A few weeks ago, we had the rare privilege of going to Malta!

"MALTA! Cool!! ...Where's Malta!?"

That's what my mom, my brother, my boss and roughly 6 of my friends said when I told them we were going. Truth be told, I hadn't heard of it either until Alisse and I booked a flight there. It's off the southern coast of Sicily, nestled in the Mediterranean. It's a confusing island of Italians, Greeks and Northern Africans. It's only 122 square miles, its one of the smallest countries in the world and its also one of the most Catholic countries in the world (apart from... say... the Vatican). We went for Alisse's birthday, the lucky girl!

Essentially, we played on the beaches, ate gelato and visited ancient cities for five glorious days! Here are just a few scenes from Malta:

It was just the most amazing experience! Malta will always be among my favorite islands!

Love,

Heather

Even Now

“Adventure is a path. Real adventure – self-determined, self-motivated, often risky – forces you to have firsthand encounters with the world. The world the way it is, not the way you imagine it. Your body will collide with the earth and you will bear witness. In this way you will be compelled to grapple with the limitless kindness and bottomless cruelty of humankind – and perhaps realize that you yourself are capable of both. This will change you. Nothing will ever again be black-and-white.” – Mark Jenkins

Scotland is just a dream! This was taken in the Trossachs Mountains, overlooking Loch Lomond. How much more beautiful can it getl? I think the answer is none, none the more beautiful. Tomorrow night we leave for Italy and I couldn't be more excited!

Belle of the Boulevard

I'm sure you've heard of them.

They're only the greatest thing to hit this part of the world since Kilts.

I've spent hours listening to Scottish music, trying to find all the good songs and only the good bands. While some artists might have great names (We Were Promised Jetpacks... they win time and time again) and others might have altogether fantastic one hit wonders (Young Ned of the Hill by the Pogues)... There has only been one band that has performed so consistently well that we still play them here in casa del interns. 

A few good facts:

They're identical twins

They were born in Leith, Edinburgh.

They own a football team. Who we say play. Who's anthem is one of their songs. Which song we sang with 500 other overjoyed fans.

 They were in Parliament mere weeks ago... but they didn't stop in to say "hi" 

Who are these glorious gems?

And I'm smitten.

Think you've never heard of them?? 

Yes. Yes you have.

Here's to Scotland's finest.

Heaven Here

Have you ever been to a magical bluebell forest?

There is one in Stirling, Scotland, if you'd so care to go. Saturday was the most amazing day in the existence of all the cosmos. Should anyone want to replicate such a day, here's the recipe:

Start with a very dodgy orange bus:

Don't let the man in the kilt scare you, his name is Donald and he's oh so friendly.

Next, add the coastal town of Queensbury. This is an essential step that can't be skipped. Why? So all the asian tourists can get off and take pictures of the bridge. 

Oh yeah... and me too. 

Next step, return to the bus where you will be enchanted by stories of William Wallace and his dashing escapades. Try to forget that William Wallace was not a highlander, but really a middle-class intellectual from Glasgow. Don't worry, the real Scottish superheroes come later.

Add just a pinch of inspiration, but don't overdo it. And get off and tour the sites where William Wallace somehow discovered blue body paint.

is that too much?

Then throw in a generous amount of pure Scottish glory

The result should look very green at this point

Add hairy "coo" (cow, for those of you who don't speak Scot) to taste. 

Let them do most of the tasting, actually. For those of you who wondered, 

hairy coos are particularly fond of white bread.

Get back on that bus, because Donald has some stories to tell you. Today you get to learn all about Rob Roy! The original mobsta gangsta with a fresh side of red hair! Rob Roy stole cattle from all his neighbors then promised he'd stop only if they paid him. What a lad!

When your day has boiled over from straight up awesomeness, be sure to sprinkle in the Monty Python Castle, and your most favorite person in all the land.

With bonus hairy coo hats!

Finish by pairing the end of the world (that's right, ladies and gentlemen, Rapture has arrived) with the World's End Pub.

The lovely English boy who offered to take our picture got too excited when we told him it was the end of the world and there was a bar right there... hence he couldn't wait for us to smile.

but we really were there

Garnish with shots of Smirnoff! It's the end of the world after all! Just kidding... but really. That's what everyone else was doing.

And there you have it! The makings of a perfect day! But, don't try this at home. Perfect day is best made in entirely unfamiliar surroundings :)

Love,

Heather.

