Monday, January 31, 2011

My Other Blog

A few years ago I thought it would be an interesting idea to engage in an experiment in blogging on my site www.stephenokin.com.  On there I would post my thoughts on various issues, upload funny videos, and link things I thought generally interesting.  However, my production has essentially stopped since my senior year at Hamilton due to a combination of other work, forgetfulness, and laziness.  But I have good news: it is my intention to resuscitate the site!  I hope to start posting more regularly and hope you all will find it within yourselves to put up with even more of my opinions.  To start I just wrote a piece about the future of democracy.  If you are curious I encourage you to check it out and let me know what you think.  I find expressing my views is most interesting when I am being challenged in return, so feel free to tell me how shortsighted, naive, ignorant, etc I am being!

Saturday, January 29, 2011

A Quick Musing

It's interesting that the acronym SIDS has two meanings: "Small Island Developing States" and "Sudden Infant Death Syndrome."  I'm not sure the two are entirely unrelated...

Thursday, January 27, 2011

No Trip to Bermuda

Today I had my first Sustainable Tourism Development class and it was fantastic.  The professor was organized, articulate, and professional, and the subject material seems truly interesting.  There are so many ways tourism overlaps with regional integration and, more broadly, international relations.  I think this class will broaden my perspective on the development challenges facing many countries in the Global South.  It should be very interesting.

That said, one thing I am upset about is that I won't be able to go on the class trip to Bermuda.  Every year there is a sustainable tourism conference held somewhere in the Caribbean region in the springtime.  This year the conference is in Bermuda, a place I am very interested in going to since it is the oldest British colony in the world and is in quite a unique geographic position (right off the coast of the Carolinas).  The trip is during the first full week of April, which unfortunately is the same time I have my two week intensive class in the International Trade Policy program.  I guess I will have to go to Bermuda some other time...

Other news: tomorrow they are fogging my neighborhood for mosquitoes from 4-7pm, so I hope the air seals on my windows are nice and tight.  That stuff really stinks.  I am in the process of trying to find people to go out with so that I don't have to be home at that time.

Hope you all have an enjoyable weekend!  Savor the snow, because before long it will be summer and the heat will be on!

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

State of the Union

I thought President Obama's State of the Union speech was excellent.  He was straightforward, pragmatic, and non-partisan, and outlined a compelling vision of a future America.  I particularly liked how everything he spoke about in the first half of his speech revolved around making America competitive again and what role the federal government not only can, but MUST, play in making this happen.  The power of government to spur innovation has been proven throughout our history and we cannot let ideology get in the way of promoting the creation and manufacturing of next generation technologies in the U.S. 

While his message was aimed at the domestic market, Obama's focus on competitiveness applies to our foreign policy as well.  In fact, I would argue that it must be the cornerstone of our grand strategy for the foreseeable future.  The major challenges posed to the United States in the 21st century (the rise of the rest, terrorism, and climate change) cannot be met by our old strategies of containment or offshore balancing.  This notion, that competitiveness must be our grand strategy, is something I have been toying with for the past couple of weeks.  I've already begun writing about it and hope to post in more detail on the topic soon.  I just thought I would mention it here now given the content of Obama's speech and to give you all a heads up that another political piece is coming soon (I promise it won't be one of my famous rants!).

I'm curious what you all thought about Obama's speech.  Do you think he had the right tone? Focus on the right topics? I'd love to get a discussion going if possible, so let it rip!

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Reflection - Daily Life

I've been meaning to write a reflection about my time in Barbados so far for a while now.  Given that it will likely be a long process I have decided to split it up into sections, so that I can better keep my focus while writing and so that you don't have to read one super long post.  With that in mind here is the first post, which is about my daily life.

Daily life in Barbados is both refreshing and frustrating.  On the one hand, the single climate greatly simplifies wardrobe choices (hooray shorts and flip-flops!), while on the other hand it is easy to get tired of constantly sweating and being dehydrated.  Having quick and easy access to the beach is another plus, but since I live alone I often lack the motivation to go.  I think this has to do with the fact that for me growing up, going to the beach was always a family/social event.  Much like going to a movie, it just seems weird to go alone.  I'm sure I could get over my socialization if I were willing to make the effort, but so far I have not been willing to.  Perhaps it's because, subconsciously, I don't like the beach very much?  I do burn very easily...

More enjoyable social activities for me include simple liming ("Caribbean" for hanging out and drinking socially), going out for a meal, and straight up partying.  One thing I have really enjoyed is the diversity of my friends.  Only one of them is actually Barbadian.  The rest are either Jamaican, from St. Kitts, Canadian, American, Finlandian, Trinidadian...etc.  It makes for a really interesting group since there are so many different perspectives and cultures represented, and stands in sharp contrast to the homogeneity of Hamilton.  I am trying to organize pickup football games (cultural exchange woo!) since I enjoyed that a lot during my Hamilton days and miss the exercise/competitive spirit it gave me.  And finally, of course, I must confess a softspot for video games and reading - two activities that are so simple to enjoy when pursued correctly (i.e. don't force yourself to read/play anything you're not interested in).  (I just finished Bill Bryson's The Mother Tongue and it was wonderful.  If you are at all interested in language I highly recommend you pick it up!).
 
