March 2009 Archives

     Monday night, Seexang Lee came to talk to the class about Hmong Art.  He focused on not just his own experience, but the progression of Hmong art as a whole and different struggles Hmong artists have.  He talked about Hmong art used to have functional quality, used in every day life and for a purpose.  Then there was an evolution with it and it has moved from usage to more of a display and for enjoyment/its aesthetic qualities.  He talked about these changes happened because of a cultural compromise.  The story telling art that formed was from a refugee camp as a means to survive, it was made to be sold.  He continued to say that change is the natural progression for all things to remain valuable.  He talked about the struggles of Hmong artists in the United States, and some of the main ones were lack of support, priorities above art, lack of money, and having things holding one back and having it hard to see the future. 
     One connection that I felt during this talk was his embracing both cultures, and him finding that it was not a burden, but yet a blessing in disguise.  It reminded me of Xang Lee's feelings towards holding on to some of his cultural background of Hmong, and yet embracing the new attitude of America. I find that they really do have such a rich culture and a blessing to be able to balance both of them so closely together.  I respected that along with having that feeling towards the two cultures, that he encouraged us to dig deeper of our culture.  That we all have ancestors from different places, the only difference is the generations.  Yet yet culture is unique has a lot to offer, so why don't we find the beauty in it?
     One thing that I will for sure take out of this experience is the thought that art, no matter what it is, is trying to make the invisible visible.  So why not show everything, all the invisible inside of me, to people?  If I try and hide too much of who I am or anything like that, then I will never share all the amazing experiences I have had, or the knowledge I have to bring to them.  This would be a shame if I let people go on without knowing what I have to offer.  And so I want to try and express myself more, like Seexang Lee has, to share with the world what I have to offer with my culture and background!

     Monday night a speaker came in talking about his experiences with the Center for Victims of Torture and various statistics for these victims that enter the center.  It was very interesting to hear some of the background of these victims and how their lives have changed through all of this. The average time in torture or capture is 164 days, but the average time it takes to recover from these things is 18 months.  I found it fascinating that something that only takes that many days, can take months. But also it reminds me that torture isn't as quick as I had imagined--much like the Jack Bauer torture that they talked about, is the kind of thing I always visualized for torture.  Yet him telling the story of the person that he's befriended, and talking about all these different experiences, was very cool to hear a senior from Bethel talk about.  It reminded me you can make a difference even when you're still in college!
     Relating this to a different and specific experience is hard to do.  While I have never counseled or talked with directly about a person about their experience with torture, I believe that in the interactions I have Somali refugees and Hmong refugees that I have encountered since here have more then likely experienced torture.  This makes the connection that although I may not know it, I probably interact with a lot more people then I thought that have dealt with this issue, and that I need to be conscious about it and smart.  Another connection is that in my Government class in high school, there was a student that supported torture as a means to get information.  It seems odd now to even think that I would be persuaded by him because now I have seen faces and I have experienced talking with people that have lived in fear.  And so, when I hear about torture, I view the people, and I think about their experiences, and I can no longer justify that tactic.
     One new understanding that I can leave with is the fact that there are many different types of torture, and one may experience all or only one of them, and still be very traumatized from the experience.The different types of torture are: physical, psychological, deprivation of human conditions, and sensory over-stimulation.  These are all very serious and very damaging types of torture and it's very easy to just look at one and think that that would have more of an impact on the persons recovery, whereas in reality it is not just one certain type of torture that causes all this pain, but any type of torture.  It seems odd to me as well that any government would even think about this practice being ethical and OK.  The information is usually unreliable and it dehumanizes.