how do you spend your days.

[yourmammasdream]

I am, lately, horrified by what I don't know, and what I know now that I never did before. I am passionate, because despite my having said it before, I am aware now of why Holocaust education needs to be revised in the coming years. How, for G-d's sake, can we teach it without talking about Bosnia, Kosovo, Rwanda, Darfur? How many names do I not

Comments

[yourmammasdream]

I've been looking at grad school there, possibly. There aren't many places that offer that kind of program.

[sheyvah]

My experience is that people only talk about genocide when they want to make themselves feel better. So we can talk about the Holocaust because then Americans can feel good about WWII and so Europeans can feel good when they do things that are anti-Israel. We know about Rwanda because of how embarassing it was to the UN. The problem with Darfur is that there's nothing really that anyone can do since Sudan is a huge oil provider to certain parties with veto power at the UN (*cough*RussiaandChina*cough*) and America is already overextended.

As for the other ones, we can just ignore them because they happen in unimportant countries, like Burma. We can ignore North Korea because their problems are the fault of their government, we already have economic sanctions on them, and there's no way anyone could actually enter to help the people there.

By the way, a comment from my cousin about the Darfur rally in DC. "Everywhere I looked, everyone was Jewish."

[sheyvah]

How does talking about the Holocaust make Europeans feel good when they do something anti-Israel. Did you mean pro-Israel?

My experience in studying genocide is significantly different than yours. In studying the Armenian Genocide, for example, I learned that what is most wanted by the Armenian diaspora is recognition that a genocide took place and a return to their country. Armenia, as it stands now, is not historical Armenia, or it's a small rather insignificant piece of it. Historical Armenia is actually in present day Turkey.

Re: sorry

[sheyvah]

already responded to the other one. :)

[chick4everurs]

i want to say something intelligent...but i think this is the most intelligent i can come up with : *hug*

[monkeyparts]

- Yes! Yes, I agree completely with what you're saying here. This is exactly the reason I switched from science to gardening; it's one thing to study and talk about the nature of a problem, another entirely to pick an angle and do something about it. The question now is what is it about almost every human society that causes them to try to destroy other human societies, and how one can go about altering that in one's own society

[troublelover]

How come no one told us that in school? I'm embarassed that we havent learned, but at this rate we never will. Does it make america any better, that our genocide was a couple hundred years ago? How can we still celebrate columbus day, for G-d's sake?this resonates with me too, big time. the timing of you posting this is crazy, because i've just learned a ton having to do with latin america and argentina specifically that makes my blood run cold and literally makes me go numb. saying that i've realized how lucky i am doesn't really fit or cut it or even begin to uncover how severe the meaning of that statement really is. there is so much to learn and so much that's either been deemed unimportant, irrelevant, or covered up by the systems and cultures we come from, and it's horrifying to be living life on streets that aren't yours that are paved with a history that everyone knows, respects, and is taking action against or mourning ... except for you. argentina's got a way different situation (not so much ethnic cleansing as political

[sheyvah]

I actually don't think it's so horrifying to observe Columbus Day. Yes, he did terrible things, but on the other hand, all of the people of European, Asian, and African descent who live here wouldn't know it existed without him. And given how many people would rather live in America and Canada than elsewhere, that's important.

Here's the question I have for you about Latin America. So, unlike the U.S. and Canada, there has been a significant amount of marriage between in Indians and Spaniards there. So, given that most people are descended from both conquistadors and the conquered, how do they teach history?

[troublelover]

that's like asking how they teach history in the u.s, it has a lot to do with where you live, where you're from, and where you go to school. i live in buenos aires so i do not see a lot of "descendents of conquistadors and conquered" here because this is essentially the "melting pot" of south america. the immigrant population here is huge and meeting a porteño (buenos aires native) with a german or chinese or english last name is just as likely, if not more so, than meeting someone with a spanish sounding last name. as a result the teaching of history here depends mostly on what university you're at because the student bodies at each institution are different and correspond with the teaching styles of the professor. example: uca, the private catholic university of buenos aires, is more "conservative" in their teachings and the history of argentina course i was shopping was very eurocentric, but they offer courses on the history of the americas and it's required if you're carrera here is history. the students are all younger and