Why Blog?

"To create one's own world, in any of the arts, takes courage." Georgia O'Keeffe .

I blog to challenge myself: to put my ideas and actions out in the public and see how they hold up (or not). I blog to challenge others to take up a book, a cause or an idea they might not have considered yet. I blog to know myself better and to know others too.

I blog to give and to receive - to discover new friends and to update old friends, to begin conversations with people I've met (and many I've met only 'online') and with people I have yet to meet. I blog to share my life in ways which could not otherwise happen since my handicaps keep me at home in solitude most of the time. I blog for joy, and sometimes for sadness.

My blog is my sidewalk and these pixels are my chalk, setting my messages in front of passers-by, strangers and family, people from my neighborhood - a place as big as the whole world. I blog for the hope that people are essentially good and kind and that to participate in this rising world consciousness called the Internet is to be part of something wonderful.

"The American People have to know"

"The American people have to know." This was how Daoud Hari, author of The Translator, a Tribesman's Memoir of Darfur, began his talk at Powell's Books in Portland, Oregon last night. Following is my report, based on my notes of his speech. He has been in the U.S. for one year, as a refugee. His talk was marked with frequent references to the deaths of people who also did the work he did, but who were killed. He clearly feels that his narrow escapes from death, and his opportunity to come to America, are for a purpose - so that he can tell people what is happening in Darfur.

The violence in Darfur has a long history, and Daoud spoke only on the most recent years. He said in 2005 there was peace, and when the government started bombing the villages in 2006, President Bush intervened, and there was peace - for a season. Now the violence is worse than in 2006, according to Mr. Hari. He spoke of his village of 250 to 300 people, ruled by a sultan, the person who had final authority over decisions. He described his life growing up with his camel and his friends. They would stay out until 11:30 pm or midnight, playing games, and his camel would take him back home, knowing the way even if he was asleep. Daoud said that life in the desert is very different than our lives in the U.S., with a harsh climate and very few trees and plants. Even so, there was enough to sustain the villagers, until the climate changes narrowed the margins of sustainability on the land, and brought back old problems between Arabs and Zaghawa. 

The government in Khartoum, the capital city, fanned the conflict with a plan to "cleanse" the desert of the indigenous tribes and give all the land to the Arabs, who arrived there about two hundred years ago. As Mr. Hari described the recent history of his people, I was reminded of his comment near the end of his book, where he said that the problems of Darfur are not 'simple genocide', but that it is complicated. The result, he made clear in his book and in his talk, is still the threat of extinction of his people, but the complex human and political relationships make solutions difficult, make peace agreements quickly void, and create discouragement among those who intervene and try to help.

Daoud spoke of the network of tribal relationships that his people and the Arabs have among people in Chad, Kenya, the Congo and elsewhere in Africa, so that the conflict which began in Darfur has spread to other nearby countries, and threatens the stability of the entire region. The solution to peace in the region, he says, is to create peace in Darfur, and the way to do that is to restore the tribes to their ancestral lands with security.

One of the pieces to the puzzle that is Darfur, is that the Chinese government is providing weapons and hard currency to the government in Khartoum. Mr. Hari tied the Chinese to the killing of his people and the rest of the tribal people in Darfur. I asked the first question after his talk, which was, "Should people boycott the Olympics, or write letters of protest to the government? What do you think would be most helpful in cutting off the support of Chinese weapons and cash?" Daoud responded by saying, "Don't go. This is the Blood Olympics. This is not sport."

He added that twelve thousand new refugees have fled into Chad and the government has bombed another five villages. Daoud Hari said Darfur is not under control for anybody, even the government. The government wants the aid workers out of the country, and the workers are helpless without security and transportation.

He said, "Disarm Janjaweed! The war is the humanitarian crisis!" He pointed out that before the attacks of the Janjaweed (the Arab guerrilla fighters on horseback and in land cruisers) the people had access to food and water, shelter and crops. The Janjaweed, he said, poisoned the wells and killed the animals, so that even those who survived their attacks would have to leave their villages. Daoud ended by asking everyone to add their voice to ask for help for Darfur. He pointed out that President Bush acted in 2006 after one million people petitioned him to do so. He said we need one million people again to ask for the killing to stop, to ask for the United Nations to send in all their peace keepers, to get President Bush to act.

In his country, if he were to protest a government policy, their response would be to have him killed. We have the freedom to petition our government, and Daoud's mission is to convince us to take action. "Let me get another voice" - this was the hope of Daoud Hari last night at Powell's Books, speaking on the need for One Million Voices to stop the killing in Darfur. Here is the link to the organization, Save Darfur, where you can get information on how to help the tribal people of Darfur regain their place on our earth.

There are over 200,000 refugees living Chad, which is a country too poor to help them. The Janjaweed come over the border from Darfur and kill the men and rape the women when they go out to gather firewood. This can stop and will stop if enough people lend their voice. Will you lend yours? I made an effort to limit this report but as Daoud says, the history and situation in Darfur is complicated. He is a very intelligent man with an excellent understanding of Darfur. Any mistakes in this post are mine, and mine alone.

