Global
Achievements
This is where you can see all of the things I've done in Watkinson's Global Studies Program including events, meetings, zooms, and many more.
Global Security Forum
The second presentation is possibly my favorite one that I’ve ever listened to. The second speakers name was Mark Hertling and he was a force to be reckoned with. He was funny, charismatic, engaging and generally fun to listen to which is why I learned the most during his presentation. The first thing that we went over is basic facts on what is going on in Ukraine and the conflict as a whole but then we dove much deeper into the subject. He had a lot to say about protests in Russia and how people are fleeing because Russia is trying to have a draft and people don’t want to fight in a war simply because Vladimir Putin said to. He showed the protests and the massive problem its creating within his own country. He also touched on the moms of the country and gave my favorite line of the day, “Don’t Piss off the mom’s as that never ends well for you!!” He touched on the fact that this is a basic human rights violation and how people are being forced to fight against there will. He also talks about war crimes and how Russia has committed so many human rights atrocities throughout the war but they fail to take ownership of any of them. He also gives high praise to president Zelensky and that because of him his citizens are fighting twice as hard in order to save their country. Finally he touched on sanctions and how Russia's economy is horrible right now because of our sanctioning of them. There is a mad race to flee the country and flights are booked to the brim with people all fleeing the country as we see more and more immigrants being forced to move away from there homes. I must say though I most agree with the don’t piss off mother’s part of his speech as it was the most moving and powerful portion which goes to show the power people have if they band together for a specific cause.
Going to the global security forum is an experience that I will most likely never forget. Before I even talk about the forum itself I must dive into the fact that part of me felt like I shouldn’t even be there. There were so many individuals that were professionally dressed with badges of honor, navy gear and everything. Even when I walked in alone into the forum the lady checking me in asked if I was with the Marine corps which I quickly said no but I instantly felt how serious this event was. I’m glad I was quickly able to find my watkinson group and we all got to actually sit down. The first presentation started with a woman named Rozlyn Engel and a man. I can’t remember what this man's name is or what he looks like but what I can remember is when he was presenting and what he was talking about. He was talking about Taiwan and its fight against China. I feel ignorant for not knowing now but I didn’t know just how dire the situation is for taiwan. The United States supports Taiwan but China is warning us not to get involved as they are massive trade partners and they have the ability to threaten us and force us to back off. Outside of this however I noticed something which really bugged me and that’s Ms Engel barely got a word off before the man would continue talking right over her. When she spoke about the topic she was much more engaging and enjoyable to listen to and I felt like I was at a lecture when the man spoke. However he gave good information and he said that we would come to aid if it ever came down to a war between Taiwan and China. The war would of course be to see whether Taiwan stays a free country or if it becomes China’s quickly growing territory. While this presentation was boring, the second presentation would make up for that and some.
Finally there was a speech by Fwazia Koofi and Carolyn Washington talking about women and global security along with Afghanistan. Ms Koofi talked mostly about Afghanistan as that’s where she is from and also the most relevant conversation for her to have while Ms Washington tried to focus on women as a whole. This presentation was better than the first but I must admit that mr Hertling would be a hard act for anyone to follow. Overall I was able to learn more about the age of instability and what it means. If someone asked me what that means I’d say that we are in a place where many neighboring countries are becoming unstable as they each are looking to fight for territory. Some bigger countries such as Russia are also starting to become unstable as they continue to engage in pure nonsense. This is a true age of instability and in the distant future will we see destabilizing countries being able to rally together and become stable again? The answer is unknown but so far it looks bright as countries like Ukraine continue to push back there oppressors.