Academically my life is good.  The first semester went well (I think - still need to get grades back) despite being harder than I had anticipated.  This semester is shaping up to be a bit easier since I will only be taking 4 courses instead of 5, one of which (Sustainable Tourism) includes a trip to some other Caribbean island!  The professors at UWI are are nice and definitely intelligent, but they are disorganized, not the best communicators, and sometimes just factually wrong (I had one professor try to convince me that the American expressions "Main Street" and "Wall Street" meant the same thing...) which can be really frustrating.  Overall I've definitely learned a lot, but it can be a frustrating experience more frequently than I would like.  I miss the well-oiled machinery/competency of Hamilton.

Academically, the one thing I am really dreading is writing another thesis.  I hope to start the question development and research process this semester so that when it ends I can just launch right into writing and be done in a couple months.  The problem is: I have no idea what I want to write about.  I know I have time to figure it out, but I am still a bit nervous about coming up with an interesting and compelling project.  This is made all the worse by the knowledge that I would like to return home for good by late August, meaning my thesis needs to be done by then.

The other activities that take up most of my time are cooking and cleaning (are you yawning yet? I wouldn't blame you).  My troubles going grocery shopping are well documented (either pay $20 for a cab or wait for the shuttle and go on some crazy hour plus ride after which you can kiss your frozen food goodbye) but I think are still worth pointing out again.  It is the one activity that I truly dread every week.  Luckily the apartment I am renting is wonderful.  It has tile floors throughout, making sweeping/cleaning up spills really easy.  It also has high ceilings, giving it a really spacious feel.  Even though it only has A/C in the bedroom I have somewhat acclimated to the temperature here and can exist in a not-entirely-miserable state during even the hottest of days.  By far and away the best thing about my apartment is its proximity to the university.  I can walk to the graduate school "campus" (read: building) in under 10 minutes and to the main campus in under 15.  I think this is one of the main things that has kept me sane during these past couple of months.  I would not be happy if I had to take a rasta bus to and from school.

One process that surprised me is how my attitude toward my neighborhood has changed over time.  Initially I was nervous and apprehensive about the area I was living in.  It looked nothing like any other environment I had spent considerable time in, let alone lived.  Materials that Americans associate with poverty, such as cinderblocks and corrugated sheet metal, are commonly used throughout the neighborhood, Barbados, and the wider Caribbean.  Likewise, it is normal for chickens, cats, monkeys, dogs, and even horses, to be prevalent in a neighborhood.  These are all things I have come to realize.  Yet when I first got here I was afraid that their presence meant I was living in a run-down neighborhood that might be subject to high crime rates.  The reality has been, thankfully, quite the opposite.  My neighborhood is decidedly middle-class, local, and safe.  Kids play in the street until the sun sets.  People go to church on Sunday (including the Jehova's Witnesses down the street).  Locals gather a bit down the hill to play dominoes and lime.  It is, in fact, very nice and relatively quiet (except for that damned ice cream truck which comes at all different times!  It came at 9am this Sunday.  What the hell!?!!)  The amazing sunsets make up for the ice cream truck though! 

So that's basically what my life has looked like over the past 4+ months.  In many ways it is slower and simpler than life back home.  You are forced to have fewer "wants" because they are either impossible to meet or prohibitively expensive.  There is more of a focus on the "bigger" things and away from petty issues.  Life is so challenging for many people here that there just isn't time for the petty concerns/bitching that we Americans make a national pastime out of.  And you know what, it's refreshing.  I have yet to hear anyone complain about Windows crashing or their phone being slow or  any of the other stupid things you hear all the time back home.  There is a recognition that you should be 1) grateful and 2) realistic - i.e. realize nothing ever works perfectly all the time.  It is a lesson I hope to embrace.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Class Schedule for Second Semester

I've officially registered for classes for the coming semester and it's looking pretty good so far.  I've decided to take four classes and just finish off my coursework part of the degree rather than take three this semester and one over the summer.  While the relaxing schedule of only three courses sounds really nice, I was worried about the summer course becoming unavailable (no guarantee it will be offered), so decided I was best off just taking 4 this semester and being done with it.  The last thing I wanted to happen was to plan on taking the summer course, have it become unavailable, and then need to come back to Barbados in the fall to take one more course.  That would have been a nightmare.  And, knowing UWI, a real possibility!

Anyway, the four courses I am taking are:
1) The European Union and African Union
2) Issues in Labour Migration
3) Sustainable Tourism Development
4) Business, Government, and International Political Economy

I wish I could tell you what I will be studying in these courses, but alas UWI does not provide any course descriptions, so I am just as curious as you are!  Specifically, Business, Government, and IPE is such a broad title for a course.  I can imagine an infinite number of topics that could be covered under such a minimal description.  If I actually had more choices for courses I would find this really frustrating since I could be signing up for classes it turns out I am not interested in.  I guess this is one instance where less choice is good?  At the very least it gives me a reason to not think about this stuff too much...

