Just as the sun began to rise – land appeared in the distance. The ship was bustling with students and faculty alike packing their bags and saying their final goodbyes. I sat on the top deck watching until the horn sounded for the last time and it finally dawned on me; time to go back to reality. I collected my belongings and was soon on a plane back to Minnesota.
I had just completed a 3 month long voyage spanning across 10 countries as a student on Semester at Sea (SAS). Throughout the semester I had been exposed to more cultural diversity than I had ever encountered. It was truly the experience of a lifetime. Memories such as these have not only taught me about the world, but what it means to decipher my role in it. As inspirational as it may have been, my experience had presented an internal dichotomy that lasted for quite some time after returning home.
I have been very fortunate for the life I have been given: a loving family, good health, and the opportunity to build a future of my very own. Many other cultures around the globe do not even possess the ideological or tangible necessities that
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This brought a whole new context all the things I saw. For instance, riots breaking out in the streets of Turkey or the military response to terrorist threats at a local train station. Throughout the Mediterranean I watched as the discussions from class and images from our textbooks sprang to life. Never again do I want to feel that peculiar mix of emotion like I did that summer: guilt, privileged, empathic, and powerless. Not with all the opportunity I have been presented in my life thus far. I was given just a brief glimpse behind the curtain of other cultures and it has left an itching desire in the pit of my stomach, a desire to engage. With this newfound disposition I have every intention of using my education and distinctive skills for the betterment of
I felt academically challenged. It was the first time in my life when I thought that perhaps I might not meet the standards. Growing up in Venezuela made me see the world from a very peculiar perspective. Ever since I was little, I’ve heard people praising my academic performance and claiming that I can achieve whatever I want in life, in consequence, they encourage me to take a break and stop doing so much work. But what I had failed to understand is that the ones who tell me that are people who were raised seeing nothing but mediocrity. Ironically, in a country sunk in violence, crime, corruption, brutality and mainly lack of an educated population, a fifteen-year-old girl who wanted to gain knowledge and debate about international issues was seen as a misfit. No one understood why I wanted to participate in Model United Nations, work in my free time or spend the summer learning about business instead of going on the classic 15-year-old’s trip around Europe which all my friends attended to get life experiences like falling asleep at museums and partying all night long. It was that summer when I decided that if I ever wanted to achieve great things, I needed to set myself apart from that group of privileged Venezuelans, the ones that had experienced the same country situation as I had but had decided to continue living in ignorance and just focus on
I failed a chemistry class, even with tutoring, meetings with the teachers, and at home tutoring from my roommate who was attending EWU as a Biology/Chemistry major. The disaster of that course, diminished my thinly restored confidence and I fled. I took up an opportunity to become an expat and live in Lebanon. The first summer I was there, I witnessed the war between Palestine and Israel, only a country away. The impact my experiences changed how I viewed privilege and what I had taken for granted back home. I felt ashamed at what I had so readily given up in self-pity and comparatively meager issues. Thus, after teaching English for a year and traveling, the profound realization of how imperative my education was towards helping the world become a better place sank in. I wanted to go farther than I ever had but this time I was going to do it right. My life became an awareness of the worlds pain, its need, and my insuppressible desire to solve it. I moved back to Chewelah after nearly a year and a half in Lebanon, and with a wholly renewed
I needed to understand diversity to the ninth degree, so academically I chose to enroll in every course within my degree plan that contained the words “international,” “ethnic,” and “social.” Learning by immersion was a success in my transition to college, so I felt that international immersion within my international courses would be even better. I quickly jumped on the opportunity to participate in the United Kingdom Study Abroad Program to study international communications. The time I spent studying in the UK and traveling across Europe changed my life completely; my eyes were finally opened to the knowledge I always wanted. I departed from the French airport back to America with a more sophisticated understanding of worldviews and a respect for others that will never be
I’ve had challenges in ranges from peas to elephants throughout my lifetime, but the biggest challenge I’ve faced Thus far has been navigating and blending cultures. From Burmese kids who’ve spent years in refugee camps to Congolese kids who’ve fled civil wars, to the American homeboys who wear baseball caps backwards, to me a girl from the congo who lives with parents that view the world in strict and narrow terms,my world is made up people from all over the world with one objective in mind- realizing their American Dream, freedom of thought, speech and opportunity to be who they are without fear. Every day is a new adventure with endless possibilities for those who are open and brave. I’m open and I’m brave, but I secretly live in a world
When I was fourteen, I went on a trip to Vietnam. From silence and concentration, my eyes saw motion and confusion. Men with no clothes roamed the streets, pulling rickshaws. Beggars who had cut off their hands or legs to elicit sympathy and to appeal for money. I took a deep breath to help me concentrate, but I stared into this world with an overwhelming sense of dismay. The country was dying. Out of all thoughts that a 14-year-old could conceive, my thoughts revolved around ways that I could help the fallen country. I felt a sense of responsibility to change the situation.
The Arab Spring was a series of revolutions across the Middle East and North Africa. In these revolutions, people fought for political, economic and human rights. This movement started on December 18, 2010. People protested and raised awareness because they were not being treated correctly in their own homes. These governments were very corrupt, unfair and did not-listen to what the people had to say. The people of the Middle East and North Africa were not going to stand for it. The Arab Spring was how most countries in the Middle East and North Africa were going to bring justice into the country.
