Conservation Impacts on the Global Scale

In light of the recent shutdown of Polytechnic School as a result of measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19, I have started "Zhou Enlai, the Last Perfect Revolutionary." The content of the book is quite interesting, as it talks about Zhou Enlai, the Chinese Premier famous for his de-escalation of China/US tensions during the "Ping Pong Diplomacy" of the 70s and part in the orchestration of Richard Nixon's historic visit to China. While I will have much more to talk about down the line, I'm particularly struck by how Zhou Enlai deliberately stayed out of the spotlight and supported Mao Zedong years in advance on topics he would address. He shrewdly stayed clear of purges that happened to the upper echelons of China's communist party and ultimately went down as a figure with mixed impact. On one hand, he was able to consistently support Mao and tone down his policies so that they would not have as much harmful impact to China, but without him, Mao'

I really enjoyed hearing the AFS students' perspectives on America and willingness to share their stories. We had three panelists come from Bulgaria, Germany, and Chile, who discussed varied aspects of their lives in America and their home countries. Jacqueline and Aaron, both members of the Global Scholars cohort, asked questions concerning food, customs, culture, and education. I was surprised at how much the schooling system varied and by the experiences with host families that each panelist faced. Carlos, the student from Chile, described how he had to move host families 6 or 7 times, and move schools multiple times in a year, which must have been extremely difficult in a new country. Maya, the Bulgarian student, also had to make some adjustments in her living, as she was an only child thrust into a large host family. Not only did they have to adjust to the living areas, they would also have to shift how they handle education and culture, as evidenced by questions concerning cu

I was able to finish Welcome to the NHK, a show adapted from Tatsuhiko Takimoto's original manga. This is a famously depressing show, one that touches on the hikikomori phenomenon in Japan. Hikikomori are people who isolate themselves from social contact and generally seek confinement within their homes or apartments for extended periods of time, ranging from months to years. The protagonist of the show, Tatsuhiro Sato, is a hikikomori whose depiction is from the start negative. He's first presented in his room, which is strewn with clothes, empty bottles, alcohol, and magazines. We find out that his condition is a result of his crippling fear of being perceived as lesser by others and that he goes to comical lengths to show others that he is either not a hikikomori or that he does not need help. The story ultimately surrounds Sato and how that mentality shifts over time. Perhaps one of the most unique aspects of the story is how it addresses being an otaku so unappealingly.

Michael SanClements's presentation on the prevalence of plastic and the difficulty of dealing with its environmental impacts was deeply engaging and informative. I was particularly surprised by the way in which SanClements decided to approach the presentation: he gave a lot of historical background on the creation of plastic and its usage to frame his discussion around the lack of utility plastic serves in many cases. He touched on such topics as Tupperware parties and the creation of plastic as a replacement for pool balls to ultimately argue why one-time use plastic has little use in real life. I believe that this event engaged the audience more than any other I've seen through the GIP program: Michael, a Global Scholar, led off the discussion with a question but afterwards, a slew of people had their points to make and questions to ask. One memorable statement that was made by an audience member concerned the viability of single-use plastics. He brought up the fact that s

Maddy did a great job with her organization of her panel last Wednesday, where she recruited three speakers to talk about their experiences as religious leaders in their communities and their ties to the Middle East. First and foremost, I would like to recognize Maddy for her adaptation to unpredictable conditions with the event. She had to manage the panel while two speakers were running late as a result to traffic and adapt her questions to the speakers' responses. The three speakers "represented" the three Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. They each discussed their relationship to religion and knowledge on the significance of Jerusalem in a nuanced and understanding manner. The event went wonderfully because of the decisions the speakers made. First and foremost, the Christian speaker set clear boundaries on the discussion and talked candidly about his faith. He explicitly stated that Christians had historically done wrong in the region, which afte

*This article contains graphic descriptions of violence. This book made me reflect on what I had previously learned about the tragedy that occurred in Nanjing, China in 1937. I had never heard the event described as The Rape of Nanking before I read this book. In my family, it was always referred to as the "Nanjing Massacre."* The "Rape of Nanking" did better to describe the brutality of the event, which I had heard about growing up.  Both my parents are Chinese, from Anhui province. My mother never spoke much to me about the event itself, but she told me when I was younger about how gory and brutal it was. She and my father didn't live through the tragedy, but their older relatives escaped, and my mother described to me how they saw horrible sights, such as organs and viscera scattered across their escape route. As I got older, I would visit the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall in China and learned the extent to which Japanese soldiers killed and tortur