#but only for communities that is mostly made of locals and not like oversea students | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

terubakudan · 3 years

Text

This may be an old article from 3 years ago, but these cultural aspects/observations still apply even today. And though this is strictly a Chinese perspective, a lot of these everyday life bits are observed in Overseas Chinese communities in countries such as The Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, etc. as well as countries heavily influenced by Chinese culture like Taiwan, Japan, and Korea.

I've always liked learning about other cultures and making comparisons between how things are done East vs West. Which probably stems from growing up with two cultures and Mom raising me on American movies xD

So the irony is if you asked me how many Chinese, Taiwanese, or Hong Kong actors I know, chances are I know as much as you do xD Like Jackie Chan, Andy Lau, and that's about it. But if you asked me about Western (specifically American and British) actors, then I have a useless brain dump of movie trivia and who was with who in what movie xD

Hmmm, both Taiwan and the Philippines are two distinct cultures but both look up to a certain country and are fascinated by that. In Taiwan's case, Japan and the US for the Philippines. In both cases, this is due to being under the rule of those countries in their history. Taiwan being under Japan for 50 years, and the Philippines being under Spain for 300+ years, followed by periods of American and Japanese rule. To put it simply though:

Taiwan is "mini-Japan with a very Chinese culture".

The Philippines is "former colony of Spain with lots of American influences".

But unlike the author, I've never set foot in any Western country, so my understandings are strictly what I've observed in media, which while it can be accurate, doesn't compare to actually experiencing the culture.

Some further elaboration on most points:

#1 We quite literally use chopsticks for everything. We use it to pick rice, viands, vegetables, fruit, smaller desserts, almost all the food you can think of.

But where do you put your chopsticks when you're not using them? Just put them on top of your bowl or flat on your plate. But do not ever stick them vertically. It's taboo, since it looks like incense sticks, which we use to pray for those who have passed, like our ancestors or during funerary services.

#3 The majority of Asia is obsessed with fair/white skin. In my time at the Philippines, I grew up watching all these Dove Whitening commercials and my classmates often commented on how fair my skin was, how they envied it etc. In Taiwan, girls often say they don't want to 變黑 (biàn hēi) 'become dark'. Japan and Korea too are not innocent of this either (if their beauty/skin products weren't a dead giveaway).

People here at Taiwan often mistake me for being from Hong Kong or Japan (as long as I don't speak Mandarin with my heavy accent xD). A Taiwanese classmate of mine joked that she often gets mistaken for being from Southeast Asia due to having a darker complexion. And while I laughed it off with her at that time, looking back, I now realize she was lowkey being racist. xD

And believe me Filipinas have mentioned literally being told 'your skin is so dark' here in Taiwan, or being given backhanded compliments like 'you're pretty despite having dark skin' and...*facepalms*

My point is, beauty is not exclusive to skin color. People who still think that are assholes.

#5 Not to say we don't have salt and pepper, but yes soy sauce and vinegar are the classic condiments you see on the table, be it at home or at a restaurant.

And if I may add, Taiwanese love their pepper. xD If you ever get to eat at a night market or a smaller "Mom n' Pop-style" restaurant here, some dishes/soups tend to add quite an excessive amount of pepper. Not like anthills, but quite liberally and way more than average. Enough that you see traces of pepper at the bottom of the food paper bag or swirling in your soup. xD

#6 I know this all too well from personal experience. In my years of studying at Taiwan, I always had roommates. 3 in my first school (I graduated high school in the Philippines pre K-12 so I had to make up 2 years of Senior High), followed by 2 in college, with the exception of 1 in freshman year.

My college did offer single person dorms but at around 9000 NTD ($324) per month compared to around 6000 NTD ($216) per semester. Because I wanted to save, the choice was obvious for me xD. But ah, this doesn't mean I don't value personal space, in fact I love having the room to myself, and since both my roomies would go home to their families every weekend, weekends were bliss for me xD

And you don't have to be friends with your roommates (that's an added bonus however), you just have to get along with them. I was quite lucky to have really great roommates all throughout my schooling years.

#9 In the Philippines, we do. Owing mostly to American influences and maybe being predominantly Catholic? xD

#10 *sigh* Chinese parents and parents from similar Asian cultures tend to put too much emphasis on grades, so much that kids could get sent to cram school as early as elementary. This is because what school you get into could literally affect your future job opportunities, and while that's not exclusive to any particular country/culture, I feel it's especially pronounced here in Asia. I'm really lucky my own parents weren't that strict about it. However, if your parents don't point the mistakes out to you, chances are you'll do it yourself, if you're an Asian kid like me anyway. xD It just becomes a habit.

#11 My family is an exception to this. xD We do say 'I love you' directly, but complete with the 'ah eat well ok?', 'don't scrimp on food', 'sleep well' and similar indirect words/actions of affection. We were doing 'Conceal, Don't Feel' before it became popular. xD

#13 I'm kind of confused about this but this has sort have changed over the years in which eye-contact is now more encouraged. But don't stare, especially at elders and authority figures. Sometimes it's just shyness though. xD And I've observed this with my own Taiwanese friend, especially when I'm complaining or ranting to her about something. xD I'm a person who likes to express my opinions strongly, which tends to scare/alienate some of the locals here, as doing so is kind of frowned upon. Thankfully, she does listen and offers her take on things.

#14 Ah this. xD In the Philippines, this is a common greeting known as beso-beso, and I freaked out too when an auntie did that to me. xD Needless to say, Mom lectured me later on what that was. ^^"

#16 Along with #3 another crazy beauty standard. In my view, people always look better with a little meat on them and when they're not horribly thin. Asia still has a loonng way to go with accepting different types of bodies if you ask me. This combined with modern beauty standards has made the pressure for women especially to 'look beautiful' higher than ever.

I know many people love them but please, starving yourself or glorifying eating disorders is never OK just to get this kind of 'ideal' body. I'm not part of the Kpop fandom, but even I think when idols get bullied just for gaining the least bit of weight among other insensitive comments, that's really going too far.

#17 'If you want to make friends, go eat.' <- I couldn't agree more. In the Philippines we have a greeting: 'Kumain ka na ba?' (Have you eaten?) . Similarly in Taiwan, we have 吃飯了沒? (chī fàn le méi), both of these can mean that in the literal sense but are often used as greetings instead. By then which invitation to having lunch/dinner together may or may not follow. Food really is a way for us to socialize and to catch up with what's going on in each other's lives. Not to say we don't have regular outings like going out to the mall, going shopping, etc. but eating together is a huge part of our culture, be it with family or friends.

And while I'm at it, some memes that are way too accurate good to pass up xD

Parents, uncles, aunties alike will fight over the bill xD

Alternatively:

You just space out until your name is called xD

My parents are guilty of the last one. Logic how? xD

#18 True. xD I like giving compliments out to people but I have a hard time accepting them myself, though I've learnt how to accept them much more now than before. We're kind of raised to constantly downplay ourselves so we often say things like 'ah no no' or 'I'm really not that good'. The downside of this of course is that it can come off as somewhat fake. xD

Again from personal experience, that same classmate who made the lowkey racist remark, she was good, she was on the debate team, was a honor student, knew how to mingle with people, but she downplayed herself way too much, while praising me but I honestly thought that she never really meant it from how she treated me. She wanted to keep me around her yet make backhanded compliments at me and she didn't want me socializing with my other classmate who is now my friend. *sigh* It was only after discussing this with one of my roomies did I realize how this 'excessive downplaying' might come off to people like me who more or less grew up with a more 'Westernized' mindset. I'm not saying brag about your achievements but don't be overly humble about them either, which can also be a turn off.

#20 We do tend to be a lot more realistic on how we view things, neither entirely optimistic nor pessimistic. We try to think of things practically and often analyze things on pure logic. A downside of this however, is that Chinese people can be overly practical. Taiwanese for instance don't like to 'find inconveniences' and generally keep to themselves, meaning, they won't help you in your hour of need even when they do have the capabilities. Sounds really harsh I know, but in my 6 years of living in Taiwan, while this doesn't apply to all the people, a lot of them really do only find/talk to you when they need something.

So for some people saying Taiwanese are 'friendly', that's BS xD If you ask me, Filipinos are infinitely more friendly, and again while not all, generally make more of an effort to help you when you need it. I really felt more of a real sense of community during my years growing up in the Philippines compared to Taiwan.

#21 Children do tend to stay with their parents well into college and adulthood, since Chinese families are indeed very family-oriented, in a lot of cases, grandparents often live under the same roof as us as well! And it really does save a lot of money. I see there's a real stigma in the US when it comes to "living with your parents", but that's starting to change especially because of Covid and having more and more people move back in with their parents.

Housing unfortunately is pretty much hella expensive no matter where you go, and Taiwan is no exception. Steep housing prices and the very high cost of raising a child (schooling + buxiban fees, etc.) contribute to a very low birth rate and thus an aging population like Japan. It's not uncommon to see both parents working in Taiwan.

#23 I'm an overthinker myself, but I totally agree with the author that the best is to strike a good balance between these two. Which I guess is why I love drawing or any other related creative attempts, it helps me be more spontaneous or well, creative! I like to remain intellectually or artistically inspired.

#24 Is French high school really like that? xD My friend did watch SKAM France and more or less got a culture shock from what was depicted on the show. I can confirm however that most high schools both in the Philippines and Taiwan require students to wear a uniform, only in college is everybody free to wear casual/civilian clothes.

#26 Ah this is part of our Asian gift-giving etiquette xD We always open gifts later after the event/meeting and in private. Never open them in front of the person who gave it to you or in front of others. This is to prevent any 'shame/embarrassment' that may result both to yourself and to the gift giver. I know this may come off as something weird since some people may want a more honest response or immediate feedback when it comes to gift-giving, but that's just how it is in our culture. You're always free to ask us though (in private) if we liked the gift or not ^^"

#28 I want to say the same goes to drinking, partying, and drugs however xD Those are things which are still frowned upon in our culture. And to be honest, whenever I see those in movies, it does kind of turn me off xD It doesn't mean that we're "uncool" or "boring", we just think that there are much better or healthier ways of "having fun".

#31 Is this true in France?! Man I would kind of prefer that instead of people being on their phones all the time xD This kind of goes with #20 in that Chinese are overly practical or logical, and don't read fiction as much as nonfiction. My Taiwanese friend is an exception though, she's a bibliophile who loves the feel of paper books compared to e-books, and it's a trait of her that I like a lot. Both the Philippines and Taiwan however have a huge fanbase when it comes to manga and anime though.

I'm all for reading outside of "designated reading" at schools especially. Reading fiction improves your vocabulary too, and can be quite fun! It helps you imagine and really invest in a world/story, and if you ask me something that I feel Westerners are better at, they're more in touch with their emotions and creativity, and are thus much more able to write compelling or original stories. Believe me, I've seen a fair amount of Chinese movies that rip off Western movie plotlines xD

#33 Nothing much to add on here..except that since I'm a "weird" person, Mom often jokes that she got the wrong baby from the hospital. xD

#35 True. While I agree with the care and concern that your fellow community can give you, the downside of this is we tend to only hang out with our own people, e.g Chinese with Chinese, Taiwanese with Taiwanese, etc. I've seen too that it's especially hard to make friends in Japan and Korea as a foreigner. Not only is there the language barrier, but the differences in culture too. In a way, Asians can be pretty close-minded on getting to know other cultures or actually making friends with people from other countries. I know this all too well being half-Taiwanese/half-Filipino, being neither "Filipino" enough nor "Taiwanese" enough. xD It's more of people here being too used to what they're comfortable with.

#36 Oh this is something I feel that Chinese students and other students from similar cultures should really improve on. xD How will people respect you if you don't speak your mind?

I felt bad especially for my Spanish teacher in college, granted it was an introductory course (Spanish I and II) but the amount of times that our teacher had to prompt a student to recite/speak even with clear hints already made her (and me too) extremely frustrated. The thing is, these are college students, I personally feel they don't have any reason to be so shy of speaking and technically by not doing so they're slowing the pace of the class too much and a lot of time is wasted.

Unfortunately you can't always be very vocal with your thoughts and opinions in most Asian cultures. I would say strive for that, but at the same time, play your cards well, especially if you're in a workplace setting.

If you made it to the end, thank you for reading and here's a cookie! 🍪 I'm not perfect and there's bound to be something I missed so please let me know if you spotted anything wrong. Feedback/questions are very much welcome and please feel free to share about your country/culture's differences or similarities!

54 notes · View notes

bonkers-4-hatter · 4 years

Text

Oversea Love

Anon asked: Can you do aizawa x fat! Student! Readerlemon or fluff i want both in all honesty! Possible if you can make it a series? I really truly adore your creative Writing on fanfiction, it makes me/everyone feelz special while reading it! It cheers me up alot and get my mood on fire!<3

Yass!! Aizawa is so great, I love him so much! I’m glad you enjoy my writing. I hope you enjoy this! Also, reader is 20 in this story and a college exchange student from America.

If you enjoy my content, please consider buying me a coffee.

Oversea Love:

You sighed looking at the clock above your stove. He was late...again.

It didn’t really surprise you since from the first day you met the pro hero, he was late for your scheduled training at the local university. You were an American exchange student here for College. There were only a handful of exchange students, it was a new program they were trying that paired each student with a pro hero for their first year as they help them to continue to build your quirks, taking you out on assignments and helping you build a name for yourself in the community like an internship on steroids if you will.

It’s been about eight months since you started the program with Eraser Head, but you call him Shota or Sho for short. You have since...your first night together. It wasn’t expected at all, it just sort of happened after coming back from a patrol with the hero.

It was a villain that was too coward to fight at first, jumping you from the shadows of the alley, using his quirk to his advantage; a fucking speed quirk. Those fuckers are a pain in the ass and that rang true with the fight you and Eraser Head had with him. The damn man went after you, a smirk on his face the whole damn time.

You know why he went after you, it’s the same thing every time; your weight. Everyone around you doubted you were going to be a hero, are a hero, etc. just because you’re bigger than the average hero. However, you proved them wrong, the villain was being too cocky and soon found out the power of your quick and how much he fucked up. However, before that happened, he used his speed quirk to attack you multiple times; cutting you and punching you and you were beaten up, you weren’t going to lie.

Shota was gentler with you after seeing the amount of damage on your soft body. He knew you weren’t weak in the slightest, but he told you that seeing you in that condition made him worried and pissed beyond comprehension. A smile tugged at your lips at the memory of how he carried your soft, battered form back to your apartment to patch you up.

“I told you to stay to the sidelines (Y/N)! That bastard was the one the police have been after, the one that took down two other pros in the last week.” Aizawa rummaged through your bathroom to find first aide equipment as he continued to scold you and your actions.

“You were pinned Shota, I had to jump in!” You stood up as he came back into the room, arms full of bandages and tubes. Wincing at the fast movement and fresh wounds, the pro hero only gently shoved you back down onto your bed where you were previously sitting.

“I’m a pro (Y/N), I can handle it.” He gestured for you to raise your arms which you did. Lifting your shirt up, he tossed the bloody and torn fabric to the side, his eyes scanning your body at the damage.

“I...I was just worried okay? You were getting beat too.” You shifted your eyes away, too afraid to meet his gaze as he started to clean your wounds, your heavy body jerking once in a while at the alcohol he was using to disinfect everything. There was silence for a while as he continued to clean you,wrapping various parts of your body that were in worse shape. All the while, your round cheeks flushed at just how pathetic you must’ve sounded to him.

“You’re an easy target.”

Your ears perked at his words....even he was mentioning your weight. You figured he’d mention it sooner or later, but damn. You only looked away as you felt tears well up in your eyes, you held it in, refusing to cry in front of him, you also wrapped your arms around your still exposed stomach, clutching the pillow like skin, suddenly so ashamed of it.

“N-No! I don’t mean your weight (Y/N)...you’re perfect just the way you are. I-I meant the fact that the villains around here know that you’ll do what it takes to help those around you; you think about how to get everyone safe before forming a well thought out plan...villains will easily use that to their advantage.”

You looked up at him, a red color evident on his cheeks as he looked away from you. A laugh erupted from your throat at the mere sight of the pro hero blushing like a bashful boy.

Without thinking, you stood up, pain in your face still, but your mind at ease as you hugged him. After a few moment, his arms wrapped around your still uncovered top half, fingertips dancing along your soft bandaged skin.

“C-can I try something?” His voice cut the comfortable silence to which you only nodded, still enjoying the warmth his arms and body were bringing you.

“You can push me away and it’ll never happen again if you don’t want it, okay?” There was a serious tone to his voice which was always there, but there was more of an edge to it. Nodding your head again, he pushed away from the hug, hands sliding down to your hips.Biting your lip, your eyes glanced into his as he leaned his head down, inching closer to you and soon, your lips were against one another. One of his hands slid up the expanse of your back, going over the bandages and rolls adorning it before cupping the back of your head. His other hand sliding the short distance to cup and grope your ass.

