Today Ethan Abel and I presented our final capstone project for Global Scholars, which was a follow-up to our grant and an expansion on the issues which prompted us to take our route. We spent most of the presentation delving into Vietnam's troubled history after the French occupation from the 1880s to the Japanese Invasion to the war and US invasion to today with COVID. We emphasize the impacts of the munitions and pesticides used by the US during the war and how they still plague the country today. The casualty numbers from the conflict are staggering, and today, thousands of Vietnamese children are born with congenital diseases from agent orange, which was used extensively in the conflict. Land mines also pose a significant risk to Vietnam's rural populations, with some areas being 80% not disarmed despite the war being 40 years in the past. With COVID, it is even more challenging for the government to manage to help those affected by the remnants of the war, which we focused on with our grant.
To follow up on the $5,000 we were awarded in March, Ethan and I have kept in close contact with Le Ly Hayslip, who has updated us that GVF has found two volunteer teachers and has used just a tiny fraction of the money so far. We still need to confirm when or if the program has started yet, but from my impression, things are on track and going well so far. Ms. Hayslip and Sunshine Nguyen are in good spirits, and Ethan and I are proud that our work is paying off and VOH and the children there are getting the help they deserve.
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Global Scholars has been a very enlightening experience for me. From all the events online and a few in-person to keeping up with the news daily to all of the classes I probably wouldn't have taken otherwise and my spectacular trip to Cambodia and Vietnam. I've really enjoyed my classmates who have taught me so much and all of the people I've met or gotten to know a lot better through the program. I've made so many connections it's hard to count. Still, some really stood out to me, including the excellent mentors and guides on my trip, Le Ly Hayslip and her family and organization Global Village Foundation, Ms. Estrada and Ms. Robbins, and Ms. Diederich and Mr. Caragher. I really enjoyed making and eventually receiving a grant of $5,000 with my partner Ethan because both of us put a ton of heart and effort into that project, and it really paid off. This blog has also allowed me to take a deeper look than I usually would at some on and off-focus topics, which helped me become a better global citizen. I cannot think of any issues I have had along the way, and I believe that is due to excellent direction from all of the faculty contributing to the program and how engaged everyone was with their work. Global scholars has a great community and has made a significant impact on many people's lives. I have had a blast with it.
Photo from Shanghai from 3 years ago This week I talked to a classmate about our experiences in China, and it dawned on me how much I miss the rest of the world. It feels like this school year, despite mostly being back in person at school and returning little by little to how life was before COVID, I've lost my connection to what's beyond LA, CA, and the US. I still get the same news and take globally-minded courses, but I can't bring myself back to the otherworldly experiences I've had elsewhere.
Being so tired going through my routine and having so much angst at the end of my high school years is certainly not just my experience, but I think it really has contributed to me forgetting just how expansive the rest of the world is. I watch these TV shows, eat my food (which is international, just it's a lot of the same), and generally go through my LA motions, but I have lost the spuriousness that I've only felt elsewhere. Without actually visiting anywhere or interacting with non-US citizens much, my mindset feels shrinking, and I care so much less about the little details around me. Maybe I've sacrificed paying so much attention and a little of my ability to learn to care much less. I've been blessed with so many great unique experiences, but I am only focused on my daily getting lunch and other monotonous activities. With my sense as it is, I can't break out right now: I'm inhibited by everything I can't have yet, so I am ever hopeful for what's ahead, but I feel like I've been in this period of transition for so long. Traveling has given me the option to take glimpses into the dynamic-ness of life, and right now, I want that option back. Having a global sense is more than experience. It's the quality of seeing the other options when you're would just be going through the motions. Yesterday I attended the first-in-two-year in-person Global Scholars event, which featured three women representing the organization Narrative 4 (N4). N4 is a global network of educators, students, and artists who use art and storytelling to build empathy between students while equipping them to improve their communities and the world. It organizes events called story exchanges, which are set between at least two but often more communities to connect with a strategy called empathy into action. Our event was not a story exchange but an introduction to the organization because they want to partner with our school and expand more in our region. The three presenters were the head of N4 in the Midwest, a teacher from Mexico, and a woman from South Africa who was a long-time participant with N4. Each of them was very engaging and really enforced the reputation N4 deserves, which is that it has caused a lot of visible change and has been very helpful for a lot of people. The South African woman, who was not much older than me and my classmates, was especially captivating as she spoke about how she had gone into her community with new lenses from story exchanges and had really branched out in the world with N4's cross cultured-ness. She had even started to go after social change in SA through avenues like a poem she shared which was brilliant. Having been in a story exchange myself, I can attest that they are very useful for anyone trying to find new ideas in the world, and I came away from mine with new trains of thought. After an experience with N4, really the next step is traveling, and because of how inaccessible that is, N4 is perfect for expanding horizons naturally and uniquely without such a heavy burden (often none at all for participants). The presenters made it a point to say how important it was to them that the empathy conveyed during their events did not stop then and how invested they were in creating action to help their participants help people and the world. The last few weeks have been a kick to the gut for quite a few groups of people.
