Jul 31

My Sea Turtle Story

I’ve wanted to write this story for a while, but never really knew where to start. How do you ever really define an entire experience with only a couple words? How do you write an article teaching a lesson that it took you yourself over ten months to understand?

I’ve decided to start with the facts. Last October, I left the country for the first time in my life. First international flight, first international experience. My destination was Isla Palo Seco, a small island on the Western coast of Costa Rica for a week of environmental conservation with thirteen of my fellow classmates. Our job was to complete several environmental projects over the course of the week, all across the island. Our main responsibility was to engage in nightly turtle walks, in which we would walk the nine kilometer long beach on the island every night in search of potential turtle nests. Turtle conservation efforts had started on the island several years before, in order to protect several key species, many of which were endangered, or whose populations were dramatically declining due to widespread poaching across the country.

Costa Rica first outlawed the taking of eggs from turtle nests back in 1966, in an effort to restore the declining sea turtle population. In 2002, the Law for the Protection, Conservation, and Recuperation of Sea Turtle Populations was introduced, which stated that anyone who “kills, hunts, captures, decapitates, or disturbs marine turtles” is mandated to at least three years in prison. In addition, “those who detain marine turtles with the intention of marketing or commercializing products made from marine turtles” will be given anything from three months to two years in prison.

However, despite national efforts to end the poaching of turtle nests, the poaching rate on Costa Rican turtle beaches is still close to 100%. How could that be? Why hasn’t anything changed? The problem lies in the fact that the poaching of turtle nests has taken place for centuries in Costa Rica, and is deeply rooted in its culture. People often take turtle eggs, in order to use it for either baking, or to sell them for great profits. As stated by Chevy, a Costa Rican man in an article for the Tico Times Directory:

“In the late 1960s, during the incredible arribadas massive pack trains of horses and donkeys carried away hundreds of millions of eggs collected by the hueveros (egg poachers), and at each nesting season. “Chevy” recalls that many Costa Ricans, living on the coast, remember the time when they were young, being sent to the beach by their parents, with sisters and brothers, to get sea turtle eggs. They would come back with baskets filled, within fifteen to thirty minutes. When money was needed, they would fill up a bunch more of baskets and sell them to local markets, restaurants and street vendors. “Back in those days one dollar was worth around 6-7 colons. Dozen eggs would be sold between 3 to four colones.”

Every night our job was to walk the beach at high tide, eyes scouring in the darkness for any sign of turtle footprints that would indicate the long journey a mother turtle had to make past the high tide line and into safety to lay a nest of 100 plus eggs. If we found a nest, we would dig up the hole, place the eggs carefully into a plastic bag, and then make the trek to the hatchery, where the eggs would be buried and (supposedly) kept safe from the poachers. There, the eggs would wait for about 45-55 days, until they finally broke free, to the top of the nest, ready to make their trek to the ocean.

While the experience was both eye-opening and rewarding, a thought kept nagging me in the back of my head. “What were we doing here?” The two Costa Rican men who led the turtle walks didn’t need us. Not really. If anything, we were slowing them down. When they took us on the walk, they had to slowly prod their way up and down the beach by foot. When they were by themself, they could easily make their way up and down the beach by bike, in less than half the time. They were the ones with all the knowledge, and technical advice. Besides raising awareness amongst ourselves, what were we really doing there?

I realize now that it wasn’t really our job “to save the turtles”.  Not in this manner, at least. A better solution would have been to simply start with the kids. Specifically the kids of the Isla Palo Seco school, which was located directly across the street from the hatchery. The kids were highly invested in the conservation project on the island, running across the street every day during breeding season in order to check if any of the nests had hatched. They were taught the importance of protecting the sea turtles, and had first hand experience caring for them until they were ready to be released. They loved that hatchery, and all of the turtles in it. Why not start similar programs in other coastal communities? Make it about the kids. Add lessons into the curriculum stressing sustainability and the the role of the sea turtles within the greater ecosystem. Teach them the dangers of widespread poaching. Shift the responsibilities of the hatchery to the students, and bring them along on the turtle walks. Going around the problem, by using outsiders like myself won’t change the poaching rate for the long term. However, changing an entire generation’s perspective towards the importance of protecting endangered sea turtles? That’s another story.

