“The general image of the Arab woman is that she isn’t happy…Well, we’re all pretty happy.”

Karen Hughes, under secretary of state for public diplomacy, was confronted yesterday by an audience of educated Arab women who don’t want to be “liberated” by the Bush administration. Hughes suggested in her remarks that Saudi women should be allowed to drive and fully participate in their country. Audience members drawn from the student body of Dar Al-Hekma (a liberal institution) rejected her remarks as disconnected from their personal experience, suggesting that the Bush administration’s negative image in the Arab world may present an obstacle to needed dialogue about civil participation and women’s rights in the region.

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I know what Sally Struthers looks like, and, like most of my generation, that’s not because of her filmography.  I know her from her television campaigns for Save the Children, the ones where she walks through a muddy village with her hands on the shoulders of a starving non-white child, and implores us to buy them lunch. (Or a year of lunches and some school supplies.) If I was less cynical about its campiness, I’d admit that watching starving children in a non-Western village is heartbreaking — almost heartbreaking enough for me to write a check.

That’s certainly the point. Development organizations, both domestic and international, have long used images to drive home the realities that other citizens of the world live in.  Think of how the images of New Orleans have driven a discussion about racism and poverty into the national spotlight over the past few weeks. Or how a photo of a girl in flames running down the street in Vietnam emphasized the toll of war.

But when do those images become exploitative? Where do we as potential donorsdraw the line? Ruth Gidley writes, “ fierce competition for donations in a ballooning NGO sector has led to an alarming resurgence in shock tactics that critics call “development pornography.” As donors, we want to know that our money is needed.  In giving money, we are essentially buying a product. And, as advertisers know so well, we buy what makes us feel good. Helping others makes us feel good — so are NGOs doing anything wrong in selling us an image that may result in much needed resources?

We are all done a disservice when such distorted images become emblems. As Paul Davis of Oxfam notes, “‘The idea that pervades is that Africa is a broken, dusty place without food or hope,” he said. “Many children in the UK simply don’t believe there are cars, cities or mobile phones in Africa.’” Ultimately, a more nuanced view of the world and its people would benefit the starving and poverty stricken much more than any single sponsor a child program would.

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“Imagine every morning if the teachers had the children stand up, place their hands over their hearts, and say, ‘We are one nation that denies God exists.’”

A federal judge in Sacramento, California, signed a restraining order today barring the Pledge of Allegiance from three school districts in the city. Michael Newdow, who filed suit on behalf of three unnamed parents and their children, had a similar case dismissed by the Supreme Court last year due to standing. Today’s decision may be brought up in the Roberts nomination hearings, but Roberts may follow Justice Ginsburg’s lead and decline any questions that speak to current issues before the court.

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Pro-choice? Then you probably hate John Roberts. Pro-Life? Then you’re probably a supporter, right? The judicial nominee’s prior record has largely been been overshadowed by speculation on his beliefs and position regarding Roe vs. Wade. Whether that debate will become clearer in the months preceding the nomination process remains to be seen, but in light of NARAL Pro-Choice America’s recent advertising misstep, this is a good time for men and women who consider themselves advocates of legal abortion to reconsider their tactics.

The language surrounding the abortion debate has become increasingly militant.  Activists from both sides pose it as an either/or: either you’re for it, or you’re against it, and as the conservative right positions themselves in what they claim as moral high ground, pro-choice activists have allowed themselves to be pulled into a debate over fetal life. A woman’s right to choose trumps a fetus’ right to live, or vice versa, depending on what camp you belong to.  But this is not a winnable debate. In allowing themselves to be handcuffed by this language, the pro-choice community has eliminated the in-between space many women dwell in when confronting decisions about their pregnancies.

Abortion is a reality because each year, “almost half of all pregnancies among American women are unintended. About half of these unplanned pregnancies, 1.3 million each year, are ended by abortion.” Each of these 1.3 million women and girls is making a decision, and, like all intimate decisions, the myriad emotions surrounding this choice are individual to each woman.  No one, despite the caricatures painted by the pro-life movement, approaches abortion happily.  The pro-choice community has been reluctant to admit that abortion is often tragic or dreaded, and often unpleasant. But in order to remain a viable political entity, they need to both acknowledge that truth and find room in their rhetoric for the voices of women who have or have not chosen abortion, as well as those who provide medical services.

And that’s what some parts of the movement are doing on websites like Abortion Conversation, which encourages men and women to talk about their experiences and feelings surrounding the issue.  Everyone, regardless of their opinion, should read Abortion Clinic Days, a blog written by Bon and Lou, two unnamed abortion providers. The providers write about their experiences with patients, many of whom are conflicted about their decisions. Bon writes, “Ultimately, the burden of choice is heavy for some women, crushing even for some, and for most, quite bearable.”  As the debate surrounding John Roberts and the Supreme Court continues, the pro-choice community must reposition itself to include all these women.

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“I feel we have an obligation to do everything possible to get our kids to come and stay in school. ”

Chelsea High School, located outside of Boston, will begin paying its students $25 a quarter for perfect attendance when they return to school this September. The money will be placed in an account at the school, redeemable only upon the students’ graduation. The vagaries of this decision — is it bribery or a justly deserved reward? — aside, the school district’s decision makes clear the results of continued pressure from the federal government to both assess and improve upon quantifiable outcomes rather than quality of experience.

