By Anna

Haiti has long been called “The Republic of NGOs” because more than 3,000 Non-Governmental Organizations operate in Haiti, according to the United States Institute of Peace.

Before (and after) the January earthquake, people criticized the number of NGOs and UN workers involved in Haiti’s well being. One blogger called them the “Neo-imperialists,” and another “invaders.” Three thousand organizations in one country is a lot too, but my critique is not in the number it’s in the activity of the number.

How many of these NGOs are infusing local growth and stability and how many are going so far as to capitalize on Haiti’s poverty? If NGOs are not involved in training local leaders, to provide jobs and economic growth they should rethink their mission.

A friend of mine this week asked me if I thought all these NGOs were exploiting Haitians because of all the excessive advertising for donating to Haiti now. I think it is a possibility, which is why it’s important to know an organization well before donating. Yes, Haiti needs our help and if an NGO has long been established in Haiti (which 3,000 have) they probably do need money right now. But texting 90999 to The Red Cross isn’t making much of a dent in Haiti’s recovery.

The solution for Haiti isn’t more money and more NGOs, the solution should be within Haiti. The United States Government and its NGOs haven’t found a solution for poverty here, so how will they manage to solve Haiti’s problems?

Reporter Marcela Valente said a solution could be found in mutual cooperation between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. If the United States urged more government solutions in Haiti, their long-term future could be more stable, but resources are limited on the island and water is now their greatest need.

The point is Haiti has always needed economic help and photos of post-earthquake kids and bodies is meant to make people aware of the situation they are now in, not to make anyone feel guilty for not texting or not going down to move concrete. So be wary of the point of NGO photos and calls for donations.

By Anna

The following essay is one I wrote for New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof’s contest: “Win a trip with Nick!”

I do not know if I won, but will let you know if I do. Winning is a long shot, but writing this was an exercise in thought extraction nonetheless.

The 16^th century Hungarian myth, the Battle of Bull’s Blood, is about the near destruction of the Hungarians at the sword of the Turks. However, the Hungarian men slathered a dark red wine in their beards and on their clothes to scare the Turks into thinking they were savage because they drank bull’s blood.

The man who told me this story on the bank of the Danube in Budapest, said it was the Hungarian women who conceived of the feral idea. Since I heard that story last year, I knew it would be the women of this world that would reconcile this age of crisis through dignity, intelligence and grace.

I want to be a part of Nicholas Kristof’s trip to Africa because I am a journalism student at Bethel University in St. Paul, Minn., a cross-cultural studies minor, and a fellow adventurer who believes women do hold up half the sky. I have traveled abroad a half dozen times recording through photographs and a pen what I saw and what I did not see. It is important to me that people’s stories are heard, and I know it is in my power to tell these stories.

After returning from Cambodia three years ago, I started a blog with friends concerning everything relevant in the world. My weekly column focuses on humanity and inhumanity. I wrote about what disturbed me in the streets of Phnom Penh but quickly moved to what excited me about places like New Life Center in the heart of the city where people meet to eat and commune together.

I want to travel with Nicholas so people will see continents as countries, countries as cities, cities as neighborhoods, and neighborhoods as people–people with ideas and emotions shaped by their history yet important no matter their history.

I also want to go on this trip because I have never been to Africa but have always had the goal to see as much of the world as much as possible. Also, there is no better way to travel than with a significant purpose. I want to meet young girls and old women, to know what they know so I can relay to others what connects us, and help reconcile where we are disconnected. I want to be the person to tell about the organization that has girls stay in school during their menstrual cycles and has given women birth control and education so that they might not have to outgrow their means. I am excited to write the truth even if it is difficult and sorrowful.

With or without this trip I will continue to collect stories of empowered women and continue to meet people who inspire and challenge me. Even if it means a little red wine needs to be spilled every once and awhile.

By Anna

In the November/December issue of the Utne Reader “an educator challenges society’s assumptions about intelligence, work, and class” in an essay about the lost intelligence of the working class, the blue collar community.

Coming from a blue collar, rodeo rearing, gossip-ridden town in Montana, where you’ll run into someone you know every time you leave the house, I left town right after high school. But once a year, usually Christmas, I, the college-educated elite, venture back to my working class roots and act as though I’m better than all the ones who stayed.

“If we think that whole categories of people—identified by class or occupation— are not that bright, then we reinforce social separation and cripple our ability to talk across cultural divides,” said Mike Rose from Utne.

I’ve spent thousands of dollars studying a minor I leave on the hook of my Minneapolis home as soon as I head for the mountains. I study cross-cultural missions at Bethel and learn how to relate to people from other cultures in order to someday not only educate them biblically, but for them to educate me culturally.

There were times in my two weeks in Montana when I thought I was better than all my peers who are “stuck” in Great Falls. Because I’ve read multiple 1,000 page books in one year and now live in the most intellectual city in America. But I’m not free from ignorance, no one is; yet I perpetuate the stereotypes of community college students and gunslinging Baptists because I can’t see past my pride and recognize the value of another culture.

Instead of staying indoors all Christmas or ducking behind shelves at Barnes and Noble to avoid that 12^th grade math teacher. I said hello to my sophomore biology teacher and senior English teacher to continually glean that blue-collar wisdom that might just be necessary for reconciliation and a more holistic future for America.