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Jul 31

Exceptions to the Rule: America’s Death Penalty Law

Have you ever thought about the death penalty? Do you support using it? If so, what crimes should it apply to? Should any individual potentially face execution? Should there be exceptions? I know those are tough questions, but they’re things we NEED to think about. Because right now, our laws surrounding the death penalty simply don’t work. Our government currently allows the use of the death penalty for anyone except mentally disabled individuals and children. However, states set their own specific rules regarding the specifics of the practice. They decide if they want to use it at all, the method of execution, and the guidelines for exceptions. But why do we have these exceptions? And where do they come from?
When the Supreme Court decided to ban the use of the death penalty for the mentally disabled in 1992, they said it was for two reasons. First, it was and still is believed that mentally disabled individuals do not have the capacity for adult moral judgements and therefore can’t be held accountable in that way. They just do not have the mental ability to understand the consequences of the decisions they make. Therefore, they need to be protected from “wrongful punishment”. Second, they wanted the law to more closely reflect public opinion about the death penalty. And it seems that people now believe only certain people should be eligible for the death penalty, but not all. This may sound straightforward and easy enough to implement. But a recent case in Georgia highlights all the potential pitfalls and problems with this system.

Warren Hill is set to be executed at the beginning of next year for his crimes. He originally received a life sentence for murdering his girlfriend in 1986. Then later received the death penalty for killing his cellmate while serving that sentence. Clearly Warren Hill committed crimes and broke the law. But he also has an IQ of 70. This means he meets the medical standard for mental retardation, which is defined as having an IQ at or below 70. Unfortunately, he doesn’t meet GEORGIA’S standard for mental retardation, so he is still on death row. He walks that fine line between eligibility or exception because of his relatively high IQ for someone who is mentally disabled. But because he didn’t meet Georgia’s standard of proof “beyond a reasonable doubt” of mental disability he was eligible for the death penalty. His story made national and international headlines for the injustice people perceived in his trial. But why is he the only man gaining people’s interest, when there are 100s of death penalty cases each year? People were outraged because he is mentally disabled and yet is still sentenced to death. I agree, that’s a horrible tragedy. But isn’t it a tragedy when the state kills ANYONE?

Why is it acceptable to kill some people but not others? Why do we have a barrier defining some executions as acceptable when others aren’t? Why is that barrier defined by our ability to make rational decisions? Lots of things affect our decision-making beyond just our IQ and yet that’s the only standard we use. Yes, mentally disabled individuals and children have a harder time making rational decisions than your average adult. Their brains either haven’t or won’t develop the way they need to, in order to do that. But people in high stress or high emotion situations also have an extremely difficult time making “good” decisions. So if we’re going to place the barrier at whether or not a person can capably make a decision, then should Continue reading

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Jul 30

Tuberculosis: Overlooked Infectious Disease

A few days ago, I was reading an interesting book about global health called What’s Killing Us by Alanna Shaikh. Alanna Shaikh is a global health and development specialist and in this book, she writes about the biggest global health challenges we face today. She explores everything from chronic diseases, obesity, Flu, HIV and AIDs, health systems around the world, and finally tuberculosis in her book. In the chapter where she discusses tuberculosis, she makes an interesting point that TB does not get the same coverage and focus as other diseases do specifically AIDS and HIV. This issue was very familiar to me because in one of my prior posts, I had discussed that sexually transmitted diseases especially in developing countries are not focused on. Tuberculosis is an overlooked infectious disease that may cause more harm in the future if things do not change.

