Blog Post 8

Which guest lecture did you find most informative, inspiring, and/or challenging? 

I thought the lecture on drones was incredibly interesting. I liked it so much that I decided to focus my final paper on the issue. I think this is very relevant and becoming more relevant in the journalism world. Bill Allen was a very interesting speaker and had a lot to say on the issue. I also enjoyed actually seeing the drone being flown in the classroom, and most of the lecturers did not have that in their arsenal of teaching materials. I would enjoy taking his course if I was not graduating this spring.

What insights did you gain doing research on your country?

I think, for starters, the stereotype that everyone in Sub-Saharan Africa is incredibly poor and no one has any money. However, I learned that not only there are wealthy people, but there is lots that happens in first-world countries that happens in Ghana, too, such as government corruption. I was hoping to read, write, and report more about soccer as they are often a force to be reckoned with in the World Cup, but this was not the case. I still felt Ghana was an interesting country to write about and enjoyed it.

Blog 8 Amelia Xi

The lecture that I found most informative and inspiring was titled “Globalization and Agriculture,” given by guest speaker Peter Motavalli, who is a professor at the University of Missouri under the Department of Soil. Professor Motavalli talked about food scarcity and insecurity around the world, as well as what efforts can be made to fight these challenges. He’s presentation was very strong and insightful because it was based on plenty of thorough researches. The data he showed us in the lecture was shocking, and really drove me to think deeper about and study more on the issue of hunger. For example, he mentioned at the beginning of his lecture that research shows a total of 842 million people in 2011-13 were estimated to be suffering from chronic hunger. That’s around one eighth of the population in the world. This number far exceeded what I expected, and I deeply realized how severe the food issue is. It is not an easy task to overcome the challenge of feeding the world. According to Professor Motavalli, the world food production will need to double in 30 years to meet world food demand, which seems like an impossible mission. There are so many countries in the world that suffer from food insecurity and even food desert. Professor Motavalli listed a few countries and showed pictures of the people in these countries with food poverty. While millions of people in these countries do not have access to healthy food and suffer from malnutrition and other health problems, people in other countries, especially developed countries, are wasting an enormous amount of food that they have easy access to. From Professor Motavalli’s presentation, I learned that American families throw out approximately ¼ to 1/3 of their food and beverages they buy, and the average family of four wastes about 1,160 lbs (290 lbs per person) annually costing between $1,365 to $2,275. These numbers startled me at first, but immediately I thought back to my daily life in the U.S., and the fact that I see people around me, including myself, waste food everyday, made me feel very guilty. People like us can have access to healthy food so easily that we don’t cherish it anymore, and that makes us responsible for the hunger issue around the world. Although it might seem nearly impossible to double world food production in 30 years, if we could make efforts to reduce food waste, I believe that will also be very effective for helping the world reduce hunger. Thanks to Professor Motavalli’s informative and inspiring lecture, I started to try my best to waste less when eating and have been encouraging my roommate to do it with me.

The topic of Professor Motavalli’s lecture, food poverty, is also a big issue in the country I have been studying for this semester—Madagascar. In fact, Madagascar is one of the poorest countries in the world. Poverty of this country has caused plenty of other problems, such as malnutrition of children due to food scarcity, low birth rate and diseases due to insufficient health care, environmental degradation that the country has too few money to manage, and so on. At the beginning of the semester I have read a few articles written by local Malagasy writers. Many of them expressed the concern of being involved in globalization because they wanted to preserve their unique native culture. However, I believe that Madagascar has a strong potential if its people are more willing to join the globalization movement with the rest of the world. Their exotic culture and rich natural resources are something they can take advantage of and gain commercial benefits from.

Blog 8 Tanner Federspill

Reflection

 

I really enjoyed the group who did their presentation on Europe. I've tried to pay attention to what is going on with the Syrian refugee crisis and I thought they did a good job addressing what is going on. They also gave me different understandings of why their countries may or may not be taking in Syrian refugees and what could be good options for these refugees to do. It's a hard question to answer whether outside countries have a moral obligation to help the refugees especially since the European countries are their neighbors yet the attacks in Paris, France has turned some people away from helping them. I'm curious as to see how this problem is handled in the coming weeks, I do not know the answer to what should be done with them but I hope that this can be resolved soon so the problem doesn't get worse.

