2109 FEATURES 10.8.19
Iowa City High School - The Little Hawk - www.thelittlehawk.com
18-23 CLOSE TO HOME summer in shiki
a look into the SUDANESE CRISIS
RIKA YAHASHIRI GOES TO JAPAN
4-5
the vaping experiment
ARE WE THE GUINEA PIGS? read about the vaping epidemic pages 4-7
Dear readers,
Thank you for opening the features magazine. We’re so excited for this first issue! This issue’s feature section is full of great profiles and in-depth looks at people in our community. From the crisis in Sudan to a City High student living in Japan, this magazine covers stories from around the world. Our cover story is a piece about the current health concerns of vaping. This year we hope to tell City High’s stories, whether they be happy or sad. If you have anything you’d like to share with us, come visit us in room 2109. We love to listen. Lots of love went into these stories and designs. We hope you enjoy them.
sincerely, Jesse Hausknecht-Brown
Nina Lavezzo-Stecopoulos
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what’s inSIDE? THE VAPING EXPERIMENT 6-9 SENIOR STRESS 12-13 In the flowers 16-17
SUMMER IN SHIKI 4-5 APPLE CIDER DONUTS 10-11 DEPRESSION 14-15 CLOSE TO HOME 18-23
I
f the charger was gone, he couldn’t use his vape any more. So Horace* flushed it down the toilet. This time he would actually quit. He had been vaping since sophomore year, and the psychological dependency he’d developed was beginning to frighten him. “I was really trying to quit, but at the same time I didn’t want to actually quit and I regretted flushing it,” Horace said. Determined to halt the tugging sensation of addiction, Horace searched the internet for another means of charging his vape. He found that it was possible to construct a makeshift charger by cutting a spare phone charging cord, but Horace didn’t have one available. He found an alternative. “I found the charger to my electric toothbrush and cut it up,” Horace said. “When I attached it to the vape it exploded, because the electric toothbrush charger was much bigger and thicker than an iPhone charger. But I was so desperate that I found way to vape without having a vape. I had a pod and I found an iPhone charger. I connected the charger to the pod like without the device itself: vaping without a vape. I was frying the juice and its pod for like a week, which was probably worse for me.” According to the National Institutes of Health, in 2018, 37 percent of high school seniors reported vaping in the past twelve months, and the FDA found that use of e-cigarettes among high school students increased 78 percent from 2017 to 2018. The CDC has seen over 500 cases of the unknown illness related to vaping as of September 2019, and devices that have been tampered with, similar to Horace’s, have been involved in many recent health concerns related to vaping. Within Iowa City, the University of Iowa hospitals have treated an alleged vaping-related illness. “We actually had a patient in our intensive care unit a couple of weeks ago that had respiratory failure and required us to put a breathing tube in and support her with a mechanical ventilator,” Dr. Josalyn Cho, a specialist in lung disease who works in crit-
THE
ical care at the University of Iowa, said. “We think that the cause for that respiratory illness was potentially related to vaping.” Even though pulmonologists have been concerned about the popularity of e-cigarettes for many years, teenagers continue to use them more than ever before. A possible cause of these devices’ popularity may be advertisements from companies such as JUUL. “I think a lot of doctors are really disturbed by the way that these products are advertised, particularly with the sort of introduction of some of these flavors,” Dr. Cho said. “It