According to the World Health Organization, tuberculosis is the world’s second deadliest infectious disease after HIV/AIDS. Tuberculosis is a bacterial infectious disease that directly affects the lungs of an individual. This infectious disease can be spread through person to person contact through droplets released in the air by coughing or sneezing and it is contagious. The symptoms of the tuberculosis are coughing, fatigue, loss of appetite, fever and breathing problems. A major problem in treating tuberculosis is that there are now three drug resistant types of tuberculosis. Tuberculosis is commonly treated by strong antibiotics such as rifampicin and isoniazid. However, bacteria are able to adapt and develop resistance against the drugs that used to treat tuberculosis. There are three types of drug resistance tuberculosis: multiresistant, extensively resistant, and totally resistant.  Multi-resistant and extensively resistant tuberculosis are resistant to certain combinations of drugs that are used to treat regular TB. There were 650,000 cases of multi-resistant tuberculosis in the world in 2010. Totally resistant tuberculosis is completely resistant to all types of TB drugs and it is mostly incurable. Unlike HIV, there is no protection against tuberculosis and there is no other way to avoid it. Almost forty percent of people with tuberculosis do not get diagnosed and most of those people are living in developing countries. It is also often misdiagnosed because of its ability to mimic similar symptoms of other diseases.

Why should we care about tuberculosis? We should care about tuberculosis because of the increased amount of globalization in the world today. Individuals are always on the go and people can now reach almost anywhere in the world in very little time.

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Jul 27

Goal 1: Eradicate Extreme Hunger and Poverty

In the year 2000, the United Nations in association with other countries, created a global action plan to solve the world’s major problems by the year 2015. This global plan was divided into eight distinct goals: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, Achieve universal primary education, Promote gender equality and empower women, Reduce child mortality, Improve maternal health, Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other diseases, Ensure environmental sustainability, and Global partnership for development. There are three years left till the tentative deadline to achieve all eight goals. Since it is 2012, it is kind of a halfway point till 2015. How effective has the UN and its partners have been so far? United Nations has provided the general public with informative reports regarding the status and progress of each Millennium Development Goal. I have decided to learn and research about the progress that is being made to achieve the goals by the planned deadline. The first goal that I want to dive into is eradicating extreme poverty and hunger. Eradication of extreme poverty and hunger is the first millennium development goal. It is the most obvious problem and the hardest to solve as well. More than a billion people live in extreme poverty around the world. In 2010, there were over 925 million hungry people living in the world.One of the major setbacks in the progress of this goal was the economic recession in 2007. Within this goal there are three distinct targets that must be fulfilled in order to achieve the overall goal.

The first target is to halve the proportion of people whose income is less than $1 a day. According to the Millennium Development Goal report in 2012, despite the setback, this will target will be achieved. However, about 1 billion will still be living on less than $1.25 a day in 2015.

Also, major areas such as sub-Saharan Africa, and South Asia are still facing widespread poverty with no significant reduction. The major problem is that it is difficult to monitor and to analyze accurate data because it is difficult to get data from every single area in the world that is facing extreme poverty. In order to consistently see progress, it is necessary for countries and governments to invest in initiatives to increase economic growth.

 The second target is to achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all, including women and young people. In 2000, there were about 689 million workers in the world that were living below $1.25 a day.

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Jul 27

Olympic Coverage: Let’s Hear it for the “Girls”

I curled up in front of my television earlier this month, all set to watch the women’s gymnastic Olympic trials, when something caught my attention. At the start of the program, a promotional video began to run, flashing the names of the Olympic hopefuls. There was “Jordyn.. Gabby… McKayla… Alexandra… Kyla…” WAIT. Since when were we on a first name basis? It’s not like these athletes had the same notoriety as LeBron or Tiger. Even Michael Jordan, one of the greatest athletes in the world, is still referred to by both his first and last names. So why was it okay to refer to female gymnasts by only their first name?

Diver Brittany Viola

Gender bias in sports in nothing new. The hypersexualization and objectification of female athletes, both on the television and in popular sports magazines, has been around for years. News outlets have often been guilty of turning female athletes into pin-up girls in photo shoots, focusing on their beauty and femininity rather than their raw athleticism. It’s hard to ignore the visual stereotyping that takes place daily in newspapers and magazine. However, what’s less obvious is another type of gender bias – a verbal (or written) gender bias. What are the commentators really saying? What is the dialogue surrounding women’s sports, both during the Olympics, and the rest of the year? What most people don’t know is that verbal gender bias takes place every single day.

