Turkey - Two lifestyles was the heading of a article i read in the morning today . Immediately the numerous discussions I have had for the past 1 year with my lab mates one Turkish and one Iranian came flooding back to me .
Both Turkey and Iran are Islamic states but no where else can you find such stark contrasts in how the same religion is being followed by 2 different nations . The turkish lead processions in their country when they found out that there were chances of a fundamentalist becoming the president . People took to streets bcoz they feared that their secularism was being jeopardized ....people resent a woman wearing a scarf bcoz they think it a threat to their ideas of secularism and modernity
And then on the other end stands iran , where the moral police are enforcing women to wear head scarfs bcoz they believe that unless religion is not imposed on ppl they may go wrong . Secularism is unheard of in these areas . Boys cannot talk to girls , alcohol is banned . The government has taken it on themselves to teach the people how to lead lives which are the proper muslim way of life .
Two sides of the same coin you can say , on one hand people are afraid that their govt may become fundamentalist , on the other hand the govt believes that fundamentalism is the only way .
To end on the rite note ..i like this quote which one of the guys in Turkey said
" Some people worry Turkey is in danger, but I think people who are used to modern life will never return to the age of ignorance "
This quote stands true for a lot of fundamentalist groups in India too , who believe that globalization of India is destroying us and our culture .
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6596933.stm
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Saturday, July 07, 2007
Cabbies
In the land of Uncle Sam the most interesting and knowlegable conversations that you can have are with cabbies. They are the people who know it all . It just needs some respect for them on your part to get them to talk and once they do they open your eyes to a world of knowledge .
My own cabbie Sadik is from Somalia . We often talk about customs in his country and how they are similar to ours back home . Now Somalia is nation which has been in civil war for almost 17 years now and has no government at all . Sadik told me a lot of interesting facts about Somalia . For once since they do not have a govt they are official refugees in every country . They can just drop in in any country and the govts there are supposed to support them . Minneapolis for once has a very big somalian population .
The conversation we had today was most interesting . He asked me how many siblings I have and I said one younger sister . He said thats it ...back in somalia even today ppl have 10 - 11 kids ..as many as they want . So then I asked how do ppl offord to have so many kids ..he said thats easy ..we dnt have to pay for education..actually rite now there are no govt schools ..only private schools , healthcare anyways is screwed . I asked so what about college education and he said well we dnt have any colleges .. Any body who wants to study further has to run away from the country to neighbouring countries like Kenya...and from there they can go to any country like US or Australia ..and find a Job there ...if they still want to , some of them go on to study further ..most of them dnt ...
I was shocked to find out that an entire nation of 5 million people is without education and govt ..this is the state of just one of the countries in Africa...lack of education and healthcare epidemics ..God knows how those countries even manage to survive .
In the land of Uncle Sam the most interesting and knowlegable conversations that you can have are with cabbies. They are the people who know it all . It just needs some respect for them on your part to get them to talk and once they do they open your eyes to a world of knowledge .
My own cabbie Sadik is from Somalia . We often talk about customs in his country and how they are similar to ours back home . Now Somalia is nation which has been in civil war for almost 17 years now and has no government at all . Sadik told me a lot of interesting facts about Somalia . For once since they do not have a govt they are official refugees in every country . They can just drop in in any country and the govts there are supposed to support them . Minneapolis for once has a very big somalian population .
The conversation we had today was most interesting . He asked me how many siblings I have and I said one younger sister . He said thats it ...back in somalia even today ppl have 10 - 11 kids ..as many as they want . So then I asked how do ppl offord to have so many kids ..he said thats easy ..we dnt have to pay for education..actually rite now there are no govt schools ..only private schools , healthcare anyways is screwed . I asked so what about college education and he said well we dnt have any colleges .. Any body who wants to study further has to run away from the country to neighbouring countries like Kenya...and from there they can go to any country like US or Australia ..and find a Job there ...if they still want to , some of them go on to study further ..most of them dnt ...
I was shocked to find out that an entire nation of 5 million people is without education and govt ..this is the state of just one of the countries in Africa...lack of education and healthcare epidemics ..God knows how those countries even manage to survive .
Thursday, July 05, 2007
HIV AIDS
My first confrontation with the problem of HIV aids was back in India when I worked with my fellow rotractors to increase awareness in truck drivers regd HIV aids . Till then I was pretty much like many other Indians trying to tell ourselves that the problem is not there . It is kinda justified in the situtation that we are in too , ppl in india have so many other things on their mind that they do not have time to bother about HIV till actually harms someone . It was then that I realized at what rate HIV was taking over us . What was most shocking was that the main cause of HIV was not unhealthy use of syringes , that is the main reason of HIV the world over , it was unhealthy sexual practices that were leading to AIDS in India .
I had almost forgotten about HIV till I met this wonderful lady from Tanzania , Susan . Susan is a student in sociology and her thesis is about how gender relationships in Africa are being affected due to the widespread of HIV AIDS . Gender relationships in Africa are almost similar to those in India . A woman is not considered feminine enough if her husband cooks etc . What is more important is feminity means not having you sexual preferences and subjecting to your husband or sexual partners will .
Susan is trying to study if AIDS epidemic in Africa has finally instilled a voice in African woman wherein they can go and tell there partner to go use a condom or some from of protection . It is amazing how a epidemic had the capability of changing gender balance in a entire civilization .
I plan to follow Susan's dissertation at close quarters bcoz this is the first time I am seeing epidemics from a sociological point of view . I feel we sometimes fail to see history when it is being built by our side . I am sure to follow this one bcoz no matter good or bad , HIV sure is going to bring changes to our society .
My first confrontation with the problem of HIV aids was back in India when I worked with my fellow rotractors to increase awareness in truck drivers regd HIV aids . Till then I was pretty much like many other Indians trying to tell ourselves that the problem is not there . It is kinda justified in the situtation that we are in too , ppl in india have so many other things on their mind that they do not have time to bother about HIV till actually harms someone . It was then that I realized at what rate HIV was taking over us . What was most shocking was that the main cause of HIV was not unhealthy use of syringes , that is the main reason of HIV the world over , it was unhealthy sexual practices that were leading to AIDS in India .
I had almost forgotten about HIV till I met this wonderful lady from Tanzania , Susan . Susan is a student in sociology and her thesis is about how gender relationships in Africa are being affected due to the widespread of HIV AIDS . Gender relationships in Africa are almost similar to those in India . A woman is not considered feminine enough if her husband cooks etc . What is more important is feminity means not having you sexual preferences and subjecting to your husband or sexual partners will .
Susan is trying to study if AIDS epidemic in Africa has finally instilled a voice in African woman wherein they can go and tell there partner to go use a condom or some from of protection . It is amazing how a epidemic had the capability of changing gender balance in a entire civilization .
I plan to follow Susan's dissertation at close quarters bcoz this is the first time I am seeing epidemics from a sociological point of view . I feel we sometimes fail to see history when it is being built by our side . I am sure to follow this one bcoz no matter good or bad , HIV sure is going to bring changes to our society .
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