some reason I like holding a cigarette in my hand, and the way that it feels. [Smoking] was more thrilling than vaping for me.” As the respiratory illness associated with e-cigarette use has become more common and close to home, family and friends of e-cigarette users become more and more concerned. “[My friends] are constantly hitting the vape,” Alex said. “Those are people that I really care about, and I want them in my life for a long time. It worries me that they’re doing something that’s really dangerous.” Pulmonologists, doctors specializing in lung disease, are currently researching the dangers of this unknown vaping-associated respiratory syndrome. Dr. Cho suspects that this has been occurring for years, but doctors have only recently made headway in determining what exactly the respiratory disease is, including whether or not it’s a disease at all. “Something is a disease if we know that there’s one cause, and something is a syndrome if there can be lots of different causes or patterns but it all kind of looks the same clinically,” Dr. Cho said. “Right now people are describing this as a syndrome. When we look in the lungs, we see different patterns of injury so it may not all be the same mechanism. There may be different things in different people contributing to respiratory failure.” Beyond establishing what to call this phenomenon, pulmonologists are figuring out how to recognize it. “There can be a whole range of symptoms,” Dr. Cho said. “While almost all patients [are] experiencing shortness of breath and cough, having a fever, other patients are coming in with things like nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea, and chest pain. If you’re vaping and you’re having any of those other symptoms, that’s another reason to think about stopping and to talk to your doctor.” Though some symptoms of the syndrome are known, pulmonologists know little about what causes the need for immediate hospitalization. One main concern is the toxins in the e-liquids—
VAPING seems like [advertisements] target a different audience than the audience tha[n] e-cigarettes were really designed for. They were initially conceived as a way to help people stop smoking, but things have shifted in the past few years to introduce bubble-gum-flavored liquid and those sorts of things.” Though vaping is what most teens do to access nicotine, some students don’t like the popularity associated with vaping and smoke cigarettes instead. Alex* doesn’t vape, but smokes cigarettes every once in a while. “I didn’t want to be a normie and just give in to vaping,” Alex said. “With cigarettes, it seemed like there was more fun to it. For
EXPERIMENT
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“It’s interesting to be the guinea pigs of this experiment, and everyone knows that like most things like this, it’s going to end up being a bigger problem. It’s going to end up being more widespread.” PERSON ONE
E-cigarrettes come in various flavors, including coffee and citrus.
Directions
Reduce the apple cider: Stirring occasionally, simmer the apple cider in a small saucepan over low heat until you’re left with about 1/2 cup. Start checking at 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 20 minutes, etc., until you have 1/2 cup (120ml). Usually takes about 20 minutes. Set aside to cool for 10 minutes. Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Spray donut pan with non-stick spray. Set aside. Make the donuts: Whisk the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, apple pie spice, and salt together in a large bowl. Set aside. Whisk the melted butter, egg, brown sugar, granulated sugar, milk, and vanilla extract together. Pour into the dry ingredients, add the reduced apple cider, and whisk everything together until smooth and combined. Batter will be slightly thick. Spoon the batter into the donut cavities—for ease, I highly recommend using a large zip-top bag. Cut a corner off the bottom of the bag and pipe the batter into each donut cup, filling about halfway. Bake for 10-11 minutes or until the edges and tops are light brown. To test, poke your finger into the top of the donut. If the donut bounces back, they’re done. Cool donuts for two minutes, then transfer to a wire rack. Regrease the pan and bake the remaining donut batter. Coat the donuts: Combine the granulated sugar, cinnamon, and apple pie spice together in a medium bowl. Once cool enough to handle, dunk both sides of each donut in the melted butter, then generously in the apple spice topping. Donuts are best served immediately. They keep well covered tightly at room temperature for up to two days.