A common example of verbal gender bias in sports? Gender marking. Gender marking takes place when the gender of the athletes is told in reference to the sport or sporting event. Think of when a commentator comes on air, and says, “Welcome to coverage of the United State’s women’s basketball team”. That, in a nutshell, is gender marking. Instead of referring to it simply as the U.S. basketball team, emphasis is put on the women’s part. Gender marking also takes place often when referring to a school’s mascot. There are the Tennessee Volunteers, and then the Tennessee Lady Volunteers. The Arkansas Razorbacks, and then the Arkansas Lady Razorbacks. The LSU Tigers, and then the LSU Lady Tigers. “Lady” is put in place to differentiate women’s sports, from the so-called “real” sports. The result becomes that men’s sports are always set as the norm, while women’s remain the exception. As always in athletics, women become exceptions to the rule.

Gymnast Jordyn Wieber

Where there are ladies, there will also be “girls”. Commentators are notorious for their extensive use of the world “girls” when referring to female athletes. Female athletes have trained all their life to win a spot in the Olympics. Some female athletes are just out of middle school, while others have already had several children. So why are they still referred to as “girls”? Commentators rarely refer to any male athletes as “boys”, so why has it become so socially acceptable to refer to almost all female athletes as girls, regardless of their age?

Which brings me back to my original point – “hierarchy of naming”. Hierarchy of naming is a linguistic process in which female athletes are commonly referred to by their first names, as shown by the Olympic promo video with the female gymnasts. Similar to using the word “girls”, hierarchy of naming is another means of infantilizing the average women athlete. It’s nothing new either. Researchers that have studied past Olympics, found that commentators refer to female athletes by their first names much more often than their male counterparts. A study found that commentators during the Olympics used a woman’s first name 32 times during a swimming and diving competition (compared with Continue reading

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Jul 26

BP Partners with London 2012 Olympics on Sustainability

Sometimes the irony of a situation is just so glaringly obvious it’s hard to believe it’s real. In just a few days the London 2012 Summer Olympics will kick off two and a half weeks of athleticism at its finest. One of the major themes of the games this year is to create the first environmental sustainable Olympics. The London Olympics wants to create a lasting legacy of sustainability that will set the precedent for all Olympic events to come. In seemingly unrelated news, this week a US government panel presented findings that BP ignored hazard risks and was more concerned with financial risks than the larger systematic risks that caused to Gulf of Mexico oil spill in 2010.

 

Where does the connection and the irony come into play? Well, if you can believe it BP is an official partner of the London 2012 Olympics! Yes, that’s right. BP will not only provide environmentally friendly biofuels for the event, but will also invoke the “Spirit of the Gulf” by serving up some of the Gulf’s finest seafood to the backdrop of jazz music for Team USA. All the while encouraging people to visit the Gulf and support local tourism. Talk about good timing. The same week the environmental-friendly Olympics are about to start backed by their oil partner  BP, the US government publicly says that BP basically didn’t care about ensuring safety in one of the US’s most treasured natural coast in in favor of profits.

 

This all reeks of a PR campaign designed to continue efforts to repair BPs public image in the wake of the damning Gulf spill. BP touts it as their continuing effort to support the Gulf’s local industries and culture. But, let’s not forget that this is damage control for one of the worst environmental disasters in US history. BP didn’t make these grand sweeping efforts to boost the economies of areas near where they drilled for oil before the spill, Continue reading

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Jul 25

10 Signs the Upcoming #APYDCON is Perfect for You!

The SISGI Group’s Alliance for Positive Youth Development is hosting the 2012 Best Practices for Youth Conference August 6-10, 2012. This great online professional development opportunity leverages technology and social media to share and connect with youth development professionals, educators and young people working on youth issues around the country. As a participant in this unique virtual conference you will have access to online webinars, live streamed events and online communities during the week of the conference. In addition, all participants will have access to the content shared and ongoing discussion communities for up to one year. Though we think this is an innovative and great way to connect youth and youth development professionals across the country, we realize that an online conference isn’t for everyone.  So to help you determine if this is an event you can’t miss, we outlined these 10 signs that it might be perfect for you if… Continue reading

