Oppression or Aggression: How Muslim Women Feel About Veiling

For the past few weeks, our English class has been discussing the nation of Iran as it pertains to the book Reading_Lolita_in_Tehran. Veiling is an important aspect of Islamic culture, and my curiosity about women's decision to either wear the veil or abstain from covering themselves sparked my interests in how these women's choices affect their mental health. There are two very strong arguments that can be made when it comes to veiling.

Many people, both Muslim and non-Muslim, see veiling as a symbol of religious devotion and modesty, while countless others consider the veil to be a symbol of oppression and is often times associated with terrorism (especially in America). I watched a video about a Muslim-American woman who chose to wear the niqab of her own free will. In the interview, Hebah Ahmed discusses the various negative reactions and verbal abuse she has gotten from non-Muslim Americans. I, as well as many people, would consider Ahmed's situation straining on her mental health. However, as Ahmed states, "people are just staring because they're curious, because they don't understand. It's not because they're scared or hateful, it's because they simply don't understand." I think Ahmed approaches negative encounters with grace and bravery, both qualities suggesting that she is strong in her beliefs and in her decision to veil herself. In a later story, Ahmed recalled the time she bought bleach at the store and someone accused her of trying to build a bomb. The negativity and ignorance of so many Americans like the one Ahmed encountered really irks me. Since Islam is a minority religion in America, there is a definite lack of understanding the religion. One of Ahmed's goals was to educate and make people aware of the Islamic practices and why many women choose to wear some sort of veil. Not every woman would be able or willing to turn such hatred and ignorance and transform it into tolerance that will strengthen the mental health of many Americans. Hebah Ahmed, in my opinion, is an extremely powerful Muslim woman worthy of praise for her efforts and bravery.

On the other hand, women like Azar Nafisi, author of the memoir Reading Lolita in Tehran, see the veil as an attempt to oppress Muslim women. Even after many countries like Iran created laws requiring all women to cover themselves with some form of veil, women like Nafisi refuse to comply with the rules. They believe that being forced to veil themselves is symbolic of women losing their rights and having to submit to the will of men. Many also claim that having to dress modestly prevents them from being able to express themselves freely through their choice of clothing. All of these arguments can take a heavy mental toll. They claim that being forced to wear something they don't want to is a violation of their freedom to express themselves. Many also view veiling as a way for preventing unwanted attention from men, but some see the veil as a way of saying women must not reveal their beauty.

It is impossible to say that either argument is right or wrong because there are such strong opinions on both ends of the spectrum. However, I must say that I commend any woman who goes against the cultural norm, justifies her actions, and stands up for what she believes is right for herself. 

Can China Be Trapped?

To be considered a member of the bottom billion is by no means a sought-after title. Bad governance, internal conflict, improper use of natural resources, and being landlocked and surrounded by unstable neighbors all plague nations that fall into the bottom billion as is written by Paul Collier in his book The_Bottom_Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It.

Conflict trap
A bottom billion nation will almost certainly face continuing cycles of conflict; civil wars in particular. As a result of this constant fighting, an economic downturn takes its toll, and not long after a major conflict, the country is highly likely to relapse. Consequently, the country continues the cycle of war followed by economic collapse. Luckily, China does not fall into this trap. In fact, China has the second largest economy in the world behind the United States and is the world's fastest growing economy. The reason: China is the world's largest exporter and second largest importer of goods. As China becomes increasingly industrialized, enterprises are being reformed. This is solidifying China's hold on the world economy.

Natural Resource trap
As Collier claims, countries that fall into the bottom billion in regards to natural resources possess massive oil, mineral, and chemical wealth, but do not have the governance in order to prosper from their own resources. As a result, these nations often fall prey to poverty. China on the other hand, seems to be in the exact opposite situation. China has very few natural resources of their own, but the government is well equipped to exploit resources from other nations (Africa in particular), making large profits and obtaining resources for their own use. China does not fall into the bottom billion when it comes to natural resources. They cannot extract many natural resources from within the country, but China has certainly conquered their underlying problem with precision and skill by exploiting resources from other countries. China skillfully manages their resources by implementing the strict One-Child Policy. The concept behind this law is to control China's growing population by limiting the number of children per family to the first born. However, this law has had many negative effects, especially on the mental and physical health of women. Abortion and female infanticide rates have skyrocketed, even though pregnancy complications are becoming less common. The graph above shows China's continued rise in population, despite the implementation of the One-Child Policy. So what price are Chinese women paying and what are they getting in return? A few extra gallons of gas for their car at the expense of terminating the life of a child? Is the gain worth the loss?

