The World is More Than I Know

An exploration of globalization through film The first time I watched one of The New York Times' Op-Docs, or short opinion documentaries, was in New York during the summer of 2017. I was at the School of the New York Times for a two week long course on opinion editing, and on this day our class was lucky enough to hear from Lindsay Crouse, coordinating producer at Op-Docs. She showed us a film called 4.1 miles, which chronicled the life of a coast guard on a small Greek island as he went out into the waters, every single day, to rescue Syrian migrants as they fled, across 4.1 miles of treacherous water, away from their own government. If this coast guard did not rise, on his own volition, and go out into the ocean, hoards of people would drown. The film was impossibly harrowing, and ever since then I've been using Op-Docs to further my global knowledge in a cinematographic way. Recently, I've watched: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/28/opinion/4-1-miles.html https:...

Philippines: Duterte’s ‘Drug War’ Claims 12,000 + Lives: An Ethical Analysis Qualifying ethicality: The ethical issue at hand lies within whether or not it is acceptable for the Filipino government to kill those addicted to drugs in an effort to “cleanse” the population of “dependables” and (ostensibly) make communities safer. Right vs Right or Right vs Wrong: In my view, this issue is a Right vs. Wrong scenario. Drug addiction is an illness, and killing people out of convenience is always morally wrong. Not to mention, Duterte and his administration aren’t even attempting to combat the real issues behind widespread drug dependence and sale. Murdering people because they can not only gives way to total autocracy, it doesn’t solve the problem. Dilemma: Mercy vs. Justice: Duterte would argue that, in killing drug addicts, he is serving justice. While that is kind of a skewed view of “justice,” its antipode “mercy” should be employed instead. Individual vs. Community: Dutert...

   This past Tuesday, members of Poly’s Global Initiatives Program, along with faculty and other members of the student body, had the select opportunity of hearing from Ms. Alice Kimm, principal architect at Los Angeles-based firm John Friedman Alice Kimm Architects (JFAK). In addition to co-heading her own firm alongside her husband, John Friedman, Ms. Kimm has a vast history in architectural education, having been appointed as Chair-- and then Director of Undergraduate Architecture-- at USC from 2010 to 2014, before being appointed as Adjunct Professor in 2015. In her presentation, Ms. Kimm paired photographs of past projects (including a JFAK renovation of Caltech’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory) with explanations of what went on behind the scenes, describing processes of sustainable design and development, manipulation of natural light, and physical implementation of literal and figurative “motifs” to provide each building with its own identity.    T...

    On my birthday, the 7th of November, my family and I hosted two 17 year old Japanese students for the night. Natsuki and Natsumi, both girls just a year younger than myself, go to school at Nirayama high school in Japan, which is in Prefecture 410-2143. From what I understand, both girls live about an hour train ride from Tokyo. I also learned that Natsuki's father is a dairy farmer, just like my grandfather.    Hosting Natsuki and Natsumi was my first hosting experience, and it turned out to be a tremendous time. Me, my father, mother, brother, Natsuki, and Natsumi all went out to dinner at Mohawk Bend, a cool "quintessentially L.A." restaurant on Sunset Blvd. Afterwards, even though both girls were wiped out from their travels, we went to Target, which might have been the highlight of the evening. Natsuki and Natsumi bought goldfish crackers, which they were excited to try, and gifts to bring back to their families and friends in Japan.     Though t...

   B olivia, un país unitario dividido en nueve departamentos y con una población de aproximadamente 11 millones de personas, es un país de gran belleza y rica cultura. Ubicada en América del Sur, la tierra que ahora se llama “Bolivia” se originó mucho antes de que obtuviera su nombre. Antes de que los españoles colonizaban la tierra de Bolivia en el siglo XVI, fue el hogar del Imperio Inca. Los conquistadores españoles extrajeron plata de las minas bolivianas para financiar su nuevo imperio español. Bolivia comenzó a luchar por su independencia en 1809, pero no fue hasta 1825 cuando se les concedió la libertad con la ayuda de Simón Bolívar que ayudó a Bolivia, junto con Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru y Panama, a separarse de España. Bolivia lleva el nombre de Bolívar. La colonización española de Bolivia todavía tiene un impacto en el país en la actualidad. Una consecuencia particular de la colonización es el maltrato de los grupos indigenas bolivianos. Si bien los indig...

Un breve ensayo de mi clase de Español sobre la canción "Pobre Juan" en lo que se refiere a temas fronterizos en la actualidad.          E n esta canción por el grupo “Maná,” un hombre llamado juan viaja incansablemente por su país de origen, México, en busca de prosperidad financiera en los Estados Unidos. Al comienzo de la canción, descubrimos que Juan está comprometido para casarse con una mujer, María, y ella está embarazada. Para pagar la boda y su nueva vida con María, Juan se da cuenta de que necesita encontrar trabajo temporal en los Estados Unidos. La canción detalla su viaje a través de las montañas y los valles de México mientras se acerca a la frontera. Después de caminar un tiempo, Juan se encuentra con coyotes: personas que venden sus servicios a inmigrantes ilegales para ayudarlos a cruzar la frontera. Aunque que algunos coyotes tratan bien a los inmigrantes, otros son corruptos y peligrosos. Los coyotes que Juan conoce no son del tipo bueno, y...

