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TEN WAYS SOCCER CAN HELP YOU GROW UP GLOBAL – abridged version!

Thursday, June 10th, 2010

Boys playing football in the UNICEF-funded safe park in South Africa. Credit: UNICEF UK/South Africa 2008/Andy Brown

Soccer is the world’s game and can connect us with a world community. For one month every four years it culminates in the World Cup, this June 11-July 11. This list is abridged from the longer list located in the Play! Chapter of Growing Up Global.

1. Do the WAKA WAKA and tap in to the global game through FIFA (pronounced “FEE-fa”). World Cup sponsor www.fifa.com gives game highlights and schedules, but it’s also a portal to the excitement of the game in each country. Hit the Teams tab, click on country flags and explore! Dance to Shakira’s World Cup song, WAKA WAKA, found here – in 3D!

2. Follow a few international teams. Pick favorites – based on your heritage, favorite food, a language you want to learn, your favorite jersey, or even where your finger stops when you spin the globe. Make a flag of your country to wave during the games. Go farther: Growing Up Global has recommendations for age-appropriate foreign films, food ideas, music and more.

3. Learn about your favorite players’ lives. “Footballers” are many countries’ biggest celebrities and their life stories can inspire.

4. Cheer for the U.S.A.. There’s no reason you can’t be a patriot and still grow up global. Track the U.S. team. Where are your favorite U.S. players and coaches from?

5. How are women and girls doing? Does the country you follow have a women’s team? What obstacles might girls in other countries face as they get serious about sports? Cheer on the long-time world’s #1 women’s soccer team: U.S.A.

6. Get to know players or their parents with a different worldview. Soccer can open a door to meeting local families from different cultures, since the children of immigrants are more likely to join a soccer team than any other sports team. And those parents might make the best coaches since they likely grew up with it as their #1 sport.

7. Adults can play, too, in leagues across the country. My cousin’s team in New Jersey was organized by a Chinese restaurant owner, and included Nigerians, Brazilians, Central Americans, and Iranians. They were cab drivers, doctors, and CEOs – but those distinctions faded away on the turf.

8. If you travel abroad, try to attend a local football (soccer) game. Few events will show local culture and passions more than a football match, even if it’s a nearby youth league a waiter told you about.

9. Watch a soccer movie. Ages 10 & up: Bend It Like Beckham has become the classic. My favorite for all ages: The Great Match, a comedy showing remote tribal villagers in Mongolia, Niger, and Brazil trying to get TV reception for the 2002 World Cup final – and many more!

10. Help all kids access soccer and sports. Donate outgrown shin guards and cleats. Support kids in the U.S. and worldwide to play as a means of getting healthy and staying in school.

Find out other great resources for connecting families with the world through daily updates on the Growing Up Global Facebook group

Tags: Bend It Like Beckham, FIFA, Film Movement, football, growing up global, Offside, Panahi, Putumayo World Music, Shakira, Soccer, The Great Match, UNICEF, Waka Waka, World Cup, world events
Posted in Africa, Global education, Golden Rule, Small World, Soccer, Sports, UNICEF, War and Peace | No Comments »

Brainquake or Boobquake – Can we rid the ridiculous? (cross-posted at momsrising.org)

Sunday, April 25th, 2010

Women’s power has hit a new high – or a new low, depending on your view of global politics. Recently, a conservative Iranian cleric pronounced that women’s immodest clothing choices spur adultery and therefore increase the risk of devastating earthquakes. I didn’t pay much attention to this ridiculous, fear-based statement, but I am fascinated by the action it’s sparked, by women from the east and the west. Here’s a great summary of one prominent response. Go #brainquake!

Iranian women want equality – who’s quaking over this?

From Persian Letters-Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty:

<<A new campaign, titled “Brainquake,” has been launched on Facebook, calling on women to show off their résumés, CVs, honors, prizes, and accomplishments. The goal is to get conservative Iranian leaders quaking with fear at “women’s abilities to push for change and to thrive despite gender apartheid.”

The campaign is a reaction to “Boobquake,” an initiative by a U.S. student, Jen McCreight, calling on women to test the claim by Iranian cleric Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi that women who dress immodestly promote adultery and thus increase the risk of earthquakes.

