Author Archives: Alice

Dogs Deserve Respect Too!

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As soon as I walked in, I could feel everyone’s energy lifted. Just the presence of dogs makes people happy. Although I love dogs, since I’m allergic, I wasn’t able to have as much fun with them as most other people did. When I saw the trainers explain what these dogs were capable of, however, I realized that their purpose was far more than just on-the-surface happiness. Their purpose was to provide essential help to autistic patients, who depend on them to function.

There is no way to appreciate what these dogs are capable of on the outside. The intense training and resources behind these dogs are staggering, but on the outside, they look just like ordinary dogs. Guiding Eyes’ presentation just served as a reminder in a general sense that we should look beyond outside appearances and appreciate the inside of people, because little can we truly know how precious people can be to others just from how they appear.

Complexity of Modern Racism

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We were lucky to have Ariela Keysar speak with us about racism that evening. I really liked the atmosphere of the room–it was really open and suitable for sharing our experiences without having to feel judged. I think the problem with that, though, is that everyone has so much to share that it becomes a jumbled mess. I felt like the experiences we shared at the beginning had some similar content, but as the conversation deepened, more people were sharing many different things and it was hard to follow. Maybe if there was more time to talk about everything, it would feel a little more comfortable. Racism is a really big topic to talk about, and I find that it may be easier to focus more on one aspect of the topic throughout the entire conversation rather than having it deviate.

I also thought the conversation was biased based on the demographic of the people who attended the event, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It just shows that the racist events are most prevalent among certain types of people. I noticed there were a lot more comments concerning the racism towards Hispanic Americans and African Americans, and there weren’t as many incidents pertaining to Asian Americans. I also found it pretty interesting that Ms. Keysar differentiated the racism between “complimentary” phrases and “negative” phrases. Some of the racist comments seemed to come off as a compliment while others came off as negative. Although I think there wasn’t enough time to discuss all the things I felt like could be discussed, I did enjoy hearing everyone speak about their experiences.

The Masterminds Behind Feeding Cornell’s Brains

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I was particularly interested in attending this event with Paul Muscente and Chef Daniel because I used to work in Rose Dining. Because of that, I know how hard it is to work 5-hour shifts focused primarily on feeding people and making sure everyone is eating clean and cooked food. I can’t even imagine having to manage something as large as a dining hall, let alone Cornell’s entire Dining operations. Mr. Muscente told us that they serve 2.289 million meals in a year, which boils down to about 19,000 meals per day. That number is so ridiculous that I can’t even fathom it. He said there are about 600-800 students working for Cornell Dining every day. That’s almost like 1 person serving 24 people at the same time. Although I do really support Cornell Dining and I wish that it can continue these operations, it really was hard for me to juggle working in the dining hall and studying for tests/writing essays/doing homework. If I could suggest one change to dining right now, it would be having the option of choosing shorter work shifts. And it may be more complicated to get the right amount of staff for each half shift, but it’s much more flexible for students. Like those who can’t make it to the beginning of a shift can make it to the 2nd half if there is an option for that.

To go on to the main idea of my blog post today, I was actually surprised at how much creativity and thought is put into creating the menus and meals for the students. Chef Daniel mentioned that last semester there was a 5-cups of fruits and vegetables challenge going on and the idea behind that was so students would make vegetables the center of their plate, rather than mounds of protein. He said these motives challenge them to get creative and come up with different ways to entice students to eat vegetables. He talked about how he incorporates whole grains into foods that we don’t even know contained whole grains. Although I didn’t stay for the entire time to hear him talk about some examples of this, I do think some of the tactics work. I think the strategic placing of carbs right next to vegetables makes people get the food in an assembly-line sort of style, so they take vegetables with them when they eat. Overall, I really think Cornell Dining does an amazing job of keeping students fed and their brains healthy. One day, when I graduate, I hope that there will still be continual progress in persuading students to eat healthier.

Cornell’s “Hidden Treasures” Aren’t So Hidden

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Unlike most of the students at Cornell, I actually did not know that Cornell was home to a vast amount of primary resources. And when I heard about it, I didn’t think much of it at first. That’s why I think the Kroch Rare & Manuscript Collection Tour really helped me realize how blessed I am to be at Cornell. What’s more exciting is the fact that all of these resources are meant to be shared with us (the students!).

One of the first things we got to see was the plaque that Abraham Lincoln signed that acknowledged the Emancipation Proclamation (if I recall correctly) and we found out that only 12 of them were signed because the Legislature was angry that Lincoln didn’t go through Congress first before passing it. It’s actually pretty surreal that there’s something that only 11 other people/institutions in the WORLD have access to. I also had fun looking around at the other artifacts and primary sources the Kroch Rare & Manuscript Collection had in that area. We were, then, moved into another room with a lot of literature.

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In the new room, we were able to see (sort of) a timeline of primary sources. Starting from thousands of years ago, there were small stones with codified rules (?). According to our historian/tour guide, they were probably the earliest pieces of evidence that codified language existed. I actually went up closer to see the stones, but the way the stone was carved made me cringe a little (some sort of phobia, I suppose). However, I was particularly excited about the Shakespeare book. I was a Theatre major before I was an AEM major, so being able to see one of the original books/compilations of all of Shakespeare’s plays is extremely interesting to me. I really wanted to touch it, but our guide told us about how the books and artifacts are extremely delicate and they’re not something people can touch carelessly. I was particularly interested in a sonnet that I had done as a monologue once in an acting class (Sonnet 97) but apparently this book didn’t have the sonnets. So although it was kind of a bummer… I was quite content with being able to see (and slightly touch) one of the original copies of the Shakespeare plays compilation.

