Globalization and Local Content

It’s no surprise that there are McDonalds, KFC, Pizza Hut, Starbucks, and Burger Kings in Kuala Lumpur (and all corners of the world), but there is also California Pizza Kitchen (did not know they had so many branches!), Chili’s, TGIFridays, Subway, and Dunkin Donuts. The malls contain luxury brands such as LV, Gucci, Armani, Coach, Fendi, Chanel, etc. but also Zara, Mango/MNG, Gap, Banana Republic, Topshop, Forever 21, Tiffany’s, and of course Asian or local brands unfamiliar to the American/European consumer, including the subsets of known to European but not American + vice versa.

Foreign Devils

As (mostly) American or European brands move into Asian, African, South American areas, some people have a great disdain for the ‘domination’ or at least ‘invasion’ of these foreign brands and stores, believing them to corrupt the pure cultural sensitivities of the unadulterated, less-developed nation and sweeping out native, local business, in the process inducing a behavior of materialism that maybe wasn’t inherent to the people before, promoting worship of physical goods rather than positive and wholesome values such as budgeting, loyalty, and hard work, which were originally in the community.

In reality, however, one cannot simply denounce consumerism as materialism, or that foreign impulses are all bad. It is true that some manufacturers are taking advantage of the cheap labor and may employ less than fair means, but it is hard to deny that these foreign stores do not play a role in the development of a country. When taking a class on Branding at MIT, our professor was fond of saying that luxury brands were often the first to enter an emerging market, and that it helped kick-off the process of development. For a country that maybe is not able to invest in itself yet, the interest and attention of an outsider can act as knowledge transfer, leading to better self-directed projects in the future. Of course, this requires that the exchange actually is knowledge transfer and that the locals are benefiting from the process by being involved in the direction and decisions of the projects.

Local Content

In development work, this view is fairly accepted, and most agree that mere donations in the give a man a fish vs. teach a man to fish manner is not enough to help a community grow and is not sustainable. For projects, outside guidance is ok, fine, welcomed, but the stakeholders, risk takers, and beneficiaries should have local sympathies. From a microfinance point of view, an essential piece for the community to flourish is local businesses, run by locals, to benefit the locals, and if at all possible, offering products made by locals. Trade then leads to wealth and an improved standard of living.

All in all, it’s an exaggeration to assume that the existence of foreign companies is all bad, but it certainly must be managed with local businesses. This is where in many cases the government has started to play a greater role, offering grants and funding to local ideas and entrepreneurs and with a growing trend of looking for “local content” in foreign projects.

Not All Local

But there are no blanket statements, and in some instances, we decry local companies. Some products really have to stand on a global platform. Facebook, for example, is a global phenomenon, and it’s more useful this way, allowing people from all over the world to connect rather than each country having their own, limited network. Microsoft Office is likewise useful, allowing compatibility between all the documents exchanged between different countries and business as usual would be nearly impossible without it. China is an interesting country to study in these instances, having created many websites that are almost identical to their American parent websites (xiaonei v. facebook, youku v. youtube, etc). Plagiarism? Jobs for local talent? How do you balance the two? Then there is also the question of search engines, Baidu v. Google, and now, Bing. Google and Bing have both been known to be a different product in China than the rest of the world based on controlled search results, and at this point, for better or for worse, maybe they simply must be if they want to be there. But is it right? What’s wrong with it?

Globalization occurs at a much more rapid pace now, and with its many changes poses interesting questions that we have only begun to ask and answer

A Bookish Glance at Kuala Lumpur

I’ve been in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for two weeks now. Living half a block away from the Petronas Twin Towers, I’ve walked through the adjoining shopping mall every day to get to work. Becoming intricately familiar with this body of consumerism, I’ve had many discoveries, including a wonderful Japanese book store, providing access to a rich nourishment of words and phrases.

