Tuesday, March 6, 2012

The Culture Blogs: Shades of Brown (3 of 3)

As I conclude my series of blogs on black men (here is part 1 and part 2) , I realize I have left out a huge demographic of black men.  I could talk about what blackhood is internationally, but it occurred to me that I need to address blackhood of those in third world countries.  To be honest this idea came from my wife.  Thank you, Sweetheart, for your support!

As the center piece of the living room when one walks into my home they will see this picture.  Okay you caught me, I'm a Christian.  But this isn't about Christ.  It is about the little boy.  He's a real little boy from Africa.  The painter is a woman by the name of Liz Lemon Swindle.  She shares about an the experience she had in Africa back in 2007 with the organization Mothers without Borders (the full story can be found here).  The little boys name is Kennedy.  At the age of three Kennedy had lost both of his parents to AIDS and lived alone with his six year old brother and their ten year old sister.   You may have seen the internet meme of first world problems, and third world problems.  The reality of it is that they are worse than most realize.

We all are aware of AIDS being a problem in Africa.  Much of this comes from the common practice of prostitution in Africa.  Often the cases involve transactional sexual relationships between older men and younger women and girls.  According to a fact sheet on www.unaids.org "An estimated 22.5 million [20.9 million–24.2 million] people living with HIV resided in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2009, representing 68% of the global HIV burden."  While that information isn't current, I don't expect that it has changed significantly, especially considering that the use of condoms in Africa is a cultural taboo.  Now while we in a First World Country will complain about our healthcare system and how terrible it is, the truth of the matter is: We have a healthcare system.

Let us consider another problem of Africa, this comes particularly from the Congo, because this is where I have heard of it occurring the most.  This problem is known as the fistula.  According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary a fistula is: 

An abnormal passage that leads from an abscess or hollow organ or part to the body surface or from one hollow organ to part to another and that may be surgically created to permit passage of fluids or secretions.

Because of poor training among medical staff, complications during childbirth, or rape women are left incontinent because of a fistula or rupture between the lining of the vagina and bladder or rectum.  According to various sources (This material can be disturbing, please take caution in reviewing source 1 & source 2) you'll get different pictures of the epidemic.  Whether you believe that most of it is being caused by the lack of medical understanding or the brutalization of women most of us don't have to worry about that being common among us.

Last of all the issues we'll discuss today is the problem of First World e-waste being sent to Africa for recycling.  So what happens is we throw away our electronics and through various means it finds its way to Africa where families Africa make their living off of stripping them of the valuable metals that are within them such as: gold, copper, and other rare earth metals.  The problem with this is that in order to do this they have to contend with dangerous metals such as: mercury and lead.

If you notice in this picture you have various folks in a family stripping the metals from electronics to sell.  The fumes coming from the burning electronics is dangerous.  The possibility of coming in contact with the dangerous metals is deadly.  And they have no safety or health regulations, no healthcare to support them if someone gets sick and worst of all it is such an important industry to the people that they would rebel if you attempted to take it from them.  They need it to support their families.  Millions of people supporting their families this way is even more frightening when you realize that the annual revenue of the industry is only 268 million a year currently.  That means these folks are risking their lives for very little money.  And oftentimes we complain about how terrible our government and political system is.

Now you may be asking, "Mr. Garrett isn't this supposed to be about black men?"  It is.  Every black man I've met who has come from Africa has been an impeccable gentleman.  Smart, well cultured, and thoughtful.  But we often don't consider the cost for these men to leave.  A Long Way Gone is a book I read a few years ago that was written by a young man who was a child soldier in Sierra Leone.  His story is amazing, especially when you realize what a good person he has become.  But that wasn't an easy journey.

These are things to consider when you think about black men around the world.  What kind of circumstances are they dealing with?  How does a young black man deal with a mistake that leaves him with HIV?  How do you think they deal with their wives and daughters having fistulas?  Or how are they dealing with having children ill from the means by which they make their money each day?  Our world is so much more complicated than we can even comprehend.  Oft as Americans we think we are superior to others because of where we live.  We minimize the importance of the cultures and lives of others around the world.  Both as readers and writers we have the responsibility of seeing the world as it really is and trying to make things better for those within the sphere of influence we have chosen.  I don't have the money to invest in making these people's lives better.  But I have the time to inform you about them.

As I close out this series of blogs, I want to express my gratitude for the opportunities that I have been given to live in the United States with freedom to live my life as I will.  I am so grateful to have a healthcare system and government regulations to protect me.  More than anything I'm glad to never have to worry about if anything so terrible as a fistula will take place to my wife during childbirth.  I chose to write on this subject as a small way of expressing my gratitude for all I have.

Another small way of expressing my gratitude is my monthly book give away.  This month I'm giving away one bundle of books.  Karen Sandler's Tankborn (one of my reads for this month) and Samuel Delany's Dhalgren.  For each person who follows the blog (inclusive to those who joined since the beginning of March) I'll put your name into the contest three times.  And for each person who comments on each post for the month I'll put you down for one per comment.  A blog is a conversation, and this is just a little way for me to say thanks for talking with me.

Next time I'll have my Mashup for Wednesday and my ROW80 goals for this week.  This is Jayrod Garrett, the First OG, with just one question for you.  Did this make you grateful for the life you have?

