Be still in the presence of the Lord, and wait patiently for him to act…

As everyone knows, I’ve been crazy busy since school started in the fall semester. I’ve always provided for myself since I had an unfortunate family situation. Thankfully, I’ve been so incredibly lucky and blessed to have the most amazing sisters in the entire world, along with my extended family in Pennsylvania and South Carolina. This past Spring semester, life threw me a curveball. I did not have the funds to go to Chengdu, China, and I thought a successful life in the future would never happen. I honestly thought I was destined to live a life of monotony – in Indiana, graduating with a Bachelor’s degree, and struggle to find a job after graduation because of no real professional experiences. But today, all that changed. This is why…

Doing my usual day to day routine, I was working at my seasonal Census job. This job requires me to go house to house to interview respondents who did not turn in their original census forms that were mailed out in early March. As annoying and terribly boring going house to house is, today I happened to meet a woman who JUST moved into the neighborhood I was walking around interviewing. I knocked on her door and saw all the items misconstrued and being unpacked still. She invited me in her home. I almost always say no as I’m not really comfortable going into a stranger’s home, but I felt that it was safe and decided to go in and sit down to fill out the census. Not knowing that the woman was indeed Chinese and just knowing that she was of some Asian descent, I decided to ask her where she was from, then got SUPER excited that she said Hong Kong/Guangzhou. Being the giddy person I am, I went on to tell her that I’m going to Chengdu in August. That’s when the real conversation began.

The lady, whose name is Liana (or Lisa, as an English name) was SOO happy I was going to live and study in Chengdu. Her family owns a hotel by the Panda Institute and she just visited in October. She told me so much about the city and what temples I should visit. In the end, after she graciously served me Welches Grape juice and told me to make myself at home, she gave me her e-mail address and telephone number and told me she knows of places I can rent for cheaper than $150/mo. (which is my current agreement on campus) because she said that is very expensive in Chengdu. So in addition from making a new friend, she also provided me information and lovely conversation….all while getting paid. Also, something hilarious that happened during our conversation was her constant offering of a Chinese boyfriend. I couldn’t stop laughing and I don’t think she found it funny cos’ she offered me her son upstairs. haha.

It is with this realization that I now know there are things that happen for a reason. If I had been in Chengdu right now, which was my initial plan, I would never have met her. Upon leaving, she told me that she’ll email me and keep in touch with me while I’m in China, and that when I return we can have a REAL conversation in Chinese because she is fluent in Cantonese and Mandarin. I love my life. So much. I will continue to work 70 hours a week to save for China. Also, today I found out officially that I the committee accepted my appeal to pay for my study abroad. The only stipulation: I provide tons of pictures. I can do that. I can do that, indeed.

