girl rising?

This was a beautiful documentary. The way it was shot was enchanting, the way the girls spoke, with such passion for learning and school was heart breaking. But something nagged at me. I felt a little sickness creep into my stomach that didn't let off.. It is so difficult to raise a voice that you know will be met with argument and shock, but I can't help it.

I think of the documentary "Schooling the World" introduced to me by my advisor Dr. Yellow Bird and I become so sad.

What is the answer to the issue of poverty and suffering? If western colonist agendas like spreading western education throughout the world and thus creating a new generation that doesn't speak or read in their native language are not the answer, how do we raise our voices to add to the ideas behind these documentaries? It feels strange to have learned about this issue of education through education which makes my head spin. Without my western education, I wouldn't know about the awful and horrible consequences of blindly forcing children into boarding schools and educating them out of their cultural heritage. It feels sickening to raise a voice AGAINST a documentary and idea that seem so beautiful, so innocent and good hearted. But then I think if they are so good hearted, they should welcome debate and new/conflicting ideas into the dialogue. 

It seems we are creating a world where the only way we see of getting ahead is through this western machine called education. This is not a new concept because western culture did this to Native Americans and indigenous people throughout the colonized world. They would look at the indigenous culture and say "oh if we don't educate this little girl, she will get married young and remain a SAVAGE". Saying western education is the answer is making a huge value choice. I am not saying it is the wrong one, certain cultural norms are disturbing like Female Genital Mutiliation, FGM, etc but still we are always making a value choice based on our beliefs and imposing them upon others. Some things I feel strongly about like genocide and I believe the international community needs to step in and prevent genocide, FGM, violence against any person. But when it comes to education, it is harder to decipher what is colonization and basically devaluing another culture in hopes they will "develop" into a more westernized, "modern" state or if education is the tool for women's global empowerment. It is so confusing. So many times the good things done around the world have ulterior motives. Take the movie Rabbit Proof Fence for example. Sure they were trying to prevent a child marriage but there was so much more going on as an ulterior motive.



When I look at my own choices and privilege in life, I notice that I too felt and feel like without my education I wouldn't have had a viable future. But then am I propagating a system that forces people like myself to feel this way? Am I part of the never ending problem? It is impossible for me to know because I am myself and I can't separate out my own feelings from the larger picture. While it may be true that education is the key to monetary success and some disease prevention, are we not creating this reality ourselves through making it so education is a requirement of it? Didn't colonialism CREATE poverty and injustice around the world by conquering people and forcing them to culturally assimilate? What were these places like before they were colonized? When I look at myself, I can't help but feel like my view is so skewed by my own colonization and mental limitations.

I would love to think there is just one answer for world peace like veganism, if everyone followed some religion or if all people were "educated", etc. I don't want anyone to starve, I want everyone to be free and happy and honestly I would sacrifice a lot personally for this to happen but how? When I think about what I could do, I find that I don't think that modeling the world after the US, who does educate each child, is the answer to everything. The US creates wars and kills millions, people live in poverty here.. especially if you are Native American or a person of color.

I am starting to realize that the ways in which I try to "educate" myself like watching documentaries are not necessary windows into the reality of any given situation. I will always be ignorant of the real situation of any one's life until I go and walk a mile in their moccasins or just listen to what they truly have to say. Are we all not burdened by our own fears and biases? I remain wary of education and what education even means. Just because statistics show that with more education, a person waits longer to have children, has less of a chance to contract HIV does not necessarily mean education is the CAUSE nor does it mean westernized education is the only way to get that result.

Everything is an opinion, even what I am writing. I am sure 100 million people would gladly argue with me and tell me I am ignorant. Of course I am! We are limited to only know what one person could know, we only ever experience our own perceptions... we are horribly limited and biased. It is all just a ride, a game, an illusion. On this ride, for whatever reason, I chose to be a social activist and MSW student. I am starting to realize more and more that we cannot dismantle the master's house with the master's tools. Education is beautiful, so is fetching water. The real thing that matters is if the person is happy, if they are free to make choices in their life. Any way we can facilitate that is great, but suffering  over the suffering will not solve any one's problems.