Recipe courtesy of Sally’s Baking Addiction Photos by Jesse Hausknecht-Brown
Donuts can be frozen for up to two months If you don’t have apple pie spice, you can make your own with cinnamon, cardamom and nutmeg If you don’t have a donut tin, these can be made into apple cider muffins in muffin tins
Donut holes can be made by using mini muffin tins non dairy milk will work just as well as cow’s milk
I would recommend using buttermilk
apple Cider donuts Preparation Ingredients - Donuts
Ingredients - Topping
1 1/2 cups reduced apple cider 2 cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking soda 3/4 teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1 teaspoon apple pie spice 1/4 teaspoon salt 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted 1 large egg, at room temp 1/2 cup packed, light or dark brown sugar 1/2 cup granulated sugar 1/2 cup milk, at room temp 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup granulated sugar 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon 3/4 teaspoon apple pie spice 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
Yields 12 - 14 donuts Prep Time: 35 minutes Cook Time: 10 - 12 minutes Total Time: 50 minutes
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PHOTOS BY NINA LAVEZZO-STECOPOULOS
By Nina Lavezzo-Stecopoulos
Fashion in a flower field The Iowan praire contains numerous plant species. In the fall, goldenrod plants flourish in the heavy Iowan air. These flowers are easily recognizable by their iconic yellow coloring. In early September, goldenrod flowers cover the rolling hills of Hickory Hill park in Iowa City. Teens can be seen taking their senior pictures or frolicking through the flowers on any day. The park is an important resource for the City High community. Students run on the trails, parents walk their dogs, and children sled down the hills in the winter. This spread is meant to represent that Iowa community. Though dressed in formal attire, Kate Wolfe ‘21, Garret Forbes ‘20, and Mariam Keita ‘20 brave the burrs and hike through the prairie. Forbes sports a patterned button-up shirt with khakis and a self-aware belt that has the word “BELT” printed on it. Keita wears a layered outfit—a nuanced version of trends seen on television from the 1990s like “My So-Called Life.” Keita has a bronze eye and a bold lip, like Wolfe. Wolfe wears a formal look similar to Keita’s. Their navy dresses contrast with the flowers behind them. Wolfe brings a vibrant red lip with the navy attire. The colors come together to represent the idea of feeling fancy in the prairie. Fashion in a flower field: the Senior Sunday trend of the century.
Formal In The
FLOWERS
Warning: This story contains sensitive content, including mentions of violence and sexual assault.
introduction By Mira Bohannan Kumar and Mariam Keita
Sudanese native and resident of Khartoum Fatma Mohamed, eighteen, remembers when she first heard that protests had broken out in her home country against reigning president Omar al-Bashir’s regime. “I had just come home from my last day of school before winter break and my mom told me there were protests happening in this city called Atbara and that they were due to start in Khartoum at any time,” said Mohamed. She recalls that by that time, political conditions were quite poor. The banks were out of money and new bills were being printed at extremely high rates. There were long lines of people waiting to get bread. The people of Sudan were ready for change. “The protests gave everyone a bit of hope that things could change,” Mohamed said. “Everyone was participating. My initial thoughts were, ‘Finally,’ because it seemed like the country was just about to stop moving and working before the protests started. People had been more
desperate than ever for food and money and living conditions were just really hard, but these protests seemed to bring everyone together.” When the demonstrations finally began taking place in Khartoum, Mohamed and her friends were active participants. Around that same time, 7,116 miles away, Feda Elbadri ‘21 walked downstairs in her home in Iowa City to find news of protests breaking out in her parent’s hometown: Khartoum, Sudan. Elbadri remembers feeling shock, excitement, and hope, back in those early moments, when she first began seeing media coverage of the events in Sudan. “I feel excited that Sudanese people are now on the world stage,” Elbadri said. “Now, it’s become this constant in the background, but when it first happened...I was like, ‘Oh! I’ve never seen this before.’ Scholars and people who are Sudanese get to be on these talk shows and they get to be interviewed by these news sources. They get to go to all these countries and talk about what’s going on and their opinion. I haven’t seen that in my whole life.”