By Anna

The only wars over a water source I knew about growing up was who got to use the hose in a water fight in the front yard. Water was fun when we were young. My sister and brother and I used to build dams on the street when my dad would wash down the driveway. The water would run through the cracks and collect on the side of the street where there was no sidewalk. Then the water would run down the street from our house and we’d do our best to stop it.

Water for kids in Jordan is a little different. Their local swimming hole, the Jordan River, also happens to be shared by Israel, Palestine, Syria and Lebanon. Ok, so they probably don’t swim in the Jordan River, but Syria’s built dams and Israel has aquifers that divert the water for use in homes, according to Good.

We take our water for granted like we take our country for granted. We assume it will always be because it always has been, but everything has an end. My parents moved and I grew up. We don’t build dams at the end of the driveway anymore, but we could influence real dams being built and help Jordanians, Israelis, Palestinians, Syrians or Lebanese keep peaceful sanctions on their river so that kids might have a place to go or at least water to drink.

Iraq, Turkey and Syria also share rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates. With fertility comes violence in the Crescent and the fight for water gives these conflict ridden countries another chance for peace.

Water purification isn’t the only worry, but water rights embitter countries. Turkey plans to build 22 dams on the upper Tigris, but with a little dam comes a lot of flood. Unleashing water on its southern neighbor at any given opportunity gives Turkey the upper hand.

So what are the implications for us, America? Or just for you?

By Anna

My average bathroom use is higher than the average person’s (six times a day). A few years ago my familial guilt conscience kicked in, and I have abided by the ol’ hippie rule of “If it’s yellow let it mellow, if it’s brown flush it down,” because of my average flushing (nine times a day). But because this disgusts many, and it probably should, I picked up the most recent issue of Good and learned what I could do instead to decrease my water use:

1. Put a brick in the back of the toilet to fool it from filling up to six gallons (the number used with every flush).
2. Use a dishwasher, since the water flowing out of an average faucet drones out at five gallons a minute; and run the dishwasher only when it’s full.
3. Choose chicken over beef. Cows are a heck of a lot thirstier and require a lot more to survive, not to mention taste good. As well as the whole CO_x they release into the atmosphere contributing to climate change (but that’s another point for another time).

Those were the most practical, but here are a few for the money-mongers and extremists:

1. Put a rain barrel on the roof to water plants or your lawn.
2. Install a half flush option on your toilet and a low flow faucet on your sink.
3. Buy a front load washing machine.
4. Use solar energy.

But I know the intellectual crowd reading this column knows that the 326 million trillion gallons of water on earth is still on earth. So why should we conserve? Because we treat those million trillions like the Israelites treated their covenant with God, it exists as long as we do so what’s the purpose? But how much abuse can water stand before purification is not enough? Some don’t have the option to treat water fairly and some just think we deserve the ale after a hard day’s work. Either way our lakes and reservoirs dwindle as we flush what’s mostly water anyway down the toilet.

By Anna

A group of us met at my friend Lisa’s before going to the opening night of Where the Wild Things Are. It was important that we met there because she lives closest to the cheapest theater in the Twin Cities, the Woodbury 10. It would also become important because of what happened before we left for the movie.

Where the Wild Things Are is an important interpretation of Maurice Sendak’s children’s book because it’s not for children, but for adults, particularly adults who were once a child like Max was. Max’s dad wasn’t around, his mom worked full-time and his sister was just old enough for it to not be cool to hang out with Max. He kept to his igloos, forts, and wolf costume.

Max didn’t understand why his father rejected him and his family and didn’t know how else to express his frustration but through tantrums and running. After a pre-dinner tantrum and biting his mom, he ran (and sailed) all the way to where to where the wild things are.

The implications for me became clearer. About a half hour before we left for the Woodbury 10, Lisa’s neighbor stopped by. Lisa had never met this neighbor before, but had watched the family dynamics from a distance and knew they inclined toward a different social understanding and interaction.

“Can I use your phone?” the 28-year-old woman asked as her little redheaded girl huddled behind her knees.

“Oh she’s just scared of your ghosts on your deck. You do know this house is haunted right?” the woman said. We all shock our heads. Not being in opposition to ghosts, knowing full and well of a supernatural realm present in the world, we all giggled a little as our Western mindset taught us to do in the face of ghost believers.

Though this young mom probably influenced her daughter’s belief and knowledge of ghosts, I couldn’t help but think of this young girl when we left the theater that night. Her white jacket and blue lightsaber like Max’s wolf attire. She would probably eventually deny what she knew at the time to be real, the existence of ghosts, but for now she believed in what no one else could see. Fatherless, as the mom told us “she tried that marriage thing once,” she faced the world of ghosts probably fighting as Luke Skywalker fought evil with his blue lightsaber.

Though the little redheaded girl seemed happier than Max, my heart broke for her. The threat of an incomplete family is a horrifying experience I don’t know how to deal with. Not only is my family complete, but most of my friends’ families are complete so with ignorance I stood giggling at this girl’s apparitions, all the while loving fantasy films and believing in God.