I mean obviously through domination of the media and being the colonizing world power, western culture looks appealing and looks like you would need to join in or you'll get left behind.. Maybe at this point in history it is true, if you don't learn English in Bangalore, you won't be able to find a decent job and you will go hungry. So do we then focus on getting everyone on board? What about fighting against the idea of needing to get "on board" in the first place? Why not fight against the idea of money, the idea of capitalism and how it creates poverty, the idea of war over distribution of resources? If those ideas changed, maybe the definition of education could be more free.

I am not against education per se or little girls around the world being educated. I am just hoping for dialogue about creating a broader definition of what education truly means. I hope to fight against the system itself that makes people starve if they aren't educated but that doesn't mean I don't believe in people being empowered through learning how to read and learning about history -- as long as they hear about more than just the west's version of history. I have the same worry as Howard Zinn when he spoke about his fears of the American youth:

“I'm worried that students will take their obedient place in society and look to become successful cogs in the wheel - let the wheel spin them around as it wants without taking a look at what they're doing. I'm concerned that students not become passive acceptors of the official doctrine that's handed down to them from the White House, the media, textbooks, teachers and preachers.”
― Howard Zinn

After having seen many documentaries and read many books about the boarding school experience for Native Americans and the indigenous people of Australia, I am wary about "educating the world" and "no child left behind". We have suppressed so many indigenous voices that the education people receive is horribly limited. Learning how to read, write and calculate is necessary to "compete in the global market" but honestly many cultures survived without a written language and I don't feel like they were of less value then our "modern" society. 

Over all I am not supporting any one side, just trying find the best way to support and love my fellow sisters and brothers through out the world.

Sacred Economics, Sacred Life

The economy and our lives are inextricably linked. What we eat, who we see everyday working in the shops, where we live, what we see all around us is influenced by this visible and invisible force called the economy. To have a civilization, we must have trade or some way of receiving goods we did not produce. The systems invented to "facilitate" this type of exchange have sprouted up in different civilizations, with different faces and philosophies. We all know about socialism, communism, capitalism... But I hear responses like "oh socialism doesn't work, communism obviously failed and creates a controlling, all powerful government that does not respect the rights of their people". I hear arguments we must just accept capitalism because "it is the best we have, it was worked ok so far."

I know there are billions of people on earth, breathing right now just like I am but I can't ignore the fact that this system obviously does not work. I mean it works for the 1% but not for the 99% and especially not for the poorest among us. We cannot passively sit by and not touch the economy and try to fix it simply because it is too vast, complication and people are paranoid about socialism and dictatorships taking over the world. If we purely act from a place of love and caring towards other people, where will this dictatorship arise from? The soil from which these economies have historically grown from have been sad, angry, fearful soils full of bias, sexism and racism. What if the soil was love? Can hateful systems of oppression really sprout from that soil?

Human loving economics needs to be our goal and we need to work together towards it. It doesn't require much, we just need to switch to love and change the frequency of  our minds, organizations and governments to operate on the frequency of compassion, generosity, fairness, beauty, love and peace.

Even if this is idealistic, isn't everything human-made an idea before it is made a part of our collective outside reality? Can you truly distinguish what will happen in the future? Or are we just scared that if we admit that this is a true need to change and that others suffer needlessnessly, we will feel inadequate, guilty and ashamed. Why else do people satiate themselves with material goods, so afraid to look into themselves and see what they have been avoiding.

Hunger for the Right Sneaker

"To introduce consumerism to a previously isolated culture, it is first necessary to destroy its sense of identity. Here's how: Disrupt its networks of reciprocity by introducing consumer items from the outside. Erode its self-esteem with glamorous images of the West. Demean its mythologies through missionary work and scientific education. Dismantle its traditional ways of transmitting local knowledge by introducing schooling with outside curricula. Destroy its language by providing that schooling in English or another national or world language. Truncate its ties to the land by importing cheap food to make local agriculture uneconomic. Then you will have created a people hungry for the right sneaker."

Charles Eisenstein

Sounds like colonialism to me... and it draws on the same ideas that were brought up in the documentary  Schooling the World.

Wearing a Pink Sari in Our Hearts

Gulabi Gang

There is a group of amazing rural women in India who wear pink Saris and are called the Gulabi (pink) Gang -- they go around and protect women, standing up for women's rights with bamboo sticks. They are an inspiration to us all and I hope they are a glimpse into our future. We should stand up by our sisters and speak out against violence against women and sexism! What a beautiful, beautiful gang ~ you all have my sincerest support.

