Beach Day! We took the boys to the beach yesterday, and spent the entire afternoon playing in the sand and ocean with them.

It reminded us of our own childhood memories and why those memories are so important to us as adults.

“To myself I am only a child playing on the beach, while vast oceans of truth lie undiscovered before me.”
                                                       -Isaac Newton

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The Mursi tribe of Ethiopia’s Omo Valley is one of the oldest and most easily identifiable tribal cultures of Africa.

Most Mursi children nurse past toddler-hood, and clothing for women commonly leaves breasts exposed.

The breast area for the Mursi tribe is viewed as nourishment for children and signals to men peak nubility of the woman, based on shape and texture.

The Mursi people are at risk for displacement.

From Mursi Online:

Since the 1960s, the extension of government control over the Lower Omo Valley has been marked by  the ‘enclosure’ of large areas of communally held  land. In the 1960s and 1970s two national parks were set up which, it was hoped, would in due course make the lower Omo into one of Africa’s most popular tourist destinations. These hopes proved largely illusory, despite efforts to develop the parks with the help of EU funds in the 1990s and, more recently, through a public-private partnership agreement with a South African based conservation organisation. Today, spurred on by its ambitious aim to achieve middle-income country status within the next ten to fifteen years, the government’s plans for the lower Omo have shifted to large-scale commercial irrigation development, including a huge project now being implemented by the state-owned Ethiopian Sugar Corporation.  If these plans are realised, not only will the lower Omo become by far the largest irrigation complex in Ethiopia, but the resident population of agro-pastoralists is expected to be transformed into wage labourers and sedentary cultivators. This will involve a resettlement programme which, although described as ‘voluntary’, will  be forced, in the sense that those affected will have no reasonable alternative but to comply.

There is overwhelming evidence, from Africa and around the world, that a scheme of this kind, however well intentioned, will not benefit the affected population unless it is accompanied by a comprehensive programme of compensation, benefit sharing and livelihood reconstruction. If such a programme is not put in place for the people of the lower Omo, the future looks grim for the Mursi and  their neighbours.

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Our first book club book discussion is underway!

If you haven’t already, head over to the forum and join the conversation.

We are on to our second book!

We have chosen Falling Leaves: The Memoir of an Unwanted Chinese Daughter by Adeline Yen Mah

Born in 1937 in a port city a thousand miles north of Shanghai, Adeline Yen Mah was the youngest child of an affluent Chinese family who enjoyed rare privileges during a time of political and cultural upheaval. But wealth and position could not shield Adeline from a childhood of appalling emotional abuse at the hands of a cruel and manipulative Eurasian stepmother. Determined to survive through her enduring faith in family unity, Adeline struggled for independence as she moved from Hong Kong to England and eventually to the United States to become a physician and writer.

A compelling, painful, and ultimately triumphant story of a girl’s journey into adulthood, Adeline’s story is a testament to the most basic of human needs: acceptance, love, and understanding. With a powerful voice that speaks of the harsh realities of growing up female in a family and society that kept girls in emotional chains, Falling Leaves is a work of heartfelt intimacy and a rare authentic portrait of twentieth-century China.

If this sounds interesting to you, pick up the book and join the discussion June 15!

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Have you heard about The Geography of Hate project created by Humboldt State University undergraduate students?

They sifted through a year of geocoded conversations from twitter to find hate words used in a negative context (which is important to note, since many people now use these words in a positive or neutral manner). The words were then applied to a color gradient map.

The map shows certain areas I was surprised to find concentrated with hate speech. (Especially in the San Francisco area.)

On a positive note: it looks like Utah really does have nice people living there…or maybe they are like me and aren’t big tweeters? Either way, they seem to have the lowest amount of “hate word” tweets.

What do you think about this? Were you already aware of social media being used as a outlet for hate speech, or is this map shocking to you?

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“Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Gen 4:9)

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