30 Americans
During B block, we decided to take a trip to the 30 americans exhibit at the New Britain Art Museum. The 30 americans exhibit hosted photos, sculptures, photos, videos and overall creations done by black artists. This exhibit exists in order to appreciate black artists and there artwork separately from white artists. It was good to be able to appreciate black artists artwork separately from white artists as while we are both equal, it allows us to recognize and appreciate the artwork that may not have been as appreciated before. The art piece that stood out the most to me is the I am a man piece. It shows two versions of the artwork, a finished version then a version where all of the flaws are picked out. Even simple things that didn’t stand out in the final version of the artwork were picked out as flaws like hairline cracks in the art. And the fact that it says I am a man I think symbolizes how this happens to men and specifically black males. It speaks volumes to how black males can potentially be viewed but has the positive notation that even though you might have flaws you are still beautiful. Also I think our trip as a whole was matched very well with how to do nothing by Jenny Odell as it was a time to unplug and not worry about our phones. Other than taking photos we were free to roam around as we desired and do what we felt needed in order to have this experience be positive.
Mass Moca and Williams College
This trip in total was probably my favorite one that I’ve taken in global studies. This day unpacked a lot as Mass Moca was something that I didn’t expect from an art museum. I’ll be honest, at first hearing we were going to yet another art museum made me hesitant as I find them rather boring. This is what was in my mind for the majority of the ride up to Mass Moca but I was proven wrong almost immediately. My first impression of mass moca when we arrived was just how big it was, the whole art museum was split up into eight or more buildings and they each had three floors or more. I instantly understood that this was not an average museum and that there would be a lot more to explore than just paintings.
Uconn Ukraine Talks
After arriving at the museum we had a quick debrief, then it was up to us to figure out what we needed to do in order to make this day memorable. Jenny Odell quickly came into my mind as I realized that this was again a good time to do nothing, not take many photos, and immerse myself in the artwork. It surprised me how the museum was setup as a lot of the artwork was interactive which I didn’t expect, in my mind art is just paintings and sculptures. But this art was interactive and we were able to touch most things in the museum which made it far more interesting. Also everything about this museum was related to art, even something as simple as how the light were setup or how the exit signs on one floor all pointed at another exit sign. It was these little details that made the museum so interesting and it was fulfilling to discover these small details. We even got to see work on a mini rollercoaster that they are working on and saw it run the course. After later research this piece of art is called EJ: Hill Brake Run Helix which opened October 29th, makes me wish we didn’t go until after October 29th so I had a chance to ride it. Seeing this along with many other things has expanded my idea of what art can be and I’ve come to realize that creation as a whole is a form of art. Even the sports I play like basketball can be considered an art and it’s not just limited to paintings and sculptures. I must say though that my favorite exhibit of the day was the Amy Hauft exhibit and specifically the art piece Terra+Luna+Solar. Sure when you look above the “earth” you are just looking above blue streamers but there is still something surreal about it. Then to have the sun represented by a chandelier and being able to look at the moon through the wall. I think the point of this art piece is to show how we are all connected and how the earth connects us all like the earth is connected to the sun and moon.
This wrapped up my stay at Mass Moca which was truly a memorable experience and I wish I had longer to explore even more. We then headed out to lunch where at first we wanted to go to a place called the 413 bistro; however, it was closed and we had to improvise. We ended up going to a asian restaurant called Meng’s Pan-Asian, which was good and filling. I mostly like how this trip was laid out and how we were able to pick where we went to lunch instead of packing school sandwiches. Mass Moca was also a great experience and something I wouldn’t change. But I said mostly and the reason I say that is because of what we experienced at Williams College. After going to a grand exhibit like Mass Moca, Williams was truly a step below and a let down. I found myself getting bored quickly and not taking as much time as I should have to look at the art pieces. If it was my trip I would have stayed at Mass Moca the whole day as I had only been in two buildings before it was time to go. If we stayed I would have seen at least two more buildings and that would’ve been a better use of my time then going to Williams College. Overall though the trip is still my favorite that I’ve done with global studies and it would’ve been an A+ without Williams College involved.
