This isn't National Geographic

During a guest lecture for one of my classes this past year, the speaker, Nick Schmidle, said that his goal as a foreign correspondant is to make the exotic and extraordinary seem familiar. Schmidle's task isn't an easy one — he spent two years in Pakistan living among the Taliban and reporting on them. How do you make the members of the Taliban, a collective enemy of the citizens of the United States, seem like real people?

That is my challenge here. I'm not writing about the Taliban — far from it — but about a family of refugees who I picked up from the airport on Wednesday night. My roommate works for an organization that helps refugees establish themselves in the United States (she asked me not to mention the organization's name on the Internet), and she occaisionally has to do airport pick-ups as part of her job. When she asked me to accompany her, I jumped at the chance. I knew the refugees probably wouldn't speak English, and I certainly had no intentions of playing 20 Questions with them in hopes of concocting a story about them, but I was eager for the experience of interacting with people from a completely different part of the world (in this case, Bhutan).

Picking up refugees from the airport was not on my list of things to do this summer in DC, but it's one of the many weirdly wonderful opportunities I've taken advantage of since I've been here. As I watched the refugees (a family of three) walk into the terminal at the airport, I was struck by their beauty and the mix of emotions in their faces — fear, excitement, relief. They were dressed largely in traditional clothing, and they couldn't have looked more exotic if they tried. It was almost hard to see them as real people because frankly, they looked like they had jumped off the pages of National Geographic. But that's when I remembered what Nick Schmidle said. These weren't refugees, they were a 60-something couple and their 30-ish daughter. They could've been my aunt, uncle and cousin. Nevermind that they were small and slight rather than American-sized, or that the older woman wore a sari instead of Land's End's finest. It was next to impossible to communicate with them, since only the daughter spoke a little English, but from the moment it occurred to me that these were people and not characters, I gave them the same respect that I would've given my relatives. Sure, in an American airport, the older man looked tiny and out of place, but in Bhutan, I'm sure he held a job, had buddies that he watched sports with and had given a toast or two at his childrens' weddings.

As we dropped the newly-arrived family off at their family's home, I watched while both families ran to greet each other and exchanged the biggest hugs I've ever seen. It was the same reaction I would've had, and it further cemented Schmidle's words. We are all human, no matter where we're from or what we're wearing. Schmidle's task — and mine — is to portray each human in the stories we tell not as a character in a set of circumstances, but as a person — as someone's father, mother or daughter.

The latest in a disturbing trend of ethnic violence

Without a stable government in Kyrgyzstan, ethnic violence has broken out in the southern city of Osh. Since last Thursday, insurgent mobs have overrun the city and perpetrated violence against ethnic Uzbeks and Uzbeki refugrees. Like so many recent conflicts (the genocides/genocidal acts in Sudan, Burma and the DRC, to name a few), the violence in Kyrgyzstan has taken a distinctly ethnic turn. It's certainly something we as global citizens have a responsibility to pay attention to and to act on, if necessary.

See articles from The New York Times and Human Rights Watch for more information.

The World Cup: Back to its roots

Americans do football. We do baseball. Sometimes we even give the Canadians a run for their money when it comes to ice hockey. One sport that Americans aren't big on — at least those who aren't in elementary school or their parents — is soccer. Well, for a country that isn't big on soccer, America is all about the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

It seems everyone is making plans to watch the World Cup. My cousin and her husband are flying to South Africa to catch it live. This Saturday, you can catch the World Cup outdoors at Dupont Circle all day long. Many of my college friends are making plans to camp out at Grotto Pizza, a Delaware sports bar, from opening until last call. They’ll watch big games, like the U.S. vs. the U.K., and more obscure ones .

And now the million-dollar question (or perhaps the obvious one): why? Americans don’t pay attention to soccer, unless David Beckham is involved. Has the globalization phenomenon finally touched the world of sports? Is it because I’m in D.C., arguably the most international city in the U.S.? Both are possible, although neither is the reason I’m paying attention.

Soccer was rarely played outside the United Kingdom prior to the turn of the last century. Now, approximately 1/3 of the 32 teams competing in the World Cup finals are from countries located in South America, Central America or Africa — former colonial zones. As someone who counts How Europe Underdeveloped Africa among her favorite books, I couldn’t help but take notice.

The colonial powers brought their language, culture and customs to the countries they colonized — that’s why baguettes are so popular in Tunisia and why Spanish is spoken throughout South America (that last bit may be somewhat obvious). As part and parcel of bringing their culture and customs, they brought their sports — there’s cricket in India and soccer all over the world.

From 1958 until 2002, the World Cup has been hosted alternately by countries in Europe and the Americas. Japan and Korea jointly hosted the 2002 World Cup, marking the first World Cup tournament held on another continent. 2010 brings another first — the first World Cup tournament held in Africa. In 2014, Brazil will host the World Cup.

The tournament is getting away from its old back-and-forth, keep-it-simple routine. But maybe that’s a good thing. With two World Cups hosted by former colonies occurring back-to-back, soccer (or football, as most other countries call it) is getting back to its roots and its past. Win!

