Una extranjera hablando de Estados Unidos

“No hay nada más divertido que alguien de fuera de Estados Unidos diciendo a los americanos lo que son”.
Prof. Chuang, 23 de Enero de 2008.

El semestre pasado asisití a una clase sobre Comunicación Internacional. Más de un tercio de los estudiantes éramos extranjeros y la profesora nos pidió en varias ocasiones que describiéramos la visión que nuestro país tiene de la postura de Estados Unidos en distintos asuntos. Los estudiantes de ese programa estaban aprendiendo a resolver conflictos de diferentes países y la profesora les aconsejó que aprendieran a comprender su propio país antes de intentar comprender cualquier otro. Y esto significaba escuchar las opiniones de otros países sobre Estados Unidos.

En mi caso, hice el mismo proceso, pero al revés, he aprendido cosas sobre Estados Unidos desde la perspectiva de mi propio país. Ahora lo vuelvo aprender, pero desde aquí dentro. Y siento que vuelvo a empezar porque hay tantas cosas que no conocemos en el extranjero que ahora comprendo las razones por las que algunos problemas siguen sin reslover o por qué la palabra Libertad está por todas partes o por qué las viticmas del Huracán Katrina, por ejemplo, no fueron ayudadas.

Photo by CFPereda
Washington National Monument.

Y después de leer sobre el movimiento por los derechos civiles y pensar en aquello por lo que pasó este país, me pregunto si este es el momento en el que algunos de esos logros se están perdiendo: la disparidad entre clases sociales, la brecha económica, los porcentajes de población en la pobreza o sin seguro médico en el primer país del mundo… estamos realmente hablando de datos del primer país mundial?

Una de las cosas que más escuchas en el extranjero es por qué Estados Unidos no mira más veces hacia dentro de sus fronteras y menos hacia fuera.

La cobertura de las consecuencias del Huracán Katrina fue muy amplia entre los medios de comunicación españoles. El hecho de que el primer país del mundo no lograra ayudar a su propia población en el desastre era uno de los factores que más enfatizaban los periodistas. Fue sólo unos días después de la catástrofe que los periodistas introdujeron el factor de la raza y la probreza en la zona como una de las razones para la falta de ayuda. Lo mismo hicieron los medios españoles.

En el caso de los medios españoles, comentaron que esto era inaceptable tratándose de Estados Unidos. Las manifestaciones son muy comunes en España y es relativamente fácil encontrar a cientos de miles de personas protestando por una causa. Recuerdo preguntarme cada vez que ví algo relativo al Katrina por qué los Americanos en otras partes del país no salieron a la calle a pedir al gobierno que ayudara a las vítimas.

Puede que sea una razón cultural o histórica que se me escape, pero es muy difícil para mí admitir que la raza, la pobreza de la población o la falta de recursos por la guerra de Irak se puedan aceptar sin más como excusas para dejar a miles de personas atrás. No puedo. Y me gustaría saber también qué detuvo a la gente para no salir a la calle a protestar.

No había visto imágenes del desastre desde el aniversario en Septiembre y me impresionaron tanto como la primera vez. Más que el desastre natural en sí, los miles de personas que se quedaron atrás. Me enfadé otra vez. Pensé que todavía queda algo por arreglar.

El 26 de Agosto de 2005 no pude ir a Nueva Orleans, pero me hubiera gustado ir y ayudar contando la historia. Todavía hoy me encantaría escribir sobre ello. El periodismo nos permite mejorar las cosas donde vivimos, podemos contribuir de tantas formas como contar historias que encontramos. Esta idea se lleva mi enfado y me hace querer empezar una nueva historia. A lo mejor voy a Nueva Orleans.

A non-American talking about America

“There’s nothing funnier than a non-American telling Americans what they are.”
Prof. Chuang. Jan. 23, 2008.

I took a class last semester on International Communication. More than a third of the students were from abroad and the professor asked quite often for any of us to describe how our country saw the United State’s position on different topics. Students were learning how to solve problems involving different countries and the professor asked them to better understand their own country before learning about any other. And this implied listening to other countries’ opinions on the United States.

In my case, I did the same process but backwards: I have learned about the United States from my own country’s perspective. Now I’m re-learning this, but from inside this country. And I feel like starting over because there are so many things that we don’t know abroad that now I understand the reasons why some problems remain unsolved, why the word Freedom is everywhere, why the victims of Hurricane Katrina didn’t get help.

