Nora left on Sunday and with her went the mini vacation I had enjoyed for the week. Now I must return to the routine of class and homework. I have roughly 5 weeks left in the semester and in that time I must write three essays, give three presentations, and take three final exams. Needless to say, it is going to be one crazy sprint to the finish. With that in mind, I hope you all understand if my blogging suffers as a result. I will try to write about truly interesting/unique things that happen over the next couple weeks, but regular "status" updates are likely to disappear. I do, however, intend to write a reflection on my time in Barbados once the semesters ends and I have returned home for the holidays. Also, I have some more pictures from my travels with Nora that I will try to post soon.
Ok back to the salt mines I go! See you all when I emerge every now and then for fresh air.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Another Guest Blog - Nora Says Farewell
Hi all,
Stephen requested I do one last blog post before I leave. I’d say I’m flattered, but I think he’s just happy not to have to worry about doing it himself. In any case, here’s a summary of the last 2 days:
There’s not much to say about yesterday. Remember in the last post when Stephen said we “stayed in the apartment in order to conserve energy for going out later tonight”? Well, that going out part didn’t actually happen. I take full responsibility—we were going to check out a party at UWI, which would have been within walking distance and therefore an excellent evening activity, but then I fell asleep at an inexcusably early hour. Oh, well. I’m on vacation and I’m allowed one full day of absolutely nothing if I want it.
Today we were a little more active. We actually made it out of the apartment and all the way to Bridgetown, the island’s capital and largest city. It was an interesting excursion because there were very few tourists around Bridgetown. The city (or at least what we saw) was mostly a series of duty-free shopping malls and aggressive taxi dispatchers, with a few charming historical monuments scattered around. The highlight of our time there was definitely the Parliament Buildings, where one wing now houses the Barbados National Heroes Gallery and the Barbados Museum of Parliament. We learned a lot about Barbados’s political history and about their most treasured historical figures (including a cricket player whose stats all sounded very impressive, although we obviously had no idea what any of them meant).
Tonight we went to dinner at Daphne’s, a great restaurant on the beach not far from the apartment. The meal was excellent (lamb cutlets, lyonnaise potatoes, and asparagus for me; blackened mahi mahi with battered vegetables for Stephen, followed by some delicious tiramisu and crème brulee, respectively. Oh, and salads.) and the ambiance was pretty unbeatable. A lovely way to end my week in Barbados.
I’ve had a wonderful time here, despite the shaky start, and I hope to return before too long. But for now, it’s time for me to pack my bags and fly home. I have to be honest—I hope it’s really cold there.
--Nora
Stephen requested I do one last blog post before I leave. I’d say I’m flattered, but I think he’s just happy not to have to worry about doing it himself. In any case, here’s a summary of the last 2 days:
There’s not much to say about yesterday. Remember in the last post when Stephen said we “stayed in the apartment in order to conserve energy for going out later tonight”? Well, that going out part didn’t actually happen. I take full responsibility—we were going to check out a party at UWI, which would have been within walking distance and therefore an excellent evening activity, but then I fell asleep at an inexcusably early hour. Oh, well. I’m on vacation and I’m allowed one full day of absolutely nothing if I want it.
Today we were a little more active. We actually made it out of the apartment and all the way to Bridgetown, the island’s capital and largest city. It was an interesting excursion because there were very few tourists around Bridgetown. The city (or at least what we saw) was mostly a series of duty-free shopping malls and aggressive taxi dispatchers, with a few charming historical monuments scattered around. The highlight of our time there was definitely the Parliament Buildings, where one wing now houses the Barbados National Heroes Gallery and the Barbados Museum of Parliament. We learned a lot about Barbados’s political history and about their most treasured historical figures (including a cricket player whose stats all sounded very impressive, although we obviously had no idea what any of them meant).
Tonight we went to dinner at Daphne’s, a great restaurant on the beach not far from the apartment. The meal was excellent (lamb cutlets, lyonnaise potatoes, and asparagus for me; blackened mahi mahi with battered vegetables for Stephen, followed by some delicious tiramisu and crème brulee, respectively. Oh, and salads.) and the ambiance was pretty unbeatable. A lovely way to end my week in Barbados.
I’ve had a wonderful time here, despite the shaky start, and I hope to return before too long. But for now, it’s time for me to pack my bags and fly home. I have to be honest—I hope it’s really cold there.
--Nora
Friday, November 5, 2010
Speightstown
Yesterday Nora and I traveled north to visit Speightstown, a place I had yet to go to in my 2+ months living here. Speightstown is the main town in the north of the island and was originally created to give planters in the north a place to offload their sugar for transport to the main port in Bridgetown. Before automobiles and paved roads, the shoddy road system meant that traveling from the Speightstown area to the main port in Bridgetown could take an entire day (sometimes it seems like not much has changed in this regard). Thus planters would smiply load their cargo onto boats in Speightstown which woud then bring it to the main ships in Bridgetown for export to England. This is no longer done today because 1) traveling by car/truck is a lot faster nowadays and 2) because there are only two sugar factories left on the island. Today, Speightstown's main industry is tourism, which Nora and I had a small sample of for the day.
We visited two places during our time in Speightstown. The first was Arlington House Museum, which is a restored 17th century mansion located in the center of town. It is an interactive museum with three floors of exibits on old Speightstown, plantation life, and life on the old Speightstown jetties. It was a nice museum but the content was pretty basic. I could see how tourists would find it informative, but even after living here for only two months I found most of the information rote. Still, I did learn a few things about Speightstown I did not know and many of the interactive exhibits were fun. One example was a scale which first weighed you (allowing me to confirm that I have lost about 10 pounds since being here) and then told you how much you would be worth in the 1700s if you were a bag of sugar instead of a human being. Turns out I'm worth about 70 cents. Nora is an even better deal, costing only 56 cents.
The second place we visited was the Gallery of Caribbean Art, which features and sells paintings, pottery, and photographs by Caribbean artists. We saw lots of really cool pieces of art and both agreed that if we were excentic billionaires we would have taken home a couple paintings each. The exhibit on display was "Bygone Barbados" and it was interesting to see what Barbados was like generations ago, as depicted through the eyes of older generation artists. One common theme was the use of vibrant colors, such as a bright orange sky or deep red shutters on a chattel house.
We left Speightstown around 2:45pm because the place we had wanted to go to lunch had run out of food by that point. Improvising, we decided to head south to Mullin's Beach, where we proceeded to have a nice lunch of fried flying fish sandwiches, french fries, and diet cokes while looking out over the Caribbean sea. The sandwiches were delicious (first time I've had fried flying fish) and dining next to the water was a nice treat. Unfortunately after luch we were only able to spend a couple minutes on the beach since I had to get home to prepare for my 5pm class.
The best part of going to class was getting to come home at 8:30 and find that Nora had already made dinner! She cooked up some shrimp scampi over gnocchi with cauliflower on the side. It was very tasty. I wish I could find such delicious treats waiting for me every time I came home from class.
Today we slept late and stayed in the apartment in order to conserve energy for going out later tonight. We are planning to go to Oistins for the fish fry and then perhaps St. Lawrence Gap for some nightlife. I'll let you all know how that goes in another post.
We visited two places during our time in Speightstown. The first was Arlington House Museum, which is a restored 17th century mansion located in the center of town. It is an interactive museum with three floors of exibits on old Speightstown, plantation life, and life on the old Speightstown jetties. It was a nice museum but the content was pretty basic. I could see how tourists would find it informative, but even after living here for only two months I found most of the information rote. Still, I did learn a few things about Speightstown I did not know and many of the interactive exhibits were fun. One example was a scale which first weighed you (allowing me to confirm that I have lost about 10 pounds since being here) and then told you how much you would be worth in the 1700s if you were a bag of sugar instead of a human being. Turns out I'm worth about 70 cents. Nora is an even better deal, costing only 56 cents.
The second place we visited was the Gallery of Caribbean Art, which features and sells paintings, pottery, and photographs by Caribbean artists. We saw lots of really cool pieces of art and both agreed that if we were excentic billionaires we would have taken home a couple paintings each. The exhibit on display was "Bygone Barbados" and it was interesting to see what Barbados was like generations ago, as depicted through the eyes of older generation artists. One common theme was the use of vibrant colors, such as a bright orange sky or deep red shutters on a chattel house.
We left Speightstown around 2:45pm because the place we had wanted to go to lunch had run out of food by that point. Improvising, we decided to head south to Mullin's Beach, where we proceeded to have a nice lunch of fried flying fish sandwiches, french fries, and diet cokes while looking out over the Caribbean sea. The sandwiches were delicious (first time I've had fried flying fish) and dining next to the water was a nice treat. Unfortunately after luch we were only able to spend a couple minutes on the beach since I had to get home to prepare for my 5pm class.
The best part of going to class was getting to come home at 8:30 and find that Nora had already made dinner! She cooked up some shrimp scampi over gnocchi with cauliflower on the side. It was very tasty. I wish I could find such delicious treats waiting for me every time I came home from class.
Today we slept late and stayed in the apartment in order to conserve energy for going out later tonight. We are planning to go to Oistins for the fish fry and then perhaps St. Lawrence Gap for some nightlife. I'll let you all know how that goes in another post.
St. Nicholas Abbey
On Tuesday Nora and I went to St. Nicholas Abbey, which is a restored 17th century plantation house that now produces an exquisite rum and gives visitors a window into what life was like in early colonial Barbados. Equally informing were our cab drives to and from the Abbey; our driver Orville was also an excellent tour guide. He taught me and Nora all about sugar cane, termites, housing developments in Barbados, as well as some of the island's political history. From now on, whenever I need a cab I am going to call Orville! Anyway, here are some photos of the Abbey:
The first two photos are of the stately dining room and the "Gentleman's Chair" in the living room. The chair was considered the apex of sitting technology in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. As you can see it has all sorts of attachments and hidden features that make reclining, reading, drinking/eating, etc more comfortable. It was basically the Lay-Z-Boy of the times.
The next two photos are of the giant 350 year old tree in the back courtyard. It's absolutely massive and upon closer inspection one realizes why it has survived for so long: it has GIANT spikey things for defense against curious animals and treehuggers alike.
Also in the back courtyard was the loo/privy/bathroom/place where people did their business. There can be no doubt that this is one area where modern technology has considerably improved quality of life! Just imagine having to use this facility in the heat of the Caribbean. No wonder the planter class was constantly getting drunk off rum.
Connected to the back courtyard was the building where vistitors can get their complimentary rum punch and rum tasting. The rum punch was the first good rum punch I've had in Barbados - not too sweet, plenty of rum, and very cold. Even better was the straight up rum, which is so smooth it's really more like a brandy or cognac. According to the son of the owner, their rum is "smooth enough for the ladies but strong enough for the men." I was smitten enough to buy a bottle, hoping that it will make the rest of the semester go by a little more smoothly. Also, next time a hurricane hits Barbados I know that I'll have a clean drinking source available in case the water goes off.
Overall the Abbey was quite beautiful. The old stone buildings blended in nicely with the surrounding foliage .
All in all it was a very fun day and I hope to revist the Abbey in order to take advantage of their half off refill policy before I leave Barbados. Finally, I have to thank Nora for coming to visit me and providing the impetus for going to see the Abbey. I probably would have delayed going for a long time otherwise.
The first two photos are of the stately dining room and the "Gentleman's Chair" in the living room. The chair was considered the apex of sitting technology in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. As you can see it has all sorts of attachments and hidden features that make reclining, reading, drinking/eating, etc more comfortable. It was basically the Lay-Z-Boy of the times.
Also in the back courtyard was the loo/privy/bathroom/place where people did their business. There can be no doubt that this is one area where modern technology has considerably improved quality of life! Just imagine having to use this facility in the heat of the Caribbean. No wonder the planter class was constantly getting drunk off rum.
Connected to the back courtyard was the building where vistitors can get their complimentary rum punch and rum tasting. The rum punch was the first good rum punch I've had in Barbados - not too sweet, plenty of rum, and very cold. Even better was the straight up rum, which is so smooth it's really more like a brandy or cognac. According to the son of the owner, their rum is "smooth enough for the ladies but strong enough for the men." I was smitten enough to buy a bottle, hoping that it will make the rest of the semester go by a little more smoothly. Also, next time a hurricane hits Barbados I know that I'll have a clean drinking source available in case the water goes off.
Overall the Abbey was quite beautiful. The old stone buildings blended in nicely with the surrounding foliage .
All in all it was a very fun day and I hope to revist the Abbey in order to take advantage of their half off refill policy before I leave Barbados. Finally, I have to thank Nora for coming to visit me and providing the impetus for going to see the Abbey. I probably would have delayed going for a long time otherwise.
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
A visitor's perspective: Nora's guest appearance
Hi, loyal readers.
Stephen has accepted my offer/request to guest-blog here at Bajan Solo during my stay in Barbados. I’ve been here for 3 days now and I have a lot to report. I know Stephen has already addressed some of this, so please forgive any redundancies.
I arrived on Sunday afternoon in the wake of Tropical Storm Tomas, which threatened to cancel my flight entirely and was responsible for the cancellations of several flights to the Caribbean that day. Thus, despite our 2-hour delay, I was understandably relieved to be making this trip at all. My spirits were dampened considerably when I stepped into the humid, disorganized mess outside the Barbados airport, only to discover that I was on my own to get to Stephen’s apartment. I abandoned my fears of looking like a clueless tourist (inevitable) and went about desperately asking informed-looking people how the hell I could get a taxi. One man asked where I was going and then barely gave me time to answer before throwing my suitcase in the back of a van and ordering me to get in. I asked the driver if he knew Crusher Site Road and he nodded and said yes, but as we drove through Prospect, it became clear that he wasn’t being completely honest. After a few conversations with pedestrians and a few phone calls with my host (who eventually had to come flag us down on the main road), I was finally dropped at my destination.
Stephen kept insisting that his place is actually very nice when everything works, and now that everything does work I am happy to report he’s right, but that first day I had no choice but to take his word for it. Fortunately, Monday night saw the return of electricity, gas, and real food.
Even with 21st century conveniences, life in Barbados is not what I expected—I was expecting more sidewalks and fewer chickens. Clearly, Stephen’s Barbados is not a tourist’s Barbados. Anyone who assumes he is spending a year drinking rum on a beach only to be rewarded with a master’s degree is sorely mistaken.
Speaking of rum, yesterday we toured St. Nicholas Abbey and saw the historic mansion and rum distillery located there. The grounds were beautiful, the rum was delicious, and the staff was great. In short, a highly recommended destination. Our cab driver, Orville, even took us up to the top of the very picturesque Cherry Tree Hill, a natural passageway connecting the east and west coasts of the island. The views were spectacular, if a little foggy, and Orville was an excellent guide (Stephen and I now boast an impressive knowledge of sugar cane!).
Today, since nearly everything is closed out of respect for the late Prime Minister’s funeral, we went to two nearby beaches. The first was too rocky and the tide was too high to sit on the sand, so we strolled through a swanky hotel lobby and used their beach. Don’t worry—there are no private beaches here, so what we did was kosher. Anyway, the water was perfect and we swam and bobbed around for a while until some stormy-looking clouds moved in.