You moaned at the feeling of well, everything. You gasped as you were suddenly lifted into the air as Aizawa picked you up, your legs wrapping around his waist as he made his way to your bed, sitting down on the soft mattress with you on his lap where you could feel just how excited he was.

Before he captured your lips once more, he just looked at your flushed face, before cracking a small grin.

“Everything’s cancelled tomorrow, you’ll be getting enough training tonight.”

“(Y/N), I’m sorry I’m late, All Might held me up.”

Giggling at your boyfriends words, you just smiled at him from the couch as you saw him fling his briefcase to the floor, his usual scowl on his face. Ever since that night, you both have been seeing each other and of course keeping it professional when out and about when it came to training's and patrols.

A warm body slid next to you on the couch, arms wrapping around your soft and squishy middle, dragging your body down so you were mostly on top of him. You tried to wiggle out, but to no avail, he was just too strong for you.

“Shota, you’re never this clingy, everything okay?”

His arms tightened around you, hands running up and down your back, fingertips gently running over the rolls and curves of your back, tracing every single indentation on it as if this would be the last time he would be able to hold you like this.

“All Might knows about us.”

His words made you freeze, your smile dropping from your face. The number one hero was one of the faculty at your university. Your own hands started to run up and down his chest trying to ease your anxiety.

“What did he say?” Your voice was hardly above a whisper, your mind reeling at what he might’ve said.

“He said to be careful, that the media would eat this up and to try to be not so obvious when we’re training, until you’re done with the program that is, but above all he said that as long as I’m happy, he’s fine with it.” Your lips curved up at his words.

“You had me so worried for a minute there; jerk.” He only smirked at you and leaned down to capture your lips with his. Breaking the kiss, he just looking at you for a moment.

“I love you (Y/N).”

“I love you too Shota, now shut up and kiss me.”

131 notes · View notes

arrghigiveup · 4 years

Video

youtube

Speech made by Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong today to announce the new restrictions for Singapore. We’re finally going under lock down like the rest of the world.

Transcript:

My fellow Singaporeans Good afternoon

I last spoke to you on COVID-19 three weeks ago.

Since then, the number of new cases daily has begun to rise. We used to see fewer than 10 new cases a day. But in the last two weeks, despite our best efforts, we have routinely had more than 50 new cases daily.

Initially, many of the new cases were imported from overseas, mostly returning Singaporeans. Then last week, we began to have more local cases. Furthermore, despite our good contact tracing, for nearly half of these cases, we do not know where or from whom the person caught the virus. This suggests that there are more people out there who are infected, but who have not been identified. And they may be passing the virus unknowingly to others.

In the last few days, we have also discovered several clusters at foreign worker dormitories, and one at a nursing home. These are very worrying, because large numbers of people live together in dormitories and nursing homes. A single case can quickly lead to a large cluster. Furthermore, nursing home patients are mostly old and frail, and very vulnerable to the virus.

As the situation developed over the past weeks, we have tightened our safe-distancing measures progressively. Singaporeans have responded well, calmly and responsibly, and made adjustments in their daily lives. By working together, we have kept the outbreak under control.

But looking at the trend, I am worried that unless we take further steps, things will gradually get worse, or another big cluster may push things over the edge. I discussed this with the Multi-Ministry Task Force (MTF). We have decided that instead of tightening incrementally over the next few weeks, we should make a decisive move now to pre-empt escalating infections. We will therefore impose significantly stricter measures. This is like a circuit breaker. It will help reduce the risk of a big outbreak occurring. And it should also help to gradually bring our numbers down. This in turn will allow us to relax some of the measures. This circuit breaker will apply for one month, in the first instance. The Task Force is holding a Press Conference immediately after I finish speaking to you to explain the details. But let me give you the key points.

Continuation under the cut

First, we will close most workplaces, except for essential services and key economic sectors. Food establishments, markets and supermarkets, clinics, hospitals, utilities, transport and key banking services will remain open. These are essential services. We also should not disrupt economic sectors that are strategic, or form part of a global supply chain. People working in these industries can continue to go to work, with safe-distancing measures in place. But most other work premises must close. If the person can work from home, he should do so — telecommute. But others will not be able to, including foreign workers on construction sites and in shipyards. These workers live in dormitories, and we will make arrangements to look after them. The closure of work places will take effect from next Tuesday. This will ensure that most of our workforce stay at home and limit their physical interaction to as few people as possible.

Second, we will also move to full home-based learning in our schools and Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs). We started with one day of home-based learning this week. This has gone smoothly, with some teething issues being resolved. The Ministry of Education (MOE) will work with the schools to implement full home-based learning starting next Wednesday. All preschool and student care centres will also be closed, but will provide limited services for children of parents who have to continue working and are unable to make alternative care arrangements.

Third, we will tighten restrictions on movements and gatherings of people. It boils down to three things. First, stay at home, as much as possible. Second, avoid socialising with others beyond your own household. Gatherings should be confined to your household. Avoid visiting even your extended families who are not staying with you, especially if they are elderly or vulnerable. Third, go out only to do essential things. For work, if you are in essential services or key economic sectors. To buy food at markets, or to take out from restaurants and hawker centres. Or to exercise in the neighbourhood park, keeping a safe distance from others.

The spirit of these measures is to get all of us to minimise physical contact. If we do not go out, if we avoid contact with others, then the virus will not be able to spread. It is as simple as that.I know this is very hard to do. As a practical matter, in places like hawker centres and wet markets, it is difficult to practise safe-distancing, especially on the weekends when it is crowded. It will help if we all adjust our habits. For example, do our marketing on weekdays instead of weekends to avoid the crowd. We will also deploy more Safe-Distancing Ambassadors to encourage people not to crowd together, so please cooperate with them.

Safe-distancing is also hard for a psychological and emotional reason: it goes very much against our human instincts. It is in our nature to want to socialise, to be close to those we are talking to, to take comfort in the warmth and company of friends and family. I fully understand this. But I hope you will also understand why we all have to take social distancing extremely seriously in this period. This is the only effective way to slow the transmission of the virus, so that we gradually bring our numbers down. It is also the best way to keep our families safe, and particularly to protect our seniors from getting ill. So please bear with the painful adjustments that we have to make. Each and every one of us can, and must do our part, to keep everyone in Singapore safe from COVID-19.

Let me now say a few words in Malay and Mandarin.

[repetition of the above in Bahasa Melayu and Mandarin. Full transcript available Here]

I decided to speak to you directly today to explain why we need to make this major move now, but also to reassure you that things will be alright. Essential services will continue running so that all of us can cope in this new situation, as we batten down to fight this virus. We have enough food supplies to last us through this period and beyond. You can still shop at the supermarket or wet market. And you need not rush to stock up for weeks at a time. You can still buy food from your favourite hawker centres or coffee shop, though you will have to take out and eat at home with your own family, rather than hang out and eat outside with your friends.

I know these measures will impact our workers and businesses severely. This is already a very difficult time for them. We will help them come through this. On Monday in Parliament, DPM Heng Swee Keat will announce additional support for households and businesses, over and above what was provided in the two earlier Budgets. We will also legislate to require landlords to pass on property tax rebates fully to their tenants. We will also pass new temporary legislation to let businesses and individuals defer certain contractual obligations for a period, such as paying rent, repaying loans, or completing work.

Besides implementing this circuit breaker, we also are rethinking our advice on face masks.

Up to now, the Government has advised the general public that you only need to wear a mask if you are not feeling well, and this is to protect others from your germs. This was based on scientific advice and guidelines from the World Health Organization (WHO). We also did not have community spread in Singapore then, so it was very unlikely for you to run into anyone with COVID-19 on the street, much less be infected by them. Nevertheless, the Government gave each household four surgical masks, to use in case you got sick, and to give people peace of mind.

Now, the situation is changing. We now think there are some cases out there in the community going undetected, though probably still not that many. We also now have evidence that an infected person can show no symptoms, and yet still pass on the virus to others. This is why the WHO is reviewing the issue of face masks, and so is the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Therefore, we will no longer discourage people from wearing masks. Wearing a mask may help to protect others, in case you have the virus but do not know it. This is so that you keep your droplets to yourself — when you sneeze or speak or cough. It can also protect yourself a little better, especially if you are elderly, or vulnerable because of pre-existing health conditions.

We still want to conserve surgical masks for the people who really need them – healthcare workers in clinics and hospitals. For everyone else, in a community setting, alternatives like reusable masks will give some added protection. So from this Sunday, the Government will distribute reusable masks to all households. Meanwhile, many community groups have been making and distributing reusable masks for the elderly and vulnerable. I applaud these efforts. They show our community spirit and mutual care.

But remember, mask or no mask, you still need to wash your hands, and keep a safe distance away from other people.

The next few weeks will be pivotal. Even after these stepped-up measures, the number of cases will quite likely still go up in the next few days. They can be cases who have already been infected earlier, except they have not yet shown symptoms, or not yet gone to see their doctor. But if we keep our efforts up, within a few weeks we should be able to bring the numbers under control, bring the numbers down, and get into a more sustainable position.

We will keep on doing our utmost to protect every Singaporean from COVID-19. Many people have been working tirelessly for the past two months — our nurses and doctors, our contact tracers and healthcare staff. We thank them all for their efforts and sacrifices. Now we are all enlisted to join them on the frontline.

It will be a long fight. But if any country can see this through, it is Singapore. We have the resources. We have the determination. We are united. By helping one another through this, we will prevail, and emerge stronger.

Thank you.

#Singapore #coronavirus #covid-19 #sorry this is not my usual blog content but it's important #also is it weird to be proud of a speech?#I am still pissed off at my govt for reasons unrelated to this #but Look! At this! Beautiful piece! of Risk communication!#This is the kind of speech we've been getting all this while #And it's just #So well written #If nothing else #my govt knows how to do risk communication lmao

6 notes · View notes

studyblxrr · 4 years

Text

Singapore Scholarship Interview Questions and Experience

Overview of scholars’ programmes and scholarships for which I went for interviews:

Scholars’ Programmes: 1. National University of Singapore (NUS): University Scholars’ Programme (USP) 2. National Technological University (NTU): CN Yang Scholars’ Programme

Scholarships: 1. Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore Local and Overseas Scholarships (CAAS) (2 rounds) 2. National Technological University: Nanyang Scholarship 3. National University of Singapore: NUS Merit Scholarship (2nd tier; 1st round)

This post has been long overdue but... After my GCE ‘A’ Level a couple years ago, I applied for a number of scholarships and scholars’ programme locally. However, when I was shortlisted for the interviews for these, I realised there were very few platforms on which they actually shared in-depth information about how the interviews are conducted so now that I’m kind of done with all my interviews, I’ve decided to compile everything I went through and share it with you guys. I was actually also just shortlisted for the MOH Healthcare Merit Award / Scholarship interview, but declined to attend it (so I’m sorry to those who were curious to know what the interview would be like) because I’ve decided to enrol into CN Yang Scholars’ Programme. I’ll give you a breakdown of the reasons why in a bit. All right, enough rambling, now it begins!

CAAS Scholarship Interview

Result: Not offered (honestly because I did ZERO preparation for the actual interview lol halp)

There were two rounds of interviews for this scholarship. The first involved something like a ‘roleplay’ where we discussed how we would solve a simulated issue. I passed this round. Honestly, just speak up and try to ‘put yourself out there’ more, so that the interviewer / observer can hear your opinions better and ‘get to know you’ more easily.

The second round of interview is way more formal, with a panel including about 4 management/executive-level guys. I’m pretty sure one of the Directors was there. Since I did not pass this round, I won’t share my answers back then, but I think the trick is to really read up on Singaporean current affairs beforehand, read some opinion pieces (maybe from the newspapers forums), and know about CAAS well!!

The Interview Questions:

1. Tell us about yourself. 2. What are some of your strengths and weaknesses? 3. What do you know about CAAS?

4. Do you think females should also partake in NS? --> I answered this question very poorly (I think), but the interviewer then told me that I could’ve said something like... ‘females also serve the country in different ways, such as in the public sector, in their daily contributions to the workforce and even taking care of their children and their families for the future...and military / NS is not the only way one can contribute to Singapore’s society’

I can’t really recall the rest of the questions, but good luck!

NUS USP Interview

Result: Offered Summary of benefits: Basically a programme that entails 2 years of compulsary on-campus living (NOT sponsored accommodation, but simply a requirement of the programme) that focuses on critical thinking skills and nurturing all-rounded thinking regardless of courses pursued; known to be pretty rigorous, involving classes even after ‘lesson hours’ and intensive writing; according to my seniors, this programme really trains your writing skills so it kind of helps in the long run, with writing theses and all that. pretty cool programme imo.

The Interview: this was a pretty chill, casual interview if i’m completely honest. there were 2 interviewers -- a prof of the programme and a USP alumni.

Q: Tell us about yourself, in terms of how your life has been and what got you interested in USP. A: Well, I’d like to think that I have led quite a unique life in that I spent the first 10 years of my life living in Malaysia. And because my entire childhood was spent there close to nature, it shaped my thinking such that I have a greater appreciation for more hands-on and experiential learning. So, even when I came to Singapore for primary education onwards, I was constantly seeking ways to achieve a more balanced, and exciting education path for myself. For instance, in secondary school, I tried my hand in community service, which made me realise my passion for people (etc. etc. etc.); and then in Junior College, I decided to pick up photography because I realised that I was lacking the more ‘artistic’ aspect of life. So I did that, alongside my original interest in community service, which I continued to pursue with my own self-initiated Fundraising projects. Why I’m interested in USP is because I realised that there are multiple tiers to it that allow me to be exposed to a wider variety of knowledge fields and skill sets, and also more abstract and humanities-focused courses even though I’m interested in joining a science course.

Q: You mentioned that you spent the first 10 years of your life in Malaysia, can you tell us more about what you think of the sense of rootedness you have towards Singapore vs Malaysia? A: (I’m assuming this is pretty specific towards my previous answer and probably none of you will be asked this as well so I’ll skip on what I replied; but I gave a pretty neutral answer, saying that I’m thankful towards M’sia for having shaped me as a child to think the way that I do today, and towards S’pore for the opportunities I have had to grow even more as a more mature person etc.)

Q: What was your community service project about and what did you learn from it? A: It was a fundraising project that aimed to raise funds so that the organisation we were working with would be able to continue to sustain its operations, and fulfil its aim of keeping all its programmes free of charge. Because I was the student leader of this project, I was in charge of coordinating recruitment, attendance as well as liaising with managements to host our fundraising events. So through these, I was able to learn how to communicate better with others and negotiate for better terms for my project. Because I was doing this along with exams, and another year-long tuition programme for less fortunate children, I also learnt to manage my stress and the importance of pacing myself so that I would not overwork and burn out.

Q: Speaking of non-profit organisations, what do you think of them in general? A: I feel like ultimately, non-profit organisations are still businesses that require a certain amount of profit and/or revenue to continue sustaining their operations. So, in the end it’s still a lot of communicating with other for-profit businesses to sell their efforts so that they would be sponsored, and so that others would be enticed to give back to the community by helping to sustain the non-profit organisations. My fundraising project was actually able to give me more insight into the behind-the-scenes of running a non-profit organisation, and we realised that even donations had to be audited and checked, and the staff still had to be paid. etc. etc. etc.

Q: What do you think sets you apart from your peers such that you will be able to excel under USP? A: I believe that I have the passion and the drive to keep up with the rigorous programmes and classes at USP. I am also very ambitious, so I will constantly strive to improve myself. Because I’ve always been very receptive to both the sciences and the humanities and have equal appreciation for both, I am also confident in understanding and adapting to the style of USP. I also think that because of my experiences, I will also be able to bring more unique ideas to the table as USP and contribute to more meaningful discussions.

NTU CN Yang Scholars’ Programme Interview

Result: Offered Summary of benefits: Includes the Nanyang Scholarship and guaranteed overseas final year research project (5 to 8 months), guaranteed overseas exchange for one semester, guaranteed four years of stay in NTU halls of residence, opportunities for research attachment from Year One onwards, opportunities to attend an international conference with full subsidy, opportunities to meet top leading scientists and academics, opportunities for PhD study at NTU or Joint PhD with partner university (Minimum CGPA of 4.00 for application of a scholarship from NTU)

The Interview: again, a pretty chill, pretty brief interview. there was only 1 interviewer.

Q: Tell me briefly about yourself. A: (summarised achievements + passions/interests)

Q: Do you intend to do a PhD after you graduate with a Bachelor’s Degree? A: Yes, because........ (just talk about furthering your passions and a PhD honing new skills...)