Gender in the United States

Hello All,
 I’ve not been updating this blog as much as I intended, primarily because school, work, and Center commitments have consumed me, but I’ve re-evaulated how I spend what little free time I have and have decided to put more effort into this blog because it helps me as a person get things off my chest and I just think blogging in general is pretty nifty.
 Today, I want to blog about gender, in particular the role women play in our society. I’m taking a Women’s Study class about the international perspective of women and how they are perceived in various cultures (mostly deplorable and I personally can’t believe what has not been done to address these issues, like bride burning and rape in schools), but what about our society? For example, at my place of work, about 90% of management are men and the majority of women are working in customer service or cashiers. It is almost impossible for any woman to obtain a job on the sales floor or in upper management. For instance, I have been trying to move to the sales floor for the majority of the two years I’ve worked at Lowes Home Improvement. I have taken the initiative to get educated on products in a number of departments. I’ve gotten power equipment certified (yes, watch out for me on the forklift), have near perfect attendance, volunteer to work on the floor for experience, sell those bogus extended protection plans, help customers when they approach me, yet they refuse to move me to the floor and have given no reason at all. In fact, they told me all the time that I would be moved to the hardware department and even outside lawn and garden, but I’ve still not after all of my hard work and ambitious attitude. So why is it that as a woman, I can’t move to the sales floor? The answer I just received a little over a week ago: ‘You need to have great selling skills.’ Well, how can I prove that if I’m not on the floor? It’s a lost-lose situation in that I they should have told me a year ago when I did all of these tests that I would never be moved to the floor because of the simple fact that I am a woman, I am not assertive nor want to rip people off with their terrible gimmicks, and I am a student so my availability is not as open as someone who doesn’t go to school. It’s discrimination and it happens here all the time even after President Obama signed the Lily Ledbetter Act that amends to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that women can take longer than the initial 180 days to appeal a pay discrimination. Think about it: if you, as a woman in particular, find out seven months down the road that you were doing the same work as a your male counterpart, you could do absolutely nothing about it until early 2009. How terrible is that? And how much more terrible is it that nearly every Republican voted it down because they think unnecessary lawsuits will come out of it? Well…duh. If I found out that a male cashier was making two dollars more per hour than me and we were on the same level, you’d better believe I’d sue Lowes for discrimination.
 Another aspect of gender is the role in which women place themselves in. I’m not going to mention particular names because this story relates to numerous girl friends I have, but it seems that my circle of friends want nothing more than to get married and find “the one.” Why? Now I’m not trying to say that finding a suitable companion is bad because it’s not and I’d love for nothing more than to [eventually] get married myself and raise a family, but we are young. My friends are young. Why are you going to bog yourself down with unnecessary stress and anguish over a boyfriend and how he treats you badly or how you can’t manage school, work, and relationship issues? I sometimes ask my girl friends why they are in school if they have no passion about something. I still haven’t gotten an answer…
 Is this just the way society functions? Are we indoctrinated at a young age to think that we as women need a man in our lives to fulfill us, to make us happy? I’m going to have to take a gander at this question and say yes. Not until the early twentieth century were women even allowed to vote, and many states (including my own) were forced to comply with this because it was a federal amendment to the Constitution. If the Nineteenth Amendment had not been passed, would the less progressive states still not allow women to vote? What about the obvious pay discrimination we see between men and women. A blog that I follow posted the numbers on what women make compared to men. In it, the AFL-CIO reported that a woman makes $.78 for every $1 a man makes. To make things worse, educated women are also highly discriminated against. In fact, a woman with a bachelor’s degree earns over her lifetime $713,000 less than her male counterpart. How did Americans just introduce the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act a year ago when we knew these statistics, and even, how can conservative members of the Senate, including Sen. Dick Lugar, vote AGAINST an amendment that sets no time limit for a woman to sue for the money that she is owed!?
 I will leave my frustrations and own analysis at that, but I’d love to hear thoughts of your own. Feel free to leave comments.
Also, I will post the numbers put out by the Women’s Policy Research below.
I’m slowly turning into a feminist…

Re-Post: “Let’s Talk Straight and Eradicate Buzzwords”

Since WordPress is not allowing me to essentially “re-tweet” another blogger’s post, I’m going to do it the old fashioned way and “re-blog” it. It’s a really great perspective written by Amy Carol Wolff and talks about humanitarians who over-promise results of their charities and how people just want the truth of where their money is going and a more realistic plan for the future. Here it is:

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Editor’s note: This guest post is written by non-proifit consultant Amy Carol Wolff. In it, she argues for more straight-forward communication between social sector organizations and their stakeholders about the impact they achieve.

The social sector has gotten stuck. We have confused energy and vision with meaningless mission statements and empty slogans featuring words like “eradication”, “sustainability”, and “collaboration”. We promise our donors and investors that we have found the way to end pollution, disease, hunger, and social injustice. We paint these grandiose pictures akin to that of the millennium development goals (MDGs), and then we wonder why our donors are beginning to ask us where their money is going.

People are still poor. The slave trade is still thriving. Children are still hungry. Carbon dioxide emissions remain excessive. All realities that leave us with a question of, “Have we actually done anything at all?”

Yes, we have. We have developed ready-to-use-therapeutic-food to address issues of malnutrition. We have provided millions of dollars in loans to foster entrepreneurship in the developing world. We have used SMS technology to connect people to healthcare and food. We have even set up voluntary carbon markets to hone and incentivize environment-friendly processes. Those of us vested in the work of social development have been innovative and have implemented solid programs with tangible deliverables that have saved lives, developed community leadership, and created safe refuges for countless species.

We are doing good work. But we are growing increasingly lazy in the way that we tell our stories. In fact, I’ll take it one step further – we are lying. People are asking for measurements of success and many of us do not have them – at least, not the ones we promised. The upcoming generation, the famous Millennials, demands to see impact if they are going to donate, and more of the recent social impact investors are expecting organizations to prove they are actually achieving their goals.

