Don't read this post if you haven't seen the movies and want to.
Blood Diamond was an amazing movie. More than anything I've seen before, this movie reminded me of what it is like to live in a place where, instead of bling-bling, its "bling-bang," as Leonardo DiCaprio put it so succinctly. Not that Kandahar was anything like Sierra Leone- it was nowhere near that scale of violence and bloodshed. But watching the movie transported me back to a place where human crises are happening on a totally different scale than America. There's a part in the movie where the rebels take over Freetown, shooting, looting, and burning everything. Forcing child soldiers to shoot up drugs after they kill women and other children. And then I remember my day today.
Strangely enough, there was some twisted comfort for me in realizing that Afghanistan is not the worst place on earth to be. There are still places in Africa that are much worse, where things a thousand times more horrible are happening.
And a week after watching Blood Diamond, I watched Hotel Rwanda. Now, if you have avoided Hotel Rwanda thinking it might be a little too intense for you, just watch Blood Diamond first. It will sort of numb you to the atrocity.
And isn't that what many of us are searching for? We don't want to feel guilty after seeing a movie like that, so many of us aren't watching those movies and documentaries. Like me, who refuses to watch Invisible Children and then go buy a twenty dollar pair of shoes. There's just a level of horrific pain that is much easier to pretend does not exist and buy the shoes.
And this is my huge struggle in life right now. After seeing everything I saw last fall, and movies like Hotel Rwanda and Blood Diamond, how do I come back and live in a place like America without being guilty?
And I mean that, exactly. Not without feeling guilty: without being guilty.
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
That Old Itching Feeling...
Its coming back... that old itching feeling to get out of the United States.
I have been trying and trying to suppress it. But after eight years of leaving the country once a year or more, I am about to go crazy!! "Its May and so it is OBVIOUSLY time to plan a trip somewhere, right???!!?" My mind won't quit asking this question. I am trying to tell her no over and over again but this crazy lady keeps bringing me back to websites like cheapoair.com and lonely planet.
Don't even mention to her that she probably won't be leaving for FOUR years. That would make her really mad.
I have been trying and trying to suppress it. But after eight years of leaving the country once a year or more, I am about to go crazy!! "Its May and so it is OBVIOUSLY time to plan a trip somewhere, right???!!?" My mind won't quit asking this question. I am trying to tell her no over and over again but this crazy lady keeps bringing me back to websites like cheapoair.com and lonely planet.
Don't even mention to her that she probably won't be leaving for FOUR years. That would make her really mad.
A Little Wedding Music
I have decided to start a business. After being self-employed for a year and a half (in the eyes of the government, anyway) I realized recently that it would be really easy for me to go back to being self-employed again and start a business on the side as a wedding violinist.
After all, 14 years of private classical instruction shouldn't go to waste and I have played hundreds of concerts and events, including professional violin playing for weddings and funerals.
I will still be a receptionist, though. Receptionist by day, violinist by night. Well, hopefully. Who knows what kind of market there is in the OKC area for wedding musicians? I wonder if there is anyone else on the planet who makes ten dollars an hour at one job and a hundred dollars an hour at their other job?
After all, 14 years of private classical instruction shouldn't go to waste and I have played hundreds of concerts and events, including professional violin playing for weddings and funerals.
I will still be a receptionist, though. Receptionist by day, violinist by night. Well, hopefully. Who knows what kind of market there is in the OKC area for wedding musicians? I wonder if there is anyone else on the planet who makes ten dollars an hour at one job and a hundred dollars an hour at their other job?
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Snippets on Iran (According to the BBC)
On Anti-Semitism
Although Iran and Israel are bitter enemies, few know that Iran is home to the largest number of Jews anywhere in the Middle East outside Israel. There are approximately 25,000 Iranian Jews whose cultural roots in Iran go back 3,000 years.
On US-Iran Relations
“In Russia, they eat ice cream in the winter because its warmer than the air.” (Iranian Foreign Minister, responding to Condolezza Rice’s niceties in Egypt last week)
On the President
“They held portraits of Mr Ahmadinejad upside down to mock him and then set them on fire.” (BBC reporting on a recent student protest against Iran’s president at Tehran’s largest university)
On Women
“[The moral police] are stopping pedestrians and even cars - warning female drivers not to show any hair - and impounding the vehicles and arresting the women if they argue back.” (BBC reporting on a recent Iranian crackdown on women’s dress)
On Cosmetic Surgery
Since the revolution in 1979, Iran has become one of the world's leading centres for cosmetic surgery with three thousand plastic surgeons operating in Tehran alone. Dr Navab explains that some of his patients are indeed congenitally ugly…
On Public Opinion
"I want the whole world to know that they oppress us and all we can do is put up with it." (15 year old Iranian citizen Tofiq)
*go to BBC Middle East for a more complete look at what’s going on in Iran, as this is skewed :)
Although Iran and Israel are bitter enemies, few know that Iran is home to the largest number of Jews anywhere in the Middle East outside Israel. There are approximately 25,000 Iranian Jews whose cultural roots in Iran go back 3,000 years.
On US-Iran Relations
“In Russia, they eat ice cream in the winter because its warmer than the air.” (Iranian Foreign Minister, responding to Condolezza Rice’s niceties in Egypt last week)
On the President
“They held portraits of Mr Ahmadinejad upside down to mock him and then set them on fire.” (BBC reporting on a recent student protest against Iran’s president at Tehran’s largest university)
On Women
“[The moral police] are stopping pedestrians and even cars - warning female drivers not to show any hair - and impounding the vehicles and arresting the women if they argue back.” (BBC reporting on a recent Iranian crackdown on women’s dress)
On Cosmetic Surgery
Since the revolution in 1979, Iran has become one of the world's leading centres for cosmetic surgery with three thousand plastic surgeons operating in Tehran alone. Dr Navab explains that some of his patients are indeed congenitally ugly…
On Public Opinion
"I want the whole world to know that they oppress us and all we can do is put up with it." (15 year old Iranian citizen Tofiq)
*go to BBC Middle East for a more complete look at what’s going on in Iran, as this is skewed :)
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