Diversity in America: Good or Bad?

America: The Country of Immigrants they call it. We are known to be a land of sanction, freedom, and opportunity. That's what we're supposed to be built on, right?
Fast forward a good, say, 300 years later and many die-hard patriots (you know, the ones who live in the heart of the South, drive pickup trucks, and plaster the Confederate flag whenever they can) are frightened for the future of America because we are one of the most ethnically, religiously, and racially diverse countries. We are continuing to be the Land of Immigrants, however this time, many of us aren't white.

In 2012, minority births outnumbered white births in America,

and having started just this year, minorities have outnumbered white people in U.S public schools. So, what does this mean for the future of America? What will we look like, say, 20 years from now? Are the great liberties and freedoms our forefathers worked to build diminishing with the aliens coming into our country every day and taking our jobs?

Well, no, not really. First, off, immigrants are not stealing jobs from U.S. citizens, in fact, if we threw out every illegal alien in the country, our economy would plummet, because they are in fact, taking jobs no one else will take. From dishwashers, maids, garbage truck workers, meat and dairy factory workers, and many other unappealing careers, these are really most of the jobs illegal immigrants take, because well, what other job would they be able to get? And really, who else would take these jobs?

Second, diversity is more good than bad. While diversity can lead to resentment, hatefulness, and the like, it creates a wide variety of influence, ideas, attitudes, and mindsets. Being among a diverse community, you learn about the many lives and experiences of others from all over the world and you are brought new ideas and fresh perceptions. Diverse communities will bring about diverse schools, giving children a wide variety of cultures, which will make them better prepared for the world ahead. Take my friend Annabelle for example. Being friends with Annabelle this year, has brought us both many new experiences and mindsets. For me, it's because she's Catholic, and for her, because I'm a Muslim Arab, which is something she was never exposed to at her past Catholic school. In a recent conversation, she admitted that by being friends with someone not white, she had learned a lot and it had opened her mind to many new ideas. Well, that made me feel pretty flattered.

I digress, being in a diverse community teaches us a lot. We can and DO benefit from these communities in a variety of ways and learn a lot about other beliefs. We are working our way towards more open and diverse minds.

Volunteering Abroad: Is It For You?

The idea of joining the Peace Corps is something that to me- sounds both terribly interesting and excitingly frightening. Spending a year or two volunteering and giving back while making the experience of your life in a far off mysterious country does sound very appealing to someone like me, but you could also see why it would be absolutely terrifying to others.

While it's incredibly difficult to get into the Peace Corps, it's something I definitely aspire to do when I'm older, perhaps after college. With a doing a little bit of research way ahead of my time (hey I'm curious), it sounds like a process I would be willing to do. At least, for now. Because my goals and aspirations will definitely be different when I'm 22, but for now I can always dream. 

Anyway, getting into the Peace Corps is a challenge, to be able to, you must go through a long application process that can take months, medical examinations, and application expenses, as well as travel expenses once you actually get in. Then, through the Peace Corps, you can choose over 140 countries to be apart of ranging from the Caribbean, South America, Eastern Europe, Asia, and Africa. You can work in education, agriculture, the environment, health, community and economic development, and youth in development. So there are various opportunities for everyone. You must go through an intense language program that teaches you all you need to know about the language a few months before you begin.
Fortunately, the Peace Corps isn't the only volunteer abroad program you can join. GoAbroad, CrossCulturalSolutions, and Projects-Abroad are a few of the many programs you can go through to volunteer abroad and give back to the global community.
So now that you may be actually interested in it, what exactly do you have to go through when volunteering abroad? Well, from what I've heard, it's definitely not a walk in the park. You are surrounded by a completely different culture, away from your friends and family, surrounded by people who look at you in a strange way. You must deal with a new lifestyle, most of the time not as luxurious as the one you had back home, since you are in developing cities and villages.
All in all, it is said that while this may be very different from what you're used to, it will be an experience of a lifetime. You will be meeting new people, learning new things, passing on your own knowledge, and most of all making a positive difference to the community around you.
With that being said; I can't wait.

Days of Glory: The Forgotten Heroes Of WWII

Rachid Bouchareb, a French Algerian filmmaker, tells the heartwrenching yet amazing story of WWII's forgotten soldiers, who were left scattered in the remains of the many damaged ruins of what belonged to that war.