The creators of “Brainquake” say on their Facebook page that they’re saddened that the creator of “Boobquake” and thousands of other women have responded to Sedighi’s claim by resolving to show some cleavage on April 26.

“Everyday women and young girls are forced to ’show off cleavage’ and more in order simply to be heard, to be seen, or to advance professionally. The web is already filled with images of naked women; the porn industry thrives online and many young girls are already vulnerable to predatory abuse. Violence against women and girls has a direct correlation to the sexualisation of women and girls. The extent of their sexualisation is evident in the hundreds of replies that pour into the ‘Boobquake’ Facebook page where women write, apologetically: ‘I don’t have boobs, not fair’ or ‘Hey, I only have a C cup…’ and ‘What about those of us who no longer have cleavage? They sag too low.’”

“Brainquake’s” creators say Sedighi’s comment was no news to Iranian women, nor was it funny. They note that for the past 30 years, the Islamic Republic has violated women’s rights with what they describe as repressive policies.

“Iranian women have fought back in various ways, one of which has been to dress ’subversively,’ but as is evident in the Green Movement, it is not their ‘beauty’ or bodies that they have utilized in fighting against a brutal theocracy but their brains, their creativity, art, writings, etc.”

Iranian women make up more than 60 percent of university entrants. Women were at the forefront of the protests against the disputed reelection of Iran’s President Mahmud Ahmadinejad. And a number of women’s rights activists were detained and sentenced to prison in the postelection crackdown, including Shiva Nazar Ahari and student leader Bahareh Hedayat, who both remain in jail.

Both “Boobquake” and “Brainquake” are taking place on Monday, April 26.

article by Golnaz Esfandiari>>

Tags: courage, education, growing up global, injustice, iran, Roxana Saberi, Shirin Ebadi, world events
Posted in War and Peace, Women | No Comments »

Talking to My Children About Injustice, Praying About it, and the Trial for 7 Innocents in Tehran

Monday, January 11th, 2010

Once school started the first week of January, everyone’s schedules kicked into high gear. But something stopped my family in our tracks last week, and each day for the last few, we found time to get together

These are the five men and two women who go on trial at 5 pm EST (noon Tuesday in Tehran) before their arrest in 2008.

to pray, beseech, contemplate and think beyond our immediate circumstances. In spite of the busy-ness, we acknowledged so many bounties, particularly, the freedom to worship however we wish.

Over the winter holidays, in spite of our wish to tune out news media, a steady stream of disturbing reports out of Iran, the homeland where my husband and I are unlikely to live again, came. All spelling doom or status quo or foreign meddling or regime change, depending whose website you followed.

Finally, last week things took a harsher turn when the accusations, random mass arrests, and further crackdown on the population, including the peace-loving Baha’i community escalated in Iran. Homes were raided. Men and women arrested. A trial date for seven Baha’i leaders accused of “spreading corruption on earth” confirmed for Tuesday, January 12. New trumped up charges of hiding weapons and ammunition in the Baha’is’ homes and inciting riots indicated a new intensity of the crackdown. Anyone who knows the littlest bit about Baha’i beliefs realizes these as preposterous accusations. CNN cited the “downright fabric[ations]” and “blatant lie” of these “completely unbelievable” charges.

Today around 5 pm EST (this is noon Tuesday in Tehran) the trial of seven Baha’i “leaders” in Iran, 5 men and 2 women, who have been detained for close to two years, is scheduled to begin. For months they had been denied access to their lawyer, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi and her team, as well as other elements of due process. The trial was postponed a few times already, each at the last minute, spurring its own mental anguish for the detainees and those who care about them. By all accounts from their activity before arrest, these women and men were law-abiding pillars of their communities, courageous to defend the down-trodden, and admired for their qualities like being honest, hard-working, and morally beyond reproach. Theirs were “lives of service”.

Conditions surrounding the trial date this time forebode the worst for these innocent targets. The world keeps saying “never again” and it somehow doesn’t seem to make much difference. In the case of this week’s show-trial in Iran, we’re not talking about large numbers of lives, but it does represent one more of the atrocities of our time: a case of systematic, conscious targeting, the sowing of hatred and doubt among the population, resulting in vicious physical attacks, murders, and the loss of basic rights and freedoms among the country’s largest religious minority.

