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.

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.

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!

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! 

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!

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 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?