And after reading about the Civil Rights movement and thinking about what the country went through I ask myself if this is a time when some of the movement’s achievements are being lost: the disparities between classes, the economic divide, the poverty rates in the world’s first country, the rates of uninsured… are we really talking about the characteristics of the first country?

One thing you can hear a lot abroad is why the United States doesn’t look more often to the inside and less beyond its borders.

The coverage of Hurricane Katrina’s consequences was very extensive by Spanish news media. The fact that the first world country didn’t manage to help its own people from the disaster was what most reporters emphasized. It was just a few days after the hurricane that media introduced the race and poverty factors as reasons why this happened. So did the international reporters.

In the case of Spanish media, this was reported as unacceptable when talking about the United States. Demonstrations are very common in Spain and it’s quite easy to see one movement gather hundreds of thousands of people to protest. I remember wondering, every time I saw something related to Hurricane Katrina, why the American people in other areas of the country didn’t come out and protest asking the government to help the victims.

It might be a cultural or historical reason that goes beyond my knowledge, but it’s hard for me to admit that race, poverty or the lack of resources due to the war in Iraq can be simply accepted as excuses to leave some people behind. I just can’t. And I would love to know what kept people from protesting in the streets.

I hadn’t seen images from the disaster since the anniversary last September and I was still as shocked as the first time. More than the natural disaster itself, it was the thought of thousands of people left behind. I felt angry again. I thought there’s something that needs to be fixed.

On Aug. 26, 2005, I wasn’t able to go to New Orleans, but I would’ve loved to come and help telling a story. I would still love to write about it today. Journalism allows us to improve life where we live; we can contribute in so many different ways, telling the stories that we find. This idea takes my anger away and makes me want to start a new story. I might go to New Orleans.

Day of the Dead and Halloween, not the same

By Cristina Fernández Pereda

While the United States has exported its commercial Halloween customs across the globe, other countries still celebrate their own traditional Day of the Dead.

Every July 13, people in Japan celebrate the Obon, a two-day Buddhist celebration where the Japanese pray for the souls of their ancestors.

In the same way that Oct. 31 was considered by the Celts to be a day when the veil between the dead and the living was lifted, the Japanese believe that spirits reunite with their family during Obon. The living celebrate by offering fruits and vegetables for the dead.

In Mexico, the dead and the living meet on “El Día de los Muertos,” on Nov. 2. On this day, the adult dead return to the living; childrens’ spirits visit a day before. All of them are honored with calaberitas de dulce, or sweet scalps, with the dead one’s name written on the scalp’s forehead and eaten by their relatives or friends. Another delicacy is pan de muerto, or the dead’s bread, which can adopt different shapes such as scalps and is covered with sugar.

In a tradition shared among most Catholic countries, Latin Americans go to the cemetery and decorate graves with flowers and pictures of their ancestors. Such is the case in Uruguay and in Argentina.

Photo by CFPereda
Norwegian cemetery.

Other countries celebrate saints instead of the dead.

On Nov. 1, Spain celebrates El Día de Todos los Santos –the Day of All Saints.

There isn’t a pumpkin or costume to be found on this day. People go to cemeteries to decorate their beloveds’ tombs. The tradition in Spain implies spending part of the day at the cemetery, cleaning the tombs and bringing flowers to honor the dead. In the afternoon, the dead are mourned by eating small cakes like Huesos de Santo, or Saint’s Bones. The little sweets have a scary bone shape the size of your finger.

These old-world traditions are often at odds with current Halloween celebrations, where horror movies, costume contests and pumpkin carving is something increasingly found around the world. Often the older generations are the ones that keep up traditional celebrations, while the young begin to prefer the “American Way.” For instance, they will knock on your door and ask: “Truco o trato?”; “Trick or treat?”

This story was published on the American Observer on Oct. 30, 2007.

Living is an ‘Art’—Youth Programs help shape their future

By Cristina Fernández Pereda

The Art of Living Foundation is the largest volunteer-based non-governmental organization in the United States. Just a short walk from U-Street station in Washington, the organization works closely with the United Nations. The foundation’s volunteers have assisted victims worldwide after events like Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and the Beslan tragedy in Russia while helping develop rural villages in India.

They have programs focusing on personal development, human-values education and community service to create a stress and violence-free society. With a special interest in helping youths, the foundation has created two different programs for students in more than 140 countries: YES! focuses on kids from ages eight to 13, while YES!+ works with college students. Both have the same goal: making them feel better.

As part of the programs, the organization’s instructors practice yoga, breathing exercises, group techniques and meditation with teenagers, implementing special exercises for those with special needs.

