Review 547: Beyond the White House

Beyond the White House: Waging Peace, Fighting Disease, Building Hope by Jimmy Carter
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

With the recent passing of former President Jimmy Carter I figured it was a good time to read one of the books I’ve had sitting on my shelf for awhile unread. This book was a good introduction to the work Carter and his wife Rosaylnn has been doing through the past several decades, and it is remarkable work.

The first chapter is a bit of an eye opener at the state of the Carter’s affairs after leaving the President’s office. They had to remove themselves from his farming business during his term and what had been a lucrative business free of debt was now over $1million dollars in debt. So he was broke. Plus needed to raise funds for a Presidential library, and left the office as an unpopular person. He decided to not use his experience for an monetary gain, but instead to be benevolent or work in some non-profit way. This became the impetus for starting The Carter Center.

The Carter Center has several aims and goals, which basically come down to improving people’s lives, particularly in impoverished areas. The book covers some of the work they have been involved in since the founding of the center. It’s quite impressive.

The list is long: such as being mediators in war zone areas, preventing or stopping wars, overseeing and helping democracy in areas previously run by dictators, trying to eradicate the overlooked diseases in poor nations, not to mention human rights, women’s equality and much more. Due to the amount of work and the many different countries Carter has worked in, the book feels more like a summary instead of a detailed account.

Or course, this work was not done by Jimmy Carter alone. There were many people that helped, interns at the Center, doctors that lead the charge in helping with the diseases, and partnering with Emory University. But his name and position has helped tremendously in some areas and places, allowing him access where others would be denied, or it would take much longer to get to a point of talking with other leaders.

An informative book about a remarkable man. Too bad more ex-Presidents would take his lead as an example of what that clout can do. Thankfully Carter had a long life and was able to make a lasting change in many people’s lives.

Review 487: The Forest People

The Forest People: A Study of the Pygmies of the Congo by Colin M. Turnbull
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book has been in my life since I can remember, sitting on a bookshelf. When I was very young my parents took some classes at the local college and this was required reading. When I got older the book somehow migrated to my personal bookshelves. Safe to say this will be the oldest book I owned unread until now.

I expected this to be a dry academic book but was pleasantly surprised that is not the case. This is a very readable, well written book.

The author, Colin Turnbull, lives with the Pygmies in Congo for many years. They are his friends, they accept him as one of them, and let him observe all of their rituals and ways of living, even sometimes going outside of tradition. This book is of how they lived their lives and how they interact with the villagers nearby that work plantations.

They are called Forest People, as that is their home, their life and it contrasts to the villagers who are afraid of the forest, who would rather cut it down than live within it. The people Turnbull lives with are the BaMbuti who live in the Ituri Forest. The villagers and BaMbuti live symbiotic lives, the villagers tend to believe they “own” certain Pygmies, but this is truly not the case. The relationship is more complicated. The BaMbuti know how to hunt and get meat, which the villagers are not skilled at, so the rely on the BaMbuti for this and in return they are given other types of food that is grown on the plantations. Sometimes the villagers need extra labor to help with he planation and if willing some BaMbuti will help out his “master”, but he cannot be forced to do so. There are some rituals the villagers want the BaMbuti to carry out in certain times, such as in marriages, for a death, or for the ceremonies when the children are adults. If it suits the BaMbuti they will go along with these rituals, but a village wedding is not accepted until the man gives meat to his in-law family.

The BaMbuti are generally a happy people, and sing seemingly all the time. Of course certain songs are sung for particular ceremonies. One of the strangest ceremony is the with the molimo, an trumpet but also a ceremony to the forest. The molimo cannot be seen by women, so it comes out of hiding from the forest and played when all the women and children are inside their huts for the night. The men dance and sing all night, or nearly, until the early hours when they get a few hours sleep before being awaken by the molimo from the younger bachelors. This ceremony goes on for weeks or months, until the elders believe the forest is happy again and they can hide the molimo away. The one used here ends up being a long steel pipe about fifteen feet long. Turnbull is surprised by this, thought it would be a bamboo trumpet elaborately carved but was told this one sounded good. Besides wood rots and then you’d need to make another one. What counted was the sound it made.

There’s so much more to say, but these notes are getting long. It was a fascinating book, glad I finally took the time to read it after all these years.

Initial quick review:

Was quite surprised at how readable this book is. This book has been in my life since I can remember, sitting on a bookshelf. When very young my parents took some classes at the local college and this was required reading. When I got older the book somehow migrated to my personal bookshelves. I expected it to be a dry academic book but it is entirely not that.

I will like to say more about this book, but going to leave it here for a moment.