 

 

Through these blogs and studying my country and region around it I've learned that there is a lot different world out there than what I'm accustomed to growing up in the good ol' Midwest my entire life. I've always known of problems in Africa but not that they ran these deep. I also found it extremely interesting how each country is connected to one another in some way, and they each can affect each other in extreme ways without intending. Overall it was a great experience and I'm glad I took the class, it was one I looked forward to going to and now I try to stay informed about what is happening across the globe. 

Blog 6 Tanner Federspill

Human Trafficking

Somalia

 

Human trafficking and sex slavery is a large issue in Somalia today. In previous blogs I've explained the multiple militia and jihadist groups fighting for control of Somalia including the group claiming to be the federal government of Somalia. I use the word "claiming" because to me they seem to be breaking the same basic laws as the other extremist groups fighting for the land. Government officials have been caught numerous times having women brought up to their rooms for sexual acts. Not only that but they have been pointed out by many women in the area as people who have raped them, including the secrete service. This is especially corrupt because these are the people who are supposed to be protecting the civilians rights and they are taking advantage of them because they know there is no one to prosecute them.

 

 

The other militias fighting for Somalia's land doesn't attempt to keep their wrongdoings as secretive as the so called federal government of Somalia. It is well known that the areas that these groups control they take advantage of the women within their borders. It is actually one of the ways that these groups make a profit to supply their armies. They take over villages, kill all that oppose, enlist the children into their ranks, and rape the women. After that they will take the women and sell them into sex slavery, smuggling out of the country and treating them as if a product for them to sell to the highest bidder.

 

 

Human trafficking in Somalia is one of the things that the UN has continued to address in Somalia but because the ones who are supposed to be enforcing the law are the ones breaking it, there is no real progress being made. I believe that in order to address the human trafficking and young boys and girls getting sold into sex slavery there needs to be a legitimate group in power protecting these people who seem helpless right now.

 

 

 

Sources:

HumanTrafficking.org

http://www.gvnet.com/humantrafficking/Somalia.htm

http://www.irinnews.org/report/88668/somalia-human-trafficking-on-the-increase

Drone Usage Worldwide and Cameroon- Ryan Connolly

            The guest lecture I found most compelling this semester was the one focusing on drones, their advantages and disadvantages, and the wide variance of drone application worldwide. This lecture opened my eyes to how much the world is changing and how much drones have the capability to fit into our evolving world.

            Following this lecture, I chose to write my first paper on drones and their military and civilian applications because of my interest in them. The lecture and my research following the lecture opened my eyes that drones are becoming more and more prominent in our society. The military is using drones for target killing and surveillance, law enforcement (especially in less populated and heavily forested areas) are using drones for traffic monitoring, finding criminals on the lam, and even finding missing persons in the wilderness. Other advantageous applications of drones include monitoring forest fires in the safest way possible, studying animal herds and their migration patterns, monitoring of personal plots of land and crop growth, and most popularly capturing beautiful footage of nature, cities, and large events from a unique aerial perspective.

            Most recently, Amazon has been testing drones for package delivery, which can give them a drastic advantage that no other company will have. This points to the fact that the standard 3-5 day delivery method could be a thing of the past. Amazon says in many cases thirty minute delivery can be a company-wide standard in almost all cases. This is truly revolutionary for the entire online shopping and shipping industries. It is the cheapest, fastest, and most efficient way to get a package from warehouse to your front door that we have seen thus far. And it is all because of the evolution of drones. Before we know it, we will see drones in places we never thought possible which is why I have such a vested interest in this growing industry.

           

            Before taking this class, I was very unaware of the problems that Sub-Saharan Africa, specifically Cameroon, face on a daily basis. First, many of their problems stem from the corruption epidemic seen in their government. Because of their financial corruption, government corporations that promote the wellness of Cameroon are grossly underfunded. One of the biggest problems they face is maintaining the wellness of their natural resources. Poaching, deforestation, overfishing, and illegal logging are all huge problems that could be stopped with more funding for law enforcement and equipment to stop the problems at their source. And without these natural resources, Cameroon can potentially lose their most valuable exports of lumber, rubber, and petroleum. This could be a devastating blow to an economy that is already bleeding. Other problems Cameroon face are sex trafficking, poverty, and shortages of clean water sources.

            Blogging about Cameroon all semester was eye opening and very beneficial to me. I learned a lot about a region that is very different from mine, whether it be their culture, their issues as a nation, their imports and exports, and the general way of life there. It was a really cool experience and I learned a lot. This experience overall was very insightful and gave me a unique taste of a region of the world I may have never learned about otherwise.  