One of my favorite analog stories alongside the likes of Alejandro Jodorowsky's The Incal and The Metabarons, Hergé's Tintin, and Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is a graphic novel called Monster by the author Enki Bilal. Taking place in a 2026 future a step more dystopian than Earth in Wim Wenders' movie, Until the End of the World, Monster twists between the three perspectives of Amir, Leyla, and Nike, three distant people being extrapolated by clandestine forces and reflecting on the failures of human society in the 30 years since a war that orphaned them. Being Yugoslavian, Bilal embedded his experience into his trio, so Monster's extreme surrealism combined with its rapid mood swings and far-from-delicately-woven plot depict
Tonight, My partner Ethan and I received total funding ($4,999) for our project called Kết Nối. After a lot of hard work, it paid off, and we are thrilled to have this opportunity to do good. We'll do good with this grant because we are going to donate all of the money to an organization called Global Village Foundation, founded by a Vietnam War Refugee named Le Ly Hayslip and has several offshoot organizations. One of those offshoots is the Village of Hope in Da Nang, Central Vietnam, an orphanage and school for disabled and impoverished children. Our efforts took a long time and a lot of coordination with Ms. Hayslip, her family, and staff, so we're delighted to have achieved the goal of actual funding.
We recently had a zoom call with Ms. Hayslip and two of her contacts in Da Nang, Mr. Du and Ms. Hang, also known as Sunshine, Ms. Hayslip's daughter. Using Ms. Ly's contacts across different universities in Vietnam, we plan on using the money to stipend students coming out of university to teach at the Village of Hope. They would come two to three days a week and tutor the students in reading, writing, computers, math, science, and more. They would be considered "volunteers" to the Village of Hope, but we would pay them separately. The grant money would go to the Global Village Foundation, where Ms. Ly, Mr. Du, and Sunshine would use the money in Vietnam to seek out students who recently graduated from university and would be willing to "volunteer" to work at the Village of Hope. The money would not last forever, so we are hoping to establish a program at Poly where students can connect with students at the Village of Hope and help teach them English and other subjects. In turn, students at Poly would log service hours, connect with others, learn about a different culture, and more. On the other end, students at the orphanage will have individualized supplemented education, can connect with another culture, and learn from others. We are hoping to focus on this program after the grant proposal. In terms of budgeting the grant money, we have decided with Ms. Ly and Mr. Du that ⅘ of the $4,999 (~$4,000) would go to paying the stipends of university students GVF finds to volunteer inside of Village of Hope as 3-5 teachers for ~$500 a week. Instead of hiring Village of Hope and Mr. Vinh, getting volunteers to teach will circumvent possible corruption from inside VOH and the Vietnamese Government stifling salaried teachers. The teachers would teach English, computers, and mathematics to the children in bi or tri-grade classes, and as university volunteers, GVF will choose them of good moral character. The other ⅕ of the budget (~$1,000) would go to Global Village Foundation to pay for operational expenses to find applicants shortly (the next few months) that will fit well in the job and for GVF to continue supporting VOH's supplies, such as food, learning materials, and other items necessary for supporting its impaired children. Having met the people in charge of finding volunteers: Mrs. Sunshine Nguyen and Mr. Du Hua, we can uphold their passion for GVF and their pure intentions. Currently, VOF houses 117 students, 22 from outside the Village, 45 are deaf/mute, and most come from impoverished families in rural areas outside of Hanoi. We hope that VOH can divert some stress from paying for its resources and expand its fundraising efforts with our funding. Unfortunately, since the beginning of the pandemic, VOH has lost most foreign donors and has dramatically reduced support from the Government, so now it is more and more in a dire state of need of any money at all to continue its operations at even some of the capacity it had two years ago. With a large grant, Global Village Foundation will use its best capabilities to help Village of Hope continue to shine its optimism onto its community and support the 117 impaired children under its care. Over the next few months, Ethan and I will continue to work hard to make sure the money is used adequately and the children of VOH are supported by it. Herbivores and carnivores roam the earth, the continents are yet to drift apart, and the ocean is teeming with giant predators, capable of living for less than half of a human's lifespan today. Protein is abundant throughout the earth, but prehistoric predators require more resources from their massive statures. The seas were full of shelled creatures, eels, and fish, all great sources of nutrients, yet the sea beasts from the time are long gone, possessing few similarities with their modern equivalents. As the most dominant predator of today, so invasively powerful, they stand far above any other animal on any food chain; dialectically, humans eat everything: diets are concerned with regions, not species, and now we have access to anything our hearts desire to eat.
