e d i s t r o p NT O EM R A L the C
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SAME NAMES NEW FACES
staff + editor’s note
table of contents
the
ANDY WRIGHT
editor-in-chief
BEN HACKENBERGER
publisher
EMLYN FOXEN
campus editor
CHRISI MORRISON
national editor
COPY EDITORS EDITOR-IN-CHIEF EMERITI DESIGN & ART STAFF
KEVIN WU
international editor
LAUREN D’SOUZA web editor
FRANCES WANG web editor
compass
APRIL XIAOYI XU, LAUREN BOLLINGER, LAUREN D’SOUZA, NIMRAH IMAM + NINA POSNER STEPHANIE STEINBRECHER, TIM REYNOLDS TREVOR SMITH (cover) JEWEL MENSAH (photographer)
campus 4 | COMPUTER SCIENCE ON CAMPUS william schumacher
Editorial: An Accidentally Necessary Manifesto Sometime between 2006 and 2008, a team of marketing gurus gathered together in what was presumably a small room. Depending on your point of view, their mission was either to sell an entirely unique product to the world or to help the American people believe in an idea, to ‘sell’ a man unlike anyone we had ever seen before. In their quest, the team came up with a one-word slogan that came to define an era: “Change.”
For the first time in recent memory, “change” is not just a kitschy catchphrase invented by the publicity machine. From the nature of liberal arts colleges (4) to the way campaigns are run (6) to aging in China (8), the world is genuinely reinventing itself every day.
Barack Obama went on to win the Iowa caucuses by a landslide, insuring his nomination as the Democratic Party’s chosen leader. “On this January night,” said Mr. Obama at the time, “at this defining moment in history, you have done what the cynics said we couldn’t do.” The “you” in that speech was, of course, extended beyond the Iowa voters to the nation that would soon elect him.
Many of us (myself included) were too young to vote in that election. But no matter how effective we think Mr. Obama’s presidency has been, no one can discount the effect his language had in our ideological development. Left, Right or Center, that single simple word entered the collective unconscious and affirmed our generation’s confidence to change the world around us.
Even in 2008, Mr. Obama came under fire for that slogan, which some perceived as empty and needlessly radical. Our current Democratic frontrunner, Hillary Clinton, was particularly skeptical. “What we need is somebody who can deliver change. We don’t need to be raising false hopes.”
One one hand, we are outside of the equation because of our apathy. Our age-group had a depressingly low turnout for the 2014 elections, and one can’t go a day without reading a think piece on Millennial Apathy.
But there’s something to be said for optimism.
So where do we, the students, stand in this landscape?
national
tells stories of your friends and peers working to change the world through activism, community organizing, and protest. There is nothing ambiguous about it: We are the movers and shakers, even before we leave the hallowed halls of our colleges. Our new method of change involves defiance and direct action, not muddling through political red tape. We are rejecting Change with a capital “C” and reshaping it into a change that permeates the fiber of our realities.
international 7 | AGING IN EAST ASIA april xiaoyi-xu 11 | GREECE IN THE SPOTLIGHT alex baude
The first step to realizing change in our times will be education, a knowledge of the issues surrounding you. With this in mind, please enjoy this issue of the Port Side.
ABOUT US: The Claremont Port Side is dedicated to providing the Cla-
remont Colleges with contextualized, intelligent reports to advance debate among students and citizens. We are a progressive newsmagazine that offers pertinent information and thoughtful analysis on the issues confronting and challenging our world, our country, and our community. Each article in the Claremont Port Side reflects the opinion of its author(s) and does not represent the Claremont Port Side, its editors, its staff, or the Claremont Colleges.
But just because we are not a part of the system does not mean that we cannot act. Look around you! Your Facebook feed alone
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6 | SAME CANDIDATES, SAME ISSUE, MORE MONEY maryl evans + anna balderston 12 | ASIAN AMERICANS IN THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA nimrah imam
Generation Progress works to help young people—advocates, activists, journalists, artists—make their voices heard on issues that matter. Learn more at genprogress.org.
[SINGLE COPIES ARE FREE. TO PURCHASE ADDITIONAL COPIES, PLEASE CONTACT PUBLISHER@CLAREMONTPORTSIDE.COM]
editor@claremontportside.com
claremontportside.com | volume XII issue 3 | march 2015 | page 3
Tyrant or queen of the liberal arts? By William Schumacher Staff Writer, PO ‘18
the fall of 2014, that number had multiplied more than threefold to 105 students.
