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Disinformation, Propaganda, and Political Warfare

3/3/20

After listening to the talk, I feel more discouraged by the current state of disinformation. While he was right, that disinformation is nothing new, the rate it can spread is unprecedented now because of the technology we have. With social media and this current age of “getting the scoop,” a completely false message can spread across entire countries without being checked. It was able to happen before with the AIDS epidemic, and it sure can do now. 

While the talk, in hindsight, really felt like “Russia bad,” it did open up some new insights for me. What I found interesting was the assertion that they only aggravate existing issues in the US and the world to intentionally destabilize democratic governments. Looking back at the things they did in the 2016 election and before during the Cold War, I can see that there is some truth to this statement. They never really created any problems, just got them into the national consciousness so it would be a bigger issue. And with such a systematic, coordinated attack, our very flow of information and news are under threat. 

While the amount of technology we now possess in this age is unprecedented, it can come with its dangers. It’s just like what Mark Twain said at the opening of the Gutenberg museum. With this invention, came great opportunity and change. But, it also brought great danger and confusion. I think the same thing is happening today. We are appreciating what social media and the internet is bringing to us in its full capacity, but I don’t think we are completely ready to face the consequences it brings.

Chinese Film Appreciation Workshop

3/2/20

Elements of storytelling notes:

  • Start with a story

-Not exactly part of it: an abstract format

  1. Screenplay

-Show, not tell

   2. Directing

-Both sides of the fire

-Use of the fire’s position

   3. Production Design

-Leaves

-Change of color and intentional blurring of the scene

   4. Cinematography

-Black and white

-Perspective (POV)

-Sound distortion

-Camera shake

-Slow-mo

   5. Acting

-Facial expression ad actions

-Little to no dialogue

-Very subtle movements to each other

-Tone of voice

   6. Stunts

-Slight speed adjustment (slow-mo and speed)

-Very dramatic sound effects and actions

-Replay for emphasis

   7. Editing

-Prisoners cutting to the firing targets

-Flashing back between firing and views of his brother

-Shows their differences and feeling for each other

-Color retouching

   8. Sound Design

-Exclamations from the actors

-Music to create tension

-Clash of weapons

-Contrast between lots of sound and silence

-Ringing in the death scene

   9. Music

-Notable differences per character

-Set the rhythm

-Obviously romantic, dance music

-Music is the main thing in the scene

-Create a “dream space,” then puts you back to reality when it stops

   10.  Marketing

-Put all the complexity into something that can be easily understood by audiences

-First half was pretty similar to Westerns, but the second half was a classic comedy

-Trailers might misrepresent the movie

 

Once again, I am in a in-between with this Chinese-American event. I’ve watched plenty of American/Western films here, and I know what they are generally like. But unlike others, I also know what the Asian approach and attitude to films are, too. This is especially prevalent with Parasite taking on most of the world consciousness at this time. While I haven’t watched many Korean films, I noticed quite a number of similarities between the two countries, at least on a very basic makeup level as discussed here. Of course, there are a fair number of “Western-style” films in Korea, but the really good ones share the same set of values. They all emphasize the little details, the things in between the lines that really makes the movie stand out. Western/American films are generally really blunt and to the point, with lots of exposition and troupes. There are lots of action and quick cuts to keep the audience’s attention. But at the same time, it can really confuse the audience on what really is going on. That’s why movies like 1917, with its long, uninterrupted takes, received so much praise for its cinematography and choreography.

At the same time, there are differences between Korean and Chinese films. One glaring one is the depth of the story. A story such as the one in Parasite, a deep dive into the class and income issues in Korea, would never be able to be conceived in China. That is mainly due to politics, since information is so tightly controlled in China. Many Korean films also show heavy influences from Hollywood and the US film industry. This type of influence is only natural considering Korea’s history. It creates this strange fusion, this blend that makes Korean films unique. 

As I really don’t know much about how much work and effort goes into a film before, I learned a lot of new information on the breakdown of an entire film, even a single scene. The breakdown and the visuals he presented really helped me understand and digest the information. In the right hands, different elements of film as presented above can be a masterpiece.

