President Obama gave a speech on education in Madison, Wisconsin on November 4th, to talk about his "Race to the Top" plan and how to revamp "No Child Left Behind." Obama claimed that "What we [the administration] want to do is try and get testing right," but also called on parents to toughen their own standards for their kids, sharing a story about how he and the First Lady pushed their daughter Malia to excell, and even revealed some of Malia's recent test scores.
In Britain, new legislation will make sex education a required course in 2011 starting at the age of five, with lessons on "different kinds of relationships, how to manage their emotions and the physical changes to their bodies in childhood," according to the Guardian. This program is being enacted to combat Britain's high teen pregnancy rate. However, although religious schools would be required to teach the courses as well, they can modify the courses according to their own "ethos," and parents can remove their children from the sex ed programs until the age of 16.
We all know that higher education tuition is skyrocketing, but there are now 58 colleges that have hit the $50,000+ marker compared to last year's 5, according tothe New York Times. These colleges include Bryn Mawr, Johns Hopkins University, and Georgetown. However, costs can also be significantly more, due to textbooks, housing, and other student expenditures.
In Pakistan, where education spending remains at about 2.9% of its gross domestic product, private schools have been popping up to combat the inadequate public school system and the religiously-oriented madrassas. Though these private schools are small and still contain much religious content, Pakistani parents continue to send their children there, and the United States is sending a small amount of aid to private schools in the hopes that they will counter religious extremism often spread by madrassas.
I wanted to share with everybody this AWESOME MAP by Genocide Intervention Network.
It highlights major areas of violence and conflict, and gives a brief description of what's going on below.
If you'd like, you can then read more about the issue in very simple terms, with an overview, whose involved, etc. It's a great resource for those looking to learn more about some of the conflicts that have been mentioned on this blog, and others that I have yet to cover.
Smith condemns the terrorists for their actions while questioning the attackers' motives:
"[W]hy cricket, and why the Sri Lankans? Cricket fulfills two important
criteria for the Islamic extremists - it is high profile and, in their
eyes, dangerously decadent."
Smith's
argument rests on the belief that members of the Sri Lankan team were
attacked (and their bus driver killed) because cricket is becoming
increasingly popular in India, it's also seen as a way in which Western
ideals are infiltrating traditional Islamic cultures.
Smith continues,
In the terrorist mindset, the effete and Western activity of cricket
distracts good Muslims from what they should be doing: praying and
executing jihad. In the terrorist imagination, cricket, loved by
millions of ordinary Pakistanis, is an emblem of evil Western
modernity. An innocent pastime becomes a symbol of hatred.
Smith's
outrage is duly noted, but I'm afraid one of his most poignant points
that "sport can elevate human character" gets lost. While praising a
sport like cricket for its ability to transcend cultures, he victimizes
the Sri Lankan players ("poor Sri Lanka" he says) for being in the
"wrong place at the wrong time"- Pakistan, that "'basket case'" of a
country. He all but damns an entire country by self-righteously adding,
"[T]he cricket-loving strands of Pakistan society are exactly those the
West needs if Pakistan is not to regress further towards becoming a
terrorist state."
Cricket.
Yes, cricket is what the West must continue to outsource to countries
like Pakistan so that Pakistan can save itself from itself. Never mind
that Pakistan and its neighboring country Afghanistan have both seen
conflict as a result of numerous cultures conquering its land before cricket was even thought of along the extremely prosperous Franco-Flemish border from as early at 1150.
What
happened to the Sri Lankan Test players and their bus driver was
abhorrent. Never should we have to wake up and find yet another
terrorist attack has taken place in the world we inhabit. So in the
larger scheme of things, I can empathize with Smith's outrage.
Although it's his candor that strikes me as odd. Elevating the sport
of cricket to savior-status perhaps does more damage than good,
especially if one's argument suggests that peace is imminent in a
nation already Otherized by the world if only Westerners can continue
to export cricket.
Maybe this is one example when sports ought not be politicized by Westerners in the name of outsourcing peace to brown nations.
Attacks on Mumbai last week left hundreds dead or injured and shook our global community to the core. In the aftermath of the tragedy, some have suggested using cricket as a means to ease tension, bring social cohesion, and help to heal a population in deep distress.
“Whenever there has been tension (between India and Pakistan), cricket diplomacy has helped it,” said Pakistan cricket captain Shoaib Malik, quoted by the Herald Tribune. Some English players have voiced safety concerns regarding the planned cricket tour in India, which is scheduled to start in mid-December.
The Guardian blog says it’s doubtful that the Indian team will follow through with its January cricket tour in Pakistan. The Pakistan Cricket Board is pleading with India not to cancel the tour, saying that the tour will help relations between the countries.
Reuters reported that a true love of cricket is already aiding emotional recovery for many Indians. Despite the probable shuffling of games and tour dates, Indians will continue to play and continue to recover from the tragedy in Mumbai.
[Below: News segment on possible postponement of cricket tour.]