We’re taking it easy tonight, partly because getting anywhere is always such an ordeal. Tomorrow we plan to check out Speightstown, one of the island’s larger towns with a few attractions, including an old house/museum and an art gallery. Speightstown’s tourism website also claims it’s common to spot turtles there, but I’m skeptical.
That’s all for now. Thanks for patiently indulging me, readers. This blog will now return to its regularly scheduled Stephen.
--Nora
Stephen has accepted my offer/request to guest-blog here at Bajan Solo during my stay in Barbados. I’ve been here for 3 days now and I have a lot to report. I know Stephen has already addressed some of this, so please forgive any redundancies.
I arrived on Sunday afternoon in the wake of Tropical Storm Tomas, which threatened to cancel my flight entirely and was responsible for the cancellations of several flights to the Caribbean that day. Thus, despite our 2-hour delay, I was understandably relieved to be making this trip at all. My spirits were dampened considerably when I stepped into the humid, disorganized mess outside the Barbados airport, only to discover that I was on my own to get to Stephen’s apartment. I abandoned my fears of looking like a clueless tourist (inevitable) and went about desperately asking informed-looking people how the hell I could get a taxi. One man asked where I was going and then barely gave me time to answer before throwing my suitcase in the back of a van and ordering me to get in. I asked the driver if he knew Crusher Site Road and he nodded and said yes, but as we drove through Prospect, it became clear that he wasn’t being completely honest. After a few conversations with pedestrians and a few phone calls with my host (who eventually had to come flag us down on the main road), I was finally dropped at my destination.
Stephen kept insisting that his place is actually very nice when everything works, and now that everything does work I am happy to report he’s right, but that first day I had no choice but to take his word for it. Fortunately, Monday night saw the return of electricity, gas, and real food.
Even with 21st century conveniences, life in Barbados is not what I expected—I was expecting more sidewalks and fewer chickens. Clearly, Stephen’s Barbados is not a tourist’s Barbados. Anyone who assumes he is spending a year drinking rum on a beach only to be rewarded with a master’s degree is sorely mistaken.
Speaking of rum, yesterday we toured St. Nicholas Abbey and saw the historic mansion and rum distillery located there. The grounds were beautiful, the rum was delicious, and the staff was great. In short, a highly recommended destination. Our cab driver, Orville, even took us up to the top of the very picturesque Cherry Tree Hill, a natural passageway connecting the east and west coasts of the island. The views were spectacular, if a little foggy, and Orville was an excellent guide (Stephen and I now boast an impressive knowledge of sugar cane!).
Today, since nearly everything is closed out of respect for the late Prime Minister’s funeral, we went to two nearby beaches. The first was too rocky and the tide was too high to sit on the sand, so we strolled through a swanky hotel lobby and used their beach. Don’t worry—there are no private beaches here, so what we did was kosher. Anyway, the water was perfect and we swam and bobbed around for a while until some stormy-looking clouds moved in.
We’re taking it easy tonight, partly because getting anywhere is always such an ordeal. Tomorrow we plan to check out Speightstown, one of the island’s larger towns with a few attractions, including an old house/museum and an art gallery. Speightstown’s tourism website also claims it’s common to spot turtles there, but I’m skeptical.
That’s all for now. Thanks for patiently indulging me, readers. This blog will now return to its regularly scheduled Stephen.
--Nora
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Swimming Pictures
As promised, here are some photos from my swimming expedition on last Sunday. The beach we went to was right near my apartment and is called Batt's Rock or Paradise Beach. Either name works apparently. Anyway, its a really long, deep beach that is hidden from the main road. You have to walk along a somewhat sketchy path to get there, but its worth it. Lots of families go to this beach on Sundays for a picnic and swim, which is why there are benches all over the place. The Four Seasons was building a massive resort along the beach but construction stopped a year ago due to the financial crisis. Rumor has it that construction will start again around December/January, so I am going to try fitting in a couple more visits before the beach gets ruined by the construction noise and dirt. Here are some photos of the beach:
The first half of the beach is lined with trees, which makes for some really nice shady picnic spots. Only problem is that the trees produce a poisonous fruit that is deadly when eaten and burns the skin when its juice (or rainwater coming into contact with its juice) touches your skin. Still, on a nice dry, sunny day it makes for a very nice shady stretch of beach.
The second half of the beach doesn not have trees, so it is wide open to the sun. Cruise ships and tankers dock off into the distance near the Bridgetown port.
Since we went late in the day we were there for a really nice sunset. Nothing beats a nice beach + sunset!
Here's some photos of the friends I went with. The first photo is of Elvis, my friend from Jamaica who is studying Internatinal Trade Policy and is seen here playing with the poisonous fruit (he's a real joker). The second photo is of Brooke, who is from upstate NY (near Lake Placid) and is studying sustainable tourism. She wants to grow her and her boyfriend's B&B business, so she is down here to learn some tricks of the trade. She is the one who guided us to the beach.
Finally, here are some photos of the Four Seasons construction. As you can see from the above photos the site runs down the entire length of the beach. It is truly massive. While I can understand why they wanted to place a resort on such a nice beach I am worried that doing so will ruin the family-friendly nature of the site.
So that was my swimming experience last Sunday. Today Nora and I ventured out to St. Nicholas Abbey where we toured the beautiful grounds and sampled some of their amazing rum. I took a bunch of photos which I will post soon, so stay tuned!
Tomorrow is the state funeral of the recently deceased Prime Minister David Thompson, so everything is being shut down. As such there isn't a whole lot for Nora and me to do. Right now the plan is to spend a day at the beach. Despite the beauty of Batt's Rock, I think we are going to go try another beach nearby called Fitts. A former Fulbrighter has recommended the beach to me many times so its about time I go try it out!
The first half of the beach is lined with trees, which makes for some really nice shady picnic spots. Only problem is that the trees produce a poisonous fruit that is deadly when eaten and burns the skin when its juice (or rainwater coming into contact with its juice) touches your skin. Still, on a nice dry, sunny day it makes for a very nice shady stretch of beach.
Tomorrow is the state funeral of the recently deceased Prime Minister David Thompson, so everything is being shut down. As such there isn't a whole lot for Nora and me to do. Right now the plan is to spend a day at the beach. Despite the beauty of Batt's Rock, I think we are going to go try another beach nearby called Fitts. A former Fulbrighter has recommended the beach to me many times so its about time I go try it out!
The past 96 Hours
The past four days have been some of the craziest for me in a long time. Basically a category 1 hurricane hit Barbados, no one was prepared for it, and I lost power for close to 63 hours and water for about 6 hours. Here's the story in detail:
It started as a typical Friday afternoon. I woke up late and immediately headed out to the supermarket to do my weekly grocery shopping. I bought my stuff and while in line even convinced the store shuttle to wait for me before leaving. On the ride home (this is around 5pm) the driver was listening to the radio which interrupted a song to announce that tropical storm Tomas was headed toward Barbados and would begin hitting the island in the next hour or so. Of course this was the first I had heard of the storm but I figured that since 1) I had just purchased food I should be OK to stay indoors for a day or so and 2) that since it was just a tropical storm it wouldn't cause that many problems, so there was nothing to worry about. It turns out few people (including the meteorological service, police, etc) knew the storm was coming more than a couple hours before it hit. Talk about poor planning!
At first the storm didn't seem that bad. It was mostly just raid and some light to moderate wind. Furthermore, I was able to leave my windows open without water coming in, which is the best test of a storm's strength that I have devised here. Over time though the storm worsened. Starting around 9pm I began loosing internet service every 30 minutes or so. Then around midnight the power went out for the first time. I ran around lighting candles but the period of darkness was cut short after 15 minutes when the power returned. It stayed on until a bit after 3am when it went off again for what turned out to be the next 63 hours. By this time the wind was really howling and the rain was coming down in sheets. I could hear the sheetmetal fencing and roofing of my neighbors' homes getting pulled willy-nilly in the wind. I was worried that the wind would rip them loose and fling them around, potentially crashing into my building, but thankfully that did not happen. Oddly enough, water was still not pouring in through the windows, so I left them open. This quickly changed however.
Once again I started running around lighting candles. I had squirreled away a small stockpile of 32 tealight candles which were really cheap but because of their small size only last around 4 hours. This was OK for this first night since the power went out at such a late time but would eventually prove to be a problem on Saturday and Sunday. After sorting some things out I decided I should just go to bed. By this time it was 7am, so I shut the door to my bedroom and tried to ignore the raging fury outside. Since no water had been pouring in through the windows, I stupidly LEFT THEM OPEN. Thus, when I closed the door to my bedroom, the wind started shaking it around really loudly. Eventually I decided I couldn't sleep with that noise so I got up to open the door. The sight that greeted me was unpleasant, to say the least. In that short span I had tried to fall asleep, the wind had brought water into my apartment in mass quantities, spreading it all over my dining room table (including on my laptops, books, papers, etc) and all over the floor. By this point the only dry towel I had left was a small hand towel, which was woefully inadequate for the job of cleaning up this mess. I quickly shut the windows and cleaned off the laptops for fear they would short circuit. I then dried off the books and moved them into my bedroom. After this I tried reusing towels that I had used to clean up flooding in my bedroom but they mostly just displaced the water rather than absorbed it. Lacking any alternatives to this I decided to leave the problem until tomorrow and head back to sleep. So finally around 8am I passed out in my bed.
I woke up at 4pm and after realizing I still had no power decided to make the most of the remaining daylight. I started by trying to clean the apartment for Nora's arrival the following day. This was a disaster since with no way to do laundry I couldn't put fresh sheets on the bed or get fresh towels. I also couldn't clean the kitchen since things were getting displaced due to the fact that the fridge was off. I was also limited by the fact that the natural light was extremely limited to begin with since the storm was still raging and the sky was overcast. Thus I couldn't see well enough to really clean the bathroom/shower. Basically the apartment was a mess.
I decided to give up and embrace the chaos and coming darkness. I lit the remaining candles I had, lay down on the couch, and alternated between reading by my giant maglight and playing my nintendo DS. For dinner I had barbecue potato chips and a variety of wonderful cereal bars. In between my reading/video game sessions I ran around the apartment scrapping the last bits of wax from burnt out candles and depositing them into still-burning ones. I was dangerously close to being out of candles and I needed to maximize the amount of fuel (in this case wax) that I could access. I passed roughly 4 hours doing this then called it a night. Since it was too dark to take a shower and I felt super gross I decided to just sleep on the couch rather than bring my filthy body into my relatively clean bed. With the storm still raging outside I eventually passed out on the living room couch.
I woke up at 8am to the wonderful sound of a receding storm. Tomas, which had been upgraded to a category 1 hurricane, was finally leaving Barbados! However, I also woke up to the realization that at some point during the night I lost water. At that moment I found myself without power and water, in a disaster of an apartment, with my girlfriend due to arrive in roughly 7 hours. To say I was a bit panicked and frustrated is an understatement. I quickly ate breakfast (more cereal bars and potato chips) and then decided I needed access to the internet to get local news, contact my parents, and figure out what to do with Nora. I left the apartment and walked over to the graduate school campus. During the walk over I came across a bunch of fallen power lines, uprooted trees, and lots of debris scattered everywhere. The graduate school campus was in good condition but it was locked when I got there (it is supposed to be open 24/7). With my anger/frustration reaching a boiling point I immediately started yelling "SON OF A BITCH" over and over. The security guard must have heard me because he came over, asked me if I was a grad student, and let me in. I thanked him profusely and immediately headed down to the computer station to begin sorting things out.
Browsing the news told me that many Barbadians had not only lost power and water because of the storm but had also lost their roofs (sheet metal roofing is extremely common here) and many of their possessions. This quickly put my situation in perspective as I realized how lucky I was to have an intact home. Still, with Nora arriving and me not having an power/water, my parents suggested that I think about a hotel for the week. This sounded like a great idea, but the problem was that most of the hotels in the area either didn't have power or were all booked up because of the scheduling nightmare that the storm had caused on their arrival/departures. With no hope of securing a hotel I decided around 11:45am to go catch a bus to the airport so as to pick up Nora. I got to the bus stop around 11:50 and proceeded to wait for 30 minutes during which time not a single bus (no government buses, no rasta buses, no white buses) came. Normally you don't have to wait more than 5 minutes before some kind of bus comes. Obviously the bus service wasn't working (a fact later confirmed via radio and newspaper) so I decided to walk to the local supermarket to collect some supplies for another night of now power and now, no water. I felt bad about not being able to pick up Nora at the airport, as the Barbadian terminal isn't the most organized experience (just like the entire country), but I had told her the night before via text message that I might not be able to make it, so she knew to hop in a cab if she didn't find me waiting for her. On the walk to the supermarket I came across even more destruction. I saw a utility pole ripped in half, lots of uprooted trees (many lying on top of utility lines), and many fallen power lines. The general chaos led me to believe that it was going to take a long time for the power company to get power back to my neighborhood. I was determined to prepare for a week without power.
At the supermarket I loaded up on candles, matches, and non-perishable foods like pasta and more potato chips. Since my stove is gas and not electric my plan was to light it with a match and cook the perishable items in the freezer that night so as to use them before they went bad (this was my Dad's suggestion). I tried doing this immediately after Nora arrived at my place (well actually I had to flag down the lost cab driver on the main road then lead him to my place, but same difference) so as to take advantage of the remaining natural light and it started out well. However the gas quickly sputtered out. I figured the gas tank must be out so I went outside to switch over the line to the second tank (the idea being that when one tank runs out you start using the second tank and have the first tank replaced, then rinse and repeat). This tank was out of gas as well, and I got REALLY PISSED. Clearly the person who was living here before me had failed to replace the first tank when it ran out, so now I was stuck without any gas. (Thankfully water service had been resorted earlier that afternoon, so I was just without power and gas, rather than power, water, and gas). The person who lived in this apartment before me generally sucked - she was apparently overweight which caused her to rip off the toilet seat from the toilet many times. So many times in fact that the landlady stopped replacing them so I am stuck using a loosely attached seat. Ugh, there are so many examples of crap like this being left over from this previous person. I want to find her and destroy whatever place she is living in now as revenge.
Anyway, without any gas to cook with I had to throw out all the food that was in my freezer, as it wasn't going to last another day without power. There's nothing like throwing out $50 worth of food to cap off an otherwise wonderful day. Instead of cooking a nice meal, I had to settle for, and Nora got to experience, a dinner of cereal bars and potato chips! Welcome to paradise Nora! Luckily my netbook still had close to full power so we were able to watch a couple of episodes of the Simpsons off my portable hard drive to pass the time. We were both exhausted so we called it an early night and were in bed by 9pm.
