We're behind in science, math, and tech. The answer? Immigration!

The other day I was listening to an NPR interview, and for the life of my I can't remember who it was with. In any case, they asked the guy (who was some big tech company guy) what he thought needed to be done in order to resolve the fact that the US continues to go down in international standings in our math and science scores (which indicates that we will probably not lead the world for long in terms of tech innovation).

The guy's answer was fascinating, because the usual response is to examine how we educate and test kids. Instead, this guy noted that we still have the very best tech and business programs and schools (on the college and graduate level) in the world. He also identified that over 50% of the students in these programs are internationals, another fact that people generally note with a tone that says, "We're screwed." Instead, this man said that the majority of these students finish their programs and go home, but that most would LOVE to stay in the US, they simply can't because of visa issues. So, the quick solution to upping our innovation and competitiveness in this area is to ease the visa process and offer our top international students the opportunity to stay, become Americans, and help innovate and lead or tech and business sectors?

This, Isaac pointed out, is what we did during WWII when we opened the door for a huge amount of intellectuals and experts that were leaving Europe en mass as Hitler ramped up pressure against the Jews. Lets do it again!

In any case, I found a Foreign Policy article that ran in a similar vein called, "Think Again: Education"

The international distribution of mobile students is clearly changing, reflecting an ever more competitive global higher-education market. But there are many more foreign students in the United States than there were a decade ago -- 149,000 more in 2008 than in 2000, a 31 percent increase..... For international graduate study, American universities are a particularly powerful draw in fields that may directly affect the future competitiveness of a country's economy: science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. In disciplines such as computer science and engineering, more than six in 10 doctoral students in American programs come from foreign countries.

But that doesn't mean there's nothing to worry about. Although applications from international students to American graduate schools have recovered from their steep post-9/11 decline, the number of foreigners earning science and engineering doctorates at U.S. universities recently dropped for the first time in five years. American schools face mounting competition from universities in other countries, and the United States' less-than-welcoming visa policies may give students from overseas more incentive to go elsewhere. That's a loss for the United States, given the benefits to both its universities and its economy of attracting the best and brightest from around the world.

My thoughts on Libya...

I've said again and again that a President's most unrestricted and long-lasting power is in the area of foreign policy. I've also said I like President Obama.

So... Obama is now participating in military activity in Libya.

What do I think?

A friend asked me that the day the bombing started, and I said I was VERY hesitantly approving, with a lot of caveats.

Here's a few thoughts.

A) We should not support an uprising just because it's an uprising and we're inspired by movements of the people. There are good movements of the people, and there are bad ones. Is this a violent rebel movement or an inspirational democratic change? Right after I mentioned this to my friend I heard an NPR interview with John Kerry in which they asked him about exactly who the rebels are, what they believe, etc. They pointed out that this is an unusual situation in that we really don't know much about the people we're supporting. Kerry pushed back and said we didn't know who we were supporting when we supported the groups rebelling against the USSR. True. However, we also have a history of supporting coups in the Middle East that just end up instituting new dictators. There is evidence to say that a number of these militants are Muslim militants. Is that who we want to support?

B) We have world influence and tons of power. We are responsible to use that for good, for justice, to protect people. I've heard that Bill Clinton said his greatest regret during his eight years of being President is not going into Rwanda and stopping the bloodshed. Obama's defense of our actions in Libya rely heavily on this NOT being a mission to topple a government and takeover (no one wants another Iraq right now), but an effort to stop mass murder of civilians by an evil leader. If so, that is valid.

C). My very hesitant support was bolstered by the international support of this movement. I was surprised to see that nations that resisted our actions in Iraq were voting "yes" on the no-fly zone. We have given our support after NATO agreed to the no-fly-zone. And finally (and really surprisingly), even the Arab League agreed to it. This makes it look much less like a bullying US move and more like international action to stop a slaughter.

So. I'm cautiously supporting. I REALLY hope Obama sticks to his words and we don't take in ground troops. This is a Libyan civil war. We might not like Quadaffi, but I don't know that we have the right or if it would be wise to fully support the other side either. And besides.... we can't afford it.