It really is not going to matter whether we preach a sermon on eradicating poverty. It is going to matter that through our work we increased a community’s income by 20%. It is going to matter that we perfected a revenue-generating model that allows for the maintenance of the wells that we fund-raise for. It is going to matter that through our work, 27 women were rescued and protected from the sex trade in the last month due to the donated amount. The marriage of what we do, how we do it, and why we do it, needs to be our focus and message.

And for those of us who are donating, we have some work to do as well.

A professor of mine points out that business plans must “be realistic”. When he reviews business plans that promise the entire world is their market, out comes the red pen and the editing begins. A wise investor knows the age-old saying, “if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.” She won’t invest in a business that promises the world.

This is why we have to seek out organizations that can demonstrate how they are solving important social issues. Investors that do not require evaluations are doing the community a disservice. If we hand organizations a check, we are saying that we believe in the work they do. You wouldn’t buy into a product that promised you abs of steel without ever having to leave your couch (at least, I hope you wouldn’t). Why would you believe an organization that promises to eradicate poverty by 2015?

Using buzz words instead of using creative and honest ways to convey the work we are doing is disrespectful to the people and communities we serve. If you do in fact choose to promise to eradicate poverty, I challenge you to do this in front of an audience of children in the slums of Kenya. If you choose to promise to stop the international sex trade, do it while looking into the eyes of the young rape victims in your own city. And if you choose to promise a future for all children, I dare you to do so while sitting with a mother who knows that the AIDS that claimed her husband’s life will soon claim hers. They will all ask how. And they deserve a clearly defined answer.

Spring Break

Spring Break has arrived!
Hiatus is officially over, at least for this week!
Although I only have off work Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, I’ve dedicated at least one of those days to spending it completely in the library for research on one of my four research projects (at least ten pages each for each one) so I can finally get ahead in my classes.

Here’s some of my schedule for this great Spring Bring:

Friday, March 12th –> Muse Concert @ the United Center

Monday, March 15th –> Library Research Day – International Inequalities & Int’l Perspective of Women Topic Proposals, Sources, and first paragraph

Tuesday, March 16th –> Possible trip to Valpo? If not, back home to Hammond to see friends, Clementine, and read

Wednesday, March 17th –> Drinking night with Katy and Monica

Thursday –> Farmer’s Market in the morning and work in the evening

So, in honor of being able to see Muse this evening, a video of their live performance of ‘Starlight.“

And to end this post, I found a great video titled ”Universal Declaration of Human Rights“ that is entertaining and quite creative, while being informative to the UDHR.

Check both of them out, if you’d like.
Peace and Love,

Melanie Ann



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Hiatus

Sorry to anyone who actually reads this blog, but I’ve been on a temporary hiatus.

I’ve been quite busy with school, the Civil Rights Heritage Center, work, and homework. I’m enjoying this semester’s classes thus far, though it is a lot of work with a full course load.

I came to write a simple something whilst writing my research analysis for my “International Perspective on Women” class.
As much as technology has changed the way we live – e-mail, blogging, social networking sites, etc. – pen and paper will always be my favorite form of communication.

I enjoy receiving hand-written notes, not only because it adds a personal touch on things, but because it means more. I understand that e-mail is the best form of communication in regards to timeliness and easiness, but there’s just something about taking a pen to paper that proves to me as an individual that you honestly care about what you’re writing, be it a political note, love letter, or doodle.

Okay, off to finish my research analysis. I needed this little break before my head imploded from too much information.

A Costly Science Experiment

I’ve never been much of the scientific person. In fact, I’ve always struggled to get a decent grade in any type of science class. I quit science in the tenth grade – physics had gotten the best of me and I figured I would never need it for the career I would eventually settle into. Heck, even Facebook’s “Are you right brained or left brained” overwhelmingly told me that I was a right brain – someone who does not do well in math and science.
However, as of late, I’ve been thinking a lot about Sir Isaac Newton’s laws of motion, particularly this one:

“Every action has an equal and opposite reaction”

Okay, I admit, I really haven’t been thinking about Newton’s laws in the way that Newton would have wanted. Instead of using Newton in a scientific way, I’ve been thinking about how spot on Newton was with this law in regards to social responsibility. Simply put, every “simple” thing that we do, has a reaction somehow, somewhere. For example, I may be sitting at my desk, typing this blog, enjoying my solitude, and cup of coffee, not having too many worries or cares, but the very keys that I type on – where were they produced and what effect did they have on the people who assembled my MacBook? Unfortunately, as lovely as Apple computers are, I know that they aren’t produced as “user-friendly” as the computer itself. They’re produced in sweatshops that use terrible means to get out the product – ridiculously long days, unfair wages, etc.
What can we do to stop this? I suppose if more people demanded that people be treated fairly instead of profit being the only bottom line, perhaps the demand would increase the supply in the human rights field.