Social media trends, long a subject of interest to local news anchors and those engaged in the valiant struggle to understand “the kids these days,” is a popular subject of discussion on nearly every college campus. Yet at the Claremont Colleges, an interest in the technology behind the trends is an even hotter topic. In particular, what has humanities professors, Computer Science faculty, and an ever-increasing number of students buzzing is the unprecedented large increase in Computer Science course enrollment at the 5Cs over the course of the past few years.
Assistant Professor David Kauchak in Pomona’s CS department experiences the effects of such an expansion every day. “Increased enrollment means the classes are bigger,” said Professor Kauchak, “and everything that goes along with that gets increased. There’s more grading, there’s more people coming by for office hours, there are more people majoring, which means that there is more advising... Everything sort of balloons.”
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When you’re on your deathbed, looking back on your life, you probably will not say to yourself that what brought great meaning to your life was a statistics course… We’re seeing students doubling down on their STEM fields, eclipsing a broader, non-STEM education.
Dr. John Seery
Professor of Politics, Pomona
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campus
campus
Computer Science on Campus
At Pomona College, for example, the number of declared computer science majors has increased from 18 in 2010 to 59 in 2015. Enrollment in the introductory computer science course for prospective majors at Pomona has seen an even more drastic inflation. In the fall of 2009, only 30 students were enrolled in an introductory CS course; by
This enormous rise in enrollment has put a strain on the administrative capacity of CS departments across the 5Cs. “Everything has become much harder”, says Kim Bruce, PO ‘70, the Winslow professor of Computer Science and chair of Pomona’s Computer Science department. “We know that the quality of the classes go down as the class size increases,” says Bruce. “Computer Science is not a discipline that you can learn by sitting in the back of class and listening to things,” he adds. Another CS professor, Zachary Dodds at Harvey Mudd, echoes these ambivalent sentiments. “There is perhaps a trade-off between the class experience and the class size, but we’re just rolling with it, or muddling with it, depending on your point of view.” This is a stark change from ten years ago, when Pomona’s Computer Science program was simply a minor branch of the math department. The department’s growth has been incredibly rapid—as Bruce puts it, “We worked hard for many years to increase the enrollments in computer science...all of a sudden, [the students] bought into it.” Such a dramatic rise in enrollment demands an explanation. The popularity of Computer Science is not a local phenomenon; it is almost surprising that the Claremont Colleges have not seen this rise in popularity until now. Why have 5C students “bought into” CS in the past five years?
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Some, such as the Pomona College Memorial Professor of Politics John Seery, see the growth in popularity of computer science as one manifestation of a broader trend of STEM subjects receiving a disproportionate amount of attention because of their perceived economic and intrinsic value. “I worry that the assumption that STEM fields can lead to gainful employment has been vastly overstated,” Seery says. “Any knowledge-based field can be outsourced in this digital age.” Yet Seery also believes that looking to STEM fields for personal economic stability has broader existential consequences. “I don’t think that students should sell themselves short with being overspecialized in disciplines that seem quasi-vocational because they are so technical,” he says. There is just as much if not more value, he seems to imply, in academic disciplines that are of broader scopes and less tech-heavy or specialized. A course in literature might orient your path in life in a different way than a CS class, he hints, but should not be devalued for its “lack” of vocational potential as a major. “When you’re on your deathbed, looking back on your life, you probably will not say to yourself that what brought great meaning to your life was a statistics course,” says Seery, though he hastens to add that “This is not to say that science shouldn’t be an integral part of a broad liberal arts education – we’re seeing something different. We’re seeing students doubling down on their STEM fields, eclipsing a broader, non-STEM education.” Perhaps the fear among non-CS faculty is that in its attractiveness to students, the department has become something of a tyrant on the college campus; it could be a prioritization among students of “quasi-vocational” knowledge that pulls them away from the myriad of other potential subjects. Seery’s instinct about the prevalence of STEM is borne out by the statistics, at least at Pomona. In 2014, the ever-multiplying number of
graduating CS majors joined a class of natural science majors that, combined, was over twice as big as any other division. Yet in his view, this trend is not a good thing for STEM students or for the departments themselves. With regards to CS, its popularity stems not only from concern with economic security, he says, but from what Seery describes as a wrongheaded epistemological notion. According to Seery, “There have been people like [the philosopher] Heidegger and others many years ago who thought that modern democracy tended toward a kind of instrumental rationality that would valorize technical and specialized pursuits as if they deliver an unassailable authority.” The specialized and technical nature of certain types of STEM pedagogies that this instrumental rationality encourages, he believes, is antithetical to the
nature of the disciplines themselves. “People think that STEM disciplines provide a more guaranteed form of knowledge. In fact, the fields of science are real rickety and exploratory and inventive, and to be a good scientist, you have to be really broad-minded and acclimated to failure,” said Professor Seery. It doesn’t seem, at least at the 5Cs, that all students interested in CS pursue it for its vocational appeal. The type of exploratoration and inventiveness that Seery purports as being central to the STEM fields is something that Professor Dodds sees being practiced among the students he teaches. “I see CS being used, and students imagining that these are tools that I can use on the path that I’m on,” Dodds said. “That’s very exciting, because these are paths that haven’t traditionally taken advantage of computing as a tool.” Professor Kauchak agrees; rather than subscribing to the view of Computer Science
as part of a set of narrowing, technical disciplines, he views it as a tool that can be implemented in any discipline that its practitioner might be interested in applying it to. Professor Bruce shares this conception of Computer Science. In his view, Computer Science is the “queen of the liberal arts...it fits into almost any discipline out there, just as, for example, a background in statistics is useful for almost anything you could do.” In these faculty members’ eyes, CS embodies the multidisciplinary values of the liberal arts college. But how multidisciplinary can CS be when it lacks multidisciplinary students? Only the trajectories of the ever-expanding body of CS majors, it seems, will tell.
