Having enough?

This blog is not so much about the work or learning I have been doing here. More so about a book that I have read while being here; A life of being, having and doing enough by Wayne Miller (I would recommend everyone go out and buy this book).  We all spend our lives being busy; busy with work, busy with our lives, when is enough really enough? This is a question I have spent some time here asking myself, re-evaluating my life. When I have done enough for today? When can I be happy that I feel I can stop for the day and relax? When we spend our lives being so busy planning for the future, thinking way into a distant day, how will we know when enough is enough for today? The book argues that by looking so far ahead, we miss the pleasures of today. Maybe take a minute to think, have you done enough for today? Did you spend some time reflecting on all the good things that happened today? It isn’t easy and I imagine, for me, it will only get more difficult when I get home and back to my busy lifestyle. But I will try to take 5 minutes to reflect, did I do enough?

Sometimes we spend so much time giving, giving to friends, family and work, that we will eventually burn out and be of no use to anyone. We need to take time for ourselves. This is something we are often socialised not to do. To always be prepared to go that extra mile in our lives, to stretch to achieve the deadline before it is due, to always be ready to be a shoulder to cry on, but what use are we to anyone when we don’t look after ourselves? Is it bad to say to a friend, “I need some time for me now, I will be there tomorrow” this way we are looking after our own spirits so that we can give more fully to others. How many of us get ill every time we take a holiday from our busy lives? How many of us feel like we get to the point where we “just can’t take it anymore”? I know I have felt these and it is not good for our health or our spirits. When our spirits get tired and worn out our health will deteriorate and when we are sick, we are no use to anyone.  

We are taught to constantly trying to better ourselves, to improve, to develop but when will WE be enough just the way we are?  We are daily bombarded with messages about how we can improve this aspect of our lives, how we can make our bodies look better, how we can make ourselves look younger with this product. When will we ever feel like we are enough for the world just the way we are when all we are told on a regular basis is how much we need to improve? I am not saying that personal growth is a bad thing, I don’t believe that for a second, but should it be more of a natural process which happens as we live our lives? Can we live in a way where we are enough for the world? Where we can be happy with what we have instead of always wanting more? Do we ever feel that we can be enough for those that are in our lives? I don’t know the answers to these for me personally but it is definitely something that I will reflect on and ask myself. Ask myself when I try to make the next right decision for me.

This book definitely makes you think but it is a book I would highly recommend to anyone that is willing to read it! There is a lot more I could say about the book and about my thoughts about it but that would ruin it for everyone that does now have an interest in reading it. Go on, try it!

Hyderabad: Conflicts in the name of religion?

So, that’s our final field trip completed. This time it was one to Hyderabad, a city in Andhra Pradesh, a city that has two halves; the old and the new. A cit

y with a history going back centuries with a lot of diversity’ a diversity that has been a source of peace as well as conflict through its history. An example of this conflict was demonstrated while we were there; ongoing riots were happening between the two main communities there, Hindus and Muslims. It all started on Sunday 8^th April when a Mosque had pork thrown into it, later on that day there was beef found in a Hindu Temple. For both religions th

ese are two sacrilegious acts and the communities reacted by burning shops and attacking each other. The police’s response was to put a curfew in place, banning large groups of people from being in one area at a time. In the communities where the curfew was in place, people were not allowed out of their homes and people were not allowed into the areas. A large police presence was felt all over the city and the people felt a lot of fear! Who was responsible? That depends on who you talk to. The people who are working for peace in the area believe that it is a few that organise these types of acts, these people gain something from it. They use people in order to achieve it; offering large amounts of money to the poor, offering jobs

to the unemployed and other similar tactics. The deputy commissioner of Police that we met believed it was the people and was almost suggesting that it was the Muslims at fault as they did not like the Hindu rituals (he was a Hindu himself and clearly biased against Muslims), he believed in control of the situation rather than trying to solve it. He did not think this problem was solvable. But does he benefit in some way from the riots? Is his job not safe because of the civil unrest? Who suffers the most because of these situations; the riots and the curfews? It certainly isn’t the rich in the new city, they were moving freely about! It is the poor, those that do not want the riots in the first place (we talked to a few communities that felt that they could tell us) and because of the curfew cannot move about to earn their money or buy the necessary things that they need on a daily basis. For this group of people, the money they earn is a daily wage, based on what they sell. For some, they lost money buying stock that they then could not sell because of the curfew. No one knew when it would end.