To be honest, the rest of the interview was mostly the interviewer explaining what the scholarship and scholars’ programme would entail. It was quite an easy breezy interview.

NTU Nanyang Scholarship Interview (under SCBE)

As my first-choice course was Chemical Engineering, naturally I had my Nanyang Scholarship interview under the School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering (SCBE), with the Academic Chair and an administrative staff as the interviewers.

Result: Offered along with ADDITIONAL LEAD AWARD Summary of Nanyang Scholarship benefits: Full coverage of subsidised tuition fees (after Tuition Grant), Living allowance of S$6,500 per academic year, Accommodation allowance of up to S$2,000 per academic year (Applicable to scholarship holders who reside in NTU hostels only), Travel grant of S$5,000 for an overseas programme (one-off), Computer allowance of S$1,750 (one-off)

Summary of LEAD Award benefits: can expect up to SGD$6,000 reward in the form of one of the following four options: (1) $1,500 cash award per semester (max 4 semesters); or (2) Overseas Internship for 2 months at MIT or other world renowned overseas laboratories for research; or (3) Leadership development/ conference/ workshop; or (4) Overseas study trip

--> Trick: if you ever get such a top-up award, just opt for the cash grant as that’s the easiest to reap the full benefit. You’re better off sourcing for your own internships, as the MIT ones are not guaranteed to be available for your cohort, or there might be more administrative procedures for that.

The Interview:

Q: Tell me about yourself. A: (summarised achievements + passions/interests) -- you can talk a little bit about why you chose to study your course of choice

Q: Tell me more about your leadership positions in JC and secondary school. A: (again, summarise your achievements - phrase them in such a way that you end with a positive result that YOU helped to achieve)

More follow-up questions about past work experiences...honestly, just answer from your heart and be truthful. They don’t bite.

Afterwards, they pretty much just started telling me about the scholarship and how I can benefit from it. Following that, they offered me the LEAD Award top-up, which I did NOT see coming but was very flattered by.

NUS Merit Award Interview (under Faculty of Science, Pharmacy)

Result: Offered Merit Award (2nd tier) Summary of benefits: Tuition fees (after MOE Tuition Grant subsidy), S$6,000 annual living allowance, S$2,000 one-time computer allowance upon enrolment, Guaranteed an offer of a 1-semester Student Exchange Programme (SEP) with one of NUS’ overseas partner universities, Guaranteed offers of on-campus accommodation for the first 2 years of undergraduate studies, provided the Scholar submits a complete hostel admission application every year within the prescribed application periods, and fulfils NUS’s eligibility criteria for NUS on-campus accommodation.

The Interview:

I have to say that this was one of my worst interview experiences. The questions were pretty standard at first, asking about (again) yourself, your past experiences, why you chose your course of study. But after a while it took a dark turn. So, by this point I’d already been accepted into the Pharmacy course, so I was merely interviewing for the scholarship and NOT the course. Yet, the interviewer (one of 3 in the panel) started to bombard me with questions about why I got a B in A Level Chemistry (FYI: I had all A’s and a B in H2 Chem), what went wrong (his words, not mine), why I deserved to be given a scholarship IN SPITE OF THE ‘B’, what I will do to overcome this stupid shortcoming...... blah blah blah EXTREMELY TERRIBLE AND ELITIST INTERVIEWER.

But again, that was my experience. I could’ve just gotten a really mean interviewer. Just go in with an open mind. But I left the interview feeling really looked down on and...shamed. Which is sad because now that I am way past that, I wish I had gone back in and told him that grades are not what make a person.

And with that, we have come to the end of this reeeeeeally long (and overdue) post.

If any of you guys have anything to ask me about scholarships / scholarship application processes in Singapore, feel free hit me up in the ask box! :) Hehe.

Oh, and if you were curious, I accepted the C N Yang Scholarship + Nanyang Scholarship (with SCBE LEAD Award) in the end. If you would like me to talk more about how I am finding NTU life, how each Scholars’ Programme works, how I am benefitting from my scholarship, and so on, do ask away! (https://studyblxrr.tumblr.com/ask)

PS. For those of you who might be curious, my profile of entry was A’s in H2 Biology, H2 Math, H2 Econs, GP, PW and a B in H2 Chemistry. I was originally from the Raffles IP programme, with experiences in a fundraising CIP project and a year-long tutoring volunteer programme as ‘extra-curricular highlights’.

14 notes · View notes

scriptautistic · 6 years

Note

OK so I might be wrong but I recall one of the admins here saying they're French (or that they got diagnosed in France ???)...if I'm not mistaken, could they say more about the diagnosis process & how autistic people are treated in France (do you have accomodations, is there a lot of ableism, etc) ? I'm writing a French autistic character and I'm lacking a lot of information because most of the info about autism in France is in French, and I haven't learned the language.

Hi! You’re remembering correctly, I am indeed French, and I can answer that question.

Autism Diagnosis in France

French healthcare is set up with a primary care system with general healthcare providers(such as general practitioners or family doctors), and then you’ve got specialists, and you’ve got to go through primary care to be able to access the specialists and be reimbursed properly. It works like this for all kind of healthcare specialists, and it’s also the case for autism.

I don’t know the age of your character when they’re getting diagnosed, so I’ll cover different situations. Basically, there are three different times in your life where you can get adressed to a specialized team for diagnosis:

As a young child: It is possible the parents noticed that there was something “wrong” with their child and brought it up with the pediatrician. It is also possible that the pediatrician noticed some developmental delays or tell-tale signs of autism during one of the developmental checkups that are (theoretically) scheduled regularly during the child’s first years.

As a school-age child or as a teenager: difficulties (of an academic or social nature) at school can trigger questions from teachers or parents. Typically, the child would then meet the school psychologist who would do a first screening/evaluation. If the school psychologist thought there was ground for a diagnosis, they’d refer the child to a child psychiatrist.

As a teenager or an adult: Self-diagnosis can lead the character to seek an official diagnosis, they’d then go to a psychiatrist (people younger than 26 can go see a psychiatrist directly, people 26 and older need to be refered by their G.P. if they want to be reimbursed) to talk about it. Another possibility is the character seeing a psychologist or psychiatrist for mental health problems, and the professionnal bringing up the possibility of an autism diagnosis. If it was a psychologist who brought it up, the character would need to go and see a psychiatrist anyway, because only doctors can make official referals to specialists.

In any case, the character would end up seeing a general healthcare provider, who would ask them (or their parents) a lot of question about autistic traits, their impact on daily life and on professional/academic life, etc. If what the doctor hears lets them think that there is ground for a diagnosis, they’d then write a letter to a specialized team, with all the information to justify their demand.

Specialized teams can be composed of psychiatrists, psychologists, nurses, speech therapists, occupational therapists, psycho-motor therapists… There is at least one “official” team per admisitrative region in France (so that means 8 total), in what is called a Centre Ressource Autisme or C.R.A. (which means Autism Resource Center). There can also be teams in other places such as in CAMSPs (Center for Early Medico-Social Action, for children younger than 6), CMPPs (Medico-Psycho-Pedagogical Center, for children up to 18 yo), child psychiatry or pediatry services in hospitals, special evaluation units, or coordinated independant practices.

Your character can probably count a couple of months before being refered to one of these teams. It’s going to be quicker for a young child than for an adult, because it’s considered as more of a priority. For me it took 6 months but that’s because they lost my contact info, I think one-two months is more representative.

As for what the actual autism evaluation would look like, I am going to describe mine, but it’s slightly different from place to place and from team to team. It probably would also be slightly different with a child, i went through the evaluation process as an adult.

First I had a preliminary interview with a psychiatrist, it was a general discussion of my autistic traits and of the things that made me suspect being autistic. I also showed him my health report and my school report. After that he said he’d recommand me for a full evaluation and he told me to wait for them to contact me. I had the full evaluation two months later. It consisted in:

A full cognitive assessment, they used the WAIS-IV

A language (and more) assessment, which included a spelling test, a reading speed test, a thing where I had to come up with as many words as I could in two minutes, a theory of mind test, a test in which I had to identify and then imitate intonation, a test in which I had to identify emotions on faces, give definitions or synonyms for words, and maybe more stuff that I can’t remember.

What they called a “functional assessment” which consisted in them asking questions about my daily life, about how I manage activities of daily living, how studying and working is going for me, and so on. I think they had a booklet they took questions from. They also made me do some things like telling the story from a picture and from a picture book, telling a story with objects, playing a kind of pretend game… I was filmed during all of this. They also left the room for a few minutes while leaving me with distractions (a big basket of books and stimmy things), they said they needed to talk but I think they wanted to film how I’d react while alone.

An interview with my girlfriend about my daily life, how I manage activities of daily living and whether I put myself in danger and whether I know how to manage money and stuff. Basically assessing my level of independence I guess.

There was supposed to be an interview with my mom to ask about my early development but she couldn’t come, so they gave her a paper form with questions to answer.

After that, there is one more appointment with the psychiatrist to give me the results.

That’s about all I can say about diagnosis. The whole process took about a year for me but it’s supposed to be shorter, it would have been if they hadn’t lost my contact information. It didn’t cost me anything. It all took place in my local hospital, in a special evaluation unit for adult autism diagnosis. If you have any more questions I’d be happy to answer them.

Attitudes towards autism in France

First I’d say autism is not as well-known in France as it can be in English-speaking countries. If you ask the general population what autism is, chances are you’ll be met with faint memories of Rain Man and not much else. There’s also a certain awareness of rocking with one’s hands over one’s ears as an autistic thing, and it sometimes is used for ableist jokes and mockery. Mostly, if your character were to try and explain they are autistic to people, they’d probably have to explain everything from the beginning because people don’t really have a working definition of autism.

There’s a lot of ableism towards autism among professionnals, even though most specialists I’ve encountered were well-meaning. Asperger’s is still a very commonly-used diagnostic term here, and chances are your character would have to talk about Asperger’s rather than autism to be understood and taken seriously by professionals. If they don’t have contact with an international community, that’s also probably how they’d identify. All French communities of autistic people I’ve found centered around this word. There are not a lot of these communities, and I’m not aware of any big organization run by and for autistic people. Your character may feel isolated and have trouble finding people like them. Some hospitals or autism centers run discussion groups and meetings for autistic teens, I think.

Regarding autism, things that are well-established in the U.S. are often seen as the Brand Great New thing in France. Basically I think you can say we are about 10 years late in that regard. For instance, I’ve met a lot of professionnals who were excited to work with me because they were very interested in how autism presents in girls, they’ve read there are some differences, and so on. This is not a new researc subject in the U.S., but it is here. Another, less pleasant example of this phenomenon is that here, ABA is seen as the Great New Thing, a new efficient treatment that’s commonly used overseas but barely even known here! We’ve got to train specialists and to develop it! That’s one aspect for which I wish we wouldn’t be making progress.

Most non-specialist mental health and medical professionnals know very little about autism. Once I tried to talk about it to a psychiatrist, and he confused it with schizophrenia and schooled me on why I wasn’t psychotic. I had to teach more than one therapist about it. There are still very backwards “treatments” of autism that are sometimes in use, such as psychoanalysis (on nonverbal 5 year olds...). But as a psychology student I can say we’re mostly getting up-to-date information about autism, so hopefully this should get better in coming years.

As to accomodations, I’ve never had to ask for any so I’m not best placed to answer this question. It is law that people with disabilities (I’m pretty sure you have to have an official diagnosis for this) have to get the accomodations they need in the workplace, in school and in higher education, but I’m not sure how easy it is to get them or how well the laws are respected. I’ve seen a few disabled fellow students who got accomodations, one of whom was autistic (he had someone else take his notes for him and was allowed to record lectures). I can tell you a bit more about how to get accomodations in university; if that’s relevant for you to know you can shoot us another ask once the askbox is open again.

That’s all I can think of off the top of my head, if you have follow-up questions I’d be happy to answer them.

-Mod Cat

If this post was useful to you and you want to support me, please consider buying me a coffee!

#question #mod cat #france #diagnosis #ableism #ableism cw #accomodations

62 notes · View notes

pravasichhokro · 3 years

Text

Communication –Hello! To …… 😊😊😊(emoji)

In today’s digital world a simple handheld device, call it a smart phone, can allow you to talk, send messages (text) as SMS or WhatsApp, receive, and send emails, take photos, or shoot video and send them to anyone anywhere.

I am reminded of my first twenty years (1955 to 1975) of life from childhood to first employment when the means to communicate were limited to Post &Telegraph and so-called telephone (better known as land line today). Both these were government-controlled departments in India. This covered personal, social, and business communication.

Written communication was with the sole help of Post & Telegraph Office. Post office had three types of stationary- post card which was open, inland letter (closed but single leaf and envelop wherein you can enclose a leaf of paper. All three had printed postal stamp which was the fee for the carrier. The tariff was same irrespective of destination within India. Post card was for paise five (now Rs. One), inland letter was Paise ten (now may be Rs. 2) and envelop with 10 gms weight for Paise twenty-five (now Rs. 5).

I recall, as a child, that my father and mother would receive a letter (mostly inland letter) once a month from their relatives from Karad and Sangli (both in Maharashtra). News mainly pertained to evens like birth or marriages or deaths and some about education of children. I had to resort to written communication once I left home to go to BITS Pilani and became a hostelite. I usually wrote once a month and received one in return. Once in a while I received my money by Demand Draft.

All postal documents were transported by trains and State Transport (S.T.) buses. Some trains had special compartment or bogie assigned to Postal department. Hence these trains were called Mail e.g., Frontier Mail, Toofan Mail or Gujarat Mail. There were some places not having its own post office and hence the address must include both place and post office e.g. At Thakurali but Post Dombivali.

Another fast method of written communication was telegrams by Telegraph Department. Most used the Morse key contraption to transmit the messages. The post or telegraph office had persons who could code and decode the messages for Morse key. My personal experience with telegram was bad. I sent a telegram to my parents who were still in Maharashra village after I got my SSC (Std XI) results in June,1966. It did not reach them in time before they left hometown and that worried them a lot. They made a frantic call from Bombay on their way back to find that I had done quite well. Another instance was when I sent a telegram to my friend from Baroda on his engagement in Delhi. I got my interview call in June 1972 by a telegram from Delhi and we used to send telegram later for interview calls till about 1980.

Voice two-way messages were by telephone (called land line today). It was quite an achievement to own a telephone at residence. Most offices had telephones and only Govt. Servants, Doctors, Lawyers and very senior staff of private companies or businessmen had one at home. I got my first residential phone in 1987 at the age of 38. All long-distance calls (called trunk calls) were to be routed manually through telephone exchanges. It would take enormous time and effort to succeed in getting the connection. I recall one of my classmates used to call his parents in Ahmedabad from Pilani some time. He would spend the whole day waiting at the telephone exchange as the call was being routed via Chirawa, Sikar and Jaipur.

During these days (till I think 1975), it was exceedingly difficult to make copies of a message if it needed to go to more than one person. We had carbon copy, photocopy, and ammonia printing then. That was very cumbersome and not clear copies. For more copies, one had to depend on printing and stenciling. I remember in 1979, DGSD purchase orders were stenciled and copies distributed to various parties within Govt and outside.

One major improvement happened with introduction of telex services around 1975. Telex was like two typewriters being linked so that message can be transmitted fast. Only disadvantage was it was mainly for commercial use by offices.

Around the same time (1975~) I think Xerox copy became available to many and copying became easy.

The next major change got introduced in India when Subscriber Truck Dialing (STD) was introduced around 1985. This permitted calling out station and even overseas parties by directly dialing from your telephone without going through an operator at the exchange. But scarcity of land line connections remained a reality. I had to get a radio operated phone connection in 1998 as I could not get a land line connection from Pune telephones after I returned from Japan.

In early 1980s, a small handheld device called pager was introduced and it helped travelling people to be contacted from a landline so that they would call back. It was an improvement over only landline option. It lasted for a couple of years but mainly it was for commercial use.

Around 1985 another big leap was taken in communication when a facsimile (fax for short) was introduced. When connected, fax machine could transmit a document and a drawing or even a photo. The instant sending and receiving was a great leap forward. Initially it was only for commercial use but later it became extremely popular.

On another front, the computer got introduced and made strides. We had a main frame computer in BITS Pilani around1970 (with inputs by punching cards) and by 1987 desktop computers (with complex keys to operate) were available in offices. When I reached Japan in 1990, the laptop had made its appearance. I bought my first laptop (Macintosh) in Japan in 1993.

In Japan, the telephones (land line) were quite easy to get and I got one in less than 24 hours of arrival in 1990. The public telephones were very efficient and easily accessible. The pre-paid cards were extremely popular and most public telephones could be activated by coins or prepaid cards. On Valentine’s day, Japanese girls would gift a prepaid card to boys which would dial only their number.