Where the Wild Things Are is an important film for its beauty and interpretative imagination, but maybe mostly important in its provision of emotional and psychological understandings of broken families and the children affected. So that I might call the redheaded girl imaginative like Max, and not weird as I initially thought of her.

By Anna

Bankok's super highway

Though bragging about spirituality is something only found in Christian communities in America, it has become the stuff of heroes in Thailand. The Por Tek Tung Foundation in Bangkok provides emergency medical services for free in a city where there is more need for medical attention than there are rescuers.

According to Sept/Oct issue of the Utne Reader hundreds of volunteer emergency rescue workers scour the cities of China on the weekends to save the injured in order to gain spiritual merit as Buddhists. None of the volunteers are professionally trained, but do have 110 hours of first aid training. In Bangkok a motorist is killed every 36 minutes, hence the need for trained volunteers who can reach the accident before an ambulance.

Some speculative comments have arisen as to whether these volunteers are putting themselves in danger by rescue racing to see who can reach the scene first. I mostly wonder what could happen in America if people believed in spiritual merit making. The United States doesn’t have near the problem of preventable motor deaths as Asia, but our good-will actions need resuscitating nonetheless.

Has Christianity’s emphasis on Ephesians’ “not by works, but by the free gift of God” made America sterile to the wounded and inconsiderate of any religion where works are necessary?

By Anna

The population of the earth is 6.8 billion, half are urbanites and more than one sixth are illiterate. The belief in the supernatural and unknown world dominates the majority of the 6.8 billion of us, and we can’t figure it out, as evidenced by the 11,500 organized religions in the world as well as the 40,000 differing denominations within Christianity alone.

We fight to the death about something we can’t prove, and refuse to address what we do know exists: poverty, displacement, natural disasters, and homelessness. Where I am in relation to the supernatural differs from each other human being, and when governments can’t agree on how to deal with their issues of self-inflicted oppression on their own citizens, individuals could make something happen.

For example, anywhere from 16 to 100 million children across seven continents go to sleep each night and wake up each morning with no parents. Though they cannot all be adopted because of government regulations, processes and prices of each orphan’s head, if every 20^th family in the United States adopted one child, the word orphan would become something of the past. But we don’t even know how many orphans exist in the world because famililessness isn’t a priority and probably never will be. The very fact that we have orphanages to keep all these children is discouraging. So many children are without homes and without people who want to give homes that we had to build houses to keep them.

Global change for the homeless and oppressed is unlikely, but individual agency to do what is right with or without an urgency of religion or supernatural belief is possible. That is why I write this column each week and why I seek out truth through what I believe: in the inherent goodness that does exist in at least some small part in each of us.

Facts according to the Global Christian Forum, 2008.

By Anna

We all know those people who we hope to God never travel because they make us look bad. For me, it’s my fellow classmates and Christians who assume anywhere outside of the United States is a dangerous world (which explains why 91 percent of mission funding in the church goes toward reaching other Christian denominations with the “right” denomination. But that’s a story for another time).

In 2005, 61.8 million Americans traveled abroad taking ignorance with them. Though these problems of Americans abroad irritate the educated and culturally interested, they will most likely never change, even with the familiarity of McDonald’s going with them.

A few weeks ago in my Wednesday night class, a sophomore girl to my right was telling me about her upcoming trip to Cambodia to fulfill her study abroad credits. She told me how nervous she was and how she knew it was a dangerous place where no one spoke English. Though I’m becoming less and less friendly with these uneducated democratic citizens who have access to the Internet and therefore the world, I took on a patient demeanor and told her about my time in Cambodia two years ago: About the happiness and excitement of the people and about the safety of the city and the continual affect of the Pol Pot Regime from the 1970s.

She tried to hide her shock, but also felt reassured that it was a safe place to visit. I wanted to tell her not to go before she knew more about the country and people. To educate herself and try to learn the language in order to better commit herself to the culture she would be immersed in for a month, but I didn’t. I only reassured her, allowing the plushness that is the pillow of the United States to remain, even if I didn’t reaffirm her ignorant ideas of Cambodia. Though I didn’t have the heart to tell her there aren’t any McDonald’s in Cambodia.

By Anna

Last week I ended the discussion on a question: And what is it about humanity that requires us to be saved, but only through death?

Theologians, Biblical Scholars and Mythologists have asked this question for years. Alex left a comment last weekposing the idea that Christian scholars believe death is the ultimate victory over evil. Evil does after all take death as its ultimate win, but literature, poetry, mythology and film suggest that sacrificing oneself for another through death defeats evil. A very simple example is Harry Potter. His mother died in order that he might live and this sacrifice is the needed difference between Harry and Voldemort, which allows Harry to defeat his nemesis.

Alex posed this primary solution with a resolution of inadequacy. He left the following example as a better, more intellectual understanding of sacrificial death:

According to the laws in the Old Testament, a man who is indebted to another is essentially a slave if he cannot pay the debt but he can be redeemed from his debt if a relative can pay it for him. Now since we are all indebted to God because of our imperfections (it is impossible for us to be acceptable to him and we essentially deserve to die) we need a redeemer to pay our debts. Christ owed nothing because he was perfect, but he paid for our debts, therefore redeeming all of us. This is why we can only be saved through death.

