and you, africa?

Last night, along with millions of other Americans, we attended an elaborate Christmas Eve church service in a multi-million dollar building. There were enough candles to light a village. And for those that didn't want to leave the house, you could even watch it online. Church online. How brilliant.

Africa, how do you celebrate Christ's birth?

On Christmas morning, we complain about the eager children's early rising. And then we unwrap our gifts. Gadgets, clothes, books, movies, vacations, money. Some get what they wanted, some what they needed. After throwing away potentially recyclable wrapping paper, we eat. We eat lots and lots. And we play with our new toys.

Africa, what does your Christmas look like?

The day after Christmas, we rush to the stores to return the gifts we didn't like and rummage through sales to buy whatever we didn't get. There's pushing and crowds and lines and unhappy people. They picked up that sweater for $9.99 first. The rat race has continued.

And you, Africa?

dance africa dance

Africa is a child who is overshadowed by the athletic talents of an older brother and the book smarts of his sister. Yet the family has failed to notice Africa’s ability to dance. This continent stands in the shadows, anxiously waiting for the world to see its potential. When the athletic brother is no longer able to compete and the sister’s mind begins to digress, Africa will still be dancing. But let’s hope she’s noticed before then.

smells of yesterday

Today still smells of yesterday
To remind us
Our hands hold power
To execute evil atrocities
To suggest subtle harm
To craft calloused wounds

Tomorrow hopes on the smells of yesterday
To remind us
Our hands bear promise
To restore rightful dignity
To embrace equal peace
To create colorful love

And maybe one day, we will be a sweet fragrance.
[2 Corinthians 2:14-15]

do good

social justice: ideal; a work of virtue aimed at the good of humanity as a whole, which unites people of all beliefs and political principles

the breaking of agreed rules that constitute fairness; tragedy :social injustice

“When I feed the poor, they call me a saint;
when I ask why they are poor, they call me a communist,”
Brazilian Catholic Archbishop Hélder Câmara

"Learn to do good. Seek justice. Help the oppressed. Defend the cause of orphans. Fight for the rights of widows."
Isaiah 1:17

What is your ideal for greater humanity? What tragedy moves you to action?

unity through justice

These days there is always a fundraiser for this or a protest against that. We are bombarded to join a “cause.” And Generation Y, especially, is at the forefront of such efforts.

Christian students are traveling to Africa to share their faith. College graduates are committing two years to the Peace Corps to teach about HIV/AIDS in Asia. Young business owners are donating their profits to build houses in Mexico. Filmmakers are producing movies that unveil global tragedies.

Celebrities like Bono and Angelina Jolie have used their fame to raise awareness for global poverty, orphans and the AIDS epidemic. Companies like Apple and Sprint have created products that directly benefit different social causes. Thousands of Americans rallied behind the victims of natural disasters by donating money, time and other resources.

All of this is done in the name of “social justice.”

A Sicilian priest, Luigi Taparelli d’Azeglio, first coined the term “social justice” in 1840. He used this term as an appeal to the industry leaders to meet the needs of the urban workers that had been adversely affected by the Industrial Revolution.

In modern thought, social justice is a work of virtue that is aimed at the good of humanity as a whole. Conversely, social injustice is the breaking of agreed rules that constitute fairness.

Author, philosopher and Director of Social and Political Studies at the American Enterprise Institute Michael Novak dissects the meaning of social justice in his essay, “Defining Social Justice.”

“The skills it requires are those of inspiring, working with, and organizing others to accomplish together a work of justice. It aims at good of the city, not the good of one agent only,” Novak says.

If such is true, social justice is open to all kinds of ideals- liberal, conservative and moderate. Instead of dividing, it unites people in a quest for common good, regardless of differences.

“The virtue of social justice allows for people of goodwill to reach different, even opposing, practical judgments about the material content of the common good (ends) and how to get there (means),” Novak says. “Such differences are the stuff of politics.”

So where did we go wrong? Why do we still allow the fight for humans rights to be divided between blue and red? If humanity cannot unite for the sake of each other's rights then we're a lost cause.

published in magazine "Generation WHY"

a tug of worlds

As I leave my adolescence behind, I find myself in the middle of a ferocious tug of war. After many touching encounters with the world’s underprivileged, I have wanted to forsake my lavish American lifestyle. However, the desire to meet societal standards makes it a challenge. For a humanitarian spirit like myself, to buy or not to buy is a troubling dilemma.

