Reaction to #YoSoy132

            Emiliano Trere’s presentation on social media and politics in Mexico last Wednesday was most interesting for me, especially hearing his descriptions of Mexicans. Though I was only 16yrs old and half way around the world when #YoSoy132 was happening in 2008, I was and still am very much aware of the political situation and corruption in Mexico. When Trere mentioned the fact that the majority of rural areas in Mexico rely mainly on television or radio for news because they do not have access or very limited access to the Internet, I couldn’t help but think about my family. My family is all from rural areas in Northern Mexico, and it’s like disappearing from the digital world when we go visit because there is no Internet and no cellular reception. People like to listen to the radio and all the news they hear they believe. It’s a strange situation because the majority is aware of the corruption and rigged elections in Mexico, yet they still believe what is broadcasted on Televisa or on the radio. As Trere mentioned, Mexico has a history of being an oppressed population, always trapped in this hierarchal system of power. #YoSoy132 was the beginning of a revolution, as mentioned in the article, a nationwide step towards facing the bad men and letting our voices be heard (Trere, 2014). Mexico still has a long way to go, what with changing the behavior of holding back for fear of the consequences, but the younger generations (myself included) are being infected with this modern way of thinking that everyone needs to be heard and we need to fight for equality and fairness.

Resources

Garcia Gomez, Rodrigo, Trere, Emiliano. (August 2014). The #YoSoy132 Mexican Social Movement and the Struggle for Media Democratization. Convergence. Retrieved on 26 February 2013 from https://www.dropbox.com/sh/buv9te8a3fxjybc/Cb4rsz_Ngz/Basic/2014%20forthcoming%20The%20%23Yosoy132%20Mexican%20social%20movement%20and%20the%20struggle%20for%20media%20democratization.pdf

Identity Gap

            The lecture on identity gap got me to thinking about my identity gaps, especially when it comes to my working persona and identity prior to sobriety.  Before I entered into program, my friends always commented on how I was someone who liked to be social, someone who was fearless and extremely outgoing.  While my enacted (intended or unintended) performance accounted for those beliefs, I continued to hold my personal viewpoints as someone who was shy, and fearful.  E. L. Urban & M. P. Orbe state that “‘‘an identity gap refers to the differences between or among different frames of identity.” 

            The relational vs. personal identity gap was huge, and still continues to be so.  On page 310, the article continues with “the experience of being an immigrant placed them in the minority for the first time in their life, which made it difficult to accept the reality of being identified as not ‘‘naturally belonging.’’ This is exactly how I felt when I entered program.  I always thought I was just like everyone else, and that I wasn’t a minority.  While this is very different from an immigrant’s experience, especially since I experience privilege as being a white American woman, I still felt that the relational identity with the world, that of being not “normal” and then my personal identity, of feeling like I am like everyone else, except for my addiction.

            The last identity gap that I have experienced in becoming a sober person is that of communal vs. relational. “They found it difficult to commit to one communal identity. Instead, depending on relationships and interactions, they selectively exhibited commonalities with their interactants.” This is how I deal with being with “normies” as alcoholics call them, and other alcoholics/addicts.  When dealing with the relational ties I have with people of different categories, I change my ideal of communal identity. At school and around normal people, I am less up front with my feelings/thoughts etc. because it is culturally acceptable to be happy and fine when asked how you are.  While in meetings or speaking with other alcoholics, it is more acceptable to express discontent, or even dare I say, “crazy” thoughts. 

            Dealing with identity gaps can be exhausting, even when I am not completely aware of the identity gaps I am enacting.  The performance of my ideal and the ideal that comes across to others contradicts often.  Hopefully with more confidence and openness I can merge the two identities and lessen the gap that occurs.   

           

Source: Urban, Ewa L., Orbe, Mark P.  (2010). Identity Gaps of Contemporary U.S. Immigrants: Acknowledging Divergent Communicative. Vol. 61, No. 3, July–August 2010, pp. 304–320

Identity in an Oppressive Homeland

My final paper looks at women in Iran, and I have been doing some research on Shahrzad News for firsthand analysis on the situation for women, per Margie’s recommendation.  Yesterday in class, we discussed how Iranian expats are often unable to return to their homeland, despite a deep connection to issues there.  I also thought of it from the perspective of women who live in Iran, and how they must perceive their homeland, despite severe oppression.

http://www.1oo1nights.org/index.php?page=2&articleId=4259

The article above, discusses how Iranian police, under Article 638 of the Islamic Code of Justice, are using Facebook as a way to persecute women who disobey Islamic dress code.   According to the article, “Article 19 states that an offender can serve up to five years’ internal exile in remote regions of the country (February 14, 2014).   It is unimaginable how one would feel about their sense of identity and their sense of home in a situation such as this. Chen (2013) states that “home can be conceptualized as a place of belonging that offers a sense of comfort and relational connections…to study the symbolic significance of home, it is useful to pose a question that explores what home means to a particular individual and how the dwellers construct meaning of their home within a historical, cultural, sociopolitical, and economic context (484).  I’m curious as to how Iranian women would answer this question, where is home? Where is this place of comfort, “where the soul can rest”?  I imagine that there is a strong identity gap between the enacted and the relational as well as the relational and the communal, particularly for Iranian women who are trying to change the status quo.

Chen V. (2013). “Authenticity and identity in the portable homeland.  In T.K. Nakayama & R.T. Halualani (Eds.), The Handbook of Critical Intercultural Communication (pp.483-494).  Wiley-Blackwell.

