During our time in Banda Aceh, Aceh’s provincial capital, one statement was voiced over and over again. “Go back home and tell Americans good things about Aceh,” people told us. The first time I heard this, I was surprised. It was during a conversation about the implementation of sharia law in Aceh with a man who opposes sharia. The application of sharia in Aceh, a heavily Islamic province that exercises a degree of autonomy from the central government, has drawn world-wide media attention, most of it negative. While such media coverage has damaged Aceh’s reputation, after a week there, it became easy to see beyond the headlines.

As we spent more time in Aceh and spoke with more people, this request – “go back home and tell people good things about Aceh” – was echoed repeatedly, mostly unprompted, by everybody from university professors and students, to former combatants in the province’s separatist movement, to people on the street. After spending several days in Banda Aceh, it became apparent why this was such a popular statement.

In recent history, Aceh has had more than its fair share of setbacks. The province was home to a 30-year-long violent separatist movement, the Free Aceh Movement (GAM). While exact numbers are unknown, thousands of combatants fought the Indonesian military from Aceh’s mountains and jungles, hoping to gain independence from Jakarta and access to revenue from their province’s natural resources. The violence only came to an end with adoption of the Helsinki Agreement in 2005, and reintegration of ex-combatants has since begun.

In December 2004, however, Aceh was hit with the Boxing Day, a tsunami which killed around 160,000 people in the province. In the aftermath of the tsunami, a host of international NGOs came to Aceh to assist with rebuilding efforts, the results of which are clear when looking at the newly built homes around the province, each with a sticker in the window designating which aid agency provided funding. Nevertheless, the damage from the tsunami is still visible. The Islamic university in Aceh is still partly housed in temporary buildings as its original facilities are rebuilt, as is Perambi Indonesia, Aceh’s primary newspaper. And while Aceh’s infrastructure is largely repaired, the threat of unemployment looms as the last of the NGOs pull out.

The latest issue to arise in Aceh is sharia law, which was implemented in Aceh through a series of laws beginning in 2002. It is this development that has cast the most negative light on Aceh. Under Aceh’s sharia law, Muslim dress is mandated for women, unmarried couples are forbidden from showing public displays of affection, and alcohol and gambling are outlawed. To enforce these measures, a sharia police force was established, which has the authority to patrol the province and issue warnings for infractions.

On paper, these factors paint a bleak picture of Aceh. And that was the view we encountered prior to arriving in Aceh. In Jakarta, when we told people we were headed to Aceh, Indonesians and foreigners alike offered responses along the lines of “why would you ever go there?” or “be careful.” Kevin Fogg, an American post-doctoral fellow at the Islamic university in Jakarta, told us to stay away from places outside Banda Aceh even if we were modestly dressed, because rural areas were “iffy for Westerners.” Ulil Abshar Abdalla, the co-founder of a liberal media outlet in Indonesia, told us that Banda Aceh was “like Detroit – poor and deserted.” Even our trusty Lonely Planet guidebook featured a section on sharia law in Aceh, emphasizing that stoning and caning are legal punishments there.

Needless to say, we arrived in Aceh wearing our floor-length skirts and long-sleeved blouses expecting to find an impoverished, Islamist police state. Yet we had fallen victim to the sensationalized accounts of Aceh, as have many other people. Most of what we had heard about Aceh was grossly exaggerated (Banda Aceh may be less developed than other Indonesian cities, but it is a far cry from Detroit) or flat-out wrong (a bill was passed in parliament condoning stoning as a punishment, but the provincial governor refuses to sign it into law). To our surprise, Banda Aceh was a bustling, vibrant city. To be sure, it is clear from spending time in Aceh that the province operates under stricter laws than the rest of Indonesia. Alcohol cannot be found on menus or in stores, billboards tout the importance of sharia, and women dress more modestly than in Jakarta, including remaining covered while swimming. There are also numerous complaints in Aceh about abuses by the sharia police and overly restrictive laws that distort the spirit of Islamic law. But by most measures, the negative accounts of Aceh in the Indonesian and international media are almost universally overblown– and they’re enough to scare many people away from Aceh. (For more about incorrect accounts of Aceh, look for Jeffrey Kaiser and Raffi Friedman’s article in the next issue of the Yale Globalist.)