Skype with Kinda

2/21/20

Compared to Tarek, Kinda’s life at the time the Syrian Civil War started was pretty similar. They were both around the age to go into college, just living their normal lives in a country that was relatively stable before the war began. They both had to leave their respective homes when the fighting reached their towns. There were lots of difficulties adjusting to the countries they fled to, and they still face troubles today. One example is the inability to work because of our status as a refugee, something that refugees have trouble with in both Jordan and Lebanon. 

At the same time, there were also several key differences. Kinda was able to escape with her family in relatively safe circumstances. There was little to no danger during her journey to Jordan. Once there in Jordan, her parents left to find work elsewhere, because of the lack of job opportunities in Jordan. Compared to Tarek, I learned a lot more information on her view and opinions on Syria and the US, based on the questions we asked her. I also think we learned a bit more about ourselves and our views, based on the questions she asked us. It triggered a bit of self-reflection within me, and how the media can drastically change a story to fit a narrative, knowing our growing dependence on it.

I think in this Skype, it opened up a different aspect of the refugee crisis to me. Every story I’ve heard so far (including the Skype last year) had many hardships in the journey to freedom. In Kinda’s case, everything about her escape was relatively stable and safe. Even though she faced problems with getting a job in Jordan, she was able to settle in relatively well, finishing her college education and connecting with her fellow refugees. She was also able to connect with Jordanians as well: her reason, that almost 70% of Jordanians are from the Palestinian area was a angle that I never considered before. 

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Follow up-Mohammed's Skype

I learned some new insight into attitudes around refugees in Germany and Jordan. I found it interesting that in Jordan, other countries pay them to accept refugees so they do not get them. In Germany, they have been generally welcoming to refugees, but they are considering cutting down the number since they have accepted so many refugees. The general populace are also very welcoming, and understand the struggles that these refugees have gone through to get here.

Manahatta and Art Exhibit Reflection

2/14/20

Throughout history, everything regarding Indigenous Americans have been systematically erased, whether it is their history, their language, their homes, or their culture. They were first forcefully removed from their lands, which they had lived on for centuries before, by European settlers. For the next hundreds of years, they were repeatedly persecuted and neglected. They were dehumanized as savages, different beings who needed to be educated. Their very way of life disappeared, indoctrinated into American culture. As reflected in the play, more and more Native American cultures and languages are forgotten with each passing generation. There are few who fight for the preservation and acknowledgement of these, lost in a country that barely acknowledges their existence. This can be seen in the play, where the Lenape can never really go back to their home of Manhattan, after they were kicked out by the Dutch.  

Today, there needs to be more transparency and awareness surrounding Native American culture. Their plight is on the level of slavery and other atrocities in our country’s history, and yet it is rarely talked about. Going back to the play, the loss of the Lenape language was a big plot point in the story. The father (I forgot his name) was one of the last fluent speakers left in the town. Other than the mother, the other characters don’t have much of a grasp on the language. That’s why the family could never get the language course off the ground, due to a lack of fluent speakers.

In the art exhibit, one piece that caught my eye was the bicentennial portrait, depicting a Native American in traditional clothes, but with an American flag draped over his legs. To me, it represents the problem that Native Americans are facing today: they are foreigners in their own lands. In ways, their culture has been integrated into American culture, but that also means they face difficulty in expressing their own heritage. This only aggravates the loss of culture and language that many modern Native Americans are facing today. This trend needs to change before the cultures and traditions of the true indigenous people of this land are lost forever. Their history should not be something that will be lost in the past.

Travel and Empathy Refection

1/21/20

My work in Global Studies have definitely changed how I look at different parts of the world now. Before, I was comfortable living in my comfort zone. I didn’t want to push farther beyond that; I used to just take things at face value. When I first started the Global Studies program, that viewpoint began to slowly change. It first started domestically. I still remember the first event I ever went to as part of this program, the Global Security Forum. Listening to all the speakers really changed my viewpoint on how national security and foriegn policy are discussed nowadays. I didn’t pay attention to politics much before, but I understood here how important that is to diplomacy. I still remember the pendulum allegory quite clearly, on how diplomacy switched from liberal to conservative, Democratic to Republican. Global cooperation has given  way to threats and distrust. 

