So I missed the September post...sorry, it's midterm/flu/norovirus season at Georgetown. But something happened last night at our debate party (yes, we are Georgetown students after all) that was vaguely study abroad related and worth mentioning. I will tell the back story, which IS an account of study abroad, and then bring it up to today.
So, in November, during the week that you were all on Thanksgiving break, l'école du management de Strasbourg was having International Week at the European Parliament. For the entire week, we did seminars about international affairs and business. On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, we had conferences run by students for the schools in their geographic regions as a way to let the people in Strasbourg know about the benefits of studying abroad in that area. I was a representative for North America because Georgetown is the most competitive school that EM Strasbourg has a relationship, because I was ok speaking in front of a crowd of 500, and because I was the token American in most of my classes.
It was actually a lot of fun--I explained the idea of the NCAA, intercollegiate sports, and the idea that most American college students do way more outside of classes through the school than we were able to do at IECS. I got to be a Georgetown advocate, essentially.
Fast forward to this year--my friend Christina who stayed a whole year in Strasbourg is living with a student from our business school who came over to Georgetown for this year (all students at IECS have to study abroad for their second year). I have a class with him, but I haven't actually introduced myself formally and had a long conversation with him yet. So at Christina's house for the debate party, I say "Hi Alex, I know we've never met but I'm Kim..." and he interrupts me with "Kim Keller, yes, I know, you're the reason I picked Georgetown. I remeber you from the international week presentation."
At this point, I go "YAY" because A, I convinced someone to come here! and B, because it was not a very awkward situation. Hooray.
Friday, October 3, 2008
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Some quick thoughts on China
So apparently I've been writing once a month, noticed it was the last day of August, and thought I should put SOMETHING up. I happen to be writing my background guides for NCSC (our college-level model UN conference) on China, and since I spent last summer in Hong Kong/Guangzhou/Shenzhen/etc., this is almost related enough to count as some reflection from that.
I'm writing about Chinese development in Africa, something that is increasingly catching the attention of the west and international development agencies that tend to be western in nature. If we're going to go for a pop culture explanation or reference, the one that I'd suggest is to look at China's involvement in Sudan as an example of how their foreign investment in Africa tends to develop--not politically motivated, no strings attached, and motivated by natural resource acquisition (mostly oil or minerals).
So while many people will jump to criticize the lack of political or governance conditions on China's development assistance to these countries, I for one am starting to be swayed to the "it's a good idea" camp. I'm just as opposed to genocide as anyone else, and China's agreements with Sudan are certainly questionable if not outright immoral. But looking outside of this conflict zone, Chinese investment has the potential to at least provide enough indirect benefits to African countries to be worth considering.
Take the agreement recently made between China and the Democratic Republic of the Congo in May--the DRC has given a 68% share of its major state mining company, Gécamines, to a Chinese firm and formed a joint venture that will give China enough copper to last it about 25 years. One might argue that China is simply pillaging the country for its mineral deposits, and to a certain extent I would say that is true. But in exchange, China is making $9 billion in improvements to infrastructure in the country. This includes $3 billion in mine improvements to make the mines useable, thousands of miles of roads to ensure that China can transport what it mines out of the country, and some public goods like hospitals and universities.
You can look at this cynically, and say that China is motivated by its need for minerals and these infrastructure projects benefit these needs, or you can see it as the most significant development in the country for years. The DRC doesn't qualify for many IMF programs because of concerns with governance, transparency, and corruption. But the way I see it, China will make sure that those roads are built and those mines are useable for their own benefit, and hopefully the rest of the improvements will follow.
And now after that bit of semi-coherent rambling, off I go for another month.
I'm writing about Chinese development in Africa, something that is increasingly catching the attention of the west and international development agencies that tend to be western in nature. If we're going to go for a pop culture explanation or reference, the one that I'd suggest is to look at China's involvement in Sudan as an example of how their foreign investment in Africa tends to develop--not politically motivated, no strings attached, and motivated by natural resource acquisition (mostly oil or minerals).
So while many people will jump to criticize the lack of political or governance conditions on China's development assistance to these countries, I for one am starting to be swayed to the "it's a good idea" camp. I'm just as opposed to genocide as anyone else, and China's agreements with Sudan are certainly questionable if not outright immoral. But looking outside of this conflict zone, Chinese investment has the potential to at least provide enough indirect benefits to African countries to be worth considering.
