Iago Four

SCARLET AND BLACK

 

Return to Grinnell — Culture Shock

By LYNN ADAMS

"Henry James should have
been a Buddhist!” Grinnell is a
culturally shocking place, tull
ul people bent on making sepa-
rations; Beverly Korstad ilnds
ti strange. She has physically
come back from the Global
semester, but has not yet com-
pleted the process of mentally
returning to the Western World.

Four more Grinnellians have
also been on the Global Semes-
ter: Charlie Martin, Martha
nerkey, Kaye nandtord, and
Rama Hanson. The semester
was offered by St. Olal. and
lasted lrom August through
January. Throughout the trip
they studied religions. In Ethi-
opia there was a course in So-
ciology; in India, Economics;
in Thailand, Education; in
’apan, art.

The first day I saw her. Bev
was occasionally tonguetied be-
cause she had been speaking
Japanese; she lelt awkward
with her silverware at dinner.
A day later, she told episodes
or the past live months in Ethi-
lrpia, India. Thailand a nd
Iapan.

Guru Friend

Beverly's guru, Mahesh Nai-
Ihani, in Allahabad, India,
probably made the deepest im-
pression on her. He is twenty-
]wo, and wears his hair down
to his shoulders as a way or
sacrificing good looks.

Mahesh and Beverly scan-
dahzed Allahabad by going out:
together in a bullock cart, or
on a scooter, or on a boat in
the Ganges, where Bev attrach
ed a crowd of small boats by
playing her guitar. The scandal
was that dating is not done.

Mehesh’s remarkable letters
give some idea oi what it is to
find an lndian guru.

“Beverly, you have written
that you don’t know what you
want in life, Do not let this
problem become the problem.

1 will explain you how. What
happens — one day man in his
nightmare climbs up the moun-
tom and reaches in the hilltop.
Suddenly, dawn — morning —
he wakes up — but now he can»
not do anything. He cannot go
back. Don‘t let your nightmare
(unawareness) take you too far.

“You must try and control
your primitive desire of living
in the present.”

Curriculum of Adventure

The students’ curriculum was
their explorations. Bev says one
needs Mahesh's idealism when
the dead and dying are so com-
monly to be seen. The students
round villages in Thailand en-
tirely devoted to umbrella-mama
ing, one tor lepers, one tor
weavers. in a mountain village
in Cambodia they were met by
a little boy wearing a Doubled)
Seven sweatshirt. Batman dolls
are sold at the fair. Bev the
“hog” (loreigner), didn't know
what kind of ride she was tak-
ing at that lair. They took her
through the nudie show twice.

Planes flew over Thailand on
their missions. No one could be
sure just what the American
servicemen they met were do
lng; Bev felt they were point-
edly vague.

Bey remembers foods: in
Ethiopian homes, Injura and
wat, or grey bread and meat
sauce, dipped with the lingers,
and Ethiopian honey beer,
called Tej. In India the sweets
with tail - one was expected
to eat the rail to help digestion.
One never asked where the
milk and eggs came from. In
Japan it was fried rice and
water buffalo (more tender than
Saga beef).

The girls wore saris to class
in india, with scarves around
their necks and shoulders; they
soon learned that it was scan—
dalous to appear hare—legged.
Bev laughs about one intimate
occasion when an lndian girl

 

lSUMMARIES!

Up with Eaton‘s Corrasable Bond Typewriter Paper!

An ordinary pencil eraser picks up
cry Imudge, every mistake.The special
tullace treatment lets you erase
without a trace. ll Eaton's Corrasable '
leaves your papers impeccably neat,
what are you waiting tor? Get it in light
medium, heavy weights and Onion
Skin. in loorsheet packets and 500 ,
gheet ream boxes. At Stationery Stores ,
and Departments.

Only Eaton makes CorrssableP

IAYON’S COIIASAILE BOND TYPEWIITER PAPER

baton Paper Company,

litslield, Massachusetts 01201

made the daring suggestion,
“Since we are all girls, let’s
take off our scarves."

In Thailand one does not show
the bottom of one’s foot. That
is equivalent to giving someone
the finger. In Ethiopia it is in-
decent exposure to show one'l
armpit. It is considered very
rude there to rcluse to drink
when one visits a home.

During a bus trip through
rural Ethiopia, villages of tu-
kul, mud huts with grass roots,
they met Claude, a French ex-
plorer, who was a rough Rich-
ard Burton sort, wearing ele-
phant-ear bracelets. When he
told them about the loss hi hi:
lriends, eaten by alligators,
they realized that they were
really in Africa.

Among the holy men that Bev
law in India were those that;
were pails on their heads. Holy
men can roll their stomachs in
such a way as to massage all
their organs, They may clean
their stomachs by swallowing a
long strip at gauze and pulling
it out. But more important than
such curiosities is the underly-
ing idea that purity of body
creates purity of mind. The
westerners learned that they
could not imitate many of the
favored exercises of lha Asians
simply because they were not
small and iimbcr.

