Sunday, February 20, 2011

Jammin Catamaran Cruise

Yesterday I went on a catamaran cruise with 30 other students studying abroad at UWI this semester.  The cruise went from 9am-2:30pm (which meant I had to be up at 7 to meet everyone!!) and included lunch and all you can drink alcohol/soda/coffee/tea, etc.  The cruise started near Bridgetown and immediately went to two snorkeling locals.  The first was a place where we could swim with the turtles, which sounds like some campy tourist cliche, but was actually a lot of fun; more then once a big turtle came swimming right at me or surfaced for air right in front of my face.  The other snorkeling location was by two sunken ships (a recently demised tug boat and a French trawler from 1919).  There were lots of coral growths on the ships and schools of fish swimming around.  Again, very neat.

After the snorkeling the boat went for a sail up the west coast of Barbados, stopped for lunch and swimming outside of the Sandy Lane hotel, and then returned home.  All told there were 50 people on the boat, but it didn't feel crowded because of how large it was.  The only downside to the day was I got a little sunburned after forgetting to reapply sunblock after going swimming so many times.  There goes my goal of spending a year in Barbados without getting burned!

I took a lot of photos of the trip on my waterproof camera which I hope to upload soon.  I have an essay due on Friday and need to finish my thesis proposal, so I doubt I will get to the photos until after those jobs are done. 

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Scratch That

I spoke to soon.  Once I got around to writing my thesis proposal I realized how flawed my topic was.  It's a neat area to study, but the way I structured the topic made it not conducive to an actual scholarly research paper.  The main problem is the lack of a narrow, focused research question that can be examined either quantitatively, qualitatively, or both.  For instance, my Hamilton thesis had a simple research question: "Do strategic retrenchments ever benefit a great power?"  To examine that question I looked at three cases where great powers had retrenched to their benefit.  No drama.  Simple.

The question I posed for this project was not simple.  For starters, there is likely to be little scholarly research on the impact multipolarity would have on CARICOM for me to access.  Without that, I am left to hypothesize throughout the paper with no credible sources to lean upon.  To make maters worse I cannot even think of previous examples of multipolarity affecting regional organizations, therefore leaving me without historical examples to draw upon as road maps.  Finally, the topic is just too broad for the project.  The question of how CARICOM will navigate a multipolar world cannot be answered, in its entirety, in 20,000 words.  I thought of narrowing the topic down to CARICOM security cooperation in a multipolar world, but I am still left with the sources problem.

The result was a mini panic last night, as I realized my topic was crap and that I needed to come up with something new.  After a couple of hours of fruitless brainstorming I remembered the paper on democracy I wrote for my research methods class last semester.  In it I examine three hypothetical variables for democracy in 29 Caribbean and African countries (all former British colonies): years under British rule, GDP per capita, and % of GDP from remittances and official development assistance (foreign aid).  It was an interesting paper to work on and I received a good grade on the assignment, all of which make me think I should appropriate it for my thesis.

Since it was a quantitative paper, I am thinking of adding two case studies to make it a mixed-methods study.  I could examine, generally speaking, the nature of democracy in the Caribbean and Africa and then compare the stories told in the case studies to the results from the data I already have.  I could also add more variables to the study to expand it that way.  Needless to say I have a lot more brainstorming to do regarding this, but I think I am on the right trail.  It would make my life a lot easier to simply expand upon what I already have rather than start something new from scratch.  And right now, I'm all about making my life easier!  Island time!!!!!!!

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Weekend Update

It's been a while since I've posted and I figure I should let you all know what I've been up to.  The past week was busy, with my time split between not feeling that great (there is a cold going around), writing a paper that was due yesterday, class and homework, etc.  The paper topic was simple - is Sustainable Tourism an oxymoron? - but I still found it a difficult piece to write because we were given only 600 words to make our case and were told we needed to not only give our opinion but address the literature on the subject as well.  It was a lot to cram into such a small space.

The one pleasure I have been able to indulge in is reading Ken Follett's Pillars of the Earth which I picked up last Friday while grocery shopping.  I was in the mood for some more fiction after re-reading Isaac Azimov's Foundation Trilogy, and figured I should give Follett a try; all those commercials for the Starz series they did based off the book piqued my interest.  So far it has been a great read and I recommend it to anyone who likes historical fiction.

Other news:

1) I officially dropped that horrendous migration class, so I can cast that out of my mind.

2) I have settled on a thesis topic.  I want to explore the place of CARICOM within the emerging multipolar world.  CARICOM has only existed in a bipolar (Cold War) and Unipolar (post-Cold War) setting so far, which means it will be faced with an unfamiliar international setting as U.S. power declines relative to China, India, Brazil, etc.  How will it navigate this new world?  Will it be able to survive in its current form?  Is it even a worthwhile project anymore?  All things I think are not only interesting but need to be answered.  Also, I haven't come across anyone talking about this yet.