The Uconn Ukraine talk that we attended was almost like a mini version of what the global security forum was. The global security forum was definitely more serious then this in terms of people that were there but this talk was still good. It might not have lived up to the ukraine talk that we heard at the global security forum but it was definitely one of the more informative events we’ve attended. The professor talking about this was knowledgeable and understood the situation and knew what he was talking about. The main point of this talk was exploring how Russia views themselves and how in their worldview nothing that they do is wrong. A word that he used a lot in his talk is fascism and saying that Russia views us as fascists in order to excuse what they are doing. He talked about this being clearly wrong and how they are hypocrites, constantly contradicting themselves. It is meant to try and excuse them from there clear war crimes and human rights violations. One such example of this is the draft they tried to hold where they forced Russians to join the fight against Ukraine. The definition of fascism is when a dictator rules government and controls work, money and business and opposition is not permitted. This title fits Russia very well because they have their own dictator in power, constantly trying to force his views on his people. Vladimir Putin is an example of a dictator in the 21st century, for fun I even like to call him Sad Vlad, it rhymes in my opinion.
He also gave high praise to president Zelensky for resisting and being a powerful leader. He says that if anyone else was leading then Ukraine might have folded already but Zelensky is a leader who moves his people in a way which not many people can. He said that Russia didn’t account for someone as courageous as president Zelensky which upset his war plan. Zelensky has stayed in the country and even put himself on the frontlines in order to show his undying loyalty to his country. I feel as though it’s so rare to come across a politician nowadays who is willing to put themselves out there like Zelensky has. He has risked his life in order to be a part of this fight, something that can’t be said about most politicians in recent history.
After this amazing talk, we decided that a uconn trip was not complete without going to the dairy barn. We practiced doing nothing as Jenny Odell would want us to and we relaxed, taking in the beautiful scenery and campus that Uconn is. The ice cream was delicious and soon it was time to head back to campus. Even though this was a smaller trip that only lasted a few hours, it was worth my time and definitely worth checking out in the future although I hope this war won’t last long enough where a trip next year to talk about the conflict is possible.
ADL Never is Now
This is without a doubt the biggest global studies trip that i’ve ever been on. For starters I had to wake up at about 4:15 in order to catch the bus leaving at a time no later than 5:30. I was disoriented and I was not ready for the trip but I pushed through the morning and made it to the bus on time. I got plenty of sleep for the long day that was approaching as the ADL was only now just beginning. When we arrived at the Javits Center, I was generally surprised by the size as it was massive. I remembered looking into the same space a few months ago when they held an electric car convention for upcoming electric vehicles which I thought was ironic. However, I only saw videos and pictures of the convention and never got to see it in person until now. The first thing that surprised me was the people outside of the convention claiming that the ADL hated jews and that they were racist. They tried to handout pamphlets explaining why the ADL was racist and why it was a bad organization although some people were there just to give more info on the event. I guess it’s 100% in their rights to be outside heckling at the ADL but I was still confused by how someone could possibly prove that the ADL was a racist organization. They were promoting hate at an event where non-violence and peace were the main messages of the day.
After walking inside it was on to the opening event which it seemed we were just in time for once everyone got scanned in. The opening main speaker was the ceo and director of the ADL being Jonathan Greenbalt. He was a very powerful speaker although I felt as though he could work on his pitch as the conversation seemed to have one tone the whole time rather than being varied in emotion. It was still exciting though and his speeches were so powerful that he couldn’t even get through a minute of his speeches without applause and cheer. He talked about how jews were a focus of anti-semitism and hate and the work that he vowed to do in order to end this. Kanye West was also a big vocal point of his speech as he voiced his understandable frustration against the artist for his anti-semitic comments that he made towards jews. He even invited the CEO of Adidas in North America on stage, Rupet Campbell. Mr Campbell condemned Kanye West’s actions and said that Adidas was not interested in continuing to work with someone who promotes hate and was anti-semitac. He explained how committed Adidas was to ending anti-semitism and that ties were cut with Kanye West in hopes of continueing to do good work. Mr Greenbalt then ended the conversation and it was off to our first events.