Though we may better understand sacrificial death through this explication, it is still beyond our understanding as to why God required his son to die and why anyone should die without the full knowledge of how/where life is after death. As a pacifist sacrificial death seems best if death is suited to us all.

By Anna

There is argued to be two to four types of pacifists in this world:

1. Universal Pacifist who prohibits all killing
2. Universal Pacifist who prohibits all violence
3. Private Pacifist who prohibits personal violence and killing
4. Anti-War Pacifist who allows self-defense, but against all types of war

To put anyone within the confines of a definition is difficult, but in order to develop a case for Christian pacifists (yes there are Christians not in support of military action!) here are some thoughts on what these four types of Pacifists might say from a Christian perspective:

Type I:  The Bible teaches a strong guidance for the sanctity of all life (Genesis 1:27). What many non-Christians or not-yet-Christians argue against is the Old Testament (Hebrew Scriptures) stories and commands from God for the Israelites to destroy entire groups of people. The Old Testament is an important part of all Christian studies because God’s covenant is formed with Abraham in Genesis and expanded on as a New Testament Covenant from Jesus.

Type 2: The Sermon on the Mount as well as Jesus’ entire lifestyle is anti-violence.

Type 3: Augustine attempted to reconcile the ideas of the Sermon on the Mount with military force as an option. An acceptance throughout the Bible that communal defense is valued, but private violence/defense is wrong.

Type 4:  The most commonly used example for Anti-war Pacifists is WWII. These types would most likely agree that going into Germany was the best course of action, not only for the United States, but for the Jews. The problem Anti-war Pacifists face is if we do fight a defense war, what do we do with all the casualties and death of civilians?

I’m writing about pacifism today because of my continual confliction between “supporting the troops” and disagreeing with any involvement in military activity. How do we claim a belief in an all-loving God, yet kill? Whether it is the death of an innocent life or a military life, how can violence be an acceptable response to violence?

In spite of my research and projection of pacifism onto you, I can’t really say which type I am. I could never say that I would never inflict a violent act upon someone, though I hope I never do, but I am also very anti-war, though as soon as I say that I think about the violence and pure hatred of Hitler Germany in the 1930s and 40s. How can we reconcile our non-violence with violence? And what is it about humanity that requires us to be saved, but only through death?

By Anna

Where does my generation stand in the face of protest? The Vietnam peacemakers transitioned the youth of this country from the enlisting patriots of World Wars I and II to global citizens recognizing the greater issues. What the Vietnam protesters of my father’s generation see as a catatonic waste of a young generation, we see as digital intercontinental vilification. Our action takes to the greatest force in the world: the Internet.

Last week, I wrote about the new “surge” campaign for Afghanistan in Bush tradition, which naturally increases the death toll not only for U.S. troops, but Afghan citizens as well. Death is final, yet the military makes a career out of it.

There is a war for every peacemaker. Some will chose to defend the deaths of U.S. citizens abroad, but others choose children in Sudan, teachers in Cambodia (circa 1975), mothers in Rwanda or Japanese in America.

I respect, research and admire those Vietnam protestors, but defend the lack of physical protests of my generation against the quagmires of Iraq and what will be Afghanistan because times change, and the youth adapt the quickest.

By Anna

In the race for world power, President Obama promised to leave Iraq within the first 16 months of office. And it seemed as though most Americans were behind this plan, but where was the punditry and critique of the Afghan War during the election? Where is the inveighing against our part in any war?

Though it may not have been in vain that we entered Afghanistan in pursuit of Osama bin Laden, we have yet to recover his remains and barely remember his existence, but for Sept. 11.

According to McClatchy Newspapers, “the U.S.-led NATO coalition in Afghanistan now has lost more troops this year than in all of 2008, and August is on track to be the deadliest month for American troops there since U.S. operations began nearly eight years ago.”

Though the United States is not on its own in Afghanistan, it certainly has the most pull and clout with more U.S. troops occupying Afghanistan than there are people in my hometown of 55,000, which explains why foreign policy experts are beginning to wonder if Obama’s decisions aren’t just in the Bush tradition “with the difference being that Mr. Obama could be putting more American lives at risk to pursue a failed policy,” according to The New York Times.

When the president talks of war he talks of death. U.S. troops may be expendable, but Afghan citizens are not. It has been a long time since a war has been fought on the homeland and I wonder what would be done differently if Afghan citizens were of equal value to U.S. citizens. What if the war was in your city?

In total:

2008: 294 deaths in Afghanistan

2009 (from Aug. 25): 295 deaths in Afghanistan

By Anna

While staying at my grandparents’ house last weekend I overheard their 6:30 a.m. conversation concerning names of grandchildren’s’ significant others.

Poppo: What’s the name of the young man downstairs?

Grandma: Alex.

P: I thought it was Joel.

G: That’s Holly’s boy.

P: I know, I thought there were two Joels. We don’t need to remember these names until we know they’re going to stick around.

G: And even then who knows how long they’ll be around.

Being just as capable of divorce as the next wedded person (though A, I’m not married and B, statistically I am not as likely to divorce because my parents are not divorced), I am still not an advocate for divorce as an option. We laugh about the guy who has had five wives (Grandpa Charles on my dad’s side) and laugh at films where divorce is a theme, but the excruciating emotional pulls divorce brings is no laughing matter.