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Jul 25

How the Olympics Can (and Should) Do More for Women’s Athletics

It’s almost time for the Olympics! And I, like my fellow blogger Kristen, CANNOT wait. I love the Olympics and everything that goes with it. The emotion. The national pride. The athletes. But with all the things I love there’s one thing that I really don’t. The Olympics, more than any other sporting event, highlight the still uneven playing field that women experience. With each example of progress we see in women’s sports, there’s always more steps we could be taking to reach equality. And the Olympics provide the perfect platform to do that on an international level. It can and should be used to make a difference, to bring about change. Unfortunately it rarely is and I think that’s a problem.
Don’t get me wrong, women’s sports have come a long way in recent history. But when it comes down to it, female athletes are still treated differently than their male counterparts. Just look at what happened with Japan. The women flew to England in economy seating, while the men flew business class. Or look at the the women representing Saudi Arabia. They’ll be the first female athletes from their country to compete in the Olympics. A huge step that everyone should be proud of and thankful for. But they’re not the finalists and champions in their sport. They were the ones who were considered “suitable” by their government. I don’t at all want to take anything away from the women who are representing their country at the Games. But I think it’s a problem that female athletes from Saudi Arabia must be given special invitations and meet non-athletic criteria in order to compete.

Even the US isn’t immune to these problems. I know we like to think we’ve placed women’s sports on equal footing to men’s and that other countries should copy us. But we haven’t. And they shouldn’t. Yes, we’ve made a lot of progress that we should be proud of. We’re bringing more female than male athletes to these Games for the first time in history. And women’s sports are gaining unprecedented popularity here. But we’re still not where we need to be. We still under promote and under appreciate our female athletes. Did you know the first event of the Olympics is actually two days before the opening ceremony? No? That’s because it’s the opening round of women’s soccer play and it hasn’t been highly publicized. Do you think that would happen if it were the men instead of the women who had their first game that day? Yeah, me neither.

And what about the female athletes who work tirelessly at their sport so they can have the honor of representing their country. Take Sarah Robles for example. She’s a professional weightlifter and literally the strongest woman in the United States, possibly the world. But until very recently, she was living on just $400 a month. She needed time to properly prepare for the Olympics, so she couldn’t work normal hours like your average citizen. Of course, this is an issue that many Olympic athletes face. Most manage to support themselves in some way, typically using sponsorships to supplement their earnings. But even though she’s one of the best female weightlifters in the world, Sarah JUST received her first sponsorship from Solve Media. Can you imagine a male athlete facing a similar problem? If he was one of the best at his sport, do you really think he would have ZERO advertising contracts? Not likely. But because Sarah is a woman, competes in a less mainstream sport, and doesn’t fit into advertising’s “feminine” mold, she hasn’t been considered worthy of a contract.

Obviously, gender equality is a big issue to tackle. It’s not something that can be achieved overnight. And it’s not something that a small group of people can do on their own. But the Olympics are Continue reading

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Jul 24

A Culture of Violent Masculinity: Part Two

Searching For Answers in the Aurora, Colorado Shooting

When something like the Aurora movie theatre massacre happens, the first question is always “why?”. Why did this happen? The brutal act of violence seems so senseless, so inexplicable. It’s hard to make sense of it all.

However, the problem lays in our follow-up question- “how do we prevent this from happening again”? Too often, we get caught up in a discussion of prevention, rather than looking at causation. For one reason or another – fear, ignorance, apathy – we ignore examining the cause, and skip right over to preventative measures. Maybe it’s because the real solution is more difficult than simply installing a few metal detectors, and it’s more expensive than increasing the police presence in our community. The real problem? A serious crisis in hegemonic masculinity. It comes down to how we define masculinity in our culture.

What is hegemonic masculinity necessarily? It’s not an easy concept to define, maybe because it’s so ingrained in our culture. The easiest explanation is that hegemonic masculinity is considered the “optimal” form of masculinity in our society. While there are many forms of masculinity, hegemonic masculinity refers to the “ideal” type, which serves as a model for how all other men should act. It’s associated with characteristics like power and status, strength and dominance. It is considered the superior form of masculinity, compared to all the “weaker” forms that can be found in society.

