It was the month that India launched its first rocket to the moon and Barack Obama finalized his campaign as leader of the United States, and Christians in Orissa continued to be murdered; when China took measures to protect ITS titanic economy and a man in Tibet claimed to be Buddha reincarnated. In Hollywood Daniel Craig completed another Bond movie, and at the edge of the desert, unseasonable rains flooded Cairo. And in Whitefield, India, 27 students departed for Delhi. It was the halfway point of our Global Semester. Time draws us closer and closer to home even as we move farther and farther from the world we know; the sum of the halves, though, proves so much more than five months abroad. It is an experience that will no doubt become somehow central to our still tentative lives. We landed in the blanketing smog of Delhi, the sour-garbage-car-exhaust-overpopulated smell of Delhi; water stained buildings, the mules-in-the-boulevard-goats-on-the-sidewalk-cows-on-the-street farmstead of Delhi. Bicycle rickshaws lined the street, the sounds of city fills the air, people moving in and out of the spheres of one anothers' lives. And that's what made these last days in India such a keystone in our travels: interweaving lives of individuals and groups painting the tapestry of North Indian life. All that we learned about peaceful inculturation in the south became even more vitally important in the north, where the percentage of Muslims in the Kashmir region is nearly three times the national average of 12.5%. In the past weeks, terrorist bombings have struck India, leaving thousands of refugees in its wake from Delhi to Orissa. Modern warfare between Hindutva and Muslim extremists paints the underbelly of globalized India red, and in these troubled times, we learned to look to the past for a lesson in peaceful living. As far back as the thirteenth century, Genghis Khan hosted the first interreligious dialogue between Christians, Muslims, and Buddhists. Three centuries later his heir, Akbar the Mughal, still touched with the wisdom of religious tolerance, built his great City in Agra in the late fifteen hundreds with architectual respects to the Hindus, the Muslims, the Persians, and the Christians, and it remains today for us to see: a monument to power, wisdom, and beauty. In Agra, we also drove past the place Muhatma Gandhi was shot, the place where he was buried, and once again had related to us what a inspirational leader he was. We have learned, however, to be wary of historical interpretation, for example as we remember back to our lectures about how Gandhi failed to address repercussions for criminals, how he lent support to foundation of caste, how his attitude towards the Dalits was patronizing, nothing but empty solutions. In the face of such conflicts, we see how the intermingling of cultures creates both wonder and heartache. Globalization has been, and will be a reality to be addressed, and its inevitability in the future becomes more and more clear the more we travel and experience the world. What we have found however, is that our increased ability to communicate has not necessarily developed a likewise matured sense of understanding. We see it is up to us and our generation to promote peace from the bottom up in the face of fundamental extremism and cultural suspicion. Thus from one country of subversive unrest to another, we made our way to Thailand, where in the far south we were told extremism and terrorists made the region unsafe. With this introduction to "the land of smiles," we were welcomed not to a country of political, religious tension, but to a country where people were proud of their nation, where people love their king, and where the food is amazingly delicious.
The line of Ramas that RULES Thailand has held for nine generations; the fifth kept the Malaysian Empire at bay, meaning THAT Thailand is and has always been an autonomous nation; the nineth King will celebrate his 80th birthday this month, making him the longest reigning monarch in the land. This line of kings oversaw the construction of over the HOW MANY? kilometers of man-made river that serves as the backbone of Thai transportation. As we traveled along that river, from one temple to the next, from the pagodas of the kings to the lounging Buddha, we saw that even in a place where there is violence and intolerace, there is also peace and breathtaking beauty. From Bangkok we went our separate ways to experience the full, overwhelming wonder of this country for fall break. The rest, as you no doubt have heard, is history. Peace and Happy Thanksgiving to you in the land of cold weather. Stay healthy and happy.
Sincerely, Global 2008