Anyway, just think about it. Everything that you do has costed someone, something. Whether the cost be environmental degradation or a young person working for pennies a day in a factory, everything that we consume and do has an equal and opposite reaction.

Life is not easy

I could take the easy way. I could.
I could not care, just finish school, and start from there.
It’s so easy to say I go to school, yet so hard to keep up with everything going on around me.

I need my space.
I can go back to the start and find a way to blame myself, but I honestly couldn’t keep up with rent and living.

There’s something wrong with me, and everyone around me.
I can’t finish my work.
My passion is lost somewhere inside of me.

The people around me have self-destruct.
Suicides, drugs gone out of control, mismanagement, common errors, joblessness – everyone is sad and everyone is mad.
They’re bringing me down.
I’m bringing me down.

Follow up to ‘Frustrations in War’ – More Schools Not Troops

This is just a follow up to my previous post. It’s actually this totally big coincidence, really. To start, I had requested this book at the library called Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by these two authors I’ve previously never read. I was really excited because this author who I love, Greg Mortenson, who wrote Three Cups of Tea, gave this raving review of this book. I got the book, started reading it, and wrote that blog on how I don’t believe we should send more troops to Afghanistan, rather build schools and create for them an education system for both boys and girls.
Fast forward to me sitting down in my Economic Geography class, pulling out my New York Times, and reading this op-ed titled “More Schools, Not Troops.” It was by far one of the best op-eds I’ve ever read. Here’s let me share with you some of the points and facts the journalist made:

” For the cost of a single additional soldier stationed in Afghanistan for one year, we could build roughly 20 schools there.”

“The hawks respond: It’s naïve to think that you can sprinkle a bit of education on a war-torn society. It’s impossible to build schools now because the Taliban will blow them up…Greg Mortenson, author of “Three Cups of Tea,” has now built 39 schools in Afghanistan and 92 in Pakistan — and not one has been burned down or closed. The aid organization CARE has 295 schools educating 50,000 girls in Afghanistan, and not a single one has been closed or burned by the Taliban. The Afghan Institute of Learning, another aid group, has 32 schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan, with none closed by the Taliban (although local communities have temporarily suspended three for security reasons).”

“Since 9/11, the United States has spent $15 billion in Pakistan, mostly on military support, and today Pakistan is more unstable than ever. In contrast, Bangladesh, which until 1971 was a part of Pakistan, has focused on education in a way that Pakistan never did. Bangladesh now has more girls in high school than boys. (In contrast, only 3 percent of Pakistani women in the tribal areas are literate.)”

“For roughly the same cost as stationing 40,000 troops in Afghanistan for one year, we could educate the great majority of the 75 million children worldwide who, according to Unicef, are not getting even a primary education. We won’t turn them into graduate students, but we can help them achieve literacy. Such a vast global education campaign would reduce poverty, cut birth rates, improve America’s image in the world, promote stability and chip away at extremism.”

This op-ed was written by Nicholas D. Kristof, author of the book Half the Sky, which is what makes it really coincidental. I found it heartbreaking that the United States is not establishing schools in the places they are so readily willing to bomb. How man Iraqi and Afghani civilians do we slaughter because we thought a high Taliban leader was located in the house in the midst of a neighborhood? According to Iraq Body Count (www.iraqbodycount.org), 102, 330 have been documented and identified as victims of catastrophe. This does not include the many many many more who were never identified. On top of that, this doesn’t include casualties in Afghanistan and even neighboring Pakistan.

Let’s tackle the main problem – the uneducated little boys and little girls who are being attracted to the Taliban because it’s a family for them. They are taken better care of by the very people who use religion in the worst way possible – by destroying human lives for the sake of their God.

To follow Nicholas Kristof’s blog, go here:

http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/

Frustrations in War

“War is over if you want it.” At least that’s what John Lennon said int he early 70s. But here we are nearly forty years later and it’s more rampant and prevalent than ever. Well, I want it over so why is it seemingly just beginning?

