Pow Wow of LOVE

How appropriate--just in time for Valentine's Day (over-priced Hallmark holiday that strips lovers of any need for creative and spontaneous romance). MSU just hosted their annual Pow Wow of Love, where members of the East Lansing community and beyond are invited to observe the and urged to understand the culture of our America's real founders.

As Native American men, women and children alike danced about to different tempos (which corresponded to their style of dress) clothed in beautiful regalia, it was difficult to ignore the connotations our society has pasted all over their image. These people have been misunderstood for years and years--I think a t-shirt I saw summed up just how long. The shirt featured a clan of Native American men standing guard, looking semi-protective, with words underneath reading, "Fighting terrorism since 1492".

We live in a world of misrepresentation, naivete, apathy and selfishness. This saddens me.

Babel: If communication were only our only woe

Brad Pitt’s acting and the Tower of Babel legend lit up the screen in Wells Hall, MSU. Knowing nothing of how these two things would intertwine themselves, I sat attentively, waiting to be entertained. Some movies are entertainers. This one was a thinker.

On the outside, I saw four interlaced stories playing out. Implicitly, I heard social, political and cultural messages ringing through my ears. An Asian family, an American family, a Moroccan family, a Mexican family: they are all torn and tormented directly socially by family, indirectly internationally and domestically by globalization, capitalism, and ethnocentrism. An American screams terrorist, and an innocent Moroccan is beaten for answers. An elder Mexican woman tries crossing the border to get back to work, and she’s assumed an illegal immigrant, and therefore a threat. An Asian young girl can’t understand the words directed toward her, and suffers feeling of abandonment and depression. A Moroccan family falls victim to the connotations and actions aroused by the arbitrary term “terrorist”.

Films like this challenge one to think about what is really happening outside of the bubbled life surrounding oneself daily. Individuality is so stressed by Western culture that it is often interpreted to selfishness and exclusiveness. In reality, no individual act is preformed exclusive of the community. The effects of any community act are not restricted to that community, but rippled throughout those surrounding until reaching national level. National acts are never isolated incidents. Perhaps this should be kept in mind the next time a shirt is bought, a bill is voted on, and a war is declared.