One of the drawbacks of storms in the tropics is that they tend to make the weather more hot and muggy. This was the case with Tomas, so trying to sleep in my non air-conditioned bedroom was fitful. Eventually we gave up trying to go back to sleep around 9am, had a breakfast of potato chips and muffins, and headed off to the grocery store to buy even more candles and see if the local hotels had received power yet. The hotels still didn't have power, so we started planning for another night in my dark apartment. To compensate, we stopped at a local restaurant (Just Grillin') for a fresh, warm meal. I had the grilled flying fish while Nora had the barbecue chicken sandwich. Both were very good and hit the spot that potato chips, cereal bars, and packaged muffins hadn't been able to fill over the past couple days. After this we dropped the candles and other groceries off at my apartment and walked over to the grad center to take advantage of its working internet to try finding an available hotel and to let the landlady know that the apartment was out of gas. After 3+ hours of looking and placing phone calls I finally found a place that wasn't outrageously expensive, had power/water/internet, and was nearby. Since the hotel couldn't take us until tomorrow I decided it made sense to grab dinner, bring it back to the apartment, and see if anything had changed since we had last been there at 1pm.
We went to a local joint and picked up some food to bring back to the apartment (an absolute ton of food for a grand total of $16). On our walk back to my place the landlady's husband drove past us in his car and stopped to tell us that not only did he just put in new gas tanks but that electrical power was going to be back on for the entire neighborhood within in an hour. The Barbados Light & Power guy sitting in the front passenger seat confirmed this (no idea why he was in the car but was too happy to care) and pointed to the work truck down the road that was fixing some fallen power lines.
Nora and I then proceeded to eat our dinners while watching some episodes of the Simpsons on my netbook, which had a full battery from being charged at the grad school earlier today. An hour later the power came on and the entire neighborhood started cheering. It was like when the Yankees win the world series and you can hear all the drunks going nuts in Manhattan.
We're both really happy that power is back and that we don't have to stay at the hotel. We've spent the rest of the night cleaning up, doing laundry, and making plans for tomorrow. Our plan is to go to St. Nicholas Abbey (http://www.stnicholasabbey.com/) in the morning for a nice tour and some delicious rum and then stop at the Supercentre on the way back to pick up new frozen foods/vegetables to use for dinner. I'll try to remember to bring my camera for photos of the abbey. It is supposed to be a beautiful building situated on really nice grounds.
So thats the story of my last 96 hours. It's been pretty crazy but thankfully everything is back to normal. It definitely put some things into perspective for me regarding dependency, privilege, and planing. Sorry for the long-winded story but I wanted to write it all down while it was still relatively fresh in my head!
I hope my next couple of posts are more positive!
It started as a typical Friday afternoon. I woke up late and immediately headed out to the supermarket to do my weekly grocery shopping. I bought my stuff and while in line even convinced the store shuttle to wait for me before leaving. On the ride home (this is around 5pm) the driver was listening to the radio which interrupted a song to announce that tropical storm Tomas was headed toward Barbados and would begin hitting the island in the next hour or so. Of course this was the first I had heard of the storm but I figured that since 1) I had just purchased food I should be OK to stay indoors for a day or so and 2) that since it was just a tropical storm it wouldn't cause that many problems, so there was nothing to worry about. It turns out few people (including the meteorological service, police, etc) knew the storm was coming more than a couple hours before it hit. Talk about poor planning!
At first the storm didn't seem that bad. It was mostly just raid and some light to moderate wind. Furthermore, I was able to leave my windows open without water coming in, which is the best test of a storm's strength that I have devised here. Over time though the storm worsened. Starting around 9pm I began loosing internet service every 30 minutes or so. Then around midnight the power went out for the first time. I ran around lighting candles but the period of darkness was cut short after 15 minutes when the power returned. It stayed on until a bit after 3am when it went off again for what turned out to be the next 63 hours. By this time the wind was really howling and the rain was coming down in sheets. I could hear the sheetmetal fencing and roofing of my neighbors' homes getting pulled willy-nilly in the wind. I was worried that the wind would rip them loose and fling them around, potentially crashing into my building, but thankfully that did not happen. Oddly enough, water was still not pouring in through the windows, so I left them open. This quickly changed however.
Once again I started running around lighting candles. I had squirreled away a small stockpile of 32 tealight candles which were really cheap but because of their small size only last around 4 hours. This was OK for this first night since the power went out at such a late time but would eventually prove to be a problem on Saturday and Sunday. After sorting some things out I decided I should just go to bed. By this time it was 7am, so I shut the door to my bedroom and tried to ignore the raging fury outside. Since no water had been pouring in through the windows, I stupidly LEFT THEM OPEN. Thus, when I closed the door to my bedroom, the wind started shaking it around really loudly. Eventually I decided I couldn't sleep with that noise so I got up to open the door. The sight that greeted me was unpleasant, to say the least. In that short span I had tried to fall asleep, the wind had brought water into my apartment in mass quantities, spreading it all over my dining room table (including on my laptops, books, papers, etc) and all over the floor. By this point the only dry towel I had left was a small hand towel, which was woefully inadequate for the job of cleaning up this mess. I quickly shut the windows and cleaned off the laptops for fear they would short circuit. I then dried off the books and moved them into my bedroom. After this I tried reusing towels that I had used to clean up flooding in my bedroom but they mostly just displaced the water rather than absorbed it. Lacking any alternatives to this I decided to leave the problem until tomorrow and head back to sleep. So finally around 8am I passed out in my bed.
I woke up at 4pm and after realizing I still had no power decided to make the most of the remaining daylight. I started by trying to clean the apartment for Nora's arrival the following day. This was a disaster since with no way to do laundry I couldn't put fresh sheets on the bed or get fresh towels. I also couldn't clean the kitchen since things were getting displaced due to the fact that the fridge was off. I was also limited by the fact that the natural light was extremely limited to begin with since the storm was still raging and the sky was overcast. Thus I couldn't see well enough to really clean the bathroom/shower. Basically the apartment was a mess.
I decided to give up and embrace the chaos and coming darkness. I lit the remaining candles I had, lay down on the couch, and alternated between reading by my giant maglight and playing my nintendo DS. For dinner I had barbecue potato chips and a variety of wonderful cereal bars. In between my reading/video game sessions I ran around the apartment scrapping the last bits of wax from burnt out candles and depositing them into still-burning ones. I was dangerously close to being out of candles and I needed to maximize the amount of fuel (in this case wax) that I could access. I passed roughly 4 hours doing this then called it a night. Since it was too dark to take a shower and I felt super gross I decided to just sleep on the couch rather than bring my filthy body into my relatively clean bed. With the storm still raging outside I eventually passed out on the living room couch.
I woke up at 8am to the wonderful sound of a receding storm. Tomas, which had been upgraded to a category 1 hurricane, was finally leaving Barbados! However, I also woke up to the realization that at some point during the night I lost water. At that moment I found myself without power and water, in a disaster of an apartment, with my girlfriend due to arrive in roughly 7 hours. To say I was a bit panicked and frustrated is an understatement. I quickly ate breakfast (more cereal bars and potato chips) and then decided I needed access to the internet to get local news, contact my parents, and figure out what to do with Nora. I left the apartment and walked over to the graduate school campus. During the walk over I came across a bunch of fallen power lines, uprooted trees, and lots of debris scattered everywhere. The graduate school campus was in good condition but it was locked when I got there (it is supposed to be open 24/7). With my anger/frustration reaching a boiling point I immediately started yelling "SON OF A BITCH" over and over. The security guard must have heard me because he came over, asked me if I was a grad student, and let me in. I thanked him profusely and immediately headed down to the computer station to begin sorting things out.
Browsing the news told me that many Barbadians had not only lost power and water because of the storm but had also lost their roofs (sheet metal roofing is extremely common here) and many of their possessions. This quickly put my situation in perspective as I realized how lucky I was to have an intact home. Still, with Nora arriving and me not having an power/water, my parents suggested that I think about a hotel for the week. This sounded like a great idea, but the problem was that most of the hotels in the area either didn't have power or were all booked up because of the scheduling nightmare that the storm had caused on their arrival/departures. With no hope of securing a hotel I decided around 11:45am to go catch a bus to the airport so as to pick up Nora. I got to the bus stop around 11:50 and proceeded to wait for 30 minutes during which time not a single bus (no government buses, no rasta buses, no white buses) came. Normally you don't have to wait more than 5 minutes before some kind of bus comes. Obviously the bus service wasn't working (a fact later confirmed via radio and newspaper) so I decided to walk to the local supermarket to collect some supplies for another night of now power and now, no water. I felt bad about not being able to pick up Nora at the airport, as the Barbadian terminal isn't the most organized experience (just like the entire country), but I had told her the night before via text message that I might not be able to make it, so she knew to hop in a cab if she didn't find me waiting for her. On the walk to the supermarket I came across even more destruction. I saw a utility pole ripped in half, lots of uprooted trees (many lying on top of utility lines), and many fallen power lines. The general chaos led me to believe that it was going to take a long time for the power company to get power back to my neighborhood. I was determined to prepare for a week without power.
At the supermarket I loaded up on candles, matches, and non-perishable foods like pasta and more potato chips. Since my stove is gas and not electric my plan was to light it with a match and cook the perishable items in the freezer that night so as to use them before they went bad (this was my Dad's suggestion). I tried doing this immediately after Nora arrived at my place (well actually I had to flag down the lost cab driver on the main road then lead him to my place, but same difference) so as to take advantage of the remaining natural light and it started out well. However the gas quickly sputtered out. I figured the gas tank must be out so I went outside to switch over the line to the second tank (the idea being that when one tank runs out you start using the second tank and have the first tank replaced, then rinse and repeat). This tank was out of gas as well, and I got REALLY PISSED. Clearly the person who was living here before me had failed to replace the first tank when it ran out, so now I was stuck without any gas. (Thankfully water service had been resorted earlier that afternoon, so I was just without power and gas, rather than power, water, and gas). The person who lived in this apartment before me generally sucked - she was apparently overweight which caused her to rip off the toilet seat from the toilet many times. So many times in fact that the landlady stopped replacing them so I am stuck using a loosely attached seat. Ugh, there are so many examples of crap like this being left over from this previous person. I want to find her and destroy whatever place she is living in now as revenge.
Anyway, without any gas to cook with I had to throw out all the food that was in my freezer, as it wasn't going to last another day without power. There's nothing like throwing out $50 worth of food to cap off an otherwise wonderful day. Instead of cooking a nice meal, I had to settle for, and Nora got to experience, a dinner of cereal bars and potato chips! Welcome to paradise Nora! Luckily my netbook still had close to full power so we were able to watch a couple of episodes of the Simpsons off my portable hard drive to pass the time. We were both exhausted so we called it an early night and were in bed by 9pm.
One of the drawbacks of storms in the tropics is that they tend to make the weather more hot and muggy. This was the case with Tomas, so trying to sleep in my non air-conditioned bedroom was fitful. Eventually we gave up trying to go back to sleep around 9am, had a breakfast of potato chips and muffins, and headed off to the grocery store to buy even more candles and see if the local hotels had received power yet. The hotels still didn't have power, so we started planning for another night in my dark apartment. To compensate, we stopped at a local restaurant (Just Grillin') for a fresh, warm meal. I had the grilled flying fish while Nora had the barbecue chicken sandwich. Both were very good and hit the spot that potato chips, cereal bars, and packaged muffins hadn't been able to fill over the past couple days. After this we dropped the candles and other groceries off at my apartment and walked over to the grad center to take advantage of its working internet to try finding an available hotel and to let the landlady know that the apartment was out of gas. After 3+ hours of looking and placing phone calls I finally found a place that wasn't outrageously expensive, had power/water/internet, and was nearby. Since the hotel couldn't take us until tomorrow I decided it made sense to grab dinner, bring it back to the apartment, and see if anything had changed since we had last been there at 1pm.
We went to a local joint and picked up some food to bring back to the apartment (an absolute ton of food for a grand total of $16). On our walk back to my place the landlady's husband drove past us in his car and stopped to tell us that not only did he just put in new gas tanks but that electrical power was going to be back on for the entire neighborhood within in an hour. The Barbados Light & Power guy sitting in the front passenger seat confirmed this (no idea why he was in the car but was too happy to care) and pointed to the work truck down the road that was fixing some fallen power lines.
Nora and I then proceeded to eat our dinners while watching some episodes of the Simpsons on my netbook, which had a full battery from being charged at the grad school earlier today. An hour later the power came on and the entire neighborhood started cheering. It was like when the Yankees win the world series and you can hear all the drunks going nuts in Manhattan.
We're both really happy that power is back and that we don't have to stay at the hotel. We've spent the rest of the night cleaning up, doing laundry, and making plans for tomorrow. Our plan is to go to St. Nicholas Abbey (http://www.stnicholasabbey.com/) in the morning for a nice tour and some delicious rum and then stop at the Supercentre on the way back to pick up new frozen foods/vegetables to use for dinner. I'll try to remember to bring my camera for photos of the abbey. It is supposed to be a beautiful building situated on really nice grounds.
So thats the story of my last 96 hours. It's been pretty crazy but thankfully everything is back to normal. It definitely put some things into perspective for me regarding dependency, privilege, and planing. Sorry for the long-winded story but I wanted to write it all down while it was still relatively fresh in my head!
I hope my next couple of posts are more positive!
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Working and Waiting
The past week has been pretty benign. I spent the weekend working on my peer review for some classmates' presentation and writing my NAFTA essay, which I am about half way done with as of right now. On Sunday I went for a swim with some friends at a nearby beach, which was really nice. I took some photos of the beach and I promise I will get around to posting them soon! I realize it's been a while since I've posted any pictures - I must be boring you all to death with my constant barrage of text!
Tomorrow I am going to hand in my Globalization & Global Governance essays, so I need to double-check them for errors tonight. Even though I finished these essays weeks ago it will be nice to officially be done with them. Since I finished them there has been this nagging voice in the back of my head telling me I could always rework them to be better. This gets quite annoying after a while!
The other thing dominating my week is the fact that Nora is coming to visit on Sunday. I'm excited she is flying down but before she can get here I have to do all sorts of shopping/cleaning/activity planning. I suppose this is a good thing since it forces me to give the apartment a thorough scrubbing and stock up on all sorts of items I'd forgotten about. Also, I am looking forward to getting to do some of the things I've had on my hit list since I got down here. Once place I know we are going to visit is St. Nicholas Abbey, which produces the best rum I have ever tasted. I also would like to take a catamaran trip around the island since I hear those are fun and a good deal ($80 U.S. for 5 hours of sailing, snorkeling, food, and all you can drink alcohol). Luckily, I had some good news terms of fitting all these activities into my schedule: my classes on Tuesday and Wednesday are canceled. Yes, this means that starting tomorrow night I have a 6 day weekend. Feel free to hate me. I know I would if I were working for a living and some punk studying in a Caribbean island told me he had a 6 day weekend coming up.
Thats pretty much it for now. Stay tuned for those photos! I swear they're coming soon!
Tomorrow I am going to hand in my Globalization & Global Governance essays, so I need to double-check them for errors tonight. Even though I finished these essays weeks ago it will be nice to officially be done with them. Since I finished them there has been this nagging voice in the back of my head telling me I could always rework them to be better. This gets quite annoying after a while!