Alisse. After the end of the world.

So Impossible

For the past week and a half, I've been on a van. And, of course, that van was always filled with balloons. Always.




And I've been doing this:




That's right. I've been holding a lot of balloons. All week. Who is that man, you might ask?


That is Alex Salmond. He is the recently re-elected first minister of Scotland. Personally, I think he's really awesome. He's working under the big idea that Scotland needs to be independent from Britain.

It makes sense.
This is a country where they have everything. The electricity works, the water runs, they have jobs, personal liberties and yet... at the end of the day Scotland has little power over their own taxation, over many of the laws which govern their nation and they have almost no say in the EU.
Many of the Scottish people are terribly afraid of the idea of an independent Scotland because of what happened to Ireland and especially their economy. But what the SNP is saying is "we can do it". I'm all for people who say "we can do it". And on Thursday May 5th, the people of Scotland also said "we can do it!"

They voted approximately 70 SNP members into the Scottish Parliament. That's a majority portion of parliament, which has never happened before in the history of modern Scottish Elections. In fact, majority parties aren't supposed to happen. But the SNP did it, because the people voted them into power. And in about 2 or 3 years, we hope Alex will (after taking measures to stabilize the economy and improve education) introduce a referendum that allows for Scottish Independence. And I personally hope the people of Scotland say, once again, "we can do it"

Also, is it too early to start making William Wallace references?
Yes? okay. We'll wait a few years.

But I'm so proud of the SNP, particularly these wonderful people

Whom I've had the singular pleasure of riding many many miles in a van with. They're great guys and really hard workers. Sometimes they sing and that's not always lovely, but who can blame them for being so happy?

Okay, enough of the campaigning.
Actually, there's not much else to talk about... because that's really all we've been doing! Haha, we haven't had much time for tourism, but I can say that I love love love Scotland, its so beautiful and green and fun. I love the ward here and I'm deeply impressed by the YSA kids, they're always friendly and so so so strong in the gospel. And I love Alisse! Who couldn't adore a roommate like this?

 

She's absolutely the very best! We have so much fun together and I'm infinitely glad that I'm getting to know her.

Also, bonus pictures of Scotland that I found whilst looking for a picture of Alisse:

Am I one lucky duck or what?! All of these are just from the city of Edinburgh alone. I LOVE Scotland so much!
P.S. If you wanted to eat fresh baked rye bread with homemade strawberry vanilla jam and cheese, a good place to do that would be on a hill underneath a castle while the sun shines down on you.

Much Love!

Heather.

Get Me Right

Last week, His Excellency Hem Heng, Cambodian ambassador to the U.S., gave a particularly uncomfortable lecture. I felt confident going in to his lecture because I knew about Cambodia, I was, at the very least, aware of the Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot’s reign of terror. But, the longer I sat there, the more uneasy I felt. I had no clue how much the United States had supported the Khmer Rouge, financially, politically, militarily. And here this man, who had lived through the Cambodian enslavement, was telling me that the United States was a main supporter, but nobody stood up and told him he was wrong, meaning, he must be telling the truth. It’s just that I, being particularly uninformed, had never known just how involved the U.S. became in Pol Pot’s killing spree. As I looked around me, I saw that the girl next to me had no clue what the Khmer Rouge was and instead was drawing pictures of the US bombing cattle in Cambodia and I realized that maybe the rest of my generation was just like me, wholly unaware. That’s about when I started feeling particularly uncomfortable. How many other situations have we (as a country) been in where we steamrolled over other countries, over other people, to put ourselves in a better position?

As the “most powerful country in the world” the U.S. exploits quite a lot of situations, we stick our opinions, our noses, our guns into places that they simply do not belong and we get away with whatever we’d like to do because other countries are less powerful than us, and thus have less say. Granted, we do our best to help countries that are revolting, starving, dying, but the fact is, we also do a lot of harm. Our politicians are intrusive, decisive and outright rude sometimes. Is this the way that our country would prefer to be? Do we as the citizens want a government who financially supports a dictator in Egypt simply because we need ties to the US, or should we start saying no? Should we start standing up for ourselves and saying “NO. I do not want other people in the world to suffer simply because I am part of a country so enormous that it does not know its own boundaries” Here’s to facing things that make us uncomfortable, to politicians who misrepresent the people, to a military that exploits, to a president who makes decisions that we the people would never make. Here’s to saying no.

