Religious Dedication Amongst Political Unrest

This week while looking at the reading from Salagdo’s Migrations, one picture that was particularly moving was of a Mosque in Southeast Asia. The mosque of Istiqlal is the largest in the world and is located in the center of Jakarta, Indonesia. When researching the mosque I discovered that it was built to commemorate the independence of Indonesia from the Netherlands in 1949 and demonstrate their gratitude for God’s blessings.

The Indonesian National Revolution was an armed conflict and diplomatic struggle between Indonesia and the Dutch Empire, and an internal social revolution. It began with Indonesia's declaration of independence in 1945 and the Netherlands' recognition of Indonesia's independence at the end of 1949. The revolution was one of the largest of the twentieth century, and although the Dutch could control the cities, they had no control over villages and the countryside. The revolution destroyed the colonial administration of the Dutch East Indies which had ruled from the other side of the world. It also significantly changed racial castes, as well as reducing the power of many of the local rulers. It did not significantly improve the economic or political fortune of the majority of the population, though a few Indonesians were able to gain a larger role in commerce.

I find it incredible that although this photograph was taken nearly 50 years after the conflict, these people are still so committed to their religion and still thanking their God for his deliverance. Although I may not agree with their religious views, I still find it so moving that they are so devoted to their prayer times. They give up so much time in their day to attend these prayer services, and even though there is still political unrest, they show their gratitude for what has been given to them.

Works Cited

Frederick, William H. (April 1982). "In Memoriam: Sutomo" (PDF). Indonesia (Cornell Modern Indonesia Project) 33: 

127–128. seap.indo/1107016901.

Salgado, Sebastião, and Lélia Wanick. Salgado. 396-397. Migrations: Humanity in Transition. New York:

Aperture, 2000. Print.

Final Project Kickstart

For our final project in my Writing and Rhetoric course we are required to write on a group of immigrants that we have studied throughout the semester. One particular group that has always stood out to me are the women in the middle east who lived under the rule of the Taliban.

Ever since I was young, I have always had deep empathy for these women who don’t have any legal rights. I was raised by a mother who has a full time career, and I am so grateful that if I choose it, I also have that option. In my research I found that under Sharia law; music, movies, TV, card playing, singing, dancing, boxing, and even kite flying was outlawed. Homosexuals are buried alive, and women are virtually enslaved. Women were not allowed to work, in some areas they were not allowed to show their faces, and most could not even leave the house without a male escort. I never realized how much I took for granted in my life, that there are women who can’t even read, not because they don’t want to, but because they have never been allowed the opportunity to read. It is because of this that I decided to further my research in these women, and find out if in post Taliban middle east, if there are more, less, or equal amounts of opportunity for women. So far I have found that in some conditions they have gotten worse, since before women knew what sort of risk they were facing if they rebelled, but now since there are supposedly less consequences, the men are taking a stand and enforcing them. I plan to continue my research, and further my empathies for these women. I may not be able to change their lives, but I can appreciate my own situation and make the very most of the many freedoms I am able to have.

Vietnamese Fishermen

Vietnam is constantly changing, and a significant amount of foreign investment has entered the country in recent years and controls on travel within the country have been relaxed. Urbanization is increasing with growing numbers of farmers and some fishermen leaving the country to escape discrimination. Living in the Highland’s, inhabitants suffer great discrimination, even from the government, who does little to help them.

Life is very hard in rural districts of Vietnam. Although there has been an important flow of foreign investment, it has been focused on the industrial sector. In contrast, the government, which has responsibility for the agricultural sector, has almost no money to invest in this cooperative in the northern region of Hoa Binh. Farmers have no agricultural machinery and carry out heavy tasks manually. But they did buy a communal television, which is placed under a small tent in the village where residents bring chairs so they can watch the wonders of the world on a small screen. The young Vietnamese children can now see what is available outside of their village, and it becomes an additional incentive for them to migrate to cities.

            It is difficult to imagine what it would be like living excluded from the world for you entire life, until one day there is a small gateway that shows you all that the world really has to offer. Many of the Vietnamese fishermen inherited their occupation from their fathers, who inherited it from their father, and so on. The occupation is because of tradition, and not commonly because of passion. For these people fishing because they thought they had no other option, now have a clear vision of what their life could become. The emigration of the beautiful countryside has many positive benefits, primarily happier lives for those who take them; however, the increasing amount of emigrants means an increasing amount of immigrants, and many urban areas do not have enough room for these people.  

Left to Tell

My most recent reading was he novel Left To Tell by Immaculee Ilibagiza. The story recalls Immaculee’s experience throughout the Rwandan Holocaust and how she avoided a hard heart towards those who murdered her family. To give some background to the Holocaust, in Rwanda there are 3 main tribes; Tutsis, Hutu, and Twa. As I discovered from reading the book, the Twa are secluded to the jungle, and are not involved in the tribal rivalry; however, the tension between the Tutsis and the Hutu is indescribable. There had been many minor killings between the tribes throughout the years, but it was nothing compared to the genocide of the Tutsis tribe in Rwanda in 1994. Although wars had been spreading for a long period of time, it wasn’t until the President of Rwanda, who frequently arranged peace treaties, was killed that the genocide really began. Immaculee refers to her life in two separate portions, before and after.

