Author Archives: Tasha

Deciphering Top Secret Documents

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Tonight at the Rose Café, Professor Mertha from the government department talked about his research on Cambodia and its relationship with China. He began with a brief history of Cambodia which was useful for me as I’m not very familiar with the history of the Southeast Asia region. He described Cambodia as being in a continuing cycle of violence throughout the 20th century, beginning with the U.S. bombing during the Vietnam War in which more bombs were dropped on Cambodia than were dropped during all of WWII. After this violence, Cambodia was thrown into civil war and then subjected to systematic genocide under the brutal Khmer Rouge regime. Professor Mertha’s research has focused on exploring the ways in which China interacted with this regime. He explained that the argument of his book Brothers in Arms is that the Chinese bureaucracy was too disorganized and fragmented to have a substantial impact on Cambodia at that time.

I was especially interested in the part of Professor Mertha’s talk in which he described the difficulties he faced while trying to conduct research for his book. While working in the Cambodia National Archives, he discovered a collection of Chinese documents from the Khmer regime labeled top secret, however he was unable to decipher what they meant. Eventually he had to rely on his senior honors thesis advisee’s grandmother who had worked for the Chinese government and put him in contact with people in China who would agree to explain the documents. As I prepare for final papers, I will keep this story in mind as a reminder that my research is not nearly as complicated as it could be!

The Joy of Learning

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Tonight at the Rose café, Professor Schwarz from the English department gave a talk about his recent book “How to Succeed in College and Beyond.” In his talk he provided a broad summary of his advice for high school students up through college graduates, but I still gained many insights that are applicable to me as a sophomore.

One of his pieces of advice that especially resonated with me was the importance of choosing classes based primarily on the professors teaching them. In his opinion, the most important aspect of a class is whether the professor really cares about the students’ success and actively engages with them. He also recommended seeking out discussion-based classes whenever possible to optimize the opportunities to interact directly with professors and trying to build a close relationship with at least one professor per semester. My favorite classes at Cornell so far have definitely been the ones where I was able to get to know my professors, so this advice made a lot of sense to me.

As an American studies major I also was very interested in Professor Schwarz’s discussion of the importance of the humanities. He noted that the study of the humanities teaches students how to effectively read and analyze complex ideas and theories, and pointed out that these skills could be applied to multiple future occupations. In addition to these practical advantages, however, he also highlighted the joy that comes from engaging with these ideas in the midst of a diverse community of students and professors. As final papers and exams approach, I hope to be able to keep in mind the importance of this joy of learning.

Why Soil Matters

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Tonight at the Rose café, Dr. Dawit Solomon gave a lecture introducing his field of soil science. Dr. Solomon covered a wide variety of topics in the lecture, but for me the most interesting part was his explanation of why soil and its study matter.

First he showed us a slide with two maps, one marking areas with high levels of soil degradation and the other showing global levels of nutrition. It amazed me to see how closely the areas of soil disruption correlated with regions of high malnutrition especially in Africa. He then went on to explain that soil degradation is also a key factor in climate change, as soil currently contains higher levels of carbon than the surrounding atmosphere. This means that disruption of the soil through natural events or human mismanagement releases stores of carbon into the environment thus contributing to global warming. The solution to this problem is to return excess carbon back into the soil, but this is something that Dr. Solomon says scientists are still working to learn how to do.

Dr. Solomon ended his lecture on a hopeful note, by talking about recent research into indigenous soil enrichment methods in Brazil and Africa. This research has helped soil scientists develop new types of fertilizer which they believe will add carbon back into the soil. Before this lecture, I was not aware that advances like this in soil science could potentially have a huge impact on multiple global problems like world hunger and climate change.

DREAM vs. Reality

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Tonight at the Rose café, GRF Esmeralda Arrizon-Palomera gave a very interesting talk on the DREAM act and its effect on undocumented youth. While I had heard about the political controversy surrounding the DREAM act, I was not aware that this act is also controversial among undocumented immigrants themselves.

Although the DREAM act has never been passed into law, Esmeralda explained that it has been influential in shaping societal depictions of undocumented youth. Specifically, she described how many of these youth feel that the “DREAMer narrative” limits their acceptable roles in societies to being students, and thus divides them into “deserving” and “undeserving” categories. Many also feel that the language of this narrative merely transfers the blame for their undocumented status by criminalizing the actions of their parents.

Esmeralda then went on to describe how many undocumented youth have reacted in recent years to what they feel is an inaccurate portrayal of themselves by initiating their own advocacy and protest movement. She noted that there are many parallels between this movement and the civil rights movement, for instance both have employed the tactics of civil disobedience and large protest marches to raise awareness. I found this comparison very interesting as it connects the modern struggles of undocumented youth into a broader history of individuals who have fought for the right to define their own identities.

Technology Challenges in Uganda

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Tonight at the Rose Café, Professor Blalock shared some startling statistics with us from his research on the effects of inefficient cook stoves on low-income Ugandans. While I was aware that the search for firewood could be very taxing on women who had to carry it for long distances, I was not aware that the smoke produced by burning this wood is also dangerous and leads to 4 million deaths every year. Professor Blalock noted that solutions exist in the form of more efficient stoves designed by U.S. universities, however the problem is that most Ugandans choose not to adopt these technologies even after they are educated about their benefits.