Oh an also, the news is all over Obama for not consulting Congress. Well... he's the President. They weren't in session, NATO needed an immediate response in order to stop what was happening THAT weekend, and legally Obama was acting within in power and right. He need to continue to explain and support his decisions to both the American people and Congress, but he wasn't legally out of line.

Squeaky giggly Judah...

Can you say adorable? Judah has learned how to giggle. It's usually when he's tired and just minutes later he'll have dissolved into tears, so it's sort of deceptive. I don't think giggling is actually when he's happiest... but oh my gosh it's so cute.

Queen for life....

American Housewife in London put up a post this week with a series of photos of the Queen and US Presidents. I googled it and found other similar listings. Isn't this amazing?

The Queen and the Obamas

The Queen and President George W. Bush

The Queen and President Bill Clinton

The Queen and President Bush, Sr.

The Queen and President Ronald Reagan



The Queen and President Jimmy Carter



The Queen and President Gerald Ford

The Queen and President Richard Nixon

The Queen and the Kennedys

The Queen and Eisenhower, and the Queen and Harry Truman

Incredible. She really has been around for so much, as our Presidents come and go. Truman took office at the end of WWII.... and she's been monarch since then.

Amazing.

My refugee friends meet Judah

First we introduced Judah to some of my Chinese students from this past summer's trip to China. Then, a couple of weeks ago, we introduced him to Tee Reh and Soh Meh and their little girl Maria. I love beginning to bring him into our international circles! I also love being able to share this stage of parenthood with these refugee families from Myanmar. Both families that I've worked with are SO excited for us, and it's so touching.

When we first walked in to their new apartment, little Maria was sound asleep.


When she woke up she saw Isaac and I and WAILED. Can't blame her! Scary white faces speaking garbled scary language! She was intrigued by Judah, though, and wanted to touch him, just so long as scary Isaac stayed far enough away...



So cute, right?


They were very worried about Judah's bare feet and kept trying to cover them up with the blanket he was laying on despite that fact that it was warm and we were all sweating. Typical. In Indonesia they keep babies well covered with dire warnings of "masuk angin" or "the air entering".... meaning that the air will enter the kid and they'll get a cold. Notice also that we are all on the floor and no one is wearing shoes - they are deposited at the front door. They always serve us bottled water and pop when we arrive - such hospitality.

Little Maria eventually got confident enough to start crawling all over, and when music came on she stood up and started dancing and giggling - so cute!

It was interesting because one of Tee Reh's nephews and another kid were there sitting on the floor with us and watching TV. I turned around and asked the nephew was his name was, not sure if he would understand me or what his grasp on the language was. He responded in clear English that his name was Tee Reh (named after his uncle, I guess) and he was in third grade. He cheered on a soccer game in English. I turned to the friend and asked him what his name was and got a blank wide-eyed stare in a response. Little Tee Reh said, "Oh, he is a new refugee."

"How new?"

"Three days."

Wow. I was struck with the contrast. Little Tee Reh has perfect English and is smart and interactive. He has absolutely no accent, despite being here only as long as big Tee Reh has (who has great vocab but a very thick accent). It is amazing how quickly kids learn - when I first met little Tee Reh he was just like this brand new refugee kid.

I am so thankful for public school teachers that are teaching kids like Tee Reh and giving them the tools to succeed in this American society.

thoughts on being a cultural patchwork of a family...

My sister is in town right now, bringing with her a taste of South Asia. I get into my car and the radio is set to Radio Fun Asia, and I hear commercials about deportation and immigration, shipping packages to India, and the latest scores from the cricket world cup. On Sunday we went out to our favorite biriyani restaurant and had naan and chicken boti and biriyani and daal. I found her awake this morning, following the upset of the West Indies by Pakistan by streaming the cricket world cup live on the internet. Urdu phrases sneak into the conversation, like little nods followed with, "jie ha" (or however you say it).

I love it.

