From the final presentation, a number of students chose homosexuality as their report topic.
Some are passionate, with tears;
some are logic, with Bible quotes;
some are "none of my bussiness", with some post-modern attitude.
I didn't say anything radical or prorevolutionary, though I really wanted to.
--- it's nothing about change, but love and healng.
Remember the time when someone told me I was a lesbian, for I checked out more girls than he did at the club and never danced with guys.
Remember the time in Shanghai hanging out with my best friend Snew and imagined about our own "orientation".
Remember the time I had the chance to sneak on that community and participate in the "academic" research with friend, and figured out it's not cool to be a gay, it's all about brokeness.
I wish I wasn't ignorant, so I could speak the truth and healing.
Broken hearts, in different ways,
Different inperfection, in the same tone.
As an outsider, it's easy to demonize the otherness,
As an insider, it's easy to be blind or panic.
All are broken,
All need Grace and Love.
Help them....
Apr 30, 2008
Apr 27, 2008
where is the problem? I am the problem.
"where is the problem? I am the problem." It's from the autor of Blue like Jazz and now I can totally understand why he gave up the social justice work.
Our passion to serve the justice starts from a documentary named Not for Sale. We are heart-struck while noticing the slaved population and injustice around the world. All what the other people have done really encouraged us to put into some action for the justice. It begins with passion and we believe it will end with fruit. But social justice is such a huge topic. I have no idea how to begin: it's like there is a problem right there, disordered, dark, but no way to clear it out.
So, I couldn’t stop asking myself some basic questions: Where is the problem?
1. I started looking for the problems among communities and people groups and I figured out that every society has problems of injustice and they exist from the beginning of the civilization. Not only societies, but also single person, we all can be the source of the problem and I am the hugest problem because I know myself the best! And China is the hugest problems since I know China the best, and Christians are the hugest problem since I know Christians the best.
...take my home for example: the minorities H.R., welfare for the people from rural China, floating population, Hukou policy, family violence, people with disabilities, … it's too heavy to think about and I felt from my own point of view, the place I called hometown was such a messy in social justice, how can I serve the social justice internationally? Then I reached the point that if I am not free from anxiety, how can I be able to bring some justice hope for the weak and mistreated people?
It's hard. And it's heavy. Can I be that strong, be free from things so that I can state myself as free being?
Easy to say than practice...=)
2. So I decide to think lighter and do something fast & good: website & poster. It's the easiest way to contribute directly to the awareness of the social justice and it's the most efficient way for my personal preference. I can tell people: look, there is a problem we ignore and there is a hope to ensure; I can care about this and you can do the same. I believe that awareness is the beginning of the change. Still, really admire and appreciate those who are serving in the frontier of injustice.
3. Justice and charity.
Before, I thought charity can change the world and I still believed so. But justice seems in a higher position. Even they are similar -- both are for good changes, but they are very different. As Jordan Seng quote from his friend that social justice is system wide fixing while charity is single personal supporting. Justice is carrying power.
It's easy for women to put effort on charity because women are emotional and personal (which is the beauty of the soul). But Mother Teresa of Calcutta's journal told us that charity is challenging.
There is a good example to show that charity is individual: a lady travelled to Africa and found out a kid was sold for slavery by the parents. So she bought the kid back and returned him to his parents and she started an organization to buy back the children from the traffickers, return them home and educate the parents. I would have done the same thing as the lady did if I was in that situation, but would also feel awful since what I had done also engaged into that slavery trading chain.
so, charity is individul while Social justice worker may bring the system wider solutions … but sometimes: it will turn to be : ----
4. Communism! It jumps into my mind and I don’t like that system really. I was told it's good and I knew it's good because it's a system promising abundent life for everyone, but after I read some stuffs from ourside world, it sounded like violently forcing people to be justice even if they don’t want to.
Yes, communism is aiming for building the heaven on earth and the theory is beautifully inspired by the Eden, but the result turns to be painful and violent. To be honest, only two of my friends are faithful communists, my parents may doubt the communism & never told me about communism, but they are content with what they have from confucius philosophy, and my grandpa lead all his life like a saint.
So mentally, if people believed in communism, it's a kinda heaven on earth.
But the fight between Tibet and Communist in history looked actually like a war between religeous group!
So, social justice is powerful and misuse of this power may cause disarster.
-------------------------------------------------
Didn’t know it’s that hard…
I should wear a shirt with “where is the problem?” in front and "I am the problem" in the back...=)
Apr 18, 2008
Apr 17, 2008
ED. Journal - Book Rethinking Classroom: video
The article is not very inspired, simplely because the the videos list there are not really attrative if I am a high school student.