claremontportside.com | volume XII issue 3 | march 2015 | page 5
campus
campus
the Will the Presidential race be any different in 2016? By Maryl Evans National Editor Emeritus, SC ’17 & Anna Balderston, Staff Writer, CM ‘18 The “will they or won’t they” of who will run in 2016 is already abuzz across the nation. Additionally, the fight in Washington due to President Obama’s executive action on immigration and the increasing threat of the Islamic State in the Middle East harkens back to the same divisive issues that have marked every election since 9/11. One thing that will be markedly different is the unimaginable growth in money to be spent during the campaign.
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Elizabeth Warren has already displayed her expertise regarding the economy and largescale bankruptcy law in congress and she could have even greater impacts in the White house.
CM ‘18
Same Names, New Faces
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Jasmine Shirley
The big names of the election will be the same big names of 1992: Clinton and Bush. Despite her relation to ex-President Bill Clin-
ton, Hillary Clinton is the current frontrunner for the Democratic Party. If elected, she will be the first woman President of the United States. Whether or not she will evoke the same idea of “change” as her predecessor is unclear at the moment.
benefit voters looking for an alternative to the hawkish foreign policy advocate, but also provide a party mandate of support for Clinton based on her accurately representing the Democratic Party, not because of some political prophecy beyond voters’ control.
Jasmine Shirey (CM ‘18) notes that there is widespread support for some of Hillary’s policies, while others are more controversial. “I certainly appreciate Clinton’s emphasis on education and the environment,” said Shire, “such as the $100B per year by 2020 for climate change mitigation, and agree with the majority of her views on civil rights, such as her effort to advance women in the workplace, her support of gay marriage, and the work she has done to reinforce anti-discrimination and equal-pay requirements. However, I disagree with her support of the death penalty and wish she took a stronger stance on gun control.” Indeed, Hillary has some strong supporters among women’s rights groups and climate change activists, but these groups lament some of her more conservative views.
In light of the hunt for a Clinton challenger, two Democrats have expressed interest: former Virginia Senator Jim Webb and Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley. The outgoing and youthful O’Malley is currently traversing the nation building a gradual name for himself and capturing scant media attention, and Webb presents a fascinating appeal to Southern Democrats. However, if the 2014 midterm election is any indication of the kinds of voters populating the southern United States, the Southern Democrat is long dead.