 

It has me thinking about this patchwork puzzle of a family that I'm in. My sister brings the winds of South Asian culture. The two that have spent a few years over there are permanently changed and formed by their years there, and so the culture, in some small way, goes with them. I know this because I am the same way with Indonesia. I still eat with a fork and spoon, I still make rice multiple times a week, Indonesian phrases are worked into my daily life, and I sing Indonesian lullabyes to my baby. How strange is it that we are siblings and yet we bring two different cultures into our family? And then there's my dad, grown up in a stereotypical American family and nurtured by pop culture media. Because of him we sing old Aunt Jemima syrup jingles and are obsessed with Bill Cosby. My mom recently told us how much she loves the classic McDonalds shamrock shakes. And now my brother and sister bring in a bit of the hippie out-doorsyness of Portland, and us Chicago-ites bring a great love for the city culture.

It is a strange thing to be a family of many cultures in ONE immediate family. At first it can seem sad - that my sisters have a whole world in South Asia that is an ingrained part of their lives that the rest of us siblings have only seen on one vacation. And yeah, I sometimes wish we had all experienced everything together.

On the other hand, I just love our crazy variety of experiences and cultures. I love that it makes us unique, that it's given us a taste of so many places and cultures. I love the strange things about us, the snippets of Indonesian and Urdu and Spanish....

10 Most Memorable Travel Moments

A couple of blogs I follow have put together a list of their 10 Most Memorable Travel Moments, and I am inspired to do the same. See Camels and Chocolate (she's most popular travel blog on bloggies... again!) and A Pinch of This, A Dash of That, for other fun lists.

1. Train Ride Across Pakistan

This one could be subtitled, "The time my brother almost passed out and got stranded in the sands of the Punjab".

Between the bathroom, the scenery, the incredible pushing and shoving while boarding the train, the sellers and beggars that boarded the train at every stop... it was quite an experience. The craziest thing, though, was that my brother got sick halfway through the trip and almost fell off the moving train without any of my family knowing. The post about this experience is here.

2. Historical tours in Lahore, Pakistan...

Lahore, Pakistan, was a fantastic city to tour. They have this ginourmous and huge mosque, an old and stunning Moghul Palace, and a famous ceremony at the Pakistani border with India that is comical in its passion. This was definitely one of my very favorite travel experiences.  Post about this experience is here. Post about the hilarious border ceremony is here.

3. Dancing in a tribal village and eating grubs. 

I grew up in Papua, Indonesia and so I could just name my entire childhood has a rich cultural experience, but since this is about TRAVEL, I'll just pull out a highlight. In my senior year of high school a team of classmates and I made our way into a small remote village. While there we went pig hunting, dug wells, hiked, ate live grubs (okay fine, I only ate a fried one because I'm a wuss), and spent one evening dancing the night away with the villagers. The experience of dancing and chanting to the thumping rhythm of local drums and the sway of the meeting house under the weight of many feet.... it was quiet an experience A post about village life in Papua is here, but I haven't done one specifically on that village.

4. Staying in a youth hostel filled with backpackers in the hutongs in Beijing

I absolutely loved our youth hostel experience, and the fact that we watched the World Cup while we were surrounded by backpackers from around the world in a little youth hostel nestled among the old hutong alleyways of Beijing... so fun. The international rivalry between everyone was really fun, and the fact that the games were at like two in the morning, and the hostel woman-of-the-house was walking around in her nightgown while everyone drank green tea and beer and cheered or booed.

5.   Using Biblical-era Greek to get directions in Cyprus

Getting a tiny little Euro car and braving the backwards road system to drive from one side of Cyprus to the other was quite an adventure for us. We were headed to a hotel we'd booked for our first night, and when we got into the tiny Mediterranean town after dark, most things were closed and we couldn't find our destination. We ended up finding a store with four people playing cards inside a closed store, and Isaac walked in and wrote out a message in biblical Greek to ask for directions. Enough got through that they pointed us the right direction, and we spent the next day exploring ancient Roman ruins and murals. It was amazing.

6.   Mall Road in Murree, Pakistan

Murree, Pakistan was once a British fort. What's there now is beautiful mountain scenery and an awesome meandering market that has all sorts of layers and underground and little stalls with mounds of dried fruits and nuts, vendors making fresh chai, and tandoor pits for fresh naan. The ambiance and the food made this suuuuch a good experience. Naan and chai now haunt my dreams.