The other thing dominating my week is the fact that Nora is coming to visit on Sunday. I'm excited she is flying down but before she can get here I have to do all sorts of shopping/cleaning/activity planning. I suppose this is a good thing since it forces me to give the apartment a thorough scrubbing and stock up on all sorts of items I'd forgotten about. Also, I am looking forward to getting to do some of the things I've had on my hit list since I got down here. Once place I know we are going to visit is St. Nicholas Abbey, which produces the best rum I have ever tasted. I also would like to take a catamaran trip around the island since I hear those are fun and a good deal ($80 U.S. for 5 hours of sailing, snorkeling, food, and all you can drink alcohol). Luckily, I had some good news terms of fitting all these activities into my schedule: my classes on Tuesday and Wednesday are canceled. Yes, this means that starting tomorrow night I have a 6 day weekend. Feel free to hate me. I know I would if I were working for a living and some punk studying in a Caribbean island told me he had a 6 day weekend coming up.
Thats pretty much it for now. Stay tuned for those photos! I swear they're coming soon!
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Week in Review
I know its been almost a week since I last posted, but there are good reasons for my drop in blog productivity. It has been a really crazy week.
It all started on Monday night when I had a little medical issue that has since then required a lot of my time and energy to deal with. Thankfully everything is OK, but it has been eating up my time, which is annoying. Then on Tuesday I had to give a 45 minute presentation in my Caribbean Governance class on whether proposals for federating the West Indies were the product of a regional independence movement or motivated by British colonial expediency. It took me roughly two weeks to do all the readings for this topic and put together a good presentation. But my hard work paid off: I completely dominated the topic and "am a tough act to follow" according to my peers. It felt good to give a public presentation confidently and see the audience follow the story I was laying out.
Since Tuesday I have been slowly but surely chipping away at a 12-16 page paper I have to write on the United States and NAFTA. The paper is to be written from a comparative perspective, so I am supposed to explain how the U.S. political process, political culture, and institutions affect regional integration prospects in North America, using NAFTA as an example. This is another hard assignment to complete because the amount of background material I need to absorb before I can really start writing is massive. Not only do I have to learn the history and fine points of NAFTA, but I have to cover the key theories of regional integration and various concepts from comparative politics. It's an exhausting task and one that is made harder by the fact that 90% of the reading I have to do for the paper is based on my computer, so I spend hours up hours upon hours staring at my laptop screen. My eyes hate me. Anyway, my goal is to be finished with this paper by the time Nora gets here next Sunday because I really don't want this monkey on my back while she is here.
Unfortunately work on my NAFTA paper is getting delayed by another minor assignment in Caribbean Governance. Whenever a student presents on a topic (which is every week now), another student (or two) has to "peer review" him, meaning coming up with a two page list of things you think the student should cover in his presentation. This week is my turn to peer review. Writing wise this assignment isn't a big deal. The problem is having to do allllllll the reading that is required for the presentation, which is always a buttload. There is a tiny bit of overlap in terms of things I had to read for my presentation and pieces that are required for this presentation. However, the majority are new and not accessible online. Looks like I have another wonderful visit to the Library in my future!
The other big news from Barbados is that the Prime Minister died today from pancreatic cancer at the age of 48. Everyone knew it was coming, but it is still obviously a huge deal. This type of transition has never happened before in Barbados, so there is a lot of questions about how legitimate and capable the new PM will be. In fact just earlier this week there was a coup within the opposition party, whereby the former PM replaced as leader of the opposition the very person he handpicked to succeed him when he lost the national election in 2008! Most people are disgusted by the blatantly opportunistic nature of this maneuver (the former PM believes new elections could be called soon and that he might stand a chance of returning to power). Needless to say, it is an interesting time to be in Barbados!
Alright, back to work I go! Enjoy your weekend everybody.
It all started on Monday night when I had a little medical issue that has since then required a lot of my time and energy to deal with. Thankfully everything is OK, but it has been eating up my time, which is annoying. Then on Tuesday I had to give a 45 minute presentation in my Caribbean Governance class on whether proposals for federating the West Indies were the product of a regional independence movement or motivated by British colonial expediency. It took me roughly two weeks to do all the readings for this topic and put together a good presentation. But my hard work paid off: I completely dominated the topic and "am a tough act to follow" according to my peers. It felt good to give a public presentation confidently and see the audience follow the story I was laying out.
Since Tuesday I have been slowly but surely chipping away at a 12-16 page paper I have to write on the United States and NAFTA. The paper is to be written from a comparative perspective, so I am supposed to explain how the U.S. political process, political culture, and institutions affect regional integration prospects in North America, using NAFTA as an example. This is another hard assignment to complete because the amount of background material I need to absorb before I can really start writing is massive. Not only do I have to learn the history and fine points of NAFTA, but I have to cover the key theories of regional integration and various concepts from comparative politics. It's an exhausting task and one that is made harder by the fact that 90% of the reading I have to do for the paper is based on my computer, so I spend hours up hours upon hours staring at my laptop screen. My eyes hate me. Anyway, my goal is to be finished with this paper by the time Nora gets here next Sunday because I really don't want this monkey on my back while she is here.
Unfortunately work on my NAFTA paper is getting delayed by another minor assignment in Caribbean Governance. Whenever a student presents on a topic (which is every week now), another student (or two) has to "peer review" him, meaning coming up with a two page list of things you think the student should cover in his presentation. This week is my turn to peer review. Writing wise this assignment isn't a big deal. The problem is having to do allllllll the reading that is required for the presentation, which is always a buttload. There is a tiny bit of overlap in terms of things I had to read for my presentation and pieces that are required for this presentation. However, the majority are new and not accessible online. Looks like I have another wonderful visit to the Library in my future!
The other big news from Barbados is that the Prime Minister died today from pancreatic cancer at the age of 48. Everyone knew it was coming, but it is still obviously a huge deal. This type of transition has never happened before in Barbados, so there is a lot of questions about how legitimate and capable the new PM will be. In fact just earlier this week there was a coup within the opposition party, whereby the former PM replaced as leader of the opposition the very person he handpicked to succeed him when he lost the national election in 2008! Most people are disgusted by the blatantly opportunistic nature of this maneuver (the former PM believes new elections could be called soon and that he might stand a chance of returning to power). Needless to say, it is an interesting time to be in Barbados!
Alright, back to work I go! Enjoy your weekend everybody.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
What a Night!
Last night was one of the craziest, oddest nights I've had in a long time, so apologies in advance if this post is a bit incoherent. It started simply enough. I got picked up at the Esso station (Esso is what Exxon is called down here fyi) across from the graduate school campus at 10:45pm by my Jamaican friend Elvis and one of his friends Richard. From there we drove to the national cricket stadium, Kensington Oval, because that was where the party was. But, once were got there we realized that there was almost no one there yet, so we decided it would be better to go someplace else rather than pay $30 bds each to get in to a crappy party. So we drove into Bridgetown and went to a place called The Boatyard, which was $40 bds to get in with all you could drink bottom shelf liquor, so you really had to drink to get your money's worth! I stuck to plain old Mount Gay on the rocks because all the mixed drinks are just too sweet.
Anyway, we're there just hanging out for about half an hour when we decide it's time to check out the dance floor. What we found was an odd sight indeed. There were 15-20 white guys and girls dancing and everyone else just kind of standing back and watching. Curious, we decided to watch as well. We quickly realized why no one else was on the dance floor: the white folks were crazy drunk British sailors. How did we figure this out? Simple. I got literally pulled into a conversation with one of the blokes. It all started with one of them dragging me out to the dance floor to show them how I dance. I decided to mimic one of the sailor's dancing styles out of jest (imagine an angry drunk chicken running around and you'll get the idea) and was rewarded with a simple question: "Where are you from?" When I said New York City it clearly sparked something in this guy's head because he started going on and on about how American football is for pansies and how he could jump into any football game and be a successful quarterback. This is in comparison to English Rugby, which is a real man's sport because you don't wear pads and the ball is pain to throw/carry. I then asked him what is he doing in Barbados and he said "Royal Navy," which sparked another rant but this time about how the American Navy sucks. According to this fella it goes like this: Royal Navy on top, followed by the Canadian Navy, and then the American navy waaaaaaaaaaaaaay down in a distant third. "You guys feel like your god's gift to the world," "You think you're so fucking special," were his complaints. Naturally I wanted to point out that 100 years ago the same thing could have been said of the Royal Navy and that he was just upset that we rule the waves now instead of Britain, but I decided against it because the last thing you want to do is piss off a drunk sailor! So I let him rant for a bit more (he continued to go on about how he would fight everyone in this bar one on one and win - another good sign) but he was really getting on my nerves because he was grabbing the back of my head in order to pull me in close so he could YELL into my ear. Finally I just said "Hey look at that girl over there, look at the way she is dancing," waited for him to look and say "Oye, she's nice, lets go have a closer look" and then proceeded to get away from there as fast as possible.
We stayed at the bar for another hour and a half or so and then decided to leave. On the way home however, we decided to stop in at Kensington Oval again to see if it had gotten better (it is 2:45am at this point). It was pretty crowded when we got there so we decided to go in for a bit. This brings me to my proudest moment of the night: getting in for way less than it was supposed to cost us. Originally the price was $30 per person. Since the party ended at 4am I talked the guy at the door down to $20 for both me and Elvis. Quite a steal if I must say so myself! It was nice to put all the years of watching my grandfather haggle into practice and having it pay off. Thanks grandpa for all those informal lessons over the years!
The party turned out to be inside the club room at the Oval, but it was still open to the air and you could see the fields, which was neat. We stayed there for about 45 minutes and then decided we'd had enough loud music for the night. But of course the adventure didn't end there. On the drive home (don't worry, Richard was sober) we came across an accident that must have happened less than 2 minutes before we drove past it. Elvis made Richard stop the car because he wanted to get a closer look. So he and I hopped out and walked over to the scene. Thankfully it wasn't that bad of an accident. From what I could tell, one car was making a right turn off the freeway when the other car struck it head on. The driver of the car making a turn clearly had a concussion and the driver and passenger in the other car were OK except for one bloody nose. We stayed there until the police and ambulance showed up, which took over 20 minutes! What if someone had been really hurt? It was frustrating to say the least.
Thankfully that was the end of the night. Richard kindly dropped me off outside my apartment where I proceed to take a quick shower and head to bed. I had been planning to go snorkeling today, and it is a good day for it, but I bailed on the trip because I'm just so beat from last night! I would probably drown if I went into the water right now! So I'm just at home, following the pansy football games on ESPN.com and trying to stomach the idea of doing homework. One side note before I go: it was really awesome to be at foreign parties where over half the music played was American pop/rap. This is not because American pop/rap is particularly good. Rather it was amazing to see so many non-American people singing along and getting excited at a Katy Perry song, for example. It was just the most spectacular display of how important exporting your culture is in the battle for global influence. Ok that's enough out of me for now. Cya all later.
Anyway, we're there just hanging out for about half an hour when we decide it's time to check out the dance floor. What we found was an odd sight indeed. There were 15-20 white guys and girls dancing and everyone else just kind of standing back and watching. Curious, we decided to watch as well. We quickly realized why no one else was on the dance floor: the white folks were crazy drunk British sailors. How did we figure this out? Simple. I got literally pulled into a conversation with one of the blokes. It all started with one of them dragging me out to the dance floor to show them how I dance. I decided to mimic one of the sailor's dancing styles out of jest (imagine an angry drunk chicken running around and you'll get the idea) and was rewarded with a simple question: "Where are you from?" When I said New York City it clearly sparked something in this guy's head because he started going on and on about how American football is for pansies and how he could jump into any football game and be a successful quarterback. This is in comparison to English Rugby, which is a real man's sport because you don't wear pads and the ball is pain to throw/carry. I then asked him what is he doing in Barbados and he said "Royal Navy," which sparked another rant but this time about how the American Navy sucks. According to this fella it goes like this: Royal Navy on top, followed by the Canadian Navy, and then the American navy waaaaaaaaaaaaaay down in a distant third. "You guys feel like your god's gift to the world," "You think you're so fucking special," were his complaints. Naturally I wanted to point out that 100 years ago the same thing could have been said of the Royal Navy and that he was just upset that we rule the waves now instead of Britain, but I decided against it because the last thing you want to do is piss off a drunk sailor! So I let him rant for a bit more (he continued to go on about how he would fight everyone in this bar one on one and win - another good sign) but he was really getting on my nerves because he was grabbing the back of my head in order to pull me in close so he could YELL into my ear. Finally I just said "Hey look at that girl over there, look at the way she is dancing," waited for him to look and say "Oye, she's nice, lets go have a closer look" and then proceeded to get away from there as fast as possible.
We stayed at the bar for another hour and a half or so and then decided to leave. On the way home however, we decided to stop in at Kensington Oval again to see if it had gotten better (it is 2:45am at this point). It was pretty crowded when we got there so we decided to go in for a bit. This brings me to my proudest moment of the night: getting in for way less than it was supposed to cost us. Originally the price was $30 per person. Since the party ended at 4am I talked the guy at the door down to $20 for both me and Elvis. Quite a steal if I must say so myself! It was nice to put all the years of watching my grandfather haggle into practice and having it pay off. Thanks grandpa for all those informal lessons over the years!
The party turned out to be inside the club room at the Oval, but it was still open to the air and you could see the fields, which was neat. We stayed there for about 45 minutes and then decided we'd had enough loud music for the night. But of course the adventure didn't end there. On the drive home (don't worry, Richard was sober) we came across an accident that must have happened less than 2 minutes before we drove past it. Elvis made Richard stop the car because he wanted to get a closer look. So he and I hopped out and walked over to the scene. Thankfully it wasn't that bad of an accident. From what I could tell, one car was making a right turn off the freeway when the other car struck it head on. The driver of the car making a turn clearly had a concussion and the driver and passenger in the other car were OK except for one bloody nose. We stayed there until the police and ambulance showed up, which took over 20 minutes! What if someone had been really hurt? It was frustrating to say the least.
Thankfully that was the end of the night. Richard kindly dropped me off outside my apartment where I proceed to take a quick shower and head to bed. I had been planning to go snorkeling today, and it is a good day for it, but I bailed on the trip because I'm just so beat from last night! I would probably drown if I went into the water right now! So I'm just at home, following the pansy football games on ESPN.com and trying to stomach the idea of doing homework. One side note before I go: it was really awesome to be at foreign parties where over half the music played was American pop/rap. This is not because American pop/rap is particularly good. Rather it was amazing to see so many non-American people singing along and getting excited at a Katy Perry song, for example. It was just the most spectacular display of how important exporting your culture is in the battle for global influence. Ok that's enough out of me for now. Cya all later.