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“They thought I was anti-American because I didn’t want to compromise, but in my high-school ethics class we had Communists, Democrats, Republicans, Gothics — all types. In all our classes, we were told, ‘You speak up, you give your opinion, and you defend it.’”

Tashnuba Hayder, a 16 year old girl, was deported with her mother and sister to Bangladesh, after being held by the FBI on suspicion of terrorist leanings. Tashnuba believes she was targeted because she was not a citizen, and that her detention was a result of her exercising her right to freedom of speech and expression of religion.  She was picked up by FBI agents posing as youth services workers, in an effort to combat the FBI’s growing concern over potential teenage suicide bombers within the United States.

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“It is a splendid start and one hopes that they will, from here, go on to cancel all debt for most of the countries — I gather it is about 62 countries — who are heavily indebted.”

A G8 finance ministers meeting yesterday in London agreed to eradicate $40 billion of debt for 18 nations.  The majority of these nations were African, and nine more countries stand to qualify for further debt relief within the next 18 months, bringing the sum total to $55 billion worth of amnesty.

The agreement will save the nations a combined $1.5 billion in annual loan repayments. Cautious praise for the agreement suggests that impoverished nations such as Uganda will be able to use the funds to fight AIDS and hunger, among other concerns.  

However, the African continent owes a total of $500 billion dollars to the World Bank, IMF, and African Development Bank. The G8’s debt relief initiative, while an encouraging start, is not a remedy for the financial handcuffs that developing nations find themselves trapped in.

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The New York Times’ current series of articles on class and wealth in the United States highlights some thought-provoking new trends in wealth.  In particular, this Sunday’s “Richest are Leaving Even the Rich Behind” notes the following trends:

—The portion of the nation’s income earned by taxpayers in the top 0.1 percent has doubled since the 1970s, to a level not seen since the 1920s.

—Taxpayers within the $100,000 to $200,000 tax bracket lost a greater portion of their income to taxes than those making $10 million or more.

The rich are getting richer and leaving the rest of us far behind. Our parents grew up in a world where millionaires were a rarity and no one thought bringing a $700 piece of electronic equiptment to school was a good idea. (See May 29th’s “Where the Jones Wear Jeans”.)

We knew the gap between rich and poor in America was growing wider, but not the degree to which it had exploded. And, while the consumer market has expanded rapidly to accommodate the growing millionaire class’s whims and tastes, our society has not visibly benefited in other ways.  Charitable giving has increased the last 39 out of 40 years, and approximately 90 percent of Americans give money to charity. The examples of Bill Gates and George Soros may serve as inspiration to the men and women who can afford to buy $2.5 million homes in Nantucket, merely to preserve the view and their privacy. But ultimately, the hyper-rich’s charitable giving does not balance out the tax burden born by the rest of the American population. Their inflated income is shadowed by the memory of the 1920s crash and the subsequent Great Depression that equalized much of the nation in abject poverty.

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Travel writing and photography are meant to excite the reader and inspire wanderlust; inevitably, however, travelogues reveal far more about their writers than their subjects.  To reread 19th-century accounts of travel in Egypt and Africa is to be appalled at the explorers’ attitudes towards the “simple” people they encountered.  Unfortunately,  the New York Times special photography section, “The Face of Cairo” in last week’s Travel Magazine carries on proudly in the same dated vein.  The feature purports to show us the true people of Cairo’s many neighborhoods but instead presents a photogenic assemblage of wealthy and, well, simple people.

Of the subjects, only a handful of lower-income men and women are shown, and all are employed.  The majority are members of the middle or upper class. These are some of the faces of Cairo, but by no means representative of the majority. The article highlights a small section of the Cairo population and allows them to represent a country where, according to Unicef, there were three Internet users among every 100 citizens in 2002.  Given the Internet’s immense cultural infiltration, this number has no doubt since tripled, but nonetheless, the majority of Cairenes are not wealthy.  The UNDP estimates that a quarter of the country lives below the Egyptian poverty line – which means that by United States standards, a quarter of the country is living in abject and unthinkable poverty.  The Times isn’t representing the faces of Cairo. Instead, it’s representing the faces we want to see to make us feel safer.

In light of recent terrorist attacks in Cairo targeted at tourists, the message of the photos is clear — it’s safe to come visit because we want to be just like you.  And so, ultimately, these photographs reveal far more about what we are seeking when we look to the Middle East than what is truly there.  We seek similarity to assuage our fears  — we want to see that these people look like us, think like us and, most importantly, buy the same things as us.  Over and over again, the men and women featured tell us that their favorite labels are “Louis Vuitton, Dior and Gucci” and that they love Julia Roberts.  When the subjects state otherwise, they are portrayed as unusual and anomalies. Only the three conservatively dressed, veiled girls “have no interest in American culture,” and no Internet.  They also have “no boyfriends or fiancés,” a fact which is presented as a charming piece of piety, when in fact, most Egyptian women do not date and postpone marriage until they have finished university and are more financially stable.

