I Wish I Were Multilingual

mul·ti·lin·gual

ˌməltēˈliNGg(yə)wəl,ˌməltī-/

adjective

1. in or using several languages.

Et III annos memini Latineque Existimabam admodum aliquantulus.

I studied Latin for 3 years and can remember quite a bit.

درست اللغة العربية في جامعة ويمكن بالكاد تذكر أي شيء ما عدا القليل من القواعد

I studied Arabic in University and can hardly remember anything except a little grammar. 

J'ai étudié le français à l'université aussi, et peut-être pourrais commander dans un restaurant français ou peut-être pas.

I studied French at University also and could maybe order at a French restaurant or maybe not.

Ich Deutsch studierte an der United States Defense Intelligence School in Washington, DC, und kann immer noch auf einem einfachen Gespräch zu führen.

I studied German at the United States Defense Intelligence School in Washington, D.C., and can still carry on a simple conversation.

.למדתי עברית בסמינר ועדיין יכול לקרוא קצת את התנ"ך

I studied Hebrew in seminary and can still read a bit of the Bible.

Σπούδασα στην ελληνική σχολή και μπορεί ακόμα να διαβάσετε ένα κομμάτι της Αγίας Γραφής.

I studied Greek in Seminary and can still read a bit of the Bible.

Estoy estudiando español ahora y avanzando muy lento.

I am studying Spanish now and making very slow progress.

I wish I could speak to every human being in the world in his or her own language and share with them 

the good news of love, justice, and peace.

Please...

Justice in the Face of Taliban Agression

Malalai Yousafzai

When I read that fourteen-year-old Malalai Yousafzai had been shot in an assassination attempt by Pakistani Taliban, I was overwhelmed by rage and sadness. Two other girls were also injured in the attack; one of whom remains in a critical condition. I am pleased that Pakistani officials have offered a 10 million rupee ($105,000; £66,000) reward for information leading to the arrest of her attackers. However, that the Taliban even exist to perpetrate such an injustice makes me ill.

Fundamentalist groups, whether they be the Taliban or the U.S. Tea Party, are a great concern to me and have been since the 1970s. After reading the works of Karen Armstrong I gained an understanding of fundamentalist mindset: their war is not a religious war but rather a war against modernity. And, unless the peoples of the world want to return to a dark age, it is a war that we cannot allow fundamentalists to win.

I strongly recommend the writings of Karen Armstrong. Here are a few:

The Voiceless Ones

When I was a grad student in Social Work we played a simulation the professor called The Capitalism Simulation, in which all of the class members were given different amounts of Monopoly money and salaries—except for four, of which I was one. We four had no money and further more we had duck tape across our mouths. Our goal, which was not shared with the rest of the players of the simulation, was to obtain a paltry $20.00. Then and only then could the tape be removed from our mouths and we could speak.

Most of the players of the simulation spent their time around a Monopoly board playing with their money. The exception was, beside us four voiceless ones, the players who were to deal with the four of us who had the tape over our mouths. T heir roles/jobs were as police, welfare workers, food stamp workers, etc. There were many more workers dealing with us than four!

It was extremely difficult for us to get $20.00! We could not answer the questions asked us by the food stamp and welfare workers because we could not speak. Likewise, we could not get jobs because he couldn't respond to interview questions. Every time we approached the Monopoly board where most of the players who had money were, the police blocked us and took us to jail. It was frustrating! As a voiceless one I felt anger, fear, and great frustration!

Finally, in desperation, the four of us voiceless ones literally rushed the Monopoly board, pushed past the police, and fell on our knees with our arms outstretched toward the Monopoly players, some of whom figured out our need and gave up money! With the $20.00 needed we were able to take the tape off our mouths and tell everyone what we had had to go through to be able to speak.

The end result was the Monopoly players all shared their money with us and everyone, including the police and welfare workers, stood around the board playing Monopoly.

That’s when the professor, the Game Overall Director (G.O.D.), called an end to the simulation and we reviewed what had happened. The G.O.D. summed up the experience by praising us four voiceless ones for getting to speak—it seems that in this simulation the voiceless ones seldom get the tape off their mouths. Then he said something like this:

Only a class of social workers would create a society in which there is sharing all of the wealth with everyone so that all can equally play the game.

.

That simulation and the feelings it invoked in me has colored my view of capitalism, its players and its voiceless ones, for more than thirty years.

BTW, the earliest Christians created a society in which all of the wealth was shared with everyone long before us social workers (or Karl Marx) came up with the idea. (See Acts 2: 44-47).

If You Meet the Buddha on the Road...

