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Letter from the Editor Dear Globalist Readers, This semester we challenged our writers to think about the different meanings and manifestations of “status�. Our writers interpretted the theme in unique ways ranging from discussing global poverty to analyzing Japanese pop culture. We hope reading these articles will spark conversations on issues that affect not only students at Wellesley but also the larger global community. On behalf of The Wellesley Globalist staff, we want to thank all of our writers and contributors, for without their hard work and dedication, we would not have this magazine. We hope you enjoy this issue of The Wellesley Globalist and encourage you to contribute articles or photographs to our next issue. Please reach out to us through our Facebook page or email us at Globalist@wellesley.edu if you have questions or feedback. Best regards, Your Editors-in-Chief
Shannon Lu Computer Science and Economics Class of 2016
Wendy Ma Biology Class of 2017
Editorial Staff Business Director Caylene Parrish
Event Coordinators Christine Yang
Managing Editor Zarina Patwa
Associate Editors Andrea Aguilar Esa Tilija Janel Mendoza Sarah Moinuddeen Sarah Jeon Sam Muller Pauline Day Naomi Whitney-Hirschmann Mallika Sarupria Karen Moorthi Kat Schauer
Production Editor Kanika Gupta Secretary Mira Craig-Morse Copy Editors Amanda Kraley Audrey Choi 1
Photo Editors Anne Claire Kim Sarah Berry Centerfold Editors Portia Krichman Victoria Yu Layout Editors Cissy Hao Eliza McNair Rachel Utomo Susan Liu
Table of Contents Global Issues
3 7
Mental Illness: The Hidden Epidemic Assessing Singer’s Argument to Assist the Global Poor
Identity
11 13
Nationality: A Personal and Social Identifier Millennials: Apathetic Social Media Addicts or Ardent Socialists?
World Culture
17 21 25
Structured Deviance: Japanese Pop Culture and the Search for Identity When A Few Words Tore A Nation Apart: Youth and Government in 21st Century Unprotected Climate Refugees
Politics and History
29 32
What Happened to Colossus? Women Against Da’esh
Wellesley and Beyond
35 37
A Wellesley Alum in the Working World Ultimate Frisbee in North Korea
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Mental Illness: The Hidden Epidemic By Kanika Gupta Mrs. Ruknini Pillai’s 16 year old daughter has had schizophrenia for most of her life. However, when given the diagnosis, the first reaction was not regarding how to best approach treatment, but rather to avoid the shame that the situation would bring. The concerns were regarding marriageability and how the community would view the problem. In this situation, it is easy to blame the parents, but in truth, the issue is larger than that. It is a societal issue, and individuals are victim to this mentality. Mental illness is a giant, red question mark that each person and culture deals with differently. Some look directly at it and others avert their eyes. Some approach it with cold rationality and others with poetry.
Each country approaches this issue differently, depending on the culture and history. Unfortunately, India is one country that has taken the former approach, averting her eyes and avoiding the question mark in order to avoid the consequences of raising such questions. The stigma associated with mental illness needs to be dispelled in India so that the mental health epidemic can be addressed appropriately. This article is not a criticism suggesting that the culture of India is backwards or archaic, as often times portrayed in Western media. Undeniably, India has made many strides in the fields of science and art, has produced many social movements, and is home to a people that possess a large spectrum of beliefs. The
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Photo by: Miran Rijavec fact remains, however, that for all the progress made, a significant portion of the population still has not confronted the dire question regarding how to help people with mental illness. When it comes to the issue of mental illness in India, the current situation is quite dire. Mental illness is an unacknowledged epidemic that has impacted millions of people. According to the Movement for Global Mental Health, the leading cause of death of people ages 15 to 29 is suicide (this statistic is thought to be an underestimate, since a lot of these deaths are classified as accidents). Despite the severity of India’s mental illness problem, the current ratio of psychiatrists to the population in India is one of the lowest in the world: a mere 1 to 400,000 people. Part of the reason why mental health remains unacknowledged as an issue is because of the societal stigma against the mentally ill. According to the Times of India, people who are diagnosed with a mental illness or seeking therapy for personal reasons are labeled as insane. For those who are affluent or have a strong support system, however, the stigma may not be such an obstacle. Affluence is not the case for most of the population in India however. Overcoming the stigma towards mental illness is more difficult if one is poor, and exceptionally more so if one is a poor woman. According to the National Public Radio in it’s podcast titled, “In India, Stigma of Mental Illness Hinders
Treatment”, the stigma towards mental illness is highest in communities suffering from poverty. Women in such communities must obtain permission from their families in order to receive treatment and the judgement a woman faces from her community is often much harsher. Such judgment is not only a reflection of the enormous stigma associated with mental illness, but also causes people to avoid seeking official diagnoses. People will often opt for religious explanations and treatments instead so as not to incur the label of being insane. Many temples have priests who claim to possess cures for certain mental maladies and although official medical committees in India censure their methods, seeking “treatment” from these priests is still more popular than seeing a psychiatrist in many Indian communities. Even when one does receive an official diagnosis, the negative consequences can be significant. One such consequence is that the family of the mentally ill may disown the ill or attempt to distance themselves by placing them mental institutions. This is the case for many patients who are committed to mental institutions, but actually need some other form of treatment. Furthermore, it is likely that the community will perceive the family of the mentally ill negatively regardless of whether or not the ill are placed in an institution. Compared to the West, India is far more community-centered, and the opinions of the com4
munity matter to a far greater degree. Another potential negative consequence of receiving an official diagnosis is that the mentally ill person may not be able to find work. It is common for employers to fire employees who are seeing a therapist. Being diagnosed with a mental illness significantly decreases the likelihood of being employed and, thus, being able to support oneself. According to the Hindustani Times in the article, “Voices in their head: How India deals with Mental Disorders�, a woman, Bhavna (whose name was changed for privacy reasons), was diagnosed and received treatment with some trepidation. She and her family were not willing to give a public statement
about the positive impacts of the treatment however. They were concerned that people would be unwilling to hire her or provide housing. Revealing her identity could also impact other members of her family and prevent chances of marriage for both her and other female relatives. All of these factors combine to create many barriers for people who desire or need treatment for their mental illness. These barriers, along with the cultural unwillingness to acknowledge that mental health problems even exists, have resulted in a crisis. In order for India to properly care for its people, it is crucial that the stigma surronding mental health be eliminated so that people can get the treatment that they need.
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Photo by by:Freaktography Freaktogra6
Assessing Singer’s Argument to Assist the Global Poor By Katherine Schauer Imagine a child is drowning in a pond while you stand on the shore in a new pair of expensive dress pants. It is within your power to save the child if you jump into the pond at this very moment; however, this will certainly result in the ruin of your pants. Most people would agree that the moral course of action is to save the child’s life, even at the expense of your personal property. Now imagine a famine victim on the other side of the world is starving: it is within your power to assist her and stop her suffering by donating to aid agencies. Are we morally required to donate our money to end her suffering? In the article “Famine, Affluence, and Morality,” author Peter Singer uses these two examples to argue
for a radical transformation in the way affluent people respond to global poverty. The basis of his argument is founded on utilitarianism, which defines an act as being morally right if it maximizes the greater good, or “well-being.” Singer’s argument begins with the premise that suffering and death from lack of food, shelter, and medical care are bad. His second premise states that if it is in our power to prevent something bad from happening without sacrificing anything of comparable moral importance, we are morally obligated to do it. Singer then claims that by donating to aid agencies, we can prevent bad things from happening to people on the other side of the world. Because there are
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“It is important to distinguish the cause of this suffering and death in order for us to make an informed moral response that produces the greatest amount of good.”