In Hungary people joke about being good at burying the dead (because they’ve lost so many wars), well in America we can joke about being good at keeping divorce attorneys employed (because we love to divorce!)

Unsurprisingly, White Americans are more likely to be for divorce in an unhappy marriage than Black Americans. Statistically, White people have more money to afford the expense of divorce. Though when we talk about divorce in statistics race is always a factor, it is not my main focus for today.

I’m talking about marriage and divorce because I will be attending yet another wedding this weekend (though I doubt it will end in divorce). And I have at least two, if not scores more, weddings to attend next summer as I am in peak wedding stage of life (21 to about age 30).

Here’s what I know about divorce based on The Pew Research Center’s research:

• Divorce is highest among White and Black Americans.
• Divorce is highest among 50-64 year olds.
• Divorce is highest in the $30K/year income bracket.
• Divorce is highest among non-college graduates.

Since divorce rates have doubled in America since 1960, I suppose my grandparents should be a bit concerned about learning names (even if that’s a bit cold) and us young folk should not be so eager for marriage, after all one has their whole life for the opportunity.

Though divorce disheartens me and is a very real fact for Americans, it is not divorce that I want to talk about, but I want to know why Americans (and Christians) tie marriage to success. Why do most Americans who are not married want to be married? Why is there not just as much gratitude and appreciation for single people? Why are single people older than the age of 30 pitied for their singleness? It seems to me that we put too much emphasis on marriage and end up with a lot of irresponsible people playing house.

By Anna

he Buda Reformed Church looking pretty affluent in Budapest, Hungary

As a cross-cultural missions minor at Bethel University, I have yet to read one book or one essay about ministering to the affluent society. When it comes to missions in Budapest, one has to recognize that this city loved God for hundreds of years, but has recently rejected any idea of God because it felt like he rejected them (WWII and Soviet occupation).

The most I’ve ever learned about living among an affluent people has been from Solomon’s Porch. If I had to guess as to why I can’t find any books about this or know many missionaries in affluent countries it would be because 1. Money = greed 2. Ministry to the poor is tangible and easier—short-term mission teams can come in, help and leave with no extended commitment 3. It takes more thought, intellect and longer commitment than most people are willing (How do we reach the deepest needs of a person’s heart when the person feel no real needs?)

My parents always taught me that no matter where you were in the world you were on a “mission field” to borrow the Evangelistic Christian term, and to this day I believe it. But I was confused by what I had been learning in my minor. Shouldn’t I dedicate my life to the poor? My interpretation of “The Rich Young Ruler” in Matthew 19 was always literal. Sell everything you have and give it to those in need. Last year I heard an interpretation that makes just as much if not more sense: the story is not about money, but about what keeps us from God. How is an affluent society going to listen to one who judges and points the finger at their affluence?

No matter how little or how much we have, material distracts. I have a lot no matter how little I have.

By Anna

On Tuesday and Thursday I take the metro from Votosmarty U. to Battyany ter. No one makes extended eye contact with me, a quick glance and then look away. Barely an acknowledgement of your existence, just a concentration on going from A to B. I think my mom and sister would fit in here, I however, am extrinsic and feed off of smiles and friendly nods of hello.

The parliament building from castle hill

As the escalator surfaces at Battyany ter. a church with green copper steeples emerges into view. You can turn around after stepping off of the escalator and see the magnificently gothic parliament building. I walk one block down, ring number 51 and say hello to Ilona, my language teacher. She let’s me in and I take the elevator to the fifth floor (though sixth for us in the United States because the first floor here is the ground level). The elevator doors are manual and this I forget everytime.

During my lesson we sit in chairs facing the parliament building. I ask Ilona why Hungarians do not make eye contact or say hello. She does not understand me initially. I explain further, that in the United States people may nod or say hello in passing. She nods and says it is a cultural difference and that it is only a surface thing and that young people are not like this. She tells me to go to Godot ter. where the young people are.

Though I understand the cultural difference, I still do not know why. That afternoon I learn about Hungary’s last 50 years while at The Terror Museum. The Nazis invaded, the Soviets invaded and they clashed in the middle of Hungary, who only wanted to remain neutral. But Hungary doesn’t joke about knowing how to bury their dead without reason—hundreds of thousands were killed and deported during WWII and for years after. 200,000 Jews left, 11,000 have returned since.

Faces of those who died from 1944-1967 from The Terror Museum

The Soviets won and during their occupation (1944-1991) if anyone made eye contact with a Soviet guard they could be under suspicion and would be taken away to the cellar prison of the Hungarian Arrow Cross Government (Communist) on Andrassy U.

Hungarians were trained to avoid eye contact for decades. I had guessed that the reason for avoiding eye contact was the fear of intimacy, but it was actually a cultured fear of abuse or death from a culture (the U.S.S.R.) that has had centuries of abuse itself.

Fear and internalization continues in Eastern Europe, but today, Hungarians celebrate 20 years of freedom from the Iron Curtain (1989) with passivity and pride.

