Budget and Programs at UGA

This is a preview of my story about budget cuts and economic problems affecting programs at UGA.

International Street Festival

This is a preview of my story about the International Street Festival.

UGA at Armenia

This is a preview of the story about UGA at Armenia and its cancellation.

Woman and Globalization

As globalization breaks down economic inequalities there is hope that it will also destroy gender lines “by eliminating barriers and expanding opportunities,”  said Deborah Gonzalez.

             “A lot of women are doing a lot of the work without getting the economic benefits to help the family,” Gonzales  said in a Friday presentation sponsored by International Public Service and Outreach.  Yet, “the burden of feeding for the family often falls on the women.”

            Still, globalization can provide an opening for women around the world so that they can increase their importance and self-esteem.

“By exposing cultures to other cultures, women get a sense of what is happening to women elsewhere and can use them as a model to increase their own position,” Gonzalez  said in her talk titled “Princesses of the Pyre:  Globalization and its Impact on Women in Developing Countries.”

Emily Corbin, a freshman from Augusta, said after the talk, “Regardless of where they live, I’m connected to all the women in the world.”

However, many women are still caught in systems that deny them any rights and often put them in situations of violence and rape.

Gonzalez said, “Women become no longer human.  They don’t become the sisters, mothers, and wives.  They become objects.  They become war loot.”

Violence is not the only problem.  Women are often “left to fend for themselves” as their husbands leave to find work in other countries, she continued.  They face the “son preference,” an idea in many cultures that the sons should be educated and receive opportunities, as opposed to the daughters, who stay at home.

Even women who overcome the odds to gain an education do not always have the chance to use it.

Gonzalez gave the example of Rowena Bautista, an immigrant from the Philippines, who has several years of engineering training, but works as a nanny to send back to her children $450 of the $750 she makes each month.  Bautista’s husband works in Korea and she has not seen her children for several years because they live with their grandmother.  Yet, the money she makes is much more than she could earn in the Philippines, and so she stays.

“Half the world’s migrant are women and of those women, the majority are mothers who leave their children,” said Gonzalez.

Gonzalez ended her talk with an encouragement to gain “exposure to different perspectives” by becoming more aware of international news, and thereby more prepared to fix the problems that face the world.

 “[This talk] pointed out how lucky we are being women in America,” said Vanessa Vina, a freshman from Snellville.  “Just being here means we have a better start.”

Nuclear Panel Expresses Optimism Over Disarmament

The optimism about nuclear disarmament expressed by experts including a former Nobel Peace Prize winner surprised students Wednesday during a program for the celebration of the 20^th anniversary of the Center for International Trade and Security.

            Nuclear weapons offer a way to gain “power and prestige” in world diplomacy, said Mohamed ElBaradei, the winner of the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize. According to ElBaradei, that is why Russia is reluctant to give up nuclear weapons, and why Iran wants to develop nuclear weapons.

Igor Khripunov, former advisor to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and now associate dean of the Center, expressed the most doubt that Russia would ever give up their nuclear weapons.

“The legacy is so overloaded that it is difficult to be optimistic that the negotiations will move fast,” Khripunov said. “It may take a miracle for us [Russia] to reach our goal of drastic nuclear reductions.”

But he reminded the audience that miracles have happened, citing the 1985 meeting between Gorbachev and President Ronald Reagan.

            In response, Joe Cirincione, president of the Ploughshares Fund, said, “I think that you are way too pessimistic about this.”  He, along with ElBaradei, was hopeful that nuclear weapons can one day be abolished.

            “This might be the moment where we actually get to resolve this issue,” said Cirincione. He went so far to say that he was more optimistic now than he had been at any time in his career.

In response to this talk, Maggie Mills, a senior from Champagne, Ill., said, “I thought it was fairly insightful and extremely positive given all the issues and problems that are in the world, having four experts say that it [nuclear disarmament] may not happen soon, but we’ll find a way.”

The fourth member of the panel, Eugene Habiger, the former commander of Strategic Command said he was not so sure that nuclear weapons could be gotten rid of so easily.

            “I personally feel we will never get there as you can’t put the genie back in the bottle,” he said.  However, later on he added, “It is better to have incremental steps than no progress at all.”

            Mills agreed with him.

            “I think that there is a hope or chance of getting nuclear weapons to 100 or 200 per country, something much more manageable than the 27,000 in the world now,” she said.

ElBaradei mentioned the concept of a “multi-national fuel cycle” as a possible solution to the problem of nuclear weapons.

A multi-national fuel cycle would require countries to give up their own production of fuel for nuclear reactors and rely on international sources.  These international fuel cycles would not produce the enriched uranium or plutonium that is required to make nuclear weapons; instead, nuclear power could be produced by a slower reaction that does not result in an explosion.

Nuclear disarmament does not preclude the use of nuclear power.Panelists said they hoped for a “nuclear renaissance” when nuclear weapons arevilified, but nuclear power could be utilized.

            Even after this solution was presented, some students were not as hopeful.

            “I feel like in their line of work they have to exude that optimism, but I feel that the timeline they presented is ignoring too many security threats and economic problems,” said Tawny Waltz, a third-year student from Macon.

            Bilal Yousufzai, brought up the diplomatic relationships between the United States and other countries.

            “I don’t think we going to interact well with other states that we might have upset previously,” the senior from Augusta said. 

            Yet, Cirincione said that the Obama administration is approaching countries Iran, in the correct manner.  The Bush administration had refused to talk to Iran without preconditions.  President Obama’s staff has changed their view.

            “The past policy, the effort to coerce Iran into compliance, completely failed,” he said. “They [the Obama administration] are extending the hand of friendship, and they are not in a rush.”

International Group Changing to Attract More Students

A campus organization that relies on American student volunteers to help international students adjust to life in Athens is changing its operation and name because of a lack of participation by the American students, according to Leigh Poole, director of International Student Life.

“There are times when we have hundreds on the listserv, but only 20-40 show up for each event,” said Leigh Poole, director of International Student Life.  Poole said she hopes reductions in the amount of time each student is asked to contribute will increase participation.

Poole directs Global Friends, which tried to pair each international student with an American student who could be a peer mentor.  The pairs would then participate in group activities such as tailgating at a football game or attending Dawgs After Dark.

“There are times when it is difficult for UGA students to commit to a fulltime mentor relationship, “ Poole said.

To increase participation, international students will no longer be paired with a specific American student.  Instead, the organization will provide an activity that both international and American students can attend and interact.  To reflect the changes, the organization will now be called Global Connections.

Poole said the changes should  “give the students more time to build their own relationships.”  

Poole said the “mentor program is designed to be intimate and foster deeper relationships.”  These relationships can help international students overcome problems adjusting to a new culture, including loneliness and depression.

Ashlee Perry, the graduate assistant in charge of Global Connections, said that her goal this year is “effective programming” in order to “make a place that the student will want to come to."

The first event was a potluck dinner to which students can bring a variety of dishes.  Perry is taking suggestions for the next meeting.

“They will come if they give me the idea for it, so hopefully we will have better attendance,” she said.

Seoul Wang, a sophomore from Duluth, participated in the potluck dinner so he could “check out all the cool food I could make for the event online.”  He and his girlfriend brought Korean-style barbecue and a Filipino dessert.

Along with providing international students with a chance to get connected at the University, Global Connections allows American students to gain a greater cultural understanding.

Wang is ready to stay more involved in Global Connections.

“I hope to have a fun time and learn more about the program,” he said in a Facebook message.

Woman and Globalization

These are the first three paragraphs of my story on a talk about how globalization is affecting women worldwide.