Essay not writing, like social notworking (howies)

Despite having lots of time on my hands I have still managed to procastinate enough to ensure that the essay I need to write remains unwritten. I teach for 2hrs a day so have only about 3hrs a day of required activity (planning the sessions, going there and back to the class). The worst part of all of this is that I have been thinking non stop about the issues raised by my essay title since I got here. I am supposed to critically evaluate the idea of cultural relativism versus universality when it comes to human rghts. To the uninitiated this is a fancy way of saying can we have rights that apply to everyone or do some rights only apply to certain people in certain places because of their local culture? This is a catch-22 argument when it comes to human rights as they are supposed to be both universal and pay attention to local customs!

In some ways I do think that people are people wherever they are in the world and that they should be entitled to basic human rights, 'by virtue of their humanity'. Take for instance the number of young males in Nablus driving modified cars. Yes a Yugo with a huge bonnet vent and racing seats is truly a sight to behold but the attitudes towards car modification- alloy wheels, bodykits, stickers are the same as in the UK. Just the cars are different, the young men are the same in terms of their attitudes.

The class I taught today was nothing to shout about. Last time I had 3 and this time 9 in body and probably 7 in mind. Just like at home some tried hard, some didn't. Some were interested and paying attention and some were clearly bored and not paying attention. My lack of Arabic language skills is really starting to frustrate me now. I feel that I have learnt most of what I can from the often superficial way I am interacting with people by talking in English. I have reached a barrier because I don't have the ability to confront people or challenge what they might be saying and when things have to be translated from Arabic to English the sense of the moment has gone. I also get the sense that the workers in the shops that I have visited on all three trips are starting to despair at my lack of progress in terms of my ability to communicate with them. Having spent 9 weeks of the last 52 here, almost 20% of my time during the last year this is very understandable. I would like to explore the city much more on my own but when I am alone I don't speak to anyone other than in a few words of English or very broken Arabic.

Being here for a third time does have some advantages though. The first time I was here I was in a daze and in awe of everything around me. I can see things much more clearly now and can compare the summer with being here at Easter. Being here now I seem to see children everywhere. I don't know if this is just because of the time I usually decide to go for a wander around the city or whether during the summer the children are elsewhere. I also notice a more work like atmosphere. The summer when the schools are out appears to be a time of winding down for everyone.

I am as guilty as anyone of talking about 'the Palestinians' as if they are one large homogenous group when clearly they are not. Today I learnt that it is prisoners day on Thursday. An annual gathering and show of solidarity. The guy who told me about this obviously believed it to be of great significance whilst someone else said they should be fighting not holding meetings. That's the problem when it comes to culture relativism. Rarely is it that case that all of the people in a given culture want the same things and even rarer that all are able to articulate their opinions about what the society wants. It is usually the powerful who do this. They speak for everyone else.

I will probably leave Nablus on Friday and stay in Jerusalem on Friday night. Friday is like Sunday here and everyone will be gone so there is little point sticking around. Also travelling from here to Jerusalem one day then Jerusalem to Tel Aviv the day after will help to break the trip up a bit. I am hoping to meet up on Thursday evening with the class I spent my last day in Nablus with during the summer. It will be nice to see them all again before I go back and a good end to my trip. If I return here again I think it will be to stay with a friend and I know I am very unlikely to return unless my Arabic has improved. Though I have shown my solidarity with the people here and made a contribution to the country by volunteering I would need to step up my efforts before I returned again. Otherwise it would be a little insulting.

Going back to my original point, the essay, I do think we can have universal human rights. Though 'they' may want a law in Afghanistan that permits marital rape I suspect that the 'they' who want it and argue that 'they' should left to be run 'their' own country are the men. And 'they' don't speak for everyone in the culture...