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Tales of a Grocery Trip
Earlier today (obviously since its 3:47am here!) I went grocery shopping. It is becoming my habit to go shopping, do laundry, clean the apartment, etc on Friday since being "domestic" is a nice way to start the weekend; you're not doing homework but you still feel like you're accomplishing something important. Anyway, to get to the grocery store in Holetown, which is the one with a large selection of US/UK products, I take whichever bus comes first to my stop. Today it was a yellow "rasta" bus and my experience reminded me of something I had been meaning to post about but forgot. One of the distinctive features of the rasta buses is the loud, "gangsta" music they blast out their speakers. Oftentimes this takes the form of some ridiculous rap song objectifying women in the most absurd way while the radio host/mixer/dj YELLS out (incomprehensible) commentary over it. Imagine it like this: boom boom boom thump tump tump "yo yo yo baby come shake your fine ass baby" {YA HEAR MEH WOMON COME SHAKE EIT! THATS RIGHT YUH LIKE EIT!} boom boom boooom thump thump {HEY, ANY MON WIT MORE DAN FIVE DOLLUHS IN HEEZ POCKET RAISE UR HOND!}. Its insane. There's more commentary than music. First, you can't make out what anyone is really saying - they could be speaking in tongues for all you know. Second, its hard to imagine ANYONE cares what this person is yelling out on top of the song. Who the hell is going to let everyone know they have more than $5 on them by raising his hands?! That's going to invite unwanted attention. Third, it's really hard to understand why this is the way things are because NOT A SINGLE PERSON on the bus is singing along, nodding his head, tapping his feet, or showing any other type of expression that would indicate enjoyment. Most people are just staring off into the distance. Clearly it must be a popular type of music or else it wouldn't be produced, but still, the whole experience is just bizarre.
The other interesting thing that happened to me today was that I was told, flat out, that I had been getting scammed by the taxi drivers at the grocery store. This didn't really come as a surprise to me since I have long suspected that $20 to go 4km is insane no matter what country you're in, but I doubt I would have done anything about it without getting this feeling confirmed by a local. I was told this by a random nice guy sitting at the grocery store shuttle pick up spot (the store runs a free shuttle to bring people and their bags back to their homes, but it's a hit-or-miss affair since it can come in 10 minutes or 2 hours). I decided to give the shuttle a try this time since I had a good feeling that it wouldn't be too long of a wait and since I had no frozen food that needed to get home immediately. Thankfully the shuttle arrived in 25 minutes and I was dropped off outside my apartment for FREE! WEEEE! So now I know that next time I have to take a cab from the grocery store I tell the driver "The last guy charged me $15" and refuse to pay a cent more. To be honest it is upsetting to think I've been getting taken advantage of because I am white/perceived as a tourist, but I know it's just small taste of what non-whites have had to put up with for centuries. That said, its still a lot of money I'm losing and it's going to stop NOW!
So those were the exciting parts of my day. Tomorrow I am going to do work in the day so that I can hopefully go to a party at night, which is being held outdoors in the national cricket stadium. It sounds like a really neat event and I hope my friends decide to go so that I can tag along. Also, on Sunday a bunch of us are planning to go to the beach for a swim/walk. It looks like I will finally get to break out the new snorkeling gear! *knocks on wood* I'm looking forward to these excursions because I've set the grueling, hellish goal of finishing another paper and presentation by next Monday. No rest for the weary!
I hope everyone enjoys their weekend! All the best from Barbados.
The other interesting thing that happened to me today was that I was told, flat out, that I had been getting scammed by the taxi drivers at the grocery store. This didn't really come as a surprise to me since I have long suspected that $20 to go 4km is insane no matter what country you're in, but I doubt I would have done anything about it without getting this feeling confirmed by a local. I was told this by a random nice guy sitting at the grocery store shuttle pick up spot (the store runs a free shuttle to bring people and their bags back to their homes, but it's a hit-or-miss affair since it can come in 10 minutes or 2 hours). I decided to give the shuttle a try this time since I had a good feeling that it wouldn't be too long of a wait and since I had no frozen food that needed to get home immediately. Thankfully the shuttle arrived in 25 minutes and I was dropped off outside my apartment for FREE! WEEEE! So now I know that next time I have to take a cab from the grocery store I tell the driver "The last guy charged me $15" and refuse to pay a cent more. To be honest it is upsetting to think I've been getting taken advantage of because I am white/perceived as a tourist, but I know it's just small taste of what non-whites have had to put up with for centuries. That said, its still a lot of money I'm losing and it's going to stop NOW!
So those were the exciting parts of my day. Tomorrow I am going to do work in the day so that I can hopefully go to a party at night, which is being held outdoors in the national cricket stadium. It sounds like a really neat event and I hope my friends decide to go so that I can tag along. Also, on Sunday a bunch of us are planning to go to the beach for a swim/walk. It looks like I will finally get to break out the new snorkeling gear! *knocks on wood* I'm looking forward to these excursions because I've set the grueling, hellish goal of finishing another paper and presentation by next Monday. No rest for the weary!
I hope everyone enjoys their weekend! All the best from Barbados.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Cultural Observations - Round 2
Yea yea yea I know I said I was going to post these yesterday but I forgot amidst a haze of work, hot weather, and some intense video game sessions. Here are my belated observations:
1) Caribbean society is just as racist as any other society, including America's. Every discussion of regional integration requires acknowledging the continuous impediment that race relations within the region has had. So far I have been able to discern two major racial issues. The first is the hierarchical nature of society, whereby Whites are on top, followed by the browns, and with the blacks on the bottom. This structure is a result of hundreds of years of slavery and colonial rule. Yet, many would argue that after independence the brown middle class consciously decided to keep this structure since it greatly benefited them. As a result, the racial hierarchy that was in place in the 18th and 19th centuries remains unchanged. The second major racial issue is the conflict between "West Indians" and "East Indians." When slavery was outlawed in 1833, plantation owners took to importing indentured servants from eastern Indian. The influx was most notable in Guyana and Trinidad & Tobago where to this day the populations remain bifurcated. In these two countries, the move toward independence in the early 20th century was complicated by the mutual distrust between West Indians and East Indians. This distrust continues to this day and, with the migration of Guyanese to Barbados and other Caribbean countries, has begun to spread throughout the region. In sum, race is a huge issue in Caribbean society and politics. No discussion or analysis of regional integration in the area is complete without taking it into account.
2) No one raises their hands in class. When someone has a question they either shout it out or say "Question!" "Question!" repeatedly until the professor acknowledges them. I am the only student who raises his hand in class - a habit I don't want to abandon since I know that I will be going to school in the U.S. again and shouting out is seen as rude in our culture. At first I was taken back by this, thinking it rude, but I have gotten used to it. When I give my first presentation in class on the 19th I know I will need to be prepared to be interrupted with questions.
3) Oftentimes, when someone challenges another person's position on an issue and succeeds in making a valid point, the person being challenged says "I take your point." This has happened to me a couple of times in class, both from professors and fellow students, and it struck me as refreshingly non-egotistical. In the states I find people tie their specific positions on an issue to their integrity/identity as a person, so that when they are challenged on a viewpoint it is as if their entire reason for existence is getting questioned. I know I have been known to display this "bunker" mentality, which is why it was so surprising to see someone say "I take your point" in response to one of my intellectual ripostes.
Those are the three main observations I have made since my last reporting on culture in the Caribbean. I am sure there will be more to come in the future! I hope everyone enjoyed their weekend. It was hot here and there were many moments when I wished I was in the North East enjoying a cool autumn day instead. Ok, off to go work on a presentation! I'll post again sometime this week.
1) Caribbean society is just as racist as any other society, including America's. Every discussion of regional integration requires acknowledging the continuous impediment that race relations within the region has had. So far I have been able to discern two major racial issues. The first is the hierarchical nature of society, whereby Whites are on top, followed by the browns, and with the blacks on the bottom. This structure is a result of hundreds of years of slavery and colonial rule. Yet, many would argue that after independence the brown middle class consciously decided to keep this structure since it greatly benefited them. As a result, the racial hierarchy that was in place in the 18th and 19th centuries remains unchanged. The second major racial issue is the conflict between "West Indians" and "East Indians." When slavery was outlawed in 1833, plantation owners took to importing indentured servants from eastern Indian. The influx was most notable in Guyana and Trinidad & Tobago where to this day the populations remain bifurcated. In these two countries, the move toward independence in the early 20th century was complicated by the mutual distrust between West Indians and East Indians. This distrust continues to this day and, with the migration of Guyanese to Barbados and other Caribbean countries, has begun to spread throughout the region. In sum, race is a huge issue in Caribbean society and politics. No discussion or analysis of regional integration in the area is complete without taking it into account.
2) No one raises their hands in class. When someone has a question they either shout it out or say "Question!" "Question!" repeatedly until the professor acknowledges them. I am the only student who raises his hand in class - a habit I don't want to abandon since I know that I will be going to school in the U.S. again and shouting out is seen as rude in our culture. At first I was taken back by this, thinking it rude, but I have gotten used to it. When I give my first presentation in class on the 19th I know I will need to be prepared to be interrupted with questions.
3) Oftentimes, when someone challenges another person's position on an issue and succeeds in making a valid point, the person being challenged says "I take your point." This has happened to me a couple of times in class, both from professors and fellow students, and it struck me as refreshingly non-egotistical. In the states I find people tie their specific positions on an issue to their integrity/identity as a person, so that when they are challenged on a viewpoint it is as if their entire reason for existence is getting questioned. I know I have been known to display this "bunker" mentality, which is why it was so surprising to see someone say "I take your point" in response to one of my intellectual ripostes.
Those are the three main observations I have made since my last reporting on culture in the Caribbean. I am sure there will be more to come in the future! I hope everyone enjoyed their weekend. It was hot here and there were many moments when I wished I was in the North East enjoying a cool autumn day instead. Ok, off to go work on a presentation! I'll post again sometime this week.
Friday, October 8, 2010
Being a Freshenior
Last night I had a bit of a taxonomological (yea I just made that word up) epiphany regarding my experience in Barbados. Basically, doing a one year Masters program is like being a Freshman and a Senior at the same time, or as I like to put it a Freshenior. I am a Freshman in that I have absolutely no idea how things at UWI work and what graduate school is like. I am a Senior in that the work expected from me is of a very high level, especially in the realm of my thesis which I will begin writing in only a few short months. Thus the transition from Freshman to Senior that takes four years at an undergraduate university is expected to occur almost immediately in a one year Masters program. I think it is this conflict that is responsible for so much of my anxiety and stress.
My fifth week of classes just ended, and while each passing week makes me more comfortable in my Freshenior role, I wonder when I will cease to be a Freshenior and simply be a Senior. My bet is on the end of the first semester.
Finally, here's a special heads-up: Tomorrow I am going to post my second collection of cultural observations since moving down here, so check back soon!
My fifth week of classes just ended, and while each passing week makes me more comfortable in my Freshenior role, I wonder when I will cease to be a Freshenior and simply be a Senior. My bet is on the end of the first semester.
Finally, here's a special heads-up: Tomorrow I am going to post my second collection of cultural observations since moving down here, so check back soon!
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
The Inverse Demand Problem of Solar Water Heating
One thing I forgot to share with you all last night is the problem of solar water heating. As I have previously mentioned, this past weekend featured miserable weather. The only upside was that the rain and clouds kept Barbados nice and cool. However, the problem with having no sun for more than a day is that your supply of hot water disappears. In Barbados most homes have solar-heated water, whereby a large aluminum tank stores water on top of the roof to get heated by the sun. But if there is no sun there is no hot water! So, ironically, you can only get hot water on days when you would rather have a cold shower to cool down. (I think there is a way to electrically heat your water, and I believe I have identified the switch in my apartment that would allow me to do that, but until I hear back from the landlady I will hesitate to flip a big red switch whose function I am not 100% sure about).
I had this problem over the weekend. Since the average temperature was in the mid-70s that was the hottest the water could get. This made taking a shower an unpleasant experience. Yesterday we finally got some sun and thus some very hot water. Yet because I had been running around outside all day, the last thing I wanted was a hot shower! Ahh the joys of living in Barbados!
I had this problem over the weekend. Since the average temperature was in the mid-70s that was the hottest the water could get. This made taking a shower an unpleasant experience. Yesterday we finally got some sun and thus some very hot water. Yet because I had been running around outside all day, the last thing I wanted was a hot shower! Ahh the joys of living in Barbados!
Hectic Days
This past weekend was crazy. It POURED almost non-stop from Friday to Sunday, so I was stuck in the apartment pretty much all weekend. In fact, it rained so hard one night that the power went off for roughly five minutes. During that time I was running around like a chicken without a head placing candles all over the apartment (thankfully I bought 2 packs of tea-light candles for emergency situations just like this!). The upside is now there are a bunch of tiny candles in different nooks and crannies of my apartment, so next time the power goes out all I'll have to do is light them.
Since I was trapped indoors for most of the weekend I spent my time editing my two Globalization & Global Governance essays, doing course reading, starting a presentation I have to give in two weeks, and formulating the research topic for my 5,000 word mini-research paper due at the end of the semester. My strategy is to use this mini-research paper as a way to start working on/thinking about my larger research paper for Integration Studies. The topic I have chosen to investigate is the relationship between democracy and regional integration. My plan is to use data from organizations like Freedom House, Transparency International, the UN, etc to show how well democracy has developed alongside integration in the Caribbean. The results of my research will not show a causal relationship but rather a correlational one. That said, the nature of this correlational relationship is important because it will allow for more specific questions to be asked in the future.
Right now the main area I am having trouble with is finding academic sources that discuss the relationship, if any, between democracy and integration. I have asked one of my professors for help on tracking down sources and am awaiting her reply. I find it is really hard to figure out who the "giants" are in a given field if you don't know anything about the subject to begin with!
That's pretty much all that's going on in my life right now, and sad to say, I am sure my happenings will become even less interesting as the semester wears on. Something tells me I won't even have time to post updates come late November when all my essays and many of my presentations are due, so enjoy my ramblings while you can!
Since I was trapped indoors for most of the weekend I spent my time editing my two Globalization & Global Governance essays, doing course reading, starting a presentation I have to give in two weeks, and formulating the research topic for my 5,000 word mini-research paper due at the end of the semester. My strategy is to use this mini-research paper as a way to start working on/thinking about my larger research paper for Integration Studies. The topic I have chosen to investigate is the relationship between democracy and regional integration. My plan is to use data from organizations like Freedom House, Transparency International, the UN, etc to show how well democracy has developed alongside integration in the Caribbean. The results of my research will not show a causal relationship but rather a correlational one. That said, the nature of this correlational relationship is important because it will allow for more specific questions to be asked in the future.
Right now the main area I am having trouble with is finding academic sources that discuss the relationship, if any, between democracy and integration. I have asked one of my professors for help on tracking down sources and am awaiting her reply. I find it is really hard to figure out who the "giants" are in a given field if you don't know anything about the subject to begin with!
That's pretty much all that's going on in my life right now, and sad to say, I am sure my happenings will become even less interesting as the semester wears on. Something tells me I won't even have time to post updates come late November when all my essays and many of my presentations are due, so enjoy my ramblings while you can!
Saturday, October 2, 2010
The Upside of an Iranian Bomb
Not a week goes by without a major U.S. newspaper or news network running a story on the threat a nuclear Iran would pose to the United States. While there is reason to fear an Iranian bomb, no stories are ever run on the potential upsides of a nuclear Iran for U.S. foreign policy. This is either because 1) people are so close minded they can't see the issue in another light or 2) they are afraid of being labeled as appeasers of a Hitler-esque regime. I would very much like to see Iran kept from obtaining nuclear weapons, and I am absolutely opposed to appeasing Tehran, but here is my view on the potential upsides of an Iranian bomb for U.S. foreign policy.