My foreign biases were heavily challenged on the trip to Jordan. I have traveled internationally quite frequently, but none changed my perspectives as much as Jordan. The “travel vs tourist” theory helped here. I probably wouldn’t have learned as much about Middle Eastern culture on any other ordinary trip to Jordan, if I could even get there from the start. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, to a region we hear a lot about in the news but never know firsthand. While my biases didn’t go as far as labeling everyone from the Middle East as terrorists, what I get in my news feed every day says to me that it is a very unstable region with a constant threat of war. While it is true for some regions of the Middle East, it was not true for Jordan. Everyone was so kind and hospitable, willing to help our group when we struggled or were lost. I was able to enjoy the trip very well (while eating a lot of food). The homestays left the biggest impact on me, since I actually got to step into the lives of a typical Bedouin family. It told me a lot about Jordanian culture and norms. 

More importantly, this trip also increased my empathy with this group of people as well. I got to see how families, worked, talked, and how they got through the day. Visiting the refugee organizations and the LGBTQ+ group got me to sympathize more with the oppressed in Jordan: the Syrian refugees and the LGBTQ+ community. I didn’t even realize that there was a LGBTQ+ community in Jordan before the trip. To learn that there was such a group, remaining together even in the worst of countries to be in, struck an emotional chord within me. The same applies for the refugees. Everyone hears about the Syrian refugee crisis, but they are presented as a large group of people, with sweeping generalizations. Along with the other events and talks we had with Syrian refugees, I was able to get a clearer sense of their struggles and experiences.

Now, I have a sort of process I try to adhere to. When I take an interest in an issue or topic, I try not to take things at face value. I take a multiperspective approach, trying to find as many sides to the story as possible. That way, I have a much clearer view of the topic. 

Just Mercy Reflection

1/21/20

During the movie, there were some specific human rights violations that stood out to me. Most importantly, how racism influenced most of the decisions made in this entire saga. Walter was placed on death row after his judge overturned an initial life sentence. There really was no bounds or circumstances for this decision. It was also used to threaten Ralph Myers, which is a violation of cruel and unusual punishment. Bryan also suffered from this systematic racism, as seen when he was strip-searched in prison to the traffic stop. It shows that despite segregation being outlawed, it remains strong within the Southern regions of the United States. Until this is fully eradicated, Bryan and our work is not done. We need to continue to fight for change in our criminal justice system.

While it is not mentioned as much in the book, the movie does mention Bryan’s motivation behind his actions in the movie. He grew up in similar circumstances as these people in Alabama did. He grew up in a racially segregated neighborhood of Delaware. He saw how unfair African-Americans were treated, even after segregation was banned. This was why he went to Harvard Law School, and why he went down to Alabama to fight for equal rights in the first place. He knew that even for the accused, some mercy is needed instead of just alienating them from the start. He used his legal education well, going at the system from every point available until his work and effort finally pulled through. While I am not privy to the specific details of the story because of my lack of experience in law, I was able to see that Bryan was able to challenge the system without overreaching his bounds as a lawyer (not doing anything “illegal”).

NYC Field Trip

12/16/19

The Auschwitz memorial was very powerful to me. As the tour guide said, actual artifacts such as shoes and uniforms are sometimes the only reminders to what happened. They also carry an individual story in all of them, something that can last forever if preserved correctly. I learned that there were actually several camps at Auschwitz, and that the largest one, Auschwitz-Birkenau, is the one that is usually the one that goes down into history. It was interesting learning about the historical context of the camp, how a small village that switched between several borders turned into such an infamous blot in our history. It also emphasizes how systematic the killings were. This was not an accidental thing. This was an intentional act of violence against an entire group of people by a regime that wanted nothing more than to exterminate everyone in said group. On that point, it was really interesting learning about the concept of eugenics and how the Nazis invested heavily in this, trying to find the “perfect Ayran race.” 

It is more important than ever to learn about this now due to how divisive and polarizing our current society is. Politics and social media have divided our people, and hate and bigotry are slowly becoming the norm. Before it becomes completely institutionalized we need to remember what could happen when we climb the pyramid of hate. As per the quote, “If you forget the past, there is a very high chance it can happen again.”