It is worth noting that Democrats were singing the same optimistic tune in support of Hillary Clinton leading up to the 2008 Democratic primary elections before an energetic Senator Obama reinvigorated the beleaguered party in ways Clinton’s campaign failed to effectively challenge. It is no different this year; another spirited upstart may still unseat Hillary Clinton if “change” is still what the American populace is seeking. However, as Clinton continues to dominate the media as the prospective Democratic nominee, there is little mention of serious threats. A viable challenger may not only
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While some may cling to an Elizabeth Warren run for the presidency, to do so may doom the Democratic Party to a contentious primary by dividing the Party when unity is the key to winning. Shirey, a Warren supporter, is still hopeful. “[Warren] has done amazing work in the Senate fighting for the middle class and students in particular,” said Shirey. “She has already displayed her expertise regarding the economy and large-scale bankruptcy law in Congress and she could have even greater impacts in the White House. I would love to see her run.” In sum, the Democratic primary could be interesting if a competent challenger steps up to the plate, but if everyone is really #ready for Hillary than this election may not be overly exciting. Similarly, Jeb Bush’s recent speech on foreign
affairs and open disclosure of email communications suggests an ambition for 2016. Bush’s real challenge will be differentiating himself from his brother’s earlier policies. Nate Silver recently echoed concerns that Bush is too moderate for the base, a problem that befell both John McCain and Mitt Romney. So where will the voters turn? “I consider myself more to the Libertarian side, so I don’t really follow either the Democratic or Republican standpoints” said Jose Ruiz (PO ‘16.) “[I am] more interested in the Republican candidates because there is a lot more variety in that field.” Like many college students disillusioned by certain aspects of the two-party system, Ruiz’s ideal candidate is defined by their focus (preferably, “either reducing the size of government and their influence or improving economic conditions”) and their passion for change, not necessarily their political affiliation. Immigration Reform: Same Issue, New Takes Perhaps one key issue during the campaign season will be who can posit the more appealing solution to the American immigration crisis. President Obama took a step towards resolving the issue and tearing down the stigma recently. “Generations of immigrants have made this country into what it is,” President Obama said in his speech last November. “It’s what makes us special.” The President followed up on this speech by introducing an initiative to grant deportation deferrals for over four million undocumented immigrants living in the United States. Republicans responded with incense to the President’s astute move. “If we don’t think that message is making its way back to Mexico and Central America, we are simply fooling ourselves,” said Mitchell McCaul (R-Texas.) “We will see a wave of illegal immigration be-
cause of the president’s actions.” Democrats are likely to recommend a similar solution to Obama’s, but one that attains Congressional approval before implementation. Republicans are likely to remain divided over the party’s official stance on immigration reform. Unless Republicans offer up a better plan and/or the Democrats offer a bipartisan solution, the Democratic candidate will need to appeal to the masses on immigration, particularly when considering the increasing influence of Latino voters on electoral outcomes. A Lot More Money “Super-PACs,” officially known as “independent expenditure-only committees,” will be more prominent in the 2016 elections than ever before. These “super” political action committees are relatively new concepts: they were deemed constitutional in just 2010 by the court decisions in Citizen United v. Federal Election Commission and Speechnow.org v. FEC. Before these cases, organizations were prohibited from funding any sort of campaign ads within sixty days of a general election. However, these decisions changed the way individuals could financially influence elections through larger organizations. In the former case, Citizens United, the Supreme Court cited the First Amendment to maintain that corporations could make independent political expenditures, but with limits on the size of individual donations to those political action committees. The latter case, Speechnow.org, solidified the formation of Super-PACs by abolishing limits on individual contributions to PACs. In other words, these PACs are the means for the very rich to give to candidates—anonymous for a temporary
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period—and side-skirt the individual contribution cap of $2,600.
I am more interested in the Republican candidates because there is a lot more variety in that field.
Jose Ruiz PO ‘16
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Same Candidates, Same Issues, More Money
2016 will be an important year for SuperPACs because the wealthiest Americans are now more familiar with the PAC system, and have boosted their fundraising goals. The Koch brothers recently pledged $900 million towards the Republican Party in 2016. Although endorsements from powerful public figures have always been known to influence elections (think Obama’s endorsement of Elizabeth Warren in 2012), the financial support given to candidates via Super-PACs is a new, unrestricted method of contributing to elections. This uninhibited political spending has both positive and negative effects on fair, free, democratic elections, especially considering individuals can fund one candidate’s campaign either publicly or anonymously. CMC Government Professor Andrew Busch notes that, despite their association to the very wealthy, the unlimited contributions of super-PACs allow the public more political freedoms: “The federal government spends nearly four trillion dollars a year, taxes nearly three and a half trillion dollars a year, produces around 40,000 pages of regulations a year, and claims increasing control over
claremontportside.com | volume XII issue 3 | march 2015 | page 7
The federal government spends nearly four trillion dollars a year, taxes nearly three and a half trillion dollars a year, produces around 40,000 pages of regulations a year, and claims increasing control over nearly every aspect of American life. Trying to keep people from putting resources into elections that heavily affect those decisions is like trying to keep water from flowing downhill.