Pescatarianism sprung from the environment, not a choice; living by the sea wasn't the luxury it is now. Civilizations and tribes that consumed primarily fish, sea creatures, and of course, vegetables persist today, like sections of India, Japan, and Jews, where access to mammals is limited or dismayed upon. The Pythagoreans, who had a significant influence on later philosophers, were pescatarians, but even ancienter people ate mainly vegetables and fish first. Some sects of Hindus are thought to be the first people to be vegetarians, caused by belief, not necessarily environment. Belief as a motivation for becoming a pescatarian comes from morals. Religion or not, pescetarianism is the diet for people who are motivated by the lives of other beings. Whether it is the idea that meat is unsanitary, eating meat is consuming the soul of a powerless animal, one with a lesser intelligence than us but still much more significant than sea creatures eaten today (not including whales or dolphins, or other larger, non-fished species), or that the production of meat contributes significantly to global warming, there are many motivators to be a pescetarian. Pescatarian societies have not died out yet, and the most prominent ones are more alive than ever, but what sets them apart from their meat-eating counterparts. The effects of having an abundance of minerals commonly found in fish and the lack of ones found in land animals do impact the pescatarians, despite the possibility that eating more vegetables might substitute those necessary or harmful minerals and protein types. Consuming a lot of modern meat raises the chance of having heart issues and some cancers, but it also gives a lot more protein than fish, which is beneficial for creating new muscle. Different fish contain different vitamins and proteins, like omega-3 fatty acids from Tuna and Salmon, magnesium from cod and halibut, and vitamin D from mackerel and sardines. Sources: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24289207/ For a while this year, My partner Ethan and I have created a grant proposal to help children in Vietnam or other parts of the world. Our idea for this project is to coordinate with a group about an issue specific to Vietnam or Vietnamese Americans and then have an event around it, either a panel discussion, a documentary, an exhibition, or something else. We’ve been looking at several organizations such as DVAN (Diasporic Vietnamese Artists Network), Koto, Kidspire, Care-For-Children, and more. We’ve also been looking at several prominent Vietnamese speakers and activists with who Poly has connections, like Nick Ut, Lely Haslop, Viet Thanh Nguyen, and Marcelino Truong. Our goal is to have a variety of experts in different fields with ties to the Vietnamese experience. We want to focus on a set of issues or topics that we haven’t chosen yet through a panel discussion but are thinking about now. We have ideas about rural education, promoting Vietnamese artists, the connections between Vietnam and Afghanistan, and the competition between American and Chinese influence in the country. We could also potentially look at the Vietnamese-American refugee experience or the recent Asian hate crimes. For the Afghanistan idea, we could partner with other global scholars focusing on Afghanistan and tie our topics together through a joint panel discussion and an action plan. We may also talk about neighboring countries to Vietnam in Southeast Asia like Cambodia, Thailand, and Myanmar and their connections to Vietnam. Both of us have been to Vietnam and are very interested in its foreign relations and culture, so we have a pretty natural topic. Our themes are all related to America’s connection to Vietnam somehow. We are still undecided on our action plan that would follow our panel discussion. However, some of our ideas include partnering with some of the organizations that the speakers are a part of or partnering with schools in Vietnam. We hope to educate our audience about Vietnam and Southeast Asia issues as a whole.