7. The White House and the Oval Office

This is my oldest top travel memory. My family did a tour of the East Coast when we were back in the US when I was in middle school, and a relative of a relative worked at the White House. At that point security wasn't as tight as it is now, and they allowed employees to give tours after hours. So - we got a tour of the West Wing, which is the part of the White House the public doesn't get to see. It rocked, and the personal anecdotes were priceless. I remember peeking into the oval office, running into the secretary of state, seeing a corner of the basement that still showed soot from when the White House burned, and standing at the President's podium in the empty press room.

8.   The midnight wedding in the Punjab

Pakistan made my list three times, and that was cutting it down! I think my favorite places to visit are the remote places that most people can't get to. This experience was truly once-in-a-lifetime. My family got to visit a village wedding in the Punjab, and the setting was just as I picture biblical villages in the Middle East. The girls went to the bride's mehndi ceremony and were painted with mehndi (henna) ourselves. The actual wedding took place at midnight at a ceremony in a courtyard lit only by candles and cell phones. The bridge and groom had never met before.

Post about this experience is here. 

9.    Canadian wedding
 Earlier this year I wrote about going to my friend Erin's wedding in Canada.... except way out on a ranch in the middle of nowhere, Canada. It was SO beautiful, and so different than either my experience of city and suburbia North America. Two-stepping with Canadian cowboys... can't beat that! That story is here.




10.  Food Fight in China

I taught English in China. We had an "American-style" birthday party scheduled with the students one night. Somehow, without any of us Americans really understanding what had happened, things dissolved into the biggest food fight I've ever seen (with frosting EVERYWHERE), and then hundreds of us dancing some American line dancing across the university gym. So much for the stereotypical "reserved" Chinese student! Post about this experience is here. 

happiness vs. self-sacrifice

Today I was faced with the reality of someone saying about my little brother, "If it were me, I would have had an abortion."

...How I am supposed to feel about this statement? I am a swirl of emotions. It's about the very existence, the very life vs. death of my brother, one of the people I love most in the world. It reminds me that his very existence is something of a miracle, that defies the statistics.

I'll be honest and say the immediate emotion is shock and anger.

But... let me pull back a bit. The reality is that while most people would never say that to my face, obviously a great many people think it, given the statistic that over 80% of babies diagnosed with Downs Syndrome are aborted (this makes my heart hurt). It is an honest statement. And ... a good number of you, dear readers, may have thought the same thing. It makes me wonder.... how many people find out a diagnosis with Downs Syndrome and have an abortion and tell people they've miscarried?

And... I do at least understand the reasoning there. This past year while I was pregnant with Judah, I weighed my options on the levels of testing I could do. I know that raising and parenting a child with Downs Syndrome (or any other disability that makes someone "abnormal" in the eyes of society) is often difficult and takes great self-sacrifice. I remember my own parents struggling and processing after Matt was born. I thought that if my baby was disabled, I at least wanted to know before he or she was born so that I could begin to grapple with it and adjust my expectations. Turns out, though, that most of the tests that have any decent rate of accuracy all put the baby in some degree of danger... and that was not worth it to me. So... Isaac and I decided that since knowing ahead of time would only be a psychological help and wouldn't change our decision to carry through with the pregnancy, we would skip the tests.

So yeah... I understand the fears. I understand that it's hard. I understand why you wouldn't choose that life for yourself. Who chooses anything difficult when there is an easier, prettier option?

That's what it comes down to, actually. In our society, in fact I'll go ahead and say in the prevailing faith and world-view of our society (because THAT is what we're really talking about here)... comfort and personal happiness is our god. It is to be obtained at any cost, be it your marriage, the life of a child, your family, personal integrity, etc. Raising a child with Downs Syndrome could potentially be hard and it could mean that you would have to give up some elements of your plan for your life. Thus... most people are willing to abort the child. They don't WANT to. They aren't outwardly cruel and heartless people, they are actually quite normal (because you know, I believe that the depravity of man is the norm when it comes to humanity). When the scale is weighted between the sacrifice it would take to commit to raising a child or the freedom to continue as you are.... personal happiness and freedom is more valuable, and thus the 80+ percentage. It isn't seen as: kill a baby vs. have a child. It's seen as spend the rest of my life caring for a disabled kid vs. carrying on with a normal life.

