I have watched "Hotel Rwanda" 4 times in the last week as I have been preparing for class and viewing it in all my English sections. One might think that such excessive exposure to images of dead bodies lining the street or children being massacred might make me more numb to the situation or might reduce the movie's emotional impact. However, I have found quite the opposite to be true. Every single time I watch the movie, I am moved. I am struck by how low humanity can stoop and by how oblivious I am to suffering around me. Each time I view the atrocities that occurred in Rwanda, I am convicted that I need to become more aware of oppression in the world. I am not sure what all I can do to helpin each situation, but at the very least I can learn about the powerless in the world. Only by seeking understanding and showing compassion can I help those who are suffering. But how do I find the time to be an informed global citizen? What is the extent of my obligation?
I am a firm believer that God has blessed me in many ways, and with my blessings come responsibilities. The Bible calls us to protect the needy and serve those who are suffering. According to this, I have an obligation to act for people in need. I need to se the resources God has given me for the good of those he loves.
Last week, I met with some teachers to discuss the book A Thousand Splendid Suns. Like "Hotel Rwanda," this book reveals hardships in the world that have gone unnoticed (specifically this text focuses on the repression of women in modern day Afghanistan). While the plots and the situations differed greatly between these two texts, their impacts on me were the same. After viewing each text I was left with a desire to do something. However, each text also showed me the need to not act hastily-- to understand the situations and know what support would be most beneficial. In other words, a superficial understanding of a scenario might lead me to act in ways that might be conterproductive. However, by taking the time to really investigate a situation and consider possible solutions, I can make a difference.
I pray that God can use me to make a difference and help protect his children.
Monday, April 21, 2008
Monday, April 14, 2008
Delayed Response
Here are a few of the books I have been reading since the last time I posted.The first one, Extremely Loud Incredibly Close, is about a boy whose father died in September 11. This was the second time I read this book. It is a poignant story that makes me cry every time. First of all, I think that Foer handles an emotional topic very well. The characters he creates are both appealing and interesting. I love the way Foer weaves together a story from multiple viewpoints. It is also interesting the way that he uses images in conjuntion with words. Foer includes photographs and graphics throughout the book. Creative and unique, this book was very hard to put down. I couldn't stop reading (even when I knew what was going to happen next!). I highly recommend this book.
The second book pictured above is another repeat read for me. This was the third time I read the graphic novel American Born Chinese. There is so much in it! The book is about a boy who is ethnically Chinese growing up in America and it focuses on identity issues. It has a lot to think about in it. I like the way that Yang pulls together numerous plot lines. I'm not sure I agree with many of his points, but it is a book that makes you contemplate a lot of issues. I would recommend this book- particularly to graphic novel fans or those interested in multicultural issues.
The third book above is The Pull of the Ocean. I read this book for a teacher book club. It is technically a children's book (though I would call it adolescent literature instead). It was originally written in French. It is a captivating tale of brothers who run away from home. I lvoe the way that this story is written. It is written from many perspectives which are pieced together into one coherant tale. The characters are interesting and likeable. I became invested in each one of them as their journey continued. The plot flowed steadily and the book was an easy fun read. I would recommend this book as well.
In sum: three good books. Three texts worth reading.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Dan Brown's Deception Point
On my flights to and from Taiwan I read Dan Brown's book, Deception Point. This was a suspenseful novel where a mystery involving government coverups, NASA, and murder was gradually revealed. It was a lengthy book that was packed full of information. It was highly plot-driven. Written in a style that was easy to read, it flowed quickly and kept me turning the page for more.
I usually do not pick mystery suspense books to read for fun, but it was the only book in the airport in English that I hadn't read. Alas, I tried a mystery for once. I was suprised by how much I enjoyed the novel. Dan Brown has a knack for weaving together obscure facts into a far fetched, but somehow believable, plot. He created interesting characters who I cared about and wanted to know better. Brown's plot was stimulating and he revealed just enough details to keep me quessing and interested. I would not say that the writing in this story was incredibly complex or sophisticated. However Brown's plot made for an interesting read. Deception Point was a good plane book.
I usually do not pick mystery suspense books to read for fun, but it was the only book in the airport in English that I hadn't read. Alas, I tried a mystery for once. I was suprised by how much I enjoyed the novel. Dan Brown has a knack for weaving together obscure facts into a far fetched, but somehow believable, plot. He created interesting characters who I cared about and wanted to know better. Brown's plot was stimulating and he revealed just enough details to keep me quessing and interested. I would not say that the writing in this story was incredibly complex or sophisticated. However Brown's plot made for an interesting read. Deception Point was a good plane book.
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Things that make me say, "hmm"
I found this on http://www.poetryaloud.org/ while I was browsing poems.
