I'm Thankful For...

Yay for Turkey Day!!!

This Thanksgiving was much needed. We all needed a little break before finals week (yikes!) Every other year for as long as I can remember, my family met in Seaside, FL and we would spend our Thanksgiving together. This was always my dad's side of the family, the side that I bond with most. We stopped this tradition, however, when a few of my grandparents became ill and were unable to do a lot of traveling.

These grandparents have since passed away, and this year was the first year we decided to meet again in Florida. Seaside is a fun place, but as you get older you realize that nothing has changed every time you return. It was time for a change. This year also marks a big occasion for the Shmerlings. One of my cousins, Mollie Shmerling (funny right?), is engaged! She is the first of all the cousins, so we are all pretty excited. I met the fiancé for the first time and he's awesome. My uncle, being amazing and generous, had our family stay at the Ritz Carlton, an experience very different from others I have had at other hotels.

Goffman circulated through my head throughout my stay. The Ritz is the epitome of every term in Goffman's vocabulary. There were "performances" going on everywhere you looked and I am pretty sure everyone put up a "front" while staying there. Let's just say I felt a bit out of place. I felt myself having to assimilate into this new crowd of people. I couldn't just walk around barefoot in my pajamas like at normal hotels. No, I had to dress up just to walk to the pool. There wasn't just normal water jugs spread out around the hotel, there were "infusions". Water infused with various fruits. Every person who worked there kept offering to help me or to get me something. Sometimes I just wanted to tell them I could do it myself. After a while, I let it just slide and relaxed a bit. It was weird for me to have people doing so much for me, when most of it I could just do myself. When we left today, they wished us a safe trip and said "Until next time". This made me laugh because for most of their guests, they will be back the next time they travel to Miami. For me, this experience would most likely be a once in a life time experience.

The stay itself was incredibly fun, especially seeing my family. My cousins are all getting so grown up and it is scary to think that one of my cousins is almost 30! He's already balding! Shmerling football on the beach left me incredibly sore, and on top of that, my sister pushed me to go running with her every morning. I can barely move today. I can't wait to get through these next few weeks and be home in December!

Reflection: It's following me...

So over Thanksgiving break my family and I went into the city to visit friends who were visiting from Texas. They have a daughter the same age as me, Claire, so obviously our families had a lot of college talk between us.

Apparently where Claire goes to school, there are very few people from Texas, and when other students hear that that's where she's from, there's usually a big reaction. And her father went into a description about how "high identity" states like Texas and New York tend to get bigger reaction than other states. I nearly cried.

But I have to admit he had a point. States with a lot of stereotypes or are very known for certain people/mannerisms (aka "high identity") usually get a bigger reaction from people. I can remember from the first few weeks being here at school, I met a girl from Alaska. She smiled when she told me and said "I love to see people's reactions." She was pale, blonde haired, blue eyed, and looked nothing like the Inuit Eskimo image I had in my head of Alaskans. Minus Sarah Palin. But it took me by surprise because we were all the way in DC, where people in this part of the country think of igloos and dogseld races when they think of Alaska.

These "high identity" states also bring in the idea of "othering" that has been talked about in class. When people think of states such as Texas, California, Alaska, Hawaii, these states are very clearly not like your own, and therefore we're more excited to find out from people what their lives are like there. We assume they must be very different from ours, even when it might not be any more different than someone from Nebraska.

Black Friday!

We don't celebrate Thanksgiving in Trinidad, however, this is the 2nd time I've celebrated it with my cousins in Pennsylvania. My dad and my eldest sister came up from Trinidad to join us. As usual we had lots of fun preparing the meal and it was very tasty! Nevertheless, I have to say that our biggest thing is the shopping on Black Friday! From the time I met up with them on Tuesday, the talk of the house was the sales and which stores we wanted to go to. Haha. It's hilarious how into it we get. It's quite a spectacle to see us poring over the catalogues that come in the Thanksgiving Day papers...my dad's coworker who also made the trip from Trini, made detailed notes and even went to Best Buy to map out where to find the stuff she wanted to get on sale! My eldest sister got sick on Thanksgiving Day but after her nap she made it out at 1:30am with us to go shopping and with breakfast and lunch breaks we shopped till around 5pm.

