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September 23, 2006
The daisy motif for "Love Us or Hate US?"
Plucking daisy petals to find out whether someone 'loves me or loves me not' seems to be a European tradition. We chose the daisy as the emblem on LoveUSHateUS.com and one of these days will have an animated graphic with petals being plucked (Joe is eager to find time for this). But does this idea have any resonance in non-European cultures? Please tell us!
And if there are similar folk customs in your country or part of the world, do clue us in so we can make this project more global.
Posted by Karen Christensen at 8:09 AM | Comments (1)
September 4, 2006
God's own country
"America. It is God's own country."
I didn't say it, and was a little started to hear this from a young African man sitting next to me on the train from Hong Kong to Guangzhou yesterday, after I told him that I'm American.
"It is the place of my dreams. My dream is to visit America, because I am a Christian."
He was one of the many African traders here in southern China, buying textiles to take back to Ghana. He had watched CNN about Hurricane Katrina and didn't seem to have grasped the poverty and racial divide that showed, and that was discussed in many news reports. What he remembered was a policeman, "Rescuing people but, you know, he was weeping because he did not know if his own family was alive or dead." My new friend touched his heart.
"Please give my greetings to your people," he said in farewell.
Posted by Karen Christensen at 8:57 PM | Comments (0)