As when I traveled to Brazil, I picked up the Culture Smart! travel guide book to provide a brief overview of Malaysia. Here are some things that have occupied my attention:

On Jobs & Unemployment

“It is important to note that Malaysia’s dramatic economic growth during the past thirty years has resulted in a rapidly increasing need for labor that cannot be satisfied in the domestic market. There may be more than 2 million migrant workers in Malaysia, mainly from Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, and the Indian subcontinent. They are heavily involved in the plantation, construction, and services sectors, and significant members reside in the country illegally.” p.18

While this statement indicates that there are more jobs than people to fill them, my conversations with the people here seem to indicate that (satisfactory?) jobs are very difficult for recent college graduates to find (though all the people I’ve spoken to are employed). Employment is a big question for every country with no simple answers, but even a tourist’s guidebook knows to touch on it.

On Women and Education
“Indeed in universities women outnumber men two to one.” p.96

Wow, really? There’s been a trend of women outnumbering men in attending college in the US as well, but a two to one ratio? A surface glance at this statement leads one to assume that the education gap is closing, though in reality, the contrast in women and men is seen more prevalently in graduate school, where the number of women is lower than the number of men. To go from a higher number of women in undergrad to a lower number of women in grad means that the percentage of college graduated women attending grad school is much lower than the percentage of men attending.

Random Note 1: Naming the Floors of a Building
Countries around the world have different ways of naming their floors. Buildings in Europe frequently have a Ground floor, indicated by a G on the elevator button, and then start enumerating with 1 on the floors above that, whereas in the US the ground floor is simply the first floor, floor 1. In China, the number four is considered bad luck as it sounds similar to the word for death, and there is no fourth floor, or fourteenth floor, or twenty fourth floor, or any of floor with four in it. Thus you go from third to fifth, and the numbers consequently are merely namesakes and not an actual indication of numerically the floor you are on (in reality, the namesake is all you need). Imagine buildings that have taken into both the Chinese view of four and the Western superstition with the number thirteen to go straight from the twelfth floor to the fifteenth! In Malaysia, however, after floor 3 there is a floor 3a, allowing floor 5 to actually name the fifth floor without the taboo of the number four. And not surprisingly considering its close association with Britain in the past, there is a Ground floor.

Random Note 2: Driving on the Right Side of the Road
Also, as one drives on the left side of the road (driver’s seat on the right) here as opposed to the right side like in the US, I almost died crossing the road as my instincts told me to look left, where the incoming cars would be approaching from in the US, but where the road was empty in Malaysia as the cars faded away, and incoming was actually to my right, which I was fiercely ignoring… I never thought that even how I crossed the street would have been so dictated by the society I grew up in; I almost feel brainwashed. Indeed, it would have been survival of the fittest.

Art and Technology

Intrigued by the sometimes conflict between art and technology with a focus on the difference between the two and their uses in solving problems and role in society, I set out to get some answers to some questions. There are many ways to answer, but here is a set of responses I enjoyed by Ms. Sarah Wright.

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*What does art mean to you?

Sarah:  For me art is a way of expressing ones self. It lets us share our thoughts and experiences with others.  The type of art that I feel a particular attraction to  is creative writing, especially poetry.  Writing poetry and sharing that poetry with others allows me to let people see the world though my eyes.

*Why is art important? Is it important? Is it more, less, equal important to engineering, technology, etc? Can it be compared?

Sarah: I think it is hard to really compare art to technology.  Technology gives us the means, the tools, to do things, while I think art gives us the motivation, the reason, to do things.  Genetically modified crops might give us the means to combat hunger in the world, while photography of starving children in Africa makes us want to combat hunger.  In that sense I think that neither art nor technology in and of themselves are capable of accomplishing much in the world but when you combine the two you have both the motivation and the tools to change things.

*What is the role of art in society?

Sarah: The role of art in society is to move people and motivate people.  It helps expedite the exchange of ideas by making ideas more potent.  Sticking with the example above a heart wrenching picture of a starving child is far more potent then a sign that just says “save starving children”

*Is art a means or an end? (means–for education, cultural exchange, etc. end–because it is beautiful)

Sarah: I had a philosophy class last semester in which we discussed what was an end and what was a mean.  The overall conclusion was that just about anything (happiness being the possible conclusion) is at least partially a means.  I think that art can act as an end-we like art just for the sake of liking art, but it is also a means.  We like art because it moves us, it educates us by letting us see the world through another’s eyes and in doing so it motivates us.