Following the Arab Spring, there has been a massive refugee surge from nations such as Syria, Iraq, and Libya. The vast numbers of refugees and asylum seekers often masks the increasing numbers of young highly-educated intellectuals who are emigrating from the region. These young professionals often flee the region through opportunities such as legal work abroad and through studying at international universities.
The recent conflict in Syria encompasses a series of events that have led to a political and humanitarian crisis. Since the civilization origins, Syria has suffered invasions, changes and violence. In the 1900’s and after 400 years of Ottoman’s Empire domain, the Arab army, supported by French, entered in Damascus. Emir Feisal was crowned as king of Syria, but French troops forced him to resign few months later. A new France state has been arisen, and it was divided in three separate regions and dominated by two religious groups: the Alawis and the Druze. The French domain did not last long and faced nationalist’s protests. Finally, Syria gains independence although France had the economic and military control until 1946 when the last French troops left Syria. Since then, military and civilian government interleaved power. The Arab Socialist Baath party was created but a coup d’etat dissolves all the political parties
This video is a very relevant and appropriate source for this topic because it discusses the different reasonings for why the Arab Spring failed. Richard Haass explains the side of the people and of the government for why the Arab Spring ultimately did not succeed. He offers a unique approach in the sense that not all countries are the same and had the same failures as others. Because of Haass’s approach to the decline of the Arab Spring, this source is crucial and very relevant to this topic.
The Arab Spring was a Middle Eastern Anomaly that no one could have predicted. There were protests before the Arab Spring, but none created this domino effect that Tunisia had to the rest of the Arab countries. The Arab Spring protests were in the right time of both technological advancement, and economic concern, that Arab society felt unanimously encouraged and desperate enough to share their grievances on the government. Scott Anderson exclaims his enthusiasm with the Protests when they began, like most western observers looking at the Middle East with optimism. Unfortunately, that optimism was gone once the rulers fought back, or people disagreed with the democratic process. For example, In the Square movie we were shown in class on the
When it comes to the case of the Arab spring it has a lot to do with how they got their start over social media networks such as Facebook and twitter, social movements just like the Arab spring have established a platform for political activism that wasn’t there before which is what I hope to show and express in my research in the case study of the Arab spring. When it comes to the Arab spring as most know they begun as a social movement on the internet via the social media website Facebook and then it had spread like wildfire throughout the world along with making everyone aware of social problem that it was presenting itself to have.
The Arab Spring has largely affected the politics in the Middle East. While Tunisia is arguably the only country that was able to find some sort of success from the uprisings, most of the other countries were not as lucky. Being such a microcosm, the middle east has become a place for larger players to fight for their interests through the use of proxies. A noteworthy example of this would be the civil war that is occurring in Syria.
A revolutionary wave of demonstrations and protests (both violent and non-violent), riots, and civil wars in the Arab World that began on 18 December 2010, later gained the heading “The Arab spring”. The Arab spring began by a twenty six year old boy named Mohammed Bouazizi was getting ready to sell fruits and vegetables in a rural town of Sidi Bouzid Tunisia. Bouazizi was the primary supporter for his widowed mother and six of his siblings. The entire incident originated when the police officer asked bouazizi to hand over his wooden cart, he refused the police women allegedly slapped him after being publicly humiliated bouazizi marched in front of a government building and set himself on fire. The Jasmine revolution in Tunisia, the shock wave swept across the country which threatened the stability of this oil-rich region with repercussion felt internationally. After the world witnessed what happened in Tunisia, it caused a spilled over into most of the Arab countries. Such as Egypt, Libya Syria and Yemen. Aim of this paper is to show that the current situation corollary of decades of failed policies, exacerbated by an unsolicited foreign intervention. The extensive consequences, I will argue, require cautious attention and careful management from international communities as well as the Arab human rights committee. This paper seeks to explore the profound causes that prompted the so called “Arab awakening” and the covert hidden agenda behind the sudden pro democratic
“When dictatorship is a fact, revolution becomes a right” is a quote from Victor Hugo that symbolizes the new age of human rights. Over the years, countries around the world have witnessed terrifying yet life-changing revolutions, but no one in history had expected for such a quick and sudden revolution to begin like the Arab Spring. The Arab Spring has allowed people, particularly in the Middle East and North Africa, to speak out for what they believe in today. Many laws have been overturned due to the amount of pressure the people are putting on their government. One revolution started it all, and ever since then, we have realized many of the biggest protests in history, the rise and downfalls of the economy, a different side to the
The United Nations defines a youth as someone who is between the ages of 14 and 28. An unemployed person is defined as an individual who does not have a job but is actively seeking work. Across the globe, high rates of youth unemployment put the future of the global economy at risk. Young people make up 17% of the global population but also make up 40% of the unemployed. The Middle East and North Africa have the highest youth unemployment rates, where one in four young people are unemployed, which drives social unrest. The reason that this issue is so important to the global stage is because of the effects that social unrest; riots and protests have on individual states. In their most extreme form, these protests can lead to revolutions that can topple entire governments and send nations into chaos. In 2011, unemployment and unrest in the Middle East and North Africa Youth gave way to the Arab Spring, which was months of rioting and protests to remove the governments of several countries, most notably in Egypt and Libya. Unemployment is even higher in some parts of Europe, as more than 50% of young people in Greece and Spain are out of work. The failure of the Greek economy will have even worse effects on a transnational level. The European Union has spent millions in attempts to level out the Greece economy. Despite these efforts, the economy is still failing, which could ultimately lead to the collapse of the value of the Euro and therefore the entire European economy. The