Photo by Eric Kanalstein (UN) many poor people in the world who will suffer or die without aid donations, Singer concludes individuals must donate all of their resources to poverty relief until they suffer something of comparable moral importance; otherwise we are doing something gravely morally wrong. Let us return to the example of the famine victim. According to Singer’s argument, we are morally obligated to help her until we sacrifice something of comparable moral importance. This conclusion is reached for two reasons: Singer’s second premise— if it is in our power to prevent something bad from happening, we morally should to do it—does not take into account your proximity to the person in need. It does not matter if they are next door or across an ocean—you have an equal moral obligation to act. Second, the premise does not distinguish between cases in which you are the only person who can help, like the single person with a drowning child, or one of hundreds of thousands of people, as in the case of the famine victim. Therefore Singer’s argument points to a radical revision of how we should perceive our charitable donations. Giving away our money is not actually generous, but a moral obligation: not only should we be donating to charity, we should be donating up until the point where we sacrifice something of comparable moral importance, and very few things are of comparable importance to extreme, deadly poverty. Although I sympathize with the sentiment of
Singer’s argument and agree that everyone should do her part to aid in the end of global poverty, I have several reservations to address in this article. I begin by contextualizing Singer’s second premise, asking how this suffering and death came about and what we should do to maximize well-being. Next, I show how Singer’s argument still stands against empirical claims about the ineffectiveness of aid donations in reducing global poverty, as well as philosophical claims against the demands of the utilitarian principle maximizing well-being. Finally, I introduce a less demanding version of Singer’s conclusion by taking into account responsibility and fairness when maximizing well-being. One can hardly disagree with premise one: suffering and death from lack of food, shelter, and medical care are very bad. However, it is important to distinguish the cause of this suffering and death in order for us to make an informed moral response that produces the greatest amount of good. When a child is drowning in a pond, it is clear that you should swim out and save her. When a child is drowning of starvation on the other side of the world, the appropriate response is not as evident. Singer states that by donating to aid agencies, we can prevent death and suffering from global poverty, but since “Famine, Affluence, and Morality” was first published in 1972, the empirical evidence to back up this statement is lacking. According to the 2014 Global Humanitarian Assistance Report, a re8
cord $22 billion (US) of humanitarian assistance was raised; $4.7 billion was donated solely by the United States, the greatest amount of any single country. Yet as of 2012, the World Bank estimates 35 percent of the world population still lives on less than $3.10 a day. However, I believe Singer can easily counter this argument: if donating money to charity does not in fact prevent death and suffering, as initially advocated in the fourth premise of his argument, we should instead work politically to change the institutions that reinforce poverty, or do whatever else is in our power to best stop suffering and death. Regardless of the method of aid, as long as we are maximizing the potential good we can produce, Singer would say we are doing the morally right thing, and his argument for a positive duty to assist the global poor still stands. My reservations with Singer’s argument stem not from his empirical claims but from his second
premise’s inferred responsibility for other people’s actions. When arguing for charity donations, Singer says that although one might be tempted to donate a small sum and be done, not everyone in similar circumstances will donate. Therefore we not only must donate a little bit, but we must give until we sacrifice something of comparable moral importance in order to maximize well-being. Effectively, individuals are held responsible for all other individuals’ lack of action. If everyone was a morally upstanding citizen and donated money to aid organizations, the principle of maximizing well-being wouldn’t be so demanding because in theory, global poverty would be eradicated without anyone giving up major comforts (like the ability to buy a pair of new pants from time to time.) However, in our non-ideal world, not everyone will give money to aid organizations: why then should
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those individuals who donate be morally obligated to sacrifice even more than their fair share of their earthly possessions and pleasures, which clearly do not approach the moral importance of suffering and death due to famine? Liam Murphy fleshes out this argument in his book, Moral Demands in Nonideal Theory. The utilitarian demand to maximize overall well-being becomes absurdly demanding only in non-ideal situations; Murphy offers as an alternative the collective principle of beneficence, setting the benchmark of demands at the height of full compliance. Thus according to Murphy, if everyone giving a certain sum is sufficient to provide food, shelter, and medical care for all those living in poverty, we are only morally obligated to donate that sum. Although I believe in the utilitarian principle of maximizing well-being and agree that donating to
charities until suffering something of comparable mor al importance will maximize well-being, I also believe that this principle is unfair in our non-ideal reality. In the current world order of partial compliance, the more money you donate or political action you take, the greater amount of good you will produce. If it is within your power to donate $5, $100, or $1,000, you should do it; yet I would argue you do not need to give more than your fair share to end global poverty. I do not say this to make us complacent: I believe it is of the utmost importance that we all do our part to end global poverty. My hope in writing this article is that we are not daunted by the task at hand and claim fighting global poverty requires too much sacrifice on our part. The power to do something is within each of us, and we are all morally required to do our part in alleviating suffering and death due to global poverty.
Photo by Albert Gonzรกlez Farran - UNAMID 10
Nationality: A Personal and Social Identifier By Amber Qin “Where are you from?” is a question I am often confronted with, given my Asian appearance, in the United States. I respond with China then swiftly qualify, “but I finished high school in Connecticut,” intentionally omitting the “t”s to prove my partial American-ness. This is my tried and true method of retaining the attention of American strangers “in spite of,” as some might say, my Chinese nationality. I have learned firsthand that there is something fundamentally unique about nationality: it is more definitive than cultural background, for it is not a completely fluid gradient, and it is less rigid than citizenship, as such confers to the hard truth of bureaucratic legality. If we were to have a spectrum of all the ways in which people are grouped socially, nationality is somewhere in the middle, more rigid than linguistic affiliation, but more inflexible than citizenship status. It is hardly ever listed in the list of main social
identifiers, such as gender, sexuality or class, but it can be as divisive or unifying as race and class. It is a status symbol of systematic, and often unearned, power and privilege. In this paper I explore nationality through the lens of my personal experiences as a legal alien in the U.S. Like race and ethnicity, different nationalities form a power hierarchy. Like a class hierarchy where higher class statuses represent power and privilege, certain nationalities are perceived as more desirable or respectable. And like all other existing power hierarchies, the majority, which is Americans in this case, consciously or unconsciously act to preserve the status quo, and the minorities are often expected to conform to such. Nationality is defined as one’s belonging to or association with a state entity. The self- categorization theory posits that individuals bring with them relevant aspects of cognition to any environment, and such as-
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Photo by Bùi Linh Ngân
pects might range from experiences, to expectations, to values, goals and needs, according to the article “Self Categorization, Status, and Social Influence” by Julian Oldmeadow, Michael Platow, Margaret Foddy and Donna Anderson. As such, each of us associate values experiences with our nationalities. While I associate hard-working, harmony and community with my Chinese nationality, the American nationality is typically associated with courage, patriotism and individual expression. As a Chinese national in the United States, I am repeatedly reminded of this difference. At the beginning of each semester throughout my high school and college career, I would sit in the classroom, trying to discern the Chinese faces, from the Asian American faces, from other minorities, from the white Americans. Without any conscious effort, the Chinese students almost always congregate in seatings and in group projects. It is unclear to me whether my American friends notice the moving social groups, but it is safe to say that such in-group cohesion is always quite strong. While nationalities represent cultural and social differences, they also part of systematic privileges visible in daily life. For example, nationality implies physical mobility; my American friends are always wholly perplexed when I told them that as a Chinese citizen, I could not just pack up and go to Canada on a whim. If I wanted a visitor visa, I would need to mail supporting materials to the Canadian embassy, and the process takes no less than two to three weeks. If the American citizenship were to be one’s key to open countless doors in this world, then the American nationality would symbolize an unrealized power, priv-
ilege and pride. This position of superiority manifests itself in all other aspects of life from potential jobs to marriage in a heterogeneous society like the US. Although none of us takes it seriously, some of my Chinese friends and I sometimes joke about “marrying for American citizenship,” which is of course illegal and unethical, but much more cost-effective than paying half a million dollars for permanent residence status. Half a million dollars is the price listed by private immigration consultants in China—perhaps with or without consultancy fees as well—under the United States’ “Green Card Through Investment” program, if she does not have job or have a direct relative in the US. One may also qualify for a Green Card through “Diversity Immigration Program,” a program for citizens of countries where less than 50,000 natives have immigrated to the US in the past five years. In other words, you may qualify if French, Russian, or Egyptian, but you cannot qualify as a Canadian, a Jamaican, or for that matter, a Chinese. People love to say that America is built around the principle of free immigration, but negative social connotations associated with minority nationalities have always persisted. As congregated, publically visible minority groups, Chinese or Vietnamese simply do not quite qualify. Nationality is as much about citizenship as it is about cultural identification. It does not matter how many times I have read the Constitution or the Declaration of Independence, nor does my preference for forks over chopsticks make any difference. As long as the state system prevails in the international arrangement, I will continue to hold the value that I have today because of my nationality. 12
Millennials: Apathetic Social Media Addicts or Ardent Socialists?