Communication got a boost when in 1990 the satellite was used to transmit messages and documents. The Indian IT industry benefitted from it and some engineering companies also started using VSAT. I got my first TV satellite dish in Japan to view many European channels in 1993.

When I was in Oman in 1997, I got internet access and to use email. I believe it was just introduced. It was a good facility as my daughter was in Australia and contacting became easy. I also got my first mobile phone in Oman in 1997.

Mobiles became easily available and affordable by 2000. I got my local mobile connection in 2000 and I still have the same mobile no. Then mobiles were used for urgent calls and to send text messages (called SMS).

Internet connections were made available on desktop and toggle for laptop in the initial phase for office use. Internet connection for home use took some time and till then toggle was the only option.

Due to popular and affordable cost of mobile phones, the landline lost its place of importance. Even govt (Pune Telephones and then BSNL) started offering mobile phone connections.

The other development was mobile phones started having more features. The camera was in built in the mobile and one could take pictures. Further development allowed video shooting by mobile phone camera. Next to come was back and front camera.

The service providers started (I think by 2010) to link internet to the mobile and provide data transfer. With this facility, one handheld device could make calls, send text messages, take photos, shoot videos, send messages by internet connections and also view one’s emails.

Around 2005 the international calls were expensive from India, so we had used Skype as paid calls and conference tool. There were some doubts about its security and many other options were being opted for by international companies from UK and Belgium that we worked with.

The introduction of smart phones (compatible to various band widths like 3G /4G) the ease and speed of communication of all types became a reality and affordable. The social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and WhatsApp) became popular. For children and youngsters, the various games and educational videos became extremely useful.

Then came cloud technology and a boom of Artificial Intelligence. Everything done on virtual, digital, and social networking platforms gets tracked, analyzed, and thus used to help with recommendations as appropriate.

There is a security threat while all our banking and credit card information is easily available on various Apps. Along with our personal information which is available on social platforms. Hence, cyber security is a thriving business opportunity and interesting working opportunity.

In 2018 the telegraph department finally closed its services and it got replaced by speed post or mobile connectivity. Today post office continues its traditional job of delivering post card, inland letter and envelop but started using air transport for bulk movement.

The biggest benefit of the digital world was during the lockdown due to COVID-19 19. With only a smart phone (tablet or laptop may be better) and Wi-Fi connection, it was possible to conduct classes by teachers for students who were locked down, business meeting with clients and panel discussions among business associates or experts or politicians (elected) or friends. I was able to view virtual musical shows and new released movies and serials on new platforms like Netflix or Amazon Prime etc. also attended virtual birthday and wedding anniversary parties online.

In conclusion I will edit the words of Elon Musk:

If you go back a couple of decades, what we take for granted today would seem magic-being able to talk to people over long distances, to transmit images, accessing vast amount of data like an oracle or google. All this progress in communication is easy to use, quick and affordable. Also, its reach is worldwide across countries, regions, languages and people.

Another issue, which has surfaced due to the pandemic in India or similar developing or poor countries, is the divide between haves and have not. Traditional divide of have and have not was based on the wealth/money but present-day divide is based on whether one has a smart mobile/laptop/tablet and Wi-Fi connectivity with adequate data.

#communication #latest technology #5g network

0 notes

tamboradventure · 4 years

Text

How to Find a Job Teaching in Spain

Posted: 2/22/2020 | February 22nd, 2020

Teaching overseas is one of a great way to earn money while you travel, stay in one place longer, and get to deeply experience another culture. I spent years teaching in Thailand and Taiwan and they were some of the most impactful experiences of my traveling. Living in a foreign culture, trying to get by day to day, and learning to create a life for yourself is a surefire way to become a more confident you and give you a deeper understanding of yourself.

I get a lot of emails from people about teaching overseas and one of the most asked about destinations is Spain! While we’ve written about the destination before, I wanted to add in another perspective from someone who just did it last year.

Natasha is a local Austinite who graduated from school and moved to Spain for a year. Here she is explaining how she did it and how you can too!

Tell us about yourself! Natasha: I was born in Atlanta, Georgia, but my family moved to India when I was two months old. After a year, we moved to Australia, where I grew up until I was 9. Then we moved to Vancouver where I stayed until I was 15.

I consider myself to be from Australia, Canada, and the US in almost equal parts, and ethnically I am Indian and Pakistani. I double-majored in international relations and Latin American studies at UT-Austin.

In my free time, I make YouTube videos about travel and I am devoted to health and fitness. I also cook and practice yoga.

You recently spent some time teaching in Spain. Tell us how you got started doing that. Was it easy to figure out the process and find a job? I studied abroad in Madrid in college. While I was there, I met some people who were English-language assistants and kept in touch with them after I returned home. I knew I wanted to take a gap year and travel after graduation, so I reached out to them and they told me about different programs I could apply for.

I looked into a few, but the government program “Auxiliares de Conversación” was free and had good reviews, so I chose to apply to that one. It allows foreigners to visit and work as teaching assistants. You’ll be paired with a teacher and help the students learn English.

The application is quite daunting. It required an essay, two letters of recommendation, a lot of legal paperwork, and other forms. The essay I wrote was about a page long, essentially a letter of intent explaining why I was interested in the program and the qualities that make me fit for the position.

The program also requires an official college transcript as well, but it accepts applicants from diverse educational backgrounds. so as long as you show keen interest, have good letters of recommendation, and have decent grades you should be fine!

I didn’t decide to join this program until the beginning of March, but I would suggest starting the process as soon as it is available in January. That will give you more time to jump through all the bureaucratic hoops. After receiving your acceptance, I suggest booking your visa appointment immediately, as these fill up fast!

Did you have any prior teaching experience? Is experience necessary? I didn’t have any teaching experience, and the Auxiliar de Conversación program doesn’t require you to. As long as you have (or are completing) your bachelor’s degree and are a native English speaker, you are eligible.

What was an average day like? You are only required to work 12-16 hours a week with this program, so a workday is typically about four hours. Since we’re English-language assistants, we are paired with an English teacher and don’t have to create a curriculum for the whole class.

On an average day as an auxiliar, the teacher I worked with would mostly have me walk around and assist students with the activities she had assigned them to do. Since I was an assistant and not the main teacher, my job mostly consisted of providing help like that.

The teacher for the younger grades would have me work one-on-one with students that were falling behind or had special needs, to give them more attention, but we usually worked on the same activities as the other students. For about 10-15 minutes of the class, I would sometimes give a presentation or play vocabulary games, such as Bingo or Hangman.

I was never required to teach an entire lesson, but I would occasionally have to manage small groups of students. This allowed them to participate more since they would not be as shy to speak English (and it’s easier to control a few students than a whole class).

Regarding the actual teaching, it was the easiest and smoothest part of my time in Spain. As long as you can keep the students interested and engaged you won’t have any issues.

Did you have any unexpected challenges? Many! I lived about an hour’s walk from my school, which was inconvenient and isolating. It took me a while to figure out the bus system, so adapting to my location was the first challenge.

However, the biggest challenge I faced was having to come back to the US for a month, because I didn’t have a visa. I was informed that I didn’t need a visa prior to entering Spain, but upon arrival, I would need to get my NIE (Número de Identidad de Extranjero) and I would be set.

Well, when I arrived, I was the only applicant without a visa. I went to eight different foreign consulates, and no one knew if I had to leave Spain to get a visa. Ultimately I had to fly back to the US, score an almost-impossible-to-get appointment with the Spanish consulate, and get my visa. The bureaucratic system is slow and very tedious, so try to talk to former auxiliares if you can (there are lots of Facebook groups for this).

What is one thing you wish you knew before you started teaching? I wish I knew that one person’s experience could be very different from the next. I had an amazing overall experience; however, parts of my life didn’t go as I expected.

I went in expecting to make great connections with my colleagues more than anyone else, but the environment at the school I worked at wasn’t very welcoming. A lot of teachers at my school didn’t live in the community (they commuted from pueblos as far as an hour away). This made it hard to form close friendships. Moreover, my school was comprised of teachers who were still completing their exams, so every year the teachers changed schools. That meant that the sense of community was not very strong.

Fortunately, I became friends with other auxiliares in my area and was welcomed warmly into their community. I became friends with teachers at other schools, took trips with them, and received lots of help with life in general in Spain.

What kind of salary can auxiliares expect? Auxiliares earn a “scholarship” rather than a salary. I was paid 1,000 EUR/month ($1,100 USD) during my contract. I would say that one should expect around 700-1,000 EUR per month ($770-1,100 USD) (or about 15 EUR/hour ($16.50 USD). Auxiliares in Madrid received the same “scholarship” as I did, but the cost of living in that region is much higher.

If you are paid 700 EUR, you usually work 12 hours a week instead of 16, and you can definitely try and teach private English lessons to earn more.

What are your top three tips for someone interested in teaching in Spain? 1. Arrive with at enough to live off of for at least three months. I was fortunate to live in a city with decent prices for accommodation. I had two roommates and spent around 250 EUR/month ($275 USD) on rent. Groceries, rent, and transportation were my main expenses, around 650 EUR ($715 USD) for all of those (plus some miscellaneous things). This left me with just a bit of money to use for travel.

In the Valencia region, the government was three months late to start paying us and always late by at least a few days to a week after the first paycheck. Since it’s not a lot of money, you’ll want to have a lot of savings. That way, if you’re paid late, you will have enough money to get by.

2. Research where you want to work. I chose Madrid as my first choice and Andalucía as my second. I would have also liked to live in Barcelona, but that wasn’t an option. I applied late to the program and existing auxiliares have priority for where they are stationed. As a new applicant (and a late one), I was sent to Valencia.

When choosing regions, be aware that a region does not necessarily mean you will end up in the city it’s named for. By that I mean, the “Madrid” region does not only mean the city of Madrid but rather the entire region around the city. Regions are like states, and so you could end up living two hours (or more) from the capital of the region.

You should also take into account the language spoken in the region. Where I lived, people spoke Valenciano just as much (if not more) than Spanish, and school was conducted in valenciano (a dialect of Catalan). Luckily, Valenciano has similarities to Spanish.

However, if you’re placed in the Basque Country (northern Spain), they speak Euskara, which has no similarities to Spanish. So if your goal is to practice or learn Spanish, make sure you choose to live in a region that speaks it.

Weather is another aspect to consider. While in the summer it is warm almost everywhere, winters can be quite cold (more so in the north). If you’re not a fan of cold weather, consider living closer to the south and the sea.

There are auxiliar Facebook groups and blogs that have plenty of information and anecdotes about different regions, which can help you make your decision.

3. Learn some Spanish. Understand that you could be placed in a pueblo very far from a big city, so brush up on your Spanish a little. It isn’t mandatory to teach English, but it will really come in handy if you’re in a smaller location and want to connect more with the locals (and your colleagues).

Want to Learn More About Teaching Abroad?

Here are some helpful posts about teaching English overseas to help you learn more:

The 9 Best Places to Teach English Overseas

Can You Teach English Without a TEFL?

How Emily Taught English to Fund her RTW Adventure

How Oneika Gets Teaching Jobs Around the World

For more teaching tips and advice you can follow Natasha on Instagram and YouTube.

P.S. – Want to meet other travelers in real life? This year we launched The Nomadic Network, a platform created to help travelers connect, learn, and get inspired in real life! Here are our upcoming events if you want to take part: Seattle (2/17), Austin (2/18), Fort Lauderdale (2/19), Portland (2/19), San Francisco (2/20), Los Angeles (2/23), Detroit (2/24), Boston (2/24), Dublin (2/24), San Diego (2/24), London (2/25), Chicago (2/25), and NYC (3/10).

Ready to Teach Overseas? Get My Comprehensive Guide

This digital guide will put you ahead of your competition, help you land a high-paying job with a reputable company, and give you first-hand knowledge from real teachers! Get started today with this downloadable PDF (for your computer, e-reader, or mobile device) with the book PLUS 12 interviews about life as a teacher, plus job advice from one of the industry’s top recruiters!

Book Your Trip to Spain: Logistical Tips and Tricks

Book Your Flight Find a cheap flight by using Skyscanner or Momondo. They are my two favorite search engines, because they search websites and airlines around the globe so you always know no stone is being left unturned.

Book Your Accommodation You can book your hostel with Hostelworld as they have the largest inventory. If you want to stay somewher eother than a hotel, use Booking.com, as they consistently return the cheapest rates for guesthouses and cheap hotels. My favorite hostels in Spain are:

Sungate One (Madrid) – Super clean, in a great location, and very social. They organize pub crawls, communal meals, and walking tours too!

Kabul (Barcelona) – This is the best party hostel in the city. It’s fun, social, and really easy to have fun and meet people.

La Banda (Seville) – Another fun and social hostel. They have an on-site bar and host huge communal dinners too. It’s lively and agreat place to meet people and party.

Don’t Forget Travel Insurance Travel insurance will protect you against illness, injury, theft, and cancellations. It’s comprehensive protection in case anything goes wrong. I never go on a trip without it, as I’ve had to use it many times in the past. I’ve been using World Nomads for ten years. My favorite companies that offer the best service and value are:

World Nomads (for everyone below 70)

Insure My Trip (for those over 70)

Looking for the best companies to save money with? Check out my resource page for the best companies to use when you travel! I list all the ones I use to save money when I travel — and I think they will help you too!

Looking for more information on visiting Spain? Check out my in-depth destination guide to SPain with more tips on what to see and do, costs, ways to save, and much, much more!

The post How to Find a Job Teaching in Spain appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

from Nomadic Matt's Travel Site https://ift.tt/2SRWvyu via IFTTT

#IFTTT #Nomadic Matt's Travel Site

0 notes

thechasefiles · 5 years

Text

The Chase Files Daily Newscap 23/10/2019

Good Morning #realdreamchasers. Here is your daily news cap for Wednesday, October 23rd, 2019. There is a lot to read and digest so take your time. Remember you can read full articles via Barbados Government Information Service (BGIS), Barbados Today (BT), or by purchasing a Mid-Week Nation Newspaper (MWN).

NOT FIT FOR CLASS – Just over a month after a late return to classes by children, some parents are fuming over conditions at St John Primary School. The latest concerns relate to the amount of dust blowing into classrooms from a nearby mains-laying project being undertaken by the Barbados Water Authority (BWA). According to sources, students of Class 4, who were seated closest to the nearby Colleton Road junction, were mostly affected, with many of the windows on that side of the compound having to be closed. At least three students had to be sent home yesterday after suffering ill effects from the dust. Vocal parent, Geoffrey Lashley, feared for the safety of the children as there was no traffic warden on mornings and evenings. (MWN)

PRINCIPAL’S WAY – One secondary school plans to spare the rod, but it has no intentions of spoiling the child. Principal of St George Secondary School, Dennis Browne, said that instead of cutting the children’s backsides, he preferred to discipline them by having them cutting the grass, beautifying the school and using vocational options. His comments came just after acting Chief Education Officer Joy Adamson, in addressing the Constant, St George school’s Founders’ Day service yesterday, said the Ministry of Education was continuing its push towards alternatives to the strap and bamboo punishment. Browne said that at a recent meeting of the school’s board, he had asked if they could be supplied with four or five weed whackers. (MWN)

PROPERTY DEMAND – CLICO has folded, but its prime South Coast real estate is now a hot ticket for local and foreign property investors. Tony Hoyos, chairman of the failed insurer’s successor, Resolution Life Assurance Company (ResLife), yesterday confirmed that more than 24 domestic and overseas entities submitted offers to purchase Worthing Corporate Centre in Christ Church, where ResLife is located, adjacent properties occupied by Trimart Supermarket and Courtesy Garage, and four nearby residential/vacant lots. This comes more than a month after the properties were advertised for sale. Hoyos said they were now “asking certain bidders for clarification” on what they intended to do with the real estate if their offers succeeded. Given that the sales involved competitive bidding, with Cabinet ultimately deciding on the outcome following a recommendation from the ResLife board, the chairman did not disclose the exact offer prices, but said they were worth millions of dollars. (MWN)

