"Third World"

So I do have to apologize for my delayed postings. I have to say, this class is truly exercise for your brain. The last two weeks, I've left the class mind boggled but yet learned a lot about myself and others.

"Third World"

This term stuck out to me during the last lecture on re(presentation) because first of all I didn't know that the term came from the Cold War Era (most newly independent countries didn't want to associate themselves with neither capitalism nor socialism rather non-aligned with neither--therefore were called the Third World countries; it just happened to be that these developing countries were poor).

So as I was listening about when we re(present) something we take out or leave out something about what we are presenting. So I tried to think about how I present myself and my culture to others. I am Rwandese by blood, although I claim Kenya and the United States. You see, I was born in Rwanda, moved to Kenya after a year, lived in Kenya for about ten years and now I live in the United States...you can see how my eager yearn for cultural understanding comes into play.
People would automatically say I am Rwandese because I was born there, although I do not know anything about Rwanda other than the knowledge my parents have passed on to me or what I have read or seen. Others would say I am Kenyan since I was raised there and know the language but it is hard to consider myself as Kenyan since I am not a native to the country. Then others would say I'm American or rather "americanized" because of perhaps my presentation and having lived here for most of my adult life but I know that even being influenced by the American culture, I am not American.

Recently I've come into understanding the wholistic approach to what exactly I am and what about my culture will I pass on? This can be a scary thought considering that even the culture my parents passed down to us was lost because of their (re) introducing it to us. So I have to embrace this new culture that has been made for me....I am in a sense a third culture kid; I neither belong to this group nor that one. In a sense, I have the best of Three worlds.