UPDATE: South Africa and Mexico tied 1-1 in the first game of the 2010 World Cup. It’s a long way off , but who do you think will be the World Cup champion?

I'm back...

It's been a little while since my last post (O.K., more than a month), but now summer is here and I'm in Washington, DC and I have time on my hands and world affairs on my mind. While I bring myself up to speed on global issues, here's some food for thought, courtesy of a former First Lady:

"Being a reporter seems a ticket out to the world." – Jacqueline Kennedy

Calling culture to task

This week, I was a guest columnist for The Review's delaware UNdressed column. In my column, "Calling culture to task," I explain what female genital mutilation (also called female genital cutting) is and the damaging physical and psychological effects of the procedure.

To view the column, click here.

The Taliban's hold (or not) on education

On April 1, members of the Islamist student group Islami Jamiat Talaba forcibly entered the office of professor Iftikhar Baloch, a professor at the University of the Punjab at Lahore, and beat him until he was unconscious. The attack was meant to be payback after Baloch had expelled several members of the group from the elite Pakistani university for their violent behavior.

Although the group is reputedly unpopular, it holds significant power at the university, according to a New York Times article published April 20. Islami Jamiat Talaba controls aspects of campus life ranging from the dormitories to the cafeterias, whereas the university doesn't even make an effort to check dormitory identification cards.

Islami Jamiat Talaba exists, in a sense, parallel to the Taliban — it has stepped in to control what official means of governance could not. It appeals to those searching for a sense of security and belonging — in this case, poor students from the countryside.

The majority of Pakistanis do not support the Taliban's violent and repressive tactics, yet the country's poverty and the ineffectiveness of its government, particularly in remote areas, have enabled the Taliban to flourish.

The U.S. military is working hard to destabalize and eradicate the Taliban in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and American civilians are doing their part as well. Greg Mortenson, author of the book "Three Cups of Tea," founded the Central Asia Institute, an organization that brings education to girls in remote areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

In September, I interviewed Mortenson and attended a speech he gave at the University of Delaware. One of the topics Mortenson spoke on was the importance of educating girls.

“I hate to keep going back to proverbs and quotes, but that’s kind of how I live my life,” he said, citing an Afghani proverb “If you educate a boy, you educate an individual. If you educate a girl, you educate a community.”

Mortenson's feelings about education are in line with those of many professors at the University of the Punjab — education brings peace. Educating girls is the key to stopping the growth of the Taliban, he said.

“Most of these men got out of the Taliban because their mothers said, ‘Son, shape up,’” Mortenson says. “The Taliban have nothing to offer the people.”

Some students at the University of the Punjab don't see it that way. Becoming a member of the Islami Jamiat Talaba means "more milk in their tea, better food, cleaner dishes," according to the New York Times article.

But if the efforts of Mortenson and the teachers at the University of the Punjab, who went on a three-week strike to protest the beating of Baloch, are any indication, peace has a chance in Pakistan.

New York Times article

The Review article

Unrest in Kyrgyzstan warrants U.S. notice

Kyrgyzstan has been a key ally of the United States since 2001, when the U.S. began operating an air base there to assist with operations in Afghanistan.

Despite that, the American media has paid very little attention to the impoverished former Soviet state until one week ago, when the government of former president Kurmanbek Bakiyev was overthrown following protests and riots where at least 80 citizens were killed by Kyrgyz police.

These are not the first breaches of freedom of expression in Kyrgyzstan.

Numerous pposition leaders have been imprisoned in recent years. Often, their offenses do not warrant the senteces they receive. For example, former defense minister Ismail Isakov was sentenced in January 2010 to 11 years in prison on corruption charges, which allegedly amounted to him providing a government apartment for his son without proper documentation. The initial arrest occurred just a few months after he left the government to join the opposition party.

In March, the courts ordered the suspension of three Kyrgyz-language newspapers, which had called for the overthrow of the government and insulted the president. Additionally, Kyrgyz Internet service providers blocked access to the Web site White Sail, which was edited by opposition journalist Gennady Pavluk (who was murdered in December). Other Web sites were periodically blocked as well.

Due to the political unrest in Kyrgyzstan, troop flights through the air base in Manas, Kyrgyzstan have been suspended indefinitely — and finally, the U.S. is paying attention.

The base plays a key role in the war against the Taliban. 1,100 troops are stationed there and 50,000 passed through Manas in March, en route to Afghanistan. Troops are now being diverted through Kuwait without significant delay.

Corruption has long been a part of life in Kyrgyzstan. In 2003 (the earliest year for which data is available), Kyrgyzstan ranked 118 out of 133 countries on the Corruption Perceptions Index. In 2009, ranked 162 out of 180.

The people of Kyrgyzstan should have the right to speak out against what they perceive to be an ineffective government. Many Kyrgyz citizens have suffered and "been taken care of" for attempting to express their views, but it seems they are increasingly in a position of power.

The transitional government, led by former foreign minister Roza Otunbayeva, now has control over several Kyrgyz provinces.

“His business in Kyrgyzstan is finished,” Otunbayeva said in a New York Times article.

What's interesting is that it took America so long to pay attention.