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ICC and USA’s lack of Involvement

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I was only able to join for the second half of the Cafe Series, but I really enjoyed the topic. When I had walked in, Professor Ohlins was talking about the ICC (International Criminal Court), describing it as a court for war criminals located in the Netherlands. Although it has nothing to do with the United Nations, it is quite similar in its function. I found it a little odd that something that has a similar function as the UN isn’t directly tied to it. But Professor Ohlins later mentioned that not all countries are involved in it, one being the United States, and it got me thinking that not all those involved in the United Nations are interested in keeping war criminals in jail or punishing them. With this in mind, possibly the United States’ government thinks that if we join, there would be many instances where we could be put on trial for that would be considered war crimes. Regardless, I think it’s a little controversial that we’re not involved in the ICC, especially since there are some measures of managing what cases are brought to the ICC. Very few cases end up at the ICC because (1) there needs to be some sort of method to hear the case (like the country needs to have joined the ICC) and they can be brought to court and (2) the country has veto rights, so the case can’t get to the ICC if it gets vetoed. That already sounds like a large amount of power given to each country.

Also, I was very absorbed during the talk about who is considered a war criminal. Many people think Omar al-Bashir is considered a war criminal, but when he went to visit South Africa, the South African government did all it could to prevent al-Bashir from getting captured. That led into an intense conversation about South Africa’s view on how al-Bashir cannot be considered a war criminal because he’s a President and a person of power, so he has diplomatic immunity, which should trump the arrest warrant. I think it’s somewhat understandable why South Africa would view the situation in this way because if we arrest al-Bashir in the middle of his reign, the entire community would collapse and possibly fall into anarchy. Or more killings would result from it. Although we would all love to see al-Bashir in custody of the ICC, South Africa took a different perspective, and it’s respectable (but wrong because they broke the rules that come with the arrest warrant and it sucks because there’s no strong enforcement of the ICC’s decisions).

Don’t Build a Wall!

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We were so lucky to have Justine Vanden Heuvel and Mary Jo Dudley come in to talk about the culture of agriculture as well as the disconnect between farm workers and urban folks. I had arrived late into the conversation (about halfway in) and the conversation was focused somewhat on the disconnection. “Part of what workers do is try not to be in the picture,” and because of this, kids don’t know what farm workers do or what’s involved in agriculture. I think it’s a very serious issue, because not only does this cause for a lack of cultural understanding of farm working, but also because farm workers get paid extremely little for the amount of work that they put into their crops or products. They try not to be in the picture because they don’t want to be known by the general public, but because of this, it’s much easier for wholesalers and distributors to make 200% markup on all the products that farm workers sell. Because there’s such a tendency towards being in the “unknown,” it’s almost like the farm workers are being bullied and can’t get their fair share’s worth.

 

I was also really emotionally stimulated during the talk about migrant workers. Ms. Dudley talked about her research with migrant workers and that one woman had said that she wants her son to grow up to become anything other than a farm worker. It seems really sad because on one hand, we need all these farm workers in order to keep producing our crops and farm products, but on the other hand, the people who are doing it also don’t always want to be doing it. In addition to that, we started talking about the Mexican workers’ impact on agriculture. Roughly about 50-75% of our agriculture labor force is comprised of illegal Mexican workers, and that number scares me because I never really realized how heavily reliant we are on the work that illegal immigrants do for us. We also briefly talked about Donald Trump’s proposed plan of building a wall and sending back all the Mexicans. It would be a huge economic issue because we would be losing all of our input and prices will have to start raising, and it would be especially messy with the price floors of some crops or products. I didn’t really pay attention to the Mexican workers but now I realize that they’re such hard workers and they take the jobs that no other Americans would want so they could provide for their families. This conversation really sparked me to become more considerate and understanding of their situation

Present Day Genocide?

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Professor Cheyfitz was kind enough to come in and speak with us about the history of “Indians” in NY, as well as the lives of present-day Indians. I was surprised that the politically correct term was actually ‘Indians’ and not Native Americans, since that was what we were always taught to refer to them as.  What I found more interesting is that ‘Indian’ Natives are just one type of natives, with some others being Alaskan natives and Hawaiian natives.

I think the most important thing that Professor Cheyfitz spoke about was the genocide and the lack of acknowledgement of stealing the Indian land. We talk about how the some Germans, to this day, won’t acknowledge the fact that the Holocaust had occurred, or how Turkey denies the Armenian genocide as the correct term for the killings that occurred in the 1900s. It’s funny and hypocritical how we’re doing the same exact thing with the Indian genocide and hiding the fact that some of that genocide still happens today. I found it interesting when Prof. Cheyfitz told us some of the different forms of genocide, like ethnic cleansing, withholding of vaccinations of smallpox, preemptive war, and brute slaughter. And I agree that genocide should not only be recognized as killing, but also the process of trying to wipe out a group of people, like ethnic cleansing. I think I learned more in that one session with Prof. Cheyfitz than I did in my high school years of learning “Native American” history. I think we should definitely acknowledge that we took the land from the Cayuga people and realize that much of what happened in the past to the Indians still affects them today. When Prof. Cheyfitz said most of the Indian reserves are very poor, I almost shed a tear because their suffering still hasn’t ended, after all these years. And when asked about what the average American can do for them, he said the most important thing is to give them education, and I just thought to myself how ironic it would be for Indians to learn about their own histories through American education. Though I don’t think it’s the perfect solution, it is probably the best we can get right now.