Headscarf Debate in France- Ryan Connolly

1. Despite reservations about the headscarf, the political scientist Mossuz-Lavau argues against the law to ban headscarves. What is at the crux of her argument? Is it valid? (162)

This article heavily criticizes France's law to ban headscarves and religious-oriented clothing and symbols from French public schools. This law was blatantly directed at the Muslim and Islamic communities of France for the traditional code of dress worn by women of this religion. The veils and headscarves worn by the women of Muslim and Islamic culture are a symbol of their loyalty to their husbands as well as a way to make female sexuality more discreet. The traditional dress exemplifies the ideology of modesty, sexual unavailability, and attempts to "curb the dangerous sexuality of women." (154)  But, the French people took this another way.

The people of France, especially those in charge, saw this form of dress as immodest, conspicuous, excessive, and even perverse. These thoughts by the people of France led me to scratch my head in confusion. This part of the Muslim religion was doing just the opposite. In what galaxy does covering up the female body promote sexuality, perversion, and immodesty? How does their form of showing loyalty to their spouse inhibit feelings of promoting ambiguous female sexuality? The attempts to downsize free expression as well as the French people's inherent irrationality continued with insight from a French spokesperson Jaques Chirac. Chirac stated that this form of expression was a sign of aggression and was "taking away a man's right to see behind the veil." (159) Jacques saw this as a form of castration to the entire male population. Chirac's ignorance and blatant objectification of women is appalling. His ridiculous argument points to the fact that a man's sexual desires far outweigh a female's right to religious choice and free expression. 

Opponents of the veil and headscarf were also obsessed with the thought that veils denied the mixing of the sexes. It formed a barrier between natural inter-gender interactions and promoted the strict sexual segregation of Islam. Although this argument has slightly more credibility than the arguments of Jaques Chirac, it still does not promote the interests and opinions of the Muslim women who choose this form of dress. They should have a right to practice their religion as they please without government interference. This touches directly on the crux of Janine Mossuz-Lavau's argument on this pressing issue.

Janine Mossuz-Lavau's touches on both sides of the argument while consequentially siding against the ban of headscarves. Mossuz-Lavau says that these veils deprived these women of sexual liberation. It designated the women "as a source of sin" and "a potential whore." (162) This division of sexes and blanketed sexuality can increase the potential of rape and other sex crimes due to the feeling of the bar between male and female. But, something takes precedence above all of this, and that is the freedom of expression. These women have every right to express themselves and promote their religion as necessary. France should be promoting the freedom of religion and speech, not destroying it. In my opinion, this gives Mossuz-Lavau's argument a great deal of credibility; although there is backlash to their religious expression, these women have every right to express themselves and their religion as they choose. This idea of religious oppression has been far too prominent in our worlds' history and it is time to continue to this culture change through the evolution of women's rights, free expression, and equality.

SOURCES:

Due to this topic being mostly opinionated, my main source for this blog was the article itself.

Blog #7 Politics of the Veil - Tanner Federspill

Tanner Federspill

Politics of the Veil

Despite reservations about the headscarf, the political scientist Mossuz-Lavau argues against the law to ban headscarves. What is at the crux of her argument? Is it valid? (162)

A law created to ban practicing Islam's from being able to wear their headscarves is surely a very controversial topic. Those who are against headscarves believe that "Islamists were engaged in a political conspiracy the aim of which was the oppression of women and the elimination of secularism". So they do believe that be banning the Veil they are almost freeing these women from being oppressed. Their idea seems for the best but Mossuz-Lavau believes it is up to the women themselves to make the decision whether they wear the veil or not. I believe she uses education as the crux of her argument. If they decide to ban the veil from schools these women will truly be oppressed. They need to be able to learn about the freedoms that they have because they are humans and be given the opportunity to make the decision for themselves. If these women aren't allowed to go to schools there is no way for them to learn about the world outside their own religion.

 

 

Not to mention it is their freedom to choose their religion and to practice what they believe. I do not think it is up to the government to make the decisions for these young women even if they do believe it is better for them. This argument is definitely valid because not only do these girls learn about their options but by interacting with other girls from their schools and with different beliefs they will be able to see things from another perspective. Not to mention that by allowing them to go to school it helps integrate the veil wearing women into the French society rather than ostracize them. In the end I do believe that Mossuz-Lavau is right that education, for both sides, is the only way to resolve the conflict.