CURRENTS07: A BLOG IN THE FORM OF AN E-MAIL

I HAVE BEEN TOLD THAT MY E-MAIL UPDATES TO THE EXECUTIVES HAVE BEEN INFORMATIVE SO I HAVE DECIDED TO SHARE THE LATEST ONE ON MY BLOG……enjoy, I hope ☺

Hello Les,

Two amazing port cities and programs have passed us by and we arrive in Hong Kong tomorrow. A quick update. Malaysia was initially a huge concern because a few days before our arrival the selected school in Penang cancelled on us. Initially the very enthusiastic teacher had confirmed the schools participation only to have the Headmaster cancel last minute as he felt it was too political...having the students discuss Islam and what it really means to be a Muslim, with their counterparts in the US. So GNG headed straight to Malaysia’s Science University....a sprawling beautiful campus in Penang. The dean was quite surprised by our unannounced entrance and presentation, especially when he heard the first broadcast was to take place the next day! He was most appreciative of our work and mission, and granted us permission. Anyway this was probably our most successful program to date. Not only were the 20 Malaysian Muslims all incredibly articulate but the girls, whom I had thought might be a little quieter than the boys, proved to be much more outgoing and comfortable discussing Islam. We had an amazing professor Dr. Zailan Morris, head of Islamic studies, joined by Dr. Mary Keller from SAS, participate in the last conference. Many students and professors attended all three. The second conference, about 12 of Dr. Rohweder’s students attended and spent the whole of the next day on a private tour of Penang with their new found friends. They were raving about this experience and two of the SAS students have said they will share, via an essay, their experience. I will send this when they do so.

Vietnam was a difficult one, in that we had technical issues with the vc unit at the US consulate! We were lucky to have about 20 SASers (mainly professors, their families and staff) come and even though this first conference did not connect with youth in the US, we turned it into a live face-to-face with SASers and the Vietnamese students laughed and really had fun. We conducted a remote broadcast the next day from a park that included about 15 SAS students mainly from Dr. Rohweder’s class. They participated in the live conference with about 20 Vietnamese students and the discussion went really well. We focused mainly on culture but religion was discussed towards the end with some odd moments that held testament to the still (granted better than even some years ago) rather taboo subject of religion.

Two days ago, amongst stiff competition from 4 other events, we aired our GNG Rwanda Alive documentary. It is about a young girl, Ingrid, who enlightens the viewer to the awful Genocide that took place when she was 6 years old, but with a very powerful positive message. The 20 people that joined the GNG team were touched by it and we discussed the film afterwards.

We plan to air two more documentaries on Iraq sometime before our arrival to Hawaii as well as a screening of the mini-docs we have created in each port city.

Great news, Larry and I had a meeting with the Archbishop and he has agreed to be involved in a live broadcast from the ship right after our arrival in Hawaii, Monday morning, 7th of May. The idea is to involve about 15 SAS students. Students whom the Archbishop would like to participate with and students who were involved with the GNG port city programming. Our thoughts are to a) have the Archbishop talk about the importance of young people around the world communicating with each other and b) have the SAS students share their amazing SAS experience.

Greetings to everyone,
Mark

Dr. Zailan Morris presenting Islam to youth across the US