By Genae Matthews
Buzzfeed is officially more popular than the Los Angeles Times. A self-identified socialist is a political candidate, and iTunes just hit 800 million customers. These phenomena can only mean one thing: the millennials have arrived, and their ideals are becoming the norm. Millennials, or young adults born between 1980 and 2000, are the most populous generation since the Baby Boomers. According to a recent U.S. Chamber Report, the number of millennials worldwide is pushing 80 million. As the most studied generation in history, millennials are said to be confident, racially tolerant, tech savvy and optimistic. They possess these characteristics are in light of the fact that
they’re predicted to be the first generation since the “Lost Generation” to have less economic success than their parents. Small businesses and big corporations alike are rapidly attempting to adapt to the millennial presence. Millennial customers simply have different priorities than their predecessors, and sellers are rethinking the basics of marketing strategy to adjust. A 2014 Forbes Magazine article emphasizes millennials’ sociable nature, reliance on technology, and concern about ethical company mission statements, arguing that companies who fail to cater to these trends risk alienating an entire generation. Politicians are likewise faced with the need to
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Photo by Elizabeth Hahn
“Millennials aren’t always content to sit in cubicles or sacrifice long hours for goals which aren’t in line with their values”
adapt their platforms to millennial demands. The 2016 Presidential election has given topics like college tuition, healthcare for young adults, and entry level employment rates an unprecedented level of attention. The rise in controversy over social issues such as abortion rights and LGBTQ+ equality also represents a growing millennial voice in political discourse. The strength of the millennial vote is exemplified in the popularity of Bernie Sanders, a self-proclaimed socialist whose economic platform includes free college tuition. The pendulum of pop culture has swung its way to the millennial sphere as well. The music industry indulges millennial preferences through apps like Spotify and Pandora, even overtly catering to millennial interests with playlist titles such as “The Millennial Playlist” and “For Millennials.” Hollywood recently came out with “Carol” and “The Danish Girl,” films which are in line with millennial interest in LGBTQ+ rights, and an additional headliner film, “The Intern,” centers around a young, millennial CEO who sucessfully runs a startup online clothing store. Online tests such as “How Millennial Are You?” are easy to stumble upon, and PopSugar, an online pop culture platform, has popularized a series of memes called “20 Absurd Struggles Only Millennials Understand.” Unsurprisingly, all 20 memes hyperbolize the difficulties encountered when apps such as Snapchat don’t work as planned.
Millennials aren’t rising to this newfound spotlight without resistance. Past generations often deem millennials as overzealous technology-addicted narcissists, and corporations don’t shy away from critiquing millennial demands. If millennials aren’t said to be apathetically indulging in Netflix marathons, they’re taken to be overly ardent in advocating for social welfare programs. If they’re not shamed for spending too much money on electronic goods, millennials are denounced as thrifty for not investing in the housing market. Corporations speak especially negatively of millennials seeking employment in business. Marian Salzman, an ad agency executive, is quoted in a CBS article asserting that “you cannot tell [millennials] you’re disappointed in them. You can’t really ask them to live and breathe the company. They’re living and breathing themselves and that keeps them very busy.” While the self-confidence and innovativeness typical of millennials is ideal for entrepreneurship, such characteristics don’t necessarily lend themselves to traditional corporate work. It’s not that millennials dismiss the business world entirely. Companies such as Summly, a mobile news summarization app, Mashable, a global news site, Everlane, an online shopping platform and social media sites such as Tumblr and Snapchat were all founded by millennials. Nevertheless, it’s clear that business executives have the right to voice some con14
cern. The nature of a 21st Century startup is a far cry from the structure of a conventional corporation — vocalization of personal opinions and use of online forums are more common in the former. Millennials aren’t always content to sit in cubicles or sacrifice long hours for goals which aren’t in line with their values. Instead they’re passionate about developing their ideas into innovative platforms for productivity. They’re in tune to communication that’s consistently quick and engaging. Many Businesses see these preference as scary ones. It isn’t only the millennial mindset that makes corporations hesitant to open their doors to new employees –– millennials also possess very different skills than previous generations. They’re adept with MacBooks instead of Quickbooks, and would prefer to access online databases than leaf through paper manuals. All of the top positions in Career Cast’s “Best Jobs for Millennials,” involve technology. Contrastingly, very few of them involved communication, and none of them involved writing aside from short blurbs and blog posts. In addition to their individuality, millennials are seen as the generation who lack traditional long-form writing and secretarial office skills. Of course, the millennial attributed views portrayed in this article are by no means illustrative of the entire generation. Yet it’s undeniable that the majority millennial character presented here is an influential presence. The fact that millennials are enjoying this
near-celebrity status should not be seen as a bad omen. Millennial global perspective, optimism, and adeptness with technology have the potential to be beneficial, not detrimental. Perhaps large scale businesses will lose some of their popularity to small start-ups, grassroots campaigns will gain a political voice, and technology will an even larger presence in everyday life. I’d argue that those changes aren’t bad ones. Sure, Baby Boomer parents have raised millennials to think they’re oh-so-special, and millennial addiction to smartphones can get a little excessive. Maybe it’s true that millennials must learn how to collaborate and remember that things without touch screens aren’t meaningless. Certainly, it’s going to become harder for millennials to find employment (there are many more millennials than there are startups!) and possibly even more difficult for them to pay a mortgage. Yet millennials aren’t about to let those potential roadblocks hinder their potential to incite progress. The recent decades have seen momentous change, but to resist that change and the millennials who come with it is a mistake. Every generation has created the need for societal evolution in some manner, and though this one may be large in scope, its existence isn’t an anomaly. In an age of terrorists who threaten through their use of social networking, diplomats who post updates on Twitter, and a world more interconnected than ever through technology, it doesn’t seem ill-decided to let millennials take the lead.