Before this lecture I would have found this fact very confusing, but Professor Blalock explained that reluctance to adopt new technologies is present in the United States as well. To illustrate this he asked for a show of hands as to how many people believed the environment was endangered by fuel-inefficient cars and everyone raised their hands. When he asked how many people actually drove fuel-efficient cars like Priuses, however, only four people in the room raised their hands. Professor Blalock then suggested that techniques that have been applied to the car industry could perhaps also be applicable to the problem of stove adoption, for instance offering financing and warranties. Hopefully, some of these strategies will have an impact in the future on this serious problem.

Shakespeare in 97 Minutes

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While I’m aware that Shakespeare’s plays are often adapted in modern productions, I think the Schwartz Center’s production of the Complete Works of William Shakespeare Abridged took creative reinterpretation to a whole new level. The description of the show stated that it would cover 37 plays in 97 minutes, and the 5 member cast managed to accomplish this by hilariously combining and abbreviating the plays.

All of Shakespeare’s historical plays, for instance, were acted out as part of a football game between opposing kings, and all of the comedies were combined into one wild, complicated plot. Throughout these scenes, the cast frequently interspersed jokes relating to modern culture from the current presidential election to Star Wars. I was impressed, however, that despite the rapid pace and the addition of new jokes, the performance also managed to include long sections of the original dialogue from the plays.

I also really enjoyed how the cast incorporated the audience into the performance, frequently running up and down the aisles and bringing people in the front row onto the stage. In the last act, the cast did an extremely hilarious version of Hamlet and during Ophelia’s mad scene they directed each part of the audience to chant different phrases and do hand motions supposedly representing Ophelia’s conflicting emotions.

Overall this performance made for a very enjoyable evening and encouraged me to go out and read some more Shakespeare in unabridged form.

The Beauty of Melancholy

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Last night at the Rose Café, my GRF Sara Schlemm gave a very interesting talk on melancholy and its different interpretations throughout history. She began by explaining how the word melancholy traditionally refers to a more prolonged and permanent emotional state than sadness, and how it has often been considered to be an indication of genius and artistic talent.

After providing this history of melancholy’s definition, Sara showed us some examples of melancholy in literature and film, starting with a speech from Hamlet about the distinction between outward appearances and inward manifestations of sorrow.

The second example Sara referred to was the 1950s movie Vertigo in which a police detective is following a woman whose unusual behavior shows signs of obsession with the past and acute melancholy. After showing some clips from the film, Sara pointed out that the picturesque setting of the scenes highlight a connection between melancholy and beauty. While I did watch Vertigo a few years ago, this talk made me want to go watch it again, this time paying more attention to its portrayal of melancholy.

Planning Ithaca’s Future

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Tonight at the Rose Café, I attended a talk by Lisa Nicholas, a senior planner for the City of Ithaca. Ms. Nicholas began by giving a general overview of what is involved in city planning, and then focused on specific examples of how Ithaca is developing and growing as a city.

While I knew going into this lecture that living downtown is expensive, I was not aware that Ithaca has in fact been on Top Ten lists for the most expensive housing in the country. Ms. Nicholas explained that these high rental and real estate costs are due to a severe housing shortage in the city, which is motivating the construction of multiple new housing projects.

For me, one of the most interesting parts of the talk was Ms. Nicholas’s discussion of the Commons area downtown, which she described as “everybody’s neighborhood” and a key part of the city’s environment and history. She noted, however, that the Commons has been a source of conflict in city planning, as many people have been concerned that constructing new hotels and apartment buildings nearby undermines the character of the area. For this reason, she explained that new housing projects have to be carefully approved to ensure that they blend into the environment in which they are situated.

I feel that this lecture gave me a much better appreciation for the work that goes into sustaining a growing and vibrant community like Ithaca.

The Challenges of Reform

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Tonight I attended a very interesting talk by Professor Nicolas van de Walle from the Cornell government department on governmental and economic reform in African countries. Going into this lecture I knew very little about the economic past and present of Africa, so I was glad that Professor van de Walle took the time to provide some historical background for this topic.

Professor van de Walle started his lecture by outlining the history of foreign donors’ attempts to increase Africa’s economic development in the aftermath of colonialism. He explained that this foreign involvement began after World War II and at first focused on increasing physical capital such as roads and harbors and improving human capital through health care and educational programs. These strategies, however, failed to strengthen most African economies by the 1990s.

For me some of the most interesting parts of the lecture were when Professor van de Walle incorporated personal anecdotes from his fieldwork in Africa. To illustrate the economic collapse of the 1990s, for instance, he shared a story about visiting the office of a government official while working for the U.N. in Cameroon. When the official went to leave his office for the day he unscrewed all the lightbulbs from the lamps and took them with him so that they wouldn’t be stolen while he was gone. To me this was a very striking image of the poverty and crime that was present in the society at that time.

Professor van de Walle ended his talk by suggesting that the only way which donor organizations can effectively insure economic reform in Africa is by refusing to support military governments and dictatorships, many of which are financially corrupt.

I came away from this lecture feeling that I have a much clearer understanding of the complexities involved in trying to implement change in a foreign country.