Thursday, January 29, 2009

People are lovely

Walking to my house from the bus stop about an hour ago, a father was carrying his daughter home behind me. She was concerned about all the cars and kept asking him, what if one of them hit her? What if a bus hit her?

He replied: "Ain't nobody gonna hit you, ain't nobody gonna hit you. That's why I'm here; don't you know that?"

It was one of the sweetest exchanges I've had the honor to overhear recently.

Thesis project!

I actually started writing my thesis today- I have about 500 words in a document! I met with my mentor on Monday and he urged me to take my timeline seriously. That, in addition to being finished with all of the pre-project paperwork, has jump-started my efforts. I organized my thoughts and goals and will easily have a fifteen page paper in a month or two, which with feedback should grow to the twenty or thirty pages it needs to be. As long as I keep plugging away!

It is, however, rather challenging to write easily comprehensible things about things about the way that policy happens in China. The book I am reading at the moment (by which I mean: it is sitting next to be in my chair at Capanna's Coffee and Gelato) says that, "China's environmental laws are general and often intentionally ambiguous" and also that the relationships between the three main policy-making entities (the Chinese Communist Party, the State Council, and the National People's Congress) are "not clearly defined- either formally or informally." Ah, well.

The book is also careful to note, however, that although many Westerners believe policy-making in China to be rigidly top-down, with decisions strictly enforced from above, regulation can definitely be influenced by regional and local entities. So, ambiguous, but not hopeless.

I feel I must remind you that you were warned this blog would be boring until I actually leave the country.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Egyptian reflections, part 2

So, my last couple of posts were kind of downers, eh? I spent a fair amount of time struggling in Egypt, but I have been spending a fair amount of time struggling with myself recently and Egypt is hardly to blame.

It is so incredible that I was able to spend two weeks in northern Africa this winter. The trip abroad was exactly what I needed to revitalize my outlook on life. It reminded me of how important it is to keep meeting new people, exploring new places, and letting myself grow. I was a bit disappointed that we spent so much of our time with the class, doing the tourism thing, and not discovering the Egypt that Egyptians experience. At the same time, we had a fantastic group. Despite horrid traffic and many uncomfortable hours spent traveling, illness and serious indigestion, unpredictable schedules and lost luggage, everyone was a joy to be around.

I am always amazed by how alive and awake I feel when traveling, despite the jetlag and unfamiliar schedules. It is incredible how meaningful the most everyday and normally tedious things become. I realized that because I have been feeling somewhat down, struggling for reasons that are perhaps understandable, I have been looking for justification for that feeling. Instead of finding ways to feel better about myself and the world. Which is not wise, I am aware. They're always there, though, aren't they? Reasons to be unhappy with myself or the world, the people around me or where I am. I often fool myself into believing that it is a sign of intelligence to see only bad in the world. We absolutely must recognize problems around us, yes, or nothing can every be done about them. But working to build an ever longer list of things that make me unhappy about the world isn't intelligence, just masochism.

I have to remember that recognizing injustice is worth something, and being willing to speak out about it something more. But my sights should be set on living an offered solution to the world's problems, even if sometimes all I can offer is a small joy in the face of hopelessness.

Monday, January 19, 2009

The Streets of Cairo, the Streets of Beijing

A thoughtful friend asked me yesterday whether I experienced the "stress of our world's socio-economic injustice" differently in Egypt than I had during the summer I spent in China, and I think my response will be greater than comment-length.

I am sure I bored my classmates in Egypt by constantly comparing what we were seeing to what I had found in China and spouting anecdotes whenever I saw an opening, but my experience in China definitely colored and informed my views in Egypt.

There were many similarities. The gauntlets of bargaining vendors shouting at tourists to buy their wares, the smog-laden skies, and seemingly lawless (at least for someone used to the empty streets and respectful driving of the Midwest) traffic all make Big City Egypt feel a lot like Big City China. In both countries I know that I was sheltered from most of the poverty and did not really get a feel for how hard life can be in poor areas, but that's true of my experience in the United States as well, so perhaps my observations are worth something anyway.

I guess one perhaps foreseeable difference is the distribution of wealth in the two countries. In China, people in the cities are generally wealthier than people in rural areas, and there is definitely a disparity between officials and peasants in the countryside, and between various classes in urban areas, but overall the goal for the last sixty years has been economic equality (whether it has every actually worked is questionable, but it's been a goal). This is not true at all in Egypt. Thirty percent of the country is unemployed and living in absolute poverty, while many businesses working internationally are wealthy by any standards. Our trip to Al-Azhar Park, a gated park where one must pay a fee to enter and walk by fountains and look out at the rooftops of Cairo, took us on a highway through the City of the Dead. Massive poverty and two earthquakes in Cairo in the last decade have left many people without/unable to afford housing, so somewhere between 3 and 5 million (million!) people are living on their family gravesites. Tourists are not allowed anywhere near, not because Egyptians want to deprive foreigners of any experience, but because of the desperation of the residents and how obviously moneyed tourists are.

