There were a lot of women and girls at Bellco Theater to see Malala Yousfazai’s interview. Why weren’t there more men? I mean, I know she advocates for education for girls, but this should be a human rights issue, not a women’s issue.
We were really far away (and we paid $165 for our two tickets because of all the darn fees and stuff), but they had nice screens so we could alternate between looking at real Malala and screen Malala. It’s kind of hard to see her as a teenager because she wears a head covering and for some reason that always makes me perceive people as older.
I’m opening a new category called “Bullet Points”, because that’s how I think a lot of the time. There’s some psychology name for the wandering mind, the something model, but I can’t remember what it’s called and my Psyc. textbook is in the crawl space. It’s really bothering me. The psychology term for that is a tip-of-the-tongue experience. I remember something, at least.
- Malala says the U.S. should spend more on education, but should we? I don’t really know. It seems as if a lot is paid to education, but the system itself is messed up.
- Macro and micro levels of impact are different. They are the Malala Fund verses a teacher with twelve students in rural somewhere. Mamma says men are more inclined to focus on macro levels of aid, but women like the personal connection of micro levels of aid. Are both equally good?
- What is the end goal of micro aid? Is it to make an impoverished person well-off? What defines well-off? Is it to share the gospel? How much should one live with those to whom they preach?
- Power of knowledge. Knowledge of power. Knowledge is power
- Malala recounts how addressing a group of her peers at school after winning the Nobel Peace Prize was more terrifying to her than addressing the United Nations.
- I wonder, in fighting for education for everyone, are we injecting Western ideals into other cultures? Is it okay to inject our ideals? Do we aim for women in developing countries to be like Western women? I hope not. Looking across this theater of well-dressed business women, I don’t know if I’d want more countries as wealthy and snarky and liberal as this.
- Is it hard for Malala’s brothers to be in the shadow?
- Intellect is not dependent on grades. Malala gets 61% on tests, but she is obviously very well-spoken, very smart, very good at English, and influential on an intelligent (not movie star celebrity) level.
- How does one speak to the spectrum of those who don’t read or watch the news? (Like me?)
- Sitting in this interview is very much like watching the forty minute YouTube videos of interviews.
- The people who tried to hurt Malala actually made her stronger.
p.s. I don’t have a picture because the only one I took at the event was a selfie of my Mamma and I, but I don’t want to post our faces since the whole issue of internet privacy and stuff.
Cecilia Joy 