“They learn how to manage their emotions and stress, and how to be more successful,” Gayatri Mani, a Youth Programs Coordinator, said.

According to the instructors, the exercises help them improve their potential and realize what is best in them. They are focused in class and they can help their community once they feel they have their own life under control.

Gopika Prabhu is one of the instructors who works with students in Washington.

“You can’t just tell teenagers to do the right thing; you have to give them an alternative. We work on their insecurities and their doubts. They’re scared of what other people think, and when they learn the skills of feeling good, they can decide and help implement that in their community.”

After participating in any of the Youth programs, high school students sometimes do an internship through The Art of Living.

“They work in their field of interest; they can become a youth representative at their school or work at any other organization and give back to their community what they learned,” Prabhu explained.

After a few days in the course, students admit they have more energy, are more focused in class, interact better with other people and don’t get angry frequently.

“After doing the exercises, they feel good and know that they don’t need anything else. They say the experience is awesome,” Prabhu said.

Some of the kids Prabhu has worked with not only attend classes at school, but also work and take care of their families: “We work to give them the tools to balance all that. The goal is to get young people to get up in the morning and think ‘I can take the world,’ to feel they can live their lives the way they want to, without letting the world thrust them down,” Prabhu said.

In Washington, The Art of Living is working now with inner-city centers such as Bell Multicultural and McKinley Technology High Schools.

“We go where kids really need us,” Mani said. “The benefits are seen immediately after a six-day program, learning how to relieve stress, reduce violence and be more successful” she added.

The organization has reached 70,000 students in 50 Universities all over the nation. In George Washington University and Georgetown University, the organization teaches more than 1,000 students during six-day long courses. The students take a total of 21 hours of yoga, meditation and learning of the Sudarshan Kriya breathing technique.

“We ask ‘how can I live my life better?’ and teach how to make your life less stressful and how to reduce the amount of stress that comes from being a student,” Prabhu said.

This story was published on the American Observer on Oct. 23, 2007.

A country’s hideouts

I feel I tried to start from the very end.

I tried to explain sucha complex country as it is the United States without understanding it first. I tried to explain it even before coming here.

Last week, in my International Communication class, the teacher invited the American students to understand their country before trying to help people from other countries understand the U.S. decisions and performances among the international community.

And I realized that, both nationals and foreigners, were going throught the same process of decoding what the U.S. means. But I felt I was walking the same path in the opposite direction.

Photo by CFPereda
Smithsonian Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.

I’ve tried for so long to know and understand this country before coming here; and now I don’t remember what I found out before moving here: I can’t separate my memories from what I learned in the U.S.

Why so much emphasis on Freedom? Why do politics depend so much (and so openly) on money? Why there are teenagers shooting their classmantes? Why so obsessed with making money if you don’t have time to enjoy it? Why do Americans only look to the future, never to the past? Why is space so important?

I feel frustrated because I can only let myself go, listen and learn. I have to go back to where I started, keep my mind open and never stop listening with my heart…

I want to find answers and bring them here.

They say you don’t know a place until you live there. I want to better understand this country, but I know that until I walk through all its hideouts

Dicen que no se conoce una ciudad hasta que no has vivido en ella. Quiero comprender mejor este país, pero sé que hasta que no me adueñe de sus rincones, como cuando encontré (gracias, Dyane) el Jardín de las Esculturas aquí en Washington, no habré empezado a descifrarlo.

(En Español)

Blood diamonds

By Cristina Fernández Pereda

Diamonds have become a symbol of love. According to Amnesty International, few customers can be guaranteed that their precious stone has been obtained legally.

According to a report from the organization, only 37% of the companies contacted could guarantee that they obtained their diamonds without violating human rights. This report was published two years after the diamond sector created regulations to prevent the trade in conflict zones.

Angola, Liberia, Sierra Leona and the Democratic Republic of the Congo are all diamond exporters. They are also among the poorest countries in the world. The wealth of their soil has become one of the causes of poverty for their nations. The millions of dollars that the illicit diamond trade produces fall in the hands of guerrillas. They evade the embargos imposed by the international community by exchanging diamonds for arms.

This funding source has helped to prolong many conflicts in these countries. The production of diamond has not saved 90% of the Angolan population from poverty. There, a diamond sells for 20 dollars at a local agency. Afterwards, as the stone passes from owner to owner its value increases until it reaches European or American hands. In the last phase of the process, the diamond could cost up to $2000. In the end, the figures increase: in one year Liberia exported diamonds that cost up to $300 million.