“Millennial global perspective, optimism, and adeptness with technology have the potential to be beneficial, not detrimental.”
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Structured Deviance: Japanese Pop Culture and the Search for Identity By Maya Madhavan
In the past few decades, Japanese popular culture has become a global phenomenon, drawing millions of fans worldwide with its distinct subcultures and varied output. Despite its diverse fan base, the progenitors of Japan’s cultural exports and appeal are the average Japanese people who launched its cultural appeal into the stratosphere. Without them, exports such as haiku and manga could not have taken off, while others, like the Lolita fashion trend, would have never existed to begin with. The distinctive trends and strict structural makeup of many fan groups reveal that numerous modern day Japanese use popular culture to search for unique, vaguely Western identities while remaining in a collectivist and hierarchical societal framework that conforms to Japanese norms that were established in the Edo Period.
Japanese fans play the role of cultural innovators, each fabricating their own rendition of a particular style to try and break free from societal norms and creating fan led cultures in the process. The Vocaloid phenomenon epitomizes this trend. Vocaloid is a type of music that is created using sound banks. People buy packages with libraries of the same voice singing different notes and stitch together their own songs from them, then post those songs on Niconico, the Japanese version of YouTube. Each package is attached to a virtual character, and the most successful of these is Hatsune Miku, who performs songs that her fans create to sold out arenas. Fans choose to drive their own movements and invent original ideas in their constant search for the latest and greatest trends. Their creations allow them to
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“Despite their inherent differences, most concepts that gain sizeable followings in Japan share a degree of unconventionality.�
express themselves in one of a kind ways, again speaking to their need to stand out. This desire reverberates within the myriad of subcultures, making the average Japanese participant in these cultures a perpetual inventor of new trends. Despite their inherent differences, most concepts that gain sizeable followings in Japan share a degree of unconventionality. Many street fashions, which are especially popular amongst women, exemplify this predilection for eccentricity. At first glance, outlandish styles such as Lolita and Gyaru are polar opposites, yet their common focus on the excess makes them extremely attention grabbing. Lolitas wear layer upon layer of pastel fabrics blanketed in ribbons and bows while Gyarus tan, bleach their hair and dress promiscuously. In comparison, mainstream Japanese fashion is highly standardized, to which the stereotypical images of uniformed schoolchildren and suited employees can testify. As such, the overtly feminine Lolita style and extremely rebellious Gyaru both oppose standard modes of dress. Those who engage in these unconventional fashion trends reflect an eagerness to avoid the average. Yet another way in which Japanese fans try to stray from standard Japanese notions of taste is by looking to the West for inspiration. Many recent Japanese styles have a Western aesthetic that indicates that Japanese trendsetters pander to global audiences. Oftentimes, the most popular looks and styles veer sharply from traditional beliefs about beauty. For example,
the aforementioned Lolita style feature girls who are attempting to look like European bisque dolls and 18th century princesses, whereas Gyarus, who group themselves into self-described gangs, are inspired by classic images of tanned and blond Americans. This stands in contrast to the image of the kimonoed geishas who were idolized in the Edo Period. Additionally, the character Hello Kitty, possibly the defining symbol of Japanese pop culture, is supposedly a British girl named Kitty White. The Western attributes of these phenomena are partly a natural outcome of globalization and modernization. Post World War II, the Japanese public, who were once constrained by an extremely isolationist government, were introduced to the rest of world. Walt Disney, in fact, influenced Osamu Tezuka, the so-called godfather of manga, when the latter created his wide-eyed Americanized designs. The widespread fondness for Western looks marks a rejection of traditional Japanese culture, something that may arise from the post WWII occupation of Japan and a worldwide proliferation of Eurocentric ideas. Ultimately, Japanese creators want to take advantage of larger markets for their goods and Japanese consumers are inspired by international perspectives. Cross-cultural exchanges have transformed individual Japanese consumers into globalized citizens who view their worlds, and consequently their interests, through a broader lens. Through pop culture, Japanese fans hope to conform to Western conceptions of beauty and culture. 18
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On the surface, it appears that many trends in Japanese pop culture manifest a longing on the part of participants to completely disassociate from traditional Japanese society. From the Edo period, Japanese society has emphasized the needs of the group over the individual, and those of the nations before anything else, whereas these new trends are seemingly individualistic and pro-Western. In the past, culture and society were heavily restricted both internally and externally. Governmental and domestic regulation and censorship were rampant, meaning that both popular culture and the movements of people within society were highly controlled. This promoted group thinking and homogeneity within society. There were defined social groups within Japan, such as the samurai, the farmers and the Burakumin, the lowest class. Each group had its own social strata, forming a complicated hierarchy within which people lived. On the other hand, each subculture that exists today represents a group of people who are exempt from typical social hierarchies and have a freewheeling approach to their interests. As one Lolita member put it, many who engage in these subcultures do so outside of their everyday lives. These people feel restrained by repressive expectations that prevent them from being their true selves when they are not away from prying eyes. In earlier time periods and in today’s mainstream, 19
people were and are unable to act out on their impulses and attract attention as they do within their subcultures. However, the unconventional and westernized trends that have become popular ironically still fit into these established Japanese structures. Even in the Edo period, alternative lifestyles existed in red-light districts of the various cities, establishing a tradition of deviant subcultures. Despite standing at the forefront of their respective movements, members of Japanese subcultures are often part of a rule focused and rigorously structured environment. Gyaru gangs have defined rules regarding how to behave. Gyarus must dress and act promiscuously and those who best fulfill each group’s requirements are chosen as its leader. Modern day manga artists must first be apprenticed to established artists, while sushi chefs spend years preparing rice before they are allowed to make whole sushi. Strict regulations abound in society and in the subcultures that supposedly shun the ordinary. This obsession with perfection is an enduring Edo-era notion, as is the drive to subdivide groups. Many of the communities that form develop their own internal categorizations and ranking systems. Otakus are split into various fandoms, with fans of boys’ manga hardly interacting with fans of girls’ manga. Male Gyaru gangs have their own complex hierarchical struc-
tures. Since each member must adhere to the rules and inner social structures of their respective groups, the Japanese subcultural fan is a seeker and a follower, looking to their groups to learn and gain insight into how they should comport and portray themselves. The conventional attitude towards minorities in Japan was to allow them to exist but ignore them and
prevent them from becoming conspicuous. This perspective is something that has remained unchanged, as most sub-culturalists keep themselves hidden, limiting their activity to specific city districts, to fan conventions and museum exhibits. Therefore, Japanese fans treat popular culture as a way to express themselves, but view it from under a uniquely Japanese umbrella.