Andrew Busch
Professor of Government, Claremont Mckenna
nearly every aspect of American life. Trying to keep people from putting resources into elections that heavily affect those decisions is like trying to keep water from flowing downhill.” Super-PACs are indeed a long-awaited means for individuals to have a national effect in campaigns via third-party funding. It gives constituents a stronger influence on political decision-making. On the other hand, super-PACs can also be detrimental to democratic elections. The FEC allows contributors to remain anonymous for a few months, which, says Busch, “makes it difficult for voters to assess the nature of the organization and its aims.” For example, the Romney-focused super-PAC Restore Our Future raised $60 million in 2012. Even after the window of anonymity, contributors found ways to keep their donations unassociated with themselves personally. “Phantom companies” such as W Spann LLC, which contributed $1 million to Restore Our Future, allow individuals to remain anonymous under the cover of a “dummy” corporation. This loophole shows the disconcerting lack of transparency in Super-PAC donations. Knowing the names and associations of donors would allow ordinary voters to assess the true motives and loyalties of candidates. Shirey notes that, even if these contributions are not anonymous, using super PACs as a means of avoiding the $2,600 individual spending limit gives corporations and their
wealthy owners an unfair influence. “While David and Charles Koch shouldn’t be blamed for their net worth of more than $100 billion, that number shouldn’t allow them or their companies to drastically mold the political scene” said Shirey. Given that the 2016 elections will have even more individuals’ money involved than 2012, it is reasonable to assume that billionaires will have an increasingly strong influence on elections in the future. However, as Busch notes, super-PACs can be considered an amplified voice of the people, concentrating individual interests in a third party able to “check” the government with its right to free speech. “Why would we give the government additional power to restrict the instrument by which government is to be held accountable?” he says. Indeed, super-PACs, although representative of special interests, are just another means of democratic freedom of speech.
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international
Family ties in a One Child state
of fair elections and the right of free speech, the process requires three improvements. First, it is necessary to mandate immediate disclosure of individual contributors in order to create transparency about candidates’ aims and special interests. Second, “phantom” or “dummy” companies should be prohibited from contributing to super-PACs so that anonymity is completely unachievable.
By April Xiaoyi Xu Senior Staff Writer and Copy Editor, PO ‘18 1:6. What does this ratio mean to you? Perhaps nothing in particular. Maybe the faculty-student ratio here at the Claremont Colleges shown on our fancy brochures? For many Chinese youth, this ratio represents the amount of individuals they will support in retirement (two parents and four grandparents.) “When the ‘one child’ [of the house] is a spoiled only child,” said Pomona College professor of history Samuel Yamashita, “ a case that is not uncommon in China, [such responsibility may not be duly fulfilled.]” “First, it means that China is confronting a future demographic transition in which the population will peak in 2030 and then gradually decline,” said CMC History professor Arthur Rosenbaum. “Thus, the government
needs to shift its economy so it is less dependent on growth that comes from low cost labor, especially those moving from low productivity rural jobs to the cities.” “Second, there are the issues of social insurance and rising costs associated with an aging population,” said Rosenbaum. “What once was the purview of the family where children could be expected to care for the elderly is not sustainable. Third, the [One Child] Policy has altered all traditional conceptions of family and generational hierarchy.” Under the One Child Policy, the single child of a typical Chinese family would need to take care of four grandparents and two parents. Although the Policy, originally aimed to reduce the country’s rapid population growth, is currently undergoing reform through the loosening of its restrictions, the 37-year-old law has already caused demographic concerns
and made the country’s aging population a more serious issue. The relaxation of the One Child Policy is one solution to the issue. On an individual basis, many young Chinese couples have decided to let the retiring communities, or “Eldergardens,” take care of the elderly members of their families, generating promising business opportunities for many corporations. According to an article entitled “Eldergardens soothe China’s aging pain,” in China Daily, Chinese traditional culture promotes caring for the elderly by helping them rest, so their retirement communities encourage “self-care.” Examples of “self-care” are demonstrated in an array of marketable services, including art exhibition and daily screenings of “old films” to satiate the taste of this segment of the population. continued on page 10...
Lastly, setting spending caps for super-PACs and individuals in conjunction is necessary so that corporate “speech” does not drown out the voices of the larger population. Finding this balance is imperative to limit the powerful influence of the wealthy in the political sphere, but also to protect the freedom of expression for those individuals and their corporations.
