Talk:God Grew Tired of Us

John Dau's advice on life

Having had the opportunity to hear John Dau speak in person, I want to pass on this advice on Dinka culture, and what we can learn from it. He said that culture is important, and if you do not have a culture, and do not preserve it and pass it on, you are nothing. It is good to take the best parts of a new culture, to incorporate them into your life, and to keep and share the important parts of your own culture.

In the Denka culture, John says that one's name and honor are important, that you would not do something that is bad because others would see you do it, and would say 'there is John Dau, his family must be bad, he is doing a bad thing' or would say 'those people from that place are bad, look at what the man from that place is doing' or 'the Denka are bad people: see the things that they do'.

He says that all children belong to everyone, that if a Denka child is doing something wrong, and you see it, you must instruct the child, make him stop doing the wrong thing, and if the child's parents come and you are disciplining the child, they would say "Thank you for correcting my child, for helping my child"

This is one of the good things that this person, who walked a thousand miles through the wilderness when he was a boy, while caring for and helping other young boys younger than him offers you as part of his culture. This man, who at the age of 13, after a 5 year ordeal of escaping genocide, was put in charge of 2500 other boys, 'because he is very tall' and who took as part of his duties there, the task of burying other young boys who had died of starvation... this man offers this advice, to do only good things, so as not to discredit your people.

The rest of the world averted their eyes to the genocide, where women were raped, and men were shot, or cut, or had their testicles pierced with needles to prevent them from becoming fathers ...

Here at wikipedia, we argued over whether the use of the word genocide was NPOV....

... and after these lost boys rescued themselves and each other, they lived for years in refugee camps, eating a small cup of corn gruel daily, except twice a month, going without that meagre food for 4-5 days when the food ran out -- days they called 'dark days' because there were no cooking fires.

Imagine how much difference just a little bit of help would have made, or still could make to those still starving in the camps.

And during this ordeal, John Dau, instead of feeling pity for his own plight, organized a 'parliament' among his fellow countrymen... not a political body per se but a gathering of people to talk and to listen to each other's ideas. To organise themselves and to share with each other their thoughts, and to build a community.

After coming to America, he worked at several jobs, sending money to those he left behind. He located his mother, and brought her here. He helps to keep his community of refugees united, even though they are becoming dispersed around the U.S. and in other parts of the world.

This man has given us some good advice, and I felt obligated to share it with you. User:Pedant 19:15, 12 January 2007 (UTC)