I've been super, super busy with school. This last class I had, Conservation and Development was one of the toughest classes I've ever taken. It was so much theory! And no practicality! At least, that's what I found. I'm craving numbers and hard science like a crazy person. This class involved so much reading and writing - I even had to manage to study when the power went out, for more than eight hours! We even had weekend classes in the form of a three-day field trip! We visited a couple sustainable living communities or something like that. I posted pictures of our tour of a coffee plantation and digging our bus out of a mud hole here. You know, normal field trip stuff.
As president of the Environmental Club at UPeace, I've also been busy trying to facilitate different environmental projects. Most notably, we set up a recycling collection center in town so that students and community members have the option of recycling their recyclable trash. At the moment, we're working hard to put together a 6.5 kilometer fundraiser run for students and community members. The idea is to raise money to implement a project in a nearby community, which is devastated from environmental effects due to being situated directly next to a landfill. Normally that wouldn't be such a problem, but this is Costa Rica - and a landfill isn't what you think it is in a place like this.
I've also been spearheading a campaign for the safety and security of the students at UPeace. I've never felt such a lack of safety and security as I do in this country. It's insane. This place is so unsafe. I would like to find the logic pointing to the fact that it's just because people are so poor here that they've been driven to lives of crime. But it's not true. I've been to much poorer countries that didn't have nearly the same crime, nor feel of insecurity. I can't explain it. For some reason, crime has been increasing exponentially here, and it's just sort of acceptable. No one does anything about it. People just sort of think, oh, that sucks. Pura Vida.
In the last two months, Becca's home was broken into while we were at school, and she lost everything of any value. One student was sexually assaulted. Another student's home was broken into (same story as Becca's). Another student and her boyfriend were shot at, held up at gunpoint and mugged. There have been a few picked pockets - including Becca's (Just the other day, on the bus). I even heard a story of a UPeace student from last year whose home was broken into via a hole in the wall that the thieves created with explosives! They blew a freakin hole in the wall of his home! When he got home, he asked his landlord about it and received an answer of, "Hm. I didn't hear anything." The first apartment in which I lived had a robbery about a week before I left. During the night, someone broke the gate of the apartment complex, came in and stole the three cars that were there. Come to find out, the neighbor had called the police during the robbery, but the police never showed up. Turns out, the three cops in town were busy pulling a guy out of the electrical wires who had been electrocuted while trying to steal the wires to sell at the metal recycler. In any case, there have been a few more crimes against students that I don't know the full details - and all of these pale in comparison to the stories in the news of robbers kidnapping people at ATMs, taking them to ATMs in different cities, draining their account, and then shooting them! I often ask myself, "Where the hell am I?!" So I'm trying to pressure the university to do more in regards to safety and security. For example, the time Becca's home got broken into, was the third time it's happened. She wasn't aware of that when she moved in - but she should have been. Homes are approved by the university but are not checked with regard to safety issues. I'm pushing for them to do so. We'll see what happens. My guess is, I'll get a response along the lines of, "Hm. That sucks." But they may say it more professionally.
On a different note, my most recent budget calculations show that I will run out of money before school finishes. So... I got a job! I feel like an illegal immigrant! And if I manage to save enough money - I'll even be able to afford a ticket home! What is this magical job, you ask? I'm teaching English. It's a job I've avoided throughout my travels, as I don't know English grammar rules so well. But after giving it a go, I've found that I quite enjoy it! I'm making roughly $6.36 per hour, but I don't have to pay taxes so I'm sure my savings will add up quickly! And so will my pride after six months of hearing kids call me, 'Professor Judkins'! Although, with their accents, it sounds more like, 'Prrrofesorrr Yoodkins'.
OK - last thing for now, a note from the Vice Rector of the university in regards to our Thanksgiving celebration. I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I miss you guys so much!Dear UPEACErs:
Last Friday, November 21, 2008, the UPEACE community celebrated the North American Thanksgiving. The event was fully sponsored by American students (from the US and Canada). True to the Thanksgiving traditions, the students cooked all the delicious dishes associated with the event, such as turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, and of course pumpkin pies! The event attracted not only UPEACE students and staff, but also a large number of families living in El Rodeo and Ciudad Colon. The cafeteria, inside and out, was packed with happy people who came together to express Thanks. Everything was wonderful: Organization, service, food, and beautiful spirit.