At first glance it may seem simple. I must simply avoid the unnecessary acquisition of stuff. But I, like many American Generation Y-ers, was raised in a world where happiness, acceptance and success were all implicitly measured by the designer brands you owned, luxury cars you drove and extravagant vacations you enjoyed. I live in a land where 16-year-olds receive new SUVs and sports cars for birthday presents. A place where college students, including myself, carry their books about poverty, disease and other world injustices in designer bags. And where private schools schedule ski vacations so families can make use of their “snow homes.”

I always had an innate sense of caring for others. I would put money in the offering at church for those starving African children, and my family made several trips down to Mexico to give away our old clothes. I was well aware that there were many people in the world who lived nothing like I did. But it never really affected me. That is, until my first trip across the big pond to South Africa. There I made friends which shoeless children dressed in tattered clothing. There I held children whose parents’ lives had been stolen by a rampant disease called AIDS. At the formative age of 16, I found myself in a place that didn’t put value on brands or appearance, but rather on life, simply because life is a luxury there.

Upon returning, my heart had been transformed. Instead of longing for a new Coach purse, I wanted to see shoes on the feet of the AIDS orphans I had held. Yet within months, I was competing with my Juicy Couture-clad friends. I was spending $700 on purses. I was asking for a new, faster car. And I was concerned with the weight of Nicole Richie.

Year after year I returned to South Africa to see my friends who were delighted with their one tattered uniform and the chance to attend school with poor lighting and no heat. I held one dying child after another. And I would return each time to the States adamant that in remembrance of them, I would not succumb to our materialistic society. And time after time, I would fail miserably at my resolve.

As I am about to return to the poverty and crime plagued country that changed my heart three years ago, I wonder if seven months will be enough to transform my whole heart and mind. When I return, will I be able to ignore my society’s demand to impress? I’m not sure.

As an American Generation Y-er, consumer is my middle name. We are notoriously known as big spenders. A recent study published in the Journal of Consumer Marketing found that Generation Y responds to advertising and marketing. They are much more likely to spend compulsively. Growing up in an age of the cell phone, the credit card and the Internet, we have learned how to get what we want when we want it.

So what do we do? I’m not sure I can give any answers. So for now, I will continue to wrestle with what it means to be a globally aware young American. With time, I am certain this tug of war will be resolved and I will find myself in a place of true harmony.

published in magazine "Generation WHY"

ubuntu

As you are all well aware of by now, South Africa has stolen my heart. Actually, it’s probably safe to say that South Africa has taken me hostage.

“A person is a person through others,” states a Zulu proverb and my personal favorite adage.
This maxim reflects the sub-Saharan Africa ideology of ubuntu. It is the belief in a collective bond of sharing that unites all humanity. It has been translated as “humanity towards others” or “I am because we are.”

“A person with ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed,” South Africa Archbishop Desmond Tutu once said.

As I am about to move to the country that was founded on such a principle, I ask myself what does it mean to become “human” through other people? How am I going to allow the people I come in contact with over the next seven months to shape who I become?

My new community will consist of Xhosa and Afrikaans speaking South Africans. I will be learning the languages, eating the food, attending their churches and building relationships. When I return to the States seven months later, it is my hope that I can be called a person with ubuntu.

Tutu wisely advises that true self-assurance comes from being a part of something bigger than ourselves. In our American society the individual is emphasized, but I believe life is meant to be lived in community.

So as we prepare to leave the APU community for the summer, the semester, or even for good, I encourage you to engage in a new community. Whether it’s a missions team, a study abroad program, or a new job, immerse yourself because who you become over the summer can be the result of something bigger than yourself.

Engage by learning the language or memorizing the mission statement. Find out the history of the organization, school or country you find yourself a part of. Get to know your coworker’s favorite childhood memory or their big dream. Whatever it is, take the time to engage.

I leave you with a question wonderfully posed by former South African President and civil rights pioneer Nelson Mandela. “Ubuntu does not mean that people should not enrich themselves. The question therefore is: Are you going to do so in order to enable the community around you to improve?”