Intellectual Venting

I want to start off by saying that this post is going to go in a notably different direction than my previous posts.  I am going wrestle with my current thoughts on talking about international large-scale issues in relation to this blog on Haitian Adoption.

Last week, I went the United Nations as a NGO representative at the 54th Conference on the Status of Women. Women from all over the world were in attendance at the CSW. They discussed issues and met together in hopes of moving women forward in their communities.  While these women and I waited together in lines (of which there were plenty) or crowded into small rooms (where we would have to crowd into corners and sit on the floor) we would talk to one another. The conversations that I had with these women, these real women- mothers, lawyers, activists- really struck me. I was at the UN, a place where representatives of countries-at-large come together to pass resolutions and hopefully progress as entire nations, yet I was talking not to countries, but to individuals. Through these conversations, at this specific place, my general and abstract ideas about "other countries" were complicated by my immediate acknowledgement of the individuals behind them. It was made immediately obvious that when discussing Kenya I am actually discussing individual people and necessarily, in my generalization, leaving some out.

I suppose this realization- that real individual people are behind typical notions of Ethiopia, China, Afghanistan and so on- is basic common sense. It is something I have always been well aware of on some level or another. Yet, this truth is a complicated truth. It is a truth that goes both ways. For while abstract ideas of countries are ultimately composed of individuals, individuals are also deeply affected by their country. Or even more pointedly, a story of an individual can often mirror the larger story of a country. It is also a truth that is easily lost in the long processes surrounding international agreements. In bodies such as the UN a few delegates are charged with the task of representing the interests of hundreds of thousands of their fellow citizens. It becomes easier to think of Haiti as an abstract whole, not a body of individuals.

In all, I suppose I am trying to reconcile my understanding of the individual and the country. I know that they are deeply tied, but I wonder how accurately one can describe an societal issue from an individual point of view or vice versa.  How does one discuss "Haitian Adoption" without losing sight the individual or how well can one ascertain a more encompassing truth about Haiti through a singular focus on an individual adopted from Haiti?

I think that these two views cannot be separated and I am still not sure of the implications of this connection for my life, but I  know that I do want to be more aware of these intricacies in my understanding of the world and in my writing. I want make an effort not overgeneralize my sentiments toward and descriptions of countries. I want to not draw too much out of an individual's story, but I also want to be aware of the greater picture surrounding that individual. I want to remember what I learned at the UN: that the picture isn't as simple as it seems.