And that, dear friends, is where my worldview is diametrically opposed to that of the world I live in.

My happiness is valuable to me. I still pursue it, and I do believe that happiness is good.

But, when faced with the same scale of personal happiness versus great personal sacrifice, the Christian, if they are obedient, sees this:

A child, a child who will make your life difficult and complicated, cost you money and forfeit a lot of your plans..... but a CHILD nonetheless, a beautiful child, made in the image of God. And thus, because he is made in the image of God, we have no choice at all but to love him.

Let me insert here that sometimes perhaps loving him means giving him up for adoption if you know that you really won't be able to care for him well. And let me also insert that by no means are all Christians actually acting on and obeying these beliefs. And sometimes loving is hard, and it's okay that it's hard because we're not perfect people for whom self-sacrifice is easy.

This is one reason why I struggle to have any amount of respect for the ideals of an atheist. Their world-view is unable to come up with any value for anyone that isn't progressive and intelligent. The ideal is human success, and if that is your ideal, then there is no value to the disabled. An atheist may be very personally compassionate and they may care for the disabled, but this compassion is really in conflict with their world view.

But really, this is just one thing, one thing that is extremely personal for me. It is much bigger than this. If we truly believe that all souls are sacred because they are made in the image of God.... and if we are committed to obeying Him..... then counter-cultural self-sacrifice will have to define our lives. Things that are acceptable in our culture are not even up for debate. Things like... giving up paternity rights because a child was fathered accidentally and you just don't have time or money to take responsibility. Walking away from your spouse because they're infringing on your personal happiness and you just don't feel love anymore. Aborting a child because they are an inconvenience or because the child they will be is not the child you wanted. Walking away from a parent or a spouse who, for whatever reason, is suddenly disabled and requires your care. In all of these the core issue is self-sacrificial obedience vs. immediate personal happiness.

We are a flawed and broken world, and even the Christians living in it are flawed and broken people. We make bad decisions. We chose self. And... the greater miracle is that we, as people that are as spiritually flawed and broken as a Downs Syndrome person may be mentally flawed.... God still loves us, even in our sin. And He has extended grace... even in our sin.

And... it is glory when some , because of His great love, obey, die to self, and choose to love and serve.

Make no mistake, it isn't easy.
But it turns out it's so beautiful....

White House Photostream

Ya'll know I just love the White House Photostream on flikr and the glimpses it gives into the inner workings of the White House and the Obama's lives. Here are some of my latest favorites... and I saved some of them long ago enough that I can't remember exactly which occasions they were taken at...






BTW - Obama's watch is pretty lame for a President's watch!


Hole in one for Sasha, maybe? So cute... the family fun.





Interesting, the Presidential signatures on the White House globe. Who did it first and what were they thinking? Yep, this country deserves MY signature right over the top of it...



Clooney is intriguing as an actor that is involved in politics. Not sure I buy it. However, he's a dashing addition to a White House meeting!



Most photos of people meeting with Obama are all about the formal wear. This one made me chuckle, it's with John Favreau, Obama's speechwriter, and a few other guys on the team. They look like college kids in their blue jeans and sweaters, I  love it.


This is while watching a performance by Gladys Knight and I have to say, Michelle looks so stunning.



And this one... well... let's just say this used to be my life. How many hours I spent waiting in a line of servers holding a plate.... yeah...



I would love to be a fly on the wall for this conversation with George Bush Sr...



This is the White House State Dining Room and let me tell you that it's rather unimpressive as formal dining rooms go - most of the places we catered in Chicago were more beautiful. I actually only put it in here to tell the story of the time I was catering a formal dinner at a big museum and they were going to broadcast the ceremony on live television. We had to serve and then shut the doors when the cameras started rolling. Unfortunately it was super unorganized, and when we shut the doors we found out we'd put "sugar bowls" out on all the tables that were actually filled with salt. There were a number of furious high profile guests when the doors opened again!



Ahhh... the Presidential greeting of Hu Jintao of China. Again, Michelle looks stunning.



Fascinating photo. This is the Prayer Breakfast planning team - the second from the left is a congressman who is ordained and is a deacon at his church. The heads bowed, George Washington in the background... I just wonder what was going on there - both between the various people (on opposite sides of the political spectrum) and spiritually.