Our ideas for a grant proposal are all tied to our Capstone project themes. Both of us agree that education is a significant issue in Vietnam and ideally center our focus on that topic. One of the organizations we are thinking of partnering with is the Vietnam Education Fund. We would need to write a grant proposal to raise money for school supplies, food, possibly electronic devices, and more. Vietnam is one of the countries that has been hit hard by COVID, which has affected education. Many kids don’t have access to the internet since they live in remote, mountainous areas and thus can’t join their online school. Some of the parents of younger children might have to take time off from work to watch them, which reduces productivity and affects their jobs. We want to provide and equip students with the right tools and supplies needed to receive a quality education. We'll be presenting our final grant proposal on Monday the 28th of February, so wish us luck! In recent years, Cuba has begun to open up its borders to tourism through cruises and some plane travel. As an ecological and relatively technologically-untarnished paradise, Cuba is doing much to preserve its beauty and prevent environmental damage from tourism, as well as from industry and lifestyle. As the home to 263 protected areas and six UNESCO biospheres, Cuba has quite the responsibility to maintain its ecosystems and environment. Because of its isolation from most of the western world and status as an island, it is in a unique position to simply maintain what it has, rather than try to revert past bad environmental decisions. Years of limited development have meant that Cuba’s cities pollute less, Cuba’s citizens live more sustainably, and it is less of a ditch than most other countries. It will be imperative for Cuba to keep its ecological serenity in high regard as it begins to open up and allow 100s of times more visitors than ever before, which it may achieve by limiting the fossil fuel usage of tourists by regulating its hospitality and transportation sectors, establishing clearly defined ecological sanctuaries which have very limited tourism or none at all, and limiting the number of flights into the country, as well as positioning airports and other waste magnets far from any bodies of water or easily contaminable areas.
Many countries are facing environmental issues brought on by tourists, and are having to weigh the importance of tourism for their country’s economy to its effects on the country’s environment. A prime example of a country highly affected by tourism is the Philippines which had to close a few of its islands to all visitors to safely resuscitate them after years of extreme environmental destruction. Many countries are strict about how many visas they give out, but tourism is so popular with the global population that billions of trips are taken every year and natural habitats are prime destinations. Possibly the best example of a country taking charge of protecting its environment from the devastating effects of tourism in Costa Rica which has devoted an estimated 26% of its land to national parks, wildlife reserves and protected lands, and its international and national NGOs, local businesses, natives and government organizations also have played a major part in the success of the ecotourism programs. Combination efforts by public and private sectors are likely the most appealing solution, but Cuba has a mostly nationalized economy, which means its government has the brunt of the responsibility to keep tourism in check. Currently, Cuba seemingly prioritizes its economy over its environment, but recently its government has been shifting its narratives towards sustainability. Foreign businesses such as hotel chains are under strict scrutiny from the government and have to go through many checks to be able to operate within the country, which is unlikely to change and goes well with the idea of Cuba imposing more environmental regulations. The action of opening up to the west shows that Cuba is putting its environment on the back burner, but it’s confident that tourism will not contribute to the degradation of its environment and has said it will be prioritizing its natural assets over the long term. Climate change means Cuba is at risk of losing landmass to water levels rising and having its habitats destroyed from ecosystem change and pollution. As stated before some possible realistic solutions are allocating limited fossil fuel usage to tourists by regulating its hospitality and transportation sectors, establishing clearly defined ecological sanctuaries which have very limited tourism or none at all, and limiting the number of flights into the country, as well as positioning airports and other waste magnets far from any bodies of water or easily contaminable areas. All of these solutions could easily garner international support and will likely make Cuba even more attractive to tourists which are environmentally focused, which is a rapidly rising demographic. Hopefully, Cuba will continue to prosper after COVID with its opening up to the world and can learn to mitigate the devastating effects of tourism by protecting its natural havens. |
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