Category Archives: Dinners

Dinner with Ruth

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After the Rose CafeI attended in which Ruth talked about her life in Malawi and her work on the environment, I went to have dinner with her. I was hoping to learn more about her personally and her experiences in education at Cornell. It was also the first dinner talk I attended; we all met up at Rose dinning hall and got our food. Then we went up to the Rose Seminar room to talk to Ruth in a quieter environment than the dinning room.

We started the talk off by introducing ourselves again to Ruth, and Ruth reintroduced herself and her friend who also does work at Cornell. We talked about her life in Malawi and how she has been doing in Ithaca. She has not been able to go many places, but she said that she enjoyed everywhere she had gone. She mentioned how different it is from her home.

Soem other students brought up how different it is to experience global climate change in the US than in Malawi. For example, people in Malawi do not have to ability to deny climate change because they see it and experience it first hand. When crops do not grow, people go hungry. And when there are floods, people are injured.

However, in the US, we are so industrialized we are often sheltered from nature. Our surplus in food allows us to eat food regardless of rainfall. And when temperatures go up or down, we have air conditioning and heaters. It is much easier to deny climate change when you’re sheltered from it.

Also, it was really funny and cute to see the kids playing with each other. When Ruth panicked because the little boy was locked in the cabinet was actually precious. I think because she is a mother, she is more inclined to make sure kids are safe. Even though the kid was not in danger, her concern was heartwarming, and the way she made sure he had enough air was cute.

The Right of Healthcare

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What is a right? That was one of the first questions that were addressed at this week’s table talk. A right is a principle of freedom. We also discussed the difference between rights and human rights. There is a clear difference between what a regular right is, and what a human right is. A regular right may be given by a government, like the right to bear arms, but a human right is a right that a person is to be afforded from birth. After the table talk I can agree that healthcare is a right that everyone deserves. One main argument against universal healthcare is that there are people who do not work and therefore freeload on others. There are always going to be people that work the system and get what they want without working for it, but there are many that do the work and deserve to have their health be a priority.

Life In Malawi

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I went to a talk with Ruth Magreta in which she went into a little more detail about her work towards environmental sustainability in Malawi. One of the things she talked about that was very interesting was that people in the US have the ability to debate about whether or not global warming is real. In Malawi, because maize is such a large source of income, it is very noticeable that the environment is changing. Whether it be because of global warming or not, it is impossible for those in Malawi to ignore. Meanwhile, people in the United States are not as drastically affected by climate change; we live in an industrialized society in which we produce more than we need. So when droughts occur, we still have enough food to eat.

Ruth was such an inspiring person to talk to. She invests herself in making sure that her home has what it needs; that means taking time away from her family. She shared on story of how her and her two children got stuck in a flood. She had to carry them through rushing water to safety. And although she was terrified, she had to put on a strong face to keep her kids from panicking.

The Impact of Climate Change on Malawi

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A few of my peers and I had the opportunity to have a dinner conversation with visiting fellow, Ruth Magreta.  Our discussion revolved around agricultural production in Malawi and how climate change is drastically altering the environment.  While those living in the United States may not feel as though climate change is a significant issue, regions such as Malawi are already feeling its effects.  For many families, growing crops and trading it with neighbors was their primary source of food.  Climate change, however, has devastated agricultural production in the region and has left people wondering why this natural phenomenon has occurred.  When I asked about the potential use of GMOs to solve this food shortage, I was surprised to hear that people in the region would rather starve than eat “unnatural food”.

It was disheartening to hear how political donors influence the policies that are enacted in Malawi as well as the United States.  In both countries, the government is driven by who can provide campaign contributions and who can appease the masses the fastest.  It is a shame that the United States’ decision to withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord will inevitably effect regions such as Malawi.

Lastly, I thought Ruth’s discussion on cultural differences between the United States and Malawi was very interesting.  She was very surprised to hear that a majority of students at Cornell were women.  In Malawi, this was atypical.  Women were either tending to their children or participated in a domestic role.  This dinner conversation made me realize how fortunate we are to live in a place where we don’t need to worry about putting food on our plates or having a roof over our heads.

 

 

Climate Change and Malawi

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Last week, I had the opportunity to attend a dinner conversation with our visiting fellow, Ruth Magreta. Her expertise was about climate change and agriculture, specifically in Malawi. I found the conversation very insightful since I knew very little about the effects of climate change in countries like Malawi before. We hear a lot about the effects of climate change here in the U.S. but in sort of removed ways.  We hear of weather phenomenons and changing temperatures but Ruth told us personal anecdotes about floods that happen in her area almost every year. She recounted the one that hit last year in which she had to cross a flooded river in her car with her children, truly scared for their lives. This spawned conversations about how the countries that have the most resources to combat climate change, like the U.S., usually don’t feel the direct and visual impact of its most consistent and problematic effects.