Take the agreement recently made between China and the Democratic Republic of the Congo in May--the DRC has given a 68% share of its major state mining company, Gécamines, to a Chinese firm and formed a joint venture that will give China enough copper to last it about 25 years. One might argue that China is simply pillaging the country for its mineral deposits, and to a certain extent I would say that is true. But in exchange, China is making $9 billion in improvements to infrastructure in the country. This includes $3 billion in mine improvements to make the mines useable, thousands of miles of roads to ensure that China can transport what it mines out of the country, and some public goods like hospitals and universities.
You can look at this cynically, and say that China is motivated by its need for minerals and these infrastructure projects benefit these needs, or you can see it as the most significant development in the country for years. The DRC doesn't qualify for many IMF programs because of concerns with governance, transparency, and corruption. But the way I see it, China will make sure that those roads are built and those mines are useable for their own benefit, and hopefully the rest of the improvements will follow.
And now after that bit of semi-coherent rambling, off I go for another month.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
靖国神社/Yasukuni Jinja
It's been a while, but time to write about the next thing I jotted down in my notebook--some impressions of the Yasukuni Jinja, which roughly translates to Shrine for the Peace of the Nation (says the guidebook). It was built in 1869 by the Meiji emperor to commemorate all of the war dead from the Boshin War, which was the war the brought about the Meiji Restoration.
The shrine used to be an official shrine under state Shinto, until after World War II and the forced separation of church and state under the peace agreement. Its main purpose is the enshrinement of kami (神) or spirits of war dead so they can be prayed to according to Shinto tradition.
Where it gets controversial is at the point where war criminals were also deemed worthy of being enshrined. It wasn't publicly announced that they were enshrined, and due to the nature of the act itself, it was slightly scandalous when the news got out. Because enshrining is roughly equivalent to deifying, war criminals might not be the best candidates.
In addition to the shrine itself, there's a military history museum which I took some time to go through because I like military history (remember that "I'm going to join the Navy" phase I had? I don't know if I actually ever told anyone about that). It was definitely an interesting experience, and arguably the most passive aggressive experience of my life--military Japan reflects its isolationist past, and a bit of the aggression towards outsiders. To give an example, I was comparing Japanese captions with translations (I couldn't read much of the Japanese but eh, I try) and 外国人, gaikokujin, most often shortened to gaijin and translated as foreigner or outsider (it used to have a negative connotation but lost most of that), was translated as barbarian. Technically correct, but really? In any case, it was awkward being the only American in the museum going through the WWII section. But I'd definitely recommend going.
The shrine used to be an official shrine under state Shinto, until after World War II and the forced separation of church and state under the peace agreement. Its main purpose is the enshrinement of kami (神) or spirits of war dead so they can be prayed to according to Shinto tradition.
Where it gets controversial is at the point where war criminals were also deemed worthy of being enshrined. It wasn't publicly announced that they were enshrined, and due to the nature of the act itself, it was slightly scandalous when the news got out. Because enshrining is roughly equivalent to deifying, war criminals might not be the best candidates.
In addition to the shrine itself, there's a military history museum which I took some time to go through because I like military history (remember that "I'm going to join the Navy" phase I had? I don't know if I actually ever told anyone about that). It was definitely an interesting experience, and arguably the most passive aggressive experience of my life--military Japan reflects its isolationist past, and a bit of the aggression towards outsiders. To give an example, I was comparing Japanese captions with translations (I couldn't read much of the Japanese but eh, I try) and 外国人, gaikokujin, most often shortened to gaijin and translated as foreigner or outsider (it used to have a negative connotation but lost most of that), was translated as barbarian. Technically correct, but really? In any case, it was awkward being the only American in the museum going through the WWII section. But I'd definitely recommend going.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Japan--A slightly different approach.
So what I decided to do for Japan is to post about different topics that I thought of, instead of listing a huge chronological account of what I did (that is what pictures are for, if you want a story to go along with a picture, check out my pictures, comment, ask, and you shall receive.)
While I was on the Narita Express headed towards the airport, I made a quick list of topics I would write about so I wouldn't forget. The first one, which I'll start with, is being an American abroad. This is perhaps the biggest and broadest of my topics, although maybe the most informed in light of my world travels in the past year. That also means that it's going to drift away from Japan and into France and Hong Kong, but I don't think anyone will mind.
The incident that sparked these ideas in Japan came on a day when I was off exploring by myself (Derek is actually going to school there and whatnot...thus, class and time for me to wander alone which was actually quite fun. But I'll get into the merits of wandering in a new city/country/language with no agenda other than to observe and absorb later). I was in Ueno, which centers around Ueno Koen (上野公園 if we're keeping track), a huge park. The park has a big pond, a couple shrines, and a lot of museums scattered throughout it. I was on my way to a museum about merchant class life in the mid 1900s (the Shitamachi-下町-museum, which actually was disappointing) that was at one corner of the park when a man approached me and asked me if I was from around there. He was a Japanese man, speaking perfect English, and carrying nothing but a can of beer.
