Neighborhood

12. Tell us about the neighborhood that you grew up in and how it helped shape you into the kind of person you are today. (Yale and the University of Chicago)

In my memory, my day has usually always started early. This being so as I used to accompany my mother as we circumambulated the Boudha Stupa, around 10 minutes away from home. Having a religious monument right next to home allowed me to perceive the different nationalities that came to worship at the Stupa. Going to the stupa at an early age allowed me to get an early start to the Buddhist practices and gave me a better idea of my culture. The Boudha community that I was within was filled with people that respected my maternal grandfather. I heard numerous stories about him and other hard workers, and in the process each story increased my respect for him and those that suffered and finally became what they are today – great business men that gave back to society. In this community I saw the goodness of humans as I saw people give to the poor and needy, clean up the stupa compound, and even feed the pigeons that often fluttered around the area. Those people that helped the community usually were not the wealthy people, but the ones that were from the lower-middleclass. This made me realize how selfish a majority of the people were and I did not want to be like that. I wanted to follow in the footsteps of my mother who I often saw going to orphanages and non-governmental organizations donating clothes and giving out our toys that we no longer needed. Going everywhere with my mother allowed me to see the good, bad, and the ugly of society, and I knew from then that I would rather choose to help the community than to do nothing about it.

Article 3: Don't Eat Dogs!

Title: Business booming for the dogsmugglers of the Mekong

By: Peter Shadbolt

Date published: Jan. 25, 2012 Date accessed: Jan 25, 2012

Summary:

The consumption of dog meat in Vietnam and Southern-China is at its peak during the time of the Chinese New Year. The dogs are smuggled across from Thailand into Laos and across the Mekong River into Hanoi. Most of these dogs that are smuggled are usually stolen, domesticated pets as they seem to have collars around them and seem to be trained. The rest of the dogs are picked up from alleys. Dog meat has been considered to be a “warming” food and is considered lucky in Vietnam; therefore approximately 500,000 dogs are sold every year according to the Thai Veterinary Medical Association. These dogs are stuffed into cages and majority of them die due to starvation, suffocation, or trauma. The dogs that are still alive are then “beaten” or “skinned alive” until they die – as it is assumed that stress hormones tenderize the meat. Even though the trade is illegal in Thailand, smugglers receive light sentences of about two or three months in prison.The Soi Dog Foundation and the Thai Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to ANials are working to stop such activities by consulting the Thai parliament.

Response:

I’ve always had a pet dog and I never believed my parents when they said that people did eat dog meat. I was horrified as I read about it and heard other people talking about it. This article, yet again reminded me of how cruel humans can be. This case cannot be compared to the consumption of other meat products as most of the other animals are raised in farms and follow such a fate. These dogs, on the other hand, are stolen from homes, temples, and picked off the street. They are further tortured as they are stuffed in cages. This dog situation can be compared to the transport of Africans to western countries during the slave trade! No one wants to be in that position, so why let them suffer? Dogs too have feelings of their own! A family might be waiting anxiously for the return of their dog, knowing little that it is probably in some stew. I think the first thing that needs to be done for such an activity to come to a halt is for that smugglers should receive harsh punishments.

Vocabulary:

A.    Aficionados

a.    Dog meat aficionados claim that stress hormones tenderize the strong-tasting meat, and killing methods range from beatings to being skinned alive.

b.    An ardent devotee; fan, enthusiast; Root: Spanish – literally, amateur, past participle in –adoate of aficionar to engender affection

c.    Having once been a missionary school, Woodstock has a lot of Christian aficionados.

B.    Nouveau riche

a.    Traditionally the time of peak demand for dog meat in Vietnam, the dog smugglers of the Mekong work deep into the night shipping thousands of animals -- sometimes dozens to a cage -- across the river border with Laos to be trucked on to the dinner tables of the nouveau riche in Hanoi.

b.    a person who is newly rich; Root: French – new rich (person)

c.    (cannot think of a way to relate it to school) You can immediately tell a nouveau riche Tibetan as they still lack etiquette and proper manners.

C.   Boon

a.    The recent floods in Thailand have also been a boon for dognappers for whom lost and displaced dogs are an easy target.

b.    Something to be thankful for; Root: Old Norse bōn prayer; cognate with Old English – bēn

c.    The announcement of a fair-weather holiday was a boon for students that had an exam that day. 