Poem with One Fact
By Donald Hall
"At pet stores in Detroit, you can buy
frozen rats
for seventy-five cents apiece, to feed
your pet boa constrictor"
back home in Grosse Pointe,
or in Grosse Pointe Park,
while the free nation of rats
in Detroit emerges
from alleys behind pet shops, from cellars
and junked cars, and gathers
to flow at twilight
like a river the color of pavement,
and crawls over bedrooms and groceries
and through broken
school windows to eat the crayon
from drawings of rats—
and no one in Detroit understands
how rats are delicious in Dearborn.
If only we could communicate, if only
the boa constrictors of Southfield
would slither down I-94,
turn north on the Lodge Expressway,
and head for Eighth Street, to eat
out for a change. Instead, tomorrow,
a man from Birmingham enters
a pet shop in Detroit
to buy a frozen German shepherd
for six dollars and fifty cents
to feed his pet cheetah,
guarding the compound at home.
Oh, they arrive all day, in their
locked cars, buying
schoolyards, bridges, buses,
churches, and Ethnic Festivals;
they buy a frozen Texaco station
for eighty-four dollars and fifty cents
to feed to an imported London taxi
in Huntington Woods;
they buy Tiger Stadium,
frozen, to feed to the Little League
in Grosse Ile. They bring everything
home, frozen solid
as pig iron, to the six-car garages
of Harper Woods, Grosse Pointe Woods,
Farmington, Grosse Pointe
Farms, Troy, and Grosse Arbor—
and they ingest
everything, and fall asleep, and lie
coiled in the sun, while the city
thaws in the stomach and slides
to the small intestine, where enzymes
break down molecules of protein
to amino acids, which enter
the cold bloodstream.
Donald Hall, “Poem with One Fact” from Old and New Poems.
This poem is definitely one that makes me say "hmm." I take a step back and think through some of the connections the poet makes as his fact grows to represent something much larger and I simultaneously feel drawn to his idea and repelled. I really like that he starts with a single incident and gradually pulls out layers of meaning. He stretches us little by little into accepting his ever growing metaphor. I can sympathize with some of his ideas-- consumerism, a lack of concern for the most ecologically friendly solutions, an increasing dependency on the production or items. And yet I think Hall takes this a bit far. Or maybe he is just exaggerating his point--the world's consumerism has grown to extreme heights. God has entrusted us with his earth and we waste far more than necessary. How could we better care for the resources around us?
I think an interesting writing exercise could derive from this poem: follow Hall's example and let a poem grow from a single fact. I love how symbolic his statistic becomes. Perhaps I will assign this project to myself and see what can grow from a simple bit of information. Now which fact should I start with?
Poem with One Fact
By Donald Hall
"At pet stores in Detroit, you can buy
frozen rats
for seventy-five cents apiece, to feed
your pet boa constrictor"
back home in Grosse Pointe,
or in Grosse Pointe Park,
while the free nation of rats
in Detroit emerges
from alleys behind pet shops, from cellars
and junked cars, and gathers
to flow at twilight
like a river the color of pavement,
and crawls over bedrooms and groceries
and through broken
school windows to eat the crayon
from drawings of rats—
and no one in Detroit understands
how rats are delicious in Dearborn.
If only we could communicate, if only
the boa constrictors of Southfield
would slither down I-94,
turn north on the Lodge Expressway,
and head for Eighth Street, to eat
out for a change. Instead, tomorrow,
a man from Birmingham enters
a pet shop in Detroit
to buy a frozen German shepherd
for six dollars and fifty cents
to feed his pet cheetah,
guarding the compound at home.
Oh, they arrive all day, in their
locked cars, buying
schoolyards, bridges, buses,
churches, and Ethnic Festivals;
they buy a frozen Texaco station
for eighty-four dollars and fifty cents
to feed to an imported London taxi
in Huntington Woods;
they buy Tiger Stadium,
frozen, to feed to the Little League
in Grosse Ile. They bring everything
home, frozen solid
as pig iron, to the six-car garages
of Harper Woods, Grosse Pointe Woods,
Farmington, Grosse Pointe
Farms, Troy, and Grosse Arbor—
and they ingest
everything, and fall asleep, and lie
coiled in the sun, while the city
thaws in the stomach and slides
to the small intestine, where enzymes
break down molecules of protein
to amino acids, which enter
the cold bloodstream.
Donald Hall, “Poem with One Fact” from Old and New Poems.
This poem is definitely one that makes me say "hmm." I take a step back and think through some of the connections the poet makes as his fact grows to represent something much larger and I simultaneously feel drawn to his idea and repelled. I really like that he starts with a single incident and gradually pulls out layers of meaning. He stretches us little by little into accepting his ever growing metaphor. I can sympathize with some of his ideas-- consumerism, a lack of concern for the most ecologically friendly solutions, an increasing dependency on the production or items. And yet I think Hall takes this a bit far. Or maybe he is just exaggerating his point--the world's consumerism has grown to extreme heights. God has entrusted us with his earth and we waste far more than necessary. How could we better care for the resources around us?