For centuries people with mental illness were kept away from the rest of society, sometimes locked up, often in poor conditions, with little or no say in running their lives. Today, negative attitudes lock them out of society more subtly but just as effectively. ~ The Royal College of Psychiatrists (UK)

Back in April, prior to Bellsouth (now the New AT&T) temporarily terminating my Internet connection, I mentioned that May is Mental Health Month. I also said I would write a blog in honor of it. Since today is the last day of May, Alex reminded me that if I don’t post this now, I’ll not have kept word.

Through the past thirty or so years I have learned quite a bit about mental health in the United States. That came not only from being a practicing social worker, pastor and therapist, but also from my own bouts with melancholia. While researching this post, I came upon several sites dealing with the stigma placed on folks with mental illness (see links below).

And that reminded me of a book I read when I was a novice social worker: If You Meet the Buddha on the Road, Kill Him by psychiatrist Sheldon Kopp. (NOTE: You may want to glance at Killing the Buddha for an explanation of the book’s title).

Subtitled The Pilgrimage of Psychotherapy Patients, Kopp’s book taught me quite a bit about how society views those who are mentally ill, especially about the labels both professional and lay folk seem to place on people—usually with antagonistic results.

As an example, I want to share one of the stories Kopp told in If You Meet the Buddha on the Road, Kill Him. Since I no longer have the book, I shall tell the story from memory, which means, of course, that it may vary a bit from the original.

One day the police brought a man to a mental health ward and told the staff that the man had been found standing on a city street corner wearing a long robe, sandals, and muttering gibberish. The mental health staff agreed with the police that the man must be crazy and began legal action to have him involuntarily admitted to the ward.

A few hours later that petition for involuntary admission was canceled when thirty people, all wearing long robes and sandals and muttering gibberish arrived at the hospital seeking their comrade.

As Kopp pointed out, one person wearing a long robe and sandals and muttering gibberish can be considered to be crazy; however, thirty-one such folks can be considered to be a religious community. It usually depends upon our perspective.

On this last day of Mental Health Month 2007, I invite you to explore one or two of the links below, each of which deals with the stigma placed on people who have been designated by someone as being mentally ill:

BBC Radio: Mental Health Prejudice

Prejudice the greatest obstacle to mental health

Mental Help Net

Internet Mental Health (includes self-diagnosis)

BBC: Mental Health

National Mental Health Awareness Campaign

Stigma & Mental Health Issues

Blog: Psych Central: Mental Health Stigma Alive and Well in Virginia

CNN: Mental illness and stigma: Coping with the ridicule

Mind: Mental Illness is Like Any Other Sickness

Mind: Myths about Mental Illness still Prevail

Mind: Tear Down the Stigma of Mental Illness

National Alliance on Mental Illness: What is Mental Illness: Mental Illness Facts

Scapegoating And Mental Illness Stigma

Mayo Clinic: Mental health and stigma: Overcoming the ridicule

Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General

Addressing mental-illness stigma bluntly

National Mental Health Information Center

The guru, if he is gifted, reads the story as any bilingual person might. He does not translate—he understands. ~ Sheldon Kopp

May Is Mental Health Month

Cho Seung-Hui was referred to a mental health facility in 2005 after officers responded to accusations he was suicidal and having inappropriate contact with female students, police said Wednesday. (CNN.com)

With media coverage now centering on the life of Virginia Tech killer Cho Seung-Hui and especially his mental health, I have heard TV talking heads, read blog posts, and received emails warning that we must beware of people whole are possibly mentally ill--people who could be described as being loners, quiet, friendless; people who may express anti-societal, "dark" or politically incorrect notions. It rather reminds me of the same frenzy that occurred following the September 11th attacks when Muslims and folks of presumed Middle Eastern ethnicity were targeted by frightened Americans.

I believe that it is important that people do not over react in a Salem-like witch hunt for folks who suffer from one of the numerous forms of mental illness. The best way to do this seems to be to provide accurate information.

May is Mental Health Month and May is close enough that the few links below can begin the education process that the month is designed to provide. Please gather the facts and spread them far and wide that, for example, people who suffer from some form of depression are not homicidal.

This is personal for me. As you know if you've read Nick's Bytes for very long, I'm one of those who suffers from clinical depression and I am not a killer. And I do not relish the idea of someone bashing me in the head with a baseball bat (as was done to one of my Sufi friends immediately after 9-11 because he wore a turban) because I am melancholy!

As always, I appreciate your comments and feedback.

Links

Virginia Tech Tragedy: Tips for Educators, Students and Parents from Mental Health America

The Bare Facts on Mental Illness from the World Health Organization

Policy Issues A-Z from Mental Health America.net

Mental Health Care in the Developing World from Psychiatric Times

Depression Screening Test from PlanetPsych.com

May is Mental Health Month