I don’t like to talk to my children about how horrible human beings can be to one another. I want to equip them with optimism, possibility, and faith in people’s goodness. So, I focus on the strength and resolve of those innocently imprisoned. I have talked with my older daughters about what kinds of lives those imprisoned led; and when we pray for them, our focus is less “please God, don’t kill them.” After all, it’s not God killing them. But we do pray for their safety and freedom. We pray for their strength. We pray for justice, compassion, even for the international community to speak out and not stand by mute while such injustice and indignity to continue. We pray to remember. If the world moves on and forgets or ignores such on-going horrors, we will never see peace. We talk about how strong and courageous they have remained in the face of terrible trials and ordeals. This was shared with the world when the journalist Roxana Saberi mentioned how her shared cell with these Baha’i women served as a strength and inspiration to her, helping her pass the darkest days behind bars in the notorious Evin prison.

Of course, the effort of our taking time out from our day to pray for the innocents does imply injustice lurks in the world. Even my six-year old understands this to some extent. She has a sense of “unfair” and “not nice” and danger. To realize the world is not all hearts and flowers and play dates can be part of their consciousness even while we teach hope, compassion, forgiveness and love. This is so different from instilling fear or a doomsday attitude. We focus on the good people who display these positive qualities all over the world and don’t give up, from all walks of life. These are the true heroes among us. They inspire and offer purpose to our lives, and remind us that the freedom to worship and believe as we wish is a great gift. And I feel hopeful that sharing their inspiration might contribute to our children’s generation possibly being the one that will actually never forget. For now, the anticipation looms heavy in my heart and I can’t forget.

Tags: Bahai, courage, injustice, iran, prayer, Roxana Saberi, Shirin Ebadi
Posted in Prejudice, Uncategorized, War and Peace, Women | 1 Comment »

Tearing Down Walls

Monday, November 9th, 2009

Today’s a big deal: The 20^th anniversary of the Berlin Wall’s fall. Do you remember where you were that day? I was working in Kenya at the time, on an early micro-lending program, taking our cues from the young (now famed) Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, to support the development of women-owned businesses. I remember one of my Kenyan co-workers (his name was Justus, pronounced “justice”, may he RIP) brought his radio to the office and a few of us gathered around to hear the unbelievable news over the BBC.

I recall one of my thoughts that day: an experience from the year before. I was in a graduate international relations class where I got to know and appreciate a group of classmates we affectionately called the “Joint Chiefs of Staff.” They were West Point or ROTC grads from various universities and most had returned from service with NATO before starting grad school. Coming from Southern California to the program, I had never had direct contact with military officers. I admit I was deeply intimidated and/or afraid of these guys when I met them. I’m probably still intimidated, but for different reasons. I got to know them for their integrity, great sense of humor, outstanding work ethic, willingness to help out a classmate anytime, and overall, just for being great guys. It’s been my privilege to know them.

On November 9, 1989 when the Berlin Wall fell, though, I felt I’d scored a victory over our Joint Chiefs. In class the previous year they argued “Realpolitik,” that there was no chance for peace with the Soviet enemies, and a symbol like the Berlin Wall was essentially impenetrable, short of a military option. Sounding hopelessly naïve, I stammered an argument around “peace is possible!” I had long been influenced by views like those espoused in The Promise of World Peace.

We’re still a long way from whirled peas world peace, but I always remember this experience (“It IS possible – the wall could come down peacefully!”) when I need to restore my optimism that things can get better in our world. One of the ideas that’s really stuck with me from The Promise of World Peace is a “paralyzing contradiction” in world affairs: good people WANT peace, but don’t think it’s possible. We need to believe in the possibility of peace in order to realize it and work for it. Another way of looking at this: Pray for rain and carry an umbrella. The fall of the Berlin Wall reminds us that anything is possible. (As with most victories, there were casualties, though, and one I don’t hear people talking about is the fact that the U.S. foreign aid budget to poor countries in Africa and elsewhere was decimated as attention moved to the former Soviet bloc. But that’s for another post…)

Perhaps more difficult than tearing down a crumbling, physical wall is attacking the walls each of us carries more subtly: the barriers that keep us apart, whether they are economic, racial, religious, cultural, or whatever. On top of the old baggage, our society seems very good at creating new biases: stay-at-home vs. working moms and dads; overweight, undertall, over-aged, under-employed, kinky-haired, straight-laced, red, blue, and more.