While we were there, there were more attempts at causing more riots. There are people working very strongly within the community to prevent this from happening and trying to bring peace to the people. The bad stories like the riots hit the news often, people are hurt because of the conflicts but what about the good news stories? Not everyone in Hyderabad wants this conflict surely? No they don’t. We heard some incredible stories of young people saving their fellow class mates, teacher’s children by grabbing them and hiding them in their own homes. These were Muslims saving Hindus and Hindus saving Muslims. Why do these stories never get report in the media? Does the media benefit in some way from all the conflict? When looking at conflicts like this, it is important to ask these questions; who benefits and how do they benefit? If the average person of Hyderabad suffers more as a consequence of these riots, why would they cause them?

The NGO’s that are working hard to bring about change in the communities are working really hard and in a very unique way. The Henry Martyn Institute works in the centre of a community divided between the Muslims and the Hindus. For a long time they have worked to bring these communities together to prevent more conflict. It isn’t easy work by any means but they are succeeding slowly. They know that they may not see the results in their lifetime; it may the next generation of justpeace activists that see it. This does not stop them working for it. The unique way of working; they realised people from different faiths would not come together to talk about their issues but they would come if they had a common goal; to learn skills. This has been successful, the women especially build friendships and like all friendships they grow to understand each other! They celebrate festivals together, the women from different religions come together to celebrate. A few spoil this harmony through these acts of desecration.

The religious leaders of the area have condoned the acts of violence releasing statements that they will all help in the cleanup of all religious places no matter what faith they belong to. They say that those that are causing this violence in the name of religion are doing so of their own accord. No religion preaches violence and that they will work to promote messages of peace, harmony and justice that is at the core of all religions. Does this message need to go wider than to those people of Hyderabad? Would it be beneficial to the survival and peace of humanity for more to promote this message? To stop the acts of horrific violence being done in the names of religion? Would it break the negative stereotypes so many of us have of people of other faiths? Yet again I do not know the answers to these questions, what I do know is that more people need to be asking questions instead of accepting what we are told and following it blindly.

Religion Vs Spirituality?

We have spent some time looking at different faiths, religions and spiritualities. The ones we have looked at so far are Islam, Christianity and Indigenous Spirituality. These sessions have taught me much about my own faith and the faith/spirituality of others. Which is better? Does there have to be a hierarchy of faiths? Can we/ I incorporate other aspects from different faiths/spirituality into my own? No faith is perfect, Christianity has a violent history as do other faiths. Is it only terrorism if it comes from a faith that isn’t our own? Can we admit when our own faith causes pain and suffering to others? This is something I have had to face when talking to Erica and Miriam, two indigenous people from America and Canada or Turtle Island as it is commonly and first known to them (America and Canada are the names us colonisers gave the land). The pain that Christianity has caused indigenous people by forcing our faith onto them, trying to make them abandon all aspects of their spirituality because it was seen as being “uncivilised” and wrong. Could we, as Christians learnt something from them? Take for example the value of the written word. As Christians we have the Bible as sacred text, because the indigenous people tell stories and use spoken word as a way of passing on information about their spirituality, does it make it less meaningful? I don’t think so and I think we could have learnt a lot from their way of life. The indigenous people have a relationship with the earth, something Jesus taught about as well. Christians, especially those with power, have forgotten this vital aspect of faith. They respect the earth because it sustains our live, they do not worship trees or animals, they respect them for giving their spirit to us in order to keep us alive. There is a big difference. Could we learn from them in order to protect the earth when we are making decisions that destroy it?

Their view on justice gives us something to learn from, not only from a faith perspective but as a way of life. Our justice system buts people in prison for their law breaking, this does not get to the root cause and often results in reoffending. What about the indigenous way? They look at a healing process. Could this be a better way forward?