This film was based off of the many colonized African soldiers who were recruited for the war, and were to ultimately give their lives for France. The movie focuses on 4 main characters, all from different parts of Algeria who are both Berber and Arab: Said, Yassir, Messaoud, and Abdelkader, who are faced with cruel and hateful torments, yet are still there to stand up for a country where the torment comes from: their "beloved" France. 

To put it bluntly: I loved the film. I watched it with the family, because they too, had an interest in what the movie was about. There were many things about my own culture that I learned because of it and it almost made me proud to be an Algerian, because I witnessed the heroic actions and behaviors of people from my own country and the cruel colonization they had to deal with. 

Onto the criticisms; as an Algerian with grandparents and great-grandparents who witnessed what the colonization was like, there were some historical faults with the movie. In it, it was almost as if the characters were excited to fight for the motherland, that they were about to experience a new adventure and make new experiences. In reality, this was not the case. Many Algerians were resentful and did not want to participate in the war, however were forced to because, well, that's colonization. Other than that, I believe it was quite historically accurate and gave a good representation on what it was like to be an African soldier fighting for a war that didn't benefit them, and the blunt differences between the actual French soldiers and Arab soldiers and how they were treated. 

I won't spoil too much for you, but at the end of the film, it took a lot to hold back tears. It was a very emotional experience and afterwards it gave you an account of what happened to these African soldiers after the war. Many were not given pensions for their participation in the war and trials to receive these pensions are to this day ongoing. 

To wrap it up, if you are interested in history and culture, I would definitely give this film a waitch. It was a pretty accurate representation of the life of a colonial soldier and taught me a lot about it. I would give it a solid 9/10.

Whirling Dervishes: The Practice of Spiritual Meditation

Recently, I've taken a great interest in Turkish culture. To the point where every time I bring up anything to do with Turkey and it's culture, my exchange sister laughs because well-- sometimes I can talk about it a lil too much.

Anywho, a prominent part of Turkish culture is this mystical and mysterious practice called sufi whirling. Here's a video:

Any foreigner witnessing this practice might think: "What in the world are these men doing? Are they crazy? Aren't they getting dizzy?"
Just experiencing a one on one spiritual moment with God. So yes, maybe crazy depending on where your religious viewpoints lie.

These men are Whirling Dervishes of the Sufi sect of Islam, they call themselves the Mevlevi Order. Sufi Muslims are those who practice the inner mystical dimension of Islam. They devote themselves to becoming closer to God and embrace His presence in life. They do this by practicing various forms of dhikr (which is what the Mevlevi Order is considered), muraqaba, and making visitations to many historical and spiritual places. These men can not only be found in Turkey, but in many different places in the Middle East, such as Egypt, Syria, etc.

To participate in this kind of dhikr, you probably need to have a strong stomach, something I'm definitely not cut out for. Not only that, but you also must have a strong devotion to Allah and probably have a devoted interest in Sufism. To begin the practice, men wear a white frock with

 a black cape over it, as well as long felt caps with a turban underneath. A sheikh sits in the corner and as the practice begins, each man takes his black cape off and greets the sheikh, then he begins to begin the spiritual ritual by spinning in a 360 degree circle on his left foot.

This leads me to wonder how exactly this kind of ritual might bring one closer to God. Is it the trance that it brings to you when you are in the middle of it? Or might it be testing yourself to your limits? The practice is referred to as Sama- or physical meditation. Meditation gives us a heaping amount of physical, mental, and emotional benefits. It enables us to think clearly, de-stress ourselves, and our happiness and creativity increases.

Whirling Dervishes are a powerful practice that shape the culture of mystical Islam and Sufism. It is a dynamic and energetic ritual that brings a strong presence of Allah to those who practice it. 

Election Day

So today is Election Day-- AAHH! Who will win? 

My parents went out to the nearby church in plan to vote. When they arrived, they never had a chance to hear that they weren't allowed to talk, so of course they did, and the man went up to them and told them they couldn't. afterwards, they obeyed the rules and carried on their voting process without talking. Then, as they were about to put it in the ballot box, they were stopped by the man who explained that their vote would be taken into questioning based on what happened earlier. My parents found this very peculiar. Peculiar enough, in fact, that they went to a government building in downtown Linn County to report what happened. While they were there they met a woman who they explained the situation to. She burst into tears and told them that this was unfair, because she and her son were talking the whole time and nothing happened to them. This was when my parents definitely knew something was up. They told the govt official who said there was not much they could do so at this point the vote might be counted or not. As a family we were all upset and we knew exactly the reason why that man took my parents to vote. It was because of our background and he knew exactly who my parents were votig for. 

