I was riding the Five-College bus on my way back to Mount Holyoke when I saw a friend from Hampshire College. "Claudia! I haven't seen you in ages," I exclaimed and hugged her. "Well, yes, that is because I just came back from Mexico," she responded. Yes, I did freak out.
My mom called me early on Sunday morning to warn me about the flu. She had heard the news in Italy, knew the symptoms and informed me about precautionary measures I needed to take. I had to take a lot of vitamins and wash my hands non-stop. I told her not to worry, hung up and went out to socialize with people.
Now that "at least two, and perhaps six, students have tested positive" for swine flu at Amherst College, I am not sure I am going to the same tomorrow. Today, the president of Amherst College released a campus-wide e-mail announcing the possible swine flu containment. "We are asking that students with compromised immune systems, serious heart, lung, kidney or liver diseases, and diabetes contact Health Services for advice regarding precautionary measures," he wrote in the email. Minutes after I read about this on 22News, I received an email from Robert Holub, the University of Massachusetts chancellor. "This remains a rapidly evolving situation and we will continue to update you as new information becomes available," he wrote.
Although the rapid spread of the flu is scary enough in itself, there is a lot more to it that adds to the student panic. With graduation coming up in May, international students won't be able to invite family and friends from Mexico to their commencement celebrations.
Moreover, there will be further complications with those who tested positive for the flu but had planned on leaving the U.S. for the summer. Infected individuals must be put under a 7-day quarantine, which will undoubtedly prompt change in their travel plans.
To all this I say, I hope my mom is not watching the news.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Keep the conversation going
If you had entered my 300-level sociology seminar two days ago, you would have seen a 86-year-old African American student talking about jazz. Good Dues Blues and Shoo Shoo Baby playing in the background, Luora was presenting her final research project on jazz music in front of the class and the professor.
Studying with diverse individuals has proved to be a highly valuable experience for me. And when I say diverse, I refer not only to the students' race, ethnicity, religion or political affiliation. I also refer to their age.
Mount Holyoke College runs a program (Frances Perkins program) for women of non-traditional age. Every woman over the age of 24 can earn an undergraduate degree on a full or part-time course schedule. Each year approximately 140 diverse and intellectually curious women enroll at Mount Holyoke as Frances Perkins scholars (FPs). And I was lucky enough to have Luora, the oldest African American FP student, in my sociology class Black Cultural Production and Consumption.
"Let me tell you mine experience," Luora started answering a classmate's question about the given jazz presentation. Everyone in the classroom beamed and listened attentively. We love her stories. We love it when she makes the abstract theories about, for example, black authentic identity, real for us.
Born in 1923, Luora is not only an active participant in our class discussions but also a carrier of her generation's worldview. In the classroom, she enables a discourse between at least three generations--her Civil Rights generation, our professor's Generation X and the students' Generation Y.
"Jazz is a conversation," she said in conclusion to her presentation. "It continues a tradition of communication." Undoubtedly, having her and other FP students in my academic program also continues a tradition of communication.
Studying with diverse individuals has proved to be a highly valuable experience for me. And when I say diverse, I refer not only to the students' race, ethnicity, religion or political affiliation. I also refer to their age.
Mount Holyoke College runs a program (Frances Perkins program) for women of non-traditional age. Every woman over the age of 24 can earn an undergraduate degree on a full or part-time course schedule. Each year approximately 140 diverse and intellectually curious women enroll at Mount Holyoke as Frances Perkins scholars (FPs). And I was lucky enough to have Luora, the oldest African American FP student, in my sociology class Black Cultural Production and Consumption.
"Let me tell you mine experience," Luora started answering a classmate's question about the given jazz presentation. Everyone in the classroom beamed and listened attentively. We love her stories. We love it when she makes the abstract theories about, for example, black authentic identity, real for us.
Born in 1923, Luora is not only an active participant in our class discussions but also a carrier of her generation's worldview. In the classroom, she enables a discourse between at least three generations--her Civil Rights generation, our professor's Generation X and the students' Generation Y.
"Jazz is a conversation," she said in conclusion to her presentation. "It continues a tradition of communication." Undoubtedly, having her and other FP students in my academic program also continues a tradition of communication.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Social media and indigenous people
In today’s global society, the maintenance of cultural heritage and celebration of diversity have become especially relevant topics. In this context, new media technologies definitely contribute to the communication rights’ expansion of indigenous people.
Firstly, they allow greater access to alternative sources of information. For instance, there is a wide range of blogs dedicated to the causes of indigenous people. (Indigenous Issues Today, Ushahidi, Noongar) They offer personal perspectives about the distinct realities of many indigenous people. As a result, these blogs play an important role in raising cultural awareness and recognition.