Although we spent only a short time at the 9/11 memorial, it was interesting walking around the entire complex. What caught my interest was the large waterfalls on the foundations where the buildings stood. Even though the names were right there, I caught myself focusing on the waterfalls most of the time. So, I did some research over the weekend and found out that the waterfalls were supposed to block the sound of the city to create a sort of sanctuary for the people there. Looking back, that was the exact reason why I focused on the waterfalls in the first place. The wall of sound they created took me right out of New York, and in this other world of silent remembrance. This, combined with the names and the rock formation, created a memorial that was very powerful, fitting for such a tragedy.

 

Just like The Band’s Visit last year, the play showed that human compassion and empathy knows no bounds. What the people of Gander did to take in those 7,000 passengers was the ultimate selfless act. I also liked how it foreshadowed the future with the general acceptance of the gay couple and the discrimination against the Egyptian passenger. One advantage of a musical is that is can convey a message to a multitude of people. Music is something that is not restricted to one religion or culture. It is a universal language. So using music to convey the different emotions felt during and after 9/11 was a perfect idea to me. That being said, sometimes during the play I felt that they tried to force the music a little too much. I can’t recall the specific moment right now, but sometimes the music just felt out of place or inappropriate to convey the emotion or events in the play. 

A Dong Field Trip

11/19/19

Everything felt quite familiar in the supermarket. Other than some changed products on the shelves (which I assume was due to different shipments) it was pretty much the same from previous visits. A Dong is a rather unique market because it has products from many different Asian countries, rather than just one. So, it appeals to many different demographics in the area. Me and my parents visit this market regularly, so I know the market inside and out. The one change I noticed was the Korean section, but nothing in there really surprised me. 

I did learn some things about Chinese culture and the students. There were some foods that I didn’t know before, such as a type of noodle used for a specific meal (I think it was seafood-based) and rice paper (I’m not really sure on what this is for. It seems a little too thick for spring rolls). There were also some tofu that caught my eye. They were different from the ones I usually eat; It had a really hard, thick outer skin instead of a soft outer layer. I also learned that most of the Chinese students there knew how to cook at least one meal. Most of them were traditional Chinese plates, such as hot pot, rolls, or a chicken sautee.

Assembly with Dorje Dolma

11/4/19

I think Dorje’s presentation is a thrilling story of human compassion. To fully understand her story, we need to know the environment she lived in. We have to consider that Dorje grew up in much different circumstances than most of us do. Her village is in the most isolated places of Nepal, which is only accessible by foot. Even with the advent of small airplanes and helicopters, it takes at least two weeks to walk there. Food and resources are very scarce, and they largely depend on traditional medicine and spiritual techniques. In fact, Dorje’s father is the “main” spiritual doctor of the village. When Dorje’s scoliosis got serious, there was no way that any healing techniques at the village would have cured her condition. They headed to Kathmandu to try to find anything that could save her. The first few days were turbulent; they knew no one there, and Kathmandu was a vastly different place than their village. They were forced to beg for money and food in the streets for some time. Luckily, they were able to find the Rokpa group, who were able to accomodate them and try to find Western doctors that could cure Dorje’s condition. She was able to go to America to fix her spine, and now she is trying to raise awareness for health and medicine in her home village. 

Compared with Lia’s life, Dorje’s situation was similar in a lot of ways but different. Lia was born with her condition, so she never really lived a “normal” life. Dorje’s condition didn’t become apparent until when she was about 6. It also seems like Dorje’s family was a little more accepting of Western medicine. It was why they traveled to Kathmandu in the first place. Even today, her dad knows the limits of his practices, and regularly refers patients to Western doctors for treatment. Lia’s family, on the other hand, was completely lost on the concepts of Western medicine. Perhaps it was because their first encounter with Western doctors was after they immigrated to America, whereas Dorje met with the Rokpa group in Kathmandu, Westerners who had already been here for some time. Many of Dorje’s medical issues were purely financial; Lia’s situation was a conflict of two cultures and concepts that unfortunately did not talk to each other.