Landlocked with Bad Neighbors trap
China certainly does not fall into this trap because China is not landlocked. In fact, the entire eastern coast of China borders the Pacific Ocean and is home to some of the busiest ports and trading routes in the world. Collier states that "countries with coastline trade with the world, while landlocked countries only trade with their neighbors."China's access to global trading networks and strong relations with trading partners makes the Chinese economy the fastest growing and certainly one of the healthiest economies in the world.

Bad Governance in a Small Country

Small countries discourage investors, and poor governance can destroy the economy. While some may argue that China's Communist government might not be the best political system for overseeing more than 1.3 billion people, it certainly hasn't hindered economic growth by any means. Therefore, China does not fit into the trap of bad governance in a small country.

The map to the left shows China's provinces and countries with similar GDPs.

Can Metaphor Persuade Us to Buy Healthcare?

For the past week, I have been exploring the power of metaphor; where metaphor comes from, how we define metaphor, and how and why we use metaphor intentionally and also subconsciously. I discovered that metaphor infiltrates many aspects of my life and the world around me, regardless of whether these metaphorical thoughts are intentional. And then my curiosity led me to the examination of the use of metaphor in media and how metaphor acts to persuade the masses.

I came across a fascinating article written in the Huffington Post by George Lakoff on the use of metaphor in politics. A particular example is the 2008 presidential campaign in which Barack Obama utilized a metaphor imposed by Republican Rudolph Guiliani stating, "if you want a flat screen TV, buy one; and if you don't have the money, go earn it. If you can't, too bad, you don't deserve it. The same with health care."Obama used this metaphor with the intent of having Congress regulate the insurance industry. Part of Congress' regulatory power rests in the Interstate Commerce clause, which is built around Obama's metaphor. However, the Supreme Court ruled the Interstate Commerce clause unconstitutional because it was "forcing people to buy a product." On top of that, there is a mandate which imposes a health care tax on all citizens, but those who already have health care are exempt from paying the tax.

In a way, this mandatory tax is another metaphor that acts as an incentive, or rather, an ultimatum. Essentially, the incentive is to have people buy health care so that they don't have to pay the health care tax. Rudolph Guiliani's metaphor works in the sense that "if you can't [afford it], too bad, you don't deserve it." Or in other words,  

All of you who can't afford to purchase health care, oh well, guess you're out of luck. And just to prove that you have no money to buy insurance, we're going to force you to pay even more taxes because you can't contribute a few thousand dollars a year to protect your own health.

Metaphor can be subtle, like in poetry, or it can be extremely obvious, like in this particular article. However, I find it interesting that the more obvious metaphors are often the ones that get overlooked. For me, I try so hard to look for the underlying metaphor that I completely miss the blatantly obvious ones. I'm sure this same habit applies to many other people too. We look so hard for what we can't see that we miss the bigger picture entirely. We deprive ourselves of the real meanings of things, and trick our minds into believing falsities. Metaphor is powerful, but it can have dire consequences. As John Green, author of Paper Towns once said,

“I always thought of it like you said, that all the strings inside him broke. But there are a thousand ways to look at it: maybe the strings break, or maybe our ships sink, or maybe we’re grass—our roots so interdependent that no one is dead as long as someone is alive. We don’t suffer from a shortage of metaphors, is what I mean. But you have to be careful which metaphor you choose, because it matters. If you choose the strings, then you’re imagining a world in which you can become irreparably broken. If you choose the grass, you’re saying that we are all infinitely interconnected, that we can use these root systems not only to understand one another but to become one another. The metaphors have implications. Do you know what I mean?”

How the 2012 Election Will Affect the Future of Health Care

Over the past few weeks, I have been closely following the 2012 presidential debates. Now personally, I am a huge fan of Obama and his policies. He is a powerful, convincing speaker who addresses pertinent issues while maintaining the best interest of American citizens. But in the first presidential debate in Denver earlier this month, Romney took the cake while Obama floundered like a fish out of water. Having recently turned 18, I am eligible to vote. And while voting is a privilege, it is also an extremely important process, one that requires careful decision-making when choosing the man (or woman) that will lead and carry the nation through four more years in a way that serves the best interests of the American people. For me, one of the most important factors to look for in both Obama and Romney are their policies on health care.