Yesterday, 16 U.S. troops were killed in two separate helicopter crashes. This is not including NATO troops and the DEA officials who were killed as well. Today, as you can see below, eight U.S. troops were killed. And the day is not over…

I’m so tired of war. From the wars and genocides thousands of miles away that are usually left unknown in Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, China, and Palestine, to the more familiar ones in Iraq and Afghanistan, why are we allowing this to happen? Why are we coming together in this war of choice and calling it a war of necessity? We hang yellow ribbons around our trees, we start “Support our Troops” groups on Facebook, but why don’t we actually end these wars by standing up to our elected officials and telling them, “Enough is enough”?

Here’s an idea: Let’s go over to Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan with loads of schoolbooks. With open arms, let’s show them along the path of nonviolence. For an education is the foundation for living a flourishing life. Let’s give the little boys and girls another option – instead of bring recruited by the Taliban because of having a weak education system, let’s establish one, for that would be a much better investment than watching every day hundreds of Iraqi men, women, and children slaughtered because of car bombers.

How would you feel if you knew you weren’t safe? You don’t have the resources available to move away, but you hope every day that you don’t die. You want to keep your family safe, but you can only do so much because of the unstable government and Taliban regime. War will not stave off the Taliban. Fight the Taliban with goodwill and investment through education. Sit down and talk with the government of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. How much longer are we going to exploit them for their resources (oil)?

To conclude my ramblings, a quote from Harry Patch, one of the oldest WW1 veterans who recently passed away:
“It wasn’t worth it. No war is worth it. No war is worth the loss of a couple of lives let alone thousands. T’isn’t worth it…the First World War, if you boil it down, what was it? Nothing but a family row. That’s what caused it. The Second World War…Hitler wanted to govern Europe, nothing to it. I would have taken the Kaiser, his son, Hitler and the people on his side and bloody shot them. Out the way and saved millions of lives. T’isn’t worth it.”

Why Life is Amazing – a Blog Never Written

So life is pretty great. And I’m saying this while knocking on a fake wood pillow desk, but nonetheless, I’m hoping this doesn’t jinx the rare instance of my luck. Why my life is amazing right now (the brief version, as I’ve got a few pages to write for a paper):
1.) I’ve officially been accepted to study abroad in Chengdu, China. I was conditionally accepted awhile back, but here’s looking to great times!

2.) …um, I’m going to Chengdu, China. Seriously!? How did this happen? How are my dreams in life actually amounting to something? Sure, China was not my first pick (it was Ghana, Africa), but while one door closes, another opens, I suppose. If you would have asked me in June if I were going to China like I said I was, I honestly would have doubted it. I had no passions. Even when I talked to Tristan I had no passion. Then I researched and read about all of their human rights violations (which made me sick) and it was then that it clicked — China is the best place to start. Why not learn Chinese? I am the only person holding myself back now, and I’ve had enough of setbacks. No more setbacks on my behalf.
3.) Irene Kahn, Secretary General of Amnesty International (yes, my dream internship/favorite NGO (along with Human Rights Watch)) tweeted me. Yes, me. I tweeted her first just a short blurb on how I appreciate her caring for the oppressed, and she responded. How freaking sweet is that? My month has been made.

I can’t wait for my life to start. I’m so glad I have passion. I know I usually don’t like to talk good about myself (which I found out is a problem and why my self-esteem can teeter the edge of no return), but I’m so happy that I have passion. I thought I had lost it for awhile. I thought it was gone with my journalism major. For so long I was focused on one thing – journalism. I still love journalism, I do, but it’s not for me. I know plenty of journalistas out there and they care so much about it and have such passion driving them, but when I was majoring in journalism at IUSB, I felt stuck between a rock and a hard place. I love “getting the story” out and being the first one to know the information, but I want to help and serve people before I make a living off of their misery. Once again, please don’t get me wrong, my journalist friends have passion and have hearts – it’s why they do what they do – but I feel so much is gained off of someone’s misery even though they ARE the people informing us of the atrocities in the world. Journalism as a whole has crossed the line and for the most part (aside from certain websites and Current TV), mainstream journalism is not what it’s supposed to have been.

Anyway, I’ve got a paper to write. I’ve not even started on it though it’s only like two pages and I know what I’m going to write. Goodnight my loves.