Review: On Gold Mountain

On Gold Mountain: The One-Hundred-Year Odyssey of My Chinese-American Family by Lisa See (1996) ISBN: 0-679-76852-1 I read On Gold Mountain slowly, with days between chapters to think about new ideas. On Gold Mountain was many things to me. It was an eye-opening revelation to me of how racist our laws and immigration policies were towards the Chinese, up until our recently. It was an amazing journey into Chinese society both in America and in China. It was an uplifting and hopeful account of how, in spite of everything, Chinese immigrants were able to come to America, work, and prosper. It was a heart-breaking indictment of the treatment of the Chinese by our government and big business, particularly the railroads. The suffering and death of so many people has gone too long unnoticed in our history books. It was an amusing commentary on the foibles of human nature, and how love truly can triumph over it all, down through the generations. It was an incredibly well-researched, well-documented and remarkably frank story of one Chinese immigrant and his numerous descendants. In the developing field of social history, and using social history to illuminate a genealogy, On Gold Mountain is a seminal work, published five years prior to the ground-breaking "Bringing Your Family History to Life through social history" by Katherine Scott Sturdevant. As such, it is a remarkable example of the professional standards to which the social historian/genealogist may aspire. Although the family history is rife with bi-racial marriage, multiple wives and concubines, infidelity and divorce, Lisa See presents the story in a sympathetic and factual manner, and avoids sensationalizing her family history. It is as much about the family business of importing Asian art, furniture and folk items, and other businesses the younger generations developed, as it is about the personal history of the family. I would recommend Lisa See's book to anyone planning to write a social history; to all high school and college students in classes on U. S. Government, sociology, immigration, and capitalism. I would also recommend it to anyone who likes a good work of non-fiction about real people.

We Are All Zaghawa Now

The Translator, A Tribesman's Memoir of Darfur by Daoud Hari ISBN 978-1-4000-6744-2 Random House; March 18, 2008 I'm on page 103 of The Translator A Tribesman's Memoir of Darfur, and something that has been nagging at the back of my mind finally came into focus. The day after the attacks of 9-11, Jean-Marie Colombani, writing in the French newspaper, Le Monde, said "We Are All Americans Now". What a beautiful way for him to say that the world stood with us in our loss, our hurt. I think we must all be Zaghawa now. Zaghawa, one of the many indigenous tribes of Darfur, is the tribe of Daoud Hari, author of The Translator. Hari, who used his literacy as a means to tell the story of his people, all the people of Darfur. Hari, who witnessed, and brought witnesses to testify to the horror, the genocide. Hari is Zaghawa. We must all be Zaghawa now. We must use our literacy to witness, and bring other witnesses to the crimes in Darfur against women, against children, against humanity. We must bring witnesses until the whole world cries out: "No More!" We Are All Zaghawa Now.

What IF?

What if connections were being formed between people all over the world? What if women could meet each other, share their thoughts, their family concerns, without leaving home? What if ideas and gifts and friendships could flow across oceans and borders as easily as the rays of the sun? What if people of different countries and languages could find out they have more in common than in difference?

"What IF" is happening. The Internet has enabled communication between people with common interests such as literature and work, vocation and hobbies, and the last barrier - language, will come down shortly as translator programs are perfected and computers become more powerful. Meanwhile, people who have learned more than one language are bridging the gap even now.

Thank you Angela, for bridging the gap by writing your blog in English too, for sharing friendships at GoodReads, for reaching out with kindness, and for the hand-made jewelry. It is a joy to know you.

My new old house

Our house was built in 1983, a time of rising interest rates and builder's nightmares. Two years later, as rates began to fall, we bought the house with a V.A. mortgage. Twenty-two years later, we have replaced the roof; painted the exterior for a fourth time; replaced the carpeting; replaced over half the fencing that GoldieBear installed all those years ago; turned a partially enclosed patio into an exercise room; upgraded the electrical panel and wiring; refurbished the solar plumbing; had a kitchen fire and replaced the microwave and stove hood; replaced the dishwasher. This week it was time for the kitchen plumbing - the garbage disposal and the pipes under the sink. New homes, like cars, have a certain length of time when we may enjoy them without doing much maintenance and repair - and then one day, it is time to refurbish, repair or replace so many things that it seems like a good solution to just replace the whole thing with a newer model. But we have lived here for twenty-two years, and are quite fond of our place -- it is home. It is familiar, and dear to us. So there is a schedule for the remaining work: replace the garage door opener, repaint the interior; install the back-flow device on the watering system; replace and insulate the hot water pipes; refinish the aggregate floors and replace the window coverings. Keeping a house, instead of just trading it in for a newer model, takes time and effort. Sort of like keeping a spouse after a few decades -- keep investing in the relationship -- repair, refurbish and replace old habits and patterns with ways that work better; sometimes hire a trained professional to help with the project. It is worth it in the long run, to have a marriage that is dear, a familiar friend that is home to our hearts.