This event will go down in the "UPEACE Record of Great Events" as one of the most outstanding, for several reasons: It is the first time that our North American colleagues organized such a wide-scale event; it was so organized with excellent attention to all details; it brought together one of the largest crowds in any UPEACE event; it included a significant presence of the community especially children; and, the North American students did it ALL by themselves- buying all the food, cooking, transporting a massive amount of food to UPEACE, serving everyone, and cleaning the entire place after the event!
I am sure that the entire UPEACE community joins me in thanking our North American colleagues for giving us such a wonderful evening.
THANK YOU! In peace,
Amr Abdalla, Ph.D.
Professor and Vice Rector for Academic Affairs
University for Peace
United Nations Affiliated University
There are lots more photos here with more stories! Enjoy!
5 comments:
Perhaps the reason you have seen poorer countries that seemed safer is because poverty, per se, does not encourage crime and violence as much when the poverty is part of a traditional and functional society. For example, subsistence farmers are usually intensely poor, but if that is all they have known and all they expect, they are less likely to be violent, being constrained by their existing social structure. As Spengler has noted, though, where modernity treads, traditional societies are destroyed. This upheaval leads to existential doubt, less security, and often violence. Latin America is at the crossroads of modernity, such that traditional society no longer provides security, but the people do not yet enjoy the fruits (and ennui) of modern life.
Hello NJR -
That's an interesting comment; it sounded very insightful at first read.
I think there is a tendency to blame what you term "modernity" for a lot of society's evils. It's an easy scapegoat, but I can't believe an infusion of education, technology, and opportunity "destroyed" their society and caused crime and violence to suddenly appear. Things were not "better" when everyone was limited to subsistence farming.
I think the truth is likely more general, if less salacious: crime and violence is rare when everyone in a society shares the same socioeconomic status (i.e., subsistence farmers) and more common whenever different levels of success appear. It naturally arises because of the coexistence of "Haves" and "Have-nots," not because of any evil inherent in modernity.
It's true that crime is rare in a subsistence-level community, but it's equally rare in societies where everyone is equally affluent.
Barry --
I don't think we disagree, or not much. My comment was not intended as a negative comment on modernizing and economic development. Individuals are pretty much indisputably better off with the fruits of modernity -- better food, shelter, medicine, more choice, etc. In fact, it is precisely the superiority of modern culture in providing such things (in comparison to a poverty-ridden traditional society) that makes it devastating to traditional culture.
I am not saying that society was "better" when everyone was a dirt-poor subistence farmer. Quite the opposite. I am saying that, because of the better alternatives and opportunities offered by exposure to development, people begin to abandon the traditional ways -- and are rational to do so. But one of the casualties of that transformation is the loss of social cohesion and increased social and economic insecurity.
In short, I agree that 'things were not better when everyone was limited to subsistence farming.' Most certainly they were not. But they may have been safer in terms of crime. Something (in this case, development) can be better on balance, and yet still have some negatives associated with it.
Or, to put it another way, Andrew seemed implicitly to be equating poverty with crime (thus expressing dismay that crime was higher even in this place where prosperity is relatively higher than some other poor countries). I would argue that crime's relationship is not direct with poverty but rather more related to the relative security of people with their role in society and the correspondening social constraints upon them. In modernizing economies, that role is in flux, traditional methods of restraint may fall aside, and thus crime may increase along with prosperity.
Wow, Andrew, I can hear your frustration. The last time I was in Costa Rica was 10 years ago, and it was really a different story. I've talked to friends who have visited more recently, and alot has changed. I'm glad you have a job that gives you both cash and strokes - and that it helps you finish your semester. I'll be watching. Denise
NJR & Barry,
Perhaps I need to be more clear - that's one of the things I'm trying to improve in my writing. My point is, I wasn't necessarily correlating poverty with crime. In fact, I thought I wrote that I had been in much poorer countries that were much safer. I was trying to illustrate that for some reason, in Costa Rica, crime is somehow accepted as part of life.
It could indeed be related to the disparity between rich and poor. After all, I've never been to a country with so much foreign investment. But that would imply that crime would be against foreigners - and as I've experienced it in the lives of people around me, it has been. But in the newspapers, much worse violent crime is happening to locals. And the locals all seem to be in the same boat here - not too much financial differences.
It's something I can't explain. It's nuts. But both of your insights are thought provoking and I thank you for sharing.
Denise,
Everyone that's been here for a while (professors and the like) says that the changes happening here are happening at an exponential rate. I'm sure I won't recognize things 10 years from now - at least I hope not! Thanks for the support! Hope I can come home soon!
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