The adrenaline on Black Friday really keeps us going...it was only when we breaked for lunch the weariness kicked in...but we got enough steam to hit 3 more shops. Black Friday has become a family tradition now...we take it seriously and if you know you won't make it through the day, then don't bother joining us. =)

When I think about it, shopping is a strange family tradition but it's one that we enjoy. I guess you could say it's part of our identity.

Turkey Day Tension

What is it about sitting around a table with the whole family that makes you wish that you were somewhere else? It seems that the American Thanksgiving is more often characterized now by obscure relatives calling you out for weight gain or a bad habit than the chummy family table scene that makes the old holiday movies.

My Thanksgiving dinner was nothing extreme. I ate with my parents and grandparents and was stuck inside all day, drinking wine provided by my dad as my mother and grandparents gawked in silent astonishment, however, I finished the night off strong at a late showing of the cinematic masterpiece, Ninja Assassin. But many of my friends were not so lucky. Has the American family really deteriorated to such a level of guilt, judgement, and insecurity that two of my close friends walked out on their Thanksgiving to retreat back to dorm rooms or city parks, while a few others dashed as soon as the last pie was gone to escape?

I think this says something about the original Thanksgiving. Pilgrims and Indians (Native Americans) were not family or friends, hence, they were the best people to sit around a table with. Only surface judgements could be made, but the uneasy truce of sharing the table made even these unlikely. But the civility inherent in those who do not know each other very well is something that needs to be reintroduced at the family table for the sake of those present.

Heinlein and the Art of Military Maintenance

Heinlein makes the argument that all values reduce to the necessity to survive -- and that in consequence, war (and the preparation for war) can never be eliminated. Is he right? Well he's half right. It would be foolish to say that, when it all comes down, we don't act for the ultimate end of survival. Even acts that can be misconstrued as purely selfless are most often for ultimate survival. A mother's self sacrifice for her child's survival and the Passion of the Christ both represent one person's sacrifice for the ultimate survival of their offspring/humanity.

On the other hand, however, this idea does not mean that war can never be eliminated. Heinlein's model implies that there is constant warfare where no country or group ever comes to dominate the scene. This completely improbable scenario would create perpetual armament, but more likely would be the development of an international/intergallactic hegemon. Then, in some period similar to the Pax Romana, there could be a massive degree of disarmament and a period where few feel threatened or capable of going to war. In this case, acting on necessity to survive would not be war and perpetual armament, but cooperation with the emerged hegemon in hopes of receiving benevolence.

Likewise, constant militarization could lead to massive armament by all nations to the point of an impending mutual destruction. This case could also lead to disarmament on a huge scale and the relative peace among nations. Though in this case, it is likely that different forms of armament would restart, leading to the exact end that Heinlein suggests in as many cases as true disarmament occurs.

So human values do eventually deteriorate to only the will to survive, but survival will not always be by military means as Heinlein suggests. However, Heinlein's argument carries merit in many cases, but is simply not as sweeping as it would suggest.

Question 12: Nukes

The problem is, if one community's got a military, then they all need a military to survive. The only way it wouldn't be necessary is if they all agreed not to raise militaries, which would be quite a rarity.

Think about all the controversy over countries having nukes. Ideally, no country should have them. But the second someone suggests that 'well then why doesn't the US get rid of all their nukes?', it's obvious that's never going to happen. We need nukes, because other countries are always going to have nukes. And why are other countries going to have nukes? Because we have nukes. It's like the whole "Give me the hostage, then I'll give you the money," "No, you give me the money, then I'll give you the hostage." No one trusts anyone.

While I'm not sure it is of the highest priority for every community, I think that it is certainly necessary to have a military in order to survive. Living in a community without a military is like living in a house without walls and a roof. You're completely exposed to whatever comes your way. Even a mediocre military is better than none at all, just for the message it implies.

Think about the identity of a community that does not harbor a military. They obviously value peace and diplomatic conflict resolution. But the identity of a community who considers military top priority sees force as a way of solving problems.

Guess who's going to win in an argument?

But even a community who has a military of ten people who wear sweatpants as their uniforms send out a more aggressive and influential message than the community with no army at all. Because at least this community is saying "We are willing to defend outselves." They might still value diplomacy over force, and they obviously do not find the military to be their top priority, but they are still telling other communities that they will fight back if they need to.