HONOUR COMING FOR PARISH HEROES – The Mia Mottley-led administration has passed legislation through the Lower House to honour unsung community heroes at a national level. Opening debate on the Award of Pride of Barbados Bill, 2019 that was passed in Parliament on Monday, Leader of Government Business Santia Bradshaw said the legislation was necessary since in the past people have complained that they feel left out of the process of being honoured and as though only privileged individuals have the opportunity to be recognized. “It is therefore important that this type of legislation comes before this Parliament at a time, on the eve of what will soon be another celebration of Independence. It is also important that Barbadians feel a sense of involvement in the process particularly as we approach WeGatherin 2020,” Bradshaw said. The Award of Pride of Barbados is intended to recognise persons deserving of recognition by virtue of their humanitarian, social, religious or educational contributions to the development of each parish in Barbados. Bradshaw explained that it is intended that annually an estimated 120 Barbadian citizens and permanent residents will be honoured. She said those nominated must have made an outstanding contribution to community life in Barbados or to the improvement of the economic and social conditions in a parish. The Minister of Education, Technological and Vocational Training, also said that the Award can be conferred on a person who formerly lived in a parish in Barbados, but now resides overseas, but has been nominated by persons who reside in that same parish, or who now also live abroad. “One hundred and 20 may seem like a lot to you now, but I do think that we have a lot of making up to do in order to give communities the power to be able to recognise persons who have contributed. And to allow us to be able to take it a step further because it is not sufficient for us to simply recognise persons. “I believe the time has now come for us to teach our young people, and also the wider population of the world about the contributions that these people have made in their communities but also to wider,” she said. Bradshaw urged Barbadians to begin the process of identifying those in their communities who fit the criteria for the award. In his contribution Minister of Creative Economy, Culture and Sport John King said that the number of those to be honoured should not be called into question. The Minister was responding to earlier comments made by the Leader of Opposition Rev Joseph Atherley. King said the new law allows for any person regardless of colour, class, creed or ethnicity to be eligible for recognition as a Barbadian for their contribution. “The honourable Leader of the Opposition said that he felt the numbers being granted this award every year were too many but my question to him and to anyone else who actually feels the same way would be how many is too many when you are seeking to repair damage that has been done over centuries to people?” King who referred to periods of slavery and colonialism to explain the significance of the award said for too long we have been afraid to value the contribution of our own. “How many is too many when you are trying to change a mindset that has been part and parcel of the Barbadian dialogue for a very long time? (BT)

DENY THIS – Opposition Leader Bishop Joseph Atherley has charged that shopkeepers of former times who helped to raise families, households and villages in Barbados have been “largely succeeded by the drug lords and the criminal element of that ilk, who exercise enormous influence now in the midst of our harsh economic times”. Bishop Atherley also fearlessly declared in Parliament during debate on the Award of the Pride of Barbados Bill 2019, that criminal elements were also being facilitated by “some who are involved in the political process”. “At the district community level . . . they are raising districts, and they are raising families and it is a sad thing that we have come to that point. They [the shopkeepers] have now been succeeded in these perilous times by the drug lords who operate at the community and district and village levels in Barbados and I say without fear, facilitated by some who are involved in the political process. “Since 2008 that has been clear to me, that there are people involved in the practice of politics [at the] elective level in Barbados who are attaching themselves to persons involved in illegal drug activity in Barbados, to help their cause and I dare anybody in here to stand and say that is not true,” Atherley charged. He described the development as a sad day in Barbados. “It is something that strikes at the heart of our democracy. It is something that strikes at the institutional heart of our governance process. It is something that strikes at the heart of wholesome community life in Barbados. It is one of the most sinister perils that we face today and I really would want to hope that the Government would have the resources, the wherewithal and the tenacity to ensure that something like that is brought to a swift halt,” Atherley added. The political leader of the newly formed People’s Party for Democracy and Development made the comments as he called on Government to ensure that among those who are awarded the Pride of Barbados honours are the people on whose backs Barbados has been built and who have given tremendous service to the country. “This country has been built on the backs of a lot of unnoticed, unheralded efforts on the part of people who live at lower stations in life. Many of them have been the single mothers of yesterday . . . who knew what economics was all about. Labourers . . . [who] contributed to the economy, so that others might come along and build upon the foundation laid . . . of teachers, headmasters and headmistresses who were more than institutional figures. These are the builders of this county . . . lawmen of a former time, with high integrity . . . “This are the kinds of people I believe and hope will be and should be captured in the awards,” he stated. (BT)

SAFE HAVEN – Ninety homeless women, children and men will move into new high rise luxurious living quarters at month end. Last night, The Barbados Alliance to End Homelessness (BAEH), formerly known as the Barbados Vagrants and Homeless Society (BVHS), officially opened the new Homeless Shelter and Rescue Mission in the multi-storey complex on Spry Street, The City, and announced that it was here to stay. President and founder Kemar Saffrey told the “by-invitation-only” ribbon-cutting ceremony which included Chief Justice Sir Marston Gibson, Cabinet ministers, Opposition Leader Bishop Joseph Atherley, President of the Democratic Labour Party Verla DePeiza and sponsors, that thanks to the Maria Holder Memorial Trust, the new $10,000 per month rental home would be paid up for a limited time only. He said after that, he would need all hands on deck to carry on the payments. And he issued an impassioned appeal to all Barbadians and residents to help his organisation buy the three-storey building which he said Republic Bank had offered to sell them for $1 million dollars within three years, down from a previous offer of $2.4 million. Saffrey said if ever Barbados needed such a facility it is now. (BT)

MORE HEALTH & SAFETY RULES COMING – Government is planning to enhance the Safety and Health at Work Act by adding nine regulations to the legislation, which would further guide the standards and conditions under which the Barbadian worker is expected to operate. This revelation was made by Minister of Labour Colin Jordan who was delivering an address at a workshop on proper building maintenance, held at the Courtyard Marriot this morning. The Minister revealed that the new regulations, which would be up for Cabinet approval next month, range from examining noise levels, to access to and the use of personal protective equipment, visual display units and workstations, the availability of drinking water, and the provision of sanitary conveniences or bathroom facilities. “I am pleased to inform you that within my ministry, we have completed our discussions on nine initial regulations to accompany the Safety and Health at Work Act. Within the next month the requisite Cabinet Paper will be prepared for consideration, after which the Chief Parliamentary Counsel’s office will be required to prepare the regulations. These important regulations are long overdue and will enhance the operationalization of the Safety and Health at Work Act,” he said. Jordan explained that the Safety and Health at Work Act, at Sections 105-108, makes provisions for the development of regulations related to safety, health, welfare and general matters. He further noted that ILO Convention No. 155 on Occupational Safety and Health and the accompanying recommendation No. 164 outline actions required to be taken at the national level which include the issuing of regulations. The Minister made it clear that this was by no means a one-off process and that his ministry is willing to add to these regulations should the need arise. In the meantime, he urged employers not to wait on Government to legislate measures in order to implement, as these measures will redound to the benefit of their companies. “Promoting wellness, safety and health in the workplace will lead to a healthier worker, higher morale and increased productivity… Employers, please engage and communicate with your workers as you continue to develop strategies and interventions targeted at occupational safety and health and wellness for workplaces and for your workers. Broadening the scope of your workers and allowing them to suggest ideas to enhance safety and health initiatives will allow them to feel a part of the decision-making process and would make them more committed to the organisation’s goals and success,” he said. (BT)

AGRICULTURAL SAFEGUARDS A MUST – Minister of Agriculture and Food Security Indar Weir is expressing grave concern about the impact climate change could have on the island’s food security. Disclosing that one farmer lost close to four dozen sheep last year due to drought conditions, Weir told an agriculture conference this morning that the threats climate change continue to pose stood to wipe out any gains. As a result, he said Government has already started to put measures in place to make the sector more resilient. Weir was addressing a regional workshop on Climate Finance and Support Mechanisms for Resilient Agriculture Sector in the Caribbean at the Radisson Aquatica when he told participants that his ministry was aware that a number of factors were posing a challenge to the island’s food security including pests, lack of education, flooding and drought. “There is a close balance between water and plants, water and agriculture. Too little water will result in stunted growth, and too much water will also impact growth. We know this. This equally will impact our livestock,” said Weir. “This is well document because I have actual proof that throughout the drought period last year one black belly sheep farmer literally lost 46 heads due to the drought. This speaks to the seriousness of the matter,” he said. “What is before us is a challenge. It is a very complex situation, but one that we must seek to manage,” he added. Pointing to the need for ongoing education and communication, Weir said this was necessary so that problems could be easily identified and solutions developed. “We have started the process with the University of the West Indies and we have looked at bio-digestion and of course, we have looked at biodiversity. It is a hardcore reality that we must address climate change, but in doing so we cannot leave the most vulnerable behind,” he said. “That is why I have been speaking to climate smart agriculture. In climate smart agriculture what you are able to do is transition a mindset from the past to that which is relevant to our 21st century requirement that says we must all now come together and collaborate in terms of how we find the financing to be able to support a new type and way to do agriculture,” he said. The Agriculture Minister said it was also necessary for public and private sector stakeholders to collaborate to provide education programmes and help people understand the impact of climate change on food production and get them to do the things necessary for us to build resilience. Pointing to steps being taken by Government to protect the sector, Weir highlighted plans to plant one million trees over the next couple of years in the Scotland District and via various farming programmes across the island. Ena Harvey, Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) representative for Barbados, said the region’s agriculture remained under severe threat from a variety of issues relating to climate change as well as organisms. “As we all know, our Caribbean nations are victims rather than perpetrators of the climate change impacts. Our agro-food sectors remain severely threatened by climatic events,” she said. “Climate change has brought new invasive species, loss of biodiversity, drought, loss of top soil – real threats to our food and nutrition security,” she warned. She said IICA was working with regional partners to mitigate the risks associated with climate change and build resilience so that our member states not only bounce back but bounce forward in a sustainable way. Adding that work was being done through capacity building and training, she said the support was needed trhough private and public sector partnerships, national, regional and international initiatives. According to Harvey, this was necessary “to promote production integration, cross border investment and knowledge exchange across the Caribbean”. During the three-day workshop, which has attracted some 40 agriculture stakeholder representatives from the region, participants will identify and discuss priority areas in the sector and come up with ways to encourage more investment to support climate resilient action. They will also seek to come up with ways to enhance coordination among policymakers and private sector players. (BT)

MAKE AGRICULTURE ATTRACTIVE TO YOUTH – The Caribbean is being warned to get policies right in order to attract more investment and participation from young people in the agriculture sector to ensure food security. This advice has come from senior coordinator and lead specialist on Climate Change and Agriculture at the Technical Centre for Agriculture and Rural Cooperation (CTA) Oluyede Ajayi. He told Barbados TODAY that while there were many ways to ensure food production was ramped up and food security was guaranteed, a key component was putting the right policies in place. “Get the policies right to encourage private sector investment in agriculture in the region so that we can get fresh fruits and so forth. Private sector operators are risk takers. They want of course to go into agriculture, they want to invest, but they want to make sure they are investing where they can get a return. And for that you need a stable policy environment, a coherent policy that encourages investment in agriculture. That is essential,” he explained. He said authorities needed to also do everything possible to minimize post harvest losses, pointing out that estimates showed that it could reach as high as 30 per cent. “Thirdly, make agriculture encouraging for farmers, make it profitable for farmers through the various fiscal administrative policies,” he said. Pointing to the thousands of university graduates each year, he said it was also important that policymakers look for ways to better encourage school leavers to get involved in the sector at various levels. He said the use of information and communication technology was a key component of getting the youth involved in the sector. “There are so many levels that the youth can engage themselves in. Agriculture can potentially absorb the youth,” said Ajayi. He said Barbados could look at best practices from around the world, adding that there were countries that have already created “enabling policies” and use public funds to leverage some private investment to kick-start investment in agriculture. The agriculture official said it was understood that the sector attracted varying degree of risks including that of heavy rainfall and drought, and it was therefore important that governments find ways to “shield farmers and people who invest”. “There are some policies that can be used to protect and support them at the beginning of their investment,” he pointed out. With access to funding being cited as one of the major challenges facing farmers in the region mainly because of the procedures involved, Ajayi said famers could form alliances to access available international financing, while governments should create policies to encourage investment from the local private sector community. “Sometimes it is very difficult for farmers but then how can they come together as a group so they can apply for this funding? Secondly, there are some domestic resources that can be found within the country. You have to encourage private investment in agriculture. So I think it has to be both international and domestic,” he explained. (BT)

SUPERBUG CAUTION – Two superbugs have shown up in Barbados in the past and infectious disease specialist Dr Corey Forde says the country cannot lapse when it comes to dealing with treatment-resistant organisms. Forde, head of the Infection Prevention and Control Department at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, however stressed there was no need to panic over the matter. “Pan drug resistant organisms means the antibiotics we have available either won’t work well or we have nothing to treat them. Those [organisms] have arrived on the world scene and in Barbados and the Caribbean we are at a similar state where we already have recorded pan drug resistant organisms where we have limited amount of drugs to use to treat them. “We have [recorded] high-level [treatment] resistant [strains] of Klebsiella and E Coli (Escherichia Coli), where there were two or three ‘bugs’,” said Forde, who was speaking yesterday after the opening ceremony of the two-day Caribbean Infection Control/Antimicrobial Stewardship Conference at the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO)/World Health Organisation (WHO) office in Dayrells Road, St Michael. (MWN)

QEH ISSUES URGENT APPEAL FOR BLOOD DONATIONS – The Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) Blood Bank is issuing an urgent appeal for A positive blood donations. Volunteers between the ages of 18 and 70, who weigh at least 110 pounds, and are in generally good health are asked to donate blood at the National Blood Collecting Centre located at Ladymeade Gardens, St Michael, between 8 a.m. and 3:15 p.m. on weekdays or 8 a.m. and 12 noon on Saturdays. Donated blood products will help replenish the QEH Blood Bank’s supply to ensure that blood products are readily available for patients with serious medical needs. (MWN)

PM MOTTLEY: GREATER COLLABORATION NEEDED - The Caribbean represents one-third of all the destinations the cruise industry covers, yet generates almost half of the revenue it makes on an annual basis, and these numbers are expected to grow over the next few years as the industry prepares to launch at least 100 more new vessels. Therefore, given the importance of the sector to the Caribbean, Prime Minister Mia Mottley believes the entire region must work to foster stronger ties with the industry to sustain our economies. Speaking at the opening of the 26th annual Florida Caribbean Cruise Association (FCCA) Convention and Trade Show in Puerto Rico, the Prime Minister said: “With all the challenges our region faces from climate change, and the inability to borrow funds from international lending agencies to rebuild our damaged infrastructure in the wake of the hurricanes over the last two years, we are pleased that players in the cruise industry have come on board to help us in terms of port development. This is a significant departure from the past.” Citing an example, she noted that Prime Minister of St Lucia, Allan Chastanet, had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Carnival Cruise Lines and Royal Caribbean to build out cruise facilities in that country, and she said Barbados and the Cayman Islands were holding similar discussions. Regarding climate change, Mottley expressed her concerns about the future of the region from that perspective, noting that, “I saw a slide last year at the United Nations which will forever haunt me. It recognised that the first countries to suffer from a three degree shift in sea temperatures will be the Arctic and Antarctic summer sheets, Greenland and the coral islands found around the world in the Caribbean, Pacific and other oceans. The Caribbean must remain a sea that is literally capable of protecting our islands and feeding our people. Sea level rise and ocean warming has been damaging our coastal communities, and many of our economies are coastal. Regrettably, the global community has not recognised this is the most important battle and there are some countries that may or may not survive the next 50 to 100 years.” Therefore, given this situation, she believed leaders from the English, French, Spanish and Dutch-speaking Caribbean should come together to plan the region’s future, a dialogue she is willing to commence. “Barbados is chairing the Association of Caribbean States, and will be taking up the chairmanship of CARICOM in January. We are prepared to host a meeting between owners and leaders of the cruise industry and leaders from across the entire Caribbean, all of the states that are touching the Caribbean Sea, as we have to ask ourselves whether we can allow things to continue as they are, or plan for any contingencies that may arise decades from now. Once we get this process right, future generations will be able to thank us for planning ahead.” The Prime Minister also mentioned pollution and overfishing as other elements the Caribbean must examine. She also stated that it was important for the Caribbean to remain a “zone of peace” in the world where people could come and enjoy themselves without fear of being involved in conflicts between countries. (BT)

CCJ HEARING ON FREE MOVEMENT - Whether countries can opt out of a decision of CARICOM when it comes to widening the classes of people entitled to work and move within the region is the crux of a hearing before the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ). The court has been asked by CARICOM to give an historic advisory opinion in relation to the matter based on its decision to give special consideration to St Kitts and Nevis, and Antigua and Barbuda, to opt out of the move to expand the classes of people who can move and work freely in the region to include agricultural workers and security guards. The five-member CCJ panel heard from several legal teams, including those for CARICOM, Barbados, Grenada, St Kitts and Nevis, and the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill campus. The court will reconvene today. The hearing for further directions on the first advisory opinion is being sought to determine whether a member state can lawfully opt out of a decision of the Conference of the Heads of Government, and whether the nationals of those member states which opt out can still derive the benefits of having their citizens work in the other states. (MWN)

