This one's for you Jack....

Jack, my professor, mentioned (graciously I might add) that he "missed my blogs." So ..this one's for you Jack.

Tonight we did a walking tour of different "Public Art" around the city of Philadelphia. Because of the hour, and because my mind has since digressed, I plan to talk about this tour and provide pictures in a later blog.

After finally getting home, I realized I had online work to do in my Anthropology 101 class. The textbook we are using is, "Cultural Anthropology in a Globalizing World" by Barbara Miller. In each chapter there are different cultural stories and I read one on the San peoples of southern Africa...how they've been displaced and driven off of their own land. I decided to cut and paste my "rant" that i posted on the electronic blackboard, mostly because I am too tired to re-rant!!! LOL (yes i made up a word and i'm using it dammit!!)
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I really feel for the San peoples, as well as for the Native Americans. These indigenous people were unrightfully displaced. It's quite an embarrassment to the "civilized" western culture, that in order for our society to emerge and expand we had to take advantage of the natives of the Americas, as well as the natives of Africa and used them both to build our nation. Where would we be without the contributions of those peoples? Dead and broke is where we'd be. When we boast about being "the greatest nation on earth" we should in our hearts give recognition to and thanks to all the people that we came to step upon in order for our nation to exist! I'm so very grateful for our country, but I am embarrassed of it's beginnings and it's disregard and advantageous use of native peoples in its stretch for greatness. Our "mother country" England, no doubt taught us such behavior, as for EVER they have butt in on other cultures, colonized, and in some cases (like the Dutch in Rwanda) have ruined a nation and caused irreversible damage to societies with utter and complete disregard for anyone but themselves and their goals. I suppose that in that great time of exploration, those exploring were quite ignorant of what they saw to be primitive. Today, however, as "enlightened" as we are on matters of human rights, people are still continually used and stepped on and raped of their country's natural resources for foreign gain. I was SO glad to read that the San people had an advocate that sued the pharmaceutical companies that produce hoodia for the western world. Why should we ever go onto someone else's land and use their resources and not compensate them for it? Just because their economies may be SO desperate for money that they will work for pennies on the dollar, doesn't mean that western corporations should be allowed to employ them so cheaply and exploit them so grossly. Perhaps I should go work for a transnational advocacy group and forget the trivials of billing and management! When I read about the indignities of the world it makes my problems and concerns seem so small...!