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Some may say that art is furthered by technology, others may prefer traditional and more narrow definitions of art. Some believe that technology is heartless and without the soul of art, others believe that the best technology is like art. Either way, perhaps it’s most important to remember what art and technology can do together to better the world and both serve purposes towards this greater end.

Words and Language

Language shapes the way we think, and determines what we can think about. ~Benjamin Lee Whorf

Have I mentioned how much I love words? Words, these units of sounds and letters carefully construed together to share thoughts, communicate ideas, and capture emotion. Words, simple or complex, harmonized to provide lyrics for music and beautifully scripted in calligraphy for a visual treat. Words, from a friend who shows that they understand who you are and what you’re trying to say. Words to cheer you up, help you find hope, encouragement, faith. Words, to help you see, understand, learn. Words from a teacher to clarify a difficult concepts clear as crystal; words from a parent to show that they love you.  With your words, you have great power over how you choose to influence the people around you and how you establish your presence in the world. Words can command respect and give respect.

Growing up bilingual gave me so many opportunities to see how thoughts transformed as they moved from one language to another. Sometimes the nuances were necessary–finding a diplomatic way across cultures to express the same core thought. Inaccurate translations, however, bother me to no end, especially in movies, TV shows/cartoons, and media. Nothing like a stupid way of saying things splattered across so many homes, so that an already shaky understanding of a foreign culture becomes even more mangled. “Why would someone say that? What does that actually mean?” Actually, nobody said that; it’s just a horribly translation.

Words are important in literature, of course, and based on how language and words are used, I wonder how it is possible to have the same experience of a piece of work in two different languages. (Remember when the Bible was only in Latin and the common people depended on the Church to translate it?) But different people have such different experiences even reading the same work in one language, that the nuances across a translation may in some manner be less significant than the fact that a translation allows so many more people to read a particular work.

The Norwegian language manages quite well without Mr. Hansen, but Mr. Hansen cannot manage without Norwegian. It is thus not the individual who forms the language, it is the language which forms the individual. ~Sophie’s World

Words are an abstract concept, but I find that developing a greater vocabulary, or a vocabulary of idioms and phrases such as the Chinese chenyu, allows me to deepen my thoughts. Instead of spending time explaining the elaborate meaning of what I want to capture, having the perfect word for that nugget of thoughts makes things go faster–I don’t have to define it, I just have to name it. And this indicates that someone before me has had a similar thought or feeling; after all, someone had to coin the word. And this frees me to pursue the thought in new dimensions.

To have a word for something means that it has been named, and to name something means that you are conscious of its existence. How do you think about something that you aren’t conscious of? How do you think about something that you don’t have a word for and can’t describe? This is why we name things as they come into our lives, sometimes even creating new names as necessary. Imagine if all the new websites didn’t have names… Google, Twitter, Yahoo… how would someone find these sites or even know if they were talking about the same thing? Everything is fleeting until you can capture it in words, and words show that we are not alone, but connected to everything that has passed. Like history, science, and any other field, words regularly evolve, which is why dictionaries have to be updated and children laugh at parents across the generation gap: “Dad, no one says that anymore.”

And last, as masters of literature (and even casual conversations) have proven over and over, language is beautiful. I distinctly remember visiting a high school in China during their language class, and the teacher read a poem to the class. Sitting next to the window, I was bathed in sunlight as I looked out the window at a patch of green grass, and at that moment I had to smile broadly to myself because the rhythms of the language were so beautiful and enthralling, and everything just felt… right.

Silk Road Ensemble

“Every time I open a newspaper, I am reminded that we live in a world where we can no longer afford not to know our neighbors.”
– YO-YO MA

I am currently taking a class name Introduction to World Music, and as part of the curriculum, we have a selection of concerts we can choose to attend. One of these concerts was the Silkroad Ensemble’s performance at Boston’s Symphony Hall (March 9, 2009).