My first event was do they actually care? Reporting hate to social media platforms where the main speaker was Yael Eisenstat. Ms Eisenstat talked mainly about twitter and how it’s suffered due to Elon Musk buying the writes to the company. She said that people will never truly be safe on twitter as long as Musk is in possession of it. He’s proved already that he’s not committed to denouncing hate, and he’s allowed the app to become much more negative then it already was. There were also talks about facebook and other social media companies but twitters was the primary subject, then it was onto the high school workshop. I found this rather boring and at times I felt as though that I shouldn’t be there, let me elaborate more. The specific person that was monitoring our session was asking lots of questions which pertained mainly to jews. He asked about the experience of being jewish and other things which I have no answer to as I’m not jewish. Many times it felt like the conversation was meant only for jewish people and there was not a place for me to talk about my experience as it didn’t align with the question. Most kids felt the same and were reluctant to talk and jewish kids in my group seemed to be the only ones answering the questions. After this is was on to my next event which I ended up not getting into as the room was full so I decided to just wait until the final event.
The last event was easily the best event of the day and I would’ve come just for that event if I had to. We heard great speakers starting with Jonathan Greenbalt again who presented a award to someone who fought hate the most. The person who ended up winning this award was Albert Bouria, the CEO of Pfizer, the same people who developed the Covid-19 vaccine. He talked about how Covid-19 was often connected with jews and how people called it the jewish virus. He talked about how anti-semitism rose thanks to Covid and why he felt it was his mission to get the vaccine out to promote a answer to this hatred. Personally, I’ve heard the Covid-19 being used more against asian people as I’ve heard people call it the chinese virus before but both are still major issues. They both are examples of a global health crisis leading to racism and hatred instead of cooperation and a commitment to fight the virus together as a unified people. The next speaker was the most anticipated in my opinion being David Schwimmer, he also had someone in the conversation with him being Michael Eric Dyson. These speakers together was truly magical, they both talked and compared there experiences, one talking about being black and another talking about being jewish. It was a great conversation which ended with the message that we need to work together and fight racism as a group. Mr Schwimmer felt as though while growing up jewish people and black people worked together to combat racism but this sense of brotherhood has sense been lost. However, he still has hopes that his can once again be a thing, where both groups stand with each other as one unified force. The last speaker that we got to listen to is Liz Cheney. Ms Cheney was the most important figure who spoke today from a government standpoint. She talked about how anti-semitism was unacceptable and talked about how shes seen it spread throughout the government. She made the point that whether someone is republican or democrat, anti semitism is never ok and must be condemned by both parties. I feel like this is a great message as whether you are republican or democrat you should know the difference between right and wrong. There is no room in our government for people who use hate as a way to power and they should not be allowed into government. It was then time to go home and it was a great sleep after a long day of workshops and conversations. I feel like I made Jenny Odell proud once again as I didn’t use my phone much but rather focused on being present in the moment.
Bruce Becker
This talk was definitely one of the better ones as I was genuinely surprised yet happy with how this talk went. Bruce Becker is a hotel operator and owner who has recycled the building next to Ikea which used to just be a corporate office and turned it into a hotel. This is called Hotel Marcel which has a platinum status on sustainability, and is run mostly on solar power, has battery storage in order to store energy even when it’s not being used and can even feed power back into the grid. What’s impressive about this is as of the talk happening, there are only 12 lead platinum hotels in the world and hotel marcel is one of them. He even uses heat pumps instead of general ways of producing heat as heat pumps use significantly less energy. He even has a Tesla Supercharging station on site making it so that Tesla’s are able to charge their cars quickly while staying at the hotel. This part along with the sustainability goes into my Capstone Studies significantly. He is proving that sustainability over a long period of time is not impossible and is setting himself up for success for years to come as he’s already done what most states want to happen by 2035. This is especially complimented by the tesla ev charging station so if you have a Tesla which makes up a wide margin of electric cars in the U.S. You can charge at the hotel whether you are staying there or not since they are open to the public. This isn’t Bruce Becker’s only project however as his mission is to find old, abandoned buildings and essentially recycle them, turning them into sustainable and useable spaces. Overall his work will greatly help the environment and along with that relates heavily into what my capstone project is all about. I’m glad that people like him are doing the work to get America into a greener future.