Similarly, a country with one nuke has more power than a country with none. Even though no one really wants nukes around at all, we all still know that's never going to happen, and the country with the most nukes still holds a great deal of power.

Well-Orchestrated Chaos

I saw a green sign with red letters today, advertising for a service opportunity, but I thought it was a sign for Newports. Yep. I had been to the south. I spent the weekend driving to Fort Benning, Georgia and back, though we did manage to go to a protest for just-over-24 hours that we were not on the road. So between multiple trips to Waffle House, I saw and participated in a festival and solemn service reminiscent of the Vietnam protests.

A modern day protest, set within inches of a major military base, is much like a ballet. It was organized, disciplined, and it caused you to drop your sense of reality. On day one there was a festival of different groups, peddling their different causes with t-shirts and petitions. Cops stood around drinking coffee and talking casually with the protesters. They knew that there was nothing to worry about. Then came day two. There were three options during the solemn march, mourning the loss of those who had fallen to the SOA: stay safe, low risk, and high risk. The safe option involved simply marching within the designated protesting area with no chance of arrest whatsoever. The low risk option was the most visible, marching down the street to meet the waiting squad of police cars with an officer casually reading the charges of "parading without a permit." Ironically, the most extreme form of disobedience, crossing onto Fort Bennig property, is the least visible. Nuns and priests slip out of eyesight to cross in private and to await their 6-month sentence.

What is present here is true civil disobedience. There is apparent chaos but, in reality, there is none. The police know the drill. They appear almost bored as they round up the law-breaking protesters for holding up traffic or trespassing on federal property. As much as it kills me to say it, it is a lot like Goffman's ideas in that it is very much a display, put on for the onlookers, the cops, and the protesters alike.

New Moon!

This weekend I went to see New Moon (please don't judge me) and I have been thinking about how much of an impact it has had on culture. I went shopping today and not only were there life-sized cardboard cutouts of Edward Cullen and Jacob staring at me as I left the dressing room, but there were t-shirts in various colors all having to do with New Moon. Some said "Team Jacob" and others said "Team Edward". It is crazy that this movie has made such an impact on our culture. It is being talked about by everyone and there are countless products being produced to promote the movie. I think it is interesting that the movie was first a book because its popularity really seemed to flourish when it became a movie. I think this says something about our culture. Media plays a huge role in our society. I was talking about the movie after I saw it with Keara and Anna, and I thought it was interesting how we all had different takes on the movie and the book. Anna and I didn't read the books, whereas Keara had. We were discussing whether or not we preferred watching a movie about a book or just reading the book. We all had different opinions about this topic, but I came to the conclusion that many people prefer a more condensed version of and thus a movie is a perfect way to receive that. The Twilight books seem to be much more detailed and long, whereas the movie is much more condensed. I am torn because although I love to read with detail in order to visualize what is going on, but a movie is much more convenient and almost does the work for you. Are people, like me, just getting lazy? I almost felt guilty after the movie that I hadn't read the books and I plan to at least try and get through them in order to understand what the movie missed. Again, I think it is out of a bit of laziness and convenience that I preferred the movie. Not to mention the extremely attractive actors that make the movie even better!

A Weekend of Performing Arts

So I had an awesome week! I got to see the NSO with Joshua Bell (a famous violinist) at the Kennedy Center on Thursday night. I also went to see 'Carmina Burana' and the AU in Motion Dance Show. It was one of my best weekends so far at AU.

I want to focus on the NSO performance, which was phenomenal. It was my first time at the Kennedy Center and even though I went by myself, I enjoyed it. The first thing you see when you walk in is a long hallway with the flags of the world hanging above you. (I saw my flag :-)) It's an amazing feeling...you feel like royalty because of the red carpets. I was possibly one of the youngest people there that night. As I made my way to my seat, I was surrounded by elderly people even those with oxygen tanks. Listening to them chatting behind me and across me, I realised that some of them were regulars...they didn't even know what the program was until they sat down and read the schedule. They obviously just enjoy the classical music.

As I watched people trying to find their seats, I thought to myself that it would be really cool to do an ethnography on the audience there. There was such a wide variety of personalities and some of them didn't look like the typical fans classical music. I saw this one guy who wore a ton of gold jewelry, and it wasn't simple chains but bulky ones with jewels in them and he also wore rings and lots of bracelets. He seemed to be a regular NSO follower as well because he knew some of the people around me.

