irresponsibility in the form of wool

having a cashmere sweater is no mere, mundane thing

having a cashmere sweater is a luxury

having a cashmere sweater is everything you’ve ever wanted

wrapped in a little box and tressed in a satin bow

sometimes it scares me when i have something

beautiful or precious or special

it’s a little scary like

when i was three years old i had this passion for bubble wrap

every time a package came in the mail

the first thing i went to was the cushioning inside

it was always the most adored possession i ever owned

but every time i burst each air droplet

bit by bit

my most valuable treasure would be ruined

i think it’s a little bit like that

knowing that you’re holding onto something extraordinary

but knowing you’re going to destroy it regardless

a stormcloud always about to strike lightning

a nebula forever on the verge of collapse

a mountain crumbling in on itself with no way of finding an escape

i know that i’m going to ruin this cashmere sweater

(i ruin lots of things)

and you’d think that if i knew i was going to ruin it

why buy it in the first place?

but

i have this tendency to jump into things even when i know

oh my god,

this is going to be a disaster

but i kind of thrive off the adventure leading up to it

i thrive off the feeling of knowing i’m making a mistake

but doing it anyways

i don’t know why that irresponsibility excites me

but i know that sometimes i go weeks without making a bad decision and i think

this is kinda boring

or sometimes i watch gossip girl and i think

i need some drama in my life too

so i tell my friend i hate her

and sometimes i love people

(almost radically so)

or i let people love me and i think

oh… this is gonna kill me

and it when it almost does i vow to never, ever, ever do that ever again

but the next week i think

oh my god this boy i saw for 0.5 seconds on the train

yeah, we’re gonna get married

our kids are gonna have his jawline and my… everything else

sometimes i think that i make the wrong decisions on purpose

like maybe it’s a habit born from a previous life

not like the Buddhist wheel of life

more like the elise from one, two, three years ago

like maybe making the wrong decision is a part of me

so deeply ingrained that i honestly don’t know how to avoid it anymore

(i don’t know if i want to avoid it anymore)

and i know

that at one point (possibly very soon)

i’m going to get ketchup on my beautiful cashmere sweater

but i’m going to eat that hot dog anyways

and i’m going to pray that this time it’s different

that i’m different

(spoiler alert : i’m not)

Significance of America

This image signifies the role of America in The Kite Runner. The branches represent the different facets of diversity in the country as shown through the Afghan community that Amir and Baba integrate themselves into during the flea market. The tree itself is home to a multitude of creatures and can be an escape from the outside world. Similar to how a squirrel scales a tree in order to escape its predators, Amir and Baba escape to America to find refuge from the volatile government in Afghanistan. Although there are separate leaves, they are all intertwined through the tree's branches. In America, Amir and Baba "grow" closer together through their struggle to adapt to a new environment. Even though they are different people, America provides a way for them to connect and bond in a way they could not before. 

The Circle of Life : Reproductive Rights in South Africa

“Wathint’ abafazi, wathint’ imbokodo. You strike a woman, you strike a rock.” These words, spoken at the Women’s March of 1956, have come to represent female courage and strength in South Africa. No other component of Women’s Rights Movements has provoked as much contention as the dispute about reproductive rights. Over the past century, the demand for access to birth control, the development of sex education, and the permittance of abortion has gained momentum in the nation, but Plan International’s “State of the World’s Mothers Report,”  labeled the top ten “worst countries to be a mother” to all be in sub-Saharan Africa (Odhiambo). So what measures has the government taken to improve upon its citizens’ reproductive rights?

South Africa’s 1996 Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act is often labeled “one of the most progressive abortion laws in the world” (Davis). According to IPS News, there has been a 41% reduction in maternal death in the past two decades since the act was passed (Odhiambo). The overall deaths resulting from complications in pregnancy and childbirth have decreased significantly, thus allowing for safer, better procedures. The Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act allows the abortion of a pregnancy under broad circumstances, resulting in greater access to reproductive healthcare for women in the country. In 2008, an international organization of 55 African countries, the African Union, passed resolutions recognizing that “preventable maternal mortality is a violation of women’s rights to life, health and dignity” (Odhiambo). Overall, the measures taken by the government seem to work to improve upon reproductive healthcare for South African citizen.

However, while the government has made significant commitments towards improvement, they are often unable to fully execute them. Studies show that approximately 44% of South Africa’s maternal deaths are attributed to the immense national prevalence of preventable STIs and the inadequate quality of treatment of such diseases (Brown). Different factors, such as inadequate skills development and training for nurses in the public sector, hinder the use of the IUD, which can prevent the contraction of sexually transmitted infection. The rate of preventable STIs indicate government negligence concerning sexual health and education. According to the Daily Maverick, less than half of the abortion services that are legally offered by the government are actually operational (Davis). Thus, the government is not acting upon its previously made obligation to protect and further reproductive health rights, and a complete spectrum of contraceptives is neither popularized nor available in South African communities. A survey taken in 2006 reports that at least 30% of women in South Africa still believed that abortion was prohibited by law (O'Sullivan). Such confusion reflects inadequate sex education within schools and lack of public messages by the government concerning reproductive rights, perhaps due to the widely accepted stigmas about abortion. Thus, the South African people do not have adequate access to maternal health services and education concerning reproductive safety even with progressive actions written in the law.