The first thing to realize is that the entire Middle East, with a slight exception in Iraq, distrusts and fears Iran. This is because of: 1) the Persian/Arab divide 2) the fact that Iran is Shia dominated while the majority of the Middle East is Sunni, and 3) the view that Iran is a regional destabilizer due to its support for Hezbollah and other regional terrorist organizations. Tehran's pursuit of a nuclear weapon has only intensified the region's fear and has pushed many countries to seek extra security measures.
The second thing to realize is that ever since the end of World War II, and more importantly the declaration of the Carter Doctrine in 1980, the United States has been the primary security provider in the Middle East. It has used military force numerous times to ensure regional stability and preserve the flow of oil. Most Arab regimes have embraced this trade off: in return for the security and stability provided by the U.S. military, they buy U.S. defense goods, price oil in dollars, and recently, have supported the War on Terror.
The third thing to realize is that China now buys more oil from Saudi Arabia than the United States. This is a significant change because it threatens to upset the agreement outlined above. With China supplanting the U.S. as the region's biggest customer, its influence in the halls of Riyadh, Abu Dhabi, Baghdad, and Doha is likely to rise. In the future, this could threaten the pricing of oil in dollars, the regional purchases of U.S. defense goods, the region's support for U.S. initiatives, and most importantly, the region's tolerance of a strong U.S. military presence. This growing threat must be countered. The world will continue to run on oil for the foreseeable future, and even if the U.S. weans itself off imported oil, it must remain the dominant power in the Middle East so as to exercise influence over the supply of a vital natural resource. Simply put, being the dominant military and diplomatic power in the Middle East gives the United States immense leverage over other states.
Given these facts it is clear how the United States can use the fear invoked by Tehran's pursuit of a nuclear weapon to enhance its position in the region at the expense of China's. With China's military still incapable of projecting power beyond its immediate sphere of influence, Middle Eastern leaders know that their only hope for additional security in the face of the Iranian threat is to move closer to the United States. Washington has smartly been courting these needs and has recently agreed to numerous major arms deals with Middle Eastern States (including sealing with Saudi Arabia the largest arms deal in history). Therefore, the threat of a nuclear Iran has allowed the United States to leverage its predominant position in the region by reminding local states that only Washington can guarantee their security. This leverage will increase even more, and for the long term, if Tehran does in fact achieve nuclear capabilities, thus binding key Middle Eastern players to the United States for years to come. If Washington is smart, it will then use this leverage to contain China's influence in the region.
In conclusion, the United States can use the threat posed by a nuclear Iran to increase its position in the Middle East through the provision of security guarantees and the sale of defense goods. Washington can then use the dependency of Middle Eastern states on its security apparatus as leverage to keep China's military out of the Middle East, thereby remaining the dominant power in the region.
The first thing to realize is that the entire Middle East, with a slight exception in Iraq, distrusts and fears Iran. This is because of: 1) the Persian/Arab divide 2) the fact that Iran is Shia dominated while the majority of the Middle East is Sunni, and 3) the view that Iran is a regional destabilizer due to its support for Hezbollah and other regional terrorist organizations. Tehran's pursuit of a nuclear weapon has only intensified the region's fear and has pushed many countries to seek extra security measures.
The second thing to realize is that ever since the end of World War II, and more importantly the declaration of the Carter Doctrine in 1980, the United States has been the primary security provider in the Middle East. It has used military force numerous times to ensure regional stability and preserve the flow of oil. Most Arab regimes have embraced this trade off: in return for the security and stability provided by the U.S. military, they buy U.S. defense goods, price oil in dollars, and recently, have supported the War on Terror.
The third thing to realize is that China now buys more oil from Saudi Arabia than the United States. This is a significant change because it threatens to upset the agreement outlined above. With China supplanting the U.S. as the region's biggest customer, its influence in the halls of Riyadh, Abu Dhabi, Baghdad, and Doha is likely to rise. In the future, this could threaten the pricing of oil in dollars, the regional purchases of U.S. defense goods, the region's support for U.S. initiatives, and most importantly, the region's tolerance of a strong U.S. military presence. This growing threat must be countered. The world will continue to run on oil for the foreseeable future, and even if the U.S. weans itself off imported oil, it must remain the dominant power in the Middle East so as to exercise influence over the supply of a vital natural resource. Simply put, being the dominant military and diplomatic power in the Middle East gives the United States immense leverage over other states.
Given these facts it is clear how the United States can use the fear invoked by Tehran's pursuit of a nuclear weapon to enhance its position in the region at the expense of China's. With China's military still incapable of projecting power beyond its immediate sphere of influence, Middle Eastern leaders know that their only hope for additional security in the face of the Iranian threat is to move closer to the United States. Washington has smartly been courting these needs and has recently agreed to numerous major arms deals with Middle Eastern States (including sealing with Saudi Arabia the largest arms deal in history). Therefore, the threat of a nuclear Iran has allowed the United States to leverage its predominant position in the region by reminding local states that only Washington can guarantee their security. This leverage will increase even more, and for the long term, if Tehran does in fact achieve nuclear capabilities, thus binding key Middle Eastern players to the United States for years to come. If Washington is smart, it will then use this leverage to contain China's influence in the region.
In conclusion, the United States can use the threat posed by a nuclear Iran to increase its position in the Middle East through the provision of security guarantees and the sale of defense goods. Washington can then use the dependency of Middle Eastern states on its security apparatus as leverage to keep China's military out of the Middle East, thereby remaining the dominant power in the region.
Friday, October 1, 2010
The Importance of Economic Growth
Today I got to see why economic growth is so vital to a nation's stability and future. Today Barbados was hit by a MASSIVE rain storm. It poured for hours on end and almost every street was flooded as a result. During a brief halt in the storm I decided to go out to get a package at the post office (more books for school) and go grocery shopping. Sitting in traffic while running these errands gave me ample time to think about what the outcome of a similar rain storm in other, poorer, countries would be. Sadly, the first country to enter my mind was Haiti. If a similar storm hit Haiti there would be massive mudslides that would kill hundreds and displace thousands more. Why does Barbados simply have flooded streets while Haiti suffers mudslides? The answer is economic growth.
In Haiti, because people are so poor, they chop down trees and use the wood to fuel their stoves and heat their homes. The result is massive deforestation which ultimately leads to mudslides during rainstorms because without a strong root network to keep soil in place, it simply washes away. Barbados has been able to avoid this fate because its people, on average, are far more wealthy than Haitians. They are able to afford alternatives to wood for fuel, build decent drainage infrastructure, and construct sturdy homes. Thus, while Haiti suffers a vicious circle (poverty leads to deadly mudslides and poor infrastructure, which in turn leads to more poverty) Barbados enjoys a virtuous cycle (relative wealth allows sounds investments in infrastructure and fuel sources, which in turn lead to more economic growth).
Of course, the key questions are: 1) why did Barbados end up on the virtuous cycle and Haiti the vicious circle, and 2) what can be done to transition Haiti to a virtuous cycle? These are questions many economists, historians, sociologists, engineers, and politicians have tried to answer to no avail so far. Hopefully the rebuilding effort that is going on in Haiti right now due to the tragic earthquake can lead to some positive changes that get Haiti on the path to growth and stability. But what about all the other countries stuck in vicious circles? Will they have to wait until massive natural disasters destroy their countries for change to come?
In Haiti, because people are so poor, they chop down trees and use the wood to fuel their stoves and heat their homes. The result is massive deforestation which ultimately leads to mudslides during rainstorms because without a strong root network to keep soil in place, it simply washes away. Barbados has been able to avoid this fate because its people, on average, are far more wealthy than Haitians. They are able to afford alternatives to wood for fuel, build decent drainage infrastructure, and construct sturdy homes. Thus, while Haiti suffers a vicious circle (poverty leads to deadly mudslides and poor infrastructure, which in turn leads to more poverty) Barbados enjoys a virtuous cycle (relative wealth allows sounds investments in infrastructure and fuel sources, which in turn lead to more economic growth).
Of course, the key questions are: 1) why did Barbados end up on the virtuous cycle and Haiti the vicious circle, and 2) what can be done to transition Haiti to a virtuous cycle? These are questions many economists, historians, sociologists, engineers, and politicians have tried to answer to no avail so far. Hopefully the rebuilding effort that is going on in Haiti right now due to the tragic earthquake can lead to some positive changes that get Haiti on the path to growth and stability. But what about all the other countries stuck in vicious circles? Will they have to wait until massive natural disasters destroy their countries for change to come?
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
My Weekend
This past weekend was a bust. It started out poorly with the beer incident and my mediocre attempt at making shrimp scampi. I had everything going for dinner - rice and vegetables cooking and oil with garlic cloves heating up - when I realized I forgot to defrost the shrimp. Shit. I made a game time decision to simply put the frozen shrimp into the sizzling oil since I didn't have time to defrost them any other way. This turned into a disaster because the shrimp had lots of frozen water on them. So, when they defrosted the frying pan became a cesspool of melted shrimp water and oil. This obviously wouldn't do, so I pulled the hot pan off the stove, drained the liquid off, and added fresh oil, white wine, and lemon juice to the shrimp. Unfortunately, despite my best efforts to save the dish, the damage was done. The shrimp tasted nothing like shrimp scampi and instead tasted like plain salt and peppered shrimp. Not the worst thing in the world, but not delicious either. Needless to say, I learned my lesson and next time I try to make shrimp scampi I will make sure to defrost the little buggers first.
The other major disappointment from this weekend was my attempt to get to the South Coast to say goodbye to a departing Fulbrighter. My friend Sunera, who was a 2009-2010 Fulbrighter to Barbados, is leaving for the U.S. on Thursday and organized a farewell get together last night starting at 5pm. Since the bar we were meeting at is on the South Coast, which can take an hour+ to get to, I decided to try to catch a 4pm bus to Oistins. To do this, I got to my bus stop at 3:50, hoping that a bus would come by 4:20 at the latest. The bus didn't show up until 4:45 AND since it was so unbelievably full, drove right past me. Once again, shit. I tried waiting for another bus, but by 5:30 I had had it and decided to just go home and tell Sunera that I couldn't make it. Honestly, my worst experiences in Barbados so far have all been related to taking the buses. Yes they are an inexpensive way to get around, but they are slow and too often uncomfortably crowded. I could never live in Barbados long-term without a car. That is a sad statement given how small the island is.
Three good things did happen this weekend however. First, I am basically finished with my second Globalization & Global governance essay. I still have some editing to do but 95% of the essay is done. Second, I came across this quote, which I really like:
“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” -George Bernard Shaw
Finally, I came up with what I think are some interesting ideas regarding Iran's nuclear program and the rise of China. I hope to post these ideas once I get caught up with some reading and put the finishing touches on my second essay.
That's all for tonight. Gotta get back to work. And remember everyone, be unreasonable every now and then. Apparently it's good for progress.
The other major disappointment from this weekend was my attempt to get to the South Coast to say goodbye to a departing Fulbrighter. My friend Sunera, who was a 2009-2010 Fulbrighter to Barbados, is leaving for the U.S. on Thursday and organized a farewell get together last night starting at 5pm. Since the bar we were meeting at is on the South Coast, which can take an hour+ to get to, I decided to try to catch a 4pm bus to Oistins. To do this, I got to my bus stop at 3:50, hoping that a bus would come by 4:20 at the latest. The bus didn't show up until 4:45 AND since it was so unbelievably full, drove right past me. Once again, shit. I tried waiting for another bus, but by 5:30 I had had it and decided to just go home and tell Sunera that I couldn't make it. Honestly, my worst experiences in Barbados so far have all been related to taking the buses. Yes they are an inexpensive way to get around, but they are slow and too often uncomfortably crowded. I could never live in Barbados long-term without a car. That is a sad statement given how small the island is.
Three good things did happen this weekend however. First, I am basically finished with my second Globalization & Global governance essay. I still have some editing to do but 95% of the essay is done. Second, I came across this quote, which I really like:
“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” -George Bernard Shaw
Finally, I came up with what I think are some interesting ideas regarding Iran's nuclear program and the rise of China. I hope to post these ideas once I get caught up with some reading and put the finishing touches on my second essay.
That's all for tonight. Gotta get back to work. And remember everyone, be unreasonable every now and then. Apparently it's good for progress.
Friday, September 24, 2010
Frustrated/Flummaxed
I just had a really annoying experience. I was heading out to go to the local supermarket called Jordans and I decided that I should see if there is a quicker way down to the main road than the normal way I go. So I decided to ask this group of locals, all young men, who hang out near my apartment if I could get to the main road by going right instead of left. They said yes and showed me how to get there, but then told me they needed a six pack of beer from Jordans. I asked them what kind they wanted and they said "Banks." Fine, I thought. Its not that much trouble for me and they did just show me how to get down to the main road via another route. I thought of asking for money for the beer at that moment but figured I could just get it when I returned.
Long story short, I returned with their six pack but they said they couldn't pay me. I didn't want to ask why, because I figure the last thing a white person should do is ask a bunch of locals why they cant afford something, so I just asked them if they'll pay me back later. They said yes (obviously lying) and I walked away pissed off. Its not the money I am upset about (the six pack was $6.50 U.S.) but rather the lack of respect and what this means for every time I have to walk past these guys on the way to school now. But on the other hand, I can't tell if I've been had or if this is a normal exchange of advice for another friendly service. I really doubt this, but we shall see.
Anyway, all you people who are reading this, don't worry about my safety - I've walked past these guys many times without problem. I don't believe they will start bothering me because of this. If anything, they're less likely to since I didn't get in their faces about the money. That said, I do worry about them thinking they can get free six packs off me whenever they want. Next time I go to the supermarket, I am going to make sure they aren't outside.
Ok, time to start thinking about dinner. I am going to try making shrimp scampi tonight (my mother's suggestion) so I need to read the recipe and get all my tools together. I'm looking forward to this because I've grown really tired of chicken and pasta lately! I hope it will give me a boost of productivity to start my second essay tonight, but we shall see.
Long story short, I returned with their six pack but they said they couldn't pay me. I didn't want to ask why, because I figure the last thing a white person should do is ask a bunch of locals why they cant afford something, so I just asked them if they'll pay me back later. They said yes (obviously lying) and I walked away pissed off. Its not the money I am upset about (the six pack was $6.50 U.S.) but rather the lack of respect and what this means for every time I have to walk past these guys on the way to school now. But on the other hand, I can't tell if I've been had or if this is a normal exchange of advice for another friendly service. I really doubt this, but we shall see.
Anyway, all you people who are reading this, don't worry about my safety - I've walked past these guys many times without problem. I don't believe they will start bothering me because of this. If anything, they're less likely to since I didn't get in their faces about the money. That said, I do worry about them thinking they can get free six packs off me whenever they want. Next time I go to the supermarket, I am going to make sure they aren't outside.
Ok, time to start thinking about dinner. I am going to try making shrimp scampi tonight (my mother's suggestion) so I need to read the recipe and get all my tools together. I'm looking forward to this because I've grown really tired of chicken and pasta lately! I hope it will give me a boost of productivity to start my second essay tonight, but we shall see.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
The Weekend is Here!
It's Thursday night, which means my weekend has officially begun! I know, everyone who works for a living that reads this blog, feel free to hate me. I would too if I were you.