I had gone to the performance primarily for my Understanding Music class to take notes on the performance as well as the audience. Funnily enough, I got a lot of help from the audience as we exited after the program. There were lots of people so it took a while to get down the staircase and all around me everyone was critiquing the NSO and the composers. It was amazing! I am a music lover and I felt really at home...the audience was so knowledgeable. I compared this audience to the one at AU's Carmina Burana, the following night. There was such a big contrast! AU's crowd didn't chat about anything musical between numbers. It was a very different experience for me.

BONUS Question

The American Indian Museum was more than I expected. I had always seen the building from afar but it's so much more amazing when you're standing right next to it. I made a comment to my friend that it felt strange because of the crops and plants surrounding ... it didn't feel like downtown DC anymore.

The first thing I noticed when I entered the museum was how simple the decor was. The architecture was the main focus. From outside, the shape of the building was obscure but from inside it was clear that it was a tepee.

The museum expressed the values of the American Indians. I was unable to explore the museum fully but I loved the floor with all the different tribes. The exhibits were well laid out and each tribe display was located in a room of the tepee - the tepee being the building. Each section was a remembrance of who these people were and what they believed in. From what I remember, the museum never criticised the Native American way of life. It felt like the museum was in honor of the American Indians. The night after our visit, I was thinking that there wasn't any section about the killing of the Indians. Did anyone see this anywhere? It wasn't like about their history exactly because it didn't include their extinction. I suppose that it's more a celebration of American Indian culture than the actual events over the years.

Reflection: The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

This was a particularly uneventful week. I will come right out and say that for the first time I'm kind of at a loss for what to reflect about.

Thanksgiving is coming up, and I'm so excited to go home and start the season of all my favorite traditions. My mom taught me how to make boereg a few years ago--it's one of my favorite foods in the world. It takes forever to make because we usually do a ton in one sitting, and it's also really tedious and you have to make it fast because it's made out of layers of filo dough, which is so thin it rips really easily and dries out super fast. But it's so much fun because my mom and I sit side by side and pop in a movie and just sit and make tons of boereg.

Thanksgiving is also the day that we have, every year without fail, listened to "Alice's Restaurant." I don't even really know how the tradition started (I think it's on the radio every year?) but all I know is that when I was little, I didn't realize he was saying "Alice's" and thought it was "Allison's Restaurant." Every year I thought we listened to it because it was about me!

And then soon after Thanksgiving it's the Christmas season! Nothing is better than a snow-covered ground, hot chocolate, a crackling fire, and my favorite: skiing.

I was talking to Gina the other night about how one of the best feelings in the world is when you peel off all your layers from a successful ski day, your face still chapped from the cold, your hands clasping a steamy cup of cocoa, and you're cuddling up with a blanket to watch a movie with your family and friends. I would give up ever seeing summer again to relive the perfect winter day over and over.

Skiing is one of the best ways to get a natural high. When you're teetering on the tip of a mogul, too scared to move because everywhere you can go you're convinced will lead to your death--trees, rocks, ice, grass--and it's all way steeper than you remember. You look up and know you can't hike back up, and you look down and start to feel dizzy. But everyone's ahead of you and you can't stay there forever. It's such a mind game, and you try to plan where the best place to go would be, but when you finally make the move, shaking and crying, you lift your skis and just drop. Suddenly you're flying and that spot you had spent crying over is now miles in the past. When you get to the bottom you collapse, and look up at what you just accomplished. And you feel like you can do anything.

(Photo is from Lower Glade at Mad River Glen, the best mountain ever!)

Is Violence the Answer?

It is easy to say that "violence is not the answer" but realistically, this is not always the case. I think a lot of the time, war or fighting has only made the underlying issues worse. Sometimes, the reason for going to war or for fighting over a specific issue is a power struggle. No one wants to be wrong in an argument, and arguments are capable of getting to a level where neither side will back out. Then violence comes into the picture and everything is thrown off from there. Either violence can end a seemingly endless argument or it can make things more complicated. I think the point of the quote "Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor, and the contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worse, breed that forget this basic truth have always paid for it with their lives and freedoms" -- Starship Troopers, p. 27" is to expose the reality of violence. Sometimes it is necessary. Like Allison said, violence is sometimes used in response of an attack; a kind of self defense. In this case, I believe violence is justified because otherwise you will end up the victim of the attacker. Violence can also be used to prove a point and prevent others from breaking the rules. Consider the death penalty. I am against the death penalty myself, but one could make the point that the death penalty is used as a deterrent. With the use of this type of violence, it shows others who might commit a crime the consequence of their actions. On the flip side, the idea of violence serving as a deterrent reminded me of Antigone. When Creon banishes Antigone it is to serve as a deterrent for the rest of the community. He initially uses this to justify his violence, but in the end he realizes it only made things worse (Haeman kills himself).