As the American Civil Liberties Union states, “Our system of free expression is built on the premise that the people get to decide what speech they want to hear; it is not the role of the government to make that decision for them.” In other words, the individuals who contribute to super-PACs have every right to exercise their opinions, even if, as the ACLU also states, “access to money often plays a significant role in determining who runs for office and who is elected.” In order for super-PACs to retain the integrity Hugh Barryman, PO ‘15
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claremontportside.com | volume XII issue 3 | march 2015 | page 9
international
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Aging in East Asia
Political scientists say that when one gets old, he or she gets poor. The issue for countries would be how to get rich first before getting old first. The issue discussed could also be considered in terms of the status of the economy. “When economic growth slows down,” said Professor Yamashita, “the younger members of the family would be less able to support the elderly members. They might lose their jobs, for instance.”
international
Taking the information that we have gathered, we could broaden our perspective by briefly looking at the aging populations in two of mainland China’s neighbours, Hong Kong and Japan. Hong Kong, as one of the ‘four Asian dragons’ alongside South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan, is not affected by the One Child Policy. Governed under the “One Country, Two Systems” principle, the Special Administrative Region also sees the aging population as an issue. A fact sheet published by the Hong Kong government outlines the major components in addressing the needs of the elderly’s welfare. Such approaches include social security, the Old Age Allowance scheme, and community services to care for the elderly. Perhaps this Asian dragon could provide an example of a country that gets rich before it gets old, although such methods have not been sufficient, still, to address the needs of the SAR’s citizens.
Based on his research, Professor Shelton stated that the extent to which an aging population leads to an increasing public sector depends crucially on “the generosity of oldage benefits, primarily pensions and related health care (e.g. medicare).”
Japan, China’s neighboring country that has a love-hate relationship with China, has the oldest population in Asia. Japan provides another example of a country which could get rich first before getting old. Yet the very richness of its economy in the past decades resulted in overall trend for longevity among the elderly. According to Professor Yamashita, a Japanese-American who grew up in Hawaii, towns and villages outside big cities in Japan tend to feature inter-generational households, where 3 to 4 generations would live under the same roof. Parents are usually well taken care of in those villages and towns. In cities, by contrast, households are mainly one-generation. The decline of liberal democratic parties and the growing strength of left leaning parties may also have contributed to the issue in Japan. Under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s leadership, the Japanese government has been striving to encourage marriage and other means of alleviating the negative effects of this problem, although in a longer time frame.
“My perception is that East Asian countries are very different than the Western countries that have been the pioneers of aging societies in that East Asian countries tend to have a thinner welfare state. As a result, there may be room for optimism about their ability to constrain the explosive growth of government spending as a society ages,” said Shelton.
As the Japanese economy slows down, the younger people in the labour markets are increasing less well off than the older workers who retain the benefits of relative wealth from a previous, more economically benign environment. Meanwhile, the country has also been seeing a shortfall in its pension schemes. As the young have to bear more burdens in
“Richer countries tend to have older populations due to earlier demographic transitions,” said Professor Cameron Shelton of CMC’s Robert Day School. Professor Shelton published a well-known omnibus study that jointly tests different hypotheses on why governments of different countries and time periods have different patterns of public spending. “So, is government spending larger because of demographics or wealth? Professor Shelton was able to show that it is mainly due to demographics, as aging populations push up pension spending.
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order to care for the elderly, Japan’s richness before getting old actually leads to its own sets of problems as well, although very different from those faced by China. Professor Rosenbaum said, “The Japanese population peaked at about 127 million and has started its decline which will go to 84 million by 2100. This means that while the One Child Policy artificially started the process of fertility reduction in China, the phenomenon is commonplace throughout East Asia. It is related to urbanization, increases in education, feminism and the desire to have a more affluent life style. In Japan and now in China we see many women not wishing to marry or marry late, to have no children or only one.” How, then, would the issue of aging populations in East Asian countries be relevant to us in Claremont, if we are not from those countries? Two miles from Pomona College lies one of the best retirement communities in the United States. Not only do residents of Mount San Antonio Gardens enjoy the beautiful weather and the charming village, they also immerse themselves in the arts and educational opportunities that the Claremont Colleges have to offer. On the senior community’s official website, one can learn about its 46-year history and take a virtual tour on its 30-acre campus, which proudly reflects a timeless beauty on its park-like grounds. Professor Yamashita, during the interview, said that Mt. San Antonio Gardens has been ranked as one of the top 10, even top five at times, retirement communities in the United States in terms of quality of services that is provided to the elderly. “Former presidents of Pomona College have lived there, alongside a former president of the University of Chicago, Former CalTech professors and Nobel Prize winners and business elites.” Despite that the main topic is about the aging population in East Asia and not in the United States, the above description of a renowned senior community so close to us reflects the global significance of the topic. Although East Asia is far away from Claremont locationwise, we should be paying attention to global issues as such, and use the knowledge that we have gathered from our liberal arts education to solve these issues.
Greece in the Spotlight
Is Greece’s economic crisis still shaking the world? By Alex Baude Staff Writer, PZ ‘18
were to leave the union within such a short span of time.