This links to their views on life. When Erica was talking about this aspect in class it related a lot to my personal experiences. Life, for the indigenous people, is a journey not about the destination, which we seem so focused on reaching God through our life on earth. They don’t see death as the end but as the spirit leaving the physical body and continuing on their personal journey. The dead may still be with us in spirit. This helped me a lot. I have found it very difficult to go on this journey I am on knowing that there are some family members that I will not be able to share it with. To think that they are still with me and have stayed with us as a family since their death helps with the grieving process. Mine has got more complicated the older I have gotten and this helps. Could it help others to include this aspect of death into their own faith? Where does it say that God and Jesus said we could ONLY follow the Bible? This Bible was written by men years after the life of Jesus. What would he have to say about it? I got through the death of my Granddad by seeking comfort in the stars; this was my Granddad looking out for me when I needed him. This is reflected in the indigenous spirituality and it seems strange to learn about it years after I developed this relationship with the stars. Is it part of being Human to have a relationship with the environment around us? They would argue yes, Jesus would, I feel, argue yes. What would Jesus say if he could see what we are doing to his Fathers creation? The relationship with the earth and with nature should be valued and respected not taken for granted like so many of us do.

When we look at the values that Christianity teaches (I talk about Christianity because this is what I know) they are similar to those that indigenous spirituality teaches. They have 7 values or teachings that are passed down through generations through stories and each value is represented by an animal. Firstly, the eagle represents love, to act in love and to love everyone and everything, secondly is the Buffalo that represents respect, to respect everyone and everything and the essence of respect is to give (I’m sure there is something in Jesus’ teachings about this?). Thirdly, the bear to represent courage, the courage to do what is right, fourthly, the Sabe or Bigfoot represents honesty, to speak from your heart and be true to your word. Fifthly, the beaver that represents wisdom, six, the wolf represents humility, to be thankful for what you have and to find a balance within your life and finally, the turtle that represents truth, to always seek the truth and to live life truthfully. Is it me or are these similar to Jesus’ teachings? To live life by these teachings would be to follow the spirit in the teachings of Christ. So why, as Christians, did we fight so hard to get rid of it? Surely they can go hand in hand with each other if the individual so chooses to? Indigenous Spirituality teaches about freedom, the freedom to interpret teachings for yourself, the freedom to choose what you like, freedom. In the institution that is the Church; does it teach freedom or preach something else?

Many indigenous people like Jesus, his teachings and the profound person that he was. It does not make them a Christian or any less of an indigenous person. They have found a way to have a balance in their lives with Jesus and their traditional teachings. Is this possible for other Christians? Can you be a Christian and still incorporate other aspects of spirituality into it? Is this a personal decision?

Module two completed!

That is us two thirds of the way through School of Peace. We have spent the past month looking at the conflict, violence and development with a focus on the Violence of development. Who thought development could be so violent? I certainly didn’t until we started looking deeper. We have spent time looking at global economics, something I have never looked at before. It was a heavy couple of days with a lot of information to get through. For someone who doesn’t “do” numbers, it wasn’t an easy couple of sessions. The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund are controlled by America and Europe, they loan money on the basis of getting it back and with programmes that control other countries. These programmes normally benefit the big companies and rich people while the poor continue to suffer or their suffering gets worse. This cycle of loaning and borrowing money in order for development to happen is violent. The violence is controlled by the west and the root causes often unseen. The purpose is to make as much money as possible while not protecting the people. The World Trade Organisation is another form of violence that is based on the principles of making as much money as fast as you can; forget the people and the earth! Again, generally controlled by the countries with the most money is violent against the workers and the planet. When looking at free trade compared to fair trade we can see that free isn’t always fair but is fair trade power? Does it mean justice? the Irony of Aid, this is one topic that I found very interesting. The UK pledges a large amount of money to international aid each year, is this for selfish reasons? Will we benefit the most from this? Does aid really address the issues the people are facing or is it all put into “developing” that country? Will “development” of these countries feed the hungry? Give shelter to the homeless? The aid given, 80% goes back to the debt they owe the countries that have given the money, why give it in the first place? Is it only to look good to people? There are a lot of charities in England that raise LARGE sums of money each year for aid in “developing or third world countries”, the aid they offer is welfare. Are they looking at the root causes of the poverty these people are experiencing? Do we EVER listen to their stories?