The day after the concert, our professor, Evan Ziporyn, lectured on the Silkroad Ensemble and some of its artists. He started class casually by discussing with us some of the news articles he’d read in the New York Times on his way to work. He cited examples of a 75 year old woman in Saudi Arabia being punished with 50 lashes for talking to two 25 year old men as she asked them to deliver milk to her house. The war in Iraq. Injustice and violations of human rights in another far-off country. Can you believe the atrocities around the world?

Thinking that I knew what was coming and that this was another example of a professor encouraging us to take an interest in the reading the news and acknowledging the world around us, I was surprised by where he then steered the lecture. He continued by saying that most of the time when we hear about the other countries in the world in the news, it is related to war, crime, disaster, injustice, and other negative aspects of life. Granted this may frequently be the nature of news, but as the public is given this bleak portrayal, is it a wonder that we have a negative view of many countries, a distaste of what is going on elsewhere, and a fear and distrust of the people who are different from us?

This is why, he continued, that projects like the Silk Road Ensemble’s Silk Road Project are so important. The Silk Road Project is one of many programs that allow for a positive cultural exchange experience.

So why the Silk Road Project? The Silk Road was a trade route of over 4000 miles that extended over many countries, allowing not just the exchange of good such as spices, silk, and glassware, but also ideas and culture. Professor Ziporyn showed us how we could see that instruments along the way were distinctly different, but shared common characteristics. As an instrument was brought along the trade road, it evolved to suit the new habitat and the people of that habitat.

Since the hundreds and thousands of year of history, many of these music traditions are now dying, so besides a cultural exchange, the Silk Road Project is also a preservation of musical history, and through music, legends and stories of the people. It is “[...] one of the artistic challenges of our times: nourishing global connections while maintaining the integrity of art rooted in an authentic tradition.” As James D. Wolfensohn, former president of the World Bank said, the Silk Road Ensemble and “Yo-Yo Ma [have] been able to bring the remarkable cultural tradition of the Silk Road to the forefront of global attention and it has made us understand how integral the arts have been historically to the evolution of history and of human development in this region and beyond.”

As a composor for the Silk Road Ensemble and writing pieces specifically for ensemble members, my professor said, “I’ve gotten so much richness in my life through working with these musicians.” He also cites the program as reaffirming that it is possible to help change the world and make a positive difference.

For me? I love the idea behind this endeavor, and even more, would love to see a program like this for dance and visual arts (being less musical and more oriented towards dance and art, I am somewhat biased). Next project?

Friends, Strangers, and Time

Friendship is only a matter of time. So says the quote on the canvas that adorns my door. A little sister from my sorority made it for me, and when she gave it to me she said that one reason she likes it is because there are so many ways to interpret it. I couldn’t agree more.

One thing that has occupied my thoughts recently is how relationships with people are so valuable, yet also quite unpredictable. Between graduating (which means that people are going to different locations and I don’t know when I’ll see certain people again), reconnecting with old friends, and getting to know new ones, I am reminded that so much of who I am has been shaped by people around me and that my happiest moments come from connecting with people and sharing time with them. I’m also remembering this Freakonomics post that I came across a while back about how “other people” are one of the most addictive things in the world. What an interesting way to look at relationships. [Question: Who are you addicted to?]

What makes people so addictive? There are so many quotes that laud friendship and how valuable and wonderful it is, but what is it exactly that determines how friendships blossom? Why or how do we feel more connected to certain people? What about the studies that show we like people who in turn show that they like us? Does that mean that we don’t just like people for how cool or wonderful they are, but also for the sheer fact that they think that we are cool and wonderful?

Friends

Type “Define: friend” into google, and the first definition states that a friend is “a person you know well and regard with affection and trust”. I actually like that a lot. I think a friend is someone who cares about your well-being and happiness, both defined objectively and in your own views, and wants to help you in those regards. Well-being and happiness means both being there to have fun with you and being there to help you be stronger and braver by making you do something that is good for you but that you are afraid of, be more disciplined and committed in getting your work done. And you are in trun willing to act likewisely nobleminded with their best interest at heart. [This definition can be expanded and elaborated in infinite ways, but for now, a short and simple summary.]