Compared to Lia, Dorje’s life featured cultural brokers in a different way. The Rokpa group had already been operating in Kathmandu for some time, so they had a basic understanding of the local culture. But they really can’t be considered cultural brokers to me, because they were not necessarily experts of Nepalese culture. I feel like cultural brokers were not needed as much because there was less conflict between the two groups. Many people that the Rokpa group accommodated went there out of their own volition. If there were cultural brokers in Dorje’s story, it was the translators that were used by the doctors. In Lia’s case, there was a lot of conflict between the Hmong and the doctors at MCMC, so cultural brokers were needed to moderate in that case. But in this case, there was so little conflict that cultural brokers were simply not needed.

Saturday Service at the Emmanuel Synogague

11/2/19

One obvious difference was the language. Hebrew is completely different from English, from the dialect to how it is read (right to left). I really wasn’t able to speak or sing along at all here, while I could in some capacity last year. This service was also much smaller. As it was said to me, usually the morning services get more people, so the service is in the main hall. The afternoons bring a smaller crowd, so they go to the small chapel area. This is where the biggest contrast from last year’s service was to me: the extreme emphasis on community. While the previous service did instill a sense of community and bonding in me, it was much greater here. Maybe it was due to the smaller numbers, but I think the structure of the service helped a bit, especially on the part where different people took turns reading passages. It made me feel like everyone was participating. 

That being said, there were plenty of similarities. The heavy emphasis on singing was retained here, with the entire service being purely made of singing. The average person attending was the same, although there were a few younger people mixed in this time. There were more traditional rituals, here being touching the Torah scroll and the closing ceremony. The duration (about an hour) was surprisingly the same: it felt shorter here than last year. Maybe it was just due to the size and the number of activities in last year’s service that made it feel so much longer.

I read the Vox article about the rise of secularism in the United States, particularly in the younger generations. I do generally agree with the article’s findings, that Americans are slowly becoming more “spiritual” rather than outright “religious.” I think almost all of these changes and findings can be attributed to one thing: the internet. Before the internet, church was one of the only places to reach out and interact with your community. It was the prime place to meet new people and make friends. It generally still does today, but the internet has usurped that role with much greater power. Now you can connect to hundreds, thousands of people just like you all around the world at a moment’s notice, wherever you are. With this new way of finding friends, religion has taken a back seat in these people’s minds. I can personally connect to this well, being a secularist by definition (although I prefer the term “non-religious”). I simply do not consider religion as a part of my life, because it has no importance or significance to me. 

Politics are also another important factor. I think that the only way you can really get involved in a religion these days it to be born and raised in it. Political views and ideologies can affect this. That’s why there is a current division between Northern and Southern ideologies: The conservative side promotes traditional values, which religion is part of. The liberal side promotes free thinking and self-advocacy, so religion is more likely to get lost in favor of more important themes. 

In conclusion, religion is not really “dying,” per se, but it is really being looked at differently by newer generations as technologies and innovations develop. Maybe a change is needed, maybe it is not. 

Freshly Squeezed "The Normalization of Hate"

10/3/19

The talk taught me just how complicated the word hate really is. The very definition of hate can be very different per person, making hate speech even harder to identify. And even when it is identified, what can we do with it? Every possible solution brings up more questions than it answers (especially regarding the First Amendment). If we try to suppress or clamp down these people, it might continue to enable them and lead to a much larger populist movement. There is an extremely fine line, and it might be impossible to find in this current society that swings  between extremes all the time.

Although, I did agree with the assertion that social media companies should not try to take down or clamp down on hate speech. That decision should be left to the government and the people, not private companies. And besides, the entire point that those social media platforms was not make people to be nice to each other (although it is a potential side effect) but for revenue. If the government penalizes them for keeping hate speech up, they will be more likely to comply. 

Another takeaway that I got was there really shouldn’t be a “war on hate.” It is simply not sustainable and will do more harm (alienate and enable more people on the cusp) instead of good. Instead, we should try to start from the bottom of the “hate pyramid:” those jokes, those rather small acts that can evolve into something very dangerous if not checked. It was laid out clearly on the worksheet we got the next class: while the amount of actions that belong under each elevating level gets smaller, it gets more violent and dangerous until it reaches full-on genocide. History has shown that this top level can be achieved if hate is not kept in check.