The conversation also shifted to other cultural differences between Malawi and the U.S. For example, Ruth and another visiting scholar asked about gender ratios in education at Cornell and were shocked to find out the basically equivalent ratio between boys and girls. It’s moments like this that remind me of the intangible privileges I have living in the U.S. This entire conversation was eye-opening in that it challenged me to look at the problems that the world faces as a whole and the privileges we have in the U.S. We need to be more vigilant about how we treat our planet not only for ourselves and futures but also for the people across the world that don’t have the resources to prevent such problems that impact their daily life.

Climate Change and Global Food Security: Perspectives from the Front Lines

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On Thursday, September 28th, I had the chance to have dinner with Ruth Magreta, a PhD student from Malawi that is currently a STAARS (Structural Transformation of African Agriculture and Rural Spaces) fellow visiting Cornell to establish a network that will be used to foster future collaboration. Ruth is particularly interested in addressing climate change with regards to agriculture and food security in her native country of Malawi as she has seen and felt the effects firsthand in a region where many people suffer harshly from the effects of a changing climate without ever realizing what the causative factors are. It comes down to a season by season hope for many that the rains will come, and as Ruth poignantly stated, if they do not, people will not eat. When the rains do arrive, people are equally leery that they will not fall with such force to cause rivers to erupt within minutes and cause untold destruction. Often, harsh rains far upstream will catch villagers off-guard in lower lands, sweeping people away never to be seen again. Over the past few decades, abnormal weather conditions have increased in prevalence and severity, leaving many wary of what is yet to come in a nation already burdened in its efforts to industrialize.

Of particular interest to Ruth was our opinions on climate change and of the United States as a whole. The stability of the food system within the United States and other industrialized nations has had a numbing effect on the opinions of many with regards to the extent or even existence of climate change. After all, someone in the US expects all staple foodstuffs to be available every day of the year without exception, regardless of potential crop failures. If a crop fails in one region, we expect it to still be on the shelves in equal quantity, imported from some distant place that often is never considered by the consumer. If climate change does not personally threaten something so fundamental as food security in a Western nation, how can people truly ever understand the potential implications of such a threat? The people of Malawi do not have that luxury. If a crop fails, there will be no food of that type for the year. If that crop is a staple, people will starve; people will die, and this is a reality that Malawians and many others in developing nations will have to increasingly confront as weather patterns continue to intensify in severity.

For me as someone studying plant breeding and genetics with an emphasis on global food security, this dinner was an incredible opportunity to speak to someone with such a valuable perspective. There are not many people in the United States that can truly tell you what it is like to live through a famine or to feel the effects of climate change ravaging your village. Talks like these affirm how critical it is to address global food security and to actually speak and listen to people personally effected to gain their invaluable perspective that will be needed as we work together to confront this issue on a global scale.

American Perspectives Meet Malawian Perspectives on Climate Change

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I was fortunate enough to be able to spend more time with Ruth before she returned to Malawi.  I was eager to hear more about her life as she had shared with myself and the other Rose house students last week.  Ruth on the other hand was more interested in hearing about our lives and our culture as students here in the U.S.. “What do we think about climate change?” and “How does climate change affect us?” were some of the questions Ruth asked us.  I was surprised she wanted to know about us.  My colleagues shared bringing about a truly eye-opening discussion about global perspectives on climate change.

Popping the Climate Change Bubble

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We hear about how climate change will increase sea levels, droughts, and major storms. We read case studies in our textbooks about climate-related events, we see pictures of flooding and drought in other countries. But then you talk to Dr. Ruth Magreta. Dr. Magreta researches more efficient and effective agricultural practices for rural farmers in Malawi. For these farmers, if they do not grow enough food, they do not have enough money to send their children to school, or, in extreme conditions, they do not have enough money or food to eat. This was the environment that surround Dr. Magreta in her early life.

It is one thing to hear about how bad climate change is, and hear about how x number of people were injured or died from some climate-related event. It’s a completely different story to talk to someone who tells you that when there is no rain, (which happens more and more due to our changing climate) there is drought, and if there is drought then there is less food. And if there is less food, then some people will starve. And when some people starve, then sometimes your closest childhood friends will die. This is the story that Dr. Magreta told at her Rose cafe last week, and elaborated on at the dinner conversation. There is no textbook or professor that can quite show you the heartbreaking effects of climate change without first introducing you to the grief felt by someone directly effected.

“It was fine.”