Start with this one:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/17/world/asia/17pakistan.html?ref=us

Standard Lines

A week ago visiting professor Gideon Aran spoke at the Kennedy Center, commenting on the 9/11 attacks ten years after.

September 11th stunned America. We sat back, dazed and most of us wondered "how... why did this happen?" Lucky for us, the media was right there to soothe our insatiable curiosities and tell us exactly why America was under attack. A few years later, we learned to live with the facts and accept that Middle Easterners were all brainwashed to hate us because they didn't have a democracy like we did, they believed in people like Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein was limiting their ability to think correctly. Oh, and something about Al Qaeda too.

Not so, says professor Aran. He suggested that we collectively fell to the biases of the media and the politicians who desired to create a force and reason for retaliation. But in all reality, the reasons for Al Qaeda attacks were much deeper rooted in Middle Eastern history and U.S. relations with the Muslim people. Professor Aran emphasized the idea that the timeline for causation was almost endless. Where does the hate begin? How do we know which events to pinpoint?

To me, his musings highlighted a need for better history education. We live in the present and we plan for the future, but the past gets overlooked as quickly as it becomes the past. The human race as a whole marches forward, on to bigger and better things, hardly ever looking back - until something happens that sends us reeling. Suddenly Libya is in flames and we have no clue how it happened.
It is essential to know causation in order to find a solution.

History is essential in every field because it shows us what worked, what didn't and why. In the advances of science we build on the professionals before us who tested theories. In art we look at history to reflect upon social moods and means of expression. In political science we observe difference interactions between states to figure out why China is the way it is.

It is necessary to be well-versed in history so that when you have an opinion on the war in Iraq, your opinion counts for something. When you talk about the revolution in Egypt, you understand truly what is going on. When you joke about Kim Jong-Il, you know exactly what you're saying.

And in life, we need history to know where we're going next.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/30/education/30advanced.html?scp=12&sq=education+history&st=nyt

Secret's in the Telling

In 1996, during the Clinton Administration passed a law called the Defense of Marriage Act. It has two main components, the first implies that same-sex marriage was not federally recognized and that states have the ability to allow for civil unions within their own states (and/or territories), but that other states do not have to recognize or accept those unions. 
To me, this makes sense, if one state is wholly opposed to gay marriage, they should not have to accept the decisions of another state with entirely different people living in it. That seems fair, and vice versa as well, if one state is particularly desirous to allow civil unions within their state, then they should not be limited by what other states want. 


The second portion defines the term Marriage. It explicitly states that "the word `marriage' means

only a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife, 
and the word `spouse' refers only to a person of the opposite sex who is 
a husband or a wife.'

The act text in its entirety

This particular section is the most controversial (or celebratory, if you're me). Because it excludes marriage to goats. kidding.

At any rate, the Act passed both the house and the senate with a landslide majority (342-67 in the House and 85-14 in the Senate). But has been challenged heavily since its inception. 

Most recently, the Obama Administration has announced that they will no longer defend the DOMA because they question the constitutionality of the act and find it horribly unpopular to defend an act tthat upholds marriage. 

However, with that statement came Obama's personal opinion that, “support for actual marriage is not bigotry, but instead an eminently reasonable, common judgment affirming the foundational institution of civil society.”

That sounds like a man who is being swayed by the loudest voices. 
In every single poll I was able to find, there has always been a higher percent opposed to gay/lesbian marriage that those in favor.
http://www.pollingreport.com/civil.htm
http://www.gallup.com/poll/118378/majority-americans-continue-oppose-gay-marriage.aspx

Why then, are we letting the loudest voices dictate the way we live? 

At the end of February, Attorney General Eric Holder sent this note to Speaker of the House John Boehner informing him of Obama's decision that the DOMA was unconstitutional. Since when was it this one man's job to decide that? Presidents of the United States have never had that power. 


On Friday, March 4th the Republican party announced that they would continue to support the DOMA and uphold it against critical review. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/05/us/politics/05marriage.html?_r=2&smid=tw-nytimes&seid=auto

Never have I been more proud of the men and women who legislate for our country. It was incredibly brave for them to take a stand for the people of America. To listen to the voices who are not nearly as loud. To be firm even when it was uncomfortable.


Not as much can be said for the President of our country. 