By the time we had left Aceh, it was clear why nearly everybody we spoke with asked us to go back to America and tell people positive things about Aceh. The GAM movement, the tsunami, and sharia law have combined to create a fair share of problems for Aceh, and the worldwide media has seized on these issues to convince the world that Aceh is not only hostile to visitors, but is a danger to Indonesian and international security . On the contrary, however, I found Aceh to be a place where everybody seems to be trying, in his own way, to do what he thinks is best for Aceh, and that includes dispelling the negative stereotypes swirling around.

After unleashing all manner of ill upon the then known world, Pandora peered inside the box, and all that was left, was hope. She wrapped hope around her knuckles and fought back.

The Roman Senate never heard a woman’s voice. Athenian philosophers rarely saw a woman ‘just taking a jog’ in the streets. The Imperial Chinese discarded female babies in the wild to fend for themselves. Society taught the ‘rib of man’ to hide her naked hide from the naked eyes of men. Not only that, but God Almighty sanctioned it. Loving religions lambasted women, music verbally murdered them and literature literary demonized them. The evils of the medieval, the blunders and plunders of the misogynous have harassed women of all ages, for ages. Historically, ‘the ‘broom riding witch’ would be beaten and burnt at the stake. Today, a woman cannot be beaten for burning a steak. Womanity has taken giant steps from the Garden of Eden where it all started, to smoky witch trials presided by the Holy men, to being sidelined from socio-economic systems, to full emancipation. No longer are they shackled to a kitchen sink. So how did women come from burning at the stake to burning bras in the streets, and where are they now?

Feminist’s grievances were unequal pay, political marginalization, non-maternity leave, discriminatory property rights and an inaccessible educational system. Womanity’s suffering led to the women’s suffrage. The unsung heroines like Lucy Stone and Alice Paul burned to stand up for freedom like the Statue of Liberty. Feminism came in three waves, the first in the 19^th century/20^th century, the second tsunami in the crazy 1960s-1970s and the third typhoon started in the 1990s until today. It was politically, socially and economically beneficial. Ironically, the two World Wars of iron and steel accelerated the women’s liberation movement. During the war, the need for labour in the industries had opportunity banging on the doors of women.  From being property, women got the right to own property. The icing on the cake was of course the rise of Britain’s Margret Thatcher in 1979. This revolution was not won by wading through rivers of blood or hiking over dead bodies. Victory did not come by the babbling of a machine gun. It came by speaking up and writing down.

Today’s women are now free to open their own doors and change their own car tyres. They have also perfected the ability to stand on their own two feet in a crowded room full of sitting men. The fatherland, Germany, is now under the thumb of a woman-Chancellor Angela Merkel; therefore, Hitler is ice-skating in hell. In the West, women are riding high on the crest of a wave, without a hungry shark in wet pursuit. Jack the Ripper, the Roman Emperors and Schopenhauer must be turning again, and again in their graves.

Though the battle is won, the war is far from over. The white flag is red, not with honeymoon virgin blood, but with the essence of innocent female victims. In certain places, having the life-giving organs can mean potential death. Whilst women in the west listen to Rock, women elsewhere listen to the sound of rocks smashing their skulls. Women in the west shave their armpits with razors, whilst other women like sheep; quietly lose their sexual ornaments to a searing razor. Whilst some women drive fancy cars to work, complaining about bitter traffic jams, women elsewhere are trafficked far off to cure men’s sex drive.  The jean wearing, job having, politician voting, posh car driving female enjoys the liberty that her forcibly prostituted, Islam-fashion wearing, circumcised sister cannot. Has the latter been forever left behind by the feminist freight train and left to choke on the dust clouds?

The Lords of the Prostitution Rings are getting fat on the proceeds of forced prostitution. The International Labour Organisation states that sex trafficking makes 31.7 billion dollars a year. If you were a cartoon, your jaw would be on the floor. Having picked it up you would continue to read. 2.5 million females hail unwillingly or unwittingly from 127 countries to sex work in foreign lands. The young girls have more to lose than their virginity. Torture, murder, disease and drug use are the dangers of the sex trade. The ‘sexportation’ is mainly carried on from Central-Eastern Europe to Western Europe. By 2012, it is estimated that 1, 48 million women will be putting the vice in service.