We spent some time looking at different types of poverties, poverty that is created in order for the consumerist state to survive. Poverty is not just lacking in material or financical wealth but when looking at Manfred Maxneef’s Wheel of Fundamental Human Needs (if interested in more info, google it!) we can see that there are many types of poverty; the countries that have power in these institutions have sacrificed something. The countries that are materially poor have something much more valuable, an abundance of affection, understanding, creation and identity to name only a few. Those countries that have managed to secure financial power cannot even boast that ever citizen in their country has access to the basic needs; not everyone in England has shelter, food and water. What does this say about financial wealth? Is it really the development that we want? Is money created as a form of oppression? Oppression of people and of other countries? Are you still economically poor if you have no money but are able to feel rich in all areas of the Wheel of Fundamental Human Needs? I live in a developed country. Like India, the gap between the rich and poor is huge it is just hidden well. Our government provides housing for most so the homeless and slums are not as visible. There are benefit systems that enable people to “get by” with the basic amenities. This does not mean that all have all their needs met. There are downsides to living in a developed country. You either fit in or you don’t. You sacrifice some of the fundamental human needs in order to get by or to move up. Many people go without affection and some do not have a strong sense of personal identity, it is all superficial. I know this because I work with a group of young people that experience many of the hardships that our country faces. The material and spiritual poverty caused by the consumerist state? Can I go back to this work and change it for them?

With the focus of this module looking at the Violence of Development, I have been forced to look at the violence the British Empire left behind. Being British is a big part of who I am and where I come from, to know how much violence and damage my history has done is not an easy thing. Take the gold mines, (we visited an area called KFG, an area that has been used and abused for its natural resources) Sompath (our tour guide that day and a incredible man) quite rightly pointed out to me, that this could in all likelihood be my history as well as the locals. With my family background coming from the military, it is quite likely that they were involved somewhere in the Empire. To know that there is a potential for my family to have caused this much exploitation, dependency and division amongst people is not a comfortable feeling. To have to face this reality as an adult, when this part of my identity is well established is difficult, to challenge it has not been an easy journey and hearing the stories, I don’t think will ever be easy but it is something that needs to be done in order for me to truly understand the pain of the story from the other side of the coin. A lot questions came up while in the mining area and listening to the stories; did the British start the violence of development in this area? Would it have been avoidable had the mining never been allowed? Does the conversion of faith come hand in hand with the violence of development? Did the British develop the area or just exploit it? Who was the development actually for?

This is only a snippet of what we have covered and this module has raised many questions for me; the journey about discovering myself is still ongoing. Is my identity set in stone? Can it change? This journey has not only been about changing, changing my thoughts about life, work and attitude but also a journey of healing. I’m not quite sure how to explain this but I think I have started to learn about how to have a relationship with myself before I can have a relationship with others. I think I am more myself here than I have ever been; I am starting to find me. This journey is only just beginning.

Koppal: The Violence of Development

The second field trip has been completed and we were looking at the violence of development. I have to say, we were very privileged to have the opportunity to stay at the Bandhavi campus, this is one of Visthar’s campuses. It looks after girls from the DevaDasi system; their mothers are forced prostitutes in the temples and they don’t know who their fathers are. This is something that causes daily taunting for them as it is not the norm in India. We had the opportunity to walk to school with them one morning and spend some time with some of the classes there. The children are so wise. When we asked them about how they see development in their communities they did not talk about tall buildings or lots of money to buy “stuff” they simply said that it should be good, free education for all, access to healthcare, with the means to do agricultural work with lots of trees as these provide us with shade and oxygen. It was refreshing to hear children talk of their own kind of development and not that of the west or consumerist state. If this is India’s future, it has a bright one. I only hope that the generation that is in charge now does not spoil it for them. These girls were incredible and so beautiful. We certainly had some fun with them as well as all the serious stuff.