By Anna

St. Stephen's Basilica in Budapest

Evangelical Christians love their revivals and crusades. I’ll even admit that I have fond memories of them from my youth (mostly of napping in church pews). But 20 years ago in Hungary these revivals swept through Hungary with such a force that even Atheists were “saved.” After the numbers were raised and Hungary became largely Christian to the Evangelical, the Evangelicals left without giving Hungary any stability to grow.

For about a year I have questioned Evangelicalism and its place in my life.  Can a belief in certain denomination and certain doctrine really matter? Why is certain Biblical interpretation right or wrong? Though it is difficult to flesh out such questions, discussion is the best way I know how.

Christianity in Hungary became confused and manipulated by the 1990s. People made it their own, not because of a personal relationship with Jesus, but because they didn’t know what else to do with this new “Savior.”

As I visit Hungary for the next month I am also wondering what to do with this Savior I have believed and believed in for so many years. The more I study the more uncertain I am of what I believe. Though my faith in Jesus does not falter, I do not know how to explain the necessity of faith when belief in nothing can be so much easier.

Today, Christianity is non-existent in Hungary. The next generation doesn’t want the Catholicism their grandparents have so they reject any idea of God, to the point of not even knowing how Christianity fits into history. A teacher here once asked her students to name what they knew about Easter. The students knew a bit about bunnies and eggs, but sloughed off the holiday as something their grandparents did.

To study Christianity is to study the history of the Western world, but Atheism continues to grow in Hungary because it does not lead to war as Islam and Christianity does. Who can argue with that? Christians, the Evangelical Christian included, have not presented their faith well. Historically, missionaries said, “believe in God or die.” The church preaches the goodness and necessity of war, but don’t you think by the 21^st century we’d have figured out what Jesus meant by “love your neighbor as yourself?”

By Anna

Because I love to bore you with the hairy details of social justice gone awry, complacent Americans, and various people groups around the world, the next few weeks will carry on in that tradition and be all about Eastern Europe, specifically Budapest and maybe a hint of Prague.

Budapest was built on paprika. That’s right, that little spice that makes deviled eggs so delicious. On tables across Hungary sits salt, pepper and paprika. They even have a dish named Chicken Paprikash (which I hope to try while visiting the Paris of the East). And it’s in this little spicy wonder that Buda, Pest and Obuda (Ancient Buda) could coalesce.

According to Hungarian writer John Lucaks, goulash (gulyas), famously seasoned with paprika, was served as the midday meal for cattlemen and shepherds, common among the poor it was rarely served to the middle and upper classes in spite of their favor for paprika. As Lucaks constantly pens, “Hungary is a very class conscious society” and it is my interpretation that paprika crosses those classes and is the one spice most relied on by Hungarian cooks, whether for goulash or for Chicken Paprikash.

This class-conscious society has historically borrowed from Western European ideals and styles. Once known as Austria’s junior partner, Hungary takes what it likes and adds a little of that high vitamin C bearing paprika to make it its own.

After 1900, cooking with paprika made Budapest famous. Writer Alexandre Dumas “praised the Paprika laced dishes” (Lukacs) and Edward VII had a Hungarian chef. In the wake of Hungary’s struggles to find its own niche, constantly borrowing architecture from Spanish Baroque, balancing Magyar and Jewish cultures, maintaining Turkish influence from their invasion in the 13^th century and competing with Vienna for superiority in Eastern Europe, Hungary discovered herself in paprika.

Though some might disagree and say the building of bridges across the Danube to connect Buda and Pest or the invention of the locomotive (they claim to have done it first, but we all know that it was surely done by a Westerner–Richard Trevithick perhaps?) were what gave Budapest its fame, I claim it was paprika!

So as you’re reading about my travels abroad to a country I know very little about (I hope to educate you as I educate myself) drop your morning OJ and take in more paprika instead.

By Anna

It is in American nature to hang on to the curtails of bureaucracy.  What we don’t know doesn’t matter, except when the media says it does.  In the case of this Twin Cities news clip the media reinforces the long standing racism and classism of society from its white privilege view of East Phillips in Minneapolis.

What reinforces racism in this clip:

1. After dark = safe.  Jody reports live in East Phillips at 10 p.m., yet the shots of the neighborhood throughout the news clip are only during the day.  They wanted to show her live in order to reinforce that the neighborhood is safe after dark, but she’s not going anywhere and the news truck is probably right in front of her.  I’d feel awful safe at 10 p.m. anywhere in the Twin Cities with a camera crew too.
2. Crime = Black thugs.  Forty-five seconds into the clip Jody says the block club was started to “combat crime” as the camera jumps to three black kids walking down the street in baggy clothes.  Only reinforcing the fact that surely if they are black and wearing baggy clothes they are criminals.
3. Block clubs are not new to combating crime.  The report makes block clubs look like new ideas, yet the Banyan Community block club has been around for a decade and has contributed all along to the decrease in crime.

Though the report is news, it is not helping with issues of race and class. Of course the editor cutting the clip was focused on time, it is difficult to combat racism and classism when people in the media are not aware of the stigmas they present. Viewing media from a lower class and different race’s perspective is imperative in understanding in an effort to change your view of race. We must all, at least a little, take on the role of black spectatorship.

