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My Awesome "Multi-Cultural" Experience
So since we're talking about multiculturalism in block, I figured I would share this really cool experience that I just had. I'm a Shi'a Imami Ismaili Muslim, which is the minority sect of Muslims (Sunni is the majority, and the one you generally hear about the most). Our spiritual leader is called the Imam, who is a direct descendant of Prophet Muhammad. The Aga Khan, His Highness Shah Karim al-Husayni, is our present living Imam. He took over the throne in 1957, when his predecessor, Sultan Muhammad Shah passed away. The year 2007 is his Golden Jubilee year, meaning he has been guiding Ismailis for 50 years.
The Aga Khan granted the United States four deedars, which is a really big deal. A deedar is when he visits his murids (his followers, the Ismailis), and gives a speech which guides Ismailis on how to live their lives. Because of his involvement in helping to alleviate poverty and casting Islam in a good light, deedars have become more and more rare over the years. The Aga Khan meets with political figures worldwide, and is incredibly involved in all sorts of programs. There is a brief summary of him on this website:
http://www.akdn.org/hh/highness.html. In the Ismaili constitution, it was mandated that he would visit his murids once every 11 years; however, this has been amended so he now visits his murids once every 22 years. A lot of people don't get to go to a deedar at all in their lifetime; I'm really fortunate because this was my third deedar in the past five years.
On April 17, 2008, I was in Atlanta, Georgia for the last U.S. deedar. On Monday and Tuesday, there were a lot of festivities which included tasbih making (tasbihs are like rosary beads), mehndi (which is henna), and music and food and a lot of other cultural stuff. There were about 25,000 people who came to Atlanta for this last deedar. On Wednesday, the Imam was supposed to come at 5:00pm to visit the Ismailis. He comes and speaks in this giant hall, and if you really understand the significance, you get to the hall early to get a good seat. My family and I woke up at 5:00am to wait in line until they opened the hall at 11:00am. We got an AMAZING seat near the front of the stage, and we sat there until 5:00pm when the Imam arrived. Everyone recites prayers and qasidahs (which are like poems about our religion) until he arrives, to prepare spiritually for his deedar. This is such a big deal that Ismailis that were in the hospital were transported in stretchers to lay in hospital beds in the hall just so they could hear the Imam speak.
When the Imam actually arrives, it's such a spiritual experience. He walks through the entire hall on special red carpet, which only he can walk on. It's amazing because I never really felt like I was as religious as some other people I knew, but as soon as he steps into the room, you just feel something special in your heart, and you know you're in the presence of something that's not human. Everybody just starts crying. He walks through the hall and gives people blessings as he makes his way to the front of the stage. Then there are traditional deedar ceremonies that are performed and he gives his deedar.
At this particular deedar, the Imam was really happy. He joked about playing dandiya (which is a celebratory Indian dance that's really common) and eating biryani (an Indian food). He also spoke twice at the event, which apparently is a sign that he's really pleased and happy. He talked about faith being an integral part of our lives, and not something that you just "fit in" whenever you have time (In Islam, Jamatkhana (church) is every day, not just once a week). He also talked about the goals he hopes to achieve by the end of the year, one of which was to develop programs and ways to help alleviate poverty. (Quick side random fact: Muhammad Yunus won The Aga Khan Architecture Award in 2006.)
Like I said before, I'm really lucky that I got to go to three deedars in five years. It's so difficult to capture the spiritual experience that you go through at such an event, and it frustrates me that I can't do it justice. However, this is the best I can do, and I hope that I've at least enlightened you a little bit.
My parents are really lucky, because they have a lot of cool stories about the Imam. Back when they were our age, there weren't many Ismailis, so deedars were really small (about 2000 or 3000 people), so you could submit individual mehmanis (which is like asking for individual blessings). When my mom was pregnant with me, she and my dad went to the Imam for blessings, and he helped my mom up (because you kneel in front of him) and put his hands on her stomach and gave me blessings.
If you're interested in Ismailism, there's a website called:
http://www.theismaili.org. There's a section on the website that is dedicated to this event (It's called the Golden Jubilee Darbar). It's actually really interesting, and the work that the Imam is doing is applicable to a lot of the countries that groups are studying for the poverty organization assignment. He's founded a TON of programs that are dedicated to alleviating poverty, and that's one of the things he mentioned in this particular deedar. The big overlapping organization is called the Aga Khan Foundation. Most of his work is concentrated in Africa and India, but he definitely does work elsewhere. If you're interested in some of the work that AKF does, the website is:
http://www.akdn.org/agency/akf.html. Thanks for reading! -Shelina Merchant, Block 5, Group 4
The Cultural Double Standard
“We eat apples to stay strong and healthy”, I said to the class.