Romney's plan for America's health care is to issue and executive order that will allow the federal government to send Obamacare waivers to each state. Soon after the waivers are distributed, Romney will work with Congress to repeal Obamacare as quickly as he can. In place of a unified health care system, Romney is proposing that each individual state create health care reform plans that best suit the needs of its citizens. Romney believes that by allowing each state to determine its own health care standards, competition between states will arise, which will supposedly improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the health care system. While it is understandable that Romney's main goal of this plan is to drive prices of health care down, it seems unreasonable to allow every state to have a different system of care. A few questions came to my mind: What if I am injured or need to seek medical treatment while vacationing in another state? Will my home-state insurance policies cover me in a different state? Will I be able to recieve the same treatment for the same cost at both a public hospital and a private hospital? To me, Romney's plan seems muddled. With so many questions left unanswered, it seems more like a scam to make money than a plan to improve health for millions of Americans.

As for Obama, he has taken a much different approach. Rather than reverse previously implemented policies, Obama is working to further strengthen Obamacare. In his health care plan, Obama hopes to reform three major issues that plague the American health care system:

1. End insurance company abuses
2. Strengthening Medicare
3. Putting women in control of their health 

There are many additional goals Obama hopes to achieve with Obamacare that will help make care more affordable.Obama's health care plan fits perfectly with his 2012 campaign slogan "Forward." While Romney's policies will most likely make America take a step backwards, Obama knows what's best for the American people. After all, he's brought the U.S. out of the hard times that President Bush had left Obama   to deal with after leaving office.





http://www.barackobama.com/health-care?source=primary-nav
http://www.mittromney.com/issues/health-care

All About Me

My name is Erika Grad, and this is my first blog post of the season. Perhaps you're one of my family members, my close friend, or just a random person who has happened to stumble across this blog. No matter how you managed to find this, I'd like all of you to know just a few things about me.

Me with students at Victory Academy in Meru, Kenya

If there's one thing anyone should know about me, it's that I love doing international service. My most recent endeavor took me to Kenya, East Africa. I traveled to the impoverished nation with a non-profit called Matanya's Hope, which is a program dedicated to breaking the cycle of poverty in Kenya by offering educational sponsorship to children who would otherwise have none and by assisting with projects critical to their survival. Now, my intention of going to Kenya was not to caravan through the game parks to see animals, but rather an opportunity to expand my own global perspective and help people in desperate need. I wanted the real experience of living in a third world nation for three weeks. I lived with the Mugo family in the tiny village of Matanya (where the program was founded and the name originates) in their "luxury" (by Kenyan standards) three room house with corrugated tin walls and roofing, and a concrete floor. Food was cooked in a makeshift kitchen located behind the house. Breakfast and dinner were the only two meals of the day. Goat that made me gag, beans with the consistency and thickness of cement that I had to choke down, and kale that was bitter were all painstakingly prepared over a coal fire that also served as the house's only heating unit and light source. No electricity, no running water, no toilets, no contact with the outside world for three weeks. And much to my surprise, it was the best three weeks of my life. 

In rural Kenya I met Kisui, a boy with one of the worst cases
of Scoliosis, and who is unable to access or afford a surgical
 procedure that will improve and prolong the quality of his life. 

But my work began by traveling around the country to various boarding schools and villages to deliver school supplies, shoes, and medical supplies. For Americans, it's difficult to imagine what a life without shoes is like, but it is much harder to picture a life either without access healthcare at all (for most Kenyans) or without affordable healthcare (for many Americans) .Witnessing firsthand how needy many Kenyans were inspired me, in part, to create this blog in order to bring to light the reality of global healthcare and the vast inequalities that plague the healthcare system. Over the course of the next several months, I will be examining the healthcare systems of various nations, and hopefully, provide insight and answer questions about: why so many people are dying, the costs of care and how it affects lives, tax hikes and its effects on medicare, how the recession is impacting American healthcare, and how the upcoming election will impact the future of American healthcare.


  
Click the link below for more about Matanya's Hope and how you can help save lives one child at a time.
 http://www.matanyashope.org/