Once the killings began, Immaculee’s father forced her to leave home and find refuge in the pastor’s home, since Tutsi women were at a greater risk of being taken advantage of. As the numbers of murderers exponentially grew, the risk of hiding Tutsi women increased, which forced the pastor to hide the 6 Tutsi women that he was helping in a 4x7 foot bathroom that was secluded from the rest of his large house. During her 91 days cramped in the bathroom Immaculee was constantly tormented by thoughts of the devil, that would cause her to have a hardened heart and turn away from her loving God. However, through constant prayer, she was able to overcome these harsh feelings and focus her whole heart on God. Later in her life she realizes that “Being in that bathroom had become a blessing for which I’d be forever thankful…. I’d been born again in the bathroom and was now the loving daughter of God, my Father.”(LTT 107) Even as she was constantly in danger of being discovered and murdered by the Interahamwe, she kept eventually learned to pity these murders and pray for them to find the light as she was able to. The most brilliant example of Immaculee’s truly pure heart is at the end of the war, she is able to visit the prision and sit face-to-face with the man that lead the group that brutally slaughtered her mother and brother. Rather than yelling, seeking for an apology, and even questioning, the only words she said were “I forgive you.” (LTT 204)

As I was reading the novel, I think the think I was most surprised by was how much I didn’t know. I knew that there had been a holocaust in Rwanda, but I was completely blind to the magnitude of it all. In school we would always talk about WWII and the Jewish Holocaust, but I can’t recall a time that I really discussed the Rwandan Holocaust. The thing that frightens me the most by this ignorance is if we aren’t aware of it, how can we do anything to stop it from happening again? As Immaculee states, “The world had seen the same thing happen many times before. After Nazi Germany, all the big, powerful countries swore, “Never again!” But here we were, six harmless females huddled in darkness, marked for execution because we were born Tutsi” (LTT 86) These stories need to be known, or else a few years down the road another group of people will be in the same situation of that of the Jews, or of the Tutsi, with little to no defense just as these people had. Their issues are our issues, and the key to future is understanding the past.

Not to sound cliché, but this book honestly changed my point of view on a lot of things. I don’t know if I could be as strong as Immaculee and be able to survive these trials, but also forgive those who had caused them. However, after hearing stories of individuals who had held grudges, I don’t know if you would have any other option. I would honestly recommend this book to anyone. It is extremely educational of the Rwandan Holocaust, but it also gives great council on how to find God in any situation, and how no matter what, you can always look to your Savior for comfort. Immaculee was "left to tell" her story for a reason, and her story is one that needs to be heard.

Ilibagiza, Immaculée, and Steve Erwin. Left to Tell: Discovering God amidst the Rwandan Holocaust. Carlsbad, CA: Hay House, 2006. Print.

Rwandan Genocide.

This week in my Salgado reading, it focused on the Genocide in Rwanda. One of the facts that stood out to me most was the number of orphans that were forced to live on their own. A brief history of the Rwandan Genocide is in 1994, over the course of approximately 100 days, more than 20% of Rwanda’s total population, an estimated 800,000 people, was murdered. It was the culmination of longstanding ethnic competition and tensions between the minority Tutsi, who had controlled power for centuries, and the majority Hutu peoples, who had come to power in the rebellion of 1959–62. In 1990, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), a rebel group composed mostly of Tutsi refugees, invaded northern Rwanda from Uganda in an attempt to defeat the Hutu-led government. They began the Rwandan Civil War, fought between the Hutu regime, with support from Francophone Africa and France, and the RPF, with support from Uganda. In response, many Hutu gravitated toward the Hutu Power ideology; Hutu Power asserted that the Tutsi intended to enslave the Hutu and must be resisted at all costs. Continuing ethnic strife resulted in the rebels' displacing large numbers of Hutu in the north, plus periodic localized Hutu killings of Tutsi in the south. Throughout many years the country went from cease-fire, to civil war, to relatively peaceful times. Until the assassination of the Hutu leader, this set off a violent reaction. Genocide had been planned by members of the Hutu power group known as the Akazu, many of whom occupied positions at top levels of the national government; the genocide was supported and coordinated by the national government as well as by local military and civil officials and mass media. Alongside the military, primary responsibility for the killings themselves rests with two Hutu militias that had been organized for this purpose by political parties: the Interahamwe and Impuzamugambi, although once the genocide was underway a great number of Hutu civilians took part in the murders. It was the end of the peace agreement. The Tutsi RPF restarted their offensive, defeating the army and seizing control of the country.

While I was researching the Genocide I realized that everything I read seemed rather impersonal, and it wasn’t until I looked at the Salgado photographs that I realized, these are real people. These are people just like me. Granted, they have had a completely different life experience from me, but they still are people just like me. They have feelings, and dreams, and love. Looking at the pictures of the orphans I tried to imagine myself in that situation. I can’t even comprehend what it would be like to watch both of your parents murdered and be forced to flee to a foreign land on your own. These people are so much braver than I could ever be. Especially the children. In the photo below, all of the children in the Biaro Refugee camp were told to line up along the train track and told to wait to be counted and receive rationed food; both of which never happened and many children died of starvation and disease at this time.