So, at this point, I'm looking for what the trick is--as a blonde white girl, I don't think anyone really could have thought I was from "around here". I say no, and he asks immediately, "Canada?", to which I reply close, but America. And here begins the tirade. This man proceeds to tell me that America has lost its respect in the world, and that it will never have a chance to get it back. He tells me that Homeland Security is really in control of the country, and mainly because no one questions their right to do anything as its in the "best interest" of their safety. He tells me that Homeland Security held him for 10 hours when trying to fly to America, questioned him, took his passport, and told him not to return for 20 years. The conversation got awkward and uncomfortable.
What do you say as an American to respond to something like this? I've had similar situations in France as well, when my host family would have guests over for dinner. Each time I was introduced, I knew what to expect--as soon as it was known that I was an American student, I would be bombarded with questions about American foreign policy, why our country does the things it does, and why we hold the views we hold. I tried to answer in both cases in a way that represents my love for this country (because if anything, my travels have proven that I do love America, despite its flaws), but in each case I couldn't find myself in full support of it. In the case of French guests, I found myself explaining that not all Americans hold the same views as our current administration, and that the view of Americans would probably be much more favorable if everyone could learn to separate personal views of individuals from the overall policies presented by our government. This distinction is an important way to get past judgments on country policy and move towards understanding individuals within the society.
As for my Japanese friend, I didn't have much of a response for him. I told him that I don't approve of the blanket of authority granted in the name of protecting national security, and that I value individual rights strongly and feel that exceptions must be made by the government to accommodate these individual rights in its defense plan, not for it to expect citizens to bend their rights to fit the desires of a government, no matter what its intentions. I believe that for the most part, the American government has the best interest of American citizens at heart, but at the same time I can't help but cringe at the precedent set when Americans relinquish their rights to a government that is all too willing to take them to increase its own power.
While I agree that the rights of the individual should be respected above all things, I disagreed with his second point--that America will not be able to regain its good standing in the world. Despite our current bad reputation, America tends to do more for the world in terms of aid, brokering international agreements, and general standard setting than most people are willing to admit. Perhaps its precisely because we have become accustomed to doing so much that it seems that our relative worth is falling in the world, but I have hope that the world will recognize the good that America is doing, or at least the purity of its good intentions, in time. Once we manage to figure our way out of our current conflicts and transition back to the ideal of the benevolent superpower in both word and deed, I firmly believe that America can rise back to the forefront of all nations.
But I have to believe that--I'm American and thus have that eternal and internal sense of optimism that constantly drives Americans towards higher things.
In terms of how this relates to being American abroad, I feel that the best way for anyone to counteract the current negative opinion of our country is to get out and show people the face of the individual American, who provides a much more favorable contact point than news of our foreign policy or current administration.
While I was on the Narita Express headed towards the airport, I made a quick list of topics I would write about so I wouldn't forget. The first one, which I'll start with, is being an American abroad. This is perhaps the biggest and broadest of my topics, although maybe the most informed in light of my world travels in the past year. That also means that it's going to drift away from Japan and into France and Hong Kong, but I don't think anyone will mind.
The incident that sparked these ideas in Japan came on a day when I was off exploring by myself (Derek is actually going to school there and whatnot...thus, class and time for me to wander alone which was actually quite fun. But I'll get into the merits of wandering in a new city/country/language with no agenda other than to observe and absorb later). I was in Ueno, which centers around Ueno Koen (上野公園 if we're keeping track), a huge park. The park has a big pond, a couple shrines, and a lot of museums scattered throughout it. I was on my way to a museum about merchant class life in the mid 1900s (the Shitamachi-下町-museum, which actually was disappointing) that was at one corner of the park when a man approached me and asked me if I was from around there. He was a Japanese man, speaking perfect English, and carrying nothing but a can of beer.
So, at this point, I'm looking for what the trick is--as a blonde white girl, I don't think anyone really could have thought I was from "around here". I say no, and he asks immediately, "Canada?", to which I reply close, but America. And here begins the tirade. This man proceeds to tell me that America has lost its respect in the world, and that it will never have a chance to get it back. He tells me that Homeland Security is really in control of the country, and mainly because no one questions their right to do anything as its in the "best interest" of their safety. He tells me that Homeland Security held him for 10 hours when trying to fly to America, questioned him, took his passport, and told him not to return for 20 years. The conversation got awkward and uncomfortable.