My weekend got off to a great start too; normally I would have to wait until 8pm (when my last class ends) for it to begin, but today my 5-8 class was canceled because they had just done a lot of painting in the graduate studies building and we were told to go home because of the fumes. So, I got to go home at 5:30 and begin my weekend a couple hours earlier than normal.
This is a good thing cause I'm pretty beat, even though I have class only three days a week. Its not the classes that get me, its the mountains of reading and all the assignments that are awaiting my attention that are mentally exhausting. So far I've been doing a pretty good job of getting a head start on my assignments (I already finished one essay) and performing triage on my reading lists. This weekend I am going to finish another essay (leaving 4 for me to do for the semester) and catch up on some Caribbean history. For those of you that are interested, here are the essay topics I am doing for my Globalization & Global Governance class. The first one is the essay I've already finished.
1) Account for the rise of global governance. What are the challenges to deepening multilateral cooperation?
2) What do you understand to be the salient ideas and assumptions that made for the “Washington Consensus”? (Don’t go past 1990).
My other plans for the weekend are pretty simple. I'm going to do a quick run to the local grocery store tomorrow and if the weather is nice out, which it hasn't been in a while, I will head out for a quick snorkel. A swim sounds really relaxing right now and I found out the other week that there's a beach literally 2 minutes from my apartment! I've gotta go try it out.
The other big piece of news that happened this week is Nora booked her flights to come visit! She'll be visiting from October 31st-November 7th, which is a good time for me because it's right in the middle of the semester, when I'm likely to need a break. My plan is to do as many of my major assignments before she gets here so that I can have some free time to explore the island with her. This means a lot of work now, but it will be worth it once she gets here!
That's really all that happened this week. Ever since school started life has been a lot less dynamic. That said, I still like it here even though I am starting to get bored with the food I am able to cook/buy and I am getting frustrated about my lack of cable TV. I would really like to be able to sit and do my work with football on in the background, but alas, it seems the cable company really just wants me to be extra studious this semester.
One last thing before I go: I was reading Nicholas Kristof's Op-Ed today in the NY Times and in it there was a link to a really awesome movement called The Girl Effect. You should visit their site (http://girleffect.org/) and watch the first video they made, which is on YouTube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIvmE4_KMNw. If you're moved like I was, I encourage you to donate or spread the word.
Ok thats enough of my preaching - time to go relax for a bit so I can begin my second essay tomorrow! Night everyone and hope your weekends get off to as good of a start as mine did!
My weekend got off to a great start too; normally I would have to wait until 8pm (when my last class ends) for it to begin, but today my 5-8 class was canceled because they had just done a lot of painting in the graduate studies building and we were told to go home because of the fumes. So, I got to go home at 5:30 and begin my weekend a couple hours earlier than normal.
This is a good thing cause I'm pretty beat, even though I have class only three days a week. Its not the classes that get me, its the mountains of reading and all the assignments that are awaiting my attention that are mentally exhausting. So far I've been doing a pretty good job of getting a head start on my assignments (I already finished one essay) and performing triage on my reading lists. This weekend I am going to finish another essay (leaving 4 for me to do for the semester) and catch up on some Caribbean history. For those of you that are interested, here are the essay topics I am doing for my Globalization & Global Governance class. The first one is the essay I've already finished.
1) Account for the rise of global governance. What are the challenges to deepening multilateral cooperation?
2) What do you understand to be the salient ideas and assumptions that made for the “Washington Consensus”? (Don’t go past 1990).
My other plans for the weekend are pretty simple. I'm going to do a quick run to the local grocery store tomorrow and if the weather is nice out, which it hasn't been in a while, I will head out for a quick snorkel. A swim sounds really relaxing right now and I found out the other week that there's a beach literally 2 minutes from my apartment! I've gotta go try it out.
The other big piece of news that happened this week is Nora booked her flights to come visit! She'll be visiting from October 31st-November 7th, which is a good time for me because it's right in the middle of the semester, when I'm likely to need a break. My plan is to do as many of my major assignments before she gets here so that I can have some free time to explore the island with her. This means a lot of work now, but it will be worth it once she gets here!
That's really all that happened this week. Ever since school started life has been a lot less dynamic. That said, I still like it here even though I am starting to get bored with the food I am able to cook/buy and I am getting frustrated about my lack of cable TV. I would really like to be able to sit and do my work with football on in the background, but alas, it seems the cable company really just wants me to be extra studious this semester.
One last thing before I go: I was reading Nicholas Kristof's Op-Ed today in the NY Times and in it there was a link to a really awesome movement called The Girl Effect. You should visit their site (http://girleffect.org/) and watch the first video they made, which is on YouTube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIvmE4_KMNw. If you're moved like I was, I encourage you to donate or spread the word.
Ok thats enough of my preaching - time to go relax for a bit so I can begin my second essay tomorrow! Night everyone and hope your weekends get off to as good of a start as mine did!
Sunday, September 19, 2010
The Past Couple Days
I last posted on Wednesday and since then some interesting things have occurred. First, I finished my hellish 9am-1pm, Monday-Friday class, which means I now have four day weekends that I can use to tackle the many large essays I have to write this semester. Most importantly it means I get to stop waking up at 8am (I'm really not a morning person) and instead I can get on a schedule that better suits me.
Second, last night I went out with a couple of people from my now finished 9-1 class. We went to Oistins for dinner, where I had grilled flying fish for the first time (delicious!), and then to St. Lawrence Gap, which is where a lot of bars/dance places are. It was a lot of fun even though most of the places were pretty empty - they aren't kidding when they say this is the slow season! I was told it will be more lively from December-February, so it might be worth going back sometime in that time span.
The first place we went to was called the Ship Inn and it was only the nine of us and a couple of expat and visiting British. The place is run by a crazy British guy who would come up to me and my friends, ask us what we wanted to drink, pause for a beat, and then get all pissed off when we took more than two seconds to reply. I've never wanted to call someone a "wanker" more than I did at that moment. Normally we would have left, but it was happy hour from 11-12, so all the drinks were half price. This meant a Jack Daniels on the rocks was only $6 bds, or $3 U.S. Quite the deal even if the drinks were small. We left there shortly after midnight to go to a place that had more people and more dancing, which is where we stayed for the rest of the night.
Third, I've finalized my class schedule, I swear! I am taking five courses this semester and four next semester. While this means I am going to have a LOT of work this semester, it means that I don't have to come back a year from now to take classes. Therefore, I can finish all my classes by next semester, write my thesis over the summer, and then leave around a year from now to go back to the U.S. and find an internship to finish out the degree. Doing it this way means I can write my PhD applications from the U.S., which will be useful if I have to go for interviews, as well as save some money by potentially living at home.
One thing I forgot to mention on Wednesday was that at the reception after the Canadian minister spoke I finally got to meet the Charge' d'Affaires from the U.S. Embassy. His name is Dr. Brent Hardt and we spoke for a good twenty minutes about a range of things, including the fact that he just took his youngest son on a tour of Hamilton College! I tried to persuade him that Hamilton is a great choice for his son, but we'll see if that turns out to be the case. His son is an aspiring architect, and I'm not so sure how good of a program Hamilton has in that field.
That's all I can think of for now. I'm sure there are some things that I'm forgetting, but I'll just toss those into the next post. Have a good week everybody!
Second, last night I went out with a couple of people from my now finished 9-1 class. We went to Oistins for dinner, where I had grilled flying fish for the first time (delicious!), and then to St. Lawrence Gap, which is where a lot of bars/dance places are. It was a lot of fun even though most of the places were pretty empty - they aren't kidding when they say this is the slow season! I was told it will be more lively from December-February, so it might be worth going back sometime in that time span.
The first place we went to was called the Ship Inn and it was only the nine of us and a couple of expat and visiting British. The place is run by a crazy British guy who would come up to me and my friends, ask us what we wanted to drink, pause for a beat, and then get all pissed off when we took more than two seconds to reply. I've never wanted to call someone a "wanker" more than I did at that moment. Normally we would have left, but it was happy hour from 11-12, so all the drinks were half price. This meant a Jack Daniels on the rocks was only $6 bds, or $3 U.S. Quite the deal even if the drinks were small. We left there shortly after midnight to go to a place that had more people and more dancing, which is where we stayed for the rest of the night.
Third, I've finalized my class schedule, I swear! I am taking five courses this semester and four next semester. While this means I am going to have a LOT of work this semester, it means that I don't have to come back a year from now to take classes. Therefore, I can finish all my classes by next semester, write my thesis over the summer, and then leave around a year from now to go back to the U.S. and find an internship to finish out the degree. Doing it this way means I can write my PhD applications from the U.S., which will be useful if I have to go for interviews, as well as save some money by potentially living at home.
One thing I forgot to mention on Wednesday was that at the reception after the Canadian minister spoke I finally got to meet the Charge' d'Affaires from the U.S. Embassy. His name is Dr. Brent Hardt and we spoke for a good twenty minutes about a range of things, including the fact that he just took his youngest son on a tour of Hamilton College! I tried to persuade him that Hamilton is a great choice for his son, but we'll see if that turns out to be the case. His son is an aspiring architect, and I'm not so sure how good of a program Hamilton has in that field.
That's all I can think of for now. I'm sure there are some things that I'm forgetting, but I'll just toss those into the next post. Have a good week everybody!
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Quick Update
Hey All,
So quick update of some interesting things that happened recently.
1) I forgot to mention this the other day, but yesterday I saw my first Barbadian green monkeys. I was walking up to my apartment and I saw these odd looking creatures with long tails running down the street away from me. At first I didn't know what they were, but then I realized they must be a bunch of Barbadian green monkeys up to no good. I believe they had been exploring the trash offerings of a couple of my neighbors.
2) Also, on Tuesday I tried the campus cafeteria for the first time. I had roasted chicken with Marconi pie (Barbadian form of Mac & Cheese) and steamed carrots. For a little over $10 bds it was a pretty decent meal. That said, it wasn't good enough to get me to walk up the hill every day for lunch once I stop having my 9-1 class on the main campus. But it is nice knowing that there is a decent and inexpensive food source nearby if I should ever need it.
3) Today in my Globalization & Global Governance class we watched a documentary called "Life and Debt" which is about the impact the IMF's structural adjustment loans had on Jamaica after they were implemented in 1977. It was a really depressing film, but one that I think everyone should see. It's available on Amazon for those of you that are interested. (http://www.amazon.com/Life-Debt-Belinda-Becker/dp/B00008NNPK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1284580622&sr=8-1).
4) I just got back from a lecture at UWI where the Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs responsible for the Americas spoke about Canada's foreign policy initiatives and interests in the region. It was an interesting presentation and there is clearly a lot that Canada can do to help the region. Right now Caribbean-Canada relations are a hot topic in Barbados because CARICOM and Canada are in the beginning stages of negotiating a new free trade agreement. Normally this would be cause for excitement, but the Caribbean is having buyer's remorse about signing the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the EU, and under WTO rules, countries cannot offer preferential trade terms to one country (or set of countries) and then not offer the same terms to another country. Doing so would open the discriminating countries up to punitive tariffs and quotas. So, in short, Canada expects the same treatment from CARICOM that CARICOM decided to give to the EU in the EPA, but CARICOM is realizing that its decision to sign the EPA was a mistake and is trying to avoid replicating its terms in another negotiation. Its a very interesting topic and there will be more to come on this for sure.
Anyway thats all for now. I have to go make a veeery belated dinner and get ready for a marathon day tomorrow; I am going to have class from 9am-1pm, 2-5, and 5:30-8. It's going to be brutal, but thankfully this is a one-time occasion. Also, it will give me the knowledge I need to make a decision, finally, about how many classes I want to take this semester!
See you tomorrow!
So quick update of some interesting things that happened recently.
1) I forgot to mention this the other day, but yesterday I saw my first Barbadian green monkeys. I was walking up to my apartment and I saw these odd looking creatures with long tails running down the street away from me. At first I didn't know what they were, but then I realized they must be a bunch of Barbadian green monkeys up to no good. I believe they had been exploring the trash offerings of a couple of my neighbors.
2) Also, on Tuesday I tried the campus cafeteria for the first time. I had roasted chicken with Marconi pie (Barbadian form of Mac & Cheese) and steamed carrots. For a little over $10 bds it was a pretty decent meal. That said, it wasn't good enough to get me to walk up the hill every day for lunch once I stop having my 9-1 class on the main campus. But it is nice knowing that there is a decent and inexpensive food source nearby if I should ever need it.
3) Today in my Globalization & Global Governance class we watched a documentary called "Life and Debt" which is about the impact the IMF's structural adjustment loans had on Jamaica after they were implemented in 1977. It was a really depressing film, but one that I think everyone should see. It's available on Amazon for those of you that are interested. (http://www.amazon.com/Life-Debt-Belinda-Becker/dp/B00008NNPK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1284580622&sr=8-1).
4) I just got back from a lecture at UWI where the Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs responsible for the Americas spoke about Canada's foreign policy initiatives and interests in the region. It was an interesting presentation and there is clearly a lot that Canada can do to help the region. Right now Caribbean-Canada relations are a hot topic in Barbados because CARICOM and Canada are in the beginning stages of negotiating a new free trade agreement. Normally this would be cause for excitement, but the Caribbean is having buyer's remorse about signing the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the EU, and under WTO rules, countries cannot offer preferential trade terms to one country (or set of countries) and then not offer the same terms to another country. Doing so would open the discriminating countries up to punitive tariffs and quotas. So, in short, Canada expects the same treatment from CARICOM that CARICOM decided to give to the EU in the EPA, but CARICOM is realizing that its decision to sign the EPA was a mistake and is trying to avoid replicating its terms in another negotiation. Its a very interesting topic and there will be more to come on this for sure.
Anyway thats all for now. I have to go make a veeery belated dinner and get ready for a marathon day tomorrow; I am going to have class from 9am-1pm, 2-5, and 5:30-8. It's going to be brutal, but thankfully this is a one-time occasion. Also, it will give me the knowledge I need to make a decision, finally, about how many classes I want to take this semester!
See you tomorrow!
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Settling Down to the Routine
Hey all,
So there are two reasons I haven't been posting as much as usual recently. First, when I get home from class at 8pm I am usually too tired to compose anything. The chance that I can put together coherent sentences is slim (tonight being an obvious exception!). The second is that I am starting to settle into a daily routine, which while giving my life a bit of stability, is also quite uneventful and uninteresting. So, I do not want to bore you with petty details such as what I had for lunch today or minor musings about the weather.
Basically I've just been trying to stay on top of my school work while planning ahead for the rest of the Master's program. It turns out that my plan to take 4 courses this semester may be up for revision as new information has come to light that might make taking 5 classes this semester and 4 next semester the prudent move. I should know by Friday what I am doing and will communicate my final plans in another post.
The readings for class are interesting but there's an absolute ton of them. I would be able to get through more of the articles if I didn't have to prepare each meal, clean, and go shopping frequently. These things, as I'm sure all of you adults are aware of, really eat into your time and energy (especially in this heat!). So for now I just do the best I can knowing that this hell-class ends on Friday and therefore I will have my mornings for schoolwork starting next week.
That's all I can manage for tonight. I'll try to post some more about cultural observations or what living down here is actually like in the future.
