Siren Song
I feel increasing the siren call of the Middle East. From day to day, news article to news article, where exactly I would go changes, but after years of study of the region and its culture, history, economics and politics, it has become an almost insistent need. After reading the past few days on BBC and NYTimes about the worsening [moreso than usual] situation in Palestine, it is the Holy Land that calls me.
Regardless of my suspicions of a Jewish ancestry, I feel that I would have to devote my efforts either in Israel through human rights organizations, or in Palestine itself. On the ground is a place for the young, without families and obligations and ties to a structured life in American society. The twenties and into the thirties is a time for dedication to greater struggles than those of earning one's daily bread, buying a house, and building a family.
I do not deny that these are eventually essentials in some sense. Rather, I feel no pressing need for them now. I hear instead the need of those facing severe repression of their basic human rights [as defined by the UN charter]. My background thusly predisposes me to be most useful and knowledgable within the Middle East and most specifically in former French and Belgian colonies. Lebanon, Syria, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria...but still also Israel. Although I am interested in programs offered at Indiana University, part of me wants to go to Tel Aviv or Istanbul or another cosmopolitan capital for a Masters program.
The current plan is to spend the summer beginning studies of the complexities of the Arabic language. It's a place to start, to be taking action, to become prepared. Ca ira, et dans les mois et les annees qui procede, je agirai. Mais jamais sans etre le mieux preparer que possible.
[It will go on, and in the months in years before me, I will take action. But never without being the most prepared possible.]
Regardless of my suspicions of a Jewish ancestry, I feel that I would have to devote my efforts either in Israel through human rights organizations, or in Palestine itself. On the ground is a place for the young, without families and obligations and ties to a structured life in American society. The twenties and into the thirties is a time for dedication to greater struggles than those of earning one's daily bread, buying a house, and building a family.
I do not deny that these are eventually essentials in some sense. Rather, I feel no pressing need for them now. I hear instead the need of those facing severe repression of their basic human rights [as defined by the UN charter]. My background thusly predisposes me to be most useful and knowledgable within the Middle East and most specifically in former French and Belgian colonies. Lebanon, Syria, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria...but still also Israel. Although I am interested in programs offered at Indiana University, part of me wants to go to Tel Aviv or Istanbul or another cosmopolitan capital for a Masters program.
The current plan is to spend the summer beginning studies of the complexities of the Arabic language. It's a place to start, to be taking action, to become prepared. Ca ira, et dans les mois et les annees qui procede, je agirai. Mais jamais sans etre le mieux preparer que possible.
[It will go on, and in the months in years before me, I will take action. But never without being the most prepared possible.]
posted by Kari Stevenson @ 7:09 AM
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