Two million genital mutilations occur every year in Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, Egypt and other parts Africa.  Some unlucky girls meet death before being formally acquainted with life. Anemia, gangrene, kidney failure and HIV are some of the hazards that come with mutilations done in the name of religious chastity. Not only does it mutilate the body, it mutilates the mind. The long arm of the law seeks to bar this practice, but the slippery arm of crime evades it, and commits this grotesque practice in secrecy. Algerian women have no property or marital rights under the Family Code of 1984. Governments in Tunisia and Morocco do not give their women the right to residence, to travel, to work, to own property without male supervision.

Honour killings flourish in some Islamic regions, as the legal codes of the Muslims seeks to rule the unruly. Besides waging a ‘war on terror’, the Taliban are also masters at terrorizing freethinking women in the Afghanistan. The Shia Personal Status Law in Iran was passed in the March of 2009 making it impossible for women to live independently from men. In Sudan, the Indecent and Immoral Act of 1991 makes dressing immorally a punishable offence. Even rumors of infidelity could spell d-e-a-t-h. Arranged child marriages are still a norm in remote villages in the ‘middle of nowhere’. In India, deviating from arranged marriages means hanging; hanging like a piñata whilst ‘smelly chocolate and salty urea’ oozes out. The horror!

Nevertheless, where there is a wheel of justice, there is a way. The Fourth UN Conference for Women was held in Beijing in 1995 supporting gender equality. The South African Centre for Applied Legal Studies was formed in 1992 under the Gender and Research Project to promote gender equality and human rights. United Nations and various NGOs will continue to nag their way to female emancipation. Amsterdam hosted the KIT Gender in 1999 with the aim of reinforcing the integration of women into the political system. Bilateral donors, the UN and its affiliates have given away large sums in an effort to engender institutions worldwide. The United General Assembly launched CEDAW,  the (Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women) in 1979. It was signed by all nations except six (Iran, Nauru, Palau, Somalia, Sudan, Tonga) in order to give their mothers, daughters and sisters the privileges that right the human wrongs. Even though power is deaf, Islam Feminism cries against the misogynist interpretation of the Koran. Afghanistan and Saudi Arabian women protest against the wearing of the burqa, because not only does it get hot in that outfit, but also it is quote unquote, the visible symbol of female subjugation. U.S.A passed the Islamic Bill of Rights in 2004 in to give women the right to fully worship Allah. The voice in the wilderness will never shut up!

Britain signed The Prohibition of Female Circumcision Act in 1985 to curb this nuisance and February 6 marks International Day against Female Mutilation. The Egyptian government banned circumcision and organizations worldwide fight the social plague. The World Health Organisation initiated a programme in 1997 to nip mutilations in the bud. In 2000, the American government passed the Traffic Protection Act and works in conjunction with international Task Forces to intercept the slave trade. NGOs also work in the native homes of returning sex slaves in an attempt to rehabilitate them.

Come 2021, when people think of human trafficking, hopefully they will visualize people languishing in traffic jams at eight am, not young women languishing behind brothel doors at eight pm. Perhaps one day women in the Wild Wild Middle East will stand up for their rights and not take it lying down. The misogynous culture may soon join the dodo and the dinosaur in the dusty books of history.

War, not woman is the necessary evil. The world must not cease to wage war on women’s woes. Will the women of 2021 wave bon voyage to forced circumcision, forced prostitution, and forced marriages?  2021 might see the full emancipation of Islamic women and their counterparts, who are wrapped around in their own suffering. 2021 might cut out forced circumcision, erasing the razors. Forcing forcible prostitution out the back door like the cow dung it is. Womanity and sexuality will be celebrated instead of being crushed. 2010 sees it exploited and objectified in various media outlets. Better that, than burning stakes, circumcising razors and secret brothels. After all, you cannot spell emancipation without m-a-n.

Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM)

Mexico City, Mexico.