Violence - Right or Wrong?

I'm not sure where to begin. This is a difficult topic for me. I guess I'll start by saying that violence is obviously necessary in certain situations like, self-defense. Although if you think about it, self defense wouldn't be needed if someone hadn't attacked you. This is where the issue of good vs. bad violence comes in. The vision of riots are coming into my mind right now...I think that the violence often demonstrated in some protests are unimaginable. If you visit the Newseum you see that most of the Pulitzer Prize Gallery consists of violent photographs. It's scary to even imagine that people can do such horrible things and I sometimes feel like I live in a bubble ... far away from the hardships of war. One of the pictures shows men about to be executed. I sometimes wonder how the photographers are able to get these pictures taken! Anyway, personally I do not like violence and I don't think anyone should like it. Nevertheless, violence has solved many problems.

The problem is that these acts of violence usually end with bloodshed and murder. All the people that die in wars are somebody's relative, mother, father, brother, sister, cousin etc. and someone loves them. This is what pains me about violence. I recently finished reading "In Cold Blood" which is a book about the murder of a family in Kansas in 1959. The 2 murderers were eventually hanged but throughout the book esp. the section on their last days, you come to see them as human beings...they have feelings and even though they may be insane, I do not agree that we should have killed them.

If we all abstained from violence and maybe tried some other forms of resolution, then we would not need to use naked force to protect ourselves. This seems unlikely ever to work out, but why? ... Why can't we try it? Maybe it's because it's in our blood? I don't know. Let's see - if the world had no violence, it would be great.

I do agree with some points Allison makes on this topic, particularly where she says that "violence equals power". People use violence to prove their strength and dominance over others. For example, with the American Indians and their extinction. In order to obtain the land, they killed the Indians. They considered themselves to be powerful and superior to this race. If you're a power-hungry person, I guess you would look at violence as the only method.

It all depends on which side you're on. Sometimes the peaceful people are forced to fight because they are attacked. Although, some refuse to commit any acts of violence and are injured or killed. Violence is unfair; if you're against it, you're hurt and if you're for it, you win. Human life should be treasured and how one person can hurt another intentionally just baffles me.

Question 11: Sociopathic Murder or Natural Selection?

Well, duh, violence is effective. You want that money behind the counter? Shoot the clerk. Get the money. You want that country? Bomb the shit out of them. It's yours. I would say that is a pretty effective tactic.

Because frankly, no one particularly wants to be killed or injured by someone else. Pain is usually better if avoided, as well as massive losses of your population. So if you're threatened, you're usually going to do what they say--and more so than if someone walked into your store and said "Excuse me, yes hi, you see, I would really like to have some of that money behind the counter, so do you think you could maybe give it to me, please?"

Violence equals power. It always has, and it does for every species. We've evolved into a weird exception, where in everyday life it's frowned upon, but if you zoom out into a world view you'll see it's still the same. But obviously even in everyday life there's still evidence that violence trumps all, particularly in robbing, kidnapping, hijacking, and the like. The reason for this it simple: If you use violence, either everyone's going to die and you get what you want because you killed them all, or, they give you what you want and they stay alive. Violence is selfish, but it's the only way someone can get everything they want without compromise, except for maybe blackmail.

The thing that stops the average person from implementing violence to get anything and everything they want is because we have grown up with the morals and understanding that this is wrong. Remember when you were a kid and your mom yelled at you for pushing that other kid when he wouldn't give you a turn on the swing? It's in our nature to fight for what we want. It's in our culture to fight for it without violence.