Similar is the function of news and music podcasts for indigenous people. For instance, Michael Kickingbear, a member of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, narrates and hosts a podcast titled Indigenous Peoples Music. This is a show that features Native American Indian artists and allows listeners to “experience traditional as well as contemporary styles of native music.”
Free and open-source projects like Wikipedia can also positively influence the expansion of indigenous people’s communication rights because they foster collaboration. By being open to constant improvement from experts as well as from the public, Wikipedia encourages valuable participation and social activity.
The Internet video portal for indigenous filmmakers Isuma TV brings positive change to the Inuit population. In addition to encouraging more independent filmmakers to tell their stories in a creative fashion, Isuma TV works on restoring “old videos whose irreplaceable cultural information is in danger of being lost forever.” Thus, it aims at reinforcing the Inuit collective memory and cultural heritage in a well-structured and widely accessible space.
Firstly, they allow greater access to alternative sources of information. For instance, there is a wide range of blogs dedicated to the causes of indigenous people. (Indigenous Issues Today, Ushahidi, Noongar) They offer personal perspectives about the distinct realities of many indigenous people. As a result, these blogs play an important role in raising cultural awareness and recognition.
Similar is the function of news and music podcasts for indigenous people. For instance, Michael Kickingbear, a member of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, narrates and hosts a podcast titled Indigenous Peoples Music. This is a show that features Native American Indian artists and allows listeners to “experience traditional as well as contemporary styles of native music.”
Free and open-source projects like Wikipedia can also positively influence the expansion of indigenous people’s communication rights because they foster collaboration. By being open to constant improvement from experts as well as from the public, Wikipedia encourages valuable participation and social activity.
The Internet video portal for indigenous filmmakers Isuma TV brings positive change to the Inuit population. In addition to encouraging more independent filmmakers to tell their stories in a creative fashion, Isuma TV works on restoring “old videos whose irreplaceable cultural information is in danger of being lost forever.” Thus, it aims at reinforcing the Inuit collective memory and cultural heritage in a well-structured and widely accessible space.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Iraqi Refugees: The Hidden Crisis
"These refugees wouldn't have existed if we hadn't invaded their country," said Maureen White, the co-chair of the Board of Overseers of the International Rescue Committee. She was referring to the two million Iraqi refugees who fled their country in search for shelter in Syria and Jordan.
Tonight, White gave the Mount Holyoke community a public lecture titled Iraqi Refugees: The Hidden Crisis. She made the point that it was time for the U.S. to accept its obligations toward the war victims of Iraq. White noted that most European countries, with the exception of Germany, Sweden and Denmark, have ignored the intensifying situation with the Iraqi refugees. These countries believe the crisis should be solved by the ones directly responsible for the war in Iraq. That would be the U.K. and the U.S.
In Iraq, the International Rescue Committee works to upgrade water services, renovate schools and improve public health institutions. It has launched humanitarian programs in Syria and Jordan where the majority of Iraqi refugees are now living. The committee has been also supporting organizations that provide "outreach services and aim to bring together and improve relations between the overwhelmed host community and Iraqi refugees."
Although the IRC is fully devoted to mitigate the humanitarian crisis with the Iraqi refugees, White acknowledged that the committee faces many challenges. "Even if you want to help them, they are afraid to come out. It is a tiny number of people that we are reaching," said White.
Tonight, White gave the Mount Holyoke community a public lecture titled Iraqi Refugees: The Hidden Crisis. She made the point that it was time for the U.S. to accept its obligations toward the war victims of Iraq. White noted that most European countries, with the exception of Germany, Sweden and Denmark, have ignored the intensifying situation with the Iraqi refugees. These countries believe the crisis should be solved by the ones directly responsible for the war in Iraq. That would be the U.K. and the U.S.
In Iraq, the International Rescue Committee works to upgrade water services, renovate schools and improve public health institutions. It has launched humanitarian programs in Syria and Jordan where the majority of Iraqi refugees are now living. The committee has been also supporting organizations that provide "outreach services and aim to bring together and improve relations between the overwhelmed host community and Iraqi refugees."
Although the IRC is fully devoted to mitigate the humanitarian crisis with the Iraqi refugees, White acknowledged that the committee faces many challenges. "Even if you want to help them, they are afraid to come out. It is a tiny number of people that we are reaching," said White.
Friday, April 10, 2009
Role of remittances in the immigrants' lives
First, there are the complicated immigration documents. Then, there is the purchase of the cheapest airfare ticket. Finally comes the fulfillment of the American dream with a pinch of nostalgia. This popular view of the immigrant's life, however, often ignores immigrants' reality in the long run.