19 comments:

  1. Reading this really humbled me. We have it so good, and how much do we take for granted? I wish there was so much more I could do to help those poor people. God Bless you Jayrod!

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    1. I'm simply glad to have made you more aware and grateful, Jennifer.

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  2. That broke my heart! And, yes, it does make me grateful for what I have. Thanks for giving me a better perspective today.

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    1. No problem Angie. Glad to help shift gears into a more thoughtful place.

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  3. What a sad and beautiful post. I lived in Ghana for several months and learned some of these things first hand. It's amazing how much we take for granted. Thank you for the reminder.

    I'm glad to have found your blog! I write science fiction myself, and love the perspective here of multiculturalism in the genre.

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    1. You are welcome, Shallee.

      I'm thrilled to have you as a follower. Feel free if you want a specific concept explored to shoot me an email. Having a conversation here is important to me.

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  4. I gripe about the small details sometimes, but truly, my husband and I enjoy a blessed life. Thanks for a thought-provoking series.

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    1. Not a problem, Karen. I'm looking forward to reading Tankborn this month. We writers of diversity have to look out for one another. ;D

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  5. When you mentioned men from Africa always being perfect gentleman, it made me think of my own experiences. I worked with a man in NH named Dualu for several years. I can't recall which country he was from, but it was somewhere in southern Africa. He was a gentleman indeed, but people seemed to avoid him because of his thick accent. He worked at KMart as a 2nd job, and nobody took the time to find out that his day job was as a civillian nuclear engineer at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. He was a very smart man, very kind and friendly. He asked me everyday "How's your mum?" and he would tell me what it was like living in Africa. Dualu was a stark contrast to the African "gentlemen" I sat with at your BSU ceremony a while back. They talked boldly about womens bodies, what assets they deemed attractive, and worst of all - that light skinned women were more beautiful than dark skinned women. I wanted to knock their heads together for being so blind. Of course they are entitled to their own personal preferences in women, but it's not just them - many of the cultures in Africa value light skin, especially in women. Skin lightening creams and devices are a huge business - huge. Kind of like the weight loss industry here in the US. And just like the weight loss industry, there are a lot of fads and gimmicks in skin lightening which have left many women scarred, burned, and disfigured. But they are willing to take the risk because having lighter skin will improve the kind of husband they can "get," the occupation opportunities they will be offered, and other life situations.
    This also brings to mind the practices of breast ironing, where girls families will flatten her breasts in order to make her look younger and less attractive to men - so she can stay in school longer. The mother will take a large wooden dowel, heat it in the fire, and rub, pound, and smash the breasts with it everyday for weeks or months. This leaves the girl with a lifetime of disfigurement and pain. Add in the practice of female circumcision and you start to realize that being a woman in Africa can be a painful and oppressive life. If you wind up HIV positive, your husband will just divorce you and get a shiny new wife - even if he gave you the HIV.
    It's a huge continent, and these things don't happen everywhere. A friend of mine toured several countries in Africa, and met lots of happy, healthy Africans. They were more concerned with getting clean water and education than about their shades of brown.

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    1. For the folks who read the comments, this is my wife. As you can see she is very opinionated. And in my opinion much smarter than I am. As you can deduce from this comment.

      I love you sweetheart. Thank you for always enlarging the ideas I dream up. :D

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  6. There is much work that needs to be done in this world to make it a better place for every being living on this planet. My heart goes out to these people in Africa. Sometimes I am ashamed that I am write because of what the "White Man" has done to indigenous people in the name of progress or simply conquering in the name of money.

    I will send out healing, loving thoughts and prayers to all of the people in Africa and then see it spreading to the whole world. May love and compassion spread over the earth for the good of all.

    Peace,
    Morgan

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    1. Morgan the size of your heart knows no bounds, but don't ever think this is just a "white man" problem. I believe throughout the centuries everyone has done this to everyone else in the race to be the strongest and most powerful culture. We forget that our strength lies in humility. Humility is actually another word for unity. The unity of diversity makes us unstoppable & leaves us at peace, but the pride of diversity makes us fragile and angry.

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  7. A very poignant post filled with disturbing information. I've heard and read of most of this, but never gave it much thought in comparison to my own world. Thank you for opening up my eyes. Your writing is eloquent and persuasive. I'm glad I stumbled upon you via Alex Cavanaugh's Insecure Writer's Support Group.

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    1. Nancy, I'm so glad that you found me over here. I hope to continue writing in such a way that it touches you. Thanks for your comment.

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  8. Jayrod! Every time before now I've gone to your Google profile page and MISSED the little link on the side to your blog! I've been missing out!

    I thought this was a beautiful post--thank you for sharing your thoughts on the lives of those living in Africa. I LOVE that painting of Christ and the boy. It is stunning on so many levels.

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    1. I'm glad you feel like you've been missing out Ali. I've been in the dojo doing my exercises and you just were missing the new way I was using the material you've been teaching. Glad to have some notice from our sensei. :D

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  9. A LOT of people in my ward have adopted out of Africa, including a family that I home teach. It was excruciating for them and took almost a year, but now they have two young children.

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    1. That's really amazing. My wife and I hope to adopt from Africa at some point. But it won't be for a few years yet.

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  10. I hope that you will continue with this series. I am really interested to see what other bllack men you choose to highlight. Please consider keeping it going.

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