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FEATURES - The little Hawk
19
CLOSE To
HOME
In Iowa City, repercussions of the recent protests in Sudan are felt by Sudanese and Sudanese-Americans
PHOTOS COURTESY OF FEDA ELBADRI ON THIS PAGE: Feda Elbadri ‘21’s parents celebrate their wedding. A few years later, they would flee their home country of Sudan after her father’s imprisonment for political dissent against dictator Omar al-Bashir
It’s been a LONG TIME COMING. part 2:
Although al-Bashir’s reign began three decades ago, Sudan’s story—and conflict in the region—did not start there. “Sudan is a collection of all kinds of different people who speak different languages [and have] different ethnic and religious backgrounds, who are basically stitched together in what is now ‘Sudan,’” University of Iowa Ambassador in Residence Ronald McMullen said. McMullen has lived in over 112 countries during his lifetime, with most of his travels taking place during his 30 years as a United States diplomat in the Foreign Service. His diplomatic career first began when he interned for the U.S. State Department in Khartoum, Sudan. He added that the history of Sudan has been strongly shaped by the legacy of colonialism. Even though the British and Egyptians, who had possessed a great deal of authority in Sudan for centuries, ceded control to the Sudanese people in the 1950s, they laid the groundwork for what McMullen called “authoritarian extractive” governance in Sudan—groundwork that would carry through to al-Bashir’s regime. “The government is there to extract resources from the country and to make sure that the people don’t get out of hand and that was the model that we’ve seen for Sudan for much of its history,” McMullen said. When South Sudan gained independence in 2011, the region’s petroleum went with it, and Sudan’s economy began to spiral downward. “The authoritarian government of [al-] Bashir...was increasingly authoritarian and harsh with the people in Sudan, because...with the independence of the south, Bashir’s ability to stay in power without the resources was greatly diminished,” McMullen said. “As he became harsher and harsher on the people and the economy began to deteriorate, last December, protests against food [price] increases started.” While the protests initially started against a specific cause—increased prices—they soon broadened their scope. “Eventually, these protests against the rising cost of food and other basic needs in Sudan changed to a demonstration—protest against the dictator himself—so it’s been kind of a transition from purely economic protest and demonstrations that started six months ago,” McMullen said. “President [el-Bashir] was ousted from power and the current problem is the military and the civilians trying to come to some kind of agreement about who should be in power
and what should the transition forward be.” For Mohamed, the protests in Khartoum changed her daily life, restricting where she could go and when. “Protests were held regularly so the armed forces regularly used tear gas and things like that to detain the protestors as well. This happened on a lot of main roads, so school would be cancelled a lot,” Mohamed said. “We couldn’t go out late because we never knew when protests would happen and we couldn’t go to certain places because armed forces were concentrated more on the areas where protests were more common.” However, Mohamed said that after a while, a sit-in across Sudan brought a hopeful energy to communities across the country.
“There were millions of people there, so there was barely any violence or tear gas attacks. People really came together as a real union. School wasn’t cancelled as regularly. Most people’s movements were directed towards the sit-in. People bought tons and tons of food and water to feed the protestors. There was really cheap or free transport so people could get to the sit-in easier,” Mohamed said. “Everyone was in really high spirits and regardless of what happened afterwards the fact that the Sudanese people came together so cohesively was a victory of its own.” Many Sudanese youth were involved in the demonstrations. Among the protesters were students, like Mohamed and her friends. “Our Thursday nights weren’t movie nights or dinners anymore; they were chanting patriotic lines in the sit-in with the rest of the protestors. My Friday nights with the family involved going to the grocery store to get supplies for the people at the sit-in,” Mohamed said. “It was actually amazing.” But, Mohamed said, everything changed on June 3, when the military massacred more than 100 protesters at the sit-in in Khartoum. “When that happened, there was just fear everywhere. I think that’s what impacted
ABOVE: Elbadri’s grandmother, who designed the Sudanese independence flag
ABOVE: Elbadri’s parents at their wedding
PART 1: THE NEW NORMAL
I
