I am responding to Sarah's display at the url she cited. I knew Sarah
wanted to express something of her delight in working with Dean Tian and
colleagues through email in the last two years and in person with Dean Tian
and Gao Qin over the last few weeks. She told me she'd be working on
something and it would be a celebration of her contact with our Chinese
colleagues. The photographs in particular of my two colleagues, are a joy.
I love to see the happy openness of people enjoying their conversations
together, when it seems to me the boundaries such as they can be perceived,
dissolve in intercultural harmonies. That's what I liked most about the
pictures. A sense of us being together as we, rather than lots of I's, if
you know what I mean. How relaxed everyone looks. It's so important to see
such images, rather than imagining or simply hearing about them. The smiles
and facial expressions of my colleagues now adorn my desktop, 5000 miles
away from 'home'!
Sarah, you are helping me to see the value of photography as a profound
expression and explanation of what we are doing in education, why we are
doing it, and what it means to be doing it in today's world. I couldn’t
have believed only a year ago, that my esteemed colleagues could be coming
to England, that we could consolidate our learning in physical proximity. I
kept having to pinch myself to recognise the fact they really were there
with us.
I am thinking as I write, of the further attacks in London yesterday, of a
reality which denies those 'values of humanity' we (think I can say that)
would all like to be held accountable to. I work with people from mixed
religious backgrounds in a developing country. I don't quite know what it
means to say that, but I know it means something very profound. I want to
keep working with people together, to form 'we', so that we might do
something to promote the values which give life, not take it away, the
values that love and don't hate, the values that speak to our souls, if you
like. That's what I want, and seeing Sarah's pictures bring that world just
a little closer for me. The future is a different country: we do things
better there. Thank you, Sarah.
Now, if you'll forgive me, just a couple of small points. I was wondering
about the context for this presentation. The pieces about me don't strike
me as being necessary and may actually be unhelpful. I have two reasons for
saying that:
a) I want the work my colleagues and I have been doing over the past four
years of sustained commitment, to have an increasing publicity according to
their achievements, rather than any sense of past reliance on an
international volunteer. My organisation (VSO) promotes sustainable
development. I won't deny the part I've played in the initial impetus and
subsequent development of this innovation: why would I? I'm proud of it.
However, I'm not sure that the background material about my early
impressions, for example, or the bit about Chinese characteristics, which
Dean Tian writes about in our AR expeditions article, is now what is needed
in terms of building a sense of a home-grown sustainable development. The
past is an historical part of the AR Centre's growth of course, but I don't
feel comfortable with its inclusion, because we've reached a new stage now.
This isn't modesty on my part - I know the value of my work - but for the
reasons given above, partly political, partly personal, I'm not at ease
with this aspect of the presentation.
b) Some of the comments aren't annotated, which I think detracts from the
sense of overall context. I'd like to see an explanation (if you think this
is appropriate - but the fact I sense something's needed, suggests I may
not be the only one) of what part you are playing in the development of
this work. I think the role you've carved out for yourself is implied, but
I don't feel it may be clear enough for others to follow.
Warm regards, and thanks Sarah,
Moira xx
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