We met many people and looked at many different types of industry that looks like development. I can say I feel privileged to have met these incredible people, it was a true honour. We met women that work in the wig industry and went to a wig factory. The women could see how they had developed their lives through this work but they did not know where the hair came from or went but they had managed to put their children through some education. These women worked from home. Compare this to what we saw at the wig industry and we can see that in the process of developing India, there are huge gender imbalances. The women were given dirty, unskilled jobs compared to the men and this meant lower salary, the men got a tea break while the women didn’t, the men were working inside where there were fans while the women generally worked outside. Some felt that this was empowerment as the women were allowed to work in a factory alongside men, but is it empowerment to keep them in work that pays them less than the men? I don’t think so. The hair came from women and is generally being sold to women but they do not see the benefits of this money spent. I would ask all those who buy wigs or real hair extensions to take a minute to think about where that hair came from. The industry of the wigs is created because of vanity; this vanity is caused from the media telling us what is desirable. I will not lie, I have products that have no other purpose than my own vanity but who tells us what is beautiful? It is the media. Can we not set our own standards of beauty? These people would be out of work and therefore unable to support their families if the wig industry collapsed but before the factory came along, they worked on the land where the factory now stands. Who is development really for? Who pays the biggest price for development? The employer at the wig factory could improve the conditions in which HIS employees worked and pay them a better salary but would this really change anything? The only thing that would happen is the price of wigs and hair extensions would go up, the system is wrong and needs to transform in order for these workers to see the benefits.

We also met farmers who had large companies like PESCO trying to buy their land. We met some Swamiji’s (Hindu religious leaders) that were working with the people to help them with these issues. The farmer we met would not sell his land even though he would be offered a LOT of money for it and even though it doesn’t provide enough food to feed his family. The small plot of land gave him some status and security and he knew that the money would not buy him more land where the fields were easier to grow crops. The other farmer, who did not own land, said he was content. He had enough money in his pocket to feed his family and send his children to school, his family were content with their lives, and this was all he needed. What would happen to him if all the farm land was sold to big companies for factories? They knew very well the dangers of industry; they said they were places of illness and death and it was not a life they wanted for themselves. The factories caused pollution which affected the crops; they do not want them in their area. The Swamiji was helping the farmers keep their land and where they had been tricked into selling, trying to get it back. The companies are very clever and were using a tactic of divide and conquer; divide the farmers and then take the land. They had permission from the government to do this! The Swamiji was a very wise man and it was refreshing to see a man of education and high standing getting so involved with the people’s issues.

We visited a wind farm on the top of a mountain. I was thinking a lot about the proposals for wind farms in England and the protests that have started because they will “destroy the landscape”. Would we rather destroy the landscape now and have renewable energy or would we rather destroy the earth using nuclear power so that our future generations have no areas of natural beauty to protect? Are wind farms really that big of an eye sore? When we are looking at energy, we need to consider future generations and the legacy we are leaving them.

These are just two of the issues we looked at, there are many more, maybe I will write about them later (otherwise this post will be a mini essay!). The main thing I left with was questions; when we look at development, who defines what it is? What it looks like? And who benefits the most from it? Comparing this to who pays or sacrifices the most for it? What was sacrificed? How much does mother earth pay for development? When we buy stuff in England, do we think about where it came from? I have spent some time looking at the tags on my clothes and thinking about who made it and in what conditions? We get cheap clothes because someone, somewhere in the world is working long hours in unbearable conditions that would not be allowed in England. Is this morally right? Is consumerism at fault caused by the media or are we a little to blame I don’t know the answers and I guess they will change for each individual but these are definitely questions we need to start asking when we go on those shopping sprees in the Metro Centre, on Oxford Street or in the Trafford Centre...Is this development?

One of the beautiful sunsets in Koppal, will development destroy even this?