3)  I've been experimenting with the frozen fish section at the supermarket.  There is this company called Tidal which is based in Barbados that sells breaded, precooked fish that you can just quickly re-cook in some olive oil.  So far I have tried their flying fish and white fish (both good but the flying fish is better) and have a box of dolphin fish waiting in my freezer.  I'm very happy to have found some alternative protein sources.

That's about all that's going on.  I'm going to spend the rest of my weekend working on my thesis proposal and reading for class on Monday.  I'm getting back into "school mode" after my month off during winter break.

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Old Photos - Oistins

These are a couple photos from when I went to Oistins a couple of weeks ago with my friends from North Carolina named Trey and Sarah.  It was quite a party! Also, these are the first photos I took with my new waterproof digital camera.  It is a stunning piece of technology.  Thanks again Mom and Dad!

Trey Culler
Sarah Bowdich

This is the stage where everyone shows off their dance moves. 
Goofballs

Haggling for a cab - the national pastime in Barbados.
It was a HUGE crowd.  An hour or so before this picture was taken there were a lot more tourists there, but by 9pm they start to clear out and the locals come in mass.

Bridgetown Photos From Nora's Visit

I've been bad about posting pictures (largely because it takes so damn long!).  These are from Nora's visit in November when we visited Speightstown and Bridgetown.  Enjoy!
 
The first two are of signs in Speightstown.   The first photo is a Barbadian rendition of Dora the Explorer.  Looks oddly Asian and creepy.  Regarding the second photo, Nora thought the concept of "Free Jams" to be funny and its hard to not laugh at the name "DJ Nibbles."  Definitely a food theme at that bar.
The second group of photos are from Bridgetown.  The first one is a picture of the Barbadian pledge, which I presume is the equivalent of our Pledge of Allegiance.  The second is a picture of the Parliament building from a distance.  The third photo is of Nelson's Column, the oldest column honoring Nelson in the world (yes it predates the famous one in Trafalgar square).  The fourth photo is of Nora standing in front of the entrance to Independence Square, which sits across the Careenage from the Parliament building.



















This last photo is a close-up of the Parliament building.  On this side is where the government meets.  Across the way, in the other half of the building not shown in the picture is where the museum of Barbados history and National Heroes is.


Thursday, February 3, 2011

Food, Inc.

I just watched the documentary Food, inc. which details the insanity of our food system by focusing on how it mistreats workers, animals, and the environment.  It is a great film and I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in knowing about where his food comes from.  My only warning is that it might make you not want to eat some of your favorite foods ever again, such as hamburgers.  You've been warned.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Awful Migration Class

Today I had my second Labour Migration class and it was a giant exercise in frustration and anger.  It was even more disorganized than the first class and the professor (who I can confirm does not have her PhD) continues to seem allergic to using scholarly sources in the discussions.  Sure, she will mention certain names after someone makes a comment about something, but there is no discussion or critique of theories.  Instead, the class is basically just one anecdote after another.  But that's not what really bothered me today.  There were three other things about today's class that really angered me.

First, when the professor asked the class to list events/ideologies that were affecting current immigration flows and the debate around them, one student called out in a sly, almost taunting voice "Nine-One-One."  At first the class was perplexed as to what the student meant, but quickly it dawned on us all that she was referring to September 11th, 2001.  Everyone started laughing - the exact response the student clearly wanted to elicit.  I thought it was hugely inappropriate to joke about such a horrific event and I was stunned everyone decided to laugh at it.  I felt personally offended.

Second, at some point during the conversation about globalization (I can't remember exactly how we stumbled upon this) the professor said, with all seriousness, that the only reason the United States supports Israel is because all of the U.S. banks are run by Jews and that they clearly collaborate to funnel funds to Jerusalem.  I told the professor that she was spouting conspiracy theory garbage that had no place in serious conversations, at which point she then challenged me to provide alternative reasons why the U.S. supports Israel.  I told her that the U.S. Jewish community definitely plays a role in lobbying the U.S. government to support Israel, but that there were myriad other reasons behind the policy.  She did not seem impressed.  Again, I was astonished at the unprofessional and offensive nature of the discussion.

The third thing that really pissed me off was the professor's use of religion in class.  I have no problem with people practicing religion as long as they keep it to themselves.  But this professor kept saying, as proof for the notion that people have been migrating since the beginning of human history, that "Adam and Eve migrated out of the Garden of Eden. True Fact."  What place this has in a serious, academic discussion I do not know.  Instead of quoting scholarly articles highlighting historical migration trends, this professor chooses to cite scripture.  Not only is that border-line inappropriate indoctrination, but it is in no way a "true fact."  Therefore it = COMPLETELY USELESS. 

Thankfully I have a plan to get out of this course.  Apparently the wonderful, intelligent, organized professor who teaches my Sustainable Tourism class is also teaching the course on Disaster Management in the summer.  I am going to ask her on Thursday if this is confirmed and if she is 100% sure the class will be offered.  If she says "Yes" I am dropping this horrible migration class and will take the summer course to finish out my classroom work at UWI.  I am crossing my fingers that I will be able to execute this plan, because I do not think I can sit through another one of these asinine and offensive classes without losing my cool.