wishing for more

as a university student, i was always proud of my education.  i mean, i’d complain as much as any student, though perhaps with a more vehement vocabulary, and a dash of feminist thought, but really, i was proud.  my high school education was one of the best in my city, and when i travelled and talked to friends in other parts, i realized it was possibly one of the best in general.  my university degree, though it was a science degree, required that i take courses in the humanities, arts, and languages, and i did with pleasure.  in addition to this, i kept up with the news as much as i could, and in terms of english literature, i consider myself better read than most of my peers. in my interactions with more prominent young baha’is, i knew full well that i lacked knowledge, understanding, and insight relative to them, but this i tried to remedy with ample amounts of service, through taking as many training courses as were available, and trying to engage others in meaningful conversations about the world and the baha’i faith.  so overall, i considered myself pretty well-off in the knowledge/understanding area, when it came to the world.

but, there was one area that i never cared to learn too much about… and, had i been more humble in my approach, perhaps i would’ve caught this deficiency sooner.  azar nafisi talks in her latest book, things i’ve been silent about, about how she wasn’t as concerned with her mom’s stories as she was concerned with the gaps in her mom’s stories. i am now learning that i should also be concerned with the gaps.

i am curious to know where the middle east played into my education.  in high school, i learned about colonialist expansion, and about how europe got together and drew a map over africa and split it up – like i might cut a pizza when i’m having friends over for dinner… but it wasn’t until december this year, in speaking to my mother, that i learned that europe did the same with the middle east!  where were the wars that were fought there since 1945?  for four years, i learned all about the cold war, the cuban missile crisis, vietnam, etc – of course, these all implicated the states and canada, but so did the hostage taking in 1980 in iran, did it not?  what about jimmy carter and camp david?  where was that stroke of american brilliance in my history lessons?

in university, i took anthropology classes, literature and culture, political science courses, religious studies… there i learned all about south american cultures, little pacific islands, africa (you’d think anthropologists only went to africa in the 20th century – asia doesn’t even exist in my textbooks); my literature course too – all of the post-colonial literature was centered on africa; my polisci course focused on democracy and change in the world…. but i learned only about locke, smith, marx, the states and africa (i even learned about mao and the cultural revolution!); religious studies, ok, we talked a bit about islam and about how muslims aren’t all terrorists.  thanks for the memo.  i didn’t realize that not all white people enjoyed raping whole continents either.  as if.

so where is the middle east?!

the irony is that growing up in central north america as a persian, you grow up with no other non-white friends.  i lived among blond, blue-eyed, church-going people… and that’s very much what i was – until my teacher decides to ask for the “persian opinion” and would pick on me.  but i hated everything to do with the middle east and iran, because of my environment.  so i never cared to learn about it.  so, when no one spoke about it at school,or in university (except to mention 9/11 and how terrible the war on terror is) – i never noticed, and in fact, i can look back now, and say… i was probably relieved.  again, this was another reason why i realized there were gaps in my education.

as i mentioned in my last post, i’ve taken to reading the new york times.  i don’t live anywhere near new york, but what i find is that they give more meat to the story than say, the online versions of the cbc, or the bbc (cnn i can’t even go near – it’s against everything i hold true).  this was about the same time as i started to learn more about the middle east, and suddenly… i began to understand why the middle east – especially, iran – and the states have so much against each other.  so when ahmadinejad asks for an apology from the US government for 60 years of meddling, i understand now why this is so important to iran-US relations (and also why it would never happen).

i say all this, because i just read an article about iran’s offer to washington to have a dialogue with respect and fairness.  i know, reading this, that i have no true understanding as to the forces at play, and the influence of history and politics on the back and forth that is currently taking place between iran and the US.  but i do know that for many westerners, it will be difficult to comprehend why this little dance even exists.  the sad part is that if we continue not learning about our past, or teaching our children about how much countries in our world affected each other, and are affecting each other – it will only lead to further misunderstanding.  in 20 years, when our leaders are made up of my generation, will anyone even remember why americans care if iranians arm themselves?  or will we just ready ourselves, aim our weapons, and fire at will?  or do we expect that we’ll just spontaneously gain insight into the nuances of foreign policy and then suddenly everyone will be happy and there’ll be peace on earth?

i, for one, wish that i’d learned more in the past.  i hope you’ll join me in trying to learn more about charting our future.

for the efficient employee.

so i’ve got this summer job as a program assistant for a private school.  my boss is a young guy – can’t be more than a few years older than me – and since my position isn’t super well defined.. he’s been having a hard time finding work for me to do before the program starts.  or rather.. i finish my work too fast for him to keep up.