n 1993, when Omar al-Bashir dissolved the Revolutionary Command Council and became the president of Sudan, Elbadri’s aunt was a professor at the University of Khartoum. Elbadri’s mother was a journalist. Her father, also a journalist, practiced law “There were a lot of people speaking out against [al-Bashir], especially people like my father: journalists, politically minded individuals,” Elbadri said. “Political dissenters very often did this thing where they would write...opinion articles...but they wouldn’t use their personal names. [They would use] their group titles...so that was what my father was doing. He wasn’t writing under his real name, he was writing under his group. There’s an expected secrecy with that. When you’re writing against this regime that’s coming to power, that many people aren’t happy with...you’re not trying to expose anyone.” At that point, it had been four years since alBashir had overthrown the previous Sudanese government. In those four years, he had begun what would become a pattern of violence, quelling of opposition, and military control. “When [al-Bashir] rose to power after the coup, what he first did was silence the political dissent. Anyone who had an opinion, like political figures, journalists, he shut them down. He either killed them or put them in jail,” Elbadri said. After someone informed the government about his writing and political dissent,
Elbadri’s father was held in Kober prison, where many other political dissenters were incarcerated, and where Omar al-Bashir’s own forces would imprison him more than 25 years later. At the time, though, there was no end to al-Bashir’s regime in sight. His military government was in firm control at Kober and, Elbadri said, used that control to get information from those held there. “They would torture [political prisoners] for the whereabouts of the local dissenters. My father was lucky,” she said. “He eventually escaped. He went to [my mother] and told her the situation; she was already pregnant with my sister and brother at the time.” Elbadri’s father fled to Egypt, where he had to keep his identity a secret. He went back and forth between the two countries, hiding in apartment complexes, “He was a wanted man, in hiding. He wasn’t eating enough. He was very sick; a lot of health problems emerged that he still has,” said Elbadri. While Elbadri’s parents managed to leave the country, she stressed that there were many others who continued to live under al-Bashir’s regime and its effects for a longer period of time and who tried to fight back, even within her own family. “People [in the United States] are shocked and they’re [asking], ‘He was in power for 30 years, and no one was doing anything?’ But when he rose to power people were doing things, and there were punishments for peo-
ple,” Elbadri said. “My aunt...refused to rat out students who were writing against the government; she refused to fail them and get them kicked out of university and possibly thrown into jail. She lost her job for that.” Eventually, though, she said, many Sudanese people gave up on fighting back and accepted the new normal, even when it seemed incredible to outsiders. “While he’s been committing war crimes against the people of Sudan, Sudan has also held elections; sometimes he’s been the one candidate you’ve been able to choose. I’ve seen the Sudanese elections before on TV and it has ballot boxes and people are walking up and they’re putting in their ballots. The thing is, we all know it’s not a true election. At the end of the day, he’s going to be president,” Elbadri said. Elbadri said that there were reasons for the seeming compliance of the Sudanese people with the regime, despite the theater of the one-party elections. “People know what the military can do, what can happen. Their families were thrown in jail or their families were thrown out of jobs or their families were killed. People know what’s going to happen if you speak up against him,” Elbadri said. “All these years...pretending like everything’s normal, that was the normal. For so long...it was fear. When the protests started, it was like, ‘What changed?’ and that’s what I was wondering about the most. What was it that finally started everything?”
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ed, they can do whatever they want and you can be the next family or social demographic that’s affected by it,” Mohamed said. “Political changes and actions happen so subtly and slowly, we don’t even notice it, so we have to stay mindful and pay attention. Before this whole situation happened, I didn’t pay much attention to what was happening in Darfur or South Sudan because it wasn’t affecting me, but then I started seeing the stories I’ve been ignoring on the street in front of my house.” Mohamed also expressed a hope that the conflict that has in the past been caused by Sudan’s diversity is eradicated in the face of this newfound national unity. “I hope there is better treatment of the South Sudanese people now, because the problems we’ve started facing six months ago are issues they’ve been combatting for decades, before Bashir’s regime even came into power,” Mohamed said. “I
really hope there’s no more tribal or regional segregation/conflict. These protests taught us the importance of coming together as a whole country. People drove in from all corners to participate and that was the only reason we could succeed, so I hope injustices committed in places like Darfur or Nuba Mountains are never allowed, overlooked, or promoted agwain. We’re one country and we proved that we shouldn’t forget what these protests taught us.” Despite all the social strides that she anticipates for Sudan in the aftermath of the resolution, Mohamed believes that there is still work to be done. “I hope people don’t forget the reason they started protesting in the first place. There were some very real social and economic factors that drove people to protest. This change can be very exciting but I hope people see efforts towards the change they want… before they settle for a cabinet just because it isn’t the military rule we’ve always recognized,” said Mohamed.