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On Wednesday, September 20th Ruth Magreta of Malawi shared her inspiring story with the members of Flora Rose House.  Malawi.  A country I do not often think of.  It’s a country that doesn’t come up in my everyday conversations.  Ruth shared stories of her life growing up.  She encouraged us to pick up on the drastic socioeconomic differences between the United States and Malawi.

Ruth lived not too far from a small village.  She showed us pictures of her neighbors’ small huts.  Her family did not suffer so much from hunger and sickness as did her neighbors.  There was severe flooding and occasional drought.  Their education facilities have minimal resources.  Ruth cooked most of the family’s maize porridge meals without help.  In this way, she accepted the traditional gender roles in Malawi.

This however was not a sob story.  With every fact Ruth would anticipate our empathy.  She off-put our sorrows by saying, “It was fine.” She didn’t know that there was better.  The village was all she knew and “It was fine.”

Ruth then told us about her research.  On a separate note, it was inspiring to see another woman of color in plant science.  At Cornell this is not common.  I’m often the only black girl in my lectures.  I’m a minority in my major and a minority in the black community where no one can understand my passion for plant science.  Ruth was very passionate about her studies.  One day I will be like Ruth raising a family and simultaneously taking on projects to improve international horticulture.

I am grateful that Ruth brought Malawi to us.  Maybe one day I will go to Malawi.

An intersting conversation with Dr.Kutela

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We had a very interesting dinner talk with Dr. Dambala Gelo Kutela, a visiting scholar at Cornell, on Thursday of September 7th. He is an economist focusing on the income inequality and the child education opportunity in Ethiopia. We started the talk with he introducing his academic background. I was really impressed to know that despite he started his school at 12 years-old, but he finished primary school in 3 years and middle and high school in 4 years. I can feel his strong learning ability and motivation in his educational background. Then, he talked about his family, his children and his wife, to let us know him better, and we as students also talked about what each of us learns at school, our majors, and our interest.

The most interesting part of this dinner talk is when Dr. Kutela, talked about his research and his insight on the Inequal education opportunity and how it related to the politics and economic systems. He analysed the root cause of this issue and pointed out that the reason of many children unable to receive education, is not that they don’t want to go to school, but the incomplete social educational system that put the burden on each family. Since the predominant producing drive in Ethiopia is agriculture, which is highly versatile to the natural climate changes and seasonal situation. Once the climate is not preferable for agriculture, there will be a huge pressure on the families in the country, due to the lack of social security system. The way he connected the education issues with the economic system really is novel to me, and help me to understand the econ knowledge better as well as knowing what is the problems that are facing in another country, let me reflect upon what I can do, using my knowledge, in the future to change it and make a difference.

Malawi and Maize

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This Wednesday I was fortunate enough to get to hear about Ruth Magreta’s journey to becoming a doctoral student and her inspiration for her studies. She began with telling us about her childhood, which was very different from my own. She was expected to cook for her brothers at a young age, she had to walk for hours to get to the market, and had to watch out for flash floods that could wash her away. What struck me the most was that after telling us about each of these things that I would consider a hardship, she would add a demure “But, it was fine. That was the way things were”. It’s a real eye opener when you see that for people raised in very different circumstances, their priorities are elsewhere in what is a real problem.

For example, one of Ruth’s motivations to work hard in school and go to college was her concern for the natural environment of her village. The forests and other wildlife have suffered a lot from overuse of resources, and Ruth is seeking ways to ameliorate these problems. She hopes that by implementing better storage strategies the farmers can store surplus maize to hold them over in drought seasons, and that permitting farmers to take out loans will smooth their income and enable them to send their children to school even in bad years. I really admire her dedication to trying to fix this problem in her home country, as it seems like she has dedicated her whole life to it. Hopefully, through talk series like this and other awareness programs in Malawi, more aid can be dedicated to their cause.

Perspective

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I found dinner with Dr. Dambala Gelo Kutela, a visiting Cornell STAAR Fellow from Ethiopia, particularly interesting as he brought a refreshing perspective to the table as a non-American. At least two other students and Dr. Kutela shared the cultural norms and practices of their home countries which deepened my understanding of global issues including the dependence of diverse communities on weather and environmental patterns. On a less serious note, I enjoyed hearing about the aspects of general American culture which come as cultural shock to international students and the visiting scholar.