“We eat apples to stay strong and healt-ee”, the class replied.
Teaching English was more difficult than I thought. I was standing in front of a classroom of 30 students - the best and brightest of Sichuan province, China, perspiring from the sweltering heat and trying to emphasize pronunciation of English words. Like many speakers of Asian languages, the Chinese struggle to pronounce ‘th’ and clip other consonants because in Chinese, all words end with vowels and have one syllable. Exasperated, some of my students started laughing at themselves and I had no doubt that if they were in a Western country, others would laugh at them too.
During lunch, I sat with other foreign, volunteer teachers and local Chinese teaching assistants to eat a customary ten course meal provided by the school. As soon as dishes were laid out on the spinning jenny, everyone would raise their chopsticks and tuck in. Michael, a volunteer from Switzerland, always had trouble eating with his chopsticks and fumbled in all manner and means to use the utensil by puncturing it into the food. The Chinese teaching assistants would patiently instruct him and applaud any slight improvement in his chopstick handling. Fellow volunteers from California, New York and United Kingdom took turns sharing their experiences learning how to eat Chinese food, much to the bemusement of their Chinese hosts.
Does anyone notice a double standard?
David Klein brought up his thoughts on fellow Ecuadorians calling themselves American or British, having spent a few years in these developed countries. His comments reminded me of a common, unspoken and informal bias. Many cultures aspire to be westernized and the West does not reciprocate this aspiration. In Singapore, we laugh at people who speak poor English and call them “low class”. At UVA, I have heard stories from international friends working as teaching assistants, about struggling to teach Chemistry because of student complaints about their accent and mispronunciation. While it is one thing to chide a person for not speaking grammatical English, it is another to expect them to speak with proper British or American accents. Do people think that one culture is better than the other and if so, why? Like Klein explained, economic advancement and mass media has played a large role in contributing to the difference in aspiration towards certain cultures.
My experience living in the United States these last four years has also made it evident that being learned in Western culture is an expectation of both East and West and yet, few celebrate how difficult this process is. To put it in an American context, imagine attending math class with a teacher explaining concepts in French. Add to that strange food with lots of dairy products and tomatoes, in big portions, cars driving on the wrong side of the road and people used to a democratic, rights based system and you have culture shock at its best. I am not arguing that we should start celebrating international students and their ability to adapt, but I hope that people in general understand that the world exists unequally. The predominant way of thinking is steeped in bias towards certain superpowers, shaped by media outlets and the community we are raised in. By understanding how difficult it is to adapt to a foreign culture, perhaps each of us can understand why others think the way they do. Politics, diplomacy and yes, being an expatriate, would become a lot easier if we look at both sides of the coin. - Block 6 Group 3 Clara Lee
Carbon "Entrepreneurs" --here's a fascinating radio story from April 7th: "Once, if you were in your 20s and wanted to save the environment, you might have joined Greenpeace. But climate change and a billion-dollar carbon market that trades in carbon credits — as if they were pork bellies — have created a new career niche. NPR's Christopher Joyce profiles three young graduates who are carbon entrepreneurs." Find it at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89424934 Prof Martin
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Peace Corps Interest*- If anyone is remotely considering entering into the Peace Corps (a 2 year service commitment in developing countries around the world), I highly recommend setting up a time with the on-campus recruiter, Laura Vento (a recent Corps volunteer in East Timor), here at UVA. She is a great resource for questions, advice, you name it! She will be here at UVA till May 15th, 2008 and can be reached at peacecorps@virginia.edu.Also, just searching their website will answer a lot of questions- www.peacecorps.gov. I did have a chance to meet with Laura, so I might be able to answer some questions that you might have- please feel free to email me at katiek4v@gmail.com if you do. Thanks! Katie Kelly
The Business of Charity – The PBS report shown in class on Thursday highlighted a number of questions on the effectiveness and efficiency of charities that should be addressed further.