Viva Gulabi Gang!!

See their website here: http://www.gulabigang.in/

2013 Youth Human Rights Delegation to Rwanda

Dear Reader:

 Although I have traveled many places in the world, this is the first time I am campaigning to raise funds for my work abroad. I was accepted into being part of a 14 person delegation from the US to Rwanda to engage in human rights conversations with 14 Rwandan participants. I have been blessed to have been able to see as many countries as I have and the amount of poverty and suffering in our present world is insane, unbearable and unacceptable. I have made it my life's work to learn how we can reduce global suffering and of course, this requires a lot more education and learning on my part. That is why I have spent so much time researching the best method of promoting international peace and have found this amazing program. 

 Please check out the work of Global Youth Connect at Globalyouthconnect.org. 

Below is a copy/paste from my Indiegogo fundraiser.

I will be using this blog to keep in touch during my time in Rwanda for 3 weeks in August 2013. 

Blessings and love to you!

~ Danielle 

Ordinary People Can Change the World (but not without your generous help!)

I am not here to convince you that I am more than an ordinary person, because I am not. But I have an extraordinary drive to do something amazing with my life to help other people and I want you to be a part of it. I am a Social Work (with an emphasis in Native American and Rural populations) graduate student at Humboldt State University and I hope to spend my life working in International Social Work with global poverty, human rights and promoting peace. So far I have spent my life trying to face the suffering of the world and do something about it. I was born an extremely sensitive person, the suffering of the world seemed too large to face and I grew up feeling that I was brought to the earth to lessen the suffering of others. As I grew up I learned that while I can't "save" everyone, I can at least help some people and the more I educate myself and collaborate with others, the more helpful I can become. I saved up when I was 16 and volunteered abroad in an orphanage in Guatemala and later on I extended my stay in India after my semester abroad as a Benjamin A. Gilman Scholar and volunteered for a very short period in a HIV orphanage just outside of Bangalore, India. I fell in love with the children there and I wanted to spend the rest of my life there in the HIV orphanage (see their website at Snehacarehome.org) but I knew I had to continue my education in the US to learn how to effectively work in international human rights and advocacy. These experiences have prompted me to ask for your help to further my positive impact abroad and to help me fly half way across the world, to a small country in Africa to work with people my age there to see if we can shed some light on how to prevent the most awful atrocities that can happen to human beings by other human beings, genocide. As a person from Jewish heritage, I understand how I could have easily been a victim of genocide had I been born just 50 before I was. I want to use my education and abilities to learn how humans are capable of such atrocities and to learn alongside my Rwandan peers how we can prevent it as a global community. I have watched almost every single documentary about human rights, the environment, the world governments, and NGOs trying to figure out how I could make the most impact in this life I have been given. The conclusion I have encountered is to connect with people around the world and look for a solution together.

Funding me will be funding the revolutionary idea that youth in the US and youth in Rwanda can work together in one room, in a constant dialogue, moving towards preventing genocide and abuses of human rights worldwide. 100% of funds donated will go towards Global Youth Connect ($2300 for the program, $1900-$2000 for plane ticket SFO - Kigali), FEDERAL EIN # 52-1655875. Global Youth Connect is an amazing NGO that works with connecting youth from the US with youth in post-conflict/post-genocide countries like Rwanda, Cambodia, Sarajevo, and more. This is the type of work that will bring world peace and world unity that is desperately needed for progress in the current generations of youth. Please see their website at Globalyouthconnect.org and see the information on the Rwanda youth delegation for 2013 which is highlighted on the website. All donations to Global Youth Connect are tax deductible.

**If you would like to donate your frequent flier miles (which would be AMAZING!!), please contact me at Danielleaubin@care2.com**
Any and all help is so appreciated, you are truly making my dreams of working in International Peace Promotion a reality!

What Is Needed And Why:

Through this Human Rights Delegation with Global Youth Connect, I will be able to work side by side with 14 youth (ages 18-35) who grew up in Rwanda and are interested in human rights activism in their home country. The cost of the program is $2300 for 3 weeks (this cost includes the cost of one Rwandan participant's participation fees) and the plane ticket from SFO to Kigali, Rwanda is $1900. I hope to raise $4000 which would cover the majority of these costs and any extra funds will be donated to the NGO in Rwanda AJPRODHO which is an organization that supports the rights of young people in Rwanda through Child Protection projects & Gender Based Violence prevention campaigns (forming community committees on GBV and Child Protection, creating films about the two issues, youth networking with other youth organizations), legal aid, as well as research and policy papers (most recently on the rights of incarcerated youth).