Greece will be in the spotlight for the next several months until June, when the country will either have to pay its debt or present a solution on how to move forward. Failing this, the country will be forced to declare bankruptcy and leave the Eurozone. There are many who would argue for the country’s departure, with Germany seemingly leading the charge; however, there are also many scholars who defend Greece, giving example after example of why and how its ousting from the Eurozone would detrimentally affect the world market. The “solution” is not clear by any means, but the effects and arguments of leaving or remaining in the EU are worth a close inspection.
Another, more selfish reason for Greece to stay is the outright need to pay back their massive debt. Colossal sums of money have been used to bail the country out repeatedly—sums that, in the eyes of the IMF, ECB, and especially Germany, need to be reimbursed. The paradoxical central problem is that although a majority of the population wants Greece to stay with the euro and pay them back, they voted into power a party that promised debt forgiveness. In other words, the Greek people understand the importance of the euro and want to avoid returning to the drachma at all cost, but don’t want their country to pay back the debt—as doing so is well out of the country’s means.
One of the most prominent reasons for Greece to stay within the Eurozone is the effect it will have on the rest of the world were it to leave. Having to declare bankruptcy will not only make the multi-billion euros of debt towards Troika (International Monetary Fund, European Central Bank, and the European Union) simply evaporate, it will also create huge anxiety in the international market at large.
Of course, this would mean having to declare bankruptcy, which will throw Greece out of the Eurozone. Now the country is stuck in a harmful self-inflicting cycle, only staying afloat from the bailout money it has received thus far. Some more optimistic scholars, such as Kent Hughes, the director of the Global Economy at the Woodrow Wilson Center, claim that Greece needs to be helped as much as possible until it can reform a civic structure that in the long term will be able to pay back its debt. But that is a very hopeful statement, far from the actuality of today, and perhaps there will be no legal obligation in the long term if debts are forgiven now.
This anxiety will put pressure on southern European countries once more, including Italy. Or, as George Washington professor Rehman Scherazade put it: “Italy is too big to save.” If Italy collapses, then many more less financially stable countries will fall—leading to yet another global market crisis. In other words, the economic backlash of Greece’s departure would be too much for the world to bear. However, the EU is still not at the same economic level as it once was. Between the United Kingdom putting pressure on the EU with threats of leaving, and Greece in the midst of the financial crisis and impending bankruptcy, the future of Europe’s integrity is unclear. One can imagine the piece-by-piece dismantling of the supranational project known as the EU that would occur if two countries
To take a look at the mindset of the opposition, there are many who think that Greece should leave. In their eyes, the principal argument for such a stance is that Greece is too far gone — it will never be able to pay back its debts, and, as it stands today, will only continue to take more money from Troika, never to be reimbursed. In short, why should Greece be a part of the Eurozone if it cannot pull its own weight? Germany has much less to lose were Greece to leave, due to its skilled maneuver of pulling out much of its banks’ capital in countries
including Greece, Italy, and Portugal. It is no secret that the German government is far from keen on cooperating with the new Greek government led by Alexis Tsipras. In fact, when Germany found out that Greece’s government was adamantly against leaving the Eurozone for fear of economic disaster, the country refused any terms of negotiation regarding debt forgiveness, increasing the pressure against Greece to provide solutions that are not linked to declaring bankruptcy. The bottom line is that Greece is in trouble and there is no clear solution. As of now, in June, one of two things will happen: Greece will declare bankruptcy, which will destroy its international capital as well as trading capabilities and plunge the country into deep economic depression for many years. The other possibility is that Troika will once again bail Greece out so that its economy can stay afloat for a little while longer—prolonging the final decision once more. “It remains to be seen whether the Eurozone can sustain the consensus needed to maintain the Eurozone [as is] in the long term,” said Scripps professor of international relations Sarah Popiden, “as a Greek exit is an outcome both sides have expressed a desire to avoid.” Greece’s removal will affect everyone heavily, including Germany; even though the country has been rather stern in its stance, it is clear that a Greek departure should be avoided at all costs. What will most likely happen is another bailout to sustain the country until the next day of reckoning. What is apparent is that Greece’s GDP has fallen by a quarter since 2009, the unemployment rate currently sits at twenty-five percent, austerity measures have been disastrous, and barely one-third of the population has easy access to the Internet. The people of Greece have suffered greatly throughout this ordeal and have great need for peace of mind. The future of the country and the people is in the hands of Alexis Tsipras—and only time will tell if he can handle both effectively.
claremontportside.com | volume XII issue 3 | march 2015 | page 11
international
Professor Yamashita, who has been to East Asian countries including China on several occasions, commented that the “retiring homes” in China often have very old facilities. This contrast in observations between the richer eldergardens and the retirement homes for the poorer individuals raises an important question of whether lucrative business owners are seeking profit-maximising opportunities through the fact that the young may not support the elderly at home due to issues like time and budget constraints. This question brings us to the interconnectedness between the political economy and the private sector businesses and the civil society at large.
the Asian Americans in Mainstream Media
Is Hollywood more racist than it seems?