I appreciate the video in class about homosexuality in classroom: The producer cut all different injustice moments at film, advertisement, or pubilc speech to show that we are not born with the homophobia but taught so by the media. And we need to rectify the mistake we already made. Video is powerful AND that's why I choose this article to read. And those videos with injustice message are way more interesting than the movies with the justice title, if the target audience is youth. I feel we need to educate the public speaker, the movie stars and the producers about social justice instead of students in the classroom...
En... I got the list of movies I have to watch now. =P
I like the strategies by Bill Bigelow and Linda Christensen.
More importantly...I found the organization Teaching for Change( the organization to transform schools into centers of justice where students learn to read, write and change the world...).
It's so amazing to find out that other people are doing the same thing...
great hope...=)
I appreciate the video in class about homosexuality in classroom: The producer cut all different injustice moments at film, advertisement, or pubilc speech to show that we are not born with the homophobia but taught so by the media. And we need to rectify the mistake we already made. Video is powerful AND that's why I choose this article to read. And those videos with injustice message are way more interesting than the movies with the justice title, if the target audience is youth. I feel we need to educate the public speaker, the movie stars and the producers about social justice instead of students in the classroom...
En... I got the list of movies I have to watch now. =P
I like the strategies by Bill Bigelow and Linda Christensen.
More importantly...I found the organization Teaching for Change( the organization to transform schools into centers of justice where students learn to read, write and change the world...).
It's so amazing to find out that other people are doing the same thing...
great hope...=)
Apr 16, 2008
FW: Spoken Word:Paradise Interrupted
The poem below is written by Kacie.
Met her today afternoon and read this story as well. I knew she would write something and it's just way faster than I expected.
The story is about the woman named Almira who survived the 1954 nucler tests in the Marshall Islands. She was 10 years old at the time and has been living on Oahu ever since. She and her children (the few that survived birth) still suffer from the effects of radiation.
"God likes to comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable. "
Our voices have been silenced by their pens
our people have been hushed by their history,
so I'll whisper the radioactive story
of how I came to be a scientific experiment
in the laboratory of the South Pacific
and I pray the truth will spread
faster than the cancer in my body.
An old Marshallese from Rongelap,
I was born in the nucleus
of an atomic age -
a medical marvel
plucked from that island inferno
deep in the exploding sea.
Without evacuating us first,
the military detonated Bravo,
history's most lethal hydrogen bomb,
one thousand times more powerful
than the deadly sack they opened
over the homes in Hiroshima.
The contaminated mist blew downwind
and infiltrated every breath
as the archipelago sunk
under a heavy plume, bright and hot,
the earth had hurled itself
into the core of the sun.
A white blanket of hot air descended,
shadowed by thick gray particles,
and I fell back with the others,
coughing and gasping,
needles over my whole body.
The navigators of the steel naval ship
came for us, not caring
that their massive chemical cloud
blurred God's starry map.
They picked us from our land -
spoiled fruit from a poisoned tree -
our skin dry as coconut husk,
our milk and meat saturated
with radioactive chemicals.
The nurses in the clinic
poked at the bubbles on my skin,
scrubbed its raw, glistening craters,
and washed the matted ash from my hair.
Over the years they examined me
as I lay on sterile beds -
an aging stain on white sheets.
They monitored the mound
that grew tall on my thyroid
and they delivered my son,
born silent and still as my homeland.
He looked like a bunch of grapes,
a pile of jellied limbs.
My tears and their money
never filled the tragic void
that only God could,
for he has promised me
an uninterrupted paradise.
** Even though this is history and not news, please pray for Almira and all the other survivors and children and grandchildren who continue to suffer. (Some children are born with scarcely any bones in their arms and legs, leaving only stocking-like limbs of flesh. Locals call them "jelly babies." ) Only God can take them to a paradise that is of eternal peace.
Met her today afternoon and read this story as well. I knew she would write something and it's just way faster than I expected.
The story is about the woman named Almira who survived the 1954 nucler tests in the Marshall Islands. She was 10 years old at the time and has been living on Oahu ever since. She and her children (the few that survived birth) still suffer from the effects of radiation.
"God likes to comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable. "
Shane Claiborne
Our voices have been silenced by their pens
our people have been hushed by their history,
so I'll whisper the radioactive story
of how I came to be a scientific experiment
in the laboratory of the South Pacific
and I pray the truth will spread
faster than the cancer in my body.
An old Marshallese from Rongelap,
I was born in the nucleus
of an atomic age -
a medical marvel
plucked from that island inferno
deep in the exploding sea.
