Intro

Through popular demand I have been called to write a blog.

For the next two months I have been afforded a fantastic opportunity. A preliminary thanks should go out to the International Officers at Northeastern University for securing me a visiting scholar visa in a remarkably short amount of time. To avoid this sounding like an Oscar speech, I invite you to watch this instead. Tissues may be required ( I managed, just).

Some press coverage of the Program's success can be found here. 

A couple of FAQs to cover first:

(1) How did I find this? 

A Google search, a speculative enquiry and an attached cover letter and CV. This is the second summer I have spent working abroad after going off the beaten track (as opposed to haring after a legal placement at home) and there is little to invalidate the old world/oyster cliche by showing strong academic/extra curricular ability, which most people I know are capable of, and a genuine interest. And nope, the Program pays expenses and provides accommodation at Southern University, Baton Rouge, suitably located on the banks of the Mississippi.  .

(2) Why am I doing this?

If you haven't already, watch the first link above. A quote springs to mind: 'All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing'. Now for the negative part. At some point in your lives you may encounter a wrongful situation and stand next to alone whilst it is allowed to fester in its petri-dish conditions of facilitation, lying and by-standing. Instead of solidarity, survival kicks in, and supposed good, intelligent people follow the path of least resistance, and may prosper, leaving a stark, perverse notion: 'why weren't you 'strong' enough to turn a blind eye too?' The world turns and nothing appears to change.  

It can be argued that this 'sort' of feeling, as the very lowest common denominator, featured in the individual stories like those told above that accumulated into the overwhelming mass of injustice suffered by African American minorities in the United States throughout the 20th century. Nevertheless, some of the individual stories that I've read so far are truly horrific; I can't imagine being part of them. As the sun is inevitably setting on generations of victims and witnesses, it is perhaps a small consolation that this sort of work provides some redress to those who simply had to watch the world turn, for a very long time. Of course, it's not 'my pain', but I feel I can help alleviate it.

And now the positive part!

I had long dreamed of travelling to the Deep South, including Louisiana and especially New Orleans. A lot of people who have never been, myself included, have a heavily romanticised vision, fuelled by literature, music, sport and Hollywood, hence the pungent cheese of my chosen blog title. Anyone who I have met who has in fact been has confirmed it is exactly like it! Being greeted at Baton Rouge airport by a blast of oven temperature air and eternal ambient chorus of crickets in the tall grass provided a tingle of excitement as I stumbled after 16 hours of flights into a taxi to my hotel for the night.

This sort of opportunity will hopefully enable me to be immersed head first in it all, by being thrown into the heart of local communities in a truly 'live' project aimed to truly benefit others as opposed to insular self-congratulation. I hope to provide a deluge of photographs of food, locations and people, with plenty of my own attempts at wit and the wit of others peppered in...