Varlety ot Soclai Nor-ml
and Laws

60 to 90% of tho marriages in
Ethiopia end in divorce because
marriages are arranged when
the people are very young.
Traditional Christian concepts
(in this Christian African na-
tion) give way to new civil
divorce customs, such as you-
take - yours - and - t . take -
mine, or i - owe - you - so a
much - money ~ for - each -
year - we - were - together.
The result is that middle-aged.
divorced women in great num-
bers are lorced to become pros-
titutes. It also explains why the
important men were available
[0 date the coeds.

In the criminal law of Ethi-
opia, unlike the American sys.
tem or guilty or not guilty,
there are ten degrees of guilt,

Friday. February 7. '96!

Glick Attends Mobilization Meeting
War Goes On—Resisionce Continues

By TED GLICK

The writing of an article on
(he Mobilization In Washington
sponsored by Clergy and Laya
men Concerned About Vietnam
is like a woman paying an indil-
ferent stranger to breast leed
her child so that this mother can
particiate in some other activity.
The baby receives the nourish-
ment but does not receive the
feeling ol the love and the care
which should go along with the
reading of the child. in like man-
ner, I can write down what hap
pened in Washington, but 1 don‘t
know if I am capable, in written
lomi, oi getting across the spirit
and the leeiing which i lelt very
strongly throughout the Mobili~
zation. For this reason I am
going to simply try to give an

dependent upon the living situ-
ation ol the accused: a monk,
n pauper, a child, and one with
a feeble mind each have lesser
guilt. The system assumes de-
terminism, and Ethiopians do
not regard crime as harmful to
society. Rather it is something
to be equalized by revenge or
blood-money.

Lile imprisonment in India is
quite nice: each night and each
day count as a day, so one may
finish one's lile imprisonment
in half the time.

80% or North Thailand girls
become prostitutes; it is not
considered particularly undesir-
able there. Shack-up garages
are available for $5.00, as one
or the Global semester girls
lound out, unexpectedly. Fortu-
nately the man, a relative of
the famous King of Siam, cared
that she might report him to
the Embassy. He expected her
to act like American movie
heroines.

The impressionistic kind of
telling Bev has given me ro-
veais the semester, and the
significance oi it. which is too
global to be allrofrarpiece.

 

Your roommate
cant sleep

in the Clark?

Think it over; over coffee.

The-Think Drink.

Vlry'wovmvhmb own on. send m m yaw mm. an addict] or
1hlrlADIi/lltNul.chl w.r.o.ao.sott.w..rs.t;~ V.Ino“,1h.lnwmliumltenuous/null».

idea ol what happened in Wash-
ington, in the hope that this will
interest you enough to come to
discuss the ideas of the Mobili-
zation Monday at 4:00 pm. in
South lounge. There I will talk-
in as much or a question and
answer and discussion-type lor-
mat as possible.

The type ot indivldual present
at the Mobilization can best but
shown by this short list of sums
of those involved: Sen. McGov-
ern, William Sloane Collin, Sen.
Hatlield, Mrs. Martin Luther
King, Marcus Raskin (organizer
of the New Party), David nan
rls (launder ol the West Coast
Resistance and one of the lirst
draft card returners), and Joan
Baez Harris. Add to these the
leaders of the American Friends
Service Comm., the Fellowship
nl Reconciliation, the Resist-
ance, National Council or
Churches, SANE, Episcopal
Peace Fellowship, not to men-
tion the top quality protessors
who were present, and perhaps
one can sense the leeling that
was generated. This feeling, a
mixture oi concern, an intense
desire for knowledge, a difficult-
:odescribe leeling ol being ol
the same spirit and will, and
pervaded in every moment with
love and compassion lor the up
pressed and each other was a
most moving and effective force.

what was covered at this

Mobilization? Basically there
were three areas which was

examined: Vietnam and our

similar iorelgn policy in other
countries, the economics of the
growlng role or the military-
lndustrial - education complex,
and limit repeal, dratt Resi
lame, and amnesty tor politi-
cal prisoners and military
deserters opposed to our for
eign policy.

in as brier a form as possible,
the main taots brought lorth
these: (1) The war is not over.
The killing and the maimlng
continue. There Can be no i’e~
laxation among the members ol
the Peace movement. On a big
sign posted over the speakers
stand was this message: “You
think the War is over ——- US.
News and World Report Jan. 27,
1969 in Vietnam today — 537,000.
by Dec. '59—475,000, By Dec. '70
450,000, by Dec. ’71—200,000.
(2) The U.S. is involved, in many
third world countries, in exactly
the same actions as those of the
early Vietnam war (in Guate-
mala, Bolivia Thailand, Peru,
and others) that is, we are
supplying military arms and ad-
vlsors to suppress any truly dem-
ocratic movement and we sup-
port governments which are
basically running the country as
an oligarchy. (3) The military
budget will, unless there can be
massive pressure and r(R)esis-
tance, increase alter (7) the War
ends (which will probably not
occur lot at least three years).
(4) The draft and conscription
have to either be done away
with completely (since this
where the Pentagon gets its
manpower and intluence) or
there has to be a nation-wide-
program oi dralt resistance. not
just an increase in c.o.s but a

‘ MOBILIZATION—-
Continued on Page ii, column I