I could not believe the extent of poverty in Southern Sudan. I had always heard about starving children and the like, but I never realized it until reading Southern Sudan: Six Dinka Deep. Horwitz talked how "they were eating grass and tree leaves to stay alive". What a horrible way to live. These people have absolutely nothing, and yet they still care for each other. "A middle aged man named Andreea Atyek had come north to search for his three children, snatched two years before in an Arab raid. He had wanted to come earlier, he said, but felt he had to provide first for his remaining family members" (205). After reading this, I felt ashamed to go down and eat my dinner of steak and potatoes. I had so much that I couldn't finish, and that made me feel even worse. These people would kill for some of the food that I had, and I was just throwing it away? It really made me appreciate the saying "finish your food there are starving children in Africa". I wish more people would appreciate what they have, and give more to relief efforts. Even giving a few dollars to be able to wear jeans many people don't do, even though the money goes to great charities. At The Governors Academy we should do more to help these starving nations.
Another thing that struck me was about the quality of life in Beirut. It is a war zone, bombs are going off right in front of people, entire city streets are being leveled, and people still live there. How can people live in a country where at any second they could be killed by a bomb? I was very surprised that people actually were returning to Beirut after they had left. As one man said it, "its home", but how can home be a place where you and your family might die at any second? *gr*
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I think we should keep in mind that different cultures evolve at different rates. Three great philosophes, Herder, Kant, and Diderot invented the idea of cultural relatism. They may eventually realize how they are living and do something themselves to change it or they may need help repairing their society. I do believe though we should not impose our own views of how things should work onto other cultures. ed
I see what you are saying gr, but they live in an entirely different part of the world than we do. We have to realize that they do things differently than we do. As ed said, we have to keep in mind how different cultures evolve. As Americans, we belive that our way the only right way. But if you were them, you would think that the their way of life was right, not the Americans ways. I guess that human nature makes us feel as if our culture is doing the right thing and those who are very different than us in their ways of life, need to change. Keep in mind, what would you say to someone who thinks that we should live as they do in that part of the world? LB
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