An abbreviated synopsis of the most impactful Tuesday Times Roundtable discussions can be found below:
HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES IN NORTH KOREA - SEPTEMBER 13, 2016:
A large portion of the fundamental work I want to do involves teaching others about subjects not readily accessible in the news dissemination process but still prove crucial to global importance. Naturally, I'm fond of any opportunity that teaches me about such subjects and Justin Taylor, this discussion's moderator, was phenomenal at leading the discussion and applying a global and analytical eye to North Korea.
North Korea, known informally as "The Hermit Kingdom", succeeds in creating and maintaining an information vacuum. Information of what's happening within the nation almost never makes it out into the global society and those within the nation's confines rarely learn of what's happening beyond the border. Setting the story with American college student Otto F. Warmbier's sentence to 5 years of hard labor in North Korea for attempting to take a political propaganda poster from a hotel wall, this discussion took us from both governments' involvement in this case to the history of Korea and the subsequent North/South split, to the economic fall of the regime in the 90's, to government crackdown and fleeing of refugees and far beyond.
Throughout each step in North Korea's journey we stopped to consider and discuss the potential and evident human rights abuses and violations that can and did stem from the governments actions.
COMING APART AT THE SEAMS, IT SEEMS. HOW YOU CAN SAVE THE WORLD (AND WILL) - NOVEMBER 1, 2016:
H. Scott Fingerhut, a School of Law and Honors College professor led a thought provoking talk on the duties and roles of informed individuals around the world. I bought into the idea of becoming a global citizen long ago but it wasn't until after this discussion that I even thought about spending time trying to figure what that title came with. What am I responsible for as a global citizen? How can I affect change? When should I speak up? What tools do I need to make a difference?
I found through this discussion that before I can affect change I have to realize a couple things first: People, in general, (1) don't see things as they are. We see things as WE are. (2) Are self governing and therefore decide for ourselves what is important. (3) Can only be governed by love or fear. Being governed by fear will kill your thought process. These things sound pretty obvious/standard but they're not things we sit and reflect on a whole lot, but we ought to. Apply each one to your intended goals. Look at what you want through a new light and ask yourself why-- REALLY why you want these things?
We can save the world through education. Point. Blank. Period. Not the rank of your education (A.A., B.A/S, MBA, MA/Sc, PhD) but rather your willingness to be educated. An informed public is a free public. An informed person can save the world. Especially as an American it's important to strike the notion of others being different. Fingerhut called it the fallacy of separation. We are all the same. We can come together and save the world if we realize this and commit ourselves to learning and acting globally.
THE INS AND OUTS OF CULTURAL APPROPRIATION - NOVEMBER 8, 2016:
As a part of the student ambassador leadership team I get to develop and facilitate discussions of global significance. For the session following Halloween I chose to focus on Cultural Appropriation-- identifying and differentiating and finding ways to be more aware. (I developed this as a learning experience for myself as well as my peers)
We discussed what we could add or subtract to the definition of CA to either protect marginalized groups more or take away some of the blame from the dominant cultures. When is cultural appropriation, cultural appropriation? Is it assimilation or exchange? What if the marginalized culture is selling their culture without providing background or context? What if another culture marries into a new one and tries to assimilate? What if its just creative expression? Why is cultural appropriation even a bad thing?
When moving through life, both professionally and personally, I believe these are all questions and ideas to keep in mind. I believe in being cognizant of others, all others. Whether I understand their culture, justifications, values, or beliefs its our job to at least listen and respect them. Doing my part in helping others realize this was really an honor for me and very enjoyable as I picked up a couple ideas from the people who shared in the discussion.
THE RISE OF THE NONRELIGIOUS - JANUARY 24, 2017:
Alfredo Garcia led a lecture about a new wave of religious behavior that I wouldn't have ever thought to think about.Today, the U.S. population that claim no religious association is between 20-22%, a massive hike up from 2% in the 1950. In this TTR we looked at (1) what's happening, (2) why is it happening, and (3) why is it important?
Essentially, the globalization of our world has led to people becoming more cognizant of other values which leads to the questioning of their own. For me, though, the major factor that stuck out was politics in America. Moral hypocrisy, counterculture and antiestablishment movements paired with the joining of politics and evangelical christianity in the 1980's turned a majority of people away from religious culture. There's also what appears to be a stagnant secular age bracket (18-29).
It's interesting to see that even though this number is so alarmingly high, there's a sort of "religion with God", humanism, that's taking it's place. I'll be keeping an eye on the trends in America and throughout the western world to get a hint on what might influence our future and how people will act in the coming generations.