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When A Few Words Tore A Nation Apart: Youth and Government in 21st Century
By Kanupriya Gupta
Freedom of speech, perhaps the most fiercely contested right in our media-consuming world, is again under debate at one of India’s largest and most prestigious universities. Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in New Delhi has become the center of one of the most epic standoffs between youth and government that the country has seen in the last few years. This clash illustrates that the need for student dissent is needed now more than ever, because without student protest, student voices are entirely erased from legislature. This controversy began some time after the rise of Narendra Modi, India’s current Prime Minister and leader of the right-leaning Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), one of the two major Indian political parties. The BJP is overseen by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, or RSS, which is characterized as a right-wing, Hindu nationalist, militant organization that was founded to
create a “Hindu Rashtra,” or essentially a fundamentalist Hindu state. According to Al-Jazeera, the controversy at JNU started when student protesters spoke out against the executions of Afzal Guru and Maqbool Bhat, Kashmiri separatists convicted by the Indian government of terrorism and murder. These separatists wanted Kashmir, a Muslim-majority region ruled between Pakistan, China, and India, to be independent. The student protest led by Kumar and other activists was said to be using slogans that favored the self-determination of Kashmir. The right-leaning Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) party, the student-wing of the ruling BJP party, reported the student protesters to the police for their “anti-nationalist” sentiments. Afterwards, at least seven of the participating student protesters were taken into holding by the police, and subsequently
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charged for sedition. Four of these students were part of the All India Students’ Association (AISA), which is the the student wing of the Communist Party of India, that has previously faced clashes with the student ABVP party. After their arrest, many officials of the Indian government supported the intervention of the police, condemning the protest as being “unpatriotic” and “Anti-Indian.” Home Minister Rajnath Singh was quoted as saying: “If anyone raises anti-Indian slogans, tries to raise questions on the country’s unity and integrity, they will not be spared.” The president of the student body, Kanhaiya Kumar, was subjected to an initial three days in police custody. During the initial controversy surrounding his arrest, the Indian media did not leave the campus, giving observers across the world a glimpse into the complex campus politics surrounding the controversy. Rahul Gandhi, Vice-President of Indian National Congress, the other major political party in India, has been a key voice in showing support for the
student protest. On Twitter on from other political parties, such as Sitaram Yechury, General Secretary of the Communist Party of India, and Rahul Gandhi, Vice President of the Congress Party, came to the campus in support of the students’ protest. However, the institution itself has been forthright in their condemnation of the student protest led by Kumar. According to The Indian Express, Registrar Bhupinder Zutsh said that the detained students “will not be eligible for scholarship, and they won’t be allowed to attend classes or give their exams. However, if after the probe some students are let off the hook, we’ll take back the suspension.” Still, many students and teachers have been fighting back against the administration by calling for a shutdown of the university and refusing to take part in classes. Moreover, the JNU Teacher’s Association has strongly criticized the supposed “witch-hunt” by the institution, claiming that “the teachers of JNU always stand for upholding the Constitution of India... This very sentiment makes us express our strong op22
Photo by Wikipidea
position to attempts to use the law and police to suppress democratic dissent.” Furthermore, Al-Jazeera reports that an unprecedented volume of student protest against the arrest of Kumar has resulted in cities across India, such as Hyderabad, Chennai, and Kolkata. February 12th, he said: “While Anti-India sentiment is unquestionably unacceptable, the right to dissent & debate is an essential ingredient of democracy. Modi Govt & ABVP bullying an institution like JNU simply because it won’t toe their line is completely condemnable.” Gandhi, an adamant critic of PM Modi, has repeatedly criticized the BJP-ruling government, often accusing Modi of “bullying.” Even after Kanhaiya Kumar’s arrest, emotions were still running high between left-leaning and right-leaning factions. Kumar, who appeared on trial on February 14 at the Patiala Courts, was ruthlessly attacked outside the courthouse by a mob of lawyers proclaiming “Glory to Mother India” and holding In23
dia flags. These lawyers targeted Kumar because they disagreed with his stance on Kashmir, and many journalists and innocent bystanders were also injured in the attack as a result of the violence. However, students protests around the country supported Kumar, demanding that he be released from custody. According to India Today, three weeks after his detainment, Kumar was finally released on six-month interim bail on March 3rd, and was met with much enthusiasm from JNU students during his return to the campus. He gave a passionate 45 minute speech that was widely covered by major news outlets, in which he proclaimed that students only “‘want freedom in India, not from India.” According to the India Times, he unleashed “veiled attacks on Delhi Police, ABVP, Prime Minister Modi, BJP bhakts and certain media outlets” that had threatened student activism. This whole debacle illustrates why student voice is imperative for a democratic government to exist in
India, a country that claims to be the “world’s largest democracy.” We need students to raise objection when government authorities make questionable and unfair rulings that erase student voices and promote Hindu-Indian nationalism at the expense of other minorities. As stated by the New Indian Express, activist
Teesta Setalvad suggests that students must lend their voice and express dissent against those with a “rightwing agenda that aims to make a India a Hindu Rashtra.” India is a nation of many peoples, many religions, and many occupations, and all of their voices must be given equal weight.
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Unprotected Climate Refugees As many refugees cross borders hoping to start new lives and seek asylum, there are certain refugees fighting for that same right who are being denied: climate refugees. According to the Global Governance Project, the term climate refugee refers to the subset of environmental migrants forced to move “due to sudden or gradual alterations in the natural environment related to at least one of three impacts of climate change: sea-level rise, extreme weather events, and drought and water scarcity.” The UN Refugee Convention does not yet include climate change as a legitimate reason for seeking refuge. Those being affected most dramatically are residents of South Pacific island countries such as Tuvalu, Kiribati, Vanuatu, and the Maldives. These countries are often small and their residents uphold traditional livelihoods, leading them to be more vulnerable to change. Thus, climate refugees are often forced to flee to larger islands such as New Zealand. The world’s first case of climate refugees was approved in New Zealand in 2014, when a Tuvalese family sought, and was granted, asylum. However, this was a unique case as they had three generations of relatives already living in New Zealand. Later in the year, Kiribati man was deported back to his
Photo Credit: Valcarcel Silvela on Unicef 25
country from New Zealand after his application for asylum was rejected. The New Zealand government is wary to open the floodgates to other climate change refugee claims. The recent New Zealand ruling, however, could help small countries gain more leverage on the international stage. That leverage would have been useful for the former Maldives President, Mohamed Nasheed. He is a well-known environmental activist, politician, and the first president to be elected to office in the Maldives by democratic election. While he was in office from 2008-2012, he fought to tackle rising sea levels due to climate change, which would have made his low-lying country uninhabitable. The documentary, The Island President, which is about his journey to the 2009 UN Copenhagen Climate Change Summit, illustrates the difficulties faced by small countries with little international power. During negotiation, they have a difficult time gaining leverage over larger countries, such as the USA and China, which possess the economic power to not abide to carbon emission standards. One of the most memorable scenes in the documentary show construction trucks dumping sand onto the coast as locals complain about the coastline and palm trees toppling over as the sand around their roots are washed away.
Larger numbers of fighters lead to extended conflicts or conflict spreading to new areas.
Rising temperatures lead to more frequent or severe distasters (i.e. floods, droughts).
Camps provide fertile
recruiting ground for groups of armed non-state actors.
However, low-lying developing countries aren’t the only ones affected. In the USA,Native Alaskan communities are also currently dealing with the impact of losing their homes. Those in the Native Alaskan communities of Newtok and Kivalina are already struggling. The Yup’ik Eskimo have been living along the shores of the Bering Strait, where Newtok is located, for centuries - exile from their ancestral lands is not something any of them are willing to think about. The town is based on mud flats and is too fragile to support sea walls. On another side of Alaska, the villagers of Kivalina filed a legal case against the local fossil fuel companies in 2008 for being a “public nuisance” and accused them of causing “unreasonable harm”. Kivalina is in the northwest corner of Alaska above the Arctic Circle. Through climate change, the people of Kivalina have come to terms with later and shorter winters as the snow and ice melt earlier in spring and summer. The
Disasters result in displacement as people are forced to move in order to survive.