The diamond trade requires a group of countries that buy, sell or exchange arms for the precious gems. A United Nations report about the causes of the war in Angola listed diamond traders in Johannesburg, Dubai, and Ambers. They also reported Bulgaria and the Ukraine as exporters of arms to countries at war. The final sale is concentrated in Europe. Two-thirds of the world’s diamonds are sold in Ambers, Belgium.

The sale of illegal diamonds is favored by the control mechanisms and insufficient legislation. They do not make the detectors in the airports and they are easily exchanged for cash. Many international organizations have asked for measures that guarantee the legality of the diamonds sold in Europe. Measures that guarantee the diamonds were obtained without violations of any human rights.

The petitions from different organizations such as Amnesty International collide with other interests. The implementation of stricter laws would jeopardize a $50,000 million trade. Although 10% of that money finances armed conflicts, no one wants to lose money simply because diamonds are associated with war.

The diamond consumers should ask for legal guarantees before buying. These demands would help enforce the international legislations. This way diamonds would be controlled from the moment of extraction until they arrive at their final destination.

Regulatory measures that guarantee that diamonds follow the legal path would lead to a decrease amount of funds that finance armed conflicts in the world. There would be no more war diamonds.

(En Español)

From work to school

By Cristina Ferández Pereda

No nation in the world can presume that there are no child laborers among its people.

More than 240 million children work every day instead of going to school. They load rocks and sand, handle explosives, crawl in tunnels of mines or work in water. Many times they use dangerous tools, breathe dust or are in contact with toxic products. This situation will cause them life-long health problems.

They are millions from countries that signed the Convention on the Rights of the Child. From 1989, it forces governments to protect children from “economic exploitation and from undertaking any work that might be dangerous or interfere with education, or that is harmful to their physical, mental or spiritual health or for their social development.”

In Latin America, more than 18 million children work on the streets, in mines or on plantations. Ten years ago the International Labour Organization and the Spanish Agency of International Cooperation and other international organizations and ONG, began fighting to send child workers to school. Thanks to their collaboration, 100,000 minors attended high school.

Their work is based on the International Program for the Eradication of Child Labor. IPEC aims to combine national policies with projects that will compel various countries to ban child labor.

The first accomplishments of the Program have demonstrated that it is possible to end child labor through the application of a series of measures. It’s necessary to help the mining communities of these countries organize themselves into cooperatives, acquire legal rights, improve security measures in the workplace and secure certain essential services in health, education and hygiene in the workplace.

However, these organizations cannot replace the governments. The aim is to give a model to the countries in which child labor is most prevalent. Afterwards, the national governments must, once they have acknowledged the necessity to educate children, secure the defense of their rights and prevent their return to the streets, plantations or factories.

As Gillermo Dema, the coordinator of IPEC for Central America, Panama and the Dominican Republic, says, “we are convinced that the fight against child labor is a long-term effort. This program aims to help the countries that have this problem, but we must understand that it is the affected nations that must eliminate it. We help and give tools.”

UNICEF distinguishes between two types of child labor: the work of children in peasant or artisan families, who, due to the level of poverty, require the cooperation of the youngest, and the exploitation of children for a company or employer outside the family. In this last case, the child cannot fit in school time in their work schedule.

The general rule in child labor is the greater the poverty, the more kids work. The alphabetization programs for minors like IPEC are conscious that one of the first steps is to combine work with education. Behind every working child, there is a family that counts on his salary, no matter how small. Acknowledging the importance of education may be the first step for them to learn another job and leave the vicious cycle of poverty.

No country in the work can presume that there aren’t any working children among its people. The majority of them are found in Africa, Asia and Latin America. With projects like IPEC a growing number of children are leaving the labor market to enter school, to build a better future.

Don’t eat the entire world

By Cristina Fernández Pereda 

It’s easy to find salmon; look in any supermarket. It comes to us from Chile, where it is mass-produced. They produce it in the South and we consume it in the North. The same is true of the Argentinean soy, the Columbian flowers or the sugar from Latin American countries.

These four products will be controlled at the retail level by the creators of the project, No Te Comas el Mundo (Don’t eat the Entire world)—an initiative put forth by Veterinaries Without Frontiers, Ecologist Action, and the International Debt Observatory of the United Nations. It aims to raise awareness about the consequences of the consumerism of the countries in the North on the societies and environment of the South.