Of course we want our friends to be trustworthy and dependable with character traits such as honesty, intelligence, passion, charm, kindness, and whatnot. Beyond the general character screening, I think that we simply like people who make us feel good, people who when we spend time with them make life fun. This translates into people who are kind and thoughtful, who can make us feel special, strong, or beautiful, who can make us excited about our lives and the world we live in, who can make us rebound after a disappointment and feel optimistic about life’s possibilities when we’re feeling down.

Strangers

Strangers are just friends waiting to happen. ~Rod McKuen

Since there is nothing so well worth having as friends, never lose a chance to make them. ~Francesco Guicciardini

In another sense, friends are strangers who you’ve spent a lot of time with. As a child I moved around a lot and really came to appreciate the sometimes unexpected goodness in people, never knowing which friendships would endure across the distance and which friendships were passing albeit beautiful in their short-lived intensity. I’ve always believed that simply having met someone, the fact that life placed us at the same place at the same time, was reason enough for us to become fast and great friends, to cheer on each other towards living beautiful and great lives and cheer each other up when discouraged. After all, with six billion people wandering the Earth, we meet only a very small fraction during our time here, so we should cherish every one that we do meet. As for life, we should celebrate moments with wonderful friendships.

I’m exaggerating slightly, of course, as not every person we see on the street can hold the title of friend, but I try to never close myself to a potential friendship. This view, as much as I like it, does not necessarily lead to friendship as my offer of friendship may not be reciprocated. Sometimes other people define friendship differently, or have different expectations for what allows friendships to form. Two most important factors considered when evaluating a friendship application are (1) how likely they are to see you again, and (2) how much they would enjoy seeing you again. The sum or product (I haven’t decided which yet) of these two values has to be above a certain threshhold for friendship to bear fruit.

I do believe, however, that every stranger deserves courtesy and respect, and should be given the time of day if they asked for it. Sometimes, just smiling at a stranger is enough. It’s true what they say–your smile may be the first (or only) sunshine they see that day.

Time

I value the friend who for me finds time on his calendar, but I cherish the friend who for me does not consult his calendar. ~Robert Brault

Spending time with our friends are definitely key; herein lies the concept of quality time shared. Creating memories together, having fun, what could be better? In less lighthearted times, they say that the test of a true friendship is whether or not they will be there for you in your time of need, and we certainly have different friends that we turn to during difficult times. Joyful or sad, however, we cannot always spend time with our friends whenever we want despite our making the effort. Sometimes our friends do not have the time to spend with us. Sometimes our friends have other priorities that do not involve us, whether getting mundane work done or pursuing a professional dreams or taking care of business that they do not want us to be a part of or privy to. Sometimes they may want to hang out with other friends. As disappointed as we may be that we cannot be a part of everything or that people didn’t show up when we wanted them to, it is only to be expected, and we too will have times when we cannot give time to our friends and must require their understanding.

Maintaining a friendship takes time and effort. The more you put in, the more you’ll get out of it. The more effort you put into a friendship, the deeper it becomes. Despite your effort, some days it may seem like no matter how much effort you put in, your friend is just not reciprocating. You have a choice then, to give up on the friendship entirely or to let it rest for a while. This rest may do you good, and while you may be impatient and annoyed at having to wait, at the end of the day, a friendship is worth it and the individual is worth it. Friendship cannot be forced as it takes two to tango, but if you really value the friendship, you’ll understand that friendships do not run on your schedule and that it is just a matter of time.

Sometimes this lackluster friendship brings about thoughts of inadequacy and self-consciousness. “Maybe I’m just not cool enough for him.” “Was it something that I said?” These thoughts should be banished (unless you really do have a serious personality flaw that hurts people, in which case you should take care to correct that), as people should have the confidence to be themselves and provide value in a relationship. You do not have to be the smartest, prettiest, or have all the same interests. This is the unpredictable element of a friendship–best friends may appear similar or different, or similar in some regards and not in other aspects. What matters then is mutual respect and care for the other person, linking back to the well-being comments earlier. This is why despite relationships being very important, we must have our own identities beyond the relationship, creating interdependence rather than dependence, so that we are strong enough to be there for our friends, but also strong enough to let them be there for us.