I am particularly worried about future responses to this issue. I’m afraid it will be just like every other major issue in society today, such as mass shootings. People will demand a response, but neither side will listen to each other, which will lead to no action at all until the next major tragedy happens. We are repeating the same mistake we have made many times before. We need to get our pride, our own biases out of the way, and actually try to listen to the other side for once. Then, we can try to formulate a solution that can be for the betterment of society. But even then, this solution is not set in stone. As Parker asked in the talk, would empathy and kindness work for people who are so far gone, so far in their hatred that reasoning would not work on them? What would be the next step for those kinds of people? Unfortunately, I do not think there are any hard answers I can come up with coming out of this talk. But I do have a better understanding of the subject so I can possibly push for one.

The Spirit Catches You And You Fall Down Reflection

9/5/19

This book definitely taught me just how far-reaching the consequences of cultural differences can be. Past the obvious language barrier, the Hmong approach to medicine and the American (Western) approach were polar opposites of each other. The Hmong believed that illness was a problem in the soul; the Western doctors believed it simply was a virus, or something else wrong with the body. Because of this, the Hmong traditions of burying the newborn’s placenta, animal sacrifices, and consultants were completely foreign to American doctors and standard medical procedures of spinal taps, antibiotics, and medicine were equally as puzzling to the Hmong. This collision was what led to Lia’s situation, which was unfortunately not all that unique during the Hmong immigration into the US in the 70s and 80s. It was rather depressing just reading about all the missed opportunities on both sides that could have potentially changed Lia’s life for the better. 

Of course, from this situation came the importance of “cultural brokers:” people that can moderate and create pathways of understanding between the two cultures. In the beginning of the saga, when there were no translators available between Lia’s family and the doctors, things obviously got ugly. Lia’s parents did not administer the correct medications, and the doctors were getting increasingly frustrated with the parents’ apparent refusal to comply with their instructions. By the time people like Jeanine Hilt and May Ying were able to somewhat moderate interactions between the two parties, the situation had reached a climax: Lia had been taken away from Foua and Nao Kao on the grounds of child endangerment and negligence. It has to be understood here that the doctors at MCMC arranged this because they genuinely thought that it would be better for Lia. From their viewpoint, this reasoning is understandable, since they genuinely believed that if given the right medications, Lia’s condition would improve. What they didn’t know was that the traditional rituals that Lia’s family were performing also helped to an extent, which was most apparent on how long Lia actually lived for, which was much longer than the doctors had predicted. With both sides not listening to each other, Jeanine and May had a very tough challenge facing them. It also didn’t help that Americans at the time were quite intolerant of the Hmong, who were frequently ridiculed and attacked. On the other side, the Hmong felt that the US owed them for fighting the Pathet Lao and North Vietnamese for them. Unfortunately, the same sentiments remain today; Americans are still rather intolerant of the Hmong (one example being the poultry shop in Bloomfield), and there is still controversy being pushed out from the media about a people who simply want a country to live in. That is why we need people to raise awareness about different cultures to the general populace, so people like the Hmong can become more accepted in modern society. 

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Follow up-9/29

I do not think that any of the criticisms are valid. As stated by defense article, the criticisms of bias are addressed by Fadiman herself in the book. She admits to not knowing much about the two medical cultures from the start of the book. She tries to do her best in indifferent reporting. Any sympathies or biases (as stated by Chiu) does not come up in the book. The point of the book is to challenge the reader’s own sympathies and emotions, and I think Fadiman has succeeded in this aspect. While there could be biases or sympathies to either side in the novel, it wholly depends on the reader, as it is meant as a personal informational work that can reveal as much about the reader as it does about the two cultures.

I honestly am not too familiar with journalistic formatting in general. From what I can remember last year with Jake Halpern, I think a narrative-style approach (which I think Fadiman is very capable of doing) could have done more honor for the Lees. But on the other hand, I think the other side is needed in order for people to understand the whole story. That was the general assumption I got from Jake’s visit, after all. With this being said, I think she was able to do a great job on the book considering the original circumstances it was supposed to be conveyed. It turned into a journalistic mission to more of a personal project, a need to know more about this rather unknown culture that has significant contributions to American history. Although, I do think that the formatting and layout of the story needed to be adjusted a little. While the background information helped, I kept losing the timeline because of all this extra info in between. A more structured layout would have helped readers to catch on to the story better.

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