Article 2 Population shift

Title: China'surban explosion: A 21st century challenge

By: Jaime A. FlorCruz

Date published: Jan. 20, 2012 Date accessed: Jan 20, 2012

Summary:

Zhou Jie, a farmer living in the rural parts of China, has moved into the outskirts of Beijing taking his family along. Having to adapt to the city lifestyle, Zhou has found a job in which he sells construction material and his wife adds to the family income by working as a housemaid. Millions of urban dwellers, peasants that leave the countryside and come into the city, hope for a better way of life as wages are much higher in the cities. These people are given the “dirty and dangerous” jobs which urban people no longer willing to do. The number of peasants that have moved into cities has been so large that China’s urban population is greater than that of the rural population. This is the first time such a thing has happened and is all due to China’s rapid urbanization. This change is making China more metropolitan and prosperous and has given a large number of people jobs. However, crime, traffic and housing problems are raising issues and the government has to keep a lookout for “city diseases” such as overcrowding, unemployment, and scarcity of resources.

Response:

I was in Beijing around eight months ago and the fact that you were never alone, no matter where you went, was a plus point as well as a negative point. I stayed there for a little over a month and throughout my visit I saw about two beggars and not many people that seemed financially unstable. As I talked to my cousin, who has been studying in Beijing her whole life, she said that all those people that I had said I hadn’t seen were in the nooks and corners of the city, where tourists and other visitors would not be able to see them. I think that this population shift will have a greater negative impact than a positive one. This being so as the gap between city dwellers and those from the countryside is very evident. Their mindsets and way of living are completely different and it will be very difficult for peasants to adapt to city life. Vocabulary:

A.    Exacerbates

a.    Critics of the policy say it causes discrimination against the mingong and exacerbates social tensions between the haves and have-nots.

b.    to increase the severity, bitterness, or violence of (disease, ill, feeling, etc.) root: from Latin exacerbāre  to irritate, from acerbus  bitte

c.    When a teacher favors a particular student that you don’t like, it exacerbates the hatred you have against them.

B.    Cumbersome

a.    Some rural migrants secure temporary residence certificates but getting them is a cumbersome and expensive process

b.    burdensome; troublesome. Root: Middle English cummyrsum; cumbre – defeat

c.    Leaving all the work till the very day before its due makes everything so cumbersome as it results in a very tired student on the day the work is due.

C.   Augment

a.    His wife augments the family's income by working in the city as a household maid.

b.    to make larger; enlarge in size, number, strength, or extent; increase. Root: late Middle English au (g) menten; Anglo-French au (g) menter; Latin augmentāre toincrease, derivative of augmentum an increase

c.    Every student wants extra-credit projects by the end of the semester to augment their grade. 

Best teachers

188. Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Coaches are the best teachers. Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

As a child I was always afraid of doing anything wrong, as it seemed like it always resulted in an adult angry, me getting scolded by that adult, and ultimately finding myself upset about the whole situation. However, as years went by I realized that even though I hurt myself and sometimes others, it never lasted for long. I would apologize for my mistakes and that “oh, so scary thing” that I may have done or caused was forgotten within the next ten minutes and everything would be back to normal. This way I learnt that experiencing new things, whether it may be good or bad, was the best way I would learn. By saying this, I do not mean that coaches are not good teachers. They may give the best advice and will probably say them hoping that it will make things easier for us, but one cannot guarantee that what they say will happen. What they say are usually assumptions or something that they saw, heard, or even ‘experienced’ themselves. If somebody that you look up to and follow every advice they’ve given says, “Apply honey on your skin to make it soft and clear” you will probably find yourself doing just that. But what if you were allegoric to honey and by applying it on your skin caused a bad allergic reaction? That advice did you no good. Therefore, trying out other natural products may have a positive effect on you, yet you would have never known that honey would not work for you if you had not tried. Many people will have different opinions, and even if a coach coaches you a 100 times, you will never really know unless you do it yourself. “One experience is better than a 100 advices,” is an old Tibetan saying that I have constantly been hearing every now and again. 

236. What are some things you observed today?

Today, I woke up again, in the white-walled, empty room with one chair one a lousy bed. This was a so-called hotel, in Bodhgaya, in the corner of what seemed like nowhere, and I was furious at my mother for not finding a better place. The previous night she had explained to me how difficult it was for anyone to find a place. She had tried booking seven months in advanced, yet still was unable to find a hotel fit for my luxury. She kept telling me how lucky we were to have a shelter and a bathroom close at hand. However, I just ignored that and the day continued.

As we walked to the hotel – a much nicer hotel with proper bed s, a table and a television – where my maternal grandmother, Momola, was staying, I noticed how many people following the Buddhist faith and showed up to this tiny village for the teachings. Tibetans, Ladakhis, Bhutanese, Chinese, Americans, Russians

The plan for the day was to visit the old age home Momola had sponsored from Nepal. The first step of the four kilometer journey was a 10 minute rickshaw ride until a barrier where cars were stopped. We were then transferred onto a tempo for another 10 minute ride. Throughout the journey I saw people everywhere and what my mother said struck me, it is difficult to find a roof over one’s head, I thought. People are living so far away and yet I am still complaining.