There is an entire range of movies and books trying to predict what will be of our future not just eleven years from now, but hundreds and even thousands. However, movies and books have always got it wrong, not because our imagination of “what will be” surpasses our possibilities (assumption that is proven wrong when looking in retrospective) but because these focus on the binary choices of men. One will always notice in these entertaining prophecies, that everything is either black or white, either good or evil.  The future created by those in the science fiction industry will never propose a world as gray as we know it, why would they? It is boring.

I might just now conclude that 2021 will be boring, but that, as well, would not be very appealing. Having ascertained the main problem of those who imagine the most about the future, I will try to overcome their “artistically committed errors” and find a prediction by myself of what the year 2021 has in store for us.

The year 2021 will not be a tide turning point in history, it will simply be a year caught between smooth changes towards a larger and unintended purpose, as most of things in this life are. I may be wrong, it is also possible to think that the year 2021 will be a new 1789, a year caught in revolutions and extraordinary change. Nevertheless, if I had to place a bet I would most probably take the first option rather than the last. I might be branded as a pessimist or simply cynical, however, the logic that rules my predictions compels me to do so. To tie a specific event such as a “grand revolution” to a precise date would require not only a notion of a universally planned agenda but also that humanity, indeed, has complete control over its own fate and nothing is left to chance.

I, thus, elucidate a vaguer belief of what will happen in the years to come. As I said before, it is most probable that the year 2021 will be, solely, one of many small waves of human ideas through history. Nonetheless, if we agree that nothing transcendental might occur on that year we must also point out that, like in every other year, history will be directed towards a different point, if only by a few inches.

I do believe that the future, uninteresting as it may be, does aim to a brighter canvas, a lighter shade of gray. This approach is not a consequence of a new found optimism between the last written lines, but because humanity has grown far more conscious of itself and its place in the universe.

It has always been said (and no less truthfully), in history classes, that before science was “approved” by the political powers of the theological regimes, the center of the universe was focused on God. Later on, as humanity entertained the notion of control over nature, that theocentric understanding was replaced by a much more fragile one, a system were humans found themselves alone, lacking whatever purpose these had fantasized about. More than three hundred years have passed since these were breaking news. I think it is safe to say that we have a new understanding of our place in the universe, we may be alone (alone as in: abandoned by God). But we are not alone amongst ourselves.  It has taken humanity two world wars and countless genocides to even conceive the notion that every human being, living or dead, has rights (whatever these may be). This conception stems from a series of understandings between most countries in the world.

If the years between the 18^th and 20^th century were marked by the power of political oligarchies, either in democracies or dictatorships, we might just be able to think that, perhaps, the 21^st century has taken a turn, in terms of political power, towards hearing the voice of a larger amount of people. I must reemphasize my latter point, while this 21^st century may have brought more people towards the different centers of power, not every voice will be heard. The prerogative of every government and every citizen should be to solve this problem, for if one lesson is to be learned throughout history is that bonds, contracts and treaties are always stronger if accorded by a larger community.

Humanity, in the year 2021, will be forced to consider compelling proposals that aim towards the end of wars, the end of nationalistic regimes and, as well, the creation of greater regional and international arenas. Broadly speaking, the year 2021 will try to break the human created frontiers. These walls that were once meant for protection now serve, ironically, as a mean of violence and, therefore, must be broken down. Every country shall lose its flag and surrender to a common vision, a human vision.

The introduction of hundreds of different means of communication, commercial treaties and international arenas has already initiated this aperture process. One must only look at the European Union or the economic treaties in South East Asia to affirm that humanity is growing tired of conflict.

Nowadays, the means of communication have opened up a view of the world never before achieved. In these days a child can understand a world beyond the simple maps that depict it; he can learn that humans inhabit it and that different points of view do exist. The internet has allowed us to analyze conflicts beyond political interests and economic calculations. It is now possible and easy to share stories with war stricken victims. The world is getting smaller in size and bigger in knowledge, countries that would have rested anonymous, now play a central role in international politics, examples of this can be found in Uganda or Haiti, likewise, Iraq’s war was condemned and fought against by a very large sum of people all around the world.

However, not everything in my description of the 21^st century is peaches and roses. We still have wars and, also, cruel dictators and genocides, we still have interest groups that push for economic gain at the cost of human lives. Moreover, the 21^st century is clouded with thoughts of a meaningless existence and a lack of human purpose. But as a child departs its mother’s side at some point, humanity must quit nationalism and all state like frontiers to find meaning through existence itself, through human bonds.