Many displaced people end up in camps, or other temporary low standartd dwellings.
Infographic Credit: UK Climate Change & Migration Coalition
Rise in average global temperatures as a result of human carbon emissions
village actually considered relocation as early as 1992, but the process was deemed too expensive. When the people bring up issues of climate change or relocation, they are told there are no government agencies set up to answer their specific questions. Christine Shearer wrote a book called Kivalina: A Climate Change Story, in which the legal case is featured. She says, “ Disaster management policies are designed to deal with the aftermath of a disaster”. A disaster declaration releases funding aimed at helping a community rebuild or relocate within the place the disaster occurred. But there are no policies in place to relocate an entire community, like Kivalina, prior to an actual disaster. This issue of not having policies in place for community relocation or mediation before a disaster becomes dire is the reason why climate refugees have not yet been recognized as an official category. Residents of low-lying countries threatened to be swallowed by the sea or lose territory are left to their own 26
Mapping the Impacts of Climate Change Overall vulnerability to: - Agricultural productivity loss - Extreme weather - Sea level rise
Rank 1
169 Infographic Credit: Center for Global Development
devices. Another issue many governments are not recognizing is climate change as a reason for war and conflict. While islands may drown and be taken underwater, other countries are suffering through earth cracking droughts. The Syrian Refugee Crisis as well as the political revolution in 2010 was in part due to the degrading environment, which matched with the pent-up fury from members of society, led to fiery revolts. The urban population of Syrian cities also rapidly increased, as they had grown from around 8.9 million at the beginning of the US invasion of Iraq to nearly 13.8 million in 2010, toward the end of a serious drought. The droughts led Syrian farmers to leave their homes for the already overcrowded cities. Water shortages, ruined land and corruption, they say, fomented revolution. Climatologists say Syria is a grim preview of what could be in store for the larger Middle East, the Mediterranean and other parts of the world. The Fertile Crescent - the birthplace of agriculture some 12,000 years ago - is drying out. Syria’s drought has destroyed crops, killed livestock and displaced as many as 1.5 million Syrian farmers. In the process, it touched off the social turmoil that burst into civil war. Back in the 1970s, the military regime led by President Hafez al-Assad launched an ill-conceived drive for agricultural self-sufficiency. They didn’t take into account whether Syria had sufficient groundwater and rainfall to raise those crops. Farmers made up for water shortages by drilling wells 27
to tap the country’s underground water reserves. When water tables retreated, people dug deeper. In 2005 the regime of Assad’s son and successor, President Bashar al-Assad, made it illegal to dig new wells without a license issued personally, for a fee, by an official - but this warning was mostly ignored, out of necessity. “The war and the drought, they are the same thing,” says Mustafa Abdul Hamid, a 30-year-old farmer from Azaz, near Aleppo. And thus, the start of the revolution for many people began with water and land. It was possible to get water supplies if one was wiling to buy from the officials. Some people made a living out of reselling those water supplies to desperate customers, but the majority of the farmers in need of water to irrigate their land did not have the monetary funds necessary. The wait for water could be longer than three to five months. The lack of resources combined with pervasive official corruption also began to rock at the foundation of Syrian society, building up to the revolution. By 2011, the water crisis became so bad there was no way for many farmers and their families to stay. Those that wanted to escape from the climate issues and the war had no choice but to leave and begin the treacherous journey to Europe. The familiar story of refugees crossing the sea from Turkey to Greece as a portal to the rest of Europe continues. Thousands upon thousands of refugees are still barred at the borders and refused entry. These various examples illustrate the far reaching effect climate change has on global pop-
ulations. It is an international humanitarian crisis mer UN High Commissioner for Least Developed that is slowly building up. Current countries affect- Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries, and ed are mostly small developing countries, which is Small Island Developing States, advocated for an why their cries for help are not prioritized. However, expansion of the international legal definition of a more conflicts over land and water may occur like in refugee to include those forced out of their homes the case of Syria, where an already volatile political due to climate change. Sadly Chowdhury, who also climate may be pushed over the edge. served as Bangladesh’s ambassador to the UN, was As mentioned previously, there are few pol- met with a tepid response from other diplomats. A icies and mechanisms put in place to help popula- fate already heard from the former Maldivian Presitions in need. The Nansen Initiative from the Paris dent, the vulnerable peoples of various island counAgreement is one of the few initiatives aiming to al- tries and Native Alaskans. leviate the situation. It is a three-year-old state-led, Another issue that complicates the situation consultative process aimed at building a consensus is to what extent a natural disaster is caused by clion a protection agenda for displaced people impact- mate change. These are complex connections that ed by environmental disasters or climate change. It are not easily parsed when disaster strikes. Experts has not taken a formal stance on the climate dis- are trying to move beyond the singular approach of placement facility. expanding the Refugee Convention to include those “There is much more states can do to prevent impacted by climate change or environmental didisplacement, compared to a conflict situation, when sasters, suggesting that to address such a large issue, it comes to natural hazards and disasters,” Alte Sol- states must focus on more than just terminology. berg, the head of the Nansen Initiative Secretariat, The path to reaching a consensus and solution to explained. Headquartered in Geneva, The Nansen help climate and environment refugees remains unInitiative is among the champions of a multi-pronged clear. The Nansen Initiative is a step forward, but it way to approaching doesn’t have any binding human mobility and power to ensure the safety climate change. One of displaced peoples. important finding There is generally a lack “Countries will have to think from the coalition’s of national policies to more seriously about what series of consultations prevent displacement, acin places as far apart cording to Marine Franck, to do as it is predicted that as the Pacific Islands a climate change officer at by 2050, an estimated 150 to and the Greater Horn the UNHCR. She stressed of Africa is that clithe importance of includ300 million people will be dismate change is already ing citizens in this proplaced by climate change.” having and impact cess, as displaced people on people’s ability to in the Philippines were withstand disaster, not consulted on their resaid Solberg. location following the typhoon a few years ago. Solberg emphasized the role development If legal terminology is not the way to go, then initiatives can play in the case of earthquakes, us- what is? It is apparent that climate and environment ing the 2010 examples of Haiti and Chile. The Chile refugees are becoming more common. Countries earthquake was an 8.8 on the moment magnitude will have to think more seriously about what to do as scale while the Haiti earthquake was a 7.0. But the it is predicted that by 2050, an estimated 150 to 300 Haiti earthquake killed more than 230,000 people, million people will be displaced by climate change. while 525 died in the Chilean disaster. “It’s an issue Laws and procedures to legitimize climate and enviof preparedness and the level of development related ronment refugees will need to be put into place and to urban planning and evacuation centers,” he said. unfortunately, those will take time as policy makers, Political concern surrounding displaced peo- scholars, scientists, and advocates continue to strugple and climate change has been present, bubbling gle for solutions. The only thing many of us can do under the surface for more than a decade. In the at the moment may simply be raising awareness so early and mid-2000s, Anwarul Chowdhury, the for- to render the invisible, visible.