Let me explain why I believe that marriage and protecting the definition of marriage is important. 


I firmly believe that marriage is a religious ceremony representing a joining of a man and a women with God. Together they three form a union where both the man and the women can grow, develop and become more like their Heavenly Father. 
I understand that not everyone believes this and not everyone treats marriage the way it deserves to be treated. There are plenty of straight couples who disrespect the intentions of marriage, this does not make gay marriage okay, it simply makes violating good marriages wrong. 


The purpose of marriage is to create families that will also learn and grown and (hopefully) make good decisions as they strive to become good people like their father in Heaven. 
Gay marriages cannot fulfill this purpose because they cannot create. In truth, they can adopt and adoptions are good but in actuality adoptions are not creation. The ability to create bodies and give life to them is one of our Heavenly Father's most treasured abilities. It is his supreme ability and his fondest hope is that we become like him; thus he has given us that ability as well. 


In truth, I know without a doubt that my religious convictions have everything to do with the way I feel about gay marriage. This is not a bad thing. No one ever said that we have to separate the two and I prefer not to.


The Mormon church does not hate the gay community. We do not hate people who are gay. We do not label them as sinners and outcasts. We do love them and we do want them to be happy. However, we do firmly believe that acting on gay tendencies is not appropriate. I  firmly believe that. I believe that same-sex marriage mocks the purpose of marriage, which is to create families. Thus I am grateful that Congress is willing to protect the definition of marriage so that it may remain sacred to those of us who believe in its sanctity.


The leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints are outspoken about gay marriages. But just listen to them. They aren't mean spirited, they are good and loving, but very clear. 


“People inquire about our position on those who consider themselves so-called gays and lesbians. My response is that we love them as sons and daughters of God. They may have certain inclinations which are powerful and which may be difficult to control. Most people have inclinations of one kind or another at various times. If they do not act upon these inclinations, then they can go forward as do all other members of the Church. If they violate the law of chastity and the moral standards of the Church, then they are subject to the discipline of the Church, just as others are" - Gordon B. Hinckley


 "We do not reject you… We cannot reject you, for you are the sons and daughters of God. We will not reject you, because we love you" - Boyd K. Packer

"Not long ago I received a letter from a man in his early 30s who struggles with same-gender attraction. His struggle has not been easy, and he has not yet married. But, he wrote, 'the Lord has helped me face my current circumstances, and I am content to do my best and leave my life in His hands.'

<sup>I weep with admiration and respect at the faith and courage of such a man who is living with a challenge I have never faced. I love him and the thousands like him, male or female, who “fight the good fight” (1 Timothy 6:12). I commend his attitude to all who struggle with—or who are helping others who struggle with—same-gender attraction" - Jeffrey R. Holland


http://lds.org/ensign/2007/10/helping-those-who-struggle-with-same-gender-attraction?lang=eng</sup>
http://lds.org/general-conference/2010/10/cleansing-the-inner-vessel?lang=eng

It cannot be said any better than that.

Little Bombs

"Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far"
-West African proverb (made famous by Theodore Roosevelt)

United States defense secretary Robert Gates took a trip to China early January. His intentions were to improve "defense ties" between the U.S. and China. Essentially, the US wants to maintain a cooperative friend in China as we worry about hostile countries in its neighboring areas (read: North Korea). Furthermore, with China's size, economy and power growing at such a rapid rate, it simply wouldn't do to have them as an enemy. Particularly when it comes to China's military. China has the second largest military force in the world (behind only the U.S.), a force which cannot be reckoned with and must, instead, be appeased through false grins of friendship. But rest assured, China could put up a good fight if they wanted to.

In general, the United States subscribes steadfastly to the Democratic Peace Theory, which is the idea that democracies fight significantly less with other democracies and thus, in order to increase the likelihood of world peace, as many countries as possible should be democratic. As an unspoken agenda, US leaders push democracy. (Case in point, during the peak of the Egyptian revolutions both President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton addressed Egypt and urged that they move swiftly to democracy.) However, the US has been known to ignore their quest for democracy in favor of finding an ally among in a tense area. (Case in point, though Egypt was not at all a democracy but, in fact, a dictatorship, the US was willing to fund nearly all of Egypt's military in attempt to gain an ally in the volatile Middle East countries). China is not a democracy, but instead a Communist country. Thirty years ago communists were among the United States' greatest enemies, but now with bigger (or perhaps just different) fish to fry, China is a great friend to the US. We interact with China on a relationship of friendship, but also of avarice and uncertainty.

