Greg Mortenson deserved the Nobel Peace Prize

I wish to extend my reluctant congratulations to President Obama on his Nobel Peace Prize win.

I would like to say that I believe that the committee got it wrong, however. The Nobel Peace Prize is meant to celebrate someone who has given a great deal and dedicated their life to the advancement of peace and human rights.

Greg Mortenson was a nominee, and it was an utter heartbreak when he didn’t win.

If you are unfamiliar with Greg Mortenson, he is a humanitarian who has dedicated his life to building schools for girls in Pakistan and Afghanistan. To him, education is the path to peace and freedom.

He came to the forefront of the American consciousness with his novel Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace, One School At A Time. If you have not read it yet, I recommend it highly. You are brought along with him for the highest of highs and the lowest of lows as he struggles to fulfill his promise to one village to build a school for their children. From there, he began to seek out, and was approached by other villages to build schools for their girls, and career centers for their women. Below, he talks about the novel and the process of building relationships in villages

Mortenson is the co-founder of CAI, the Central Asia Institute. It focuses on education–particularly for girls, but not solely. He started with one school in Korfe, Pakistan. CAI’s establishment is better explained here:

I had the incredible experience of meeting Dr. Greg at the National Council for Social Studies conference in Atlanta last month. He is the most humble man I have ever met, and yet you can’t help but be overwhelmed by the beauty of his intense love for education and for the people in Central Asia. He does this not for fame and glory, but because he fervently believes in what he is doing. He has placed his life in danger many times over the past decade, but the payoff has been exponential.

Education for girls to at least the fifth grade reduces infant mortality and population explosion, and improves quality of life. In terms of the ever present ‘war on terror’ that people are so focused on in the United States, it can be put this way: young men are less likely to go on jihad if they have an educated mother. [Edited for clarification after advice from someone who spent time in northern Pakistan. Thanks!]

You can donate to CAI with your classrooms using Pennies for Peace, a program made BY and for children who wish to help. Many students have gone on to make their own nonprofit foundations for other purposes.

Or, you can make an individual donation to the organization. The money goes directly to building schools. It costs “$15,000-$20,000 to build a school. $35,000-$50,000 to build a school after to fund it with teachers afterwards.” [source]

Dr. Greg has endangered his life, sold all of his worldly belongings, been reduced to begging for money for other people, and selflessly giving precious time that could be spent with his young family. I honestly believe that it was Mortenson who should have won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Please donate to CAI. At the very least, sign up for Alima the free newsletter of CAI.

You can purchase both of Mortenson’s books: Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace, One School At A Time in the adult or young readers version and Stones into Schools: Promoting Peace with Books, Not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

 

Copenhagen

I’d like to give a shout out to Dr. Mike Urban, an undergraduate professor of mine in the University of Missouri Department of Geography. He and Dr. Mark Cowell, also at Mizzou, are at the climate summit in Copenhagen as observers.

The AAG has set them up with a blog, so you can follow them as they attend: Geography, Climate Change, and the Copenhagen Negotiations

 

Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai

While I was in Atlanta for the National Council for the Social Studies 2009 conference, I had the fortune of being able to attend the documentary night that was hosted. We had the chance to watch Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai.

Maathai is the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize winner from Kenya. She has worked tirelessly to promote human rights, women’s rights, and combat deforestation in her home country. Her Green Belt movement fought corruption in the Kenyan government during the reign of President Daniel arap Moi, many times at the risk of her own personal safety. She was arrested many times, but led non-violent demonstrations and promoted peaceful civil disobedience in order to get political prisoners released from jail, to prevent the government from selling public lands, and to preserve important public parks.
From a simple tree-planting movement, she became one of the most important humanitarians to come out of Kenya. Please take the time to

Please take the time to watch the full documentary, and to spread the word about the Green Belt movement and Maathai’s works.

 

Where is the love?

 

Maneater article about Reactor Field

Every now and then, I forget what I’m doing and so I end up terribly surprised when I pop up in the newspaper.