As we got to the camp, the first thing I realized was that everyone who had registered to stay in the camps had to live in tents, similar to the circus tents. The old men and women were delighted to see my grandmother as they thanked her with tear-filled eyes. They were told to line up like a set of kindergarten children as we handed out the shawls my grandmother had bought for them.

As evening drew closer and we headed back to the hotel, I realized how grateful the people from the old age home were to be living in a tent and to be here. My grandmother was like a fairy godmother to them. She had granted their last wish, to see the Dalai Lama and attend his teachings.

I realized today that I should not complain about how easy I have life at the moment. I have whatever I need and I have no illnesses that act as a barrier towards anything I do. Therefore, I should stop complaining and live life as it comes. 

(this too is from Bodhgaya)

222: Where would you go hide and why

-Go into a crowd

-Wear a disguise

-Go to a remote place

The three options above are just a few places you would go or things you would do as you try to hide. However, the place where I would go has all these three alternatives. At present, I am in a tiny village in Bihar, a sate in India, called Bodhgaya. This is the place where Buddha gained enlightenment and is also a place in which many high monks, the Dalai Lama, the Karmapa, give their teachings. These are the only times when people actually come to this place. Therefore, I would like to think that the person who I’m hiding from wouldn’t even consider looking for me in this place. There are over three hundred thousand Buddhists, from all over the world, here at present. This would make it extremely difficult to find the person you need. Because there aren’t many places to go in Bodhgaya, no matter where you go there is a crowd of people. If you want to eat at a restaurant, you have to wait at least 10 minutes to find a seat. If you want to go to the main temple, you have to wait in a never-ending line amongst a hundred other people. This shows how many people are present here and how difficult it would be for the person I’m hiding from to find me. If they consider announcing for me at the main office I would probably not respond as they would announce for ‘Tsewang’ and that is a very common name and probably more than 10 people here have that name. Besides, no one in my family calls me that so I would know that it is a stranger. Lastly, because this place is so dusty and germs of various diseases are floating around in the air, majority of the people here are wearing face masks. This would obscure the path for the person looking for me. I could be any ordinary girl amongst the thousands and wearing a pair of shades would just complicate the chase for him/her.

(i wrote this while was in Bodhgaya, but i forgot to post to post it then)

Article 1: Monk puts himself on fire

Title: Tibet monk dies in China after self-immolating

Date published: Jan. 9, 2012 Date accessed: Jan 9, 2012

Summary:

A Tibetan monk, and a significant spiritual leader within his home community, set himself on fire the previous Sunday in the Qinghai, a north-western province of China. Over 15 Tibetans have died due to self-immolation in the past year, and most of these cases have been around north-west China, including Qinghai and other provinces around Sichuan. This is the first time such a protest is taking place in this region. The Tibetans are protesting in such a way due to the lack of religious freedom they are facing. The Dalai Lama himself expresses disapproval of such acts, yet he feels that they are “being driven to desperation by ‘cultural genocide’” due to the oppression they have to live under. However, Chinese authorities say blame the Dalai Lama for encouraging self-immolation. As the Chinese government is unwilling to allow journalists to access ‘Tibet-sensitive’ information, it is very difficult to verify anything.

Response:

Last semester, I had a project in which we had to carve out an issue of some sort, and later on make it into a poster with the help of technology. I chose a political issue – the oppression of Tibetans in China, the region of Tibet specifically. This was a few months ago and around 5 people had set themselves of fire then. The number of people that have died due to the self-immolation since then is alarming! Majority of the victims of this act have been young students who have no other way to show their desperation for freedom and their anger towards (probably) the Chinese government. Ever since that project, I have been keenly reading any article that has to do with the self-immolations and have been following through with events in China.

Vocabulary:

A.    Vigil

a.    “‘Due to his position as a local spiritual leader, approximately 2,000 local Tibetans are said to have held a candlelight vigil urging the local police authorities to release his body,’ it said.”

b.    wakefulness maintained for any reason during the normal hours for sleeping. Root:  from Old French vigile,  from Medieval Latin vigilia - watch preceding a

religious festival, from Latin: vigilance, from vigil alert, from vigēre to be lively

c.    My friends and I are usually vigil when we have an essay due the next day.

B.    Avert

a.    The statement said that police agreed to do this in order "to avert further tension".

b.    to turn away or aside. Root: French avertii; Latin āvertere – vertere to turn.

c.    To avert any possibilities of meeting a monkey on the way to school, I make sure I walk along with a group of people.

C.   Self-immolation

a.    Most self-immolations have taken place in the neighboring province of Sichuan.

b.    voluntary sacrifice or denial of oneself, as for an ideal or another person. Root: Latin immolātus,  past participle of immolāre  to sprinkle with holy meal prior to sacrificing.

c.    It is sad yet inspiring reading about all the Tibetan self-immolators as they seem very courageous and patriotic.