21 September 2010


Here's something interesting. yet again, a message about the value of educating women-- an essential element of development for any nation. (here and here are links to what I've blogged on this issue in the past)

a few facts (i know i may be repeating myself.. but that's okay.):

educated women generally make better use of health services and have a better understanding of hygiene, nutrition and parenting.

educated women as mothers help reduce infant mortality in children under 5 (by 10% for every additional year of schooling).

educated women reduce the fertility rate by making informed decisions and using reliable practices in family planning.

educated women are less likely to contract HIV/AIDS and thus less likely to pass the disease to children

educated women receive better wages and increase productivity in their employment.

educated women promote higher levels of education for their children. . . and their children's children and so on and so forth....

the benefits just keep on coming.


I think Philip Stevens, a senior fellow at International Policy Network, makes an important point when he says, "Education is not much good if the health facilities and infrastructure don’t exist. If a country is massively misgoverned, like Sierra Leone, no amount of education is going to put bread on the table for children.”

Education is essential.
Education for women is imperative.
But international development and poverty reduction require systematic change in every aspect of policy, infrastructure, governance, etc.

Yet, there is hope. and for every girl who is educated, we get a little closer to the kind of world that I want to live in!

data and quotes taken from "Educating Women Saves Children, Study Finds." Sept 16, 2010 in the New York Times.
Also see facts from the World Bank on this issue.

15 September 2010

moving on

yesterday BYU sent me an email congratulating me on my graduation and requesting that I:

"Please do not call Brigham Young University at this time,
as your diploma has already been mailed."

and I thought

Dear BYU,
I wasn't planning on calling.
I'm afraid you'll ask me for money (specifically the $20.10 "gift" you emailed/called me about at least 4 times before graduation).
The thing is, I don't have any right now.
Do you take IOUs?


14 September 2010

story collector

for the longest time i wanted to tell stories
i wanted to create characters and plots and themes and symbols and distill them all into words and phrases that could contain the meanings and the sensations and the emotions i conceived in those tales

but then sometimes i wonder
maybe story telling isn't what i do best

maybe rather than the transmitter i am the receptacle.
not the teller, but the told.

and maybe that's why i will sit for hours and listen to (or read or watch) the stories
of friends and family and acquaintances and strangers
maybe that's why sometimes, not knowing why,
i take on the emotions of those others
and i cry when a heart breaks
and laugh at their silliness
and joy in their content
and feel a little closer
to understanding

or a little further away

because sometimes the stories don't make sense
and i can't make them fit into the world i perceive
or the experiences of my life
so limited
that i can only try to imagine what it would be to
lose a grandson to cancer
or watch soldiers die around me
or hunger for food and shelter and warmth
or make the decision to leave the one i love, without wanting to or knowing how

and sometimes i can't imagine
i can't understand

so i listen to the stories i'm told
and hope that with each one i grow closer to seeing
the world and the lives of people, truly,
and to growing space in my heart
to comprehend
and all the things that happen here.

and maybe i will understand enough to tell the stories
and share with others those things i have heard
with grace and beauty


07 September 2010

back to the same old ways...

i may not be a student, but I can still enjoy the perks

this week at international cinema:
  1. to kill a mockingbird
  2. il postino
i'm pretty excited... and I don't have homework to get in the way!

03 September 2010

Inside out

Dear Home Intruders,

How strange the difference of a location can make. The difference of a few feet. The difference between the sides of a door. But the difference, my not-quite-friends, is essential.

It's the difference between harmless insect and evil destroyer of my domestic serenity.

You can see the problem here.

Perhaps you are simply confused. Of course, I might be too were I in your position. I confess, it is rather unusual for someone who does not want you to visit to lure you in with tempting treats and alluring dwellings which seem to call for you to occupy their unused space. This is not my doing; and I believe the temptation is less an invitation than an oversight on the part of my roommates, who have left the tantalizing surprises.

Certainly the day old, half eaten pizza hardening on the living room table appears to be begging for a visitation of flies. As does the soggy burrito remains sitting in the kitchen sink, complete with empty plastic containers for salsa, drowning in two inches of cold, murky water. And it has already attracted your more minute, bacterial friends, I can be sure. Perhaps that strange smell I encountered on entering my house at lunch was just the last straw for decay loving grubs, too enticing to pass up. But, while I don't know what it is or where it is coming from, I can tell you with certainty said scent is not meant to draw you in. None of it is, really.

So, with all due respect, I ask you to leave my home and STAY OUT!

I have nothing against you, when you're on the other side of my door, but spiders, flies, mosquitoes (and whatever else might be crawling or flying about, yet unseen), when you cross that threshold, the only word I have for you is
and maybe pest control.