Without evacuating us first,
the military detonated Bravo,
history's most lethal hydrogen bomb,
one thousand times more powerful
than the deadly sack they opened
over the homes in Hiroshima.
The contaminated mist blew downwind
and infiltrated every breath
as the archipelago sunk
under a heavy plume, bright and hot,
the earth had hurled itself
into the core of the sun.
A white blanket of hot air descended,
shadowed by thick gray particles,
and I fell back with the others,
coughing and gasping,
needles over my whole body.
The navigators of the steel naval ship
came for us, not caring
that their massive chemical cloud
blurred God's starry map.
They picked us from our land -
spoiled fruit from a poisoned tree -
our skin dry as coconut husk,
our milk and meat saturated
with radioactive chemicals.
The nurses in the clinic
poked at the bubbles on my skin,
scrubbed its raw, glistening craters,
and washed the matted ash from my hair.
Over the years they examined me
as I lay on sterile beds -
an aging stain on white sheets.
They monitored the mound
that grew tall on my thyroid
and they delivered my son,
born silent and still as my homeland.
He looked like a bunch of grapes,
a pile of jellied limbs.
My tears and their money
never filled the tragic void
that only God could,
for he has promised me
an uninterrupted paradise.
** Even though this is history and not news, please pray for Almira and all the other survivors and children and grandchildren who continue to suffer. (Some children are born with scarcely any bones in their arms and legs, leaving only stocking-like limbs of flesh. Locals call them "jelly babies." ) Only God can take them to a paradise that is of eternal peace.
Apr 15, 2008
ED. Journal - group working
There is a saying that "one Chinese is a dragon, two Chinese are moth. " to show how bad Chinese people are at group working.
It's true. Group working is an art and is hard.
In Chinese culture, most of time, a successful group working turns to be a great leadership model. Here is the graphic about group work created by a Chinese German Liu Yang about how different the culture is.
Blue is leadership in Germany and Red represents China.
well...so the problem comes up when we were working as a group:
It's a communication issue...not in the intellectual level, but a mental level: I will ignore the communication if the work can be done by myself without communicating. --- It's bad and I keep reminding myself about that: communicate! people won't know what you are thinking if you don't tell them.
I will suggest the Chinese student union to put the "group working" in the "new student orientation" with a title "Don't be moth if you can be a dragon".
So, from the PAMO project, I learned a lot from group working. It's all about communication and organization and our role and attitude will vary according to the time, place and people in the groups.
It's fun to work in group actually...
"The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning."
- Tuesdays With Morrie
It's true. Group working is an art and is hard.
In Chinese culture, most of time, a successful group working turns to be a great leadership model. Here is the graphic about group work created by a Chinese German Liu Yang about how different the culture is.
Blue is leadership in Germany and Red represents China.
well...so the problem comes up when we were working as a group:
It's a communication issue...not in the intellectual level, but a mental level: I will ignore the communication if the work can be done by myself without communicating. --- It's bad and I keep reminding myself about that: communicate! people won't know what you are thinking if you don't tell them.
I will suggest the Chinese student union to put the "group working" in the "new student orientation" with a title "Don't be moth if you can be a dragon".
So, from the PAMO project, I learned a lot from group working. It's all about communication and organization and our role and attitude will vary according to the time, place and people in the groups.
It's fun to work in group actually...
"The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning."
- Tuesdays With Morrie
Apr 4, 2008
Apr 1, 2008
ED. Journal - Otherness
Otherness is a fundamental category of human thought.
The class was disposed by Buddha, sculpture, paintings and decorations.
We were asked to choose an object or rather let an object choose me.
Then we were asked to do an exercise in empathy and answer the questions list below:
What is it about this object that drew you to it? List seven adjectives that describe this object. If you were able to enter into a conversation with this object, what three questions would you ask? Now, imagine that you are the object and you are looking at yourself through its eyes. What three questions would you ask yourself? Reflect on this experience. How is it related to multiculturalism? How could you adapt this experience to an elementary or secondary classroom?
I chose the Buddha bronze, since it caught my attention at the beginning. It’s only the head part of a Buddha, sounds scary, but not at all when you really see it.
Ok, that’s all what I got from this Buddha: old, broken, peaceful, calm and scary.
I was thinking about other religions and the conflicts among religions. The other day I got a concept of “Community of Gods” and the proof is in the Genesis 1 in the Bible: “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." So, if Gods is a plural + if you trust the Bible, God should be a community. I knew little about Buddhism and I was told that all other religions are evil. In this otherness case, I am facing some so called evil statue and try to communicate with him. (I felt I could start a cult or something crazy...)