the poor guy gives me stuff that should take normal people a few days to complete… and i work at what feels like a snail’s pace and finish in a day.  and i do my job well.  (i’m actually just stating facts).

as a result, today, the president of the school sent me an email requesting that i enter in surveys from other programs.  there is a stack of maybe 1000 pages.  double sided.  does anyone else find that funny?

anyway… so my question for any kindred spirits out there is: what do you do when you feel like you’re working slow – but really aren’t?  do you take your sweet time?  do you just keep at ‘er?

using your human resources

It is interesting to note that the concept of “supply and demand” is not limited to economics.  It also has to do with any need that one is trying to fill.  In my workplace, this might mean finding host families for international students; at home, this would be spending time with those family members that need attention; and at school, this means actually putting in the time to study for that next exam.  Always a thing to do (supply) for a need (demand).

When it comes to building a new civilization, we need the builders.

I live in a city where there is a huge shortage of every kind of worker.  I could walk into any business right now – be it a bank, burger-joint, retail store, office, or the headquarters of a huge multimillion dollar company – and ask them: do you have a job opening and their answer would be yes, and please fill out this form and etc etc etc.  The company that I work for was actually about to hire a totally unqualified person to do one of their pilot projects! Can you imagine?  The name of your company is at stake, and all you have to choose from is “unqualified” and “less qualified”.  Anyway, that’s a bit of a tangent…

The fact of the matter is that the demand is greater than the supply.

I’m struggling with the same thing in my cluster right now.  We have just started a new children’s class – and actually, now that I think about it, it’s not really a new one if the other one you had in the same area stopped as this “new” one started… and I’m looking for people to take it over for the summer.  I have a side project that I need to work on, and just need two people – literally two committed individuals to do 12 classes.  I got together with the relevant institutions, went through the list of over 60 children’s class teachers… and realized that actually, I can’t pull out.  How depressing is that?

At the same time, when we’ve told the community about the children’s classes, people come, but they come late, or they come and have loud conversations right close to the class, or they disrupt the class with their incessant picture taking (have they not heard of candid shots?!).  And then the question becomes, ok, so maybe we’re just not using our human resources effectively.  But then again, I look at that list, and none of these people can take over the class… but they can maybe help out with this or that small activity.  Maybe.

It’s depressing, and borderline frustrating.  Ok, no, it actually is frustrating.  I’m not sure if maybe I’m just not able to see people’s actual abilities for what they are.  Maybe I’m afraid of giving them a task that they can’t do – and then we’re all disappointed and the class falls.  I guess then the answer is that we have to build capacity in others – walk with them on a path of service, as it were – but then, that’s a long term commitment, on everyone’s part.  And that’s the other question: how do you know if someone is committed?  And should we put energy into building capacity in someone who isn’t yet committed, but might be at some point in the future?

I guess I’ll leave all my half reflections there… I’d like to hear your thoughts and experiences.  This certainly is an ongoing challenge for me, and so I think I’ll revisit it in a few posts and perhaps share with you some of the learning from this upcoming week.  It should be interesting!

the invisible line

well, i have my own junior youth group not too far from where i live. we have a jy group, a children’s class, and a ruhi book 1. today, i took two of my kids out – they are both in the ruhi 1, though one of them is a junior youth. we went to the local university (i wanted to show them possibilities, to show them that i think that there is no reason why they shouldn’t be in university in a few years) and then they invited me into their home. it’s a normal enough thing. i’ve known them for over 6 months now, have been in contact with the family and all that… but they consider me a “youth worker” – even though i am not a social worker, and have never told them that i was (and i’ve been trying to tell them that i’m not one too) but i guess that whatever i’m doing can best be described by them as being a “youth worker”. when i got home and told a friend of mine about my experiences during the day, she warned me to clarify that point and reminded me that youth workers do not go into the home. but as an animator – that’s exactly what we’re supposed to do, isn’t it? in ruhi 5 we learn about being a true friend and wise advisor to junior youth. but is there some wisdom in being emotionally detached from those whom we’re trying to help? i guess maybe, i’m not there to “help them” per se, i’m more there to assist in drawing out their latent abilities, and God willing, they will become animators, tutors and children’s class teachers in due course. and you can’t really do any of that without getting involved in their lives.

i guess my question is this: is there some wisdom to being detached from those we work with?

i sometimes wonder if maybe that’s the failing in social work – that they don’t get involved enough. but, from my limited understanding, i don’t think it’s logistically possible, within the scope of social services itself, to be involved as it were.

anyway, i look forward to any thoughts you might have on the topic.