The World in LA; Los Angeles in the World

Last week, the Poly community had the distinct privilege of hosting Alephonsion Deng, one of the Lost Boys of Sudan and the author of two books, They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky (2005) and Disturbed in Their Nests (2018), and Joseph Jok, his International Rescue Committee (IRC) case manager. Deng and Jok joined the Upper School for an assembly to begin the day and later had lunch with the Global Scholars cohort and other Poly students who had read and were interested in his most recent book. In the evening, the two also presented at a Global Scholars event. During the morning assembly, Jok opened with a brief history of the region of Sudan and the more recent geopolitical trends that led to the fleeing of thousands of refugees, of which Deng was a part. Like other Lost Boys, as they were known, Deng made his way out of his village and to a refugee camp in neighboring Kenya entirely on foot. Jok also touched on the role of religion and resource scarcity that led to the cultural

For his fifteenth birthday, my younger brother received tickets to an NBA game between our two home teams, the Lakers and the Clippers. With superstar duos and solid supporting players, both teams are championship contenders this year. Lebron James and Anthony Davis helm the Lakers, and Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, who is currently injured, lead the Clippers. A couple weeks ago, my little brother, our dad and I made the trek across Los Angeles to the Staples Center, where the highly anticipated matchup would take place. After a typical half-hour looking for parking, we began the walk over to the stadium. Outside of the enormous arena, we saw the usual array of characters: young men scalping tickets, locals hawking street food, and entrepreneurial vendors selling merchandise. One group, however, stood out from the rest. Their wares, handed out to any willing passerby, were free: bright yellow shirts with the words “Fight for freedom, stand with Hong Kong” emblazoned across the chest.