From South Africa to Brooklyn

I've been home in New Hampshire for a couple of days and the snow is deep and the air cold. I'm reading a variety of books ranging from Christian mysticism to the Vietnam War to Harry Potter. I've been writing a few essays recently on various themes and have been pleased to be editing and organizing old work.

I've tried to put together my thoughts for several days about Nelson Mandela and a piece I read recently on poverty, but haven't got to blogging. It was on a recent night at 1:30 a.m.-- either the night before or perhaps the night after my finals last week (they were all in one day this year!) that I couldn't sleep and needed to write most of what's below into the notepad section of my phone to add to this blog at a later date.

I've written before about my interest in and respect for Nelson Mandela. Sometime in May or June 2012, I read a few books about him and I remember writing a few quotes by him that inspired me. I kept them in a notebook that I brought with me to Scotland. When my Dad texted me last week informing me of Mandela's death, the sadness wasn't quite there. It may have been the knowledge that he died at 95, presumably alongside family, an image of death we all wish for. I remembered a BBC article I had read the previous day quoting his daughter saying he was towards his end, and days before, I remember thinking of him, although it may have been that my eye caught a glimpse of a quote of his on my wall. I'm thankful, like many, to have shared a world and overlapping time of existence with him. I remain humbled by his leadership and forgiveness, and interested in his nation and the opportunities that I hope lie ahead for South Africa. I'm no expert at all, and barely feel as if I can comment at all, but South Africa -- despite being the most wealthy nation in Africa, remains one of the most unequal and dangerous areas of the world. With Mandela's blueprint though, I, along with many, hold great hope.

One of my favorite quotes by Mandela:

"In judging our progress as individuals, we tend to concentrate on external factors such as one's social position, influence, and popularity, wealth and standard of education...but internal factors may be even more crucial in assessing one's development as a human being: honesty, sincerity, simplicity, humility, purity, generosity, absence of vanity, readiness to serve your fellow men -- qualities within the reach of every soul."

I spent about four hours on Thursday night (my final ended that afternoon!) in between laughing and packing with one of my housemates, reading this 5-part New York Times series, Invisible Child. I had heard of it through a few journalism circles and I can say that it is the single most amazing piece on poverty, particularly youth poverty I have ever read. It portrays one child in Brooklyn, New York over one school year. Invisible Child proves that today's American poor are unlike our images or expectations of the poor. Today's poor have similar access to media, advertising, culture, yet lack resources. They are among all of us, living and surviving on far less.