Three Pressing Cultural Concerns, Summarized ​ 1. Population      I n 2017, the number of Japanese citizens aged 90 or above was aimed at 2.06 million, thereby surpassing 2 million for the first ever time, according to an inter-governmental estimate. Such numbers are especially harrowing for a country infamous for its elderly society. Low birth rates-- coupled with high life-expectancy rates-- mean that the Japanese population is not self-sustaining; women are not reproducing at a positive rate. Federally funded incentives like extended paid-maternity leave and tax reductions are intended to revitalize a Japan’s presently lacking natalism.     A variety of factors are to blame for Japan’s “graying population,” but Japan’s current administration hopes to return the country to sustainable levels of population growth with the help of a comprehensive five-year plan. Through a human rights lens, Japan’s government is not equipped to deal with such a large por...

   O n April 4th, Poly welcomed 5 Finnish students to campus, and I had the distinct pleasure of getting to know two of them: Viekko and Heke. Viekko and Heke came with me to Biology class, and I got to know them further over lunch. Thanks to the knowledge I'd been able to glean from getting to know Oskari, Poly's very own Finnish exchange student, I already knew a bit about Finnish way-of-life, and I loved asking Viekko and Heke questions about Finland and its culture.      T hroughout lunch Viekko, Heke, Oskari and I talked a bit about the different ways in which our two respective-- and surprisingly different-- countries deal with manners. Together we tried to dissect something that we realized to be an odd, and singularly American, propensity for niceties, formalities, and propriety. Viekko offered up qualms about being perceived as rude or mismannered, and it was interesting to think about Oskari-- kind and genuine but very rarely lyrical-- being se...

 T his past Thursday, a variety of globally-minded Poly students had the distinct pleasure of hearing from Georgetown University professor and international law expert Dr. Anthony Arend. Dr. Arend, a scholar, author, and founder of the Institute for Law, Science and Global Security, gave students grades nine through twelve a captivating and dynamic run-down of all things international relations. Starting with the 17th century Peace of Westphalia (which ended the infamous Thirty Years’ War), and ending with a look into an increasingly globalized future, Arend presented students with an accessible and comprehensive timeline of the role international law has played throughout history. Complex topics like the role of Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) on an international scale-- and the ins-and-outs of state sovereignty-- would not have been nearly as accessible had it not been for Arend’s brilliantly logical explanations; at one point, Arend examined excerpts from the 1945 UN Ch...

      I n the Spring of my ninth grade year, I went to Cuba. From staying in a vastly metropolitan hotel in the heart of Havana, to living with a Cuban family in the small town of Vi ñ ales, I was able to thoroughly experience all that Cuba had to offer. The trip was nothing short of phenomenal. With an amazing itinerary and engaged chaperones, our Poly GIP group fully immersed ourselves in the culture of a nation with a complex, fascinating, and painful history. Before my trip to Cuba, the only other international trip I had taken was to Denmark, a great country in its own right, but, ultimately, quite “Westernized” and not all that different from the US. Exploring Cuba was something wholly different from anything I’d ever experienced, and I’ll never forget it. Academically, my trip sparked my interest in global politics and US foreign involvement, among other things. Beyond that, though, my trip to Cuba awakened a part of me that was adventurous, a part of me that wante...

9/28/18      I’m in New York now, after spending some time in Chicago visiting colleges with my father. I love it there— and here. In Chicago this past week, I was fortunate enough to get to meet and talk with two professors, both from the University of Chicago. Ramon Gutierrez and Dain Borges are scholars of Latin America, Borges specializing in Brazilian and Caribbean studies and Gutierrez in colonial Latin America, Chicano/Latino studies, and Mexican immigration.      To sit down with both and hear about the content of their classes was fascinating, and it made me all the more excited to pursue, among other things, global studies in college. This quarter, Ramon Gutierrez, a MacArthur fellow, is teaching a class that aims to cover 500 years of Latin history in just five weeks. At the end of the course, Gutierrez will prompt the students to apply their new, historical knowledge to contemporary politics, looking at the ways in which race relations...

  October was a crazy month. I didn't have as much time to think about the world as I would have liked. Still though, I note a few areas where my global knowledge has grown. For an opinion article I wrote for the Paw Print, and then later for supplement for college, I touched the surface of "global language," exploring the different ways different languages aim to convey thought and emotion, and how successful they end up being.      I was originally prompted to explore more about "global language" after seeing a book at Vroman's that covered the possibility of there existing some sort of universal human language. That got me thinking about the ways in which humans currently interact with each other, through language and not, which led me to explore a few languages in particular. For my Paw Print article, I looked into the Khoisan "clicking" language. In thinking about there being a common motive for the invention of language (to express x, y, o...