All the best from Barbados,
Stephen
So there are two reasons I haven't been posting as much as usual recently. First, when I get home from class at 8pm I am usually too tired to compose anything. The chance that I can put together coherent sentences is slim (tonight being an obvious exception!). The second is that I am starting to settle into a daily routine, which while giving my life a bit of stability, is also quite uneventful and uninteresting. So, I do not want to bore you with petty details such as what I had for lunch today or minor musings about the weather.
Basically I've just been trying to stay on top of my school work while planning ahead for the rest of the Master's program. It turns out that my plan to take 4 courses this semester may be up for revision as new information has come to light that might make taking 5 classes this semester and 4 next semester the prudent move. I should know by Friday what I am doing and will communicate my final plans in another post.
The readings for class are interesting but there's an absolute ton of them. I would be able to get through more of the articles if I didn't have to prepare each meal, clean, and go shopping frequently. These things, as I'm sure all of you adults are aware of, really eat into your time and energy (especially in this heat!). So for now I just do the best I can knowing that this hell-class ends on Friday and therefore I will have my mornings for schoolwork starting next week.
That's all I can manage for tonight. I'll try to post some more about cultural observations or what living down here is actually like in the future.
All the best from Barbados,
Stephen
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Some Cultural Observations
As promised, here are some observations about Barbadian culture that I've made so far:
1) People here are exceptionally polite. When students arrive to class in the morning they say "Good morning" as they walk in and everyone else responds in kind. The first time this happened I lifted my head from the book I was reading because I thought the teacher had walked in and was going to start class. Nope, just a fellow student wishing me a good morning. How nice!
2) Barbadians are very very reserved people. There is none of the gregarious, spicy, jubliantness that most people associate with Caribbean people. That is not to say Barbadians are boring or bitter people. In fact they are quite interesting to talk to and seem to be generally upbeat (although there is the typical Caribbean pessimism about the state of public affairs). But there is none of the cultural craziness that one would find in Jamaica or Trinidad. There are many hypotheses for the unique Barbadian culture, but most scholars attribute it in some way to the 300 years of uninterrupted British rule over the island. For this reason, Barbados is known as "the most British" of all the former UK colonies in the West Indies.
3) Barbados is a very religious society. Most people go to church on Sunday, which makes doing anything else on a Sunday nearly impossible. I had heard that Barbadians were religious, but it didn't hit me as to just how integral a part of the society it was until earlier this week in my Globalization & Global Governance class. A student started out making a point about one thing or another, which spawned a group discussion. When the discussion-originating student wanted to follow up on his comment no one was listening to him so he let fly a local saying "Don't worry, I am the least of the Apostles." I inquired as to what exactly he meant by that and he said it was a local way of saying he's clearly not worth listening to.
4) Violence in Barbados is a big deal. I do not mean to say that violence is a problem in Barbados. What I mean by that statement is that violence is looked down upon and rare, so that when a violent act does occur it is the talk of the country and disgust is rampant. Now most people in the world consider violence a bad thing. But in many countries it is part of the culture (beating of wives, honor killings, etc) or becomes just an accepted part of society (see the U.S. and its thousands of murders every year). In Barbados, violence runs contrary to every aspect of the restrained culture. So, when eight days ago six people were killed in an attempted robbery, it was the talk of the country. The front page of every paper ran the story in big print - in the way a terrorist attack in the U.S. would get covered by American newspapers. And the shock did not disappear after a few days. Yesterday, at noon, there was a nation-wide moment of silence in honor of the victims.
5) My last observation, so far, is the tight-knit sense of community here in Barbados. There is a real sense of common struggle due to the small population, geography, and lack of natural resources. And, because there are so few people, there is a great expectation placed upon every young person to succeed not just for themselves, but for the country. People here are immensely proud of the relative prosperity they have built for themselves, but they realize that it could disappear within a generation if there isn't a constant struggle to get their domestic institutions right and promote Barbados in the global economy. They know that there would be no gentle landing into a comfortable lifestyle if they became complacent with, generally speaking, how things are.
Those are the main observations I have made so far. I am sure there will be more in the future and I am sure that the above five will undergo varying modifications as my knowledge of, and experience with, Barbadian society increases.
1) People here are exceptionally polite. When students arrive to class in the morning they say "Good morning" as they walk in and everyone else responds in kind. The first time this happened I lifted my head from the book I was reading because I thought the teacher had walked in and was going to start class. Nope, just a fellow student wishing me a good morning. How nice!
2) Barbadians are very very reserved people. There is none of the gregarious, spicy, jubliantness that most people associate with Caribbean people. That is not to say Barbadians are boring or bitter people. In fact they are quite interesting to talk to and seem to be generally upbeat (although there is the typical Caribbean pessimism about the state of public affairs). But there is none of the cultural craziness that one would find in Jamaica or Trinidad. There are many hypotheses for the unique Barbadian culture, but most scholars attribute it in some way to the 300 years of uninterrupted British rule over the island. For this reason, Barbados is known as "the most British" of all the former UK colonies in the West Indies.
3) Barbados is a very religious society. Most people go to church on Sunday, which makes doing anything else on a Sunday nearly impossible. I had heard that Barbadians were religious, but it didn't hit me as to just how integral a part of the society it was until earlier this week in my Globalization & Global Governance class. A student started out making a point about one thing or another, which spawned a group discussion. When the discussion-originating student wanted to follow up on his comment no one was listening to him so he let fly a local saying "Don't worry, I am the least of the Apostles." I inquired as to what exactly he meant by that and he said it was a local way of saying he's clearly not worth listening to.
4) Violence in Barbados is a big deal. I do not mean to say that violence is a problem in Barbados. What I mean by that statement is that violence is looked down upon and rare, so that when a violent act does occur it is the talk of the country and disgust is rampant. Now most people in the world consider violence a bad thing. But in many countries it is part of the culture (beating of wives, honor killings, etc) or becomes just an accepted part of society (see the U.S. and its thousands of murders every year). In Barbados, violence runs contrary to every aspect of the restrained culture. So, when eight days ago six people were killed in an attempted robbery, it was the talk of the country. The front page of every paper ran the story in big print - in the way a terrorist attack in the U.S. would get covered by American newspapers. And the shock did not disappear after a few days. Yesterday, at noon, there was a nation-wide moment of silence in honor of the victims.
5) My last observation, so far, is the tight-knit sense of community here in Barbados. There is a real sense of common struggle due to the small population, geography, and lack of natural resources. And, because there are so few people, there is a great expectation placed upon every young person to succeed not just for themselves, but for the country. People here are immensely proud of the relative prosperity they have built for themselves, but they realize that it could disappear within a generation if there isn't a constant struggle to get their domestic institutions right and promote Barbados in the global economy. They know that there would be no gentle landing into a comfortable lifestyle if they became complacent with, generally speaking, how things are.
Those are the main observations I have made so far. I am sure there will be more in the future and I am sure that the above five will undergo varying modifications as my knowledge of, and experience with, Barbadian society increases.
Friday, September 10, 2010
TGIF!
Hooray for Friday! Walking out of my 9-1 class today and knowing I had the next 68 hours to myself felt great. It felt great even though I have no exciting plans for the weekend. In fact, I have lots of work to do, but at least I can sleep in and hopefully find an hour or two to go for a quick snorkel if the sun decides to show its face (it has been overcast and rainy here pretty much all week).
No real updates other than then usual mundane activities of cooking dinner, getting supplies, and keeping the apartment in order. I'm going to spend the weekend doing copious amounts of reading and perhaps even begin thinking about the two Globalization & Global Governance essays I have due on October 29th. Despite the verbose style of many of the writers I have to read, I am excited to learn more about the cultural and political history of the Caribbean. It's such a unique region. It is both united and fragmented in so many ways - many different national languages and cultures, isolated by water, with limited resources and populations, as well as varying political status, all united by a common history of slavery, colonialism, and continued marginalization. Thus Caribbean integration presents a truly vexing problem. On the one hand it seems impossible. How could so many differing countries, with the geographic, social, and economic problems they have, all unite into an EU-like organization? Yet, there is a sense of a shared Caribbean community. One of my Professors, who is from Grenada, considers herself a "Caribbean Citizen" and I'm sure there are many more like her in the region. How does one emphasize the commonalities and minimize the differences? That, to me, seems to be the task at hand and if the appropriate regional leadership materializes, I believe it is entirely possible.
Ok time for me to go and enjoy a bit of my Friday night. Tomorrow I'm leaning towards posting about some intriguing cultural differences I've noticed so far, so check back if you're interested.
No real updates other than then usual mundane activities of cooking dinner, getting supplies, and keeping the apartment in order. I'm going to spend the weekend doing copious amounts of reading and perhaps even begin thinking about the two Globalization & Global Governance essays I have due on October 29th. Despite the verbose style of many of the writers I have to read, I am excited to learn more about the cultural and political history of the Caribbean. It's such a unique region. It is both united and fragmented in so many ways - many different national languages and cultures, isolated by water, with limited resources and populations, as well as varying political status, all united by a common history of slavery, colonialism, and continued marginalization. Thus Caribbean integration presents a truly vexing problem. On the one hand it seems impossible. How could so many differing countries, with the geographic, social, and economic problems they have, all unite into an EU-like organization? Yet, there is a sense of a shared Caribbean community. One of my Professors, who is from Grenada, considers herself a "Caribbean Citizen" and I'm sure there are many more like her in the region. How does one emphasize the commonalities and minimize the differences? That, to me, seems to be the task at hand and if the appropriate regional leadership materializes, I believe it is entirely possible.
Ok time for me to go and enjoy a bit of my Friday night. Tomorrow I'm leaning towards posting about some intriguing cultural differences I've noticed so far, so check back if you're interested.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Big News
Today I made a big decision on behalf of my mental, physical, and social health: I've decided to reduce the number of courses I am taking this semester from six to four. I came to this decision through a long deliberative process and I feel strongly that it is the correct move to make.
During orientation full-time students were told they should take all six courses being offered this semester so that they could be on track to finish the program in 12 months. I initially followed this advice, despite being alarmed at the prospect of taking six courses, because I figured I should wait to see what the typical workload is per course. Well, it turns out that each course has lots of reading and plenty of assignments - basically the equivalent of a 300-level social science course at Hamilton. And on top of this is the arduous task of figuring out the UWI system. Everything is done differently here from the way it is at Hamilton, so even the smallest of tasks - like getting the course readings from the library - can take several steps through the university bureaucracy. Last, I have no idea what to expect in terms of teachers' expectations for papers and the style of final exams. In sum, to be trying to figure out all these things for the first time while navigating an insanely tough course load sounds like a recipe for disaster.
When deciding if I could handle taking six of these types of courses in a 12 week period I first thought: why am I here? I came up with two reasons: 1) to learn about regional integration in the Caribbean and around the world by completing this Masters program, and 2) to get to know Barbados and the Caribbean by exploring, meeting people, and enjoying my time here. I came to the conclusion that taking six courses advances the first reason but severely harms the second, so much so that it would cease to exist for the first semester and be severely limited during the rest of the program. Furthermore, it turns out that taking six courses this semester instead of four would only shorten my time in the program by at most four months, with the more likely time penalty being in the 2-3 month range. So I was faced with two prospects. On the one hand I could rush through the program, destroying my mental, physical, and social health in the process, while also likely coming to resent the program and the University and ultimately hating my time here. Or on the other hand, I could spread out my course load over three semesters rather than two; in the process enjoying my time in Barbados by exploring and meeting interesting people, taking my time to do my practicum and two research papers (read: theses) correctly, and preserving my mental, physical, and social health all at the relatively small cost of a couple months of time and rent. Also, I know that I will be able to read and absorb more information if I have fewer classes. In other words, I will learn more by tackling less at one time.
I think the second choice is the correct one, as finishing in 12 months provides no great benefit over finishing in 14 or even 16 months. I know that the extra time away from home will be hard, but by that time I will be able to travel without restrictions and in general should be able to host more visitors due to my more relaxed schedule. Also, seeing as my current plan is to apply to PhD programs in the fall of next year, it does not make a big difference if I do that process from Barbados or from New York City. I will still be back in time to go to interviews and tour schools if I take 16 months to finish this program.
So in sum, I have decided I want to enjoy my time here and learn as much as possible rather than finish as quickly as possible at the expense of my broader experience here. This is the first, and odds are last, time I will get to live outside of the United States for a significant period of time. I believe I owe it to myself to get the most from this experience and taking four courses this semester is the best way to do so. And on that note, I'm off to do some reading on West Indies history!
During orientation full-time students were told they should take all six courses being offered this semester so that they could be on track to finish the program in 12 months. I initially followed this advice, despite being alarmed at the prospect of taking six courses, because I figured I should wait to see what the typical workload is per course. Well, it turns out that each course has lots of reading and plenty of assignments - basically the equivalent of a 300-level social science course at Hamilton. And on top of this is the arduous task of figuring out the UWI system. Everything is done differently here from the way it is at Hamilton, so even the smallest of tasks - like getting the course readings from the library - can take several steps through the university bureaucracy. Last, I have no idea what to expect in terms of teachers' expectations for papers and the style of final exams. In sum, to be trying to figure out all these things for the first time while navigating an insanely tough course load sounds like a recipe for disaster.
When deciding if I could handle taking six of these types of courses in a 12 week period I first thought: why am I here? I came up with two reasons: 1) to learn about regional integration in the Caribbean and around the world by completing this Masters program, and 2) to get to know Barbados and the Caribbean by exploring, meeting people, and enjoying my time here. I came to the conclusion that taking six courses advances the first reason but severely harms the second, so much so that it would cease to exist for the first semester and be severely limited during the rest of the program. Furthermore, it turns out that taking six courses this semester instead of four would only shorten my time in the program by at most four months, with the more likely time penalty being in the 2-3 month range. So I was faced with two prospects. On the one hand I could rush through the program, destroying my mental, physical, and social health in the process, while also likely coming to resent the program and the University and ultimately hating my time here. Or on the other hand, I could spread out my course load over three semesters rather than two; in the process enjoying my time in Barbados by exploring and meeting interesting people, taking my time to do my practicum and two research papers (read: theses) correctly, and preserving my mental, physical, and social health all at the relatively small cost of a couple months of time and rent. Also, I know that I will be able to read and absorb more information if I have fewer classes. In other words, I will learn more by tackling less at one time.
I think the second choice is the correct one, as finishing in 12 months provides no great benefit over finishing in 14 or even 16 months. I know that the extra time away from home will be hard, but by that time I will be able to travel without restrictions and in general should be able to host more visitors due to my more relaxed schedule. Also, seeing as my current plan is to apply to PhD programs in the fall of next year, it does not make a big difference if I do that process from Barbados or from New York City. I will still be back in time to go to interviews and tour schools if I take 16 months to finish this program.
So in sum, I have decided I want to enjoy my time here and learn as much as possible rather than finish as quickly as possible at the expense of my broader experience here. This is the first, and odds are last, time I will get to live outside of the United States for a significant period of time. I believe I owe it to myself to get the most from this experience and taking four courses this semester is the best way to do so. And on that note, I'm off to do some reading on West Indies history!
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