PAF9181 Spring 2020

This is not a comparative post, but it’s a topic many of us will have to wrestle with.

How are you at working from home?

I will admit that the few periods in my life when I worked as a “consultant” from home were not the happiest in my life. It was socially isolating and I missed the “learning” that takes place with colleagues.

OK I will admit all that happened before many of the current online tools were available. I wonder how the experience will be now.

Here are tips from the NPR and the New York Times

8 Tips To Make Working From Home Work For You

https://www.npr.org/2020/03/15/815549926/8-tips-to-make-working-from-home-work-for-you

Working at Home? Self-Isolation Doesn’t Have to Be Lonely

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/16/opinion/coronavirus-self-isolation.html

In case you didn’t see the Blackboard announcement I sent out, here is a copy.

TO: PAF9181 Friday Section

I don’t know what news you are getting about CUNY classes, but we just got this note below from the CUNY Chancellor and the Baruch  Provost.

This means there is no class on Friday 13th March.

But I will ask you to still submit the Literature Review that is due on Friday. It was always supposed to be posted online on the Literature Review forum on Blackboard, so we will keep to that deadline. But you can use the free time on Friday to put final touches on the document, so it will be due online on the forum at 9pm Friday, March 13.

In the next few days, as I get instructions from CUNY/Baruch, I’ll keep you updated about how we will conduct the rest of the semester, undoubtedly online. I have experience with online teaching and promise to make the rest of the semester as interesting, useful and fun as the first few classes.

We are in uncharted territory here, so thanks in advance for all your patience and understanding.

Happy to answer any questions you might have.

John

……………..

From: James McCarthy, Interim Provost

Per the governor’s announcement, there will be no on-campus classes starting tomorrow, March 12. Distance learning will begin on March 19 for the remainder of semester.

 Per the Chancellor’s clarification: “CUNY will begin an instructional recess tomorrow, Thursday, March 12, that will conclude on Wednesday, March 18. No scheduled courses will run on these days, except those of fully online programs and courses otherwise authorized by campus presidents and deans.

 Meanwhile, CUNY schools, dorms, and libraries, research facilities remain open.

 The best way to think of this is by near analogy to spring break: no classes (with the exception of classes that are currently fully online), but the college is otherwise open.

 We will be in touch tomorrow about how to use the pause in instruction to help muster resources for distant teaching and learning.

In case you are worried about class being on Friday the 13, just pretend we are in another country/culture. As a website on Friday the 13th trivia notes, “Friday the 13th is not universally seen as a day of misery. For example, in Italy, Friday the 17th and not Friday the 13th is considered to be a day that brings bad luck. In fact, the number 13 is thought to be a lucky number! In many Spanish speaking countries and in Greece, Tuesday the 13th is seen as a day of misfortune.”.

For more F-13 trivia, see:  https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/13-things-friday-13.html

Last week we touched upon the definition of “social capital” in class, particularly as it relates to INGOs.  To refresh our memories, here is the Wikipedia definition:

“Social capital is the effective functioning of social groups through interpersonal relationships, a shared sense of identity, a shared understanding, shared norms, shared values, trust, cooperation, and reciprocity.”

Measurable, economic assessments of community activities and business are important, but humans are ultimately social beings. Therefore, while social capital is a relatively unquantifiable output of a program or organization, there are researchers and politicians working to substantiate (and understand) the role it plays in the lives of U.S. citizens.

In 2018, the Joint Economic Committee, chaired by Senator Mike Lee, released “The Geography of Social Capital in America.” A new report produced from the Social Capital Project.

The Project created a new Social Capital Index which looked to “family structure and stability, family interac­tion and investment, civil society, trust and confidence in institutions, community cohesion, institutions, volunteerism, and social organization” to measure social capital.

The findings are very interesting! It shows that social capital is not an evenly distributed aspect of society, and that it is likely linked to major waves of immigration that occurred in American history.  You can click here learn more and peruse the interactive maps. Or to read more on how we measure social capital, you can check into this article.

As we will be discussing about Nonprofits, I came across this Tedxtalk which tells us about big nonprofits such as Oxfam, UNICEF, Red Cross and many more who spends millions of dollars in their PR campaign to tell the world about how poor the Africa is. I figured out, it is somehow the other way around, it’s the west who gives money in the day lights with so many cameras and exploits the natural reserves in the dark. This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences. Mallence Bart-Williams introduced her second home Sierra Leone and its talented people, who are part of her project FOLORUNSHO.

Watch here.

The Share Of Americans Holding A Passport Has Increased Dramatically In Recent Years  Forbes article

The very first question I asked in this class was about passports and we discussed whether the % of US citizen adults who have passports is low.