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What Happened to Colossus? By Eliza McNair
This is a country of immigrants and of refugees, a patchwork population of political dissidents and religious pariahs who traveled oceans away from home to find somewhere safer and to build something better for themselves and for their families. But a particularly sinister flavor of hypocrisy has festered on the shores of the United States and in the minds of its people. It has become all too apparent the impact that years of prejudices – some new and others grossly nurtured – have on the nation’s immigration rhetoric. The United States has exchanged its ideals for discriminatory and often contradictory standards designed to exclude groups of people based on their profession, race, economic status or religion. There is a continuing pattern of intolerance in this nation’s history books: The Naturalization Act of 1906 made the English language a requirement for citizenship; the Immigration Act of 1917 barred people immigrating from the Asia-Pacific triangle. Numeri-
cal caps were introduced in 1921 with the Quota Act, and in 1924 the National Origins Act cut the number of immigrants given entry in half. In the 1930s, many Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany were denied entrance. In 1940, the Alien Registration Act passed. In the second half of the 20th century, the United States oscillated significantly in its immigration rhetoric. During World War II, the United States deployed contradictory policies that seemed simultaneously to encourage and discourage immigration. Between 1942 and 1964, the government authorized the Bracero Program which allowed huge groups of agricultural workers from Mexico into the United States to address farm labor shortages created by army recruitment and migration to cities. Undocumented immigration also increased during this period. In response, the government instituted “Operation Wetback” and deported nearly one million Mexican immigrants. Among this number were documented immigrants
Photo by: John Englart (Takver) 29
Photo by: Freedom House
and United States citizens of Mexican descent. The international political climate following WWII was more accepting of border movement, particularly for those people displaced by the war, and the United States responded in kind with the Truman Directive. President Truman’s desired national mentality of “common decency and fundamental comradeship” was expressed in policies like the 1948 Displaced Persons Act, which allowed 205,000 refugees from communist nations entry to the United States, then contradicted with policies like the 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act. The Act both retained the racial biases of the national-origins quota system and conveyed the distrust of communism characteristic to the Cold War era. Senator McCarran, one of the Act’s namesakes said in a 1953 statement: “we have in the United States today hard-core, indigestible blocs which have not become integrated into the American way of life, but which, on the contrary are its deadly enemies”. In four years, Truman’s desire for compassionate policies was overturned by intolerance of foreign ideologies. Following September 11, 2001, the climate of fear and distrust in the United States inspired new registration and interview procedures designed to single out foreign-born Muslims, Arabs and South Asians. In 2006, an act was introduced calling for an additional 850 miles of fencing between the United
States and Mexico to combat undocumented immigration and drug trade. Though the wall was never completed, recent presidential debates have brought it back to the public’s attention. Said candidate Donald Trump: “We are not talking about isolation… We’re not talking about religion. We’re talking about security… I will build a wall”. Xenophobic voices like Trump’s must not be ignored. The image of a wall between Mexico and the United States gives physical form to a century of intolerant immigration rhetoric – this was a chapter of the nation’s history that permanently etched hatred into foreign policy. In 1883, the American poet Emma Lazarus wrote a sonnet, “The New Colossus”, that has since 1903 been mounted on a plaque in the Statue of Liberty, welcoming new immigrants to the United States. Literally, a colossus is a statue larger than life. Metaphorically, it’s a person or thing of enormous size or importance. By both definitions, the Statue of Liberty is, indeed, a colossus. But Lazarus’s poem takes the symbol one step further, describing the United States itself as A Colossus: … Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command 30
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame. “Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” Lazarus wrote a promise of liberty and of asylum that has yet to be fulfilled. Immigration remains prejudicial, and the contours of the United States’ policies fluctuate as national interests and attitudes change. The Statue of Liberty still stands, but another line ought to be added at the end of the sonnet addressing the gaps between Lazarus’s idealism and the events of the last century: What happened to Colossus? Today, terrorism feeds xenophobia, xenophobia seeps into legislature, and legislature institutionalizes injustice. The United States has yet to practice tolerance, compassion and empathy consistently on a national scale. In his 2016 State of the Union address,
President Obama commented that “we need to reject any politics – any politics – that targets people because of race or religion”. The immigration rhetoric of the 20th century cannot be erased, but it can be branded a politics that the nation rejects. This is a nation in progress. There has never been a time in the United States’ history that immigration policies have met the ideals laid out in the Constitution and in effortlessly idealistic poems like “The New Colossus.” The challenge, then, is to work continuously to improve legislation by eliminating any remnants of racism, by improving the reception immigrants receive, and by focusing creative political energies on redefining what is possible. In these endeavors, a niche for the sentiment of poetry can be found in a grounded political sphere. According to President Obama, “Our immigration system is broken -- and everybody knows it.” To abandon the hypocrisy of the current system and to resuscitate the nation’s legislation with justice, pluralism and compassion as its precepts, we must find Colossus within ourselves.
Photo by: Freedom House 31
Women Against Da’esh By Mira Craig-Morse Members of Da’esh believe that being killed by a woman sends you directly to hell according to Al-Arabiya. In the wars in Iraq and Syria, women soldiers are handling this task with great success. The Women’s Defense Units, commonly known as the YPJ, are the female brigade of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units, or the YPG. The Kurds are vital to the war against Da’esh and the women have fought alongside their male counterparts since the beginning. The Kurds are the world’s largest ethnic group without their own state. Their homeland, known as
Kurdistan, geographically intersects modern-day Turkey, Iraq, Syria and Iran. At the end of World War I, the U.S. and European powers promised the Kurds a state carved out of the dissolved Ottoman Empire. The Great Powers, including France, Great Britain and the U.S., instead partitioned the region, drawing the borders we know today. Since then, the Kurds have been subjected to governmental oppression and persecution in every state claiming ownership over Kurdistan. In 1978, Abdullah Ocalan founded the Kurd-
Photo by: Kurdishstruggle 32
“With Kurdish women taking the war into their own hands, confronting the threat to their families and to their safety as women (and sending Da’esh fighters to hell along the way) —there is hope.”
