When you experience something, someone, somewhere for the first time, what thoughts do you draw upon to measure the experience? Where do these thoughts find their roots: in experience, in socially-learned behaviour offered from family, school, religious community, neighbourhood, local media, etc...through the only lens of learned knowledge that you have uniquely developed from your earliest days on the planet.
When we look, engage, assess any experience for the first time, we bring our biases, our judgements, our expectations, our learned knowledge of what and how we think things "should" and/or"known [in our minds]" to be to that assessment. And those who might offer their "un-bias" opinions, [unless otherwise cognizant of their biases and judgements in relation to that which is outside of their learned experiences], will find themselves shifting into a prescribed response which, is at its root oppressive, ignorant and patronizingly superior in deliverance.
I am currently reading Greg Mortenson's Stones into Schools. A recently controversial biographic tale (and follow up book to Mortenson's Three Cups of Tea) about Mortenson's experiences with building schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan over the last 15 years. Both books have become controversial because of the challenges that have come about to the stories accuracy. Yet, the author makes his shortcomings very clear to the reader in both books, let alone describes the nature of the personal challenges working in that part of the modern world. Now, I'm certainly not in a position to argue the legitimacy of the whole story, but what I can offer, as someone who is currently working in education within the Far Western Districts of Nepal, and most recently in Egypt, that there are realities within many stretches of the world that can not be judged based on the lived experiences of non-travelled North American's or Europeans. Indeed, these audiences should not be in any position to judge the legitimacy of the story, unless they have lived and worked for an extended period of time in the areas which Mortenson has engaged. The subtleties and nuances of all cultures are labyrinthian in nature. To be ignorant of how your learned knowledge has come about and in not having shared in a lived history for any length of time, is not an excuse to super-impose another "standard" upon those that are "different". To judge an "image" based on your perceived "vision" without accepting to embracing difference, is in my opinion to continue the sins of the colonial fathers.
I tip my hat to Mortenson for his attempt to share the far reaches of a 21st century Pakistan and Afghanistan with the world, in so much as the raw determination and persistance that many people, who are faced with phenomenal challenges of survival, endure to empower their kin while relishing in ancestral negotiating patterns embracing progress and their civility. The "images" he has encountered were offered, again in my opinion, through a "vision" of humble acceptance and passionate conviction to embrace difference. This message is something that all believers AND doubters of the story should learn and act upon.
Children of Nepal.... by what "vision" do you measure the image of their faces?
When we look, engage, assess any experience for the first time, we bring our biases, our judgements, our expectations, our learned knowledge of what and how we think things "should" and/or"known [in our minds]" to be to that assessment. And those who might offer their "un-bias" opinions, [unless otherwise cognizant of their biases and judgements in relation to that which is outside of their learned experiences], will find themselves shifting into a prescribed response which, is at its root oppressive, ignorant and patronizingly superior in deliverance.
I am currently reading Greg Mortenson's Stones into Schools. A recently controversial biographic tale (and follow up book to Mortenson's Three Cups of Tea) about Mortenson's experiences with building schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan over the last 15 years. Both books have become controversial because of the challenges that have come about to the stories accuracy. Yet, the author makes his shortcomings very clear to the reader in both books, let alone describes the nature of the personal challenges working in that part of the modern world. Now, I'm certainly not in a position to argue the legitimacy of the whole story, but what I can offer, as someone who is currently working in education within the Far Western Districts of Nepal, and most recently in Egypt, that there are realities within many stretches of the world that can not be judged based on the lived experiences of non-travelled North American's or Europeans. Indeed, these audiences should not be in any position to judge the legitimacy of the story, unless they have lived and worked for an extended period of time in the areas which Mortenson has engaged. The subtleties and nuances of all cultures are labyrinthian in nature. To be ignorant of how your learned knowledge has come about and in not having shared in a lived history for any length of time, is not an excuse to super-impose another "standard" upon those that are "different". To judge an "image" based on your perceived "vision" without accepting to embracing difference, is in my opinion to continue the sins of the colonial fathers.
I tip my hat to Mortenson for his attempt to share the far reaches of a 21st century Pakistan and Afghanistan with the world, in so much as the raw determination and persistance that many people, who are faced with phenomenal challenges of survival, endure to empower their kin while relishing in ancestral negotiating patterns embracing progress and their civility. The "images" he has encountered were offered, again in my opinion, through a "vision" of humble acceptance and passionate conviction to embrace difference. This message is something that all believers AND doubters of the story should learn and act upon.
Children of Nepal.... by what "vision" do you measure the image of their faces?
No comments:
Post a Comment