No one benefits from simplifying and homogenizing groups of people; there is no greater impediment to understanding than relying on simplistic stereotypes or, even worse, imagining that everyone everywhere is a version of yourself.  The Times’ photos might ensure that Nile cruise cancellations will be assuaged, but in the long run, we gain nothing from imagining that Cairenes are American wannabees with uncomplicated dreams.  

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But I couldn’t let them do that to me and humiliate me anymore. I couldn’t let them win just because they think it’s their duty to rid the world of lesbians.

Mary Stephens, a women’s basketball coach from a small town in rural Texas,was fired from her position because of her sexual orientation. Parents within the community accused of her of ‘converting’ their daughter and suggested that while they might like her as a person, supporting one lesbian would be tantamount to endorsing a larger homosexual agenda, including gay adoption.

Stephens’ case has been settled out of court and parents in Bloomburg, Texas, can sleep easily at night, knowing that their daughters are safe from the ever dangerous gay missionaries.  But her case demonstrates how effectively the conservative right has coopted the feminist movement’s “personal is political” doctrine.  

Conservatives have effectively positioned individuals as symbolic of and responsible for larger political agendas.  It becomes impossible to support one woman, who coached a small-town team to regional championships — the stuff Hollywood movies and President Bush’s favorite book, are made of — because to do so would be to also support what has been painted as anti-Christian, anti-family, and anti-American.   The only connection existing between a high school basketball coach and gay adoption is one of political punditry. While fear of homosexuals in schools has often been an undercurrent in American education, historically that fear was based more in fears of predation, rather than perceived support of a liberal political agenda.

Seeing people not as individuals but symbols of ideology is a dangerous and limited line of sight.  This is nowhere more evident than in the current political fracas surrounding President Bush’s judicial nominees.  Senator Bill Frist is currently preparing for Justice Sunday, a telecast depicting the Democrats’ threatened filibuster as a campaign against people of faith.  While Senator Frist has previously appealed to the Democrats for compromise, appearing in an evangelical broadcast alongside Chuck Colson and Dr. James Dobson casts a new light on his willingness to promote dialogue.

As a society, we are slowly moving towards an understanding of racial and ethnic identity as multi-hued.  Our understanding of religion, instead, has grown ever more narrow and sharply defined and politically based.  Without a willingness to see individuals within both the “the people of faith” and those outside of that group (The people without faith? The faithless?), we cannot move forward in the Senate, the judiciary, or our communities.

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Mythical stories of young soldiers disappearing across the border into Canada, in search of freedom from conscription, are the relics of the Vietnam era — or are they?  As The New York Times reported yesterday, a small group of currently enlisted men and women are seeking conscientious objector status, or seeking refuge across the United States’ northern border.  The difference for this generation of soldiers, however, is one of choice; all currently enlisted United States military are volunteers.

The Peace Out website, created by a group of veterans who successfully obtained conscientious objector status, received more than 3,000 hits its first day. No doubt, these numbers are due in part to conflicted sentiment over current armed combat in Iraq, but rather than see them merely as a reflection of as this, the Times article prompts us to question the stark differences between our military’s recruiting campaign, and the realities of life under fire. Soldiers recruited in peacetime,
and lured with the promises of steady employment and college education, did not expect to find themselves in combat in a country nine time zones away.

“It wasn’t what I thought it would be,” Private Hughey said. He said he enlisted at 17 from his home in San Angelo, Texas, because a recruiter promised that the military would buy him the education his father could not afford. He said he had tried to push aside little doubts he had, even back in basic training, but realized as his unit prepared to leave Fort Hood, Texas, for Iraq last March that he could not go.”

Current gossip mongering about the possibility of reinstating the draft obscures the embarrassing need to question the armed forces’ demographics. For our generation of soldiers, volunteering has grown scarily similar to conscription.

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The Bush Department of Education certainly never meant No Child Left Behind to interfere with the administration’s higher moral calling — but in Virginia, parents are being forced to choose between higher test scores for students and religious education during school hours.  Just as the Bush administration has pushed for increasingly conservative curriculum, such as chastity-only sex education in schools, their stringent testing requirements have become a liberal weapon to combat school-sanctioned religious education.

Virginia permits parents to register their children for religious pull-out education during the school day, as protected by a 53-year-old Supreme Court ruling permitting Weekday Religious Education. According to the Virginia Council of Churches, there were approximately 12,000 students in Virginia participating in this program in 2002, all of whom leave school grounds during the regular day for a half-hour lesson in Christianity. (A similar program exists in 32 other states, mostly Southern). The other kids in the class remain in their classrooms and color.  

As Salon reported this Wednesday, parents have challenged their school boards to modify the WRE program, as taking time away from classroom instruction puts students at a disadvantage when taking No Child Left Behind-mandated state exams.  The school boards have voted to continue the program but find a more creative way to occupy the minority of children not participating in WRE — surely not what the children’s parents intended. “Separate but equal” is no longer an acceptable educational precept when used to divide students along racial lines. Surely it should be as appalling when used to separate first graders on the basis of religious beliefs.

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