Friday Night Prayers
Friday Night Prayers was another one of my favorite events. The whole process was very cool and once again reimagined my thinking on what I thought it was before. When me and Ross arrived, we met up with the rest of the group and were quickly welcomed in by the Imam. The Imam was very nice and told us a little bit about how friday night prayers and was very understanding of having it be many of our first times. Unlike many leaders of other religions, he was quick to acknowledge other religions and didn’t try to preach why his religion was so great, rather he educated us and gave us the knowledge needed in order to choose for ourselves if his religion could potentially suit us. This was a welcome change as it made me feel truly welcome in to the service and that as long as I was respectful I didn’t have to do anything I wasn’t comfortable with. The service lasted for around an hour and a half and like Ms O’brien said, people were showing up in all sorts of different clothes. I actually believe that we were the only ones on the male side that had come out in nice clothes as many people came in street clothes or work attire, people were just there to give praise and be a part of the service. The service was very open and it had a heavy focus on not one person is better than the other. It focuses on the idea that we are all the same and the one person who is better is the god that we all gather together to worship. It made everyone really come together in a unique way that felt special in that moment. There were also people of all types, different backgrounds, races, and skin colors at Friday night prayers united by the Muslim religion. This sense of togetherness was felt even by me, who wasn’t participating directly in the religious practice as people were getting on their hands and knees to worship. People were going up to us constantly, asking how we were doing, asking how we were enjoying the service and being in general very friendly towards us being just visitors. I felt truly welcomed and like a guest of honor while being there. This is even furthered by the fact that when the prayer begins and everyone is doing different things to worship, the Imam joins them and gets on his hands and knees just he same, showing that even he isn’t above. Another thing that I noticed however is that even though the service put such heavy focus on everyone being together and the same, the room was split between men and women. While he noted later that he needs to do a better job during our discussion, it was pointed out that the Imam would tend to only look at the male side of the room and very rarely looked at the female side of the room. He explained that it’s a natural thing in the muslim religion itself as the man of the house takes care of most things and so this isn’t uncommon, however being in America this is uncommon where women can have the same exact responsibilities as men. He said it was almost like a cultural shift that he had to do in order to better accommodate the religion being in the United States. Overall it was a very peaceful and excellent experience, while I don’t want to become religious anytime soon, I would be open to even going back on my own for another service.
Comparing this to the religious service from last year is a complex thing to do, there are so many similarities, but at the same time so many differences. I went to First Cathedral last year which changed my whole idea of what a church could be. Starting with similarities, I think the idea of being together was very similar. I also think that the idea that we are all together under one god is very similar. It was a space of healing, community, well-being, and in general a very positive experience. They both also provide services beyond just religious services as both do their best to provide and give back to their respective communities. However, there were also some differences, Friday night prayers were not as festive, but rather a place of gathering and worshipping together. Church was very festive and at times it didn’t feel like a church service and more like a concert. Another difference is attire, the church had most people wearing something nice and people generally stepped up in what they were wearing. In Friday night prayers, however, people were showing up in whatever they had on throughout the day as many were coming right from work or running around doing other things, not having the time to go home and get changed and look nice. I also think that the people at Friday night prayer were slightly more together as the space is significantly smaller than First Cathedral and this, therefore, forced people to get close together and become one. At First Cathedral, there were two floors, and people were spread out around the church, the feeling of togetherness was still there but it was visibly stronger at Friday night prayers. Women are also treated differently at church as compared to Friday night prayers. Women and men are allowed to be together unlike Friday night prayers and the roles of men and women aren’t really defined. By far the thing that was most different between the two services is how they addressed hatred. Friday night prayers is a peaceful gathering and they try to keep it this way as much as possible by not having much security on site and certainly none inside the building. No one was armed, everyone just trusted in the faith and that peace would be unanimous. First Cathedral took a very different approach in response to the acts of hatred seen throughout the United States. They made sure to have security throughout the whole service and have men with concealed weapons who are trained to take down any threats to uphold the peace by any means necessary. Their stance against hatred was to meet it with resistance and strength, showing that if anyone wanted to do harm, they would have to go through a line of defense first. Both are very different ways to combat hatred towards both religions, but I believe that the Mosque has a better way of handling hatred. They put faith in peace and make those who travel there feel at peace, rather than be paranoid seeing people with concealed weapons walking around. To me personally, this is a very MLK approach and I appreciate that, meeting violence with peace and love rather than more violence. This also leads to the biggest similarity which is the hatred that both receive. A mosque that practices the Muslim religion along with a primarily black church that practices Christianity. They both receive the same form of hatred from people wanted to disrupt these peaceful practices because it’s something they aren’t used to. I believe the Imam explained this best, people are afraid of what they don’t know. However, in many cases, they automatically judge and assume without taking the time to understand exactly what they are hating. I also believe that if more people took the time to understand the ideals of being Muslim, they would grow to love it rather than meet it with violence and hatred. This can also be said about the threats that still plague primarily black churches today. If people took the time to truly understand what was happening at these churches and sat down and talked with a black person who went to church, they could also align themselves in a way of peace rather than hatred.