The "Shifting Places: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Migration" panel took place last week in Shattuck Hall and discussed the role of remittances in an immigrant's life. The panel participants included Ana Croegaert, visiting Assistant Professor of Gender Studies, Luis Jimenez, visiting Assistant Professor of Politics, and Lynda Pickbourn, Ph. D. candidate in economics at the University of Massachusetts. Although the three researchers took approaches on migration from different disciplines, they left the audience thinking about the same thing-the power of sending money and ideas back to a home country.
"Money, how to manage it and how to get more of it was a common topic," said Croegaert about the family affairs of the Bosnian immigrants she interviewed. Croegaert graduated from Mount Holyoke in 1997 and has been working on a research project entitled "Balancing Debts: The Bosnia-Chicago Migration Circuit After Yugoslavia." Through her fieldwork interviews with Bosnian immigrants residing in Chicago she learned about the symbolic significance of the "kucha," a Bosnian word for home. She found out that Bosnian immigrants helped their parents maintain the kucha back in their home country. But at the same time, they were also building a new kucha in Chicago where their children would grow. After all, the kucha is, as Croegaert put it, "a site for identity creation." As a result, Bosnian immigrants invested in more than one household by regularly sending remittances home. This is how, Croegaert explains, the immigrants got introduced to the U.S. "debt-driven industry." Often times, this debt and real estate mortgages led to mounting pressures in the immigrants' family affairs. Continue reading
The "Shifting Places: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Migration" panel took place last week in Shattuck Hall and discussed the role of remittances in an immigrant's life. The panel participants included Ana Croegaert, visiting Assistant Professor of Gender Studies, Luis Jimenez, visiting Assistant Professor of Politics, and Lynda Pickbourn, Ph. D. candidate in economics at the University of Massachusetts. Although the three researchers took approaches on migration from different disciplines, they left the audience thinking about the same thing-the power of sending money and ideas back to a home country.
"Money, how to manage it and how to get more of it was a common topic," said Croegaert about the family affairs of the Bosnian immigrants she interviewed. Croegaert graduated from Mount Holyoke in 1997 and has been working on a research project entitled "Balancing Debts: The Bosnia-Chicago Migration Circuit After Yugoslavia." Through her fieldwork interviews with Bosnian immigrants residing in Chicago she learned about the symbolic significance of the "kucha," a Bosnian word for home. She found out that Bosnian immigrants helped their parents maintain the kucha back in their home country. But at the same time, they were also building a new kucha in Chicago where their children would grow. After all, the kucha is, as Croegaert put it, "a site for identity creation." As a result, Bosnian immigrants invested in more than one household by regularly sending remittances home. This is how, Croegaert explains, the immigrants got introduced to the U.S. "debt-driven industry." Often times, this debt and real estate mortgages led to mounting pressures in the immigrants' family affairs. Continue reading
Souvenirs--cultural appropriation or treasured memories?
When I visit a new country, I make a note for myself to enter at least one museum, taste at least one traditional dish and purchase at least one authentic souvenir. After all, what can be a better keeper than an African mask, a traditional wooden handicraft or a tribal bamboo necklace? Many things, actually.
Exotic souvenirs and primitive art have long attracted both tourists and collectors. For some reason, it seems people are attracted to the thought of capturing the authentic and taming it by incorporating it in their modern, 21st-century lifestyles. But rarely do we see this practice as a cultural appropriation.
For most of us the purpose of souvenirs is to evoke memories. Even the meaning of the actual word souvenir in French corresponds to the act of remembering. It is fascinating how a mere look at a physical object that is associated with a given experience can make a person travel back in time and space and relive that moment. "The marvel of souvenir buildings is that the identical miniature sparks in each of us extravagantly different webs of remembrance," writes cognitive scientist Donald Norman in The Design of Everyday Things. But souvenirs in the form of native art are not simply carriers of sentimental value--they are the cultural products of indigenous people. Continue reading
Exotic souvenirs and primitive art have long attracted both tourists and collectors. For some reason, it seems people are attracted to the thought of capturing the authentic and taming it by incorporating it in their modern, 21st-century lifestyles. But rarely do we see this practice as a cultural appropriation.
For most of us the purpose of souvenirs is to evoke memories. Even the meaning of the actual word souvenir in French corresponds to the act of remembering. It is fascinating how a mere look at a physical object that is associated with a given experience can make a person travel back in time and space and relive that moment. "The marvel of souvenir buildings is that the identical miniature sparks in each of us extravagantly different webs of remembrance," writes cognitive scientist Donald Norman in The Design of Everyday Things. But souvenirs in the form of native art are not simply carriers of sentimental value--they are the cultural products of indigenous people. Continue reading
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