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| 2010/08/05 15:42:04瀏覽4400｜回應15｜推薦68 | |
妳 email 來 Personal Statement, 要我連畢業證書影印本及大學成績單原版一齊寄給妳九月將去的研究所. 看了妳的文章,好感動又好感慨. 這就是我的女兒嗎? 那個小時候總在我下班前把當天寫的圖畫故事作成一本小書, 留在信箱等我拿信時取出的小女孩嗎? 那個喜歡畫畫,在紙上替模特兒設計服裝, 想去好萊塢當明星的初中生? 那個帶頭領同學去反伊拉克戰爭遊行的高中生? 那個走遍大江南北, 想救世界的大女孩? 一直知道妳有自己的理想, 也看到這些年來,妳一步步朝自己的理想邁進. 暗地裡, 我卻是天天在等, 等妳倦鳥歸巢, 等妳有朝一日放棄妳的理想主義, 回來我的身邊, 結婚生子, 過一個平凡女子的生活. 讀了妳的自述 , 我再一次告訴自己, 放手吧! 讓她自由翱翔吧! 這樣悲天憫人,想救苦難世界的心, 並不是每個人都有. 從小在優裕環境中長大的妳,卻願意走出安樂窩,去聆聽弱者的心聲, 去關懷一些被世界放棄的角落, 世界之所以美麗, 不就因為有這些像 史懷哲, 特蕾莎修女之類的傻子嗎? 以前,我一直不懂, 為甚麼有人喜歡去沖浪, 登喜馬拉雅山, 玩飛機, 當警察, 當職業軍人?? 這些對我而言, 都是危險的事, 尤其電影和記錄片上,好多人想去征服鮮人去的高難度的山, 都沒再回來. 直到妳高二堅持要去非州肯亞, 大一大二暑假自己去印度, 大三去約旦, 畢業後去葉門, 九月又要去巴黎...每件事, 從起初的擔心到事後的鬆一口氣,我不斷在經歷中學習. 看到妳一而再, 再而三的接受挑戰, 我才慢慢明白, 為甚麼這麼多人在作那些很多人覺得危險的事. 因為, 他們心中有一座山催逼著他們去征服. 那個呼喚的力量, 只有他們自己懂. 而且, 他們絲毫不覺得那有甚麼危險, 那有甚麼苦. 雖然我知道妳心中的那座山, 是我心上的一塊石頭, 直到妳征服了山, 我的石頭才會放下來. 然而, 祝福妳, 我的女兒, 願上帝幫助妳, 讓妳的夢想早日實現! **後記: 讀"大海與天空" 的 "Why do you climb a mountain", 回應寫著寫著, 竟想起女兒的種種, 是為記** ************************************************** 女兒的Personal Statement: My education in international affairs began not with my university education, with its neat, all-encompassing political and economic theories. Rather it began when I left the comfort of the U.S. in search of deeper understanding of the issues. The many villages, cities, and countries that I have called home over the past few years have been my places of discourse, my lecture halls, and my instructors. My first independent experience abroad was in 2001, with a short-term service project in Ekwanda, a rural village in western Kenya. The summer after my first year in college, I traveled to Kerala, India, working for the development of a rural school called St. Joseph International Academy. My original intent was to work as an English teacher, but I soon realized I could have a wider and longer-lasting impact by training the staff and teachers, who would pass those lessons down class after class. It was my first lesson in sustainability. I spent the following summer in New Delhi, on a research grant. But my focus was on the street children and beggars against the backdrop of wealth and new technology. The widening gap haunted me and I wondered why such disparity existed in a place of such promising new industry. The following year I found myself in Amman, Jordan as part of a study-abroad program. I spent most of my time visiting remote villages scattered throughout Jordan, getting to know a dying Bedouin culture and a fellahin lifestyle that was almost forgotten amidst Amman’s western façade. While there, I interned at the International Organization for Migration-Iraq, which was providing services and repatriation programs for Iraqi refugees and IDPs. It was working with this organization that I was first really introduced to the plight of the refugee. I became involved with humanitarian work through the weekend food distribution activities of an organization called Tzu Ji, and independently organized a school supplies drive for Al-Ruweishid camp, on the Iraqi-Jordan border. Following Jordan, I traveled through the Middle East, Caucuses, and Central Asia, spanning a diverse array of cultures, societies, and governments and gaining insight into the larger Muslim world with its varied and colorful histories. Upon graduating, I worked as a community mobilizer for a labor union in California. Our role was to identify leaders from among the workers themselves, as well as potential allies from the community. In doing so, the authoritative body was faced with a campaign that came not just from their staff, but also from a strong, collective front that drew from within their own community and social networks. It was an effective and comprehensive approach to making change. As inspiring as the labor struggle was, I was nevertheless drawn back to the Middle East. I came to Yemen in December 2007 to work at the Yemen College of Middle Eastern Studies. My role was to facilitate the cultural adjustment of foreign students, introducing them to the different facets of Yemeni culture, life, history, and landscapes. Yemen was a country at once challenging and fascinating. Unlike Turkey or Jordan, countries torn between westernization and their own futures, Yemen was a country struggling not to regress, barely sustainable in its governance and resources. In 2008 I became Project Manager for ADRA Yemen, an international development and relief organization. My project, the Local Integration of Refugees Project, focused on educational initiatives, micro-finance, self-reliance, advocacy and awareness campaigns, and community development for Somali and Oromo refugees in Aden and later, Sana’a. My team consisted of 30 staff. Together we established programs to build the capacity of both the refugee and host communities for livelihoods and social co-existence. I became known for working hard and working fast, never taking “no” for an answer, always looking to find creative ways to work around inefficiencies and obstacles that the culture and environment presented us with. Particularly in Aden, where years of government neglect had created overwhelming levels of unemployment, it was difficult to justify providing income-generating activities and vocational training to refugees when the job market was already saturated with Yemeni workers racing to the bottom. In addition, we were faced with a population that looked down on refugees with racial stereotypes. To counter this, we pioneered volunteer programs that created a mutually beneficial relationship between the two communities. My experience traveling in over 20 developing countries in the world has allowed me to observe the double-sided trends in international development. I understand the exploitation, race-to-the-bottom and unsustainable industrial practices that “globalization” can impose on a nation. And I have witnessed desperate situations, where even four dollars a day would mean the difference between feeding one's family or going hungry. I am aware of the endangered status of cultures, whose introduction to “industrialization” threaten to push their traditions and unique social structures and languages to extinction. At the same time, it is not my right to dictate which societies receive access to information and technology. I have worked extensively in various fields of development and humanitarian work. Most projects have been plagued with inefficiencies and misguided priorities, providing short-term "band-aids" rather than sustainable trajectories for development. I believe that humanitarian organizations can be beneficial and necessary, but a paradigm shift is required if they are to do less harm than good. Such a shift must include the development of new, more accurate indicators to gauge the success of their work, and breaking of the dependency cycle between donor, organization, and beneficiary. The world of international development is one rife with paradoxes, and it is our challenge in the coming years to find ways to reconcile these contradictions and find the solutions that will bridge the gaps between cultural preservation, improved quality of life, and economic advancement. It is these solutions I intend to pursue by blending my own personal experiences and understanding with my graduate education.
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