Surrender or Starve . . .

. . . is the title of the book by Robert D. Kaplan that I'm reading right now. It's about politics in the Horn of Africa in the 20th century, and how f'd up things got. I'm only a few pages into it, so I am unable to be more erudite on the topic at the moment. I do remember, though, during the 80's, USA for Africa and "We Are the World" and all those sad gorgeous habesha faces and the vacant eyes of starving children. Come to find out that that famine was a government tactic to force rebellious ethnic groups in Ethiopia into submission (ergo the title of the book "Surrender or Starve"). I also can't help but believe that because "We Are the World" (schlocky though it is) was such a huge hit song when I was 7 years old, I am in part the adult today who possesses a realistic but total faith in humanity. Okay, maybe it's idealistic and total. But it's still total.

So then, whence the dark topics? I also ordered on Amazon this week the memoir "A Long Way Gone" by Ishmael Beah about his childhood as a boy soldier forced into drug addiction and unspeakable crimes during the civil war in Ivory Coast. I saw him interviewed by Jon Stewart on the Daily Show the other night and I ordered the book DURING the interview. Beah is a beautiful and engaging young man who has been to the darkest and ugliest places a human being can go, but he came out the other side after a difficult recovery to literally shine like an archangel on my television screen. I'm not kidding, there is a light that comes from within this man. I cannot wait to read his book.

Because of these stories, I'm remembering what someone remarked to me (was it Amity? Maybe Pats?) when I was reading about the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. I gravitate toward really depressing reading material, and subsequently visit upon my poor students some pretty dark documentaries and articles. As someone who is so committed to reinforcing the idea that we are all part of the human race, I believe that these dark stories are the ones that best illuminate for us the need to see in one another our common humanity. It's in the most gruesome stories that we see the breakdown of that understanding, and the dire consequences of that breakdown.

I believe it is also important for people who have lived in total comfort and stability to press their faces against the glass and really SEE the rest of the world. This is again something about which I am adamant with my students.

I am reading "Surrender or Starve" partially because of my friend Azeiba. She was born in Eritrea and has so patiently answered every one of my millions of questions. In fact, she goes beyond that and really seeks to teach me, and I love her for that. We were born only one day apart, on opposite sides of the world and into completely different contexts. Yet she is still "my sister from a different mister." :) I want to better understand where she is from, and what drove her family to ultimately move halfway around the world.

I'll keep you posted.