I care. That's all.

I haven't been able to run or yog (a self-created verb for "do yoga") lately because for some reason my lower back has been killing me, so when not on the job hunt or not watching Jeopardy or not exploring this glorious glorious city which I am so familiar yet so foreign to, I can be found nose deep in lots of sobering trafficking and poverty literature for reasons of
- staying humble - i.e. realizing that, say, the money used for a cab ride home from a night out is more than what a girl halfway around the world is sold into prostitution for
and
-being informed on how I can make a difference here or how I could one day.

BUT ENOUGH WITH MY NARCISSISM.

A week or so ago, 60 Minutes profiled the famously press shy Bill and Melinda Gates and their eponymous Foundation (highly recommend click on that link to watch the footage), and I was left so in awe of their incredible generosity. My brother, who worked for Microsoft a while ago, has only the highest regard for them, but the 60 Minutes team really brought The Foundation's work to life.

"All lives, no matter where they are lived, have equal value." -Melinda Gates

Wouldn't it be the ultimate dream to build a fortune with the eager desire to give it away? That would really be the most satisfying thing in the entire world.

The other week I went to a lecture on poverty cleverly titled '1.4 million Reasons' at NYU by a gung-ho Aussie Hugh Evans, with Hugh Jackman headlining. Cool to use his celebrity to draw people in to be informed on the issue, although I admit, I was feeling quite "rah rah BYU!" after because even though Provo doesn't reel in lots of 'sexy' headlining speakers, the information presented was nothing new to what I had studied in a global issues-type classes. Hurts to admit, but point Cougars and your excellent use of your painfully frugal budget.

Anyway, the main takeaways from the presentation were that with persisting efforts of existing organizations poverty can and WILL be eradicated within the next 20 years. Mind blowing. We can be hopeful!


I Google Buzz share a lot of lowbrow humor from Fail blog, which is purely mindlessly silly in a 12-year-old humor kind of way... but this is especially apropos for this post!

"Empathy Fail"

I'm so inspired. More to come on this front soon...if I can only be a little less anxious about how I'm portrayed on this blog. Sometimes the angst is crippling. Thanks for reading, reader!

One man's mission to promote peace

Here's a link to the Greg Mortenson forum that occurred here at BYU last week.

WATCH/LISTEN/LEARN.

The man is miraculous.

"I feel independent"

Thanks to "Dr. Greg" Mortenson, my Pakistan/Afghanistan interest has been piqued... poking around the web, I found a couple of things you may find interesting as well.

(I don't pretend to be an expert on this, by the way. I still have a lot of learning to do.)

Concisely shows what the Pakistani madrassas of nationalists (rather than Taliban insurgents) are up to nowadays. Nice.



Also, has anyone seen the movie Tea with the Taliban? What did you think?


And also, click through this inspiring slideshow on how Afghani women are moving forward, despite the Taliban threat.

"I love working at the National Museum—I feel independent. I can work, study, travel, earn money. Under the Taliban, I couldn't work. They beat one of my relatives so badly on the spine for not wearing a burka that two days later, she died."

- Qudsia Zohab, an employee of the National Museum of Afghanistan and a literature student at Kabul University

via Marie Claire

How much I, an American woman, take for granted.