Perseverance through Adversity

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As my first activity as Rose Scholar this Fall, I participated on a very interesting conversation dinner with Dr. Dambala Gelo Kutela, who is a native of Ethiopia, where he studied forestry prior to obtaining his MS in Economics and Resource Management in Norway, and his PhD in Economics from the University of Pretoria in South Africa in 2015 where he continues to work as a postdoctoral. In 2017, Dr. Kutela came to Cornell as a STAARS Fellow, a program that stands for Structural Transformation of African Agriculture and Rural Spaces, supported by the African Development Bank, the World Bank, and USAID among others. At Cornell, Dr. Kutela works with Professor Christopher Barrett at the Dyson School of Economics on economic development and transformation in sub-Saharan Africa. The topic of his research is improving our understanding of the drivers of poverty and food insecurity, and how private and public policy can facilitate desirable structural transformation in low-income societies. During dinner, Dr. Kutela described how parental income is very uncertain for farmers in Ethiopia due to severe draught exacerbated by climate change, and how children can only attend school when the crops grow well, while they are taken out of school if bad weather affects their crops as they have to help their families generate their income.   Dr. Kutela’s father was also a farmer in Ethiopia, and as a child he had no choice but to stop studying to help his father. It is the uncertainty of the income for farming families that is at the center of the lack of continuity in child education that becomes a major driver for poverty in Ethiopia, with more than half of its population being illiterate. Dr. Kutela’s very personal story was very enlightening to me as we many times take for granted education, food, running water when others cannot.

Ethiopia’s economy relies heavily in farming, with its main export being coffee. Ethiopia’s main sources of income come from services and its agricultural economy but unfortunately drought is still a major factor affecting directly farming families and threatening food security. In recent years, Ethiopia has attracted roughly $8.5 billion in foreign direct investment, mostly from China. However, Dr. Kutela’s expressed apprehension of political corruption that does not lead to investment in development for the Ethiopian needs. In my view, a very challenging future for a country with such rich cultural heritage, and cradle of the first modern humans. Hopefully, Dr. Kutela’s training and that of others with true interest in economic development will help Africa and particularly Ethiopia implement innovative approaches to prevent extreme poverty for the well-being of their population. Certainly, continuous child education and increased literacy are essential foundation for sustainable development.

The Microeconomics of Education and Family Income

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Dinner with Dr. Dambala Kutela was an enlightening introduction to not only Dr. Kutela’s specific research or Ethiopian socioeconomic issues, but those faced by many agrarian countries that have been left behind in the tide of globalization. Dr. Kutela explained how seemingly irrelevant phenomenons, specifically climate change, are influencing who gets educated.

Even education, the great equalizer, is not immune to the effects of the butterfly effect.

It was inspiring to hear how at the age of 14 Dr. Kutela first began his education- from the first grade. It’s humbling to know that what is offered to me on a silver spoon is something the rest of the world attains like its a luxury. It’s a luxury for some people my exact age in the world to know what place they occupy in this world and of what is actually out there physically and/or metaphysically.

 

 

Link to Another World

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Living in the U.S. it can be easy to forget how convenient many aspects of life are here when compared to another country. Even with its current multitude of issues, there are basic rights and opportunities everyone in the U.S. has that isn’t as accessible elsewhere in the world, especially when concerning early education. That’s why Dr. Kutela’s talk was so insightful and intriguing.  Even through various news outlets and social media, it’s very hard to accurately portray the exact nature and cause of a large issue. However, having someone who has lived through, and studies, the current problems of the African economy makes it clear that this is a large cause of the lack of education in Africa. Even if parents want to send their kids to school, that not only means having to pay for school and everything that goes along with that, but also losing extra money in lost labor. Add in the factor that a bad season could be fatal, it makes much more sense why getting an education can be so hard and the inherent frustration in the problem.

An African Education

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As a US native I hear a to about the state of African political and economic affairs from an outsider’s perspective. This is why it was so refreshing and interesting to hear from Dr. Kutela who researches the how a national economy can effect a child’s education. The root lies in stabilizing the income of the children’s parents year-to-year so that they don’t need to have their kids work in the field for them to make a livable income. But it was also heartening to hear Dr. Kutela’s own life story from being one of those impoverished children working on a farm to beginning 1st grade at the age of twelve to earning a PhD in economics. I knew I was lucky to be a student at Cornell, but now even more so now that it really has been put into perspective.

Economic Solutions to Social Problems

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Dr. Kutela’s research into the effects of income variability on a family’s ability to send children to school was really interesting. I never even knew that that type of research would fall under economics, so it was really fascinating to hear about how different economic pressures, such as income variability and loan availability, can have such staggering social effects. It was also interesting to think about how these social issues could possibly have economic solutions, such as making loans more available and improving investment from mostly private companies. I had always considered it more of a government responsibility because I’m coming from an American perspective where we usually rely on government intervention to right these kind of social and economic inequalities. It’s interesting thinking about how to solve such problems without a strong central government, especially since when the U.S. faced similar problems, they were solved by government-backed insurance policies, instead of loans.