Unit 7

This week the unit was one of academic breadth and depth. We studied colonialism and the spread of ideas. Unlike some of my classmates I swing a little both ways on this issue. I understand and accept that societies should be respected as they are. There cultural norms and religious practices are a part of who they are and western mores should not be forced upon indigenous populations by their colonial overlords.

But, some of the information spread was of value and should be welcomed with open arms. Especially matters of technological advances and everything that comes with it. Technological advances spread because they accomplish their ends better than they way they were done before....think of farming, before the tractor and after the tractor. The tractor was a technological advancement that provided more food for less labor, allowing more people access to food and the farmer more time to spend pursuing his or her own interests beyond sustenance farming. Yes,,,the tractor and it's use will eventually change the farming culture which adopted it's use. Yes, as different cultures adapt to mechanized farming techniques they begin to loose something of their own tribal farming culture and adopt something, not everything, of the broader mechanized farming culture worldwide. We homogenize...and that's a good thing.

Technological advances are, for the most part, good things. Yes, they change the societies that adopt them and farming communities that use mechanized farming begin to resemble one another more than they resemble similar cultures which do not, and that's okay. We should not be afraid to adapt what's more effective, better, stronger, faster...even if it changes or society. Because, in the long run it's good for society (Mechanized Farming-more food, more leisure time, etc).

Trucks vs Yak cart-Trucks win, Computers vs Abacus-Computers win, and so on and so forth. The tragedy for Africa, South America and such is that most of the advances we have discussed are Western in origin and western society has already been transformed by these innovations. So when they begin to use these advances themselves they appear to be adopting western norms, when in reality they aer not adapting to "western norms...just following down the trans formative path as did the people of the west before them.

All this is a good thing and the sooner we are homogenized as a species the less likely the chance we will destroy one another.

Unit 6

Race....

Race is a complex issue in today's world. I grew up in California, an urbanized ethnic mixing pot. I lived in and around Sacramento until I was close to thirty. Sacramento was, and perhaps still is, one of the most ethnically diverse cities in the country. Sacramento, for all it's pluralism, had some problems of it's own. The very diversity which also gave the city so much of it's strength also gave rise to it's darker sentiments. The closeness of the "other" led to the old refrain "familiarity breeds contempt". The twin spectres of racism and separatism raised their heads. While admittedly, not as terribly as in other California communities.

I wonder as i write this how much of that division was based on class more so than race. Yes, there was a division of neighborhoods; this neighborhoods a white neighborhood or that neighborhoods a black one. But, the neighborhoods of the upper crust seemed to be more ethnically diverse than that of the poor. Rich and affluent Caucasians mixed with and live alongside equally rich and affluent Hispanic, African American, and Asian neighbors. It was only when you slid down the pole did you see residential division relevant to race.

Why is this? Could it be that the oppressor class seeks to keep the masses divided? Is it little more than the old idiom, divide and conquer? Could it really be that simple?

Unit 5

The readings this week were wonderfully rich and complex. I was called to recollect the struggles of a number of Bosnia (or is it Bosniak) families in Twin Falls. They wanted only the opportunity to put their lives back into some semblance of order. Uprooted as they were from the war torn lands of their origins they were relatively unceremoniously plopped down in a rural Idaho farm town, with only a small community college sponsored refugee center, they showed resilience, resolve, and a nearly grim determination.

Hundreds of family members, all or most of them European Muslims, endeavored to persevere in a strange land. Idaho, perhaps a strange choice for refugee resettlement. Idaho known for little, beyond it's potatoes and neo-nazi skinheads, to the broader world. Yet, Idaho had much to recommend itself to the Bosnians. High rocky mountains, rich fertile lowlands, simple people of simple faith holding fast to a simpler way of life. Yes, much of the ways of Idaho were not entirely dissimilar to the land and folkways they had left behind.