Module 1 complete, module 2 started

Well, officially finished the first third of SOP! Personal reflection completed and started module 2 (Conflict, Violence and development). How the first part has flown. When looking back I can see the changes in me, to jump out of my comfort zone and be prepared to accept new ways of thinking. I won't lie, the journey has not always been easy but it was never going to be easy! Hearing the history of England from the perspective of people that we, as English people, have hurt is not easy. To realise that my education has let me down in that they never taught me about the British Empire is not a comfortable feeling. People have been hurt by it and communities are still working towards healing this damage caused is not good. Why did our education let us and the people we hurt down by not telling us about it? They feel betrayed by this fact, should we feel like that too? It is hard to vocalise how I feel about it all, I think this is because I have not yet identified how I feel about it all.

Tomorrow we will celebrate International Womans Day, what will you be doing to celebrate what the strong women in your communities have done? It will be a new experience for me and I am looking forward to it.

When I look at all the issues we have been covering I am starting to realise how many priviledges I have as a white person. The fact that I do not see race as a barrier to having relationships with people is a priviledge. When you are coloured and at the hands of white people experience discrimination this is a priviledge you no longer have, the white person has taken it away from you. Even my social class gives me a status that I have never identified with. This has been a difficult lesson and one I am still learning about and will be an ongoing journey even away from India.

When we look at development, I ask the question, who defines what is development? Is it the west with all the money or is it the money that defines it? Can we not look at development in a different way, away from the economics of the capitalist society? I don't know the answer and I don't know if I will find out.

So many people here give me points to think about and I am grateful to them for it. I am learning a lot in class but even more from the people. They make the programme. Next week we go on our second of 3 field visits, this time I will be visiting Koppal. Stay tuned to find out more.

Rachel

Is India a developed country?

Well, nearly one month in and can't believe how quickly it has gone. Lots of learning going on as per usual. Some very emotional stuff which, I won't lie, has sometimes resulted in tears from a few of us (mostly girls but not always!). We have now completed our first field visit of the three we will be doing and this is what I intend to talk about.

The group I wasin went to the district Tamil Nadu, we visited lots of places and because I have not got the sheet of paper with the names on I will have to refer to them by villages (sorry). In Tamil Nadu we spent time with an organisation called SASY which works with people in the caste system called Dalits or Untouchables. If you don'tknow the caste system, I recommend you google it, it is an horrendous system that is now 3000 years old, illegal but still being practised in India, as I witnessed. Some examples of the types of things we saw and the people we spoke too are; dalit villagers being deprived of water after a recent cyclone and after trying to steal the water (they needed it to survive) their homes were burnt to the ground and one man was brutally murdered because he reported it to the police. Luckily this situation in this village has improved thanks to the work of SASY.

We met some tribal girls that had been gang raped by police while the men in their village were arrested on false charges. One of these women was pregnant. They told us their story. We were lucky enough to be there when the men were released after being imprisoned for 3 months. They had been psychologically (they were told all the details of the rapes of their wives and children) and physically tortured. Remember, they are innocent men! The police that commited the rapes are still free men, they have been suspended but are still free. The government is reluctant to act because the police were a higher caste than the tribal women (who are lower than untouchables).

We met many other villages affected by similar atrocities done to them by people who are in a higher caste than them. These are the two stories that had the biggest impact on me. The caste system affects everybody; men, women and children. Men from the upmost caste, the Brahmins often rape girls, or use them as prostitutes because they can, because they are upper caste. Did you know that this was going on in India? Is India truly a developed country as the leaders would like us all to think? I do not doubt that it is developed economically with some ofthe richest people in the world being Indian, but does this make it a developed country?

To lighten the mood a little SASY is trying really hard, with great passion to rid India ofthe caste system but it is a long process. They have made good progress over the past few years with the development of a cashew factory thatwe visited; only dalit women ran and produced the cashew nuts. They told us of how much SASY had empowered them, now dominant caste people were coming to them to get cashews! Not all dominant caste people are bad people, we met a few human rights activists from dominant castes fighting forthe rights of dalits.

Anyway, I will leave it there. When I have a better internet connection will try and post some pics.

All for now, Rachel.