facts & norms

Heads up: i wrote this at midnight, yesturday - sunday evening.. this is 4 hours past my bedtime and i had waken up at 5:45 that morning (which is extra early for me) so i was incredibly tired, and i have not re-read/edited it in the least.  but i remember being 'in the zone' as i was writing, so take what you wish.  oh, we just had a wicked hail storm here, yeah.. in madagascar.  it was neat.  and so heres my entry - hope you enjoy!

Few people may know this, and few people who I think know this probably don’t actually know or remember.  And why I am writing it in here-I have an idea as a prelude, which will most likely turn into a rambling like most of my spiels do.  And so this the beginning, as I write this my soundtrack is Hawksley Workman’s ‘The Delicious Wolves’ and Workman’s ‘lover/fighter’

 

-The song ‘Do You Realize?’ by The Flaming Lips is the most romantic song of all time.  I say this not as opinion, but as fact ; )

 

-Another fact which few of you may be unaware of, is in 1986 Madagascar ‘fell’ (how delicately put…) to the French, and was under French colonization until 1960, and has been an independent country now for almost 48 years.

 

Now here are some things I’d like to note that are neither fact or opinion (although I have a immense difficulty writing anything as a completely impartial piece, and my bias reigns heavy in everything from tiny adjectives to blown out cursing rants so please question that which I have written to find out what exactly it is that you yourself believe on some issues I may raise.. have a good time : )  And SO IT BEGINS:

 

2008, I have heard and no longer react to hearing stories of ‘silly’ lawsuits and as ‘silly’ as they are, they are facts and the reality in which I live; one suing McDonalds over serving coffee too hot, a lesbian couple going to court to try and get themselves a legal ‘recognized’ divorce when only 10 months previously they were fighting for their marriage to be ‘recognized’ in the eyes of the law, etc.  I have become indifferent to the majority of lawsuits I hear and immediately pass judgment on. 

 

I suppose some factors in becoming apathetic to these ‘facts’/situations is it has become the norm for myself as a white, educated, healthy, self-centered woman growing up in a financially stable loving family in the West. 

 

Perhaps for some of you with similar upbringings, the norm may be; at 2AM we leave the bar scene, in a diverse of moods and thoughts and coherencies.. and wind up at one of the many 24 hour mass shopping stores such as Wal-Mart and pour our remaining change into a cheap dvd from their 2 for $10 bin to bring home and fall asleep to.  Perhaps it has become the norm to put the majority of our time into getting the __?__ number of signatures  needed for our petition to keep homosexual marriage illegal.  Or perhaps it has become the norm to spend thousands of dollars on ‘beauty’ (ugh – I use this word ONLY to describe quickly, not because I believe it to be true ‘beauty’) supplies, hair dyes, and surgeries only to crave more.  Or perhaps it has become the norm to spend tens of thousands of dollars, 4 years of our time, and countless social sacrifices to gain a piece of paper that has the word ‘degree’ printed across it, only to realize it is something you/i/we detest and return to school to pursue something that might just quench the thirst within.  Or perhaps it has become the norm to see groups of ‘christians’ picketing at the funerals of our/our neighboring nation’s soldiers. 

 

With all this becoming the norm for myself, I throw up my hands and laugh, for tears do nothing anymore as the more we keep pushing to be come self-sufficient, self-serving individuals, the more idiotic notions will become the ‘norm’ to be judged against man’s version of ‘justice.  I know the power of man’s ‘justice’ has no power over true love, humility, and grace, but this is so far from my natural ‘norm’ I fail more often than not and my own idiotic tendencies blend in with the norms of the majority in our society. 

 

I assume Antananarivo’s society holds a great number of young women who possess similar opinions as I, and although we share different norms, the facts are facts, and quite frequently the two mesh and make my deciphering morals increasingly difficult, I wonder how many are in the same boat.   

 

-In 1810, Radama I (The king of Madagascar) outlawed foreign slave trade, however kept many local people in domestic slavery.  And now we’re back to facts…

 

A little while ago a young girl in my class asked me if my family had slaves in Canada because her family had slaves at their home on the coast (At least this is what I understood from our conversation, my mind was a bit boggled at the time).  I have now been in Madagascar for a little over a month, and although the class system is quite visible, it had not occurred to me that there were slaves as I just assumed slave trade was seen as abominable to every person who lived on the same planet as I.  But I am learning little by little that the slave trade is very much active, more specifically the child sex slave market alike many other countries (side note: Did you know South Africa is trying to legalize prostitution in time for the world cup in 2010… cross your finger guys, we can go watch soccer right after we pick up a 12 year old to bang in a motel 8 and not have to fill guilty about it because its within the law!).  I do not know where the ‘law’ stands on this (back to slave trade now) , and I am not saying it does not occur in my home country, however the facts remain that it is a current issue within this country I have come to know as ‘home’.

 

Another fact in this country I have recently learnt of; I come from a country where it is the norm for individuals who are arrested to be presumed innocent until proven guilty.  This is something I never quite examined, or thought much about, until I was told that in Madagascar people who are arrested are found guilty until proven innocent.  So, you could come here, say that I stole your watch and I would be put in jail possibly for years until somebody could prove that it wasn’t true.

 

It is the year 2008, and I have come to know many ‘facts’ I would rather I had not come to know, and I have come to recognize many norms that are far from norms in other parts of the world.  However, the more facts and norms I learn of, the less I understand.  However, I know a handful of truths in which I am not concerned about the norms or facts in which they fit.  For one cannot possibly argue with absolutes : )  And this is the truth for myself at this point in time:

 

I love the area in which I was born into this world (Winnipeg, Manitoba!), I love hundreds of Canadian citizens some of who I respect and hold in great respect and have helped me out of countless situations my own selfishness and pride has gotten me stuck in.  I adore the part of the Lord, God I have come to learn and encounter in that great land, and I am now also crazy about the part of notre Dieu I am learning about through the people, and this island.  In Canada, or Madagascar, we share the same sky, the same moon, the same God, yet I see different pieces and there is still so much I long to know and revere.  I am thirsty for His presence, and these facts and norms would normally have my heart in shambles but I have an unexplainable peace in knowing that there will be true justice one day, and my only duty is to Simply Love.

 

 

This piece was written with a ton of passion, and a longing to have my dear sister sit by me and hear my rant and roll her beautiful blue eyes, but all the while listening, which I appreciate more than I ever have said. 

 

Peace be with you my friends, family, church,

With love,

Lisa Obirek