Ghana and Obama

Today the delegates from the city of Obuasi, Ghana gave a presentation. Riverside is partnering with them as a part of the sister city program which I had never heard about before. Now that I have... I think it is fascinating. There were several things which I noticed about today that stuck in my mind.

1. The Women are very well respected in Ghanan culture, and looked to as respected leaders (without being feministic!)

2. They currently have a Universal Health Care System in Obuasi, which has improved their ecomony in the last 10 year.

3. They are a city on a gold mine (They have the second oldest mine in the world), yet still are considered a third world country.

4. Though they have many ethnic groups in Obuasi, they are known for their peace. Many tribal leaders from around Ghana live in Obuasi with no tribal tension (contrast this to the chaos in Kenya)

Along with this... Would they have the same situation if there happened to be a rigged election scandal such as in Kenya? There was not huge tribal animosity pre-election: Is every African country just as susceptible to the situation in Kenya?

5. Though the men were very high up in rank (the mayor, private educators etc.) they were very humble and willing to asnwer questions that were asked by the high school students that were present.

6. I would love to travel to Ghana. :)

7. I was watching their faces and what they responded to while CBU was presenting different aspects about our school. As Shamsu spoke they nodded quite often and smiled a lot. They also reffered to Aimee and Tyler (who spoke about ISP) as brothers and sisters. I know this is cultural... But I like it. They seemed to agree more with the younger generation as they spoke, and t have a sense of dignity about their education system - even above the economy (which seems to be somewhat stable and progressing)


Also In Today's events...

We began to dialogue about "Super Tuesday", and I am now officially unsure of who to vote for, specifically in the Primarys. Though after a lot of research I do not think I identify with the Republican party, I am registered Republican for Tuesday's vote, an do not want to support McCain, Huckabee, Romney or Paul (each for different reasons). After we looked at their stance on the main issues (which seem to be the economy, immigration, ethics- gay marriage and abortion- and the situation in Iraq), all except Paul are very similar in their Republican stance.

I am still processing through these things... and this is not even talking Democrats! Barack Obama may be one of the most interesting and impressive stories of success I have ever heard... and I like a lot of his ideas. I do not have enough energy to share anything about Hilary...

So, as a sophmore is college discovering the Presidential Election for the first time I have come to the following conclusions.

1. I do not know anything about the issues and what would truly be best for our nation
2. As a Christian, I am still figuring out what desires we should have for the nation (as Julie pointed out today, is our goal to simply be successful and comfortable?)
3. The majority of this campus is passive and uninformed, (not to sound judgemental I was there and am only slowly starting to come out of it)
4. I do not know anything.
5. I want to know more.
6. My brain is tired and my eyes are burning so I am going to bed.

Oh wait there is a 7

The One campaign has created a list of what each candidate thinks about World Poverty and the AIDS humanitarian crisis. This is not a huge issue in the debate. In my humble opinion this may be what makes me decide on the candidate... if it is about balacning the good and bad my heart is more focused on doing what we can to end poverty than several other issues.

Shoot there is an 8 as well.

Attempting to be politically correct is one of the hardest things I have ever come across.

9...

I need to learn to be confident when feathers are ruffled.

Sneezing from all the feather dust I am done for the day.