2021
May
06
Thursday

Monitor Daily Podcast

May 06, 2021
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Joshua Nelson worked hard to get into college.

The senior at St. Charles West High School has excellent grades and is a three-year varsity basketball player, a huddle leader for Fellowship of Christian Athletes, a member of the National Society of Black Engineers, president of his school’s Multicultural Achievement Committee, and a tutor at the Boys & Girls Clubs of St. Charles County.

So, it’s not too surprising that last week he was awarded a full ride to Southeast Missouri State University on a president’s scholarship.

But as impressive as that may be, it’s the 18-year-old’s response to getting the scholarship that’s turning heads. He’s now giving away the $1,000 he’d saved for college. Mr. Nelson is setting up a scholarship for one of his classmates. And he’s inviting others to match his gift.

Talk about acing the character test. At his age, I could always find a way to spend $1,000 – on my car, my girlfriend, a ski trip, etc. Not Mr. Nelson. He’s the student who teaches by example. A young man who already understands that you gain the most by giving. 

“Honestly, it makes me feel on top of the world,” he told KSDK-TV in St. Louis. “The fact that I can just help somebody a little bit makes me feel great, and I really want to see other people succeed.”


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Today’s stories

And why we wrote them

The Trump loyalty test continues to play a key role in the Republican Party, and that allegiance appears to be based on a foundation of falsehoods. 

Courtesy of Get2College
A Get2College drive-thru at Meridian Community College in Meridian, Mississippi, helps students and their families file federal financial aid applications, in February 2021. "We've been pushing hard ... to say we cannot let the class of 2021 get left behind," says program director Ann Hendrick.

Do you want fries with that FAFSA form? Our reporter finds colleges are battling inequality by trying new, creative ways to encourage parents and students to apply for financial aid.

Patterns

Tracing global connections

The Biden administration promises a foreign policy based on morals – protecting human rights and political freedoms, for example. But as our columnist observes, North Korea and Afghanistan suggest the limits of that approach.

Photos courtesy of Des-bordando Feminismos
In late February 2021, a network for feminist embroiderers put out a call on its Instagram account @desbordandofeminismos, inviting followers to send in photos of their embroidery showing the challenges women confront across Latin America, and the rallying cries they wanted the world to see on International Women's Day. Clockwise from upper left: "I'm screaming" (Uruguay), "My voice exists" (Peru), "Let them say your name" (Chile), "We are no longer alone" (Argentina), "I exist because I resist" (Mexico), and "I will resist" (Chile).

Our reporter talks to women who counter expectations about their graceful and delicate needlecraft. Yes, it’s still beautiful, but in their stitches are words of defiance, protests against violence, and demands for progress.

In Pictures

Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff
“Dancing Pumpkin” is part of the exhibition “Kusama: Cosmic Nature,” which celebrates the work of Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, at the New York Botanical Garden.

Art can give us a different perspective on nature and ourselves. In this photo essay, we see whimsy, joy, and vibrancy in the works of Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama.


The Monitor's View

Reuters
Yazidi women weave wool at a carpet factory in Dohuk, Iraq.

Over four decades, the people of Iraq have experienced four wars. The last one was against the Islamic State group (ISIS) between 2014 and 2019. Now a struggling democracy, Iraq recently became a world leader in trying a new concept in ensuring peace. It is restoring the dignity of thousands of survivors of sexual violence.

In March, Iraqi lawmakers voted to compensate women and girls, mainly from the Yazidi religious minority, who were enslaved, raped, and sold by ISIS. These survivors will soon start to receive a plot of land, housing, education, and a quota for jobs in government. The legal status of children born of rape will also be addressed. The reparations are designed to heal individual trauma, reintegrate the survivors into society, and address any social stigma from their experience.

The peace part of the Yazidi Survivors Law lies in turning disgrace into grace. It assists survivors in trading an impression of victimhood for a renewal of their lives – fostering a message that wartime rape does not change someone’s inherent value. The compensation, said Iraqi President Barham Salih, “helps them to achieve the social and economic life that befits them.”

Most gender-based violence during a conflict is aimed at stigmatizing an entire people. Examples are happening now with reports of mass rape in Ethiopia’s attack on Tigray province, Boko Haram’s frequent kidnappings of Nigerian girls, and China’s repression of the Uyghurs. In its attempt to establish a religious caliphate, ISIS tried to either kill or enslave the Yazidi people in northern Iraq along with Christian, Turkmen, and Shabak minorities.

Remove the stigma of sexual violence and it may become less a weapon of war. That idea has steadily grown in international campaigns against wartime rape. The world’s attention on sexual violence in conflicts really began in the 1990s after the Rwanda and Bosnian wars. In 2000, the United Nations acknowledged rape had become a tool of warfare. International courts began to prosecute such crimes. 

By 2008, the U.N. began to focus on preventing rape. In 2018, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to two campaigners against sexual violence in conflicts. One of them, Nadia Murad, is a former captive of ISIS.

Two years ago, the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution that places the rights and needs of survivors first. Iraq’s new law shows how much global thinking has shifted, not only away from the notion that wartime rape is inevitable, but also toward a respect for the dignity of survivors, who can help lead the way on the path of lasting peace.


A Christian Science Perspective

About this feature

Each weekday, the Monitor includes one clearly labeled religious article offering spiritual insight on contemporary issues, including the news. The publication – in its various forms – is produced for anyone who cares about the progress of the human endeavor around the world and seeks news reported with compassion, intelligence, and an essentially constructive lens. For many, that caring has religious roots. For many, it does not. The Monitor has always embraced both audiences. The Monitor is owned by a church – The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston – whose founder was concerned with both the state of the world and the quality of available news.

At times, safety can seem precarious. But in God there’s a powerful basis for protection, as a woman experienced when two young men began to assault her in a remote area.


A message of love

Oliver Pinel/AP
Fishing vessels gather off the English Channel island of Jersey, May 6, 2021. French fishermen have been protesting off Jersey after authorities imposed new requirements to fish in island waters. The dispute has drawn in Britain, France, and the European Union, as fishing rights have been a touchy subject around Brexit.
( The illustrations in today’s Monitor Daily are by Jacob Turcotte. )

A look ahead

Thanks for joining us. Come back tomorrow: We’re working on a story about the U.S. waiving the intellectual property rights of vaccine makers, a change that may allow more production of COVID-19 vaccines.

More issues

2021
May
06
Thursday

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