Most of us want better for our future. Our kids didn’t grow up with a looming concrete wall between East and West; let’s not erect new ones.

Do you remember where you were when the wall fell? Do you have some ideas to share for helping kids confront potential biases, to avoid new walls going up? I’d love to hear your memories, and your ideas.

P.S. If you have a few minutes, see this meditation on what the wall is inspiring these days – sort of like turning swords into plowshares: turning the Wall into art.

Tags: education, Prejudice, understanding culture, war, world events
Posted in Prejudice, War and Peace | No Comments »

I Love Jane Goodall

Friday, October 30th, 2009

Dr. Jane + Mr. H - I met both on the train

If you’ve seen the cover of Growing Up Global, you’ll notice the sunburst with the quote from Dr. Jane Goodall says: “fascinating ideas for giving young people opportunities to become truly global citizens.” I was over the moon when Dr. Jane offered her feedback from reading a galley copy of the book. Amidst her grueling schedule, travelling over 300 days a year, we managed to get a book to her while she waited for a flight at Heathrow airport, and she couldn’t have been more gracious and positive about it. This wasn’t the first time she’d heard of my project. Our initial meeting took place on the Amtrak from Philadelphia to New York, four years ago.

We were on a full train, where the only open seats were the very last ones in the car. These are the ones that look like a restaurant booth, with a table in between. I thought I recognized the woman already in the seat across from mine. I definitely knew it was her when, upon settling in, she took out a plush toy chimp from her bag (I think he’s “Mr. H”?) and placed it right on the table between us, just as I would place a magazine there. At that time our eldest daughter was in seventh grade, concluding a Biography project – on Dr. Jane Goodall. (I remember this because about half way into the ride I went into the ladies’ room to call Layla with the news: I excitedly whispered it and she screamed in return.)

A highlight of that fateful ride with the esteemed activist, scientist and trailblazer (who turned 75 earlier this year) and her capable right-hand person was the conversation we had around raising children to be at home in the world – to take responsibility, not live in fear, engage in making sincere connections, and embrace its beauty and possibilities. She encouraged my dedication to the book. She shared that indeed, the prime motivation of her work, including the work with wildlife, stems from her desire for peace in our world. A society that respects its environment is much more likely to have peace. Brutality to animals quickly spreads to fellow humans. Take a look at her newest, heart-felt book, Hope for Animals and Their World.

Since that day I discovered a number of overlapping friends with the Jane Goodall Institute board and staff, particularly a graduate school mentor, Dr. David Shear, who recently stepped down as JGI’s Board Chair. I’m honored to have a Growing Up Global gift basket included among the silent auction items at The 2009 Jane Goodall Institute Global Leadership Awards Celebration taking place at the Beverly Wilshire hotel near L.A. tonight. I was told that only “items Jane loves” will be included in the auction. Here’s a link to the invitation, with a Hollywood Who’s Who on the host committee, ranging from Barbra Streisand and Mary Tyler-Moore to Julia Louis Dreyfus, Ellen DeGenerus, and Ted Turner.

Included in the Growing Up Global basket, valued at $700, are:

A gift certificate to the lovely, globally-inspired children’s clothing from Tea Collection (www.teacollection.com).
An assortment of 7 family friendly foreign film DVDs PLUS a 3-month and a 6-month subscription to Film Movement (www.filmmovement.com).
Ten CDs from Putumayo World Music – five Putumayo Kids favorites and five top Putumayo World Music titles (www.putumayo.com).
Global Giving gift cards, to choose from causes and projects all over the world to invest in (www.globalgiving.com).
Two signed copies of Growing Up Global: Raising Children to Be At Home in the World – one to keep and one to give.