Another difference involves the countries' relationships to tourism. China has only very recently, really only slowly during the 1980s and increasingly since then, opened up its borders to foreigners, and while tourism is a lucrative venture, it is not the backbone of the Chinese economy. Tourism accounts for 60% of the Egyptian economy. Tour guides have to attend four years of school to become certified and vendors speak more languages than I fear many Americans realize still exist. I am not sure if this makes poverty more or less visible in Egypt relative to China, but it certainly made me doubt I was getting any kind of a grasp of real Egyptian life.

Hmmm, Sarah. As usual you have posed a thoughtful question and I have muttered around related thoughts and am not really sure I answered it at all. I have spent most of the day with this question in the back of my mind and will continue to poke at it. Thank you for keeping me thinking!

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Egyptian reflections, part 1

I am definitely still processing my time in Egypt. I had intended to keep a detailed travel journal, and did really well with it for the first five or six days of my two week trip, but our over-packed schedule combined with my increased need for sleep when I travel (or when I am stressed, or it is cold, or I find a particularly comfortable corner, or the planets align to dictate it) slowed me down after that.

I was frustrated from the beginning that while I went on this trip for a class, most of what we involved the standard tourist run-around. But, a tourist trip to Egypt is still totally worth it, right? Absolutely. And I'm not entirely sure what should have been changed. I am very glad to be able to say that I visited both Karnak, the largest surviving temple in Egypt, and Edfu, the best preserved. Standing in these millennia-old structures was humbling and incredible and if anyone who knows anything about Egypt asks me where I've been after this trip, I'd feel foolish telling them we'd skipped those because we were worn out.

At the same time, putting this experience into perspective with my super-genius eventual life-plan to become a professor/teacher and take kids abroad, I am pretty sure I am going to be a jerk about it. I would take students to a couple of important tourist-ish sites, and then probably offer to help them set up an extended visit after the class if they need more tourism. I have also decided that the lab which sponsored the trip should pay me to coordinate international research projects and supervise studies abroad when I get back to the US in a couple of years (I am composing an email to my advisor about that super-genius plan as I write this).

I spent at least a couple of days downright disgusted, though thankfully I was able to keep the nastiness of my criticisms to my self. The first Sunday I was there, our class had not officially started but our tour group offered to arrange to show us around Coptic Cairo and the largest Mosque in Egypt, and all of us who were there agreed happily. We walked through ancient houses of worship and Roman-fortress-turned-churches, and on the way from the Mosque of Ibn Tulun to a Medieval market building, we were walking along the sidewalk of a busy street in Cairo. I was overwhelmed and trying to process all of the traffic, noise, pollution, vibrant colors, and fascinating people we were walking through. A child caught my eye. He or she was about a year old, probably, and sitting on the curb of a racing street (as much as traffic that congested can race) playing with the broken shards of a headlight cover.
I reeled as our guide continued pushing through the crowd. I am sure that living in a country with massive poverty and a 30% unemployment rate make it necessary to be able to just walk passed people in all kinds of misery, but I could not believe that our group of intelligent, progressive, and sustainability-minded scientists and engineers could come to a country with these problems and spend two weeks touring.

Of course, that is not all we did. And I have yet to get a good feel for what is possible considering the oppressive political situation, and even beyond that the corruption that is said to be rampant among officials. Basically: If I am able to make it back to Egypt, it will be with different goals in mind. I am very grateful for all I did learn on this trip, which I am finding was much more than I had believed while it was happening.


Saturday, January 17, 2009

First Post!

I've had a tab open in Firefox on my laptop most of this week with blogger.com open reminding me to name and begin this journal. I'm not sure what title I could use that will still feel right to me in a couple of years; it's pretty certain that I will learn and grow more by spending this time abroad than I can really imagine.

The adventures that prompted me to create this journal won't begin until after I graduate in May, but the two weeks I just spent in Egypt convinced me that I need a place like this to share my thoughts while I am away. Until then I will be using this space to organize my thoughts on past travels and prepare for the journeys ahead, so the wise among you may wait a few months before deciding to watch this journal. If, that is, you decide to watch it at all.

I am so excited to explore this incredible world we live in, and delighted to be able to share my experiences with you, dear people!