Comments on: Obama, Hope, Religion, and African “Can-do” creativity and spirit http://glen.mehn.net/mba/index.php/2008/12/31/obama-hope-religion-and-african-can-do-creativity-and-spirit/ What's it all about? Wed, 27 Jul 2011 14:43:15 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.3 By: Max http://glen.mehn.net/mba/index.php/2008/12/31/obama-hope-religion-and-african-can-do-creativity-and-spirit/comment-page-1/#comment-6832 Max Mon, 12 Jan 2009 06:08:33 +0000 http://glen.mehn.net/mba/index.php/2008/12/31/obama-hope-religion-and-african-can-do-creativity-and-spirit/#comment-6832 I'm reminded of a story from Cole's time in Thailand. Many people made their living picking through the garbage of those more prosperous then themselves, such that what made it to the dump was only the most "useless" items. People lived at the dump, raising pigs on whatever garbage could be fed to them. The entire system was threatened by the building of a huge recycling center - those living at the dump thought they'd simply be moving to wherever the new dump was to be. As for religion, it tends to be focused on people's lives. This would naturally give it an edge on being "Local" rather than "MIT" focused. The postmodernist leaning of my psychology curriculum sometimes blinds me to the fact that the importance of other people's perspectives is still not universally championed. I look forward to hearing more of how you choose to tackle these challenges in your work - and to learn if I can help at all from here. I’m reminded of a story from Cole’s time in Thailand. Many people made their living picking through the garbage of those more prosperous then themselves, such that what made it to the dump was only the most “useless” items. People lived at the dump, raising pigs on whatever garbage could be fed to them. The entire system was threatened by the building of a huge recycling center – those living at the dump thought they’d simply be moving to wherever the new dump was to be.

As for religion, it tends to be focused on people’s lives. This would naturally give it an edge on being “Local” rather than “MIT” focused. The postmodernist leaning of my psychology curriculum sometimes blinds me to the fact that the importance of other people’s perspectives is still not universally championed.

I look forward to hearing more of how you choose to tackle these challenges in your work – and to learn if I can help at all from here.

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