The article that I choose to read described how 3 in every 10 adults in the U.S. say that they aren’t affiliated with any religion. In the article about 63% describe themselves as Christians, 29% describe themselves as not religious, and 6% are devoted to other religions. This is a huge change from just a decade ago when 1 in every 5 people said they weren’t religious when compared to the number of Christians. What’s also interesting is that other religions went up from 5-6% of all Americans, which while this isn’t a big number, is a 20% improvement from previous years. I think that the key to getting this number is to have more education on different religions and get people exposed like we were when we sat through Friday night prayers. There are people that are opposed to these religions and have rooted hatred towards them, without understanding exactly what it is that they hate. With education, more people will be open to different religions and while most people wouldn’t convert, just an understanding would help.
Oscar Nominated Short Flim Documentary
The Oscar Nominated Short Films were about two films, one called Elephant Whispers and the other called the Martha Mitchell effect. I’ll start with my favorite of the two which was Elephant Whispers. It was a much different film than most things we watch these days as it didn’t explore anything related to politics, war, antisemitism, racism, violence, or anything that I feel we’ve grown all too accustomed to seeing on film. Instead, it was a simple story about an elephant named Raghu who lives in south India with human caretakers. His caretakers' names are Bomman and Bellie and they raise Raghu on land which is protected and used specifically to help elephants, something like a wildlife sanctuary. It talks about the impact this elephant has had on Bomman and Bellie’s lives which have been great due to the many things that life has thrown at them. Bellie, for example, had a daughter previously and an ex-husband however both are now gone with her husband being killed by a tiger. They also have another elephant named Ammu who just like Raghu was an orphaned elephant and was adopted by Bomman and Bellie. I believe that the reason Bellie raises these elephants is to continue to hold the memories close of her daughter and continue to have something to raise like a daughter. Her life has been filled with hard times and loss, but these elephants supplement that as she finds her reason to keep going within them. I believe that it goes even deeper than that however as Bellie managed to form an incredible relationship with a baby elephant who isn’t even human. This goes back to stereotypes and racism and the point that as long as we are able to cast those aside the relationships and bonds that we can form are boundless. Bellie had the decision to stop trying when things got hard however she decided to continue going and find her reason by showing compassion and love instead of giving up and turning towards something darker. I believe that this is a film about hope and also finding a reason and overall I thoroughly enjoyed this short film and trying to find a deeper reason behind it.
On the other hand, I was not a fan of the Martha Mitchell effect because it did everything that I would’ve expected and in my opinion didn’t bring anything new to the table. It had everything to do with what I mentioned above including politics, world peace, and sexism. This was about a woman named Martha Mitchell who was gaslighted and kept silent by the Nixon administration. She would often uncover the dirty truths of politics and how they tried to keep her silent as a result. She even tells stories of how she was kept in a hotel for several days and how she was physically hurt and pressured for her to remain silent. While this was a decent documentary, in the context of short films that I was looking forward to seeing, this didn’t fit my agenda. It was a good story but I was looking for something unique in my short film experience. I felt like I got that in the elephant whisperer, but this was lost in this film in my opinion.