To awaken the consciences of the consumers, this company will follow four real cases from the whole sale production in the South until they arrive to the North. The chronicle will include the production establishments, the work conditions, the influence of multinationals in those countries, and the consequences of the trade for the people and the environment.

Production that targets large markets implies, in the South, the exploitation of many workers who find themselves compelled to surrender before the multinationals. This is not only a question of work. Many have seen how these companies have appropriated the most fertile lands. The first consequence is forced immigration: without land to cultivate, they lose their way of life. Afterwards comes the impoverishment of the people and the destruction of ecosystems.

The campaign, No Te Comas el Mundo (Don’t eat the entire world) links the “social and environmental consequences of these products in the South with our daily life and consumer habits” en the North, said Ferrán Garcia, coordinator of the project. He added, “we are piling up an ecological debt in those countries.”

The concept of ecological debt refers to the unequal exchange between North and South. The debt is based on the fact that the production model that the North imposes on the South has horrible consequences on the environment.

That’s the Chilean Case. The massive production of salmon provokes the degradation of lakes or coastal areas and the communities of traditional fishermen have to relocate. However, the benefits of the sale or exportation of salmon do not remain in Chile. The Chilean workers barely benefit from this business.

One of the proposals of the campaign is to make the consumer more conscious of what he buys. If the consumers of the North demand information about the origin of the products and how they arrive on the market, we would be taking the first step toward equality.

In fact it may be that the systems of production are the same in the North as in the South. The growth of the more developed countries has imposed this on the rest of countries. But, we, consumers are not all equal. Neither are the workers. Equality should also begin with adequate work conditions, safe conditions, and the protection of the environment.

In conditions of equality in the market, the countries o the South would have the opportunity to commercialize their products of their own companies. That way they wouldn’t see how the multinationals carry the resources from the South up North. The South would use those resources for their own benefit, whether they export or not. But, it is the South that would choose the final destination of the products.

The campaign, “No te comas el Mundo,” wants to demonstrate that the first step in this fight is also the consumers’ responsibility. Perhaps when they are done in two years, we will be closer to the moment when the stores in the North no longer offers products that the South can trade but that its people cannot buy.

(En Español)

Man against man – Millennium Objectives (7)

By Cristina Fernandez Pereda 

Guaranteeing environmental sustainability is one of the Millennium Objectives that 189 countries have agreed to reach before 2015. Until now, the agreement of the countries consisted in promoting social and political awareness to better the environment.

The current problem is rooted in the depletion of natural resources. Moreover, soil renewal and the CO2 absorption in the forests have decreased. The earth is no longer able to assimilate our wastes or repair the destruction of its biodiversity.

According to the Live Planet Index, presented by ecological association, World Wide Found, since 1970 the Earth has lost one third of its natural wealth. The main causes of this loss is human actions, especially in industrialized countries where less than 20% of the population consumes more than 80% of the resources.

The less developed countries are more vulnerable to the consequences of the environmental crisis which are manifested in changes in ecological processes, reduction of agricultural productivity, the displacement of populations living in areas with high risk of natural catastrophes and increase in transmission of disease such as malaria.

The changes that man has introduced into the environment are determined by the demographic increase and the utilization of artificial compounds. Urbanization and industrialization increase vapor pressure over the oceans and coastal areas. The emission of gases destroys the ozone layer. As a consequence, plant and animal life suffer and global warming worsens because the earth receives more energy.

The destruction of biodiversity also brings about the depletion of natural resources such as food, medicine or energy. The communities, 1,600 million people, who depend on these resources lose their way of live and their incomes.

There is a reciprocal relationship between poverty and the degradation of the environment. Of the 1,2000 million people who live on less than one dollar per day, about 70% live in rural areas and depend on natural resources to survive. The depletion of natural resources is one of the causes of poverty. Achieving environmental sustainability is one of the ways we can fight against poverty given that the poorest population is the most dependent on the well-being of the ecosystems.

To avoid these consequences and the sufferings of millions of people in the world, the agreement of these countries has three objectives: the development of specific environmental policies, the integration of these measures in production sectors that do the most damage to the environment, and finally, agreement from the international community to create a framework for national measures or the so-called National Strategies for Sustainable Development.

These strategies would help bring clean water to 1,2000 million people. Unfortunately, in 2025, when the Millennium Objectives should be met, more than 3,500 million people will be living without clean water.

This challenge does not only require the reduction of actions that contribute the destruction of environmental resources or the creation of measures that promote respect for nature. At the same time, the agreement should better the living conditions of millions of people—conditions that have worsened due to human action.

(En Español)