Thanks so much to these outstanding organizations – all striving to making the world a better place, and hoping to make a fraction of the dent that Dr. Jane so elegantly and courageously has dedicated her life to.

Tea Collection - For Little Citizens of the World

World Playground from Putumayo

Film Movement - foreign and independents, for all ages

A Global Giving Gift Card

Tags: Beverly Wilshire, Events for Growing Up Global, Film Movement, Global education, Global Giving, growing up global, Jane Goodall, Philanthropy, Putumayo World Music, Tea Collection
Posted in Africa, Events for Growing Up Global, Giving, Global education, Jane Goodall, War and Peace, Women | No Comments »

Awarding Global Citizenship – Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize

Friday, October 9th, 2009

President Obama challenging the UN General Assembly about two weeks ago

If the Facebook newsfeed is any gauge of public opinion, even thoughtful Obama voters are left scratching their heads at this year’s Nobel Peace Prize decision.

When the wake-up news from my clock radio told me of the Peace Prize announcement, I uncharacteristically bolted straight up to make sure I was hearing correctly, and not in my usual merging of dreamland with morning news headlines.

Once I realized it wasn’t a dream, I could almost immediately hear the pitch of those Americans-who-hate-Obama-more-than-they-love-America, the kind who applauded in glee when Chicago lost the Olympic bid (not because they cheered for Rio) or drew Hitler mustaches on the Commander-in-Chief. Were they going to make kabob out of him? If the world loves him, does that mean they will hate him more? It must be a sign of too much media ingestion that I thought of those vociferous opinionators, before I considered my OWN thoughts on the matter. I also hadn’t had my coffee yet.

Those Nobel folks are smart, so what were they thinking?

“Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world’s attention and given its people hope for a better future,” the committee said in its citation. “His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world’s population.”

Thorbjorn Jagland, the chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee and a former prime minister of Norway, declared “We are not awarding the prize for what may happen in the future, but for what he has done in the previous year.”… “And who has done more than Barack Obama?”

“We have to get the world on the right track again” … “Look at the level of confrontation we had just a few years ago. Now we get a man who is not only willing but probably able to open dialogue and strengthen international institutions.”

The last sitting American president to win the prize was Woodrow Wilson in 1919. He has been mocked for what is considered his “failure” of the League of Nations. But this began a process that at a minimum, got the world’s nations to sit down and talk to each other, and formed what would become the United Nations. And yes, it’s a flawed institution, but it’s the best we’ve got. And have you noticed some of the amazing work that has come out of the U.N.? This is a bit of a raw point for me – after 25 years. I was asked at a competitive college scholarship interview, “who is a figure in American history that you most admire?” I was completely unprepared for this question and blurted out “Woodrow Wilson,” for the reasons cited here. See, I always was a peace-nik. I literally watched the previously smiling committee members squirm and jot down “No,” or write “X,” before they escorted me out of the room, and I never heard from them again.

This year’s Peace Prize, like so many of the previous winners, represents something much bigger than the man. (Do you remember anything about the 2008 winner, Finland’s Martti Ahtisaari?) It goes back to hope, an imperative that we must have peace in the world, and we need to focus on the qualities that can get us there. Confrontational approaches to international relations are giving way to a reality that our strength comes from cooperation; that big problems like climate change can’t be neatly solved alone, within national boundaries, and we won’t earn respect by bullying others. Future leaders – our children – can start learning these lessons on the playground or at the dinner table. How you treat others, the conversations you have, and your comfort with those that are different than you can form the building blocks of a wider, global vision. Fun, experiential discoveries in our neighborhoods and cities can connect us with the world, whether it’s engaging in various arts or sports, testing new cuisines, or films or languages or ideas, with new friends from many different backgrounds. We can teach our children that any face can be the face of leadership, of peace and promise – even theirs. The world just reached out with a hand of friendship – how will we accept it, and what will we learn from it?