By Anna

During the Bush Administration the public wasn’t allowed to see the caskets holding “our” dead from Iraq and Afghanistan, yet no embargo was placed on the human fragments littering the streets of Iraq and Afghanistan. We know “our” dead did that, but we assume those fragments deserved it, that they are not humans, but that they are the enemy; as if the enemy was never human, only terrorist.

The media covers what it doesn’t understand or respect. There was no massive protest, no outcry for a halt to horrors, just numbers. We know how many of “our” own have died and stand in moments of silence for them. I do not cherish these moments because they do not distract me from the baseball game that is about to start or the speech that is about to be given. But bodies could distract me. Bodies could make the inevitable real. Bodies could bring cohesion and peace. Bodies could bring us out of debt. Bodies with faces and limbs that have been lost in a country so few understand and fewer try to understand. Bodies that never needed to be emptied of life.

By Anna

The Kachin tribes of Myanmar live in the hills bordering China. They have called for peace with Myanmar’s government, yet their army is strong enough to defeat the Myanmar government.

When did peace and military strength become one? The dualism between what we think we need and what we actually need is startling. Myanmar has eight armed ethnic groups. Though the militant government antagonizes these groups, there are no ethnic groups without their own military power (as each ethnic group falls into one of the eight). These ethnic groups, ironically, are trying to gain influence by the very means their enemy gains influence.

Our role in this ethnic war in Myanmar, is at least to recognize Western cultures’ influence that has made Myanmar the mess it is today. These ethnic groups have ravaged for civil war since 1948, the year Myanmar was “free” from British rule. Britain steps aside and many worlds fall apart. That’s not to say in hindsight that Britain should have stayed, but rather that it never should have entered, spreading its empirical wings of desire across cultures it did not understand or care to.

Thomas Fuller, writer for The New York Times, reported: “During the Cold War, China, Thailand and the United States supplied arms and other assistance to some borderland (ethnic) groups. Now commercial interests, including many shady businesses, have replaced ideological ones.”

How arrogant (and hilarious) of Fuller to even suggest in his article that we, the United States, ever even had ideological interests in the ethnic groups of Myanmar. Our ideology lies in money and maintaining power by whatever means we can, even if that means selling arms to ethnic groups calling for peace. Perhaps we sold them arms to ease our own conscience, after all, weren’t we building up nuclear warheads for peace too?

By Anna

Art, and literature in particular for me, progresses society. If art were to fail, society would regress into times such as those depicted in Aldous Huxley’s 1984. The following poems define how America was seen by poets at three different times in our history, but all are relevant for how we view and are a part of America today.

“Song of Myself” by Walt Whitman

If “Song of Myself” does not inspire you to tears, or at least give you a sense of connection to those around you, I don’t know if anything will. Though it’s a tad long, it’s worth a listen or a read out loud. My favorite lines come in section 16: “I am old and young, of the foolish as much as the wise,/Regardless of others, ever regardful of others,/Maternal as well as Paternal, a child as well as a man,/Stuff’d with the stuff that is coarse and stuff’d with the stuff that is fine”

He inspires me to write and inspires many to live because he fights prejudices and hatred through truthful poetic words.

“Dope” by Amiri Baraka

Though I’ve only recently been introduced to Baraka, he articulates the life of Black Culture better than anyone else I have read. Though he was later than the Harlem Renaissance, he gets it. His own spoken words breathe life into ignorance and articulates what I, a white girl, could never know or say. “Dope” expresses the hope and need to get out of the ghetto and do more, if only one were given the chance to.

“America” by Allen Ginsberg

Though most known for his “Howl” he also has a few words for America in this 1956 piece expressing his frustration with this great nation. The ranting of the Beat Generation courses through my veins whenever I write. No other generation gave so much power to the written word interlaced with the uncertainty of metaphysics. From the rhythm that was jazz and the hum of the treads on the road, to the clickity-clack of my nails against the ever so feminine keys, the beat, the beatitude you feel as you listen and read and write is there and it empowers those who have never known power; it is everything.

By Anna

Karen Chapple and Michael Tietz, professors at the University of California, Berkeley, give eight causes of inner city poverty:

1. Economic Shifts-often seen when manufacturing plants close or increase their robotics, resulting in loss of jobs
2. Inadequate Human Capital-possibly no higher education, poor, or no education or no set skills
3. Racial and Gender Discrimination
4. Cultural Interaction-people emulate the culture around them, reacting to the agenda set by that culture. Also, middle class (most often white) culture usually sets itself apart from a diverse neighborhood because of a lack of understanding of culture
5. Spatial Mismatch-segregation of classes that results in separation of workers and jobs
6. Migration—of middle class to suburbs and middle/upper classes to areas in the United States. Also, push (crime, education) and pull (resources) factors of certain neighborhoods.
7. Endogenous Growth Deficit—low access to capital because of a lack of businesses
8. Consequences of Public Policy-usually intended to alleviate stress, but actually enables and can worsen situations

Of the eight, I’ll give you a bit more on the three I think are most important for redevelopment.