With this course load my schedule will be very light.  I will have class from 5-8pm on Mondays and Tuesdays ( EU/AU and Labour Migration respectively) and from 1-4 on Thursdays (Tourism Development).  Those three classes will last all semester.  Business, Government, and IPE is another one of those intensive two-week courses from the Masters in International Trade Policy program.  It will be held on Monday through Friday, from 9am-1pm, from March 28th-April 8th.  Those should be a fun two weeks.

Finally, I hope to start work on my thesis during this semester.  With only three full-time courses I think I can manage to develop a good research question and begin accumulating material so that when classes end in May I can jump right into writing and finish at the very latest by August.

So that's an academic update.  Socially I've been having a good time as well.  I've been hanging out a bunch with two Americans who moved into a friend's old apartment after she returned home last month.  Their names are Trey Culler and Sarah Bowdich and they are here for one semester while doing a study abroad program from the University of North Carolina: Wilmington. They're really nice people and its fun to spend time with them (I will post some pictures of them/our activities soon).  Tomorrow we are going out to celebrate Trey's birthday at a really nice restaurant called The Tides and then some partying in nearby Holetown.  It should be a great night.

And then there is the Jets.  Watching playoff football during the weekends has been an absolute blast due to the quality of the games.  I will be sad when the season is over, but to be honest it's probably a good thing since the semester starts next week and I can't spend my Sundays just watching TV!  So I am going to enjoy these last couple of games, hope the Jets advance to the Super Bowl, and try not to annoy the entire neighborhood with my screaming at the TV.

Ok, time to go make dinner!  I'll be back with that 4-month reflection sometime before class starts on Monday.  Cya soon!

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Back for Round 2

Ok so it's been a while since I last blogged and there's a fair bit to update ya'll on.  To start with, the end of last semester was very hectic but went well I think.  I have yet to get my final grades, but I feel like I did well on my exams/papers.  We shall see though.

Also, I am officially back in Barbados after 14 days at home.  Those 14 days represent all the time I am allowed outside of the country (except for the upcoming Fulbright reunion getaway in Jamaica - more on that later), so I cannot go home again until July 1st.  This will be the longest I have ever been away from home but thankfully my parents will be coming to visit in early March, and Nora and my brother are also likely to make visits at some point in the next six months.  These visits will help break up the time away into more manageable sections of 1-2 months.

My 14 days at home were unbelievably hectic.  I spent the first couple of days in Connecticut with my family and Nora celebrating Christmas, which was really nice.  Christmas always feels right in the CT house.  After that I went to a fraternity brother's house in Monticello, NY for a mini-reunion.  I only stayed for one night, which was the exact amount my liver could handle; my tolerance has dropped a lot since I graduated.  Still, there will always be a part of me that enjoys tackling a 30-rack of Keystone Light with my fraternity brothers, so in that sense it was good.

Following the fraternity reunion I returned to NYC where I spent day after day running around like a crazed chicken catching up with various people from Hamilton and Horace Mann, meeting family friends about job possibilities, and doing other errands such as getting a hair cut, dentist, etc.  It was nice to be back in NYC, but I barely got to enjoy it since I didn't have much spare time.  The two things I did get to do were go to a Broadway show (Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson) and finally go to the Rose Planetarium attached to the Museum of Natural History.  I owe both of those outings to Nora, who is so good at getting me to go on cultural adventures.  They were both a lot of fun.

Thankfully I returned to two more weeks of break in Barbados rather than the immediate resumption of school.  This has given me a lot of time to catch up on sleep, read for pleasure, take care of some business, and meet new people.  Currently I am in the middle of reading two books: Bill Bryson's The Mother Tongue which is a history of the English language, and Isaac Asimov's second book in the Foundation trilogy Foundation and Empire.  On the social front, two days ago I met a nice couple from North Carolina who will be doing a semester of undergraduate work at UWI via study abroad.  We went to a sports bar on the South Coast to watch the KC-Baltimore and Packers-Eagles games and had a great time.  I hope to hang out with them again.

Unfortunately being back in Barbados means my diet is going to contract again.  My consumption of fresh produce and meat will decline while my intake of canned/frozen veggies and soup/beans as well as carbs will increase.  I packed half of my suitcase with food from the US, so I have a couple of treats lying about the house (goldfish, beef jerky, chocolate chip pecan cookies, etc) but it will be a test of endurance to see how long I can make them last!  Thankfully I can have my parents/brother/Nora bring down some goodies when they come to visit. 

That's pretty much all that's going on for now.  I am trying to figure out my course load for the coming semester and will post about it as soon as I settle on a schedule.  Also, I have been planning to write a reflection on my first four months here, so stay tuned for that.