Such is the case with the Maneater’s article about MSA/GPC sponsoring t-shirts and petition over the university’s decision to close Reactor Field parking lot to tailgating on game days.

I remember Nick, the photographer, taking photos…and accusing him of taking them of my butt, because of the angle he was shooting at, but I honestly didn’t think he’d put one of me in there, when the fabulous and gorgeous Lauren Zima was standing right next to me.

I just wanted to share my amusement with all of you. And the photo:

Freshman Andrew Gates buys a “Rally for Reactor” T-shirt from Emily VanCourt, Graduate Professional Council national issues coordinator, Thursday afternoon in front of the University Bookstore. Sponsored by GPC and the Missouri Student Association, students could sign a petition and buy the T-shirts in an effort to bring back Reactor Field as a place for students to tailgate.

 

Windmills in Malawi

A lovely story, in a beautiful place. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I have.

 

Soap Box

I have not only ascended my soap box with a vengeance, I have painted it gold and sparkly, and then emailed it to multiple news outlets. I am that enraged.

If I start, it will just run into an enraged capslock rant, so rather I’ll copy and paste one of the letters I wrote to a reporter in St. Louis:

Around 9:30 this morning on the Phillips and Company show on Y98, Guy Phillips and his cohost Jen made several shocking racist comments about Romani–more commonly known by the derogatory term ‘gypsies’. They called them ‘thieves’ and ‘freeloaders’, in addition to other comments, mocking them. This had been after they covered a story about Madonna making comments during a concert in eastern Europe, asking for the Roma to be treated equally.

The Roma are a historically persecuted peoples, and this denial of even basic human rights such as healthcare and education continues today. They are fragmented and vulnerable, due to their inclusive nature and therefore have been used as scapegoats for crimes and social issues for centuries.

Groups such as Amnesty International have been working hard to secure rights for this tiny, persecuted minority. In many places, they are still tortured by military and police officials in Eastern Europe. Their children are segregated and given lesser schooling than their Slovakian counterparts. Madonna did a GOOD thing in calling attention to the human rights violations and urging for equal rights. Guy Phillips not only perpetuated a stereotype, but made callously racist comments.

I am hoping that a reporter will pick up this story, in an effort to elicit an apology from Y98 and Guy Phillips, and to help education the people of St. Louis that the Roma are NOT thieves and freeloaders, but rather a persecuted and vulnerable peoples who need to be spoken up for, instead of attacked.

For more information from Amnesty Internation, click here.

Even more about the violation of children’s rights in Slovakia here.

Secondly, you will remember my post about Nujood Ali last year, the young girl in Yemen who successfully fought for a divorce after being forced into marrying as a child.

Now word comes from Yemen AGAIN about atrocities regarding child brides. Fawziya Ammodi died at the age of TWELVE after a painful and protracted childbirth. She was forced to drop out of school and marry a 24-year-old man in 2008 at the age of eleven. I fight the urge to type all of this in capslock, because I am blown away and enraged all at once.

This young girl died because of lack of education, human rights, children’s rights, and the use of earth logic. Once again, Yemen is able to leave me dumbfounded that it could allow children to be married and sexually abused in such a way, and think it okay.

 

Google search: Emily Vancourt

Who are you people google searching my name!? You freak me out!

All I can see is google searches that lead to my website, and academia.edu lets me know when someone looks at my profile there, so I get a general idea of when people are searching for info on me, but it’s still a little intimidating.

Still, I wish that people would leave a comment and let me know they’ve dropped by. Call it reverse-curiosity. I like to know who’s reading, and if they’ve liked it, or if they think my prattling about school and Malawi is inane.

 

Jaren!

LOOK AT ADORABLE VOLUNTEER!JAREN!

Isn’t he cute? Jaren was our Program Coordinator this summer, so it’s cute seeing him as a volunteer. This video isn’t mine, but I’m pretty sure WC doesn’t mind me passing it around, since it’s meant to be seen.

 

The bus

Just a random moment on the bus after our first day of camp.

FYI, at the end, we’re all saying our group names, which were generally named after animals.