Barbie Episode 7

[Kim Veller]

Nextthe Roberts family (and Ken) discover that their moving van has been towed by the nasty family next door, the Reardons. This is the first time we have met the Reardons, and hopefully they will be a recurring theme! I think that makes a great subplot. (I still prefer Raquelle and Ryan though!)

Finally! People outside of the U.S. can watch and I can find more people talking about it! It seemed like for a while no one was reviewing the actual show due to international restrictions. I watched the first 4 or 5 episodes months ago, and I have to say that after being given Life in the the Dreamhouse and the Barbie vlogs, I was not impressed by Adventures. Like you said, a lot of the characters seem watered down when compared to their past counterparts.

During the course of the episode we talk about the ancient Mesopotamian myth of the descent of the goddess Inanna into the underworld, and how it is connected to the Venus synodic cycle, and especially the retrograde phase of Venus.

I saw Demetra give a lecture in 2005 connecting the myth of Inanna with Venus retrograde, and then I was really pleasantly surprised to see a number of parallels with the myth show up in the Barbie movie that was released recently right when Venus stationed retrograde.

Demetra and I have been talking about a lot of this for the past few weeks, and decided to record an episode on it, in order to dive deeper into some of these ancient myths surrounding the Venus retrograde cycle and talk about how they are still relevant today.

In the process we covered a lot of interesting ground, and touched on a number of important and fascinating figures, including the first author in history who signed her name to her writings, a priestess of Inanna named Enheduanna that lived around 2300 BCE.

We also delved into some Barbie astrology facts, and I should say that there are spoilers for the Barbie movie in this episode, so if you care about spoilers then maybe watch the movie first before listening to the episode.

But it gets better! M.G. Lord provides the date the Lilli doll was launched: August 12th, 1955, three weeks before Venus conjoined the Sun in Virgo by superior conjunction on the 1st of September. The chart for that date shows the Sun at 18 Leo and Venus at 13, just one degree away from where it stations at the end of this month.

Instead, Episode 5: Barbie Savior takes a turn away from the specific story of Renee Bach and digs into the broader topic of being a white person working in Africa through the Barbie Savior Instagram account.

Olivia, one of the founders of No White Saviors, talks about accountability and she is right on about this. There are over 900 registered NGOs in Jinja. One for every 500 people in the district. Not all are run by missionaries, many are Ugandan run. But why so many? Why do they persist, why does the situation not change? The topic of accountability is increasingly important in my mind.

No White Saviors raises issues like transparency in financial records, how much are locals paid, how much do directors pay for travel, house help, and other personal expenses, etc. These are valid questions to ask development organizations and missions and are a good place to start with accountability.

I appreciated the conclusion to this episode, about Renee not being an anomaly but a product of the missionary culture prevalent in evangelical circles. This is what I hope to continue untangling with Do Good Better because there are, clearly, issues.

My thought is.... YES to everything you just brought up. But, as in everything, it really does depend on the context, the people, and the culture we live in amongst, and the great danger is when I compare what I feel are my gifts and skills to how others have chosen to use their gifts and skills in an entirely different context and play the "I am doing it better than you game."

The 'Jesus vs. Justice' battle seems to be a constant war, between churches, workers, organizations and even within the circles I have been part of, and I find myself getting sucked into separating the two and swinging back and forth wildly on this pendulum, as if it can EVER be one or the other. It is both, intermingled together, and representing itself at different moments in different ways, and I think the issue lies in when we get so incredibly boxed into a program or 'system' of what we personally do, that we can't see the person before us and treat them as Jesus would; As a human with a soul that needs to be cared for and listened to and a body that needs to be nurtured at times, encouraged and enabled to go forth on their own, at times, and held or comforted at others. Too many times, I see others do things that 'work' and the battle for heroism in my flesh rages and I want what they have so I either criticize out of jealousy, or I follow too quickly what someone else is doing in an entirely different context and attempt to chase the fame too.

But, in saying that, I am also discovering with those that I work alongside now, that IF we can somehow get over ourselves and work alongside with those who have entirely different views or focuses, that is where we will bless the most. Not just in the sense that it is crushes our own desire for fame and our agenda, but also in the sense that it creates room for people with different perspectives and personalities to connect with those who are best equipped to connect with them personally.

However, in saying that, I do think the biggest issues arise when we attempt to barge in and take over or make room where others are already doing good when really we lack the bravery to pioneer and probably fail and maybe not ever be recognized in areas that are unpaved, and unreached, and frankly a lot less glamorous.

One thing I'd be interested in (and I don't know if it was mentioned in the podcast) would be if there are white expats in Jinja that are not Americans, and what they think about the whole situation. I'm not saying that non-Americans do everything better, but there is a certain combination of cultural (over)confidence and naivet that seems to be particularly prevalent in White Americans.

Emily Worrall, the founder of the Barbie Savior Instagram account (and one of the founders of Ethical Storytelling, both worth following) talks about the implosion of the missionary community in Jinja. One of the issues I have with this episode in particular is that it focuses in on these white women so much that it gives the impression Jinja is basically a bunch of missionaries fighting with each other. Later in the episode, there is more gossip and back-stabbing and the reporter says, \u201CJinja had always been like this.\u201D But when he says this and when people he interviews refer to \u201Cthe community,\u201D they are all referring to the foreigners, not to Ugandans.

I\u2019m really interested in hearing from Ugandans. Not only about the medical issues and specific topics related to Renee\u2019s case, but about the big picture of people coming to work in Jinja. What do Ugandans think about these foreigners? Positive and negative?

\u201CThe missionary brand depended on a charismatic selfless white woman surrounded by black children in need. It required everything to be exaggerated. The missionary had to appear more selfless and the Africans more needy.\u201D

The reporter quotes Oswald Chambers, \u201CIn missionary work the great danger is that God\u2019s call will be replaced by the needs of the people. We tend to forget that the one great reason under all missionary work is not the elevation of the people, their education, nor their needs, but is first and foremost the command of Jesus Christ.\u201D

There is a lot of pressure in the development world to be busy and constantly working. On a related topic, there is a brief reference to mental illness and the stigma around mental health in missionary communities. This is a topic I\u2019d like to dig deeper into in later issues of Do Good Better and I wanted to make note of it now.

When the reporter goes into why Kelsey Nielson started to push back against Renee and others, which was brave and important in my opinion, he compares her to Jesus, being a prophet and not accepted in his (or her, in Kelsey\u2019s case) hometown. I find the comparison a little farfetched. Probably she would, too. When he started to quote the verse about Jesus, my first thoughts were, don\u2019t do it, don\u2019t go there\u2026he went there. Yikes.

Later there is another comparison to Jesus. Apparently NGO leaders in Uganda now are asking themselves before they implement a project, \u201CWhat would No White Saviors say?\u201D Also, yikes. I understand the sentiment, and what I think it means is that people are finally learning to consider the issues NWS raise, but the comparison to this catch phrase about Jesus WWJD is a little cringy.

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