DRUG LORDS HELD HIGH – Drug lords are exercising overwhelming influence on communities and families in a way that outstanding community figures once did, charges Opposition Leader Bishop Joseph Atherley. And they are being facilitated by some politicians. The St Michael West Member of Parliament, speaking in the House of Assembly yesterday, has challenged fellow parliamentarians to refute his claim. “Since 2008 it has been clear to me there are people involved in the practice of politics at elected level in Barbados who are attaching themselves to persons involved in illegal drug activity in Barbados to help their cause. If there is anybody in here to stand up and say that is not true, you may say you do not know, but you can’t say it is not true,” Atherley said, thumping the table. (MWN)

63 YEAR OLD WOMAN SHOT – A 63-year-old woman is now in critical condition at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital after being shot this morning. Lawmen said they received a report that Sandra Ann Farrell of Clarke's Road, Delamere Land, St Michael was shot after being involved in an argument with a man just before noon today. Police responded to the scene and confirmed the report and have a number of people assisting with investigations. (MWN)

GLOCKS FOUND AT FETE IN ST. MICHAEL – Investigations are underway into the discovery of two firearms at an illegal fete at Greenfield, St Michael in the wee hours of yesterday morning. Police spokesman Inspector Rodney Inniss says officers from the Tactical Response Unit were on patrol when they came across the party, with about 150 people in attendance, around 12:10 a.m. on October 21. The partygoers fled on seeing the police. A search was conducted and the guns – a .40mm glock 22 with an extended magazine containing 21 rounds of ammunition and a .40mm glock 23 with a magazine containing 14 bullets – were confiscated. One hundred grammes of vegetable matter suspected to be marijuana was also found. No arrest was made. (BT)

GIS PROBE – Police have been called in to investigate an alleged attack against an employee of the state-run Government Industrial School (GIS) in St Lucy by a female inmate. Police confirmed to Barbados TODAY this evening that they received the report from an employee of the alleged assault on staff member Paula Haynes at around 9:50 this morning. “In respect of that matter down at the Government Industrial School, that is a case of an alleged assault between a ward, who is 13 years old, and an employee. The police got the report at about 10 to 10 this morning that an employee Paula Haynes had been injured after being involved in a dispute with a ward,” police Public Relations Officer Acting Inspector Rodney Inniss told Barbados TODAY after he was contacted. Police investigations reveal that the teenage ward was walking in the company of another worker when she crossed paths with Haynes. Police said it is not certain if words were exchanged, but they are investigating claims that the employee received a “cuff” at the back of her head. “The police are now investigating that matter. We don’t have anybody in custody and are in the process of getting statements. But the injury is not that serious,” he added. However, independent investigations by Barbados TODAY revealed that the employee was temporarily stunned by a blow and sought medical attention at a private doctor soon after speaking with the police. We have also been reliably informed that the alleged victim has told the police she will be pressing charges. This incident, according to some disgruntled staff members is the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back. Speaking about the working environment at the state-run correctional institution for juveniles, some employees say that for several months, they have been the target of abuse, threats and intimidation and “no one seems to be listening or doing anything about our complaints”. In April this year, board members called for swift and sweeping changes to the way operations at the Barrows, St Lucy facility are conducted, including Chairman Rev Joseph Johnny Tudor who even suggested the removal of Principal Erwin Leacock following a meeting at the Ministry of Home Affairs. But since then, sources said Minister of Home Affairs Edmund Hinkson has directed that only he should be making statements on behalf of the institution. Some officials close to the board have described the situation at the GIS to be at “crisis” level. Principal Leacock has previously refused to comment on the affairs at the school. Other staff members who were willing to provide information, however, declined to be identified for fear of victimization. Minister Hinkson was unavailable up to the time of compiling this story. (BT)

ACCUSED SAID HE HIT MAN ‘A FEW TIMES’ – Two surgeries were performed on Anderson Busby as a result of a single stab wound that presented life-threatening injuries. That was the evidence presented by Dr Margaret O’Shea, a general surgeon at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH), when she appeared in the No. 2 Supreme Court yesterday. Busby, 34, of No. 3 Whitehall, St Michael, is accused of unlawfully killing 16-year-old Taylor, formerly of Gills Road, St Michael, on October 13, 2012. Dr O’Shea told the court she performed surgery on Busby on October 13, one day after he was admitted to the QEH. She said he had sustained injuries to his stomach, pancreas and kidney and had lost 3.5 litres of blood. Dr O’Shea said after that surgery was completed he was transferred to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) where he was placed on a ventilator. Two days later a scan revealed another injury to his intestines and another surgery was performed to repair that injury and he was again admitted to the ICU, the doctor told the court. She said after spending four or five days on the ICU he was eventually discharged and placed on the ward. Busby was discharged from the QEH 11 days later. “The injuries were serious and life-threatening and were caused by a single stab wound to the abdomen,” Dr O’Shea noted. She said there was no record of Busby returning to the QEH for treatment after February 13, 2013. In the closing arguments which followed, Principal Crown Counsel Alliston Seale told the court that Busby lost his temper and as a result “must accept that he overstepped the crease that day and lost control and a whole life gone”. Seale insisted that it could not be regarded as self defence. He also argued that there was an imbalance of power as Busby was 21 at the time, while the deceased was only 16. Defence attorney Arthur Holder in his arguments described it as an “interesting trial”. He told the jury that they needed to go through the evidence very carefully as they were several unanswered questions. “Where did three extra knives come from? Where did Busby get stabbed? And what became of the other black-handled knife that one of the witnesses spoke about?” Holder asked. He charged that all Busby did was to defend himself and ward off danger. “What is so wrong with that?” Justice Randall Worrell will make his summation tomorrow after which the jury is expected to deliberate. (BT)

A REVENGE KILLING – A revenge killing! That is how prosecutor Crown Counsel Oliver Thomas summed up the actions of murder accused Pedro Ellis in closing arguments in the No.3 Supreme Court this morning. Ellis, 38, of Morris Gap, Westbury Road, St Michael is accused of murdering Antonio Harewood on May 5, 2013. Thomas, who along with Crown Counsel Rudolph Burnett prosecuted the matter before Justice Carlisle Greaves, told the 12-member jury Ellis was vexed that Harewood had beaten his son on Brandons Beach earlier that day. He said several witnesses had given evidence that they saw the accused chase the now deceased man through a track. Thomas said those witnesses also recounted seeing Ellis brandishing a knife both before and after the alleged stabbing. He maintained that despite the accused’s claim that he “went in peace”, it was clear he had gone to confront Harewood with the clear intention to kill him. However, defense lawyer Queen’s Counsel Larry Smith described the Crown’s attempt to prove Ellis’ guilt as “magical”. He said the evidence given by those witnesses who claimed to have seen the accused with a knife was untruthful and implored the jury to find his client not guilty of murder. Furthermore he said no knife had been presented as evidence. “No knife has been produced, nothing from the police about the knife, nothing at all. So when you look at the case for the Crown it is a case about magic, it is a magic case; a case of the appearing and disappearing knife,” Smith argued in his hour-long argument. The attorney contended that the Crown had not proved Ellis’ guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. He also insisted that there was “indisputable evidence” that Harewood had been the aggressor. Smith argued that Ellis had been attacked by the bigger and stronger Harewood and was forced to fight for his life. He told the jury the accused had suffered enough and deserved to be released. “This happened on the 5th of May 2013 and this is now October 22, 2019. He has suffered enough for defending himself and I urge you, I implore you to return a verdict of not guilty because it is the only verdict that is fair and reasonable. Allow Mr Ellis to go home to his family because he has suffered enough,” the lawyer said. Smith along with Kashka Haemans, Safiya Moore and Jamila Smith are representing the accused. (BT)

BOA: FUNDING IS KEY – Barbados Olympic Association (BOA) president Sandra Osborne reckons more funds are required for this country to produce world-class athletes and obtain global medals. Speaking at a press briefing yesterday at the Wildey headquarters, Osborne spoke about the BOA’s 2018-2024 strategic plan and the funding model for local sportsmen in which six Barbadians are benefiting from the Olympic Solidarity Scholarship. Osborne also gave a roll out of the new funding from the BOA which will be on offer for 33 sportsmen divided into three tiers. “The Olympic Solidarity Scholarship is providing X amount. We consider these athletes worthy to invest in, so we top up by the subsidy, so some of them are getting from more than one source, but it is not enough to produce a world-class athlete and that is the challenge that we have,” she said. (MWN)

BCA LOOKING FOR OVAL’S RETURN – Government and the Barbados Cricket Association (BCA) are currently holding discussions that could lead to the management of Kensington Oval returning to the BCA, says president of the BCA Conde Riley. When Prime Minister Mia Mottley announced the Barbados Economic Recovery Transformation programme (BERT) last October, she hinted that the management of the Kensington Oval which is vested in Kensington Oval Development Corporation would be returned to the BCA. Since the Prime Minister’s announcement, nothing has been made public about the progress between the Government and the BCA on the matter. But according to Riley discussions have been taking place between the two parties. “We are currently in discussions with the Government in relation to the management of Kensington Oval returning to the BCA. It is just a matter of working things out in accordance with the deal of lease that we would have signed in 2008. It is a work in progress. The Prime Minister’ statement last October was made in relation to the BERT programme. Since then, we have met with White Oak about the money owed to the BCA by the Government. We had to submit our Financial Report for five years to them along with a business plan, and we have done so. There were two issues that called for qualified opinions from our auditors and we settled both of them. So it is a matter of meeting with the Government and the BCA outlining our vision for Barbados,” Riley said. While he could not say when the next meeting between the Government and the BCA would take place, he revealed his organisation had big plans for the Oval as soon as it was returned to them. “We have big plans for the Oval but we cannot proceed with them until we are in control. I would love to see the indoor practice facility built along with restaurants and a small boutique and hotel at the venue. We have the brains on the BCA’s Board and among our membership that would allow us to do these things. It cost us to prepare the business plan but we did. I have no doubts that under my leadership all of these plans will become a reality, “ the president said. He stressed that under his leadership the BCA had a record of getting things done and alluded to a dispute between the BCA and lottery operators CAGE which lasting for over ten years before it was settled during his first term as president of the BCA. “We are about getting things done for the benefit of Barbados’ cricket. The ideals we outlined in our business plan would add a new dimension to our cricket and take it to a new level. It is my intention to try my utmost to see these plans come to fruition when Kensington Oval is returned to us,” Riley said. The president said the building of an indoor facility at Kensington was a priority for the BCA. He explained that such a facility would stop net practice from being a victim of the weather and could generate income for the BCA. “We want to make our indoor facility a first-class venue that will generate revenue, we would like to market it at as a place that the English counties can use for practice during their winter, but we cannot do so if they are constraints due to the weather,” he explained. Riley revealed that the former Barbados and West Indies left-arm spinner Sulieman Benn was now a member of the coaching staff at the Centre of Excellence and plans were afoot to contract the services of Dr Kevin Williams at the Centre to deal with sports medicine and science, as well as sports physiologist Rudy Alleyne. “We hope that Kevin and Rudy enhance our programmes at the Centre of Excellence. I think these two gentlemen have a lot to offer to the development of our cricket. Another initiative that we are planning is contracting all of our cricketers from the Under-13 up. And in an effort to boost our women’s cricket programme we are seeking to have a girl included in each school team,” Riley said. (BT)

There are 70 days left in the year Shalom! Follow us on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram for your daily news. #thechasefiles #dailynewscaps #bajannewscaps #newsinanutshell

0 notes

kentonguxui · 5 years

Photo

Synthesising Our Research

After visualising our information the previous week, we set out to find key insights in our research. After looking at our findings, we found that our interviewees mostly all related to five topics:

Most felt emotional hardship when they first moved to NZ/other. This mostly applied to the international students and exchange students that we interviewed. For a lot of them, the choice to move to New Zealand came suddenly with the parents telling them about their decision to move a month before. This understandably upset them as they felt that they weren’t given enough time to process the fact that they would be moving to the other side of the world to a country that they knew next to nothing about. For a lot of them, English was also a second or third language, which meant that they struggled with communication after arriving in New Zealand leading them to feelings of stress, anger, and depression and comparing living here to “being in prison”.

Some of our participants found safety to be a concern while travelling. For a lot of our participants, safety was a huge concern when travelling as they often didn’t know a lot about the culture or language of the places they travelled to. Things like not having a SIM card to use in case of emergencies, not knowing the rules and cultural norms of the country and their transport system, and even the lack of street lights made participants feel uncomfortable and unsafe. A couple of our interviewees even said that they were yelled at by the locals in a language they didn’t understand, which made them “so scared [they] thought [they] were gonna die”.

Most remembered more negative experiences than positive in their travels/in NZ. This was something that all of our interviewees related to - international students, exchange students, and kiwis alike. For the international students who moved to New Zealand, they remembered feeling isolated and a sense of not belonging in this new environment due to their problems with speaking English, which was further exacerbated when they were put into ESOL classes that were full of other Asian students. While this did help alleviate the loneliness they felt in school, it was also problematic because it meant that they mostly only stuck to people who spoke their mother language and weren’t able to get to know and fully integrate themselves into New Zealand culture. For the exchange students and kiwi travellers, cultural differences were often the greatest source of discontent. Ridicule and different treatment based on their appearance and the way they spoke…

Experiencing culture shock was a way to understand a country/the locals better. talk about “you have black hair etc. all foreigners are blonde & blue eyed”, foreigner privilege in Asian countries - if you were white you were given free drinks etc. but if you were Asian they tended to be meaner to you, though sometimes changing after finding out you’re from New Zealand. “Dutch were very nice and up front”, “Portugal suffered with money and people work hard - wholesome and beautiful”, “more open to inviting them over for dinner - making it easy to integrate into society in Europe”, “Europeans love New Zealanders - curious about the accent and the culture”.

Those who came across international students were surprised at how polite and friendly they were. Looking at it now it’s not really an issue just a statement lmao. For our kiwi interviewees, they mostly had experiences with Asian international students and were surprised by their different cultures and the way they acted. “Asians are very polite - they don’t want to offend etc. and say TY to everything”, “Japanese student sent gifts and letters to him - something that he wouldn’t have done”, “wrote notes to her and every day and had no issue with holding hands etc. with her”

From this, we decided on five themes that we wanted to focus on, which were transport safety, stereotypes, ‘otherness’, racism, and language barriers, and came up with the following basic insight and how might we statements:

People felt unsafe/unsure of etiquette when taking public transport.How might we make public transport safer and easier to use for travellers?

People often played into stereotypes when first meeting people that are not like themselves. How might we discourage judgment based on stereotypes/discourage stereotypical thinking?

People often felt distance/a sense of not belonging when trying to assimilate into a new/different culture. How might we encourage the inclusion of foreigners/lessen the distance between different cultural groups.

People think it’s acceptable to make racist comments. How might we increase awareness of prejudice in New Zealand towards Asians?

People often have trouble communicating due to language issues.How might we make communication easier for overseas travellers/overcome language barriers in New Zealand?

0 notes

seecantrill · 5 years

Text

Beirut

We arrived late in the evening to Beirut and pulled into the driveway of the Smallville Hotel on Damascus road. “The road to Damascus” I thought to myself; two hours away by car I was told when I asked. Syria, the neighboring country embroiled now in devastating civil war. Yes, here I am. In the Middle East.

I immediately flashback to July 4th, 1987, the summer when I first went overseas to Germany. Because it was the US holiday, we went by car to a branch office of the US Embassy near Bonn where they were planning to host a barbecue and fireworks. Upon arriving at the gate, security guards with automatic rifles approached the car and asked for our IDs. Large concrete blocks and metal barricades surrounded the guard stand, and now the car, and extended all the way over to and around the buildings beyond. At 17 I hadn’t quite seen anything like this before (although I would soon see more very soon in Berlin). I remember asking what was happening and I was told that a US embassy had been bombed in Beirut, Lebanon.

It is now 30 years later and I have just returned from a trip -- a vacation of sorts -- to Beirut, the place that so captured my imagination that summer. Traveling there with my partner Jack who was invited to be a guest of International Refugee Assistance Program (IRAP), an organization his company supports, I ended up spending a remarkable week becoming familiar with IRAPs work while getting a bit of a feel for the city and its history and learning more about the war now raging less than two hours away.

Beirut today is a bustling vibrant city of neighborhoods and many Lebanese told us they were happy to be at peace and felt safe; they wanted the highlights of their city to be appreciated and shared. Despite struggling with the struggles around them, the neighborhoods were filled with young men and women spending time together often with drinks and also shisha pipes. Political murals adorned many walls throughout the city, and modern buildings sat next to pocketed shells of buildings; several in fact still face each other across intersections, making very vivid current politics and the reality of a 15-year civil war.