It's quite saddening knowing hardships like these still exist. When things like these happen, we are often snapped into the reality that America is far from a democracy when specific peoples' voting rights are not counted, all because of their background. 

Learning a new language

Learning new languages are extremely beneficial when it comes to travelling, your social life, your knowledge, and your future career. Languages open doors to new opportunities and experiences. These are one of the many reasons why we should all learn (and stick with) a new language.
Unfortunately, most of us are American, and with being an American teenager, you should know that the American education system is flawed in many ways, one of them being the lack of teaching languages at an early age.
The problem with teaching languages at the age they begin to teach us (AKA freshmen year in our district) is that our brains have become too developed to pick up a language easily, and it will take us many more years than it would have to learn the language and even become fluent in it. Four years of language in high school is simply not enough to become fluent in a language. It takes many, many years and quite a bit of dedication. Anyway, I'm getting off topic.
Recently, I've become very interested in learning many languages, however a language I am most interested in is Arabic. I really wanted to take a class, but was unable to because the school I currently attend doesn't teach it. So I figured since I already have a lot of background knowledge in the language because of growing up with our mosque's sunday school, speaking a dialect of Arabic, and currently living with an exchange student who's native language is Arabic. I decided to take up the language myself. I've been doing this by using many websites that will teach you Arabic, asking parents and my exchange sister for help, conversing with native speakers via my mosque and the internet, and watching movies, listening to music, and reading in Arabic. I must definitely admit, learning a language is very tough but very rewarding. I feel as though I am learning new things everyday and I like to think about where I will end up in a year. Of course, learning a language on my own is certainly more difficult than taking an hour everyday class with an educated teacher for help, but learning on my own does have it's benefits.
I encourage all of you to take up a language. There are many great sites online to learn just about any language-- even wacky ones like Flemish, Belarusian, and Azeri. Who even knew those were languages? Even getting better at the language you are learning currently, such as Chinese, Spanish, German, or Russian, you can find good sources online to aid you in your quest to unlocking the world of a new language, just find them!
Almost the rest of the world outside America speak two or more languages, so why aren't we?

Paradise Now: Movie Review

Over the weekend, I was able to make the time to watch this movie, Paradise Now, directed by Hany Abu-Assad, which is currently on Youtube. Paradise Now is a movie about two Palestinian freedom fighters who will defend their country to the grave, which is exactly what they decide to do.

Within their group of men who specialize in acts of terror against Israelis, they both volunteer to be suicide bombers, without telling their family. 

Said, one of the two suicide bombers, tends to be a very serious man with a very loving family, a beautiful mysterious new girl in town that he takes an interest in, and a humiliating past that he feels he needs to make up for. He does this by volunteering to become a suicide bomber. His friend, Khaled is filled with more humor than Said, and tends to be very impulsive. But who wouldn't if they decided to become an actual suicide bomber? 

Anywho, when the time comes, their plan goes horribly wrong, and they are almost caught by the Israeli police. Khaled and Said run off, separating themselves from each other. Khaled finds the group he was previously with while Said strays off and loses them after they frantically decide they have to leave to find Said. And so it goes for almost the rest of the movie Said going from place to place trying to find his group while his group is trying to find him, all the while he has a bomb attached around his chest. 

Abu-Assad described the film along the lines of something like this: "The film is an artistic point of view of that political issue. The politicians want to see it as black and white, good and evil, and art wants to see it as a human thing." I completely agreed with this description, because in reality, this issue it quite possibly a very messy one, and most of us have firm views on it, when in reality the opinions we hold on the conflict are much more complicated than we would assume, whether we believe in peace, or one country or the other needing to defend itself, and we must take into account the human stance on it rather than the political. 

I also really liked this movie because it was not necessarily on one side or the other, but it merely gave a fictional insight on the life of someone who had to go through this problem and want so desperately to fight for what they believed in. I would give this film a 4.5/5, because it was a good portrayal of the inside life, and the ending shocked me to where I was thinking about it for days afterwards.