Society has been given the microphone at this point in history, and as we continue marching on for the next eleven years, we can only hope that this same path of greater liberties is maintained. If at first I could be branded as pessimist it is now probable that I will be renowned for being naive, nonetheless, I will recall one of my first and already emphasized statements, while this 21^st century may have brought more people towards the control of power, sadly, not every voice will be heard.

The years between now and the year 2021 will determine the spin of the rudder that guides the human ship, it may take us another hundred years to get where we want, but as long as the direction is maintained we can be sure to arrive to a safe port.

I have tried not to predict neither a world sunk in chaos or a utopian paradise, not because I do not desire the latter and fear the first, but because to do so would be to assume that the variables that guide human history will change drastically and, for good or bad, few times has history changed so thoroughly.

Eleven years from now policies might continue to empower people and to create greater understandings between citizens and nations, however, these predictions are not based on a belief where things are a result of spontaneous creation, but rather a consequence of action and hence, we must act. The year 2021 will be boring, and let us hope so, for the things that call the most attention of humanity are conflicts and despair.

When American Evan Lysacek beat Russian Evgeny Plushenko by just over a point in the final of men’s Olympic figure skating, more than a gold medal was on the line. According to many commentators–and Plushenko himself–the result was nothing less than a blow to the sport itself. The controversy boiled down to jumps: Plushenko landed a quadruple, and Lysacek didn’t attempt one. Plushenko, the 2006 gold medalist, had come out of retirement because he believed with his superior jumping skills, these Olympic games were his to win.  That his quad wasn’t enough represented to some the end of athleticism, and even manliness, in the sport. “If the Olympic champion doesn’t know how to jump a quad, I don’t know,” Plushenko said. “Now it’s not men’s figure skating. It’s dancing. Maybe figure skating needs a new name.”

It’s more complicated than that, though. The controversy over whether artistry or technique should matter more is an old debate, one that lies at the heart of the strange sport that requires sequins as well as strength. There were many people (full disclosure, my eight-year-old self included) who believed that Michelle Kwan’s gorgeous program at the Nagano Games should have beaten Tara Lipinski’s flashy jumps. The new judging system introduced after the scandals in ice dance at the Salt Lake Games is supposed to have removed some of the ambiguity that goes into producing the scores. Plushenko’s argument doesn’t find support in the judging marks because the difference between gold and silver didn’t lie in the artistic “program components” score, but in the technical “total element score”. Lysacek skated a smarter program, taking advantage of the changes in the judging. His jumps were landed more cleanly, and importantly, were executed in the second half of the program, which gives a 10 percent boost. If Plushenko had done the same, he would have won. His veiled accusations that a US champion was necessary for the financial future of the sport are unworthy of an Olympic medalist.

Even if Lysacek’s victory was clear, the real questions are open to debate. Does a sport have to become more difficult to proceed? Does men’s figure skating have to prove its manliness? In some ways, figure skating is like snowboarding, or ski jumping, or diving, with athletes on a constant quest for a newer, more difficult trick to blow away the competition. That drive is a very real part of the sport –it is what makes it a sport, and Plushenko’s supporters were right on that account. Yet I know from my own experience that learning a new jump isn’t the only thing that makes a skater get up early in the morning and go to the rink for hours a day. A competitor will practice the jumps over and over and over, but the reward is the feeling of flying when you land it perfectly, with a flourish, and the music behind you. Figure skating refuses to be reduced to numbers – which makes it unique, and perhaps ridiculous, as an Olympic sport – but the subjectivity of performance is part of its essence.

Figure skating is a sport that remains filled with sexism, and this is perhaps clearest in the men’s competition. Male figure skaters, particularly in the US, must battle the assumption by the general population that they are gay, while striving to prove to judges that they are not. It may come as a shock to many (it certainly did to the Yale students watching with me) that only a tiny handful of Olympic level skaters have come out of the closet. Flamboyancy is equated with sexuality in a way that is only sometimes accurate. It would be better for the sport as a whole if we could try to not see athleticism as masculine, and artistry as feminine. A competitor, man or woman, needs both qualifications for a complete program. The genderization of the sport takes away from the hard work that goes into both the jumps and the performance.

