The issue of fragmentation that Mckee mentions was the most interesting point for me as well. It reminded me a lot of the issues concerning gay rights and the way it is being compared to the African American Civil Rights Movement. There has always been some tension between the two groups over the comparison. One group feeling like the comparison is legitimate and should be a uniting force and the other group feeling the need to distance themselves as much as possible from it. It is interesting which commonalities get pushed to the forefront. I mean which identities people prefer to cling to and which ones get dismissed as being irrelevant or superficial.

Mckee also makes a point of saying that this book is written in a "postmodernist" analytical framework. From my Mass Media and Pop Culture class, I am well aware of the idea, and I thought I liked it until Mckee used it to make the claim that negative words could be "reclaimed." He states that he purposefully uses historically derogatory terms in order to redefine them in a more positive light using the postmodernist prospective. I find this problematic and dangerous. I hope he explains more later. But as of now, I don't buy the claim that the connotation of words can simply be transformed by misuse. I recognize that words are simply signifiers. They only have as much meaning as we give them. But I worry about who is in the driver's seat. Like Marx and Gramsci, I worry that it will always be the people in a position of dominace that will have the power of "reclaiming," or "redefining" these words. Even when Blacks use the term "nigg**" or Gays use the term, queer, the word never truly loses its original meaning. I dont think it ever becomes a positive term. It just takes on a different cultural attitude, one that helps the group deal with the trauma of what the word originally meant.