However the one most troubling aspect about U.S.-China relations is that we simply do not take China seriously.  News articles come out daily about the threat of China's growth in technology, military and GDP. Because those growths are so substantial and so rapid, the US is willing to take note. But because China is not a democracy, we have the tendency to believe that their success is illegitimate. We say "oh, its China, what could they possibly do to us?" Former Secretary of State Condeleezza Rice, in her January address at BYU illustrated that there was no way that China could surpass the United States with their government in such a state. And we all cheered. "Yay! We're number one!"

It may not be a democracy, but who could argue that China's system is working for them?
It may be imperfect, but who would say that the United States' government is perfect?
Growth like this is hard to ignore.

And because we ignore China so easily, the people of China feel the need to display their power for all the world to see. Hours before President Hu Jintao received Secretary Gates in the Great Hall of the People, the Chinese military launched a test flight of its latest stealth fighter. A move that said "Wake up, U.S. We're here!" China wants the world and especially the United States to see its big stick.
President Hu informed Gates that he wasn't aware of any test flights scheduled for that day and that may very well be true, but it doesn't change how the Chinese military feels. Their move may have been undiplomatic, but it spoke volumes about what they wanted from the US. Respect. Fear. Recognition of the legitimacy of the People's Republic of China as a global state with just as much power as the United States.

They've earned their keep. They aren't like us in a lot of ways, but they are successful. For that, we must give China credit and we must recognize them as a key player in the international world.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/12/world/asia/12fighter.html

Again I Go Unnoticed

When Tunisia's revolution began in approximately mid-December, hardly anyone knew about it. Only in retrospect can we recognize Mohamed Bouazizi's martyr death as the catalyst that tore apart the Middle East. Perhaps it's because Tunisia is smaller and the common world hardly saw it coming (in hindsight, everyone will say that they saw it coming, they predicted mass unrest and upheaval in these countries, but in all actuality, Egypt and Tunisia were a far cry from being hot topics before the end of January). Perhaps its because the United States does not have a long history of interaction with Tunisia or perhaps it is because it was simply the first of its kind. We did not know what domino effect the Tunisian uprise would have and so we ignored it because it did not affect us. 

Then Egypt came along and the world silenced itself to listen to what these people had to say. Why did we pay attention? We certainly did not at first, but after about a week of protests and suddenly every single cover story of the New York Times is about Egypt, about president Mubarak, about the Government, about what the US had to say concerning Egypt. CNN had a continuous stream of footage from Tahir square and we had no choice but to know about Egypt. We had to listen. 

And we wanted to be a part of it. Youtube linked to Al Jeezera (broadcasts from the Middle East). An invitation to join in the cause of human anger circulated Facebook (let's face it... though the invite increased awareness, who had the audacity to think that the average teenage facebook user could comprehend, much less empathize with the revolutions in Egypt? No, they "attended" that event because everyone else was doing it and because Egypt was a hot topic in the news). We were swept up in the euphoria of Egyptians taking back their country.

Today, the cover of the New York Times Cover features Obama and the US Budget, a piece on Bernie Madoff, an article about how the English are staying fat despite the fact that they said they wouldn't, and  a call to turn Egypt's internet back on. 

Currently, there are three additional countries revolting and the list grows longer every single day. Iran, Bahrain and Yemen were among the first to pick up their signs after Mubarak resigned and Egypt rejoiced. But Libya and Iraq were added just today. Yet, where are the 'breaking news' reports on any of these countries? Where are the page 1 NYT reports? The tweets? The Facebook statuses? the blog posts? 

Where has our conviction for human civility and equality gone? Did we lose our fire and passion for fair governments the same way we dropped last semester's obsession with freshman quarterback Jake Heaps? Quietly and quickly.

Suddenly it became passé to revolt. Everyone was doing it, so it simply was not popular anymore. 

This is not the newest winter season coat, this is a nation of people standing up for their rights. Governments all over the world are trembling in their boots, and its about time. 

Yet, hardly anyone cares anymore because protests, death and revolutions are old news. We've seen one and we simply do not have the capacity, the patience, nor the attention span for another. 

What are the implications of the media's lack of coverage and the American people's lack of interest? Will these people be silenced because no one was willing to listen?