me the most because I was genuinely scared to leave the house,” Mohamed said. “There were RSF soldiers with snipers positioned on top of buildings next to my home and more of them in trucks driving around the street in front of my car.” Soha Elfadil ‘20 of West High, a Sudanese-American much like Elbadri, was motivated by the events in Sudan. Despite being born and raised in the United States, she very much considers herself Sudanese. “I say ‘us’ and ‘we’ because I feel like I’m in this with [Sudanese nationals] and it’s also affecting my family as well,” said Elfadil. Elfadil has two uncles who were injured in early protests and an elderly grandfather who is desperately in need of medicine. Despite this, at the height of the violence against protesters, she was thinking about how things could have been worse. “My family is not the worst of what’s going on. A lot of people are getting killed. A lot of
people are getting shot in the streets. Women and men are getting raped,” said Elfadil. Elfadil was one of many who took to social media to spread awareness of the conditions within Sudan. As strong governmental and military backlash against journalists made it extremely difficult to cover the developing political turmoil, the role of citizen journalism grew exponentially. Lujayn Hamad ‘18, a West High graduate who was in Sudan this past summer was one of shared what she could, including video footage of her running away from the sound of gunfire on Eid day. Later, as conditions continued to spiral, al-Bashir’s regime would cut off Sudanese residents’ access to the internet, making it difficult to share news and communicate with loved ones on the outside. As her frustrations with what she perceived to be a lack of western media coverage on the crisis in Sudan grew, Elfadil
was spurred into action within her own community. Her outlet? Social media. “I don’t have a big network,” Elfadil said. “I don’t have a lot of followers or anything, but I’ve spread awareness.” In addition to exercising her influence on social media and changing her profile pictures to a certain shade of blue akin to teal (part of a viral show of solidarity with Sudan), Elfadil also became involved in demonstrations of solidarity in her hometown. “My family that are in Sudan are out protesting, but it’s just kind of difficult, considering the fact that they’re risking their lives,” Elfadil said. “If they do go out to protest on a wrong day, then they could get shot. I don’t want them to get hurt, but for me, I can go out because I am safe. I’m in America and protesting here is a right. I feel like it’s okay for me to protest here on their behalf.”
part 3: SUDAN’s TIME
IS COMING.
In July, after months of protests the Sudanese military transitional government and civilian protesters finally reached an agreement. “I think Sudanese [people]—both in Sudan and Sudanese living in America—have to be proud of the people of Sudan [for]...standing up for a better future, for a more equitable, more just, democratic future,” Mc-
Mullen said. An evolution of the agreement made in early August set forth a series of steps to transition Sudan to democracy. The New York Times wrote that the head of Sudan’s governing military council said that this deal was “‘what the Sudanese people have been waiting for since the independence’ from Britain in 1956.” The Times also reported that some provisions of the August resolution included a new 20-member transitional government. Elbadri said that she wished that the United States would provide more support for revolutions and protests for democracy in countries like Sudan. “While the rest of the world is looking to the future, the United States continues to look to the past and right now I feel like that’s doing more harm than good. The rest of the world is changing,” Elbadri said. “If the international community would like to help countries like Sudan, the international community needs to have a consistent, continuing discussion
about international issues. A lot of these problems are happening right now.” Mohamed, now a student at the University of Toronto, has many hopes for the future of her country. “[The resolution] is definitely a step in the right direction and the fact that there are women involved in the cabinet as well really reflects the social change they hope to see to as well so I’m very, very excited,” Mohamed said. “Socially, I hope women are more politically represented, and I think we’re getting there.” She said that she has learned a great deal from being involved in the protests. “This whole situation made me realize how important it is to be aware of your country’s political situation. It’s so easy to be blinded by things that are said in the media or actions that are done in public, so we don’t see the groups that are marginalized or oppressed and we ignore the injustices happening because it doesn’t affect us, but it does. We need to learn to hold governments accountable, because when there’s no one watching and no one listening to what they’re doing because they aren’t directly affect-
Continued on next page.