Program Tuition Breakdown (from Globalyouthconnect.org)


45% Staff support and project management in U.S. and Rwanda, including U.S.-based and Rwandan staff

35% Hotel and project travel expenses

10% Direct costs of training and service projects (excluding travel and hotel).  The participation costs of the Rwandan participants are included in the program fee.

10% GYC administrative costs

So what will you receive??
If you donate $25 you will receive a post card from Rwanda with exciting information regarding our Human Rights dialogue plus a quote that offers wisdom and insight into Rwanda and their history. For $50 you will get the postcard plus a handwritten letter speaking about a specific issue in Rwanda and what NGOs are doing about it. For $100 donation you will receive a postcard, a handwritten letter and a flower with a prayer for the victims placed at a mass grave at Kigali Genocide memorial. More than $250 donations will receive a post card, hand written letter, flower placed at a mass grave, a prayer given in your name at the Kigali memorial for the victims and a photo of the beauty of Rwanda posted on my Blog with in your honor.

All donors will be welcome to keep up with my blog during my time in Rwanda. All donors will be thanked by name in my blog.

 

Why Should I Go?

Many times it is easier to think that because the pressing issues in the world are so well know, there are many people out there fixing them. Unfortunately after spending every cent I have ever earned traveling the world (and by earning a Gilman Scholarship which is for very low-come students), I have seen that the problems in the world are so large and mismanaged that there is a lot of room for activism, volunteerism and international collaboration. So many people live in squalor and degradation, many people in the global south don’t have clean drinking water or a secure income. My purpose and life’s goal is to educate myself enough to be able to enact change in the global scale to alleviate poverty and ensure that all people enjoy the human rights as outlined by the Declaration of Human Rights.


Participating in this Human Rights Delegation to Rwanda will give me the ability to volunteer with Rwandan NGOs, listen to politicians in the area and working with my Rwandan peers in understanding how to prevent human rights abuses now and forever more. I will be able to use my skills as a Suicide Prevention Hotline Operator, a California State Certified Sexual Assault Counselor and more to work with people and hear their stories so the healing process of previous human rights abuses. My unique perspective from my background and experience will allow me to offer something different to the international dialogue on human rights. Global Youth Connect is a by youth for youth organization, the youth are the future and the connection between African youth and American youth will encourage long term peace between the nations and collaboration on the difficult global human issues that arise. This delegation will allow me to carry the voices of so many of my peers in the US who want to speak out in the international community against human rights abuses and work with others towards global human rights but who will not have the opportunity to go abroad and do it.
As I have matured as a human being and been able to really give some thought to what it means to come from a privileged country, I realized that I need to do a whole lot more listening to the wisdom of my peers in the developing world before I can truly help the global community tackle issues like global poverty and war. I need to learn how to work with people who are experts about their own countries to truly be able to enact real sustainable change and growth through my work abroad. There is a lot to learn from conversing with my sisters and brothers in countries like Rwanda that have seen such great suffering and through our work together real movement towards equal human rights for all can occur.

Other Ways You Can Help

I fully understand not everyone is fortunate enough to have extra money they can give to causes they are passionate about. Just educating yourself on the issues of genocide, human rights and the global disparities between the global south and north is enacting a huge shift in consciousness. What we think becomes what we do and what we do becomes who we are. Changing our thinking and educating us on these issues is as good as giving money to the cause itself.

And if anyone ever thinks one person cannot make a difference, please read this story and thank you so much for all your support:


A young girl was walking along a beach upon which thousands of starfish had been washed up during a terrible storm. When she came to each starfish, she would pick it up, and throw it back into the ocean. People watched her with amusement.

She had been doing this for some time when a man approached her and said, “Little girl, why are you doing this? Look at this beach! You can’t save all these starfish. You can’t begin to make a difference!”

The girl seemed crushed, suddenly deflated. But after a few moments, she bent down, picked up another starfish, and hurled it as far as she could into the ocean. Then she looked up at the man and replied,

“Well, I made a difference to that one!”

-  from the Star Thrower by Loren C. Eiseley