The folks of Twin Falls had felt sorrow over their struggles in Bosnia. Newscasts carried reports of rapes, killings, even genocide. They willingly supported the movement to provide a relocation center for those who had been forced to flee the violence. Willingly they approved the center, and willingly they supported the process. But, their was little they were willing or able to do personally. The "community" helped them but on an individual level the lines of separation stood fast. Their was little mixing between the two communities and over time an us and them mentality began to develop. It happened faster and more easily than one might ever have imagined. Everything necessary to destroy the initial potentialities, everything necessary to taint the hope. The newcomers looked different, spoke a different language, practiced a different, some had even been...god forbid, communists.

As the two communities grew together the level of distrust ever grew. Leaders from the "original inhabitants" and the "newcomers" went through the motions of harmony and integration but the groups they represented began to exhibit more and more signs of divisiveness. The telling moment, in my eyes, was the rejection they received and the hands of their neighbors when they sought to establish a worship community. No church was willing to provide them a space, no place would rent to them, no one seemed willing to help. They all had their reasons...excuses. I heard some of their motives uttered in hushed tones...they might be terrorists....well, their not Christian.....they have quite a few criminals....it's to dangerous.

It was sad, it was terrifying. Is that who we really are?

Unit 4

Hi,

This week was a week of music. It was pretty nifty to see how the threads of music were woven together into a whole. My favorite experience this week was my introduction to a band called Pharaoh's Daughter. They are a wonderful and eclectic mix of traditional vocals and world music...it's just great.

I can't get the lines we draw out of my mind. Here in eastern Idaho there are quite a few lines in the sand. Some we draw and some are drawn for us. I think of the LDS/Mormon experience...they draw lines around themselves...they are chosen, they are blessed, they got all the answers. Some lines are drawn around them...they are cultists, they are polygamists, they're dangerous. The lines we draw and the lines that are drawn for us...it's so sad. There is so little black and white in the world...it's really, and I mean really all gray. We may thing that we are in one place experiencing one life and then low and behold...a shift of light and we find ourselves somewhere else, in a different place. Perhaps even our place in relation the ever present lines will have changed maybe were on this side now or maybe the lines have moved...it's all so wrong.

Unit 3

Hi,

This week we discussed the diaspora in greater detail. Much of my interest was focused upon the segment pertaining to Hispania. It's the history of the place and the outcome of play and chance that fascinates me. Perhaps it's that I always had a thing for Roman history. Ever since I red my first copy of Gibbon I have been drawn to that time.

I wonder about the what if's and could have's So much of the world as we no it hangs on the decisions, sometimes seemingly trivial, made by characters of days long past. I can't help but think of an insecure Emperor upon the western throne. What if he had had more faith in the local garrisons of the Pyrenees and had not replace them with barbarian troops. Troops that allowed the Vandals to pass though the defences of Hispania with little or no challenge. Until that time the local garrisons had something to protect, a reason to fight...they were defending their own homes. Hispania had proven loyal to one of the military usurper emperors and for this they were no longer trusted. They were replaced by barbarian tribesman who were loyal only to the pay they received. They had nothing to protect but their own coffers. That decision long ago changed the face of Hispania and through it the face of the world.

I wonder what chance or fate brought me to where I am now. What antecedent's decisions laid the way for the life I lead. What thin thread we use to weave the fabric of our totality. Who are we really, and who am I.

Unit 2

Hi,

This week we discussed the ethnic divisions of the Jewish people. It was a fascinating journey though the halls of history. I was saddened by the examples I saw in the Jewish experience and realize that their experience is much as everyone Else's. We draw lines between ourselves, boundaries that keep us apart. I think if those boundaries were not readily apparent we would seek them out. If they are not found I think we might create them. What does that mean for us? What does that say about us....all of us?

Why do we always need someone or something to fear. Why do we always define ourselves by the "other". Why is it so hard to see we are all family and it is little more than chance and happenstance that we are where and when we are. Perhaps it's because the exploiter class wants it that way. If we took the time to realize how much we have in common we might come to realize that we're not enemies...in fact we are both victims.