Inadequate Human Capital:

We all had those teachers growing up who we were smarter than, but most of us still got a pretty good education, public or private, because we were white, living in middle-income neighborhoods. Some of us even jump-started college with PSEO or AP classes, but if we were given education in the inner-city we would’ve had even less-qualified teachers and less of a chance to take advanced classes, not to mention the family support we got from our parents, whether in terms of money for good grades or groundings for bad grades-we were a motivated bunch.

Luckily, us white kids still don’t have to worry about future employers not hiring us because we are instinctually lazy (a “soft skill” most black people have held against them). This perceived human capital leads us right into the next cause of poverty:

Racial and Gender Discrimination:

Relating to the institutional economics of last week, racism and sexism is instilled within individuals whether it is recognized or not. One theorist (Glenn C. Loury) tells us these are racial stigmas, differing from discrimination because stigmas are how each individual relates to another based on race.

Racism and sexism in the United States derives from the constitution when black people were 3/5 human and women were left out all together, although white women were next in line to receive any benefits, which their male counterparts inherited from the constitution. And we all know the constitution stems from Enlightenment ideals, which wouldn’t have come along if Luther hadn’t pinned that 95 Theses on that Wittenberg church door starting the Reformation, and the 95 Theses wouldn’t have been mass produced if Gutenberg hadn’t invented the printing press a century earlier. But before we go blaming Gutenberg, remember he also printed the pamphlets for a group of rebel peasants fighting against serfdom. So if we can’t blame Gutenberg it’s best not to blame anyone but ourselves.

Public Policy:

You may already have noticed how each cause is somehow connected to public policy (and if not, you’re probably a Republican, or an Evangelical Christian), but I’m not speaking on behalf of anyone but the poor. The poor are unlucky enough to have their neighborhoods broken up by interstates, incinerators put in down the block and nullification for FHA Loans (allowing those who can afford it to move into nicer homes, while inner city homes depreciate), to name just a few policies. Many of these policies could be overturned if only the neighborhood had enough human capital to fight the injustices or to have the stamina to continually fight what is blatantly abuse. But after all, it is easier to step on colored toes than white ones and get away with it.

By Anna

Two things need to happen in the fight against poverty: individuals have to make rational decisions and institutions have to shape human behavior for equal opportunity.  Though to me they are obvious factors that equally contribute to individuals living in poverty, many people blame one or the other, not understanding the particular situations, or why something is a stereotype.

Without boring you all to sleep with economical jargon let me just say that there are two schools of economic thought: one Republicans follow (the neoclassical view), the other Democrats adhere to (the institutional view)-yes, I realize I’m stereotyping, but it’s a stereotype for a reason.

1. Neoclassical: the individual must decide to stay in school and not do drugs because that is the most beneficial to “succeed” in this American society.  Individuals must act in self-interest (not to be confused with selfishness) and use rationality to decide what to do.

For example: For a high schooler in a low-income family this could mean going to school from 8 a.m. – 3 p.m., working from 3:30 p.m. – midnight and then doing homework from midnight – 2 a.m., so there’s not a lot of time to do drugs (or to sleep).  These are the “working poor,” and there is a high probability that they may still need welfare to make ends meet.

2. Institutional: the system evolves with passing policies and shapes human behavior.  The institution can be formal (government laws and regulations) or informal (learned behavior, like giving people personal space).

For example: Traditionally, families could be on welfare from birth to death, but in 1996, welfare was reformed so someone could only be on federal welfare for five years, yet could still qualify for state welfare for a longer period of time.  Because of the institutional set up, it functions as a charity system today and does not act in developing the families to be able to get a higher education so that they have an opportunity to be paid enough to get off of welfare.

Four hundred words barely begin to address the issue of neoclassical and institutional economics.  It has taken hundreds of years for white men to get where they are in the world, and it has only been about 50 years since the United States has started to address its issues of race.  So how can we expect to see equality for all lived out in America for another hundred years?

By Anna

We’re nearing the end of March and you know what that means: the women stop celebrating and the men take the year back over. With that said here are my final thoughts about our patriarchal society:

Commercials-

• Verizon Wireless: The muscular jock needs an English tutor, and although they’re playing into stereotypes for the whole commercial, why is it that the tutor is a guy? Aren’t the majority of English majors at colleges girls? Although I expect nothing but sexism and stereotypes from commercials, they missed the boat on this one.
• Rose Petal Cottage: Yes it’s from our youth, but no wonder so many girls of my generation are now “playing house” with real cupcakes and children, fulfilling their “big dreams.”

“You guys”-Although this is something I find myself saying (mostly because I don’t possess enough drawl to say “You all”). It’s a good example of the institutionalization of sexism. We can’t help but say “You guys.” Everyone imagine if you will, what it would be like if it was institutionalized to say “You gals.” Right! It sounds ridiculously weird and offensive to guys, so now you know how we gals feel.

“Mankind”-I had a roommate who lost ten points in a paper because she kept using gender exclusive grammar. She ranted and ranted about how ridiculous losing those points was, but she was wrong. Try using the word “whitekind” in replace of humankind sometime and see how your professor reacts.

The Prince Charming notion-Nearly every mainstream television show and movie applies the ideal man. Granted I don’t condone going to films where the girl pines for the guy in the end (even though he was the one not giving her enough space to be an individual), plenty of American movie lovers are going to these shows and promoting the self-deprecation that apparently comes with being a female.