Obviously I don't condone violence. I can't even kill a ladybug, though there are plenty in my dorm room. But I do believe that the idea of violence can be looked at in two very different ways. One is that every life is valued, every life should be respected, and therefore violence is an incredibly immoral act. And the other is that we are fighting to survive as a species--and not individually--and for this reason single lives are expendable, so violence is a necessary and natural way of going about doing things. Isn't that how we view other animals? When the big scary lion kills the scrawny lion so he can steal his food, we call it natural selection, not sociopathic murder.

The difference is our industrialization, which sort of removed any sort of natural selection that takes place in humans. I think it's this transition from living as a species to living as a person that changed our view about dying and using violence to get what we want. But it is still in all of us. (ie Lord Of The Flies). And the fact that we look down upon violence doesn't mean it's any less effective.

Bumper Sticker Philosophy

"Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor."

- Mr. Dubois

What Heinlein is doing here is presenting us with a comment that we find morally reprehensible and impossible to believe, yet one that we are unable to discount. Has raw violence settled more issues in history than any other factor? Probably. However, raw violence has also had quite a few more chances to settle these disputes due to man kinds affinity for the like. Additionally, while violence is often considered a single factor for change, the many forms of non-violence are often divided up into respective categories such a protest, dissent, diplomacy, etc. In light of this idea, is violence still the great settler of disputes? The answer is less clear.

Then one must distinguish between war, and simple violence. There is a common bumper sticker in towns more conservative than this one, and it reads: "War never solved anything, except for communism, fascism, and slavery." Assessing the validity of this statement, the footing is, even initially, a little shaky. Communism, though not a superpower governing structure, still exists in functioning governments around the world. Fascism, though seen to fall after WWII, can still display visible remnants in many Third World and developing nations where super-nationalism and discipline mask deeper issues. So, when seen from this angle it seems that war can destroy institutions and governments, but cannot create. Stable democracies after communist and fascist regimes as well as civil rights were not created by wars, but by people with better intentions willing to put the time, effort and money into the development of something positive from the wreckage of war. Communism, fascism, and slavery may have been beaten by war, but nothing was "settled" until the peacemakers arrived.

But Heinlein did not say war, he said violence, which is distinctly different, and significantly less accurate. History shows that violence outside of war, such as race riots, carpet bombings, police attacking protestors, and the like all have a disturbing effect on the community at large as opposed to a settling one.

So although Mr. Dubois would refer to my ideas as wishful thinking and dangerous, I must respectfully disagree. Though violence may solve some things as a contributing factor, to say that it fully solves anything or to say that it is has settled more issues than any other factor is both irresponsible and delusional, Heinlein's intentions aside.

Happy Birthday to me =)

So I'm turning 20 and I'm really excited. My family has always been big on birthdays and this is my first birthday away. Ever since I was younger, I always couldn't wait to be older. Haha. I never understood people who said they wanted to go back to being younger - I've always been looking towards the future.

I am really enjoying life right now. I have great friends both back home and here at AU. I am very thankful for the wonderful people on my floor... UC and non-UC alike. As everyone knows, I practically live in the floor lounge with Aline! I feel so comfortable there and every night the rest of the lounge crew arrives and we have such a good time together studying. I have no complaints about my roomie and I have some close friends like Aline, Adam and Isaac.... and Katie and Ana have accepted me as their unofficial roomie. If it weren't for all these people, I would not be having such a great experience. I've been thinking about the Christmas break and going back home...and while I am excited to see my Trini family and friends, I will definitely miss my AU buddies (esp. my Taco mates (Aline and Adam ... and Isaac)).

I really love how our floor feels like a family ... and I wouldn't trade it for any other floor on campus.

Thanx guys for making me feel loved and special on my birthday weekend =)

Love you all :-)

Reflection: I hate history

Ambassador Quainton was definitely my favorite speaker. Maybe it was his personality, but he was the most engaging and interesting out of everyone we'd had come to speak.

I'm not an SIS major. And I actually don't really like history at all, but when he spoke about it I was honestly interested. What he had to say about knowing another country's history, and understanding that their starting point and your starting point may be different when approaching an issue was something I had never really thought about before but it made so much sense. Two people who come from different cultures and different ways of understanding something obviously don't view each other in the same light.

Maybe the reason why I found this so interesting was because it isn't just something to be applied to international relations--it applies to individuals as well. Any two people obviously don't view the world in the same light, don't have the same knowledge and beliefs, and therefore don't always start on the same page when approaching problems and issues.