South Africa’s government has taken actions that have both furthered and inhibited women’s reproductive rights. While the Choice on Termination of Pregnancy Act is labeled as a liberal measure, women still face obstacles when seeking safe reproductive health care and comprehensive sex education in schools. Many social scientists and women’s rights activists agree that further actions must be taken in order to create a nation in which women can fully feel secure and in control of their bodies.

Works Cited

Brown, Ryan Lenora, and Lenny Bernstein. "Major HIV Vaccine Trial in South Africa Stokes Hope." The Washington Post. WP Company, 25 Nov. 2016. Web. 07 Mar. 2017.

Davis, Rebecca. "Abortion in South Africa: A Conspiracy of Silence." Daily Maverick. N.p., 30 Sept. 2013. Web. 08 Mar. 2017.

Kantengwa, Sharon. "Parents and Local Leaders Urged to Sensitise Youth on Sexual and Reproductive Rights." The New Times Rwanda. N.p., 25 Sept. 2016. Web. 07 Mar. 2017.

Odhiambo, Agnes, and Gauri Van Gulik. "OP-ED: Put a Spotlight on African Women's Reproductive Rights." IPS News. N.p., 19 May 2013. Web. 08 Mar. 2017.

Osman, Sarah. "Women's Reproductive Health in South Africa - A Paradox." NGO Pulse. N.p., 07 Nov. 2011. Web. 07 Mar. 2017

O'Sullivan, Michele, and Catherine Bailey. Reproductive Rights. Durban: Ed. Collective, 1995. Centre for Human Rights. 1999. Web. 6 Mar. 2017.

Van Der Merwe, Marelise. "South Africa and Women’s Healthcare Rights: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back?" Daily Maverick. N.p., 29 Sept. 2016. Web. 07 Mar. 2017.

Thinking on Fuzz

In Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, the author, Dai Sijie, uses the symbolism of the narrator’s sheepskin coat and Balzac’s book in order to exemplify the effects of the restrictions of intellectual liberty on adolescents.

Balzac Book

“The magic of translation! The ponderousness of the two syllables as well as the belligerent, somewhat old-fashioned ring of the name were quite gone” (56).

This quote suggests the limitation of western influence in China and also illustrates an analogy to how the Cultural Revolution deprived Chinese people of refined culture and intellectual liberty. When the narrator is in awe at the “magic of translation,” he hints that translation of Balzac’s French name into Chinese drastically changes the sound and the feel of the name. When he follows up by saying that the “ponderousness” and the “old-fashioned ring” of the name were “quite gone,” he suggests that the Chinese translation strips away much of the essence of Balzac’s name. One can infer that Mao’s regime accomplishes something similar by censoring and altering intellectual materials such as literature, music, and art that comes from Western cultures. This drastic alteration alludes to the fact that the Cultural Revolution took over people’s lives and stripped them of their intellectual liberty through the teaching of revolutionary propaganda and the limitation of outside influence on Chinese thinking.

“Picture, if you will, a boy of nineteen, still slumbering in the limbo of adolescence, having heard nothing but revolutionary blather about patriotism, communism, ideology and propaganda all his life, falling headlong into a story of awakening desire, passion, impulsive action, love, of all the subjects had, until then, been hidden from me” (57).

The lack of intellectual liberty during the cultural revolution greatly affects the adolescent youth. As one of many victims of resettlement, these teens are sent to the mountains to have all signs of western development wiped from their knowledge. While under the rule of Mao, the entire community of China is responsible to surrendering anything bourgeois to Mao’s communist views. However, with the great impact of western influences in only first edition of Balzac’s literature, it can only be inferred that with more reading, Luo and the Narrator are bound to resist their re-education even more. Luo and the Narrator’s growing thirst for outside knowledge can only seem to lead them into mischievous activities, getting them in trouble with the headmaster of the village while they could possibly watch their chance of going home dissipate.

Narrator’s Sheepskin Coat

“‘When she’d finished reading she sat there quite still, open-mouthed. Your coat was resting on the flat of her hands, the way a sacred object lies in the palms of the pious’” (62).

This passage compares the sheepskin coat to a holy object. The author is suggesting that the words written on the coat are “holy” and carry a special weight to them. This shows the power of ideas and how the right ideas can sway people’s opinions dramatically. Despite their lifetimes of communist propaganda, Luo, the narrator, and the Little Seamstress are all quickly enraptured by the western ideas inside of Balzac’s book. This quote shows that despite bad odds, intellectual liberty will always be able to break through.

“‘She ended up putting your wretched coat on (which looked very good on her, I must say). She said having Balzac’s words next to her skin made her feel good, and also more intelligent’” (62).

This quote shows that the sheepskin is an important object that relates to intellectual liberty. The narrator writes his favorite quotes and passages on the coat in case that the never get their hands on the book again after returning to Four Eyes. This shows that they really embrace Western literature. They are awed by the power of words, and their imagination expands drastically. From reading the book, they learn more about the outside world. Even though their life is about communism, they are still captured by the words of Western literature. This shows that just by reading and being surrounded by words itself makes them feel more exposed to the outside world and more intelligent.

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Typical

Appreciate the ordinary.

The traditional.

The familiar.

Make the typical come to life.

Appreciate the brown eyes

the gap toothed smiles

the warm cups of hot chocolate on a cold winter day

Make the everyday count.

Appreciate the afternoon sun after a rainy morning

the misty fog sitting above dewy grasses

the scratchy blankets at the drive in movies

And explore.

Explore the books by little known authors with lots to offer

Explore the art buried in gallery corners and alleyways

And maybe you’ll learn that the ordinary isn’t so ordinary after all.