Why bother?

[peachikeen17]

Today we're having a lecture on the situation in Bosnia. Last week, there was a lecture on the expansion of the EU. I feel comfortable saying that I'm very impressed with the history of the people presenting, and their expansive knowledge, but I wonder if they expect us to be astounded by their brilliance. I don't think they'll get that kind of

Comments

Haiti

[tokyorose]

Interesting that you should bring up Haiti. Jesse's mom and sister are both deeply involved in education in Haiti, and their frustration is palpable. According to a non-profit whose name I've forgotten (but Jesse's friend Dan works for) Haiti is somewhere near number 3 on the Most Corrupt Countries list. Interestingly enough, the Haitians don't consider taking bribes corruption, but they DO consider homosexuality to be "corruption". So the numbers are different if you ask the native people than if an outside non-profit does the numbers. Emily and Joy (Jesse's sister and Mom) have so many hurdles they have to overcome just to get schoolbooks to the children. And unfortunately, a lot of the resistance is from the adults, who just don't think education is important, so they don't put any money or time into it. And the teachers who do have no education themselves, and don't put the time or effort in to teachings the kids. The problem is that it is very difficult to change cultures. And it is especially difficult to change cultures without