In this blog I will blog about readings we have done this semester (Biblical and other) that pertain to my project.
“Cursed be Canaan…”
In Genesis 9, there is the story of Ham and how he cursed his descendants. What happens is after Noah had built the Ark and all, he got tired like anyone else would; so he decided to take a nap. While he is sleeping he is naked and his son, Ham, walks in on him. I bet he start laughing or something when he saw him because he went back to his brothers and told them about their father’s nakedness. They react by covering him up, and they take him away so that he can continue sleeping in peace. So when Noah wakes up, without even asking or having evidence that Ham revealed his nakedness and exploited his nakedness, he says “Cursed the Canaan, lowest of slaves he shall be to his brothers” (Genesis 9:25). At this time “Canaan” means absolutely nothing, but later the Canaan becomes the name of Ham’s son. He was cursed, instead of Ham, because in the ancient world, one’s blessedness or well-being was intimately connected to the well-being of one’s descendants. The worst possible judgment one could imagine was that your bad behavior would affect your descendants.
Before I connect this to my project I would like to discuss Ham. What kind of person would get a thrill from seeing their father’s nakedness? I think that this is nasty. Then he went back and told his brothers, like he expected them to be nasty and perverted too.
Anyway, this relates to my project in the way that Ham’s son was cursed for Ham’s actions. From birth Canaan was cursed and his life was pre-effected by the actions of his father to an extreme degree. I do not know to what extent Canaan was cursed, but in these times, based on the reading, everything was taken to the highest degree, nothing was done lightly. The children of my future organization will be the children that are “cursed” from birth. They will come into my facility in the need for help of all kinds. We will also accept children that are not from these low-income communities, it will be open to all. We will try to get rid of the burden that is on the back of the children that they were passed from their parents from birth. This will give them a fair chance to compete in a very competitive world of credentials, because this way they will be more informed and will be given more opportunities in life, and they well take advantage of the opportunities that they are handed. This is all my vision of a utopian organization that I wish to create in the long run.

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 30th, 2005 at 4:03 pm and is filed under Project Progress, Week 06: Related Readings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.