I think an interesting writing exercise could derive from this poem: follow Hall's example and let a poem grow from a single fact. I love how symbolic his statistic becomes. Perhaps I will assign this project to myself and see what can grow from a simple bit of information. Now which fact should I start with?
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Bali reads
Between long flights and several beach days, I read 2 1/2 books on my Bali/Singapore trip (not counting large portions of both the Lonely Planet Bali guidebook and the Lonely Planet Singapore guidebook). The first book I read, I devoured: A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. I had been looking forward to this text since it came out and have been eagerly eyeing it on my shelf for months. I read Hosseini's first book, The Kite Runner, several years ago and LOVED it. So I had high hopes for A Thousand Splendid Suns and was not disappointed. I got into the story fairly quickly and was interested to see how Hosseini would weave together some seemingly disconnected plot lines. As I continued reading and as links became clearer I couldn't put the book down. The story was moving and I found myself sympathizing on some level with most of the characters. It was fascinating to learn more about the recent history of Afghanistan. I realized while reading the book how little I really knew about what was going on in that country. It just goes to show what a limited perspective the media really gives on certain situations. It also made me feel a pang of guilt for my comfortable life, oblivious to monstrosities around the world. I have been so blessed to be raised in a peaceful community with freedoms, prosperity, and most importantly, a loving stable family.
The second book I tried to read was The Sea by John Banville. This book is the next book in our our teacher book club so I had extra motivation to get through it. I began reading it for the first time on the plane to Bali. I had a very difficult time getting into it. I put it away and tried again later. Second time, same deal-- a few pages of misery and I put it down. I went through this routine 7 times before I got past the first 10 pages. This time I got to page 100 before I decided that book club book or not, this book was not worth my valuable Bali time. I was on vacation. No need to be bored or frustrated reading a book in which I felt little connection to the protagonist or the plot line. Some people must have loved this book-- it won the Man Booker Prize. However, I stopped reading The Sea and it has regained its position on the bottom of my bookshelf.
The third book I read on vacation was For One More Day by Mitch Albom. I enjoyed both of Albom's other stories: Tuesdays with Morrie and The Five People You Meet in Heaven. I was a bit let down by his third book. For One More Day was a nice easy beach read. It was straightforward and flowed well. Characters were likeable (even when they were not acting in typically likeable ways). There was something compelling about the protagonist's collection of memories of his family. It reminds me of a documentary I tried to make on my family when I was in grad school. I found myself thinking about the symbolism of minute details-- the way my brother gave my prom date an overprotective-brother note, the way my mom sat waiting for us to get home every night propped on a recliner with a book in hand, the way my grandfather's eyes wrinkle when he tells a story he loves. I think everyone holds on to a repetoire of memories, some positive and some negative, that collectively paint a picture of relationships. In that sense, I really connected to the ideas behind this montage of memories. However I think the execution was cheesy, predictable, and overdone. The whole ghost-story feel seemed contrived. I struggled to tell how seriously Albom wanted us to take the narrator. Overall, I felt like the book was a 3 out of 5. Not so good, but not a complete waste of time. Albom has written much better pieces in my opinion.
The second book I tried to read was The Sea by John Banville. This book is the next book in our our teacher book club so I had extra motivation to get through it. I began reading it for the first time on the plane to Bali. I had a very difficult time getting into it. I put it away and tried again later. Second time, same deal-- a few pages of misery and I put it down. I went through this routine 7 times before I got past the first 10 pages. This time I got to page 100 before I decided that book club book or not, this book was not worth my valuable Bali time. I was on vacation. No need to be bored or frustrated reading a book in which I felt little connection to the protagonist or the plot line. Some people must have loved this book-- it won the Man Booker Prize. However, I stopped reading The Sea and it has regained its position on the bottom of my bookshelf.
The third book I read on vacation was For One More Day by Mitch Albom. I enjoyed both of Albom's other stories: Tuesdays with Morrie and The Five People You Meet in Heaven. I was a bit let down by his third book. For One More Day was a nice easy beach read. It was straightforward and flowed well. Characters were likeable (even when they were not acting in typically likeable ways). There was something compelling about the protagonist's collection of memories of his family. It reminds me of a documentary I tried to make on my family when I was in grad school. I found myself thinking about the symbolism of minute details-- the way my brother gave my prom date an overprotective-brother note, the way my mom sat waiting for us to get home every night propped on a recliner with a book in hand, the way my grandfather's eyes wrinkle when he tells a story he loves. I think everyone holds on to a repetoire of memories, some positive and some negative, that collectively paint a picture of relationships. In that sense, I really connected to the ideas behind this montage of memories. However I think the execution was cheesy, predictable, and overdone. The whole ghost-story feel seemed contrived. I struggled to tell how seriously Albom wanted us to take the narrator. Overall, I felt like the book was a 3 out of 5. Not so good, but not a complete waste of time. Albom has written much better pieces in my opinion.
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