Last… a thank you to all my friends. A friend knows the song in my heart and sings it to me when my memory fails. ~Donna Roberts

Memo about Frustrations

The true meaning of life is to plant trees,
under whose shade you do not expect to sit.
-Nelson Henderson

Heard: What is the meaning of life? What are we working for anyway? Why aren’t people happy? What are these questions? Philosophical life questions that have no real answers, but are fun to ask to procrastinate or put things into perspective and make life more meaningful. Some people never have these moments of “What the heck?”, but others do.

I never know how these questions are going to show themselves. Sometimes it’s in a g-chat box late at night. Sometimes with a frustrated “Aaaaah” as people come into my room to talk. Sometimes it’s over a problem set that just doesn’t seem to make sense. Sometimes it’s as you replay a conversation with a certain friend in your head and think, “Do I really agree? Did she really understand me?” Sometimes we think “Is all this actually worth it?”

What the specific questions are doesn’t actually matter (for this post). What matters is what they signify–the fact that we all get frustrated at times, and the fact that these frustrations and questions are a part of our process of growing up. Asking these questions then, become a way to deal with our frustrations, a way to parse out the root of the problem, to articulate meaning and using articulation to define and seek out whatever it is that we value.

From what I’ve seen, work and people are the two things people complain about the most.

Work

There’s so much work. Let’s face it, it never really ends. A project can always be improved upon, a new project idea can spring from the current project… the way the world works, the way ideas flow, the way progress is developed, the way designs are created… there are always new thoughts morphing into new plans of action, and there will always be more work to do.

Sometimes, in the nitty gritty of things, it can be hard to remember why we are pipetting all of this solution onto these cells, balancing all these equations, drawing yet another graph, or performing yet another statistical analysis of a data set. Sometimes we are tired of work and just want to go and play.

Sometimes we question our reasons. Are they too practical? (We have student loans to pay off, we want some experience that will stand out on our resumes and launch us to an illustrious career.) Are they too grandiose? (We honestly care about the way these policies will affect how people live, how this research may lead to solutions far beyond what we are capable of right now.) Sometimes we don’t want to work and want to hang out with friends. Sometimes we’re upset that we can’t find the balance between work and play, and we just want to get rid of work altogether.

But, we all have to work. Or at least our society seems to be resting on the premise that we all work to support ourselves and our families and to contribute to society. Might as well find work that we enjoy, or find a way to enjoy what work we do have to do.

People

You love them, you hate them, but you can’t get away from them. Sometimes people just don’t behave the way that we want them to.  Sometimes our friends do stupid things that we know they’re smart enough not to do. Sometimes we do stupid things or say things that we immediately realize are stupid, but we just seem to do them anyhow. Sometimes people make us feel bad, maybe a guilty feeling for letting them down, maybe a feeling of being used or taken advantage of, maybe just a sense that they don’t really understand or don’t really care, maybe a feeling of being disconnected, left out, or the feeling that something just isn’t right. Sometimes it’s not wanting to ask for help, sometimes it’s wanting others to help without us having to ask for it. Either way, so many of our frustrations stem from people and our relationships to them.

Sometimes people are frustrated that they feel frustrated. Sometimes we just want our lives to be problem free. Life is never going to be problem free, and everyone feels frustrated at times, it’s ok. Just work on adjusting your attitude to find something beautiful in your life and to avoid taking out your frustration on other people, and be patient, both with yourself, your work, and others. The rest will follow. =)

Parting quote:

People are unreasonable, illogical and self-centered.
Love them anyway!
If you do good, people will accuse you
of selfish, ulterior motives.
Do good anyway!
If you are successful, you will win
false friends and enemies.
Succeed anyway!
The good you do will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway!
Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway!
What you spend years building may be
destroyed overnight.
Build anyway!
People really need help
but may attack you if you help them.
Help them anyway!
Give the world the best you have
and you’ll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you’ve got anyway!