Anyway, as a whole, I really really liked Ambassador Quainton. I found his stories were fascinating (and I'm so jealous because I want to travel!!) and I thought he was a very smart man with the kind of incredible past that I dream of one day having.

An Evolving Foreign Service

Ambassador Quainton was definitely my favorite guest so far. As someone with an interest in the foreign service as well as just getting out to see the world, it was amazing to meet a man who had transparently done it all. However, his essay, while I believe it to be true, gave me some pause about my ability to break into the foreign service and not to be tucked into some niche never to be heard from again. Ambassador Quainton admitted that his having served on all seven continents was an oddity, but from hearing him speak and reading his essay, it seems as if we are headed towards a time when serving in more than one country may be outside the norm.

This brings me to the idea of specialization. It's at the heart of capitalism and it reaching its tentacles into nearly every other aspect of our culture. Why not? It makes sense that if each person can be the best at some very specialized area, then as a country, we can be the best across the board. Quainton argued that this specialization would have to be the future of the foreign service if it is to keep up in the developing world of technology. True as this may be, the idea of the renaissance man (or woman) derived from an age of enlightenment for a reason. Specialization, despite breeding excellence in one area, tends to breed incomprehensible incompetence in other areas. It seems odd that while most businesses are searching for a liberal arts education for their employees, that the foreign service should begin to do the opposite.

Clearly the intention of Ambassador Quainton was not to approach one extreme or another, but to imply certain necessity for certain new and finely tuned skills in the foreign service if it is to survive. And who can blame him? This truth is clearly the case in nearly every industry that wishes to survive in a changing world, it must evolve.

Reflection: Antigone Now and Then

I just read Antigone last year in my AP Lit class. It's interesting because I know a lot of people have been talking about how amazing the difference is between college and high school and how college is so much more in depth and though-provoking. Maybe it was my teacher, but I feel like my high school experience of Antigone was just as intelligent as the discussions we have now. It was just a different approach to the book.

Obviously my AP Lit class was not centered around the idea of identity, it was centered around analyzing literature. We read Antigone after reading Oedipus, and we broke down the formula for a Greek tragedy (position of power, tragic flaw, revelation, reversal). We then read Hamlet, and discussed the differences in approach to the genre between the two. We read a modern interpretation of Antigone, and examined how that approach differed as well. We discussed what makes a tragic hero, and other forms of literature that were influenced by these styles.

And all these things have nothing to do with that we are learning. I think that's even better, because now I've been able to see the work in two different lights. I broke it down for what it was, and examined how it was put together, and then now I've broken it down for what it represents and what it implies in a greater picture.

Both of these approaches are necessary, and I also think they were appropriate for the age at which I was taught it.

What a week!

I am so relieved that this week is over with! It was definitely a difficult one with because of my Psych exam on Friday. I really needed to do well on the test so I spent most of my week reviewing and it paid off because I felt pretty good about it in the end.

I also enjoyed the Wednesday Lab for Explorations. It was my first time reading Antigone and by Wednesday I hadn't finished it as yet so the acting helped a lot. Being able to see and hear certain scenes of the play make them easier for me to remember ... I am a very visual person. I also want to commend the actors and actresses on a brilliant job! Some of them were particularly special. I felt a bit strange being on the other side of the performance because I've spent most of my life being part of performances and knowing what's going on behind the scenes. I liked it though - it was a change just being able to relax and take it all in.

This week's lab should be interesting for Veteran's Day. I have never gone to the Arlington Cemetery so I'm excited.

( Happy Birthday Katie!!! )

Antigone and the Passive-Aggressive Gods

Our discussion on Antigone strayed into the domain of wondering where the gods stood on the whole issue, as they would be the deciding force in ancient Greece. Thanks to the seer, we can clearly see that the Gods stand on the side of Antigone, but do not feel it is important enough to show up and say so themselves. The fact that the gods do not appear is a departure from nearly all other Theban plays who referenced the gods often and had them make appearances at least intermittently.

The reasoning behind the gods' shyness in Antigone easily could have been derrived from one of Sophocles' themes, such as the rampant individualism in the play or the conflict of human law with natural law, which does not always coincide with the laws of the gods.