Totally awkward.
Anyways, what we were doing was to understand otherness, so for some reason I started commiserating this Buddha statue. So generally, I asked what his name is and where he is from, w hat he is doing in this world. Of course, there wouldn’t be any answers from the statue.
But how good is Christians? Jesus is absolutely perfect, the Bible is awesome, but the Christians are notorious. Probably that’s why we call all other religions are evil: because the follower can’t follow the God’s good will 100%. Or because the followers of Christ have some selfish purpose to achieve while defacing other belief system.
My 3 questions are:
Who are you? Why you are here? Where are you going to?
The buddah bronze of course is not going to answer me, but when I was really asking this buddah bronze, I successfully avoided judging the buddah as I could have done as usual for the other religion.
So instead of saying: oh, that's a buddah, the God of nothingless and compassion and they believe they are from nowhere and going to nowhere, I keep the questions open to him and leave it as a question without pre-judgement...
GREAT!!!
Then, the other exercise bothered me the whole day : “exercise in empathy”.
I will look at myself through the buddah's eyes and ask myself the questions.
So: '
"How mature do you think you are?"
"Wanna be my friend?"
It's way too weird...
I just learned that maturity means the willingness of changing the mental map and chaning the way of old thinking. Sometimes, it's accepting otherness and sometimes it's sacrifice.
En...how mature I am?
... It's hard but I wanna be more mature. ...
En...be his friend?
That's strange...to keep normal...I decide to give up thinking this.
-----------------------------------
For classroom, it's role play:
like role play for African American, role play for Hawaiian, role play for poeple from mushall islands, role play as a minority, role play for all kinds...
=)
It's an easy way to understand the otherness...
The class was disposed by Buddha, sculpture, paintings and decorations.
We were asked to choose an object or rather let an object choose me.
Then we were asked to do an exercise in empathy and answer the questions list below:
What is it about this object that drew you to it? List seven adjectives that describe this object. If you were able to enter into a conversation with this object, what three questions would you ask? Now, imagine that you are the object and you are looking at yourself through its eyes. What three questions would you ask yourself? Reflect on this experience. How is it related to multiculturalism? How could you adapt this experience to an elementary or secondary classroom?
I chose the Buddha bronze, since it caught my attention at the beginning. It’s only the head part of a Buddha, sounds scary, but not at all when you really see it.
Ok, that’s all what I got from this Buddha: old, broken, peaceful, calm and scary.
I was thinking about other religions and the conflicts among religions. The other day I got a concept of “Community of Gods” and the proof is in the Genesis 1 in the Bible: “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." So, if Gods is a plural + if you trust the Bible, God should be a community. I knew little about Buddhism and I was told that all other religions are evil. In this otherness case, I am facing some so called evil statue and try to communicate with him. (I felt I could start a cult or something crazy...)
Totally awkward.
Anyways, what we were doing was to understand otherness, so for some reason I started commiserating this Buddha statue. So generally, I asked what his name is and where he is from, w hat he is doing in this world. Of course, there wouldn’t be any answers from the statue.
But how good is Christians? Jesus is absolutely perfect, the Bible is awesome, but the Christians are notorious. Probably that’s why we call all other religions are evil: because the follower can’t follow the God’s good will 100%. Or because the followers of Christ have some selfish purpose to achieve while defacing other belief system.
My 3 questions are:
Who are you? Why you are here? Where are you going to?
The buddah bronze of course is not going to answer me, but when I was really asking this buddah bronze, I successfully avoided judging the buddah as I could have done as usual for the other religion.
So instead of saying: oh, that's a buddah, the God of nothingless and compassion and they believe they are from nowhere and going to nowhere, I keep the questions open to him and leave it as a question without pre-judgement...
GREAT!!!
Then, the other exercise bothered me the whole day : “exercise in empathy”.
I will look at myself through the buddah's eyes and ask myself the questions.
So: '
"How mature do you think you are?"
"Wanna be my friend?"
It's way too weird...
I just learned that maturity means the willingness of changing the mental map and chaning the way of old thinking. Sometimes, it's accepting otherness and sometimes it's sacrifice.
En...how mature I am?
... It's hard but I wanna be more mature. ...
En...be his friend?
That's strange...to keep normal...I decide to give up thinking this.
-----------------------------------
For classroom, it's role play:
like role play for African American, role play for Hawaiian, role play for poeple from mushall islands, role play as a minority, role play for all kinds...
=)
It's an easy way to understand the otherness...
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