Tags: Nobel Peace Prize, obama
Posted in Barack Obama, Global education, War and Peace | 1 Comment »

Hurricane Katrina – Giving Knows No Bounds

Monday, August 31st, 2009

Acholi Women building a new future for themselves. See www.acholibeads.com

Since the weekend, I have been remembering the toll on lives and a community, caused by Hurricane Katrina, exactly four years ago. The following story shows incredible generosity, from an unlikely place; it also demonstrates how connected others around the world feel to us in America, and to fellow citizens of humanity. Their giving knows no bounds. (Excerpt from Growing Up Global: Raising Children to Be At Home in the World):

“I have nothing and what I give is just a drop.

But added to the others will fill a cup.”

(Betty, of Acholi quarters slum in Kampala, Uganda, cited in a report from the Association for Volunteers in International Service.1)

Betty is one of the hundreds of thousands of refugees from the gruesome, nineteen year civil war in northern Uganda. She and her fellow Acholi tribeswomen committed themselves to earning funds to send to the victims of Hurricane Katrina for their basic necessities, which resulted in over $1,000 being sent to Gulf Coast families.

This act of generosity is mind-boggling when you consider that the women’s income is less than $1 per day, and it is earned by pounding stones from the nearby quarry—by hand—that will be used in smaller pieces for road and housing construction.

The income barely supports their families, but these young and old women knew what it was like to lose their homes and were reaching out to help others who had lost theirs. They didn’t doubt this was something they needed to do, and they didn’t question if their contribution would make a difference. Their astonishing generosity embodies the idea that one doesn’t need to be wealthy in order to help others. When Americans have experienced true need and crises, the world community has pitched in to help us, just as Americans give abundantly to benefit countless causes around the world. It’s important to share these lessons with our children—everyone can find some way to give, and people around the world have cared for Americans in need, just as Americans have reached out to the world.

(Note: The women in the photo with this blog are not the same ones who earned the $1,000 to send to Katrina victims, but they are fellow Acholi’s, coming from similar circumstances. They are involved in an income generation-empowerment model making beautiful jewellry from recycled materials that are sold around the world: www.acholibeads.com. Programs like this help re-build their community after a devastating tragedy.)

1. “Giving beyond limits: Women of Acholi Quarters Breaking Stones for Katrina Victims,”

October 17, 2005; from http://www.avsi-usa.org/news

Posted in Africa, Giving, Global education, War and Peace, Women | No Comments »

Today is the Anniversary of a War, and “Rage Has Only Hardened”

Saturday, August 8th, 2009

I am struck by the August 7, 2009 headline from the New York Times: “A Year After Georgian War, Rage Has Only Hardened.” The article can be found at:

http://tinyurl.com/georgiawar1

I’m no expert in that region of the world, but it reminds me of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s observation, “an eye for an eye leaves everybody blind.” War, violence, revenge, retribution are a way of life for millions that haven’t been taught better. Economies are founded on a defense-industrial complex and advanced international relations’ theorists devise complicated game-theories to get the other side to cave to their bluffs; in the end the solution is usually termed as “non-optimal.”

A couple of paragraphs from the article point to how complicated it is to change mindsets once violations have occurred:

Meanwhile, in this valley, the rage has not abated, not at all. As they prepared to mark the war’s anniversary, Ossetians here referred to Georgians as “swine” and “livestock,” and said they would never live in peace with them again. The commemorations seemed only to stoke those feelings.
“If at some point I see a young Georgian man, and I know that he served in the army, I will kill him,” said Seldik Tedeyev, a bus driver whose son and mother died trying to leave Tskhinvali last Aug. 8. “Years will pass, time will pass, but I will kill him anyway.”

Sometimes the situation just seems so entrenched, where is the solution here? Where does the hope in South Ossetia come from, so that new generations can live in peace and prosperity?

I realize the ideas in Growing Up Global may seem painfully naïve to the bus driver quoted above, but I have to hold up the hope that if the youngest among us are nurtured with a mindset based on humanity’s oneness and connectedness – and the profound implications that follow – a true solution lies deep inside there, somewhere.

Girl in Tskhinvali displays her rendering of “Children happy and sad”

A group of children in front of the Youth Palace in Tskhinvali.
This photo was taken before last year’s war and it is thought these children are almost certainly all refugees now.

Tags: war, world events
Posted in Global education, Russia, War and Peace | No Comments »