What do you say as an American to respond to something like this? I've had similar situations in France as well, when my host family would have guests over for dinner. Each time I was introduced, I knew what to expect--as soon as it was known that I was an American student, I would be bombarded with questions about American foreign policy, why our country does the things it does, and why we hold the views we hold. I tried to answer in both cases in a way that represents my love for this country (because if anything, my travels have proven that I do love America, despite its flaws), but in each case I couldn't find myself in full support of it. In the case of French guests, I found myself explaining that not all Americans hold the same views as our current administration, and that the view of Americans would probably be much more favorable if everyone could learn to separate personal views of individuals from the overall policies presented by our government. This distinction is an important way to get past judgments on country policy and move towards understanding individuals within the society.
As for my Japanese friend, I didn't have much of a response for him. I told him that I don't approve of the blanket of authority granted in the name of protecting national security, and that I value individual rights strongly and feel that exceptions must be made by the government to accommodate these individual rights in its defense plan, not for it to expect citizens to bend their rights to fit the desires of a government, no matter what its intentions. I believe that for the most part, the American government has the best interest of American citizens at heart, but at the same time I can't help but cringe at the precedent set when Americans relinquish their rights to a government that is all too willing to take them to increase its own power.
While I agree that the rights of the individual should be respected above all things, I disagreed with his second point--that America will not be able to regain its good standing in the world. Despite our current bad reputation, America tends to do more for the world in terms of aid, brokering international agreements, and general standard setting than most people are willing to admit. Perhaps its precisely because we have become accustomed to doing so much that it seems that our relative worth is falling in the world, but I have hope that the world will recognize the good that America is doing, or at least the purity of its good intentions, in time. Once we manage to figure our way out of our current conflicts and transition back to the ideal of the benevolent superpower in both word and deed, I firmly believe that America can rise back to the forefront of all nations.
But I have to believe that--I'm American and thus have that eternal and internal sense of optimism that constantly drives Americans towards higher things.
In terms of how this relates to being American abroad, I feel that the best way for anyone to counteract the current negative opinion of our country is to get out and show people the face of the individual American, who provides a much more favorable contact point than news of our foreign policy or current administration.
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Solely for dearest Elizabeth
So, I'm back from Japan, and now that it's officially summer, I promise I'll be better about updating this. I'm going to go anti-chronologically so I can get all of my stuff on Japan down before it's gone from my head (right now I'm uploading pictures, going through my guidebook to confirm what stuff is, and you know, unpacking and getting over jetlag). But, I've reached the end of an era in my life--my world travels are over until I can afford them on my own once I'm salaried and employed. Another era is over as well, but as it has nothing to do with travel or fabulous adventures, I won't be mentioning it. For now, let's just say AHHHHHH JAPAN!, confirm that I think Japan as a country is marvelous, and let everyone know I had a great time.
Hi Liz!
Hi Liz!
Saturday, April 12, 2008
香港 (Hong Kong), Part I
So, considering the fact that we are approaching an entire year since I first started my world travels, I should probably start writing all of these updates. Surprisingly, I have a very good memory of my first couple days in Hong Kong. I'm going to edit it so it's alarmingly positive, which is not the entire truth of the trip--I got frustrated with a lot of the people by the end of my 5-6 weeks.
So, I left for Hong Kong out of Newark to go to a Georgetown MSB program. It was coordinated by the person in charge of International Business, which ironically I am no longer majoring in. The premise of the program was that we'd take strategic management and international marketing and compliment everything with site visits throughout Hong Kong, wrapping up with 5 days in southern China seeing factories and learning how economic conditions have developed and changed. It was a very interesting program and I feel like I know much more than anyone who just read these things from a book.
There were 5 other people on my flight, so when we got into our hotel, we all decided to go to dinner at the restaurant next door. It was our first foray into ordering off of a menu written in Chinese and Engrish--luckily I knew a lot of kanji for food so I could double check everything. We had someone deathly allergic to fish in our group, and so I remember showing him the character for fish, because at that point I was the person with the most Chinese knowledge...haha. Luckily that changed quickly.
I felt very conscious that I didn't speak the language, because it was the first time I had been somewhere I had no knowledge of the language (I had only been to France and England before). So, things took a while to get used to, I learned to speak in simple English, and to try to be as nice as I could as the American. Dinner was good, if greasy, and we proceeded to collapse from tiredness afterwards (16 hour flight, 12 hour time difference=it was about 9 pm HK, 9 am EST).