Anna Kellar is a Sophomore at Yale University and a Senior Editorial Associate for Global21.

Curling seemed to be the craze of the Olympics. Even the Wall Street crowd tuned in to witness the heroes of the season. Most assume the sport is reserved for an obscure sector of the population, but I happen to know it a little closer to home.

My great-aunt Liz was Scottish, but lived in upstate New York after she graduated from Hamilton College, and she loved to curl. In addition to her curling enthusiasm, she had a man after her heart, but she wouldn’t dare leave her curling abode. To win her over, her to-be husband created a curling club for her in Connecticut. The curling clubs have hoards of pins, and the members celebrate the gatherings by dressing in traditional Scottish garb, skirts and all. How could she resist? Aunt Liz married him, and they went on to live a joyful life full of curling.

As I watch with wonder and a lack of understanding of the sport curling, along with many other disillusioned fans, I picture my Aunt Liz in her Scottish outfit with her curly white hair under a hat and a smile on her face as she did what she loved best.

Diana Saverin is a freshman at Yale University and a Junior Editorial Associate for Global21.

The Winter Olympics seems to exact a greater degree of audience participation than their summer counterparts. The athletes may be equally well trained, but the events they are participating in vary in one important respect: danger. The Winter Olympics have me on the edge of my seat, not necessarily hoping for gold, but with concern for the athlete’s life. Rolling my eyes to follow runners sprinting around a track may be exciting, but I have never found myself wondering if the whirling figures would trip and fall to their deaths. In the Winter Games, though, I gape at skiers’ countless flips through the air, triple axels on ice, unbelievable air on the half pipe, and 90 miles per hour speed down icy paths on what looks like a flimsy sled.

As a lifelong downhill and cross country skier and generally enthusiastic winter athlete, I am familiar with the sports in which the athletes participate. Despite my lifelong training, though, my skiing looks nothing like the skiing I have to look away from on the screen. I may feel free while I ski, but true freestyle skiers in the Olympics can perform triple back somersaults with five twists. I tend to keep my skis on the ground.

This contrast is different than the summer paradigm. I have run cross-country, on tracks, and a marathon, and while my running is (tremendously) slower, it’s the same motion and the same idea. Nothing I have ever engaged in or seen resembles what the winter Olympians do. Even for the safer events, like curling, the Olympians are participating in events that have nothing to do with what us lowly citizens attribute to be “sports.” So what is the goal of these events? Is this an NBC ploy to show us exceptional talent at exceptionally obscure tasks, or to give us an entertaining show by depicting human limits?

I enjoy the winter Olympics, and respect the hard work and dedication of the athletes, but sometimes find myself wondering the goal of some of the events. Especially when an athlete’s life ends, I question the battle for gold.

Diana Saverin is a freshman at Yale University and a Junior Editorial Associate for Global21.

Culture in Northeast Asia is facing opportunities, problems and challenges in the 21st century. This soft power is increasingly a crucial factor in the cooperation and communication among Northeast Asian brands.

Culture identity surmounts various kinds of cultural differences, on the basis of the approval on human generality and general similarity on the foundation of mankind culture. And culture entity is kind of compound which possesses domestic tradition and universal value. Such cultural coherence cultivated by countries and their brands have a profound impact on the stability of regional cooperation, especially in the realm of business, stimulating those brands to be more competitive and powerful.

The way of finding the cultural identity and building the culture entity is challenging but operable. The similarity of cultures in Northeast Asia is the base of the process. Just take China, Japan and South Korea as examples. Confucianism is the common denominator in determining working attitude. For the development of business, it can become an inexhaustible ideological resource. Spiritual orientation can lead to modernization and competitive strength. We can find out more cases in Northeast Asia for the sake of supporting the cultural construction with the more firm foundation.

On one hand, we need to eliminate the cultural barrier among Northeast Asian countries. It is well known that the cultural barrier affects brand management, efficiency and quality, and embitters human relations. For such an encounter, we should find the mechanism and platform to eliminate the misunderstanding, to promote mutual trust and cooperation through dialogue and communication. On the other hand, we should look for opportunities for Northeast Asian people to enhance our friendship. The governments, college or non-government organizations could set up programs in order to expand cultural contacts and exchange. All-round and multi-angled programs will help us find the common identity and promote the innovation of regional culture, which Northeast Asian brands can receive much more enlightening ideas from.