Beirut is a diverse and multiethnic place, and is known to be one of the most open and free cities in the Middle East even though we were told that it can shift from block to block. The colonial heritage is alive with the French language, along with English and Arabic, being still taught in schools. The older architecture -- and several buildings in their full glory still exist -- are a mix of Lebanese and French style, along with Turkish or Ottoman. The food was a similar mix along with Armenian. Zatar on flatbread with vegetables or Laban and Turkish coffee made for delicious morning meal, while hummus, pita, mezze were available everywhere throughout the day. Beaches sit along the eastern Mediterranean waterfront and, quite amazingly, west of the city rises rapidly into snow capped mountains.

As supporters of IRAP, we were invited to participate in what was the real focus of this trip -- ie. training mostly US-based law students on the refugee situation in the region and having them do an initial intake interview with Syrian refugees. The goal in the Beirut office was to engage this group of students and, us as supporters, to help IRAP prioritize its resources around advocacy and resettlement efforts; efforts whose pipeline continues to get smaller and smaller as the need continues to expand. Although no longer officially counted by the Lebanese government, most people seem to believe that there over 1.5 million Syrians now in Lebanon not able to obtain legal residency or related social services.

We were told many times that Syrians and Lebanese have a long history, at war and also at peace. After the civil war and Syrian occupation, Syrians traveled freely to Lebanon and work there. When the Syrian war broke out, people either crossed the border or were already in Lebanon and simply did not go back. So although there are tented settlements of Syrian refugees in Lebanon (mostly outside the city and close to the Syrian border), there are also many living in crowded houses, apartments and with extended family doing underground work in the cities.

Jack has written about this trip and about how protected we were from the actual situation; it’s true. Throughout the trip we remained in the city, visited NGOs, and the families we were interviewing came to us at the IRAP office. This was intentional of course; not only were there real security concerns but also our job was not to be there to get involved at that level. Instead they needed us to do some work for them and that’s what we focused on doing -- by Thursday of that week I was sitting next to a law student, passing a computer back and forth, as we interviewed a Syrian family about their situation and worked to document the details of their lives and their related request for resettlement. This interview took approximately four hours, and we shared our notes with the IRAP staff lawyers who would determine the next steps for each situation.

IRAP both works directly in places like Beirut and Amman doing this kind of direct legal advocacy for refugees (mostly Syrians at this point) and it does it by engaging young law students, and a few supporters like us, from around the US and beyond. They also have a litigation office in New York City which spends their time suing the current U.S. Administration over its immigration bans and related xenophobic policies. As an educator, therefore, IRAP’s work struck me as as both creatively strategic and also pedagogically smart -- not only was the organization tapping into a well of often-underutilized human resources (ie. students) needed to do this work, it was also amassing, by working in real time on the ground, the very particular knowledge needed to fight for refugee and resettlement rights and develop the field of refugee law, in US Federal courts and beyond.

It’s been a few weeks now that we’ve been back in Philadelphia since this trip; last weekend Jack and I attended a panel discussion on the topic of displacement that is part of a larger event called Friends, Peace and Sanctuary out at Swarthmore. This project has been engaging artists and people newly arrived to the US, mostly from Syria, with the peace archive at the college. A local artist friend, Erik Ruin, was one of the artists on the project and a panelist talked about how the idea of “displacement” for him as not only being about the global movements of refugees of war, but also being about the displacement of people, mostly poor and working people of color, from his West Philly neighborhood. His comments reflect my own feelings after returning from the Middle East and thinking back to my early years of being in Europe; it was there that I started to realize how both the history and presence of war exists at the same time. And that a core capacity we need, on a local as well as the global front, is to see each other and the very real implications of our actions on other people’s lives.

You’ve probably run into IRAP yourself -- they were the ones who, through their clubs at US law schools, helped to mobilize national protests at the airports when the first Trump Administration Muslim Ban was announced and several clients that they had supported through a resettlement process were stuck in the air or at the borders unable to reach their destination. I remember being at the Philadelphia Airport that evening and feeling grateful for the community that had engaged this protest even though I didn’t know who they were.

I was there that night because my friend Kate, a pediatric researcher who works with refugee families, had told me soon after the US election in 2016 that “they will come for the immigrants first.” And indeed, they have. I am extremely thankful of and support the work of IRAP and the extended legal community that is working so hard to keep tyranny at bay. And I continue to wonder how we as educators can best respond locally as well as globally to these challenges of displacement. How do we continue to build these core capacities that we need in order to attend to the damage of our actions on other people and our very connected lives?

#beirut #connectedlearning

0 notes

twotravelinglanes-blog · 5 years

Text

Switzerland -- a snow-capped wonderland

Two Traveling Lanes

Szerland High There are few places I’ve visited that rival Switzerland in raw beauty and sheer wonder. Want to walk inside an ice cave with millions of sparkling ice crystals? How about cross a suspension bridge 10,000 feet above sea level and stare into the abyss below?

David and I shared a kiss at the top of the Schilthorn in Murren Surely you’d want to scramble up a waterfall inside a mountain to see and hear the roar of 5,000 gallons per second cascading into a bottomless pit mere feet in front of you? How about soaring in a rotating gondola high above snow-capped mountains, enjoying a 360-degree view as steep rock faces and deep crevasses open up below your feet? In just two weeks, we lived and breathed the beauty and culture of Switzerland, from the German-influenced regions in the north to the French and Italian regions west and south. While it truly was a feast for the eyes, we soaked up so much more than the country’s magical scenery in those short 14 days. Live like the Swiss

Ok, I was a little bit excited about reaching the top of this particular mountain. Being surrounded on all sides by incredible beauty is a bucket list moment, for sure. We learned to love cheese and muesli at breakfast, conversed with locals about American politics, marveled at the flowers in nearly every window and came to appreciate the transportation genius of the country. We felt like we belonged there, hopping easily on and off trains and navigating 10-syllable addresses with ease. We rode in swinging chair lifts, cable cars, gondolas, funiculars (railways that travel almost straight up), electric cog railways, trains, buses and one luxury bus. We soared past mountains of staggering heights, walked through alpine valleys thick with yellow globe flowers and smelled the crisp, fresh air in between. All the while, grasshoppers and cricked played their soulful melody, trumpeting the arrival of summer in a country more known for its winter wonderland than kelly green pastures. Use our two-week itinerary With a little advance planning and our fool-proof itinerary you, too, can feel like a part of Switzerland for two weeks, whether you choose to visit in the summer like us, or opt for skiing and snowshoeing in the winter. It’ll cost you a lot less than hiring a travel planner or tour company, too. If you have fewer days to visit, simply omit a stop or two. If we can do it, you can, too! We traveled to Switzerland in June 2016 with our youngest son and daughter, college students at the time. We told them it’d be our last big trip together as a family and started planning where we'd go. In a world full of possibilities, Switzerland got more nods than any other location for three big reasons: it’s overseas, vastly different from our Florida home and full of natural and man made attractions.

The views from our bus, traveling from Lugano to St. Moritz, were fabulous What’s not to like about snow in June? Indeed, our children were perhaps the only kids in their college classes that year to go sledding down a mountain near Europe's highest altitude railway. They were perhaps the only ones to walk along the sheer cliffs of a snowy mountain so high, it evoked a fear of heights in David. And our daughter was perhaps the only senior in her class to almost careen over the edge of the Alps on her foot scooter, causing major road rash but, thankfully, no broken bones or head trauma. But more about that late-vacation tragedy later. Download the train app The trip started uneventfully enough, with a long plane ride from Miami to Zurich and an earnest effort to learn the country's train system. David and I had planned the two-week odyssey on our own, using advice from a few well-known travel planners and many internet sites. We wanted to see the highlights of all regions of Switzerland so we booked six hotels in diverse areas, making sure to enjoy the German, French and Italian flavors of each sector.

One of many trains we rode during our two-week stay Though we saved money planning the trip ourselves, make no mistake: hotels and food in Switzerland are expensive, even by European standards. If you're not prepared to pay $25 for a modest restaurant meal, or shell out a few hundred dollars for an overnight hotel stay for four, don't bother going. Switzerland is an affluent country, and it expects you will be, too. Daughter Julie still recalls the shock of learning that Burger King at a Lucerne train station was selling hamburgers for nearly $10 apiece. Fries were extra. We downloaded a few smart phone apps detailing the country's train schedules, and used both for a few days before settling on a favorite. We liked SBB Mobile the most. It allowed us to put in a destination and be guided to the correct train station, rail platform and direction, along with showing us departure and arrival times. It took a few days but we finally got the hang of it -- with a little initial help from an employee at the Zurich train station. Three countries in one Switzerland doesn't have its own language, so each region's language and culture are influenced by its closest neighbor. We found it amusing to speak and read so many different languages in a single country. Stop signs and menus in Zurich (with a German influence) looked completely different from those in Lugano (inspired by Italy), both of which were unrecognizable in some areas of Bern (French). Most of them spoke fluent English, so communication was rarely a problem. One thing all areas had in common was the price of things. All prices were listed as CHF, or Swiss francs. Lucky for us, 1 CHF is roughly equal to $1, so we didn't have to do any math to convert to US dollars.

Since we planned to rely solely on public transportation and forego a car rental, we bought two-week Swiss Travel passes online and booked hotels, in advance, within walking distance of train stations. Hotels near train stations We found this information online and used booking.com to secure our reservations. The rail passes gave us unlimited rides on all trains except those to unique tourist attractions like Jungfraujoch Top of Europe, the highest altitude railway in Europe, and the Gornergrat in Zermatt. It offered discounts on those. Although we'd done our research thoroughly, there was always a little trepidation each time we stepped off a train, luggage-bound, headed toward a new hotel. Was it truly where we thought, or would we discover it's nowhere to be found? Luckily, we discovered all six hotels were indeed within walking distance of a train stop. We used Google maps on our smart phones to find the hotels and other attractions, although the language barrier and extremely long German names made it challenging at times. Packing light is key One time we had to find a hotel in the rain, making for some soggy luggage once we arrived. We packed only one carry-on bag each because we knew it'd be a chore to lug large suitcases from train to hotel each time. To manage our limited space, we took advantage of washing machines in hotels that had them and handled the 50-degree temperature difference between Lugano and Zurich just fine.

Motorcyclists gathered on the street of Appenzell After a night in Zurich getting our bearings, we took a train to St. Gallen and checked into Idyllhotel Appenzellerhof. It reminded me of a large, older home and was oozing with charm and friendly employees. I loved how Swiss German speech sounded like a song, with the notes and words rising and falling in a beautiful melody. We also savored with the food here, especially the traditional Swiss breakfasts. Many of our hotels offered breakfast buffets much more substantial than their American counterparts. There was usually a wide variety of hard-crusted bread, rolls and croissants with various jams and honey, muesli with fresh fruit and yogurt, potato fritters, a wide selection of cheeses and cold cuts and cereal along with juices, coffee, tea and milk. Appenzell is feast for the eyes After settling into our two-room suite we took a train to the nearby village of Appenzell, a quaint, car-free town with beautiful streets and a myriad of small

Gravesites were meticulously groomed and covered in flowers stores and boutiques. Geraniums, petunias and daisies bloomed everywhere, from window boxes of homes and stores to planters in train stations, roundabouts, bridges and cemeteries. We were especially impressed by the colorful grave sites. Awash in a sea of red, yellow and purple posies, each one looked like it could have graced the cover of a home and garden magazine. The facades of the German-inspired buildings at Appenzell are decorated with colorful paintings, making them all the more whimsical and fascinating. It was here that we got our first taste of authentic wiener schnitzel and Swiss sausages, many of which are white. It was a startling sight at first, but the unique taste and smooth texture of the St. Galler bratwurst won me over. Made of veal, pork, milk and spices, including sweet cardamom, the white bratwurst has been a staple in Switzerland since the 1400s. Of course, what better way to wash down a good sausage than local beer? We toured a small museum at the Appenzeller "Bier" brewery and enjoyed several samples of the ale. Jonathan was a month shy of his 21st birthday but was excited to learn Switzerland's minimum drinking age for beer is a mere 16. He arrived five years too late, by his estimation. Watch out for bubbly water One customary drink I never learned to swallow was carbonated water in bottles. It was hard to discern which bottles contained carbonated or "still" water, as they called it, so we mostly avoided bottled water as a result.

Overlooking the Chapel Bridge in Lucerne We bid farewell to the beautiful Appenzell region after a few days and headed south toward Lucerne, a city David and I had visited in 1989 as part

The streets around our hotel in Malters, near Lucerne of a three-week tour of Europe. It was fun to revisit such famous places as the Chapel Bridge and Lion Monument, and to soak up the rich architecture and vibe of this historic city. We noticed that thousands of people had written or carved their names into the wooden hand railing at Chapel Bridge, We stayed a few miles outside town at Hotel Kreuz, near the Malters train station. It was a large,

Swans are everywhere in Lucerne Bavarian-style hotel with homey furnishings and a window view of an extraordinary church steeple. We rose early the second day to get in a full day at Mount Titlis, the highest peak in the region and home to a glacial paradise with thrilling cable car rides, a zip line, ice cave and suspension bridge between two peaks. Into a snowstorm

Deep inside a tunnel that goes through the solid ice glacier there was a plant visible that must be thousands of years old. It took about an hour via train to get from Lucerne to Mount Titlis, and once there we were whisked about halfway to the top in a small cable car just perfect for our family of four. Although the weather was partly overcast and drizzling, we had several clear views as we floated up the mountainside. About halfway up, we got off the small cable car and got inside a much larger, rotating gondola for the final ride to the top. Once there, we walked outside onto the glacier and into the middle of a massive

The views from the top of Mount Titlis were breathtaking. snowstorm! It was snowing so hard we couldn't see much of the distant scenery, but it was gorgeous staring down into the crevasses below while snowflakes danced around us.

Keeping a close eye on the snow We'd read about the dramatic temperature changes at Titlis and were prepared with coats, hats and gloves. After playing in the snow until our toes and fingers froze, we sought refuge inside with a cup of hot chocolate. Once warmed, we made our way to a lower level and the ice cave, its sparkling crystals and ice sculptures illuminated by soothing blue light. We opted not to ride the zip line or walk across the suspension bridge because the snow had wiped out visibility by then. We played in the snow some more and had lunch in the mountain top cafeteria before heading back for another scenic ride in a cable car. Read the full article

#BestplacestogoinSwitzerland #BestplacestoseeinSwitzerland #BestplacestotravelinSwitzerland #HikinginSwitzerland #HowexpensiveisSwitzerland?#Swisstravel #Switzerland #Switzerlandtravel #WhattodoinSwitzerland #WhattoseeinSwitzerland #WhenshouldIgotoSwitzerland?#WheretogoinSwitzerland

0 notes

mfmagazine · 5 years

Photo

Luz Medina Bonta

Article by Mark A. Bonta

Photo by Rebecca Schmidt

In October 2010, Luz Medina Bonta’s Madreselva Collection – 15 silk, cotton, and bark cloth outfits colored with natural dyes – premiered on the runway at Fashion Week Honduras. This marked the first time that truly ecological fashion had been on display in that country, and the first foray into high fashion for a Honduran-born artist based in the Mississippi Delta. But most notable about the Madreselva Collection is the fact that it is the culmination of a non-profit effort supported by the United Nations Development Program, the Honduran government, and the indigenous development organization MOPAWI to showcase the skills and potential of indigenous Miskita women artisans from the remote Mosquito Coast region.

The project, Bonta’s brainchild, demonstrated decisively that traditional Honduran natural dyeing and color-fixing techniques, when combined with the expertise of a trained artist, can lead to the creation of clothing of sufficiently high quality to be attractive in even the most demanding of markets. This is a far cry from the typical emphasis on handicrafts for the tourist trade, and has potential to return a much higher profit to local artisans. Bonta, who herself grew up in small Honduran town, is keenly familiar with the struggles of impoverished rural women in her country, who are particularly marginalized in the Mosquito Coast and in her own home province of Olancho, along the rainforest frontier. Indeed, Bonta’s entire professional trajectory has been grounded in the realities of daily life in the Honduran ‘outback,’ one of the most underdeveloped terrains in the Americas.

Luz Medina Bonta, growing up in Juticalpa in the 1980s, first became fascinated with natural dyes through observing the turmeric (curcuma or yuquilla) and annatto (achiote) her grandmother put in foods to turn them a pleasing yellow or orange. But by that time Honduras, like almost every country, had been using synthetic dyes for its fabrics for over a century, and natural dyes were retained only for certain household uses, an important part of the culture but a distressing loss when you consider that at one time, native indigo had been the major ingredient of ‘Mayan Blue’ used by the rulers and scribes of the great city-state of Copán in western Honduras. Indeed, Honduras, part of the vast cultural domain of Mesoamerica that gave the world such staples as corn, tobacco, and several races of cotton, had known cochineal dye from the scale insect, purple dye from molluscs, and numerous natural colors of all hues from the amazing diversity of plants that grew in its forests and grasslands. After contact with Europeans, Honduras came to play a key role in the international dye trade—which at one time was centrally important in the world economy—and was particularly known for its brazilwood and fustic.