Antigone's self-righteous individualism would have been lessened by the presence of the gods delivering punishments or morals as opposed to allowing Antigone's actions to go on for the effect. Likewise, their absence makes her individualism all the more powerful in that there is some disagreement as to whether the gods would have approved.

On Natural Law, Antigone claims to follow natural law, while Creon claims that his law of the state is the overarching authority. However, this conflict also would have simmerred had the gods been involved to clear it up.

Hence, this play runs on a certain degree of ambiguity. That is why we were able to have a trial in class and use the book for citation, because there is no clear cut moral code that has been broken or upheld. That is what makes this play unique also.

Weath and Poverty: Is It That Important?

In terms of social arrangements, wealth and poverty is an important factor, but I don't think it is the most important. Take for example, communities. Yes, financial stability is an important factor in determining where one lives or what part of a community they live in. For example, I live in a small town that is extremely affluent, but just a five-minute car ride away, there is another area that is less affluent and it is evident in their living arrangement. The two areas, where I live and the area nearby, are clearly divided by wealth. Like I said, this isn't the only factor. Social status, religion, ethnic/cultural backgrounds also play into the way social arrangements are organized. People tend to live among others like themselves, so this automatically segregates people in that way too.

Issue of Wealth and Poverty

How a society "deals with the problem of wealth and poverty" is definitely a major factor in the overall health of that society. I agree with 'Joe's' blog on this topic. He writes that issues of poverty and wealth have always impacted revolutions in the past. This book mainly focuses on American culture but many of the theories can work for many other countries such as mine of Trinidad and Tobago.

Different degrees of prosperity among citizens creates many problems. It often results in a division in a society depending on how much money someone has.

I don't mean to say that societies aren't affected by other things but I do agree that it is a main factor to consider. Some other areas may include issues of race and gender. Although as 'Chips and Salsa' pointed out to me in the lounge (she's sitting down right next to me), races and minorities in particular are usually linked to different classes of wealth. If you consider gender then this could bring up some more issues but I do not think that this is a major factor to be considered.

A Public Option for Societal Health

Is how a society "deals wth the problem of wealth and poverty" a "litmus test . . . for assaying the health of a society?" Yes. History has shown that high income gaps are the first step to revolution. As is happening now, when the rich just keep getting richer, and the poor poorer, there is an inherent civic unrest due to the inequality in the system. Revolutions such as those in Russia, Cuba, and former Soviet satellites can all be traced to rampant poverty with a small wealthy elite (likely a corrupt one). Therefore it would only make sense that when evaluating the health of particular social relationships or arrangements that how wealth and poverty are dealt with is the ultimate litmus for sustainability.

However, this assertion is not to say that other factors are not important for the health of a particular society. Other factors such issues of conflicting ideologies, physical and mental attributes that might come into conflict and the management thereof, would all come into play. Even then, many of those issues and their arousal can be traced back to issues of wealth and poverty, showing Bellah's theory to be correct.

In essence, so much of human behavior can be explained by money matters, even that which does no appear to relate at the surface, that the management of socioeconomic differences within a society is the single most important thing that a societal structure can do to maintain relative peace. Hence, sensing how well a society manages it is the perfect litmus test pertaining to that society's long term health.

Family Weekend

So last weekend my parents visited me and although I haven't suffered from homesickness, I was thankful for it. My mom hadn't ever visited AU or DC and neither had my aunt so I was excited to show them around. My dad had come to AU for Freshman Day and also to help me move in August but there were many places I though they all needed to see.

I came up with an informal schedule for their trip, which included some of my favourite DC sites. Some of these sites became favourites after our UC trips. Since our trip to the Portrait Gallery, I couldn't wait to carry my mom there because she loves art. I also carried them to the National Cathedral which was fun to do again. We had a different tour guide and it really intrigued me how she pointed out so many new things. I thought I would've been bored but I was just as interested as during our visit. The tour guides all have their different methods and I guess what interests them impacts the content they choose for their tours. I also got to go to the 7th floor where we were able to experience a 360 degree view of DC. You can see the National Mall from up there and with it being Fall, the trees were beautiful. This is my first Fall and I love watching the leaves change colours. :)

With regard to the discussions in class about college choice, I have to say that I am happy here at AU. I love the friendly nature of the school ... I mean I sing in the church choir right next to my Psychology professor and sometimes call him by his first name! I love that we can do this and I wouldn't trade it in for unapproachable faculty.