The statistics overwhelmingly exemplify the diversity gap that exists in the Academy. From 1927 to 2012, 6 percent of the Academy voters, consisting of over 6,000 members, were people of color and of that 6 percent, less than 1 percent was Asian. In the last 10 years, no acting Oscar winners have been of Asian descent and 88 percent of Academy actors have been white. Furthermore, writers and producers largely determine who are cast in supporting and leading roles and what ideas get developed. 98 percent of Academy producers and writers are white, leading to the restriction of stories that are told and the role of Asian Americans in those films. This leaves out diverse kinds of views and experiences as most Hollywood movies are told through the lense of white individuals. For years, Asians have either been excluded in the mainstream cinema process or have mostly played the same kind of roles. Marginalized groups in society can easily be absent in the media, leading to the normalization of prejudice and inequality. “Not just in the Academy, but also in Hollywood over-
<1%
studies at Pitzer College. “Network television is a very controlled medium. In dominant media industries such as this and what we commonly call ‘Hollywood,’ there are automatically limitations in terms of form and content, so my teaching is not centered on dominant media alone, but rather consider them within a larger spectrum of industrial, independent, activist and experimental productions.” Recently, “Fresh Off the Boat”, a new television comedy on ABC Family with Asian American protagonists, has had renowned success furthering the conversation around race in television.
Asian
93% 6%
People of Color
23%
White
Asians in particular are not nominated as often for categories both onscreen and in production. There is an evident racial disparity among members and nominees in the Academy Awards which has constructed a barrier for the opportunities presented to Asian Americans. This lack of representation breeds racial stereotypes, which thus limits the roles Asian Americans are offered in film as well as in television.
77%
Women
“Welcome to the 87th Oscars! Tonight we honor Hollywood’s best and whitest—sorry brightest,” quipped Neil Patrick Harris as he opened this year’s Academy Awards, the most prestigious and elite honors given to recognize achievements in the film industry. The Academy, consisting of over 6,000 members, has been criticised for a lack of racial diversity in its award nominations.
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science Members
Men
By Nimrah Imam Copy Editor and Staff Writer, SC ‘17
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences all, there are very few roles played by Asian American actors and few nominations of their production work. I don’t know the exact percentages, but I’m sure the numbers are very low,” said Xijia Yuan (SC ’17), a media studies major and member of the Asian American Sponsor Program. For an Asian American actor, there are few diverse roles offered that are not stereotypical. There is a certain narrative portrayed, most of which pertains to the assimilation struggle of Asian Americans. Yuan believes, “People in Hollywood are trying to break down the stereotypes, however, there is not as much effort to make it as effective as it can be. You see these big budget films that still portray Asian stereotypes.” Yet there are restrictions in mainstream media that are set in stone when it comes to producing cinema and television. “My academic engagement with Asian American media is focused on independent and experimental works,” said Ming-Yuen S. Ma, professor of media
“I don’t work on or study television, but I did start watching the new ABC sitcom ‘Fresh Off the Boat’ soon after it premiered,” said Professor Ma. “‘Fresh Off the Boat’ is the first show since ‘All-American Girl’ (1994-1995) that centers around an Asian American family so, for me, this is first and foremost about visibility. Are there Asian/Asian American characters on TV at all, and then we can think about their representational politics in context - the stereotype debate needs to be complicated and expanded beyond its current terms.” It is not the issue of stereotypes that is most pressing. The story of Asian Americans as immigrants reaching for the ‘American Dream’ has become the dominant angle in most mainstream media outlets. However, there is no denying the mark of progress in Asian Americans in television from “Fresh Off the Boat.” “As a viewer, I would argue that, so far, ‘Fresh Off the Boat’ does not engage or refute stereotypes in expected ways. It has idiosyncratic, complex characters and has moved past the positive/negative debate, the good/bad dichotomy of stereotypes. The comedy in the show is centered on intergenerational relationships, with which many Asian American as well as other immigrant communities can identify. I find ‘Fresh Off the Boat to be quite sharp and smart as a sitcom, and I plan on continuing to watch it!” said Professor Ma.