~Mother Theresa

Lunch Atop a Skyscraper

Lunch Atop a Skyscraper, by Charles Ebbets, 1932

No matter where life takes you, make time to have lunch with friends.

Charles Ebbets took this photo during the construction of the Rockefeller Center in New York. While the seriousness of this picture lies in the commentary on labor conditions of the time (this seems rather precarious and accident prone), it also displays the humor and lightheartedness of humans determined to make the best of the moment.  Imagine the coordination just to get eleven men working on different parts of the building together on a single beam! Line up and march! Careful now, don’t bump into each other! All this to have lunch together, because we have the deep, intuitive knowledge that our lives are better with good friends, the feeling that we’d rather do this together than alone, the notion that watching out for each other, building each other up does more for everyone.

What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult for each other? ~George Eliot

Effort

It’s amazing what goes into making something effortless.
~Gaynor Minden poster

[Gaynor Minden is a brand of ballet pointe shoes]

Aline’s Tree and Teiweru’s Flower

Children of Aldeia, Aline is the girl in the blue shirt in the middle.

Children and art. Both have the ability to amaze and baffle me.

I’ve always found it interesting to try to connect with children when I travel or when I’m meeting a community of people. Children can tell you a lot about how a particular community functions and what they think, what they tolerate and what they value. I do not think of children as young, naive creatures who have no comprehension of the real world and need to be constantly taken care of. Instead I think that they have strength and spirit and potential, much to learn but also much to teach, character that needs to be nurtured and innate attributes that should be preserved as they grow into adults.

Many children are shy, but some are bold. When I was at the indigenous village in Brazil, one particular seven year old girl stood out to me because she didn’t just smile back when I smiled at her–she invited me to conversation. Not just casual conversation about my name or where I was from, which I would have considered a sizable amount of curiosity in someone young who wanted to learn about the life of a stranger. She asked me first if another Asian girl visiting the village was my sister (a reasonable question considering that she had probably never seen an Asian before and the two of us arrived, traveled, and left together), showing an understanding of the family unit and how people are tied together. Then she asked me if I liked to draw.

She asked me if I liked to draw. I always take note when someone casually introduces an interest like this, and immediately I answered that I liked to draw, and did she like to draw? Yes, she did. I excitedly found a twig and handed it to her, noting with pleasure that she squatted down to draw in the sand. She drew a geometric pattern, a tessellation similar to the tribal patterns seen painted on the wall despite being somewhat distorted by her not-yet-perfected seven year old control of the tool. As she drew, I searched around my backpack for the notebook and markers I carried for opportunities like this. I opened my box of markers and let her select a color to draw in, and handed her my notebook. She chose a green marker and reproduced the pattern she had just drawn in the sand, then handed the notebook back to me.

I paused, quickly searching through my brain for a catalyst to more art from this little girl. I drew a tree and handed the notebook back to her. She completed my drawing, drew her own tree–a fruit tree–then finished the tree I had started (and thought complete, but clearly she didn’t), shaping roots of the tree by closing the bottom of the trunk I drew and adding fruit. She drew a house, almost identical to the houses I had drawn when I was in elementary school; her house had more open doorways, not surprising given that the straw houses in her community had many doors to circulate cool air within the house. She added a river. Of course, she lived by the river. The sun she drew had a smiley face in the center. That made me smile.

Aline M. J. (7 yrs old) 's drawing

Our conversation had drawn the attention of some of the other children. One boy was bold enough to reach out for the notebook and seek a turn at the drawing board. He selected a blue marker and drew a geometric pattern, a flower I was told.

Teiweru (9 yrs old) 's Flower

A nine year old boy with a good grasp of rotational as well as bilateral symmetry. A seven year old girl who isn’t afraid of strangers and willing to draw out her vision of her community, and working with tessellations. I hope their skills will translate into mathematical ability when they study geometry–with the right view on the concepts, that would not be hard at all. At any rate, so much potential for both of them.

I do not know what these children will become, but I wish them the best of luck and the greatest of joys throughout their lives. I know they can do much for themselves and their communities, and hope that they will take and create the opportunities to do so.