In the photo below it shows how terrible the genocide was. This is of a school that was abandoned with all the bodies left inside, because all of the survivors had to flee for their own life before they had time to bury the dead.

With every story I research, I become  more and more shocked by the horrid things that people do to one another. That this genocide was all though up because one group of people thought they were superior. I know it seems rather “beauty pageant”, but how can we ever seek world peace if we can’t even tolerate our neighbor? Even if you can’t go to Africa and solve the tribal issues, reach out within your own community. Volunteer, serve, and love one another. Their issues are our issues, and if we don’t start trying to help now, soon we won’t have any other option.

Works Cited

Salgado, Sebastião, and Lélia Wanick. Salgado. "Rwanda, A Torn Nation." Migrations: Humanity in Transition. New York: Aperture, 2000. 197-217. Print.

"Rwandan Genocide." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 10 Nov. 2012. Web. 12 Oct. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rwandan_Genocide>.

Waste Land

In my Rhetoric class we had the opportunity to watch the film, Wasteland. A general synopsis is renowned artist Vik Muniz travels to his native homeland, Brazil, where there is the world's largest garbage dump, and photographs a group of “catadores” that work there. The Association of Recycling Pickers of Jardim Gramacho (ACAMJG) is an organization of “catadores” or "pickers" who sort through garbage finding recyclables as a means of survival. Its members are paid in exchange for the recyclables that they collect, sort, and trade. The Jardim Gramacho landfill has one of the highest rates of recycling due to the entire economy generated by the association. Muniz’s initial objective was to “paint” the catadores with garbage for his next gallery. However, the people ended up serving him much more than he was able to serve them, as he intended. His collaboration with these inspiring characters as they recreate photographic images of themselves out of garbage reveals both the dignity and despair of the catadores as they begin to re-imagine their lives. One hundred percent of the sales from Vik Muniz’s “Pictures of Garbage”, the portraits of the catadores, as seen in the film, went back to the ACAMJG. Approximately $250,000 was raised from the portraits and this was used for: New homes for the catadores, to fund the ACAMJG deficit, to improve the infrastructure of the ACAMJG community (such as the first Garbage selection station), a new truck, a learning centre, Vik funded small business training program, a library at the ACAMJG office with 15 computers, and Irma the chef set up her own little cooking business. 

The films is very eye opening, you don't realize what is out there until you actually look. Even if it is normally something you don't want to see. Even if you can't dedicate 3 years of your life to travel and help these people, there are many other ways to get involved and help out. 

To watch a trailer for the movie, get more info, or contribute a donation to the ACAMJG fund, go to http://www.wastelandmovie.com/

A Second Birth.

This past week I had the opportunity to attend the play A Second Birth performed by the Brigham Young University Department of Theatre and Media Arts. The play is set in present day Afghanistan and the main character is a young lady named Nasim/Nasima. The reason for both names is that she was a daughter of poor Afghani parents and was raised as a boy since age five to improve her family's economic and social standing in the community. As it says in the program, “If there is a man’s job that a man cannot perform, or a man is not available, sometimes a girl will become a bacha posh—literally dressed like a boy. The earliest documented example of this is a picture of women dressed and armed like a man in order to guard the king’s harem. A man’s job, but no man can be trusted with it, so it is given to women dressed as a man.” I realize that the play wasn’t an exact replica of what it would be like to actually be living in that situation, but it was very eye opening. Nasima had to be raised as a boy so that she could attend school and get a job. She was top of her class which showed when she came out as a girl, that females were more than capable. One line that stuck out to me in particular was when Nasima said, “Why should gender decide your talents?” Growing up, both of my parents worked full time, which compared to my friends, was very peculiar. Ever since I was little I have realized that women are just as capable as men; Women make just as great CEOs and surgeons as men. I know that the women’s ultimate responsibility is to raise the children and make sure the home is always taken care of, but I don’t see why females can’t do that concurrently with achieving their fullest potential. Whenever I tell people that I want to become an orthopedic surgeon I get one of two responses; either congratulations for being ambitious or the classic “don’t you want to be a mom?” I’ll save my feminist rant for another day, but even though it is defying odds to be a duel career family in my community, after seeing this play I realize how fortunate I am that I can even imagine that. I’ve gone to school my whole life, I’ve had a job, I get to choose my own spouse, I get to wear what I want; all of these things that I’ve taken for granted. I hadn’t realized there are women in the world who aren’t even allowed to leave their house without an escort and their entire body covered.  The title of the play A Second Birth comes from the idea that Nasima is being given a second chance to live up to Allah’s expectations as a woman, since she was going against him by being a bacha posh. It was pointed out in the play that she had to drop her past life completely if she wants to have a successful new life fulfilling her actual role; which was where Nasima had the most difficulty because she was the top of her class but because of tradition she had to forget about all of her dreams of attending university. This play made me so grateful for the freedoms that I have been given and I hope that eventually all women will be able to have this great freedom.