Photo by: Kurdishstruggle ish Workers’ Party (PKK) in Turkey, and in 1984, the group began an armed resistance against the Turkish government. Ocalan originally envisioned a collectivist Kurdish state based upon libertarianism and Marxism. After many years in prison, however, Ocalan led Kurdish nationalism in a different direction, focusing on equality and collectivism based upon two fundamental ideals – feminism and ecology. The Kurds are not always unified across national boundaries. Each subgroup struggles against their own occupation. With the ever-growing threat of Da’esh, however, Kurds have become one of the only unified fronts against the Islamist group. Despite poor funding and the growing strength of Da’esh, the Kurds are faring considerably well. Since 2013, the Kurds have controlled a growing portion of northern Syria, an area they call Rojava. There, a revolutionary movement builds momentum, replacing Assad’s rule with Ocalan’s brainchild, Democratic Confederalism — a libertarian socialist political system based on local governance. This vicious war that has taken over 250,000 lives has also given Kurdish women living in Syria, previously unknown freedom. Women hold leadership positions, attend coeducational universities and now account for 40 percent of the Kurdish armed forces, according to PBS. “Before, it was unthinkable for men and women 33
to be friends or fight together,” said a commander of the YPG interviewed by Reuters. “These women joining self-defense forces in Syrian Kurdistan, is a revolution within a revolution.” In a time when American rhetoric increasingly portrays Islamic and Islamic societies as backwards, sexist and oppressive, the predominantly Sunni Muslim Kurds have proven a stunning counterexample. The YPJ has participated in several seminal victories against Da’esh, including the liberation of Sinjar in Iraq and Kobane along the Turkish border of Syria. “Women fight the same as men, maybe even better,” a YPJ fighter named Zirwan told Phil Campion in his documentary for Sky News. “I say that men can never be superior to women and vice versa.” This view is widely held, particularly in the de facto state of Rojava, where gender equality is nonnegotiable. Women’s role in the war has changed views of gender beyond the safe-haven of Rojava as well. A battalion of YPJ fighters rescued a number of Yazidis, who were hiding for days on a mountain near Sinjar during intense fighting between Kurds and Da’esh. ‘‘The battle made me think of women differently,’’ Sami Saeed Mirza, a Yazidi youth, told New York Times journalist Wes Enzinna. ‘‘Women fighters — they saved us...I’d never thought of women as leaders, as heroes, before.’’ Now even women from outside the Kurdish community have begun to join the YPJ,
Photo by: Kurdishstruggle particularly after two incidents: the retaking of Sinjar from Da’esh in which female soldiers played a crucial role, and the declaration by Da’esh leaders that death at the hands of a female sends one directly to hell. Yazidi, Assyrian, Turkmen and Arab women have joined the Women’s Defense Units in a collaborative effort between all communities fighting Da’esh in the region. While the YPG and the YPJ were not officially established until 2004 when the Kurds first attempted to overthrow Assad’s rule in Rojava, women have fought for Kurdish independence since violent resistance began in the 1980s in Turkey. It is clear women soldiers find a freedom in the army that they cannot find elsewhere. Freedom is a common theme for soldiers in guerrilla forces throughout Kurdistan. Much of Kurdistan, across national boundaries, is mountainous, a terrain the Kurds have always used to their advantage. Guerilla forces take refuge, train and evade government reconnaissance in the mountains. Beyond their utility, the mountains play a strong role in Kurdish identity; “No friend but the mountains” is a common Kurdish saying. In Stefano Savona’s 2006 documentary “Notes from a Kurdish Rebel”, freedom seemed to be always on the minds of the fighters. “Only in the mountains have I come to understand what freedom is,” said one female fighter. Even there, however, the Kurds know they are not free.
“This is a military organization,” said another female soldier, “we can’t be totally free and in peace. But we’ll do everything for freedom and peace.” And autonomous states like the ones formed in Iraqi Kurdistan and now Rojava, are irreplaceable opportunities to establish a Kurdish state governed by peace and liberty. “Rojava has an all encompassing solution,” Aldar Xalil, a senior Kurdish government official in Rojava, told the BBC, “It can be an example to other regions. This is a consensus based, democratic way of life; it could become the way forward for Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Turkey. It is a really advanced form of democracy.” A secure state with a radically progressive form of government could be a beacon in the Middle East following the only semi-successful Arab Spring. However tragic and messy the war in Syria may be, it may allow for something more positive in the future. The Kurds’ goal of democracy and equality — between genders, religions and ethnicities -- is a hopeful prospect in a very unstable region. With Kurdish women taking the war into their own hands, confronting the threat to their families and to their safety as women (and sending Da’esh fighters to hell along the way) —there is hope. In the next year we may see the tides turn. We may even see the Kurds join the negotiation table. Perhaps peace can be attained, with a better life for everyone, especially the Kurds. 34
A Wellesley Alum in the Working World
By Rebecca George
Two days after my Wellesley graduation in late May, I moved down to DC to begin my first job, a program assistant for The Asia Foundation’s Washington office. My main responsibility is assisting with program design and arranging meetings, seminars, and events for U.S. and international guests. Our office often brings our experts from the field to discuss country programs and recently released reports. My other main tasks include drafting and editing materials, managing our contact database, and developing our monthly newsletter. A pretty routine entry-level job. But what I soon realized is that, through my job of organizing events for the DC policy community, I am able to meet some incredibly interesting and inspiring people. Two events in particular have stood out to me and both served as my introduction to the Myanmar political system and 2015 elections. For the first, I organized a roundtable for two
experts from the DC community to speak about their experiences as international election monitors for the historic elections in Myanmar this past year held on November 8, 2015. Approximately 11,000 domestic observers and 1,000 international observers were recognized as official observers of the general elections which included members from electoral management bodies (EMBs) from Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic and Timor-Leste. The speakers described their wildly different and varied experiences, one had gone to a region outside a military base which predominantly supported the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), the other to a more urban region which largely supported for the National League for Democracy (NLD). As they relayed their observations, I kept thinking about the (wo)man power it takes to hold an election: the distribution of resources, the training, the moni-
Photo by: DFID - UK Department for International caption diggity here. picture taken from somePhoto By: DFID-UK Department for International Development 35
Photo by: Imke.Stahlmann
“What I absolutely loved about these two events was not just the nuanced perspectives and the differing contexts; they also sparked my curiosity. “
toring and evaluation, the regional considerations, and the logistics involved. I had trouble keeping track of an event for 70 people, let alone millions. This was an area of development that I knew nothing about. Then a few months later, I was fortunate enough to meet a Burmese delegation of experts on Myanmar. One woman was a surgeon, a human rights activist and a former prisoner of conscious for nearly six years in the 1990s for publicly supporting current President of the NLD, Aung San Suu Kyi. Another, a security expert working primarily in conflict-affected areas in Myanmar with refugee and exile communities. Their insights into Myanmar’s political and economic future helped better shape my understanding of the country and made me want to learn more. They shared results from public opinion surveys which suggest a deep distrust between citizens and the government and a cautiously optimistic view on the direction in which Myanmar is headed after the elections. With the NLD winning a supermajority of seats in the national parliament, taking 86 percent of the seats in the Assembly of the Union, they are now in control of the government which has proven to be a challenging uphill fight against the military
which still holds considerable power. With the NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi constitutionally barred from becoming the president because her late husband and children are foreign citizens, she has had to select a president and form a new cabinet. Along with these concerns, the NLD also must focus on four key inter-connected issues to ensure their government’s lasting success. They must implement effective government and public sector reforms, facilitate economic development, enable a lasting peace process, and develop a deeper social cohesion. What I absolutely loved about these two events was not just the nuanced perspectives and the differing contexts; they also sparked my curiosity. I began asking myself questions about what I’m interested it and what I could see myself doing in the future. Unfortunately for now, it seems like my list of interests is only growing, but that doesn’t make me nervous. When I think about my future and the work I will do from this first job onward, I’m just incredibly excited. The uncertainty is thrilling and I hope to one day be somehow involved in such a historic event like the 2015 Myanmar elections. 36
Ultimate Frisbee in North Korea A Globalist Lecture by Ronald Osborn
Ronald encourages us to attempt to look past our preconceived notions of North Korea and instead to step into the shoes of a North Korean looking at the West, and specifically the U.S. The Western perception of North Korea is not necessarily false, and he acknowledges that many atrocities and gross abuses of human rights have occurred within the country which should be condemned; however, he conveys the lesson he learned on his trip that there is much more to North Korea than its stereotype, and he described many individuals whom he met who are very much just like us.
Sunset at the Juche Tower in Pyongyang. The figures in the statue are holding a hammer, sickle, and paintbrush.
With the arrival of traffic lights in Pyongyang, North Korea’s famous traffic police have less to do.
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North Korean soldiers stand guard outside the Blue Room in the demilitarized zone where face-to-face negotiations are held with South Korea.
More than 100,000 performers participate in the annual North Korean propaganda spectacular known as the Arirang Mass Games. A man and his son (with captured insect in hand) stroll in one of Pyongyang’s parks.
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