Luckily, I managed to stay asleep until about 6:30, and then I forced myself back to sleep after an hour until 9. After that, it was time to go exploring. The area we were staying in was called Ma On Shan, although when you heard it pronounced in Cantonese it sounded more like Ma On San. Eventually, when I have all of my pictures which are on an external hard drive by now, I'll put up a picture of the characters, but the ones I recognized were 山, which means mountain, and 馬, which means horse. Speaking of 山, one of the first things that was completely different from what I expected was the fact that Hong Kong is a mixture of small mountains/hills and water. While I should have expected the water since it IS a port, the mountains and hills really caught me off guard. Taking the MCR and KCR (trains) and looking out the window, you'd see high rise apartment buildings that hold the 8 million or so residents mixed with mountains and gorgeous scenery. Our hotel was on a canal, and when the sun finally came out (it rained the first whole week!) it was gorgeous. Again, I have pictures. They ARE on Facebook, though.
On our first day, we went down to Central, which is about what it sounds like it would be--the middle of the financial district and the busier part of town, complete with higher rent, luxury shops, and lots and lots of malls. HK tends to be hot and humid, and apparently the way they dealt with that was to build malls that literally connect everything--you can make significant progress across the city spending minimal time outside. We also checked out the harbour, which is where the gorgeous/famous skyline is. There are also museums which we sadly didn't make it to. Regardless, we spent a nice day learning how to get around, eating good food, and getting to know each other. By that time, my two roommates weren't there.
Next installment! Marian and Zoraida, classes, and a visit to the Big Buddha.
So, I left for Hong Kong out of Newark to go to a Georgetown MSB program. It was coordinated by the person in charge of International Business, which ironically I am no longer majoring in. The premise of the program was that we'd take strategic management and international marketing and compliment everything with site visits throughout Hong Kong, wrapping up with 5 days in southern China seeing factories and learning how economic conditions have developed and changed. It was a very interesting program and I feel like I know much more than anyone who just read these things from a book.
There were 5 other people on my flight, so when we got into our hotel, we all decided to go to dinner at the restaurant next door. It was our first foray into ordering off of a menu written in Chinese and Engrish--luckily I knew a lot of kanji for food so I could double check everything. We had someone deathly allergic to fish in our group, and so I remember showing him the character for fish, because at that point I was the person with the most Chinese knowledge...haha. Luckily that changed quickly.
I felt very conscious that I didn't speak the language, because it was the first time I had been somewhere I had no knowledge of the language (I had only been to France and England before). So, things took a while to get used to, I learned to speak in simple English, and to try to be as nice as I could as the American. Dinner was good, if greasy, and we proceeded to collapse from tiredness afterwards (16 hour flight, 12 hour time difference=it was about 9 pm HK, 9 am EST).
Luckily, I managed to stay asleep until about 6:30, and then I forced myself back to sleep after an hour until 9. After that, it was time to go exploring. The area we were staying in was called Ma On Shan, although when you heard it pronounced in Cantonese it sounded more like Ma On San. Eventually, when I have all of my pictures which are on an external hard drive by now, I'll put up a picture of the characters, but the ones I recognized were 山, which means mountain, and 馬, which means horse. Speaking of 山, one of the first things that was completely different from what I expected was the fact that Hong Kong is a mixture of small mountains/hills and water. While I should have expected the water since it IS a port, the mountains and hills really caught me off guard. Taking the MCR and KCR (trains) and looking out the window, you'd see high rise apartment buildings that hold the 8 million or so residents mixed with mountains and gorgeous scenery. Our hotel was on a canal, and when the sun finally came out (it rained the first whole week!) it was gorgeous. Again, I have pictures. They ARE on Facebook, though.
On our first day, we went down to Central, which is about what it sounds like it would be--the middle of the financial district and the busier part of town, complete with higher rent, luxury shops, and lots and lots of malls. HK tends to be hot and humid, and apparently the way they dealt with that was to build malls that literally connect everything--you can make significant progress across the city spending minimal time outside. We also checked out the harbour, which is where the gorgeous/famous skyline is. There are also museums which we sadly didn't make it to. Regardless, we spent a nice day learning how to get around, eating good food, and getting to know each other. By that time, my two roommates weren't there.
Next installment! Marian and Zoraida, classes, and a visit to the Big Buddha.
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Wait, why now?
So, I've spent most of the afternoon procrastinating via reading other people's blogs about their study abroad experiences, and I realized that I should document all of mine before I forget too much. Lucky for me, I have albums full of pictures, tons of great friends, and a few diary/blog posts to help me out. So, starting with Hong Kong and working through Europe, I'll hopefully start sharing exactly what I've been doing with the past year of my life. Sweet! Read it if you want, ignore it if you want...I like having a written record of things and a chance to hone my writing and storytelling skills.
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