For the purpose of improving the competitiveness among the world brands, it is better to have an eye on the culture combination with the global culture and market.

Finding the cultural identity and building the culture entity is a long process. Each country should make strategies of culture development and enhance the cultural relationship with others in order to achieve the final goal, thus maintaining the Northeast Asia regional competitiveness, peace, stability and development.

Nanzi Wang is an editor for The Peking Globalist and a student at Peking University in Beijing, China.

In 2002, a team of scientists led by Mathis Wackernagel, an analyst at Redefining Progress, determined that mankind’s consumption surpassed the earth’s regenerative capacity around 1980. This study, published by the U.S. Academy of Sciences, also estimated that the world’s demands in 1999 exceeded the earth’s capacity by 20 percent. Donella and Dennis Meadows, both environmental scientists, argue that in 30 years, we can expect to see a world population of about 7 billion persons, and if the world’s fertility rate does not begin to decline, in 60 years, there will be four people in the world for every one person living today. If their claim holds true, this ever-growing worldwide population will threaten to consume the earth’s resources at a much faster rate.

Lester Brown, an internationally recognized and renowned American environmentalist, points out that these emerging mega-threats have been increasing in magnitude over recent years. One such threat is from what he dubs the food bubble economy. As populations rise, demand for grain also rises. In an effort to meet demand, many countries are pumping aquifers overtime to grow more food. At this rate, the earth’s major water reservoirs are being depleted. Frank Rijsberman, from the Sri Lanka-based International Water Management Institute, warned in 2003 that if current trends continued, the livelihoods of one-third of the world’s population could be affected by water scarcity by 2025: “We could be facing annual losses equivalent to the entire grain crops of India and the United States combined.” To put this in perspective, an Economist article estimates that India and America contribute 30% of globally consumed cereals. A loss of that proportion will have devastating consequences for the future, especially if population is expected to hit 7 billion.

These developments, along with several others, raise serious concerns, but the action to counteract unsustainable practices has been haphazard, at best. Some looked to the recent Copenhagen climate change conference for hope; however, the nations involved have done little to assume a more proactive role. On the contrary, there are still no specific limits set for emissions beyond that which the countries involved volunteered. Carbon markets, which were central to the Kyoto Protocol, are at risk of collapse as banks and investors are steadily beginning to pull out due to this lack of commitment on carbon emissions. This threatens to undermine the entire initiative set forth in the Kyoto Protocol, which is not due to expire until 2012.

World leaders are aware of these communal threats to the world’s livelihood, but they are also confronted with a myriad of issues in their own nations. Government positions are at stake. Elections are due for many countries in 2012 and leaders like Obama are working overtime to turn the polls in their favor. With issues such as healthcare and the Iraq invasion on the table, Obama’s efforts are elsewhere. The same is true across the globe; climate change seems to be constantly pushed back as an issue to be dealt with by later generations. However, time is running out.

As global citizens in a world that is increasingly interconnected, we must do our part even if our governments continue to procrastinate. Central to democracy is the voice of the people, and as citizens, it is our duty to our offspring to take charge when our governments won’t. Raising awareness means chipping slowly at this melting iceberg; perhaps it is time for real action within our lifetimes. We are already feeling the effects of climate change. We must be proactive rather than reactive and push for the change we want to see in our world.

Matthew Escano is a 5th year student at University of Toronto and is double majoring in Political Science and Anthropology

Taneja with her classmates at her all-girls high school in Trinidad

BY TANEJA YOUNG

I was born in Barbados and grew up on the island of Trinidad in the Caribbean. Trinidad has a rich and varied culture, having been colonized by the Spanish, the French and finally the British. Under British rule, indentured labourers from India and slaves from Africa came to work on the sugar-cane plantations. When I was growing up, the multicultural history and ‘cosmopolitan’ nature of our nation was  portrayed as a beautiful thing in all my social studies text books. Trinidadians touted the island as a rainbow nation, where all different colours of the human race got along in blissful harmony. But as I got older I became aware of the inevitable underlying tensions that exist among the different races and classes in Trinidadian society and the disparities in education, ownership and wealth that ultimately fuelled these tensions. This was in part why I began to yearn for what else was out there in other parts of the world, and it was the introduction of cable TV in my home that stirred my obsession with Western culture and the utopia which the West seemed to promise.