First, we were asked if charities could be more efficient in their fundraising efforts, given that organizations like Oxfam spend more than 9% on administrative and fundraising expenses. I agree that efficiency is important in ensuring that the highest proportion of donations reaches the intended recipients – the poor, hungry, sick and uneducated. While Oxfam explained that its high costs were due to its policy of only accepting donations without covenants and finding appropriate solutions which may cost more e.g. light weight desalination systems, other charities have less noble reasons.
Commercial fundraising is one common form of solicitation which, according to various state attorney general reports, accrues less than 50% of donations to intended recipients. This fact is pertinent to us students since student groups, let alone commercial entities, frequently hold events that promise “a portion of the proceeds will be donated to xyz charity”. Perhaps as donors we should therefore be asking for greater transparency before fat trimming, to avoid compelling charities like Oxfam to cut unnecessary corners in a “race to the bottom”.
On the other hand, PBS insinuated that charities which diverted donations from its published cause to other causes were taking advantage of donors. Although it would have been wise for the Red Cross to make its fund diversion plans public, I do not find fault in their management of funds. Shareholders in companies would be happy to receive dividends and know that retained earnings were also being used for future investments, so why do donors act negatively towards charities that engage in smart financial planning?
Doctor’s Without Borders (MSF) is one organization that told the public of its intent to disperse donations after filling it’s quota for the Tsunami disaster, but received a subsequent shortfall in donations. In my opinion, MSF acted wisely in the face of thousands of charities clamoring to help. In Southeast Asia, there were stories of how some charities shipped blankets and winter supplies, hardly effective given that temperatures reach over 100 degrees there!
Disasters are called disasters because of the huge numbers of lives lost and chaos that ensues. The sad truth is that disasters and wars in the Third world occur frequently. Thus, perhaps the lesson donors can learn is to use common sense, thoroughly research their charities of choice and then donate consistently and fulfill pledges. After all, even governments failed to heed the last suggestion to the tune of $4 billion after the Tsunami disaster (according to the Asian Development Bank) – which I would argue, is the worst way to pull the rug from under the feet of charities and their recipients. Block 6 Group 3 Clara Lee
Governments and Globalization - Governments should be concerned about globalization and need to act in the interests of both the entire population and long term sustainability of their economies. Singapore as a case in point. While the government has managed to quickly 'direct' the economy (by direct I mean give incentives towards whatever industry we intend to delve into e.g. medical care, nanotechnology) by shaping education policies and encouraging foreign direct investment, the effect on the layman has been having to constantly adapt to these drastic changes. One minute, Singaporeans are told to focus on science subjects, English and Chinese (because people with those subject combinations are given preference or more places in the local universities) to produce nano and bio technologists and the next is a push towards the humanities to produce more lawyers. I wonder if our economy can continually sustain these reactions to globalization every 5 years or would it better for us (and any other country for that matter) to develop some competitive advantage and grow.
The second political effect of globalization is that the consequences of ineffective governance are magnified. I thought it was striking that Friedman found Infosys and the high-tech center it was located in, such an impressive effect of globalization. The picture I saw was the non-upper/middle class population outside those walls, still selling chillis instead of attending schools or vocational training. Since access to globalization is supposedly linked to being connected through the internet and having sound infrastructure, it is apparent that countries like India, China and to some degree Southeast Asia, have to weed out corruption and bureaucracy. I believe the major barrier to poverty reduction in BRIC nations is the money being siphoned away from their original purposes - to line pockets instead of building roads and funding rural education etc. As the educated minority gains access to new jobs, the gap, as we discussed in class, becomes wider and wider because the poor are prevented from accessing the benefits of globalization on the most basic level. A child in poverty can walk to school and learn about the world, but there are literally, no roads leading out of his village.
On a microeconomic level, even if government intervention is successfully executed over the table, does it really alleviate poverty and help bring more of the poor onto the globalization bandwagon? Because globalization necessitates that every nation operates with laissez-faire economics, countries with government intervention are more susceptible to global effects of demand and supply that will punish the pursuit of comparative disadvantages. How sustainable is India's $4.5 billion National Rural Employment Guarantee project if it creates simple jobs that uneducated Indians can perform, but in comparison to other countries, are not efficient and competitive? Better yet, do such programs cause the poor to become dependent on the government? Governments ultimately play a very important role in determining how much of the poor, whether in Uttar Pradesh or the Dust Belt in China, get to attain those jobs created by globalization. Block 6 Group 3 Clara Lee
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