I had not realized the significant increase in the number of US citizens with passports in the last decade. See the figure in the Forbes article above. And see the comparative figure that appeared in an article in this week’s Economist about Japan’s low passport rate.

John

The debate on sex education continues to be very controversial and in many parts of the world its prohibited to teach sex in school. cultural and religious beliefs play a big role when it comes to people’s views on this subject. so the questions is, why shouldn’t young people learn about sex education at school?? what is the big deal about teaching sex in school?? Wouldn’t it be beneficial for students get to learn about sex from an earlier age so they are able to make more informed decisions about their sexual choices later in life? Why is this subject still controversial today in the 21st century?

In the US, sex education falls under the jurisdiction of state rights. Currently only 24 states and the District of Columbia mandate sex education and only 13 states require sex education to be medically accurate! 37 states have opt-out policies which allow parents to remove their kids from sex education programs.

The most liberal countries when it comes to sex education include the Nordic countries and the Netherlands. Dutch primary school students receive daily lessons in sexuality and this has been credited as the reason for having the best teenage sexual health programs and the lowest number of teenage pregnancies in Europe.

Most of Asia, Africa and the Middle East are still very conservative when it comes to sex education due to traditional cultures and religion. In these parts of the world, it’s prohibited to to teach sex in schools. Even at home parents rarely speak to their children about sex. its regarded as a taboo subject.

i personally support sex education in schools and i believe that young people will make better choices if they have have a better understanding of sexuality.

Around the world, it seems that almost every country bars people under 18 from voting.  The reasons vary. The most strong arguments are that those young people are not informed and educated enough, they don’t pay taxes yet, and they can’t serve in the military yet.

However, surprisingly there has been a trend toward lowering the voting age. Why so? Some countries or states acknowledge that despite the age, they are ready to express their concerns such as climate change and the better future depends on them. Also, the inclusion of young citizens in politics will foster greater political participation and increase trust in democracy.

Countries whose legal voting age is 16: Nicaragua, Scotland, Isle of Man, Guernsey, Ethiopia, Ecuador, Cuba, Brazil, and Austria.

Countries whose legal voting age is 17: Sudan, South Sudan, North Korea, Indonesia, Greece, and East Timor.

The legal voting age for most countries is 18. Over one hundred nations are in this category: Afghanistan, China, Australia, Bahamas, Belgium, Botswana, Canada, Comoros, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Guatemala, Israel, Jamaica, Jordan, Lebanon, Marshall Islands, Macedonia, Mauritania, Kenya, Mongolia, Philippines, Saint Helena, Tanzania, US, Yemen, Zimbabwe, Japan, Italy among many others.

South Korea, my home country, is the only nation in which the legal voting age for the citizens is 19 years.

It is interesting to see that some authoritarian countries like North Korea ad China have expanded voting rights for the youth.

Also, I would like to raise two questions for all of you.  1)  Related to the last class, do you think that the inclusion of the youth will increase trust or faith in one’s government? 2) What age would be appropriate for voting?

* The voting age refers to the minimum legal age set by the law at which a person is allowed to engage in casting their vote on a public election day. This age is usually stated in a country’s constitution as the legal voting age.

https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/9/10/20835327/voting-age-youth-rights-kids-vote

https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/legal-voting-age-by-country.html

A couple of earlier posts commented on the differences between PDA, workplace cultures and  kissing in public, or as part of greetings between friend and colleagues.

Now there are debates about how the corona virus will affect that>

Kissing in the time of coronavirus proves problematic for Europeans https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/kissing-in-the-time-of-coronavirus-proves-problematic-for-europeans-20200302-p545uy.html

John

After the gruesome and cruel death of a 25-year-old woman and shortly after a 7-year-old girl in Mexico City, there have been increasing protests against the government headed by Andrés López Obrador in its inability to protect women.  The government of Mexico recorded 1,006 incidents of femicide in 2019 and less than 5% are solved by the justice system. 

Femicide is defined as the intentional killing of women or girls because they are females.  It is a term mostly used in Latin America

Besides Mexico, the Atlantic Council reports an increased rate of femicide in Latin America. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime reports that in 2018,  14 out of the 25 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have high femicide rates. These include the Northern Triangle counties (Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala), Jamaica, Brazil, Colombia, and Peru to name a few.

Furthermore, women killed by intimate partners or family members are the highest in Asia then followed by Africa, the Americas, Europe, and Oceania according to the 2019 Global Study on Homicide by The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

Closely related,  the NYTimes published this week a photo essay on Herat Women’s Prison in Afghanistan focused on women who are serving sentences for killing their abusive husbands.