When I was younger, cable television was still something of a novelty to the Caribbean, nowhere near as ubiquitous as it is today. I remember feeling vaguely triumphant when I casually recalled to my friends at school what I had seen on cable the night before. “Oh, you don’t have cable?” I’d say nonchalantly, inviting them to listen to the stories I’d seen or heard via my sole link to the developed world of the West. I remember fantasizing about Payless shoes and American restaurants like Red Lobster and Chuck E. Cheese’s – whose advertisements I would watch in between episodes of Legends of the Hidden Temple and The Secret World of Alex Mack.  When I finally visited the U.S. for the first time at the age of fourteen, I made sure to save my Victoria’s Secret and Claire’s shopping bags for use as lunch bags when I returned to school: I knew that they would make excellent conversation starters, and reinforce my status as a true Westerner.  America had become my connection to being hip, cool, popular, and everything a teenage girl could wish for, and I imitated everything I saw – right down to the American accent.

Now that I am a college student in the US and living my dream I realize the fantasies in television that characterized my adolescent years. Humans often have a fascination with ‘over there’ – illusions spurred by shows we watch on TV, music we listen to, and new styles we see in magazines or on the Web.  Once upon a time, ‘over there’ was but a distant dream for most Trinidadians and its elusiveness spurred an even deeper fascination with the West. However, I believe that the growing reach of television and even new media such as blogs, Facebook, and Twitter are actually providing a strong and effective linking device between developing countries such as Trinidad and the Western world.  Through the advancements of technology and globalization, it is becoming much easier for Trinidadian adolescents to actually experience life in the developed world rather than merely dreaming about what they see on television. In addition to being obsessed with Gossip Girl or The Bachelor, it seems like all my high school friends have a Facebook account, and I have an increasing amount of Trinidadian acquaintances choosing to further their studies in America or Britain.  As we begin this new decade, I think we will continue to see adolescents’ dreams about what is ‘over there’ in the developed world increasingly become reality.

Taneja Young is a Sophomore at  Yale University majoring in Chemical Engineering.  She is currently studying abroad in Scotland.

On December 8, the Yale Afghanistan Forum brought Professor Mariam Abou-Zahab, of Science-Po (home of the Paris Globalist), to New Haven to speak about the origins of the Taliban. Professor Abou-Zahab is a political sociologist, and an expert on the Pashtun tribal areas.

While at Yale, she discussed her current work over lunch with the Muslim Students Association. She also participated in a panel entitled “The Taliban as a Social Movement” with Yale World Fellow Alexander Evans, who has served in Pakistan with the UK Foreign Office.

The Taliban arose in the Pashtun areas along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Some people believe that the traditional Pashtun tribal structure is intact in this area and that the Taliban are a temporary aberration, but Abou Zahab argued that the Taliban represent a transformative social movement.

This has implications for those who wish to see the Taliban defeated. The conflict cannot be viewed simply as an insurgency. It more closely resembles a civil war, in which battles are often the continuation of local struggles. The Taliban view themselves as a movement for justice, delivering the security and order that the government does not. The Taliban seek to change the existing society, and therefore don’t appeal to the old tribal hierarchy.

As conflict continues throughout the Pashtun region, there are more and more displaced people. A whole generation has faced extreme violence, and is being urbanized by force As a result, for example, Kabul’s population has quadrupled since 1978. These people are easy recruits for the Taliban, which can offer a path to power and prestige.

When Evans interviewed people from the tribal areas, he heard their overwhelming cries for development, education and economic opportunity. Both Evans and Abou Zahab agreed that, while the present generation may be lost, any hope for the future lies with the children.

A full description of the panel can be found on the Yale Afghanistan Forum blog:

http://afghanistanforum.wordpress.com

Anna Kellar is a sophomore at Yale University and a Global21 Senior Editorial Associate.