Furmanifesto

Mohammed Abu Zaid

David Lin hopes to open a restaurant next year and his strategy is bit different. While good food will be on the menu, the exterior of his restaurant features a mural depicting Chinese police officers beating a demonstrator while a Tibetan monk sets himself on fire.  Lin says that it’s a political statement about China’s human rights abuses.

Of course the Chinese government disapproves.

Last week two government officials wanted to have the mural removed.

They ran into a bit of a problem, David Lin doesn’t live in China, he lives in Corvallis, Oregon. The Taiwanese immigrant wants everyone to know that he is opposed to the communist government of China.  The Chinese government sent the officials from their consulate in San Francisco to see if the Mayor of Corvallis would put an end to Mr Lin’s mural.

Corvallis Mayor Julie Manning refused.  She explained to the men that Americans have the right to say what they want to say.  That right is protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.  That Constitution is one of the reasons Mr. Lin moved  to the United States.

What’s interesting is that the Government of China travelled all the way to Oregon to see if our government would take away Mr Lin’s right to express his opinion.  I suppoe this didn’t seem odd to them because they not only oppose free speech, they have also never experienced it… or its side effects.

If it sounds oppressive and fascist that someone would not only monitor what is being said about their country in someone else’s country, and then travel to that other country to try to get them to enforce your laws in their country, you probably also wouldn’t like what happened in Libya this week.

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I was warned this week that men were going to try to hold my hand.

Seriously.

I’m in Africa right now and one of the trip leaders told me to expect that grown men might try to take me by hand as we were walking together.  They also told me not to worry about it because it’s a perfectly normal thing for an African man to do with his friend.

This didn’t make me any less anxious, mostly because I’m not an African man.

It made me think about what I would do if an African man took me by the hand while we are walking…

Would I instinctively flinch?

I don’t want to be offensive.

Would I just act naturally?

How do you act naturally?

I’ve never held hands, as a grown man, with another grown man before.

What’s the protocol?

Do I swing my arms?

How hard should I grip?

Who’s thumb goes on top?

Will we interlock our fingers?

What do I do when our hands get sweaty?

HOW DO YOU KNOW WHEN IT’S TIME TO LET GO?

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Whoever came up with the phrase, “Those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach” was clearly on to something.

In the affirmative sense the phrase indicates that as we get older, we lose the strength needed to accomplish, so we move into the realm of teaching, encouraging the younger and more able-bodied to use their strength to accomplish.

In the pejorative, or “insultive”, sense the adage also aptly defines certain able bodied people who have no interest in “doing”- because they prefer talking.

As a known talker, with a great propensity for inactivity, I’d like to propose adding a third “Those Who” to the mix.

If you were paying attention to an internet device yesterday you probably saw, or read, about a viral video produced by the non-profit advocacy group “Invisible Children”.

The video was intended to launch a campaign to instigate global awareness about an African dictator, who abuses children, and appeal for his removal through foreign intervention.

Yesterday they got a lot of views.

A lot of people heard their message.

Now people are responding.

Today, people know about the civil war in Uganda and the tragedy of child soldiers and sexual abuse that has taken place there. They also know the names of Joseph Kony and his LRA.

Today we also get the opportunity to watch the backlash against the non profit behind the awareness campaign.

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