When Everything Seems to Mean Something

Ever been through one of those points in your life where every song lyric is brilliantly poignant to your own situation? “How did he know? That’s exactly how I feel, what I’m going through.” Every movie’s hidden messages of redemption, loss, love, brushing your teeth in the morning, is speaking out to you. Where life revolves around your problems, or at least since they're constantly in your head, while not even thinking directly about them, they pop up in the strangest ways, when you least want them. But then, when the problems fade and the world changes and starts to look brighter, even that seems to be reflected in the world at large.

It’s been a couple of weeks like that for me. I couldn't count the number of song lyrics I’ve written down in my journal and scraps of paper lately.

“Maybe there is a God above,
But all I’ve leaned of love
Was how to shoot someone that outdrew me

And it’s not a cry that you hear in the night
It’s not somebody who’s seen the light
It’s a cold and it’s a broken Hallelujah”
- Jeff Buckley

“Breaking and rebuilding and we’re growing,
Always guessing, never knowing.
It’s shocking, but we’re nothing,
We’re just moments
We’re clever but we’re clueless
We’re just human, amusing and confusing
Trying, but where is this all leading?
We’ll never know.”
- Jack Johnson

“I will carry on, bury all, bury all, bury all.”
“… the notion that I don’t need anyone but me,
Don’t drink the water!”
- Dave Matthews

“You’ve made me smile again,
In fact I may be sore from it,
It’s been a while.”
- Ben Folds

“If revolution had a movie, I’d be theme music.”
- Common
(Ok, this one, I just love the line, but not necessarily as it applies to me. Common is great. Saw this interview with him in Elle just yesterday, not sure he’s all the message MC he used to be, but still got respect.)

I could go on, but where would we end up? I’d just be the Pandora radio of music quotes, and not even the best I’m sure.

Been here in Niamey for just over two weeks now. I hadn’t really wanted to stay here so long, but I think it’s a good thing I am here. I needed to see some American friends to unload on. My Nigerien and Nigerian (From Niger and Nigeria respectively) just see relationships in a totally different light than we do in the US. Here, especially in Niger, relationships between a man and a women usually jumped straight from “hey there” to marriage since ‘dating’ isn’t really an approved of thing, at least outside of the cities. If you like a girl and want her as a wife, you go talk to her parents and settle on a price and then, if you all agree, she’s to be your wife.
Thus, it’s not really that marriage is about love, more so about convenience and first impressions… and money of course. In Nigeria, they like to think that love has more to do with it, for sure ‘dating’ and relationships are a little more western, or maybe it’s a little more Christian juxtaposed to the Islam. Whatever it is, people are more likely to have it casual there for a while, but even that… well it’s a West African thing that women are for having a kids, cooking and cleaning. Of course, you want a woman that you like and who is good at pleasing you, but really as it boils down to the essentials, love is the first thing boiled off. There is love here, no doubt, but it’s not integrally tied up in the institution of marriage as we see it. Though, even in the US we romanticize love and marriage to the point where we forget that they are separate entities.

But I digress….

I wanted to say that I had to escape the African view of women and relationships for a while. Most all my African friends kept saying, “She’s with someone else, that’s why she broke up with you,” “Leave her, she’s no good if she can’t please her man.” Really though, there were two guys (Nigerians) who fielded very open minded opinions about her need for space and love finding a way and things going as they should in the long run. I was quite impressed, yet another example of how Africa is at a cross-roads of ideas and customs. The globalization of media has really meant a huge impact on the way people in the developing world see the world since it’s mostly western ideas on TV and the radio. At least here in West Africa. There’s local media, there’s Nollywood – the film industry in Nigeria – But even that takes large cues from the stories of Hollywood and the west, Bollywood too is a huge influence, so you get most movies being about love overcoming obstacles or good triumphing over evil, movies spouting their ideals, but real life still, for the most part, clinging to the traditional views.
It’s nice to see when the two, media and traditional viewpoints, coincide rather than combat. For example, I’m reading Things Fall Apart right now. A contemporary book, but written very much like an Africa fable is told. Not so far into it yet, but really interested.

Have I lost you yet?

Problem with writing on the fly without somewhere to go.
But if you’re game, let’s press on.

Was talking to my friend Mary the other day about a very similar subject: the diversity of influence on American culture. We were saying how the greatest thing about American culture is it’s vastness and depth, it’s innumerable foreign and domestic influences, all meeting and melding into the greatest cultural stream that the world has seen. Black, White, Chicano, Indian, Native American, Irish, German, Protestant Catholic, Conservative, Liberal… Like I said, one could make an infinitely long list of adjectives to describe the actors of social influence within American society. – or I could just say, People of all colors and creeds have had input and influence on what is now “American Culture.” This is an amazing thing.
It’s also an amazing thing to see a different culture and a different world view. Living in Africa the last (almost) two years has really opened my eyes to the way culture is different in different areas, but really not all that different in the end. All cultures hold many of the same values, respect, family, hard work, as important and so have commonalities. This new age of global media and information though is having a similar effect on other countries that the US’s history of immigration had on it. Cultures are starting to mix more and more, blending in places where it would never have ten years ago even. My buddy, Illiasou, the other day in Gaya showed me, on his cell phone, the Google search he had just done to learn about the Obama’s, he was especially interested in their new dog. And really, Obama has become, I think the first president to REALLY, TRULY, be an international figure. Everyone knows about him and, while that obviously has something to do with his personality and charisma, I think it has just as much to do with the globalization of culture, being that the US is still (for now) the cultural power house of the world, people hear about US the most.

Culture – A society’s set of norms, traditions, and values.

But also influence and information I think.

The world is changing, it’s always been changing of course, but it seems to be going faster and faster, spinning with increased anxiousness. Instant communication between any two points. A straight line is no longer the shortest distance between two points. This ease and quickness of cultural exchange can’t help but increase the rate at which the world changes. For now it continues to be a top down influence of media dispersing dominant culture around the world, but even that is changing. TV like Al-Jazira (actually a very good news station if you give it a chance) or radio like BBC Haoussa are giving voices to people not usually associated with the mainstream. Internet will do this even more and even faster as it starts to become more globally available.

In my point of view this is all a good thing. Just like the immigration history of the US has produced a culture that has so many and varied influences, the chance to have cultures around the world broadcast themselves can only but help diversify the world. A person in the US can now read a Peace Corps blog from Malawi and understand more of the culture there. They could also read a blog written by a Malawian and understand even better that culture. And it’s all at their fingertips. The globalization of information gives the smaller voices a chance to be heard along side the bigger voices. Bigger voices still have the power of top-down information decimation, especially where people are reliant on radio/TV as apposed to the internet, but as information and culture exchange shifts more with the technology available, we’re gonna see greater and greater power for the small voices and that will help diversify culture and maintain culture in areas where big voices are in danger of imposing their weight and changing it.

Well, anyway... that's enough rambling, maybe I should organize my thoughts more next time.

Last weekend was my 26th Birthday and to celebrate I went out with some friends, had a steak dinner. Good times.

People have been requesting some videos of life here, speaking of cultural exchange over new media, so here are a couple I just uploaded to facebook (so painfully slow):