Often, while I’m getting ready to go to work, I listen to a live, online broadcast of the day’s news put out by a relatively new media outfit called Russia Today. I like RT because their reporters frequently bring an interesting perspective to their stories. Plus, I once lived in Poland and have traveled a lot in central and eastern Europe, so I like to keep up with what’s going on in that part of the world.
A few mornings ago–I forget which day it was now–I was wandering around my apartment, buttoning up my shirt or brushing my teeth or doing whatever I happened to be doing at the moment, when RT aired a poignant report about Maria Mamzurina-Volkova, a septuagenarian Muscovite with an interesting connection to the small town of Kistelek in southern Hungary. The “Spiritual Mission” hook used to introduce her story was enough to draw me into my living room where I ended up taking a seat and watching the entire four-minute video, the very same one embedded here.
Immediately after seeing this story about “family duty”–that’s Volkova’s phrase–I composed an email to myself which included a link to the archived version of the report and then wrote, in the subject line of the message I was typing, the following: “My Next Savvy Blog.”
I can’t entirely put into words why I find this story so captivating. Maybe it’s because the protagonist reminds me so much of any number of indomitable women I’ve known during my own lifetime? Or, perhaps it’s because I feel that I’ve had my faith restored in humanity after watching this report? In this age of the short attention span, when it seems that just about everything has become expendable, here is a story about a very strong woman who refuses to forget or discard, and that, my friends, makes her very precious.
For additional information about Volkova, her brother, and her life’s mission, check out this story, from 2006, on Pravda.
I’m blogging my second Rocketboom video this week. It’s pretty self-explanatory, so I’ll let you go ahead and have a look.
Now, to get the full Mortified experience, check out these “Shoebox” clips. I recommend that you start with “Stairway to Winnipeg,” featuring Joanna Stein. I wanted to include that one here, but alas the site doesn’t allow individual samples to be embedded. I don’t want to give everything away before you’ve seen Stein do her thing. I will say this, though. After watching her musical “report,” I’ve found that I can’t get her “Stairway to Winnipeg” refrain out of my head.
At this point, I could take this blog any number of directions. I could talk about the genius of Dave Nadelberg’s concept. I could confess that I, too, have dozens of notebooks full of embarrassing juvenilia. Rather than exploring either one of those topics, though, I think I’ll discuss psychology.
Mortified works because it partners exhibitionists with voyeurs, and that’s a match made in heaven. (I want to be absolutely clear, though, that I’m not casting aspersions on either of those types by using those terms.) In fact, to be frank, I’ve got a little bit of the former (and the latter) in me. A lot of my writing is autobiographical and a touch confessional, and I also enjoy reading memoirs, especially those where the writer is willing to candidly engage in full self-disclosure.
I guess I’m trying to say that I find these sorts of performances to be my cup of tea.
This video reminded me of a trip I took several months ago to Dubai, the “Las Vegas” of the UAE and a city that has been in the news much of late, mostly because it has had money troubles and would have defaulted on a bunch of its financial obligations had not Abu Dhabi, the Emirates’ more sedate capital, come to the rescue. Anyway, on my way to Dubai, I had a brief stopover in Manama, Bahrain.
I wanted to blog this clip because I found the woman featured in it, the feisty Latifa Al Qari, to be the perfect poster child for the new breed of woman coming to power in the Persian Gulf. Most folks who’ve never been to “the Gulf” have this idea that all local women, those covered head to toe in abayas, are meek creatures who are afraid to voice an opinion and have had all of the ambition squeezed out of them by the culture. I think it’s hard to have such a stereotypical view of female Bahrainis (and Qataris and Emiratis and Omanis and Kuwaitis and so on) after watching this video.
Certainly women are discriminated against in the Gulf (and the Middle East in general). Also, it goes without saying that some women have unfortunately been utterly demoralized by their surroundings and the strict code of conduct that is often forced upon them in this part of the world. But this region is a funny place that defies oversimplifications. For every woman in the Middle East who has given up, there are several indomitable “Latifas.” I’ve seen them with my own eyes and had them as students in the classes I’ve taught during the ten years I’ve lived in the region.
The clip ends with Ms. Latifa declaring her love for Bahrain and talking about how she wants to play a role in helping the country thrive. After seeing her behind the wheel, it’s easy to believe that she’s on her way to making a pretty important contribution.
