Just in case you all were thinking I was only having fun here. Let me share some of my daily grind with you... This morning I had my African Politics course - which I love. However, today's topic was ethnic conflict and revolved around the Rwandan genocide. We watched a film about how all the world powers knew what was happening but failed to intervene. Then our professor told us about how he worked for the UN during the genocide and was in Rwanda immediately before it broke out. His job was to report on the likelihood of conflict - something he reported was very likely. He then spent the three months during the genocide in South Africa, as the world watched and did nothing. On returning to Rwanda after the massacre (one million people in 100 days) his job was to advise the UN on the best ways of disposing of the thousands of dead bodies throughout the country. He said what he learnt from the experience is that the world does not care about each other... Somber thoughts for us idealist peace students. After class I read about the links between HIV/AIDS and conflict for two hours. Once again the genocide came up in the readings which documented how rape and HIV are increasingly used as a weapon of war. I then went to a lecture of 'Surprises in History' including the very recent credit crunch... More somber thoughts for a bunch of students hoping to get well paying jobs in the non-profit sector when we graduate.
After the lecture was an information session on how to write our first essays. I believe the purpose of the session was to build our confidence, but all 80 or so of us left feeling more panicked than before. For one thing, we learned that many people don't pass their first essay! I could feel the stress level in the room rise with every other piece of advice the professor gave us, as we just built on each others' anxiety. Next time I'm bringing my yoga candle to the session and lead everyone in deep breathing every few minutes : ) The good news is I then went out with a group of friends for dinner. Bradford is famous for curry and Omars (a great curry restaurant) is the only places I've eaten out here because I don't see any reason to go anywhere else. It's a cheap, you can bring you own wine, and they serve naan the size of the table! By the time our tummies were full the stress of essays, and our concern over the state of the world, had somewhat subsided. So now I will watch a bit of Pride and Prejudice and sleep well. I'll get up work on my essay, go to my Conflict Resolution course and then to yogaâ?¦ and so life goes on for us lucky ones who get to read and study about the world's problems instead of face them. Big Love and Peace to Everyone.