In more cases than not, mass murders can be traced back to a crisis in hegemonic masculinity. The perpetrator of the violence has long struggled with his failure in achieving hegemonic masculinity. He was often teased, ridiculed, or bullied during his childhood and adolescence, simply because he deviated from the norm of the “ideal man”. Often, the perpetrator then comes across a final stressor, which becomes the final straw. Some are triggered by a rejection, or failed intimate relationship just days or weeks before the event occurred. In many cases, financial stressors are to blame. A study found that 71% of mass murderers had a major financial stressor in their life, either in the form of job loss, unemployment, or debt shortly before the mass murder. This could be attributed to the fact that economic independence and a solid, stable job are pillars to achieving hegemonic masculinity. Regardless, the act of mass murder becomes the only way for the perpetrator to get even, and get the recognition he deserves. It’s a way for him to finally make his mark. It’s a way that he can finally grasp a hegemonic masculine identity, which has been damaged or denied from him for so long.

I’m not here to diagnose a problem, give an excuse, or even an explanation. However, I think it’s time that we stop thinking that such shooting sprees are isolated events. Too often, we chalk it up to the “crazies”, and call it a day (Even though over 68% of mass murderers were found to not have a mental disorder). We need to understand that Continue reading

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Jul 23

Economic Boom in Myanmar

As you may recall, I’ve written a couple posts about Myanmar (or Burma) in the past, though mostly in the context of tourism. I’d like to switch gears a bit this time and write about another new opportunity for the country: a stock market.
http://www.irrawaddy.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/exchange.jpg

Myanmar’s legislative body, the Union Solidarity and Development Party, recently approved a plan for a new stock exchange that will be set up by the Central Bank with the help of the Tokyo Stock Exchange and Daiwa Securities. Ideally the exchange will be set up and have 22 companies trading by 2015.

Now, I’ve written a bit about the benefits and hazards of opening a stock exchange (you may remember my posts on the Cambodian Securities Exchange, which opened without any stocks and only recently had its first IPO), but I’ll refresh your memory here. Opening a stock market signals that a country has entered a new phase of economic development, which can draw much-needed foreign investment. A stock market also opens a new venue for savings and investment, making it a valuable tool to encourage economic growth and development. Myanmar’s government is certainly hoping that the stock exchange will help the country modernize and catch up to its Asian tiger neighbors. As one official points out, the time difference between Myanmar’s biggest city, Yangon, and Singapore is 1 1/2 hours, but in terms of economic development they are 30 years apart. Corruption and poverty are major problems for the country, and this exchange is part of President Thein Sein’s attempt to introduce some economic reforms and regulations that will move the country towards a mixed economic system. Unfortunately, it is possible that many smaller, local businesses will suffer with the introduction of public companies.

Because of Myanmar’s fairly unique political situation, and the accompanying plagues of poverty and corruption, some are worried that the stock exchange is not actually a step forward in terms of economic growth, but rather another way for the small portion of wealthy citizens to increase their own coffers. Myanmar is rich in natural resources, but harsh western sanctions have prevented the country from capitalizing on these resources. Some have suggested that the stock exchange is simply a ploy to encourage western nations to drop or ease their sanctions, thus allowing those in control of the resources and of businesses to make a quick profit. President Thein Sein could conceivably be promising democratic reforms in order to bring in western investment only to flake on them once money has begun to flow into the country. Increased business opportunities as a result of western investment could also, however, create a large number of jobs, something the country sorely needs, and many western businesses are chomping at the bit to get into this newly opened country.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/42/Aung_San_Suu_Kyi_17_November_2011.jpg/220px-Aung_San_Suu_Kyi_17_November_2011.jpg
Aung San Suu Kyi has been warning western investors and Burmese citizens alike to be cautious about opening up Myanmar. She fears that many investors are being overly optimistic about Myanmars prospects, and during her Nobel Peace Prize lecture she chastized the excesses of western businessmen. High youth unemployment is another issue she worries about, as well as what this potential economic boom will mean 5 to 10 years down the road: will investors stick around for the long haul, or make a quick profit and leave? Her pesimissim has done little to quell the excitment surrounding Myanmar at the moment, however. Prices are already rising in the country in anticipation of the boom that most believe is coming, and soon.

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