Interview With A Syrian
Shaping Cultural Experiences
Travel has been an integral part of my life since I was a young child. I grew up in a multicultural, bilingual home in the Netherlands with a Polish mother and a Dutch father. My
Update & BBC News Link
A brief update: One interview video will be uploaded tomorrow evening. I believe the BBC News One-Minute World News provides well-balanced reporting of news, hence why I wanted to share it. Top stories on May
From Nigeria to Boston
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VNkCazT_T4&feature=youtu.be
When you first meet Oluwagbeminiyi Osidipe, you encounter a very vibrant, friendly, and unique personality. Oluwagbeminiyi or Niyi – as she shortened her name for simplicity – was named by her mother, who had a “very personal experience” when she had her, Niyi explained. Niyi is a Yoruba Nigerian transplant who arrived in the U.S. in 2006. As one of the most densely populated (West) African countries, Nigeria derives its name from the river that spans its land. To the South, it borders the Gulf of Guinea to the Atlantic Ocean. Originally colonized by the British, Nigeria gained independence in 1960. Its main ethnic groups are the Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba, who speak English and their own respective languages, while major religions include Islam, Christianity and indigenous beliefs. Niyi shares her story, her views on politics, cultural differences she’s embraced with humor, and what we can learn from each other by expressing curiosity. Her message is simple: travel enriches us through its exposure to new cultures, and enables us to grow.
Mark Twain on Travel
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.” (American author Mark Twain, Innocents Abroad).
Have you had the opportunity to travel (extensively, within your country, or even once abroad)? Can you relate to Twain’s sentiments? How does travel enrich us?
Pleasing The Taste Palate
Food has the wonderful quality of uniting us no matter where we are. There is nothing partisan or narrow-minded about food. It simply invites us to indulge, create recipes, and share with others. Two of my favorite Polish dishes (included in collage) are pierogies and barszcz czerwony – a beetroot soup – served on Christmas Eve in Poland. How does food bring us together? What are some of your favorite dishes and why? Can food trigger memories?
Stereotypes: Truth or Fiction?
DEFINING STEREOTYPES: “An idea or statement about all of the members of a group or all the instances of a situation.” (Merriam-Webster). Stereotypes enable bias and preconceived notions to perpetuate, but can also reveal valid
Annual Human Rights Report
“The world changed immeasurably over the course of 2011. Across the Middle East, North Africa, and far beyond, citizens stood up to demand respect for human dignity, more promising economic opportunities, greater political liberties, and
Euro Crisis & Emerging Stereotypes
Brief Crisis Breakdown Since the onset of the global financial crisis, or Great Recession, in 2007, the Eurozone has feared impending growing global debt levels, as well as sovereign debt within European countries themselves. In
Remembering Tiananmen
Today marks the 23rd anniversary of Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests in Beijing, China. Inflation, a lack of career prospects, the fall of Eastern European communism, and political corruption, are all said to have fueled anger
Coffee's Uniting Power
A cup of coffee can bridge cultural gaps. At least, that’s what Gizem Salgicil White, founder of Turkayfe.org, believes. Her organization aims to create awareness of Turkish culture, particularly within America. Gizem is a Turkish native,
An ongoing civil war, grave human rights abuses, political unrest, and civilian uprisings against President Bashar al-Assad, all describe life in Syria.
Political clashes between two groups – Alawite Shias and Arab Sunnis – have further escalated conflict. Former President Hafez al-Assad was a prominent leader of the Alawites – a variation of Shia Muslims, who are deemed “heretical” by many Arab Sunnis. Today, Alawite Muslims control Syrian government.
One of the earliest government measures to halt political opposition came from former President Hafez al-Assad against the Muslim Brotherhood – a Sunni Islamic group. The Muslim Brotherhood protested Alawi and Ba’ath Party (characterized by secular, anti-Western) rule in 1982. The government stalled the uprising in the Hama Massacre resulting in the deaths of about 10,000 to 40,000 Syrian Sunni civilians. An archived New York Times clipping reveals a statement on the massacre by Syrian authorities.
The 2011-2012 Syrian Uprising continues the Sunni message to end Ba’ath Party rule, and begs for current President Bashar al-Assad’s resignation. In a January 2011 interview with the Wall Street Journal, Assad spoke of political reform, noting, “… it is about doing something that is changing; to change the society, and we have to keep up with this change, as a state and as institutions. You have to upgrade yourself with the upgrading of the society.”
CASUALTIES & UN ROLE
The United Nations estimates that over 9,000 civilians were killed in protests against Assad since the uprising began. In March 2012, the UN announced a six-point peace plan for Syria, hoping to end conflict. However, violence continues and as of last Sunday, the UN ‘observer mission’ has ended in Syria.
SYRIAN PRISON SURVIVOR
One Syrian has survived an arrest and [likely] politically motivated imprisonment in the notorious Syrian Tadmor prison. To this day, Dr. Bara Sarraj is unsure of his arrest in 1984, when he was a college student in capital city Damascus.
I recently spoke to Dr. Sarraj about his childhood, his experience at Tadmor, his hopes for Syria, and the role of the UN in Syria.
YOUR OPINION
How can Syria move past differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims? How have citizen uprisings provided hope for the politically oppressed? Does social media play a major role in spreading important messages?
To follow Dr. Sarraj’s updates on Twitter, go here.
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