But as is always the case, as the centuries wore on, only the remotest of Honduran communities—often those that were still indigenous—retained knowledge of these and dozens of other natural dyes. But even where the plants and some of the dyeing practices are still remembered, natural colors typically only emerge through the work that certain cooperatives do in creating handicrafts. Even on the Mosquito Coast, as Bonta discovered, only a few of the many local natural dye plants are still used regularly, and in most cases the necessary color fixing techniques have been lost or neglected; without these mordants – which can often be obtained from alum or various muds – cloth easily fades in the sun and colors run upon washing.

The rescue of Mesoamerican dyeing techniques is already well advanced in countries such as Mexico and El Salvador, but lags far behind in Honduras. Bonta’s years of experimentation as a student in the fiber laboratory at Delta State University—often with local plants such as osage orange, elderberry, and goldenrod—had shown her the potential of such dyes, and also their generally benign effects on human health. By contrast, synthetic dyes, not to mention certain mordants, can be extremely hazardous. But natural dyeing is far more than producing ‘natural colors’—it also is compatible with a wide range of stamping, tie-dyeing, Shibori, and other techniques, and like all textile art, demands a high degree of imagination and skill in the elements of design. The production of a naturally-dyed AND (and mordanted fabric) is labor-intensive, but the next step—the creation of a wearable garment that is attractive to potential consumers—adds several more layers of complexity. Nevertheless, Bonta believed it possible to start ‘at the tree’ so to speak, literally in the middle of the Honduran rain forest, and end up on the runway, without the use of synthetics and without damaging the environment. That is to say, the entire process of creating the Madreselva Collection was to be sustainable and earth-friendly to the maximum extent possible.

It went without saying, then, that the natural dyes had to be applied to natural fibers. Honduras, while once an important producer of cotton, today is known primarily for bark cloth (tuno and tuno blanco) harvested from certain trees, including a species of rubber. The fabric that results is highly versatile and receives several natural dyes extremely well; Bonta worked with these on the Mosquito Coast as well as with raw cotton and various silks that were not available locally. During the course of summer seminars with the Miskita women, Bonta not only worked with the dyes the women were already using for handicrafts, but also introduced dyeing with the sawdust of mahogany from a local sustainable-harvest cooperative, and with the wood from branches of various other rainforest trees. In another part of the country, Bonta obtained sawdust from a ‘waste tree’ known as palo de brasil— the brazilwood or brasiletto, once one of the most famous sources of red hues and now a forgotten species. Once the requisite amount of fabric had been prepared, it was ‘simply’ a matter of having the 15 outfits sewn, as well as training 15 volunteer models and dealing with all the other minutiae involved in putting on a runway show. In Bonta’s case, this was mostly achieved long-distance, via Facebook, as she had commitments in Mississippi up until almost the last minute. This included some desperate fundraising in the Delta, as the funds provided in Honduras had run out, and not doing the show was not an option. Indeed, the stateside fundraising showed just how interested many people were in this unique effort to marry indigenous artisanry and the ‘save the rainforest’ mantra with ecologically-sustainable fashion. In addition, the ‘tree to runway’ demonstration project is also the topic of Bonta’s presentation at the International Symposium and Exhibition on Natural Dyes (ISEND-2011) in La Rochelle, France, where she will hopefully be joined by two of the Miskita women involved.

As has been hinted at several times, there are many benefits for an income-strapped country like Honduras in the rescue of natural dyes and fibers. If a fair-trade model can prevail and a demand develops, then income generation for small producer groups will follow. Natural dye sources are found throughout the country, not just in the rainforest: indeed, any community can start a dye garden and quickly grow their own dyes, which have value on their own (particularly well-known ones such as indigo and brazilwood). Most importantly for many, the harvesting of dye materials can be sustainable, through the removal of fallen limbs and other non-harmful practices; this is particularly attractive for conservationists looking for ways that local communities can be enticed to preserve natural resources. Of course, successful initiatives, especially those that seek internationally-recognized certification, need to adhere to strict environmental standards, since even the use of firewood for heating dye pots, and disposal of waste materials, has to be done in an ecologically correct manner.

There is also the matter of accessories: Bonta was delighted to discover that the women of Krausirpi, along the Patuca River in the Mosquitia, are already producing naturally-dyed handbags woven of majao, a fiber from the bark of certain trees. Using her ceramics skills, she also made the jewelry for the Madreselva Collection, and she points out that small-scale pottery production still exists in Honduras, thus there is plenty of potential for artesanal involvement in the creation of a wide range of fashion accessories.

Realizing that all the supply in the world comes to naught if the demand is not there—and the means to connect the two--Luz Medina Bonta brought her demo collection back to Mississippi to begin the arduous task of promoting the Madreselva Collection overseas, helping it stand out in the burgeoning ecofashion world, on a shoestring budget but with strong ties to the Delta artist and university community, and via Facebook with kindred souls across the planet. She hopes to attract interest in what she has done and what she can do, and by extension what the women of Honduras can do, if somebody invests in them and helps them connect to the world.

0 notes

mestos · 7 years

Note

what are ALL of your headcanons for the FS AU (the one with alpha, beta, phan, and lumi)? and yes i mean all of them. also do you have a place for all of them/are they organized anywhere? im in love with this au and i would love to know more!

Well anon, you are in for a wild ride, so strap in and fall right deep into the hell both @satsuha and I are deep in. This is an extremely long post, so I apologize in before hand in case the readmore doesn’t quite kick in.

A basic summary of this AU is that Alpha and Luminous are blood-related cousins. They are part of the Commander family as lopsided as it is, and the reason for their ‘somewhat close relationship’ is precisely based on the fact the two of them stick out so much from their family. In this AU, Alpha is a full-time bookstore clerk but is also a university student while Luminous is a Physics and General Science Teacher in a high school.

Beta is a high school student who’s not related to Alpha in anyway, which makes it ironic that the two of them look alike despite no blood relation whatsoever. Identical Strangers.

Phantom is an General ARTS and Drama Teacher at the same school as Luminous, but has also grown up with him. They are childhood friends. He also knew Alpha from back then.

Alpha

AGE: 20

Occupation: University Student, Bookstore Owner

Doing a science degree in university, majoring in Physics.

He is Will’s biological son. His mother (who is an unnamed woman, not Rhinne) divorced Will when he was only a baby, so he doesn’t remember her, nor does he feel any loneliness about it. He doesn’t like to associate with his family (extended family included) because he sticks out. The only family he agrees to be associated with is Luminous, because as much as he hates to admit it, Luminous is the only one relatively close to him.

Hates books to a burning passion despite being a bookstore owner. He hates his job. The reason he got stuck being a bookstore owner is because he made a deal with his father, who is a bookstore company CEO, that he would be allowed to live independently if he managed a bookstore branch. The rules are that he lives on his own managing the store, and isn’t allowed to screw around otherwise he will be rid of his privileges and be the company heir, which is something he absolutely despises to do. He is not allowed to leave the store till he is much older, and anything he does to rid of his job (and he’s tried before, which is how he was told of his consequences) will be put against him.

His store is regarded as creepy because of the weird symbol of the company, and regardless of his attempts to make it seem less creepy/proposals to change the logo - especially in his first year of independence - they wouldn’t change it. He’s stopped trying.

While barely anyone seems to come to the store, he actually gets enough customers and money to pay expenses. In exchange for paying expenses, he receives allowance from his father. Some months, he does gain profit.

Attends University twice a week. On those days, he closes the store, since he negotiated to cram all his classes on those specific days.

He’s two-faced of course, he’s very alluring, endearing and fake enthusiastic in front of customers. However, in front of the other three he’s always bitter, sassy and cynical.

Sometimes, to sass Phantom and/or Beta, he uses book titles to communicate. He actually runs an instagram for the sake of making witty phrases using book titles.

His aspiration in life is actually to travel and explore, but since he’s stuck in a bookstore, he doesn’t think he’ll get there any time soon.

He used to be part of the track and field team in High School, and has a large affinity for P.E and just generally doing sport, but being a bookstore owner he doesn’t get to do any of that which is one of his reasons for being bitter all the time.

Luminous

AGE: 25

Occupation: Science/Physics Teacher at the local high school.

Luminous is the same age as Phantom, since they attended the same school since elementary and eventually started working at the same school. He’s currently a Physics/General Sciences teacher, and while students think his classes are boring, they learn much more and surprisingly, hardly fail the class. He used to tutor Alpha when he entered middle school, who gave him the idea of becoming a teacher. When he taught as a student teacher, he reluctantly spent most of his time with Phantom, who was there at the same time.

His biological father is White Mage, his mother is [Mercenary]. His parents divorced when Luminous was very young, and since then WM has been completely immersed in his job (Luminous still doesn’t know exactly what he does, nor does he care) and hired Lucia as a hired caretaker. Luminous barely considers WM as his father, and loves Lucia as family more than anyone else.

He would never admit it, but his immersion in his studies is similar to WM’s and he often spent time reading alone in his childhood. Despite being at the same school as Phantom for years, they hardly interacted until high school/college. As well as being babysat by Lucia as a child, he often “spent time” with Alpha, though it was more like being in the same room and each doing their own thing. Even so, Alpha is his closest/most tolerable cousin, and they would often escape together during family gatherings.

In general he’s quiet, but mostly just prefers to stay reserved when he’s with people he isn’t acquainted with. He actually tends to ramble about things he likes, which is often mystery and science fiction novels. He’s typically stubborn, and prefers to stay within the rules and stick to his own way of doing things (which is why he highly disapproved of Phantom and his stealing antics, and tried his hardest to stay away from him to avoid trouble). Despite that, he slowly starts to open up to some different possibilities after spending more time with Phantom as fellow teachers, since they do have very different mindsets and fields of discipline.

His relationship with Alpha is quite strange, since while they did spend a lot of time together when they were young, they didn’t find out much about each other. He visits Alpha’s bookstore relatively often, mostly out of necessity and sometimes to make Alpha feel less bad about being alone (not like Luminous would ever tell him that).

Luminous spends more time with Phantom than he’d like, but he does admit (to himself) that it is a pretty valuable learning experience. He actually develops a fondness for theatrical performances after being forced by Phantom to rehearse lines with him occasionally, and often watches Phantom perform (sometimes invited, sometimes without telling him).

Phantom

AGE: 26 (older by months)

Occupation: ARTS (Basics of all) and Drama Teacher

He was Alpha’s previous drama teacher, but during that time he only worked as a student teacher. Despite that, they have a somewhat close bond, which leads to him always visiting Alpha’s bookstore during breaks “to keep him company”, but also to complain about Luminous missing his advances yet again. He nicknamed Alpha as his “favourite alumnus” to piss him off.

Has actually grown up with Luminous, and because of that, he developed feelings for him. He had actually also met Alpha along the way even prior to his teaching, and enjoys teasing him which is why they have that “somewhat close bond”.

Despite his nonchalant nature, he’s serious in his job. He’s charismatic, but also teaches quite well, which is why he’s the favourite of many in the school.

He’s an incredibly good actor as well, and has a small career in broadway and theatre. He surprisingly prefers to teach rather than further that career, but he still performs with a troupe called Lumiere occasionally.

Was infamous for always stealing/pickpocketing when he was younger. However, he fell in love with one of his teachers - Aria - who helped reform him. Unfortunately, she got married to someone else and moved elsewhere to settle, but Phantom kept her ideologies to heart and decided to pursue teaching. His father, Raven, often argues with him and how he had great potential to be something greater; rich even; but nevertheless Phantom continues on with his job.

He finds his share of fame and fortune from his troupe performances and teaching. He’s quite popular in school and locally.

He’s very petty, as he despises both Alpha and Luminous’ youngest cousins Orchid and Lotus respectively for destroying some of the things he stole when he encountered them.

As a teacher he is relatively lax with the rules, and often lowkey bends them to suit himself (such as wearing piercings at work) but he wouldn’t do anything completely out of line.

Beta

AGE: 18

Occupation: 3rd Year High School Student

She is actually Luminous’ student in Physics, but she’s not very smart at it.

Doesn’t actually like reading books either, but she doesn’t mind it. She’s quite into adventure stories, and often wonders what it’s like to explore a fantasy world.

She’s quite airheaded, and often doesn’t understand a lot of concepts until she gets a proper feel of things. She learns by doing more than through words. Beta also maintains more of a blank/neutral expression which makes it difficult for people to understand what she’s thinking, but she is not emotionless. In fact, she is quite beautiful when she smiles.

The reason for her quiet and blank nature is because she had an accident when she was seven that led her to being in a coma for three years, and spent some time in rehabilitation. It made her a bit secluded from many people, and affected her way of thinking along the way. She is not antisocial though, however, as she does have many friends but they were never actually close friends - with the exception of Lapis and Lazuli, who are her best friends.

Her biological mother is Rhinne. She has a father, but she has actually never physically seen him because he was always overseas for work, and she has spent more time with her mother so she doesn’t care very much about him. However, in later years Rhinne has had to leave home often due to business trips (she is a CEO of a watch company) so she fell under the care of her secretary and neighbour, Pietta. They live in an apartment complex where they are close with everyone in the building, who in some form work for Rhinne’s company.

She receives tutoring from Dello twice a week, and is also in the judo club.

Actually encountered Alpha’s bookstore during a stormy afternoon in which she got drenched from the rain. She doesn’t remember the incident well because she caught a fever during that time.

She visits Alpha’s bookstore very often, pretty much every time she doesn’t have any after school activities. Ever since the whole rain incident, she was curious about the bookstore. Even if she doesn’t actually like to read, she’s particularly intrigued by the owner, and enjoys talking to him (even if he’s always, well, the way he is). Going to the bookstore actually has let her witness a different side to her physics teacher and the drama teacher in her school. They start to have a bit of an odd bond, since they have no relation to each other.

She actually starts working part-time at the bookstore during long breaks. After she graduates, she decides to work there full time while she thinks about what she wants to be, since she doesn’t really know.

Extra HCs/Scenarios/Unsorted;

Alpha is actually quite popular with the senior citizens of the shopping district. Because he’s a suck up (so he can take advantage of their freebies), and as well as how most of his customers are composed of the elderly anyway. However, he still does deal with some frustrating customers from time to time, especially those who complain about the state of books or the lack of recent issues.

Luminous actually spends an average of at least three hours in the bookstore because he treats it like a library. Alpha often chews him out on bending the spines of novels and not treating them with enough care - “This isn’t a library, if you’re going to do that, at least buy the book” - during his visits. He also uses the bookstore for his supply of textbooks and material for his classes, and negotiates with Alpha for stock. He also recommends the bookstore from time to time but nobody still goes, aside from Beta.

Phantom has taken advantage of his popularity to support the bookstore and recommended it to his students, while also adding witty comments about Alpha himself. But his ‘support’ backfires hilariously, as while people did go to the bookstore, they had used it for romantic endeavours instead. Alpha was more frustrated than pleased with the result (due to him having to kick a bunch of students out for attempting nasties) and tried to kill Phantom for it during the more quiet hours. The incident lasted a week, and during the week Alpha passive-aggressively recommended badly written erotica novels to his ‘customers’ under the guise of potential ideas, so in a way, he did make some sales.

Alpha and Beta have a bit of an awkward bond at the first, with Alpha starting off as acting extremely ‘fake’ towards her because she was a customer at first. However, Beta was able to see through his act quite perceptively, and started to converse with him enough for his facade to break. Because of her contrasting nature to his, he was very frustrated with her in the beginning. But with due time and her regular visits, the two slowly ease and become good friends.

—

This isn’t the end of them of course! The two of us have so much ideas, it’ll be too much to add to one post. I hope this was satisfying! And I extend a warm invitation to everybody to join us in Bookstore AU hell.

#neesan asks #MS: bookstore au #THIS IS SO LONG #although i cut out the romantic aspects of this au to avoid controversy and discourse #i'm playing it safe but i'll state directly in the tags:#this au is catered to Alpha x Beta and Phantom x Luminous respectively #THERE IS however Alpha x Phantom in this too #i will mostly only speak in platonic relationships for alphabeta because I know some of yall will be after my ass #Anonymous #Characters I didnt talk about or didnt imply assume they aren't in this au rofl #there are however some we didnt mention that ARE in this AU but. this au is focused on those four and their bonds specifically.#maplestory #luminous #phantom #zero alpha #zero beta

41 notes · View notes