Latest Judah video

Half-naked, wiggly, smiley three-month old Judah. Love. :)

Remember that you are dust.... Thoughts on Lent

Kneeling as the priest intoned, "Remember that thou art dust, and unto dust shalt thou return," during my very first Ash Wednesday service felt rather real to me. The ashes and the symbol of the cross on the forehead are meant to remind us of our mortality and our need to confess and repent before God. It just so happened that just before the service I had replied to a friend who wrote me all about a mutual friend of ours who passed away all too recently. I was holding Judah, the baby who in the past year was formed from seemingly nothing. The reality that we are just dust is strong.

I posted last year about learning about Lent, really for the first time. Baptists and Bible churches don't really do the church calendar and Lent, but among my post-Bible College circles, becoming sort of pseudo-liturgical is the thing to do, and observing Lent is definitely in. It FEELS super spiritual (I mean that in a genuine sense), and then sometimes it feels faux-spiritual. Last year I felt like so many people around me were giving up facebook or blogging or coffee or TV or something of that sort, and I wanted to join them but felt like I couldn't because I didn't yet really understand what Lent or a Lenten fast of any kind was truly for, and I do believe that tradition devoid of meaning makes the tradition pointless.

This year I am observing Lent for the first time. Isaac pointed out that when he asked some friends at seminary why they gave something up for Lent, very few people had an answer for that question. He fired the same question at me. What is a Lenten fast for? I've asked the same question. Is it to become more holy? Is it to rid our lives of evil and sin? Is it to practice a spiritual discipline? Is it to sacrifice something in order to identify with the sufferings of Christ? There's lots of options for how you can use a fast well, but what is the real purpose?

I made my decisions after attending my first Ash Wednesday service. I took Judah and it was actually a really sweet thing to kneel while holding him at the imposition of the ashes and have him look wonderingly at the priest. The church is an Episcopalian church down the road from our current apartment and I was definitely the youngest person there - almost everyone was a good bit over middle aged. The building is stone and has high arches and old pews with kneelers and it all felt like my experiences of the high church in England. I was thankful that Judah was quiet and watched the stained glass and listened to the choral singing with wonder.

 

In any case, I found the liturgy really helpful in guiding me. This is what it called the congregation to:

...I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent, by self examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self denial; and by reading and meditating on God's holy Word. And, to make a right beginning of repentance, and as a mark of our mortal nature, let us now kneel before the Lord, or maker and redeemer.

So, in light of that, I see Lent as being a great many things, but is a corporate and individual practice of confessing our sin and coming back to God. It is experiencing the reality of Good Friday in some small way. So, I am instituting confession in my own life these 40 days. I've also chosen a fast, and I think the purpose of the fast is to sacrifice something in order to make space in my life and dedicate that space to seeking Him.

The Ash Wednesday service was mostly filled with corporate confession, and I've taken the liturgy home and am processing one line of the confession each day in my morning prayer and scripture reading. This was the first section:

Almighty and most merciful Father, we have erred and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep, we have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts, we have offended against thy holy laws, we have left undone those things which we ought to have done, and we have done those things which we ought not to have done.

We have not loved thee with our whole heart, and mind, and strength. We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We have not forgiven others, as we have been forgiven. Lord, have mercy upon us.

Taking that and writing a prayer of confession of each element and how it plays out in my own life was really like a slap in the face. I am a person of pride, and I see myself as  good person. This is a good exercise to remember and root out the sin that entangles me that I am too often blinded to.

By the way, I love that all of this is happening as the flowers are beginning to bloom in Dallas. These flowers (below - gorgeous, right?!) are blooming right outside of our parking garage, and every day as I drive past in the morning and evening I am struck again by their beauty and how they are blooming while still surrounded by the clinging dead leaves and seed pods from the Autumn. It is vividly a picture of death and new life, and is so fitting for the arrival of Good Friday and Easter.

Anyways, it will be good to walk with the Church in these practices. Am I just an evangelical trying to feel all spiritual by joining into old practices I don't really understand? Maybe. May God work in my heart anyways as I remember His death for us.