Beyond Words: Languages on the Web

For this blog post, I would like to blog about a blog (so 2014 of me, I know). While browsing EchoDitto the other day, I came across a blog post about language on the web. In the post, author Conor Walsh challenges the idea that we have entered an information revolution of easily accessible content on the web. Written word is still one of the cheapest and most efficient avenues of communicating on the web. Though non-text media sharing has exploded in recent years, pictures, videos, and intuitive design cost quite a bit. And with the internet becoming more and more connected around the world, we risk marginalizing those languages in which the writing systems do not exist or are not available. If you can’t read or write your language, like some oral cultures we discussed in class, the internet becomes virtually useless. Despite this, however, Walsh contends that we are nothing if not resourceful in the technological age. Instead of technology being a hindrance to minority languages, it can be rethought for benefit—like Google’s attempt to expand natural language capability in its Translate feature and an increase of mobile applications assisting minority language communities.

After reading this blog post, I thought of the Thurlow article when he speaks of language as a technology for global capital (p. 232). He speaks of the shift from manufacture-based to service-based economics (represented in the majority of the internet), and how this facilitates a semioticized, or “textually mediated,” discourse. This reliance on textually mediated discourse is exactly what Walsh is speaking of in his post. Given that this text-based discourse is not likely to change soon, how will we level the playing field for minority languages on the web? What effect does the dominance of English create?

Identity Gaps

            

Before reading these articles in different IIC courses, I sometimes thought to myself that there had to be something wrong with me because I couldn’t socially interact with certain people; it made me feel like I had some kind of personality disorder. However, this article helped me understand why it is I feel like this. Orbe et al define identity gaps as, “an identity gap refers to the differences between or among different frames of identity” (2010, p. 306). It is because I am this third culture kid, stuck between a mesh of two cultures and fending on my own to find a balanced path to follow between the two worlds. I find myself feeling much more comfortable amongst other Latinos, and feeling very uncomfortable amongst White Americans and having to adopt this “American Yessy” personality. I don’t act like the person I truly am with people I don’t feel comfortable with. I mentioned to my professor how I can’t wait to graduate from DU as soon as possible because it’s such a strain to have to always adopt this “American Yessy” and it makes me feel tense and alien with myself and I become very introverted with my classmates. It’s almost like on pilot mode that I become this person I am not when I enter a mainly White environment, and I have yet to understand why that happens and if there will ever be a time when I can just be myself, Yessy, the Coloradicana that loves to speak Spanish and Spanglish and say things without being judged and hug everyone I meet and ask them how their day was and spend hours talking together and make silly Mexican jokes that everyone would understand. I’m not saying I wish everyone could be more Latino, but I wish there wasn’t so much separation between races and ethnicities to the point that those who aren’t part of the majority are forced to adapt an identity they do not like. I love how it is described in the Chen article, "Ultimately, I want to return to the place where I had felt myself to be part of a culture of belonging - to a place where I could feel at home, a landscape of memory, thought, and imagination" (Chen, 2010, p. 492). 

Resources

Chen, Victoria. (2010). Authenticity and Identity in the Portable Homeland. 483 - 494.

Orbe, P. Mark, Urban, L. Ewa. (August 2010). Identity Gaps of Contemporary U.S. Immigrants: Acknowledging Divergent Communicative Experiences. V. 61, 3. 304 – 320.

Double Amputee Shoots Hoops

                CNN is reporting on the inspirational story of Bailey Roby, a high school senior at Mountain Vista High who is on the Varsity basketball team.  The article describes Roby’s persistence and skills on the court, as a double amputee.  He has been an amputee since birth, and has worn prosthetics since the age of one. 

                In our discussions in class, and the articles we read on disability, it is the perfect example of the “dual position” that Emma Loja discusses.  This dual position for disabled persons refers to the admiration that the athletes receive, but of course because they overcome the obstacle of their disability.  Roby is only being recognized in this article, not because he is the best player on the team, but because of his disability. 

                I have mixed feelings about this article. While it is admirable for CNN to report on a local high school basketball team, and a local player, bringing the “inspirational” story only further depicts disabilities as a novelty.  The fact that Roby doesn’t have legs hasn’t prevented him from doing anything that other boys his age are able to do is something to respect, but the perspective that it is something out of the norm is also insulting. Several persons with disabilities are able to do things that “normal” people are able to do, and even if they cannot accomplish things like play basketball, that’s ok too.

                Basically, my point is, that their disability doesn’t make them abnormal.  Roby is an individual, who just so happens to not have “real legs.” 

Sources:

Emma Loja’s Disability, embodiment and ableism: Stories of resistance. 

http://denver.cbslocal.com/2014/02/17/double-amputee-makes-best-of-his-hoops-minutes-for-mountain-vista-high/?hpt=us_bn10 

Ethnic Divide

In the Curtin and Gaither (2007) chapter “Contested Identities, Shifting Publics in a Globalized World,” the authors refer to a nation as an “imagined community, constructed and maintained by those who claim membership” (pp. 175). In the case of the Rohingya in Myanmar, the state has denied membership to a group of people that call this nation home.

The Rohingya are a Muslim ethnic group that is not recognized among the official ethnicities of the country. Many Rohingya are confined to internally displaced camps and must bribe their way out. Often those who do manage to escape end up trafficked as slave laborers in Thailand or Malaysia.[1]

Zigor Aldama, a journalist for Al Jazeera, described their situation: “They can’t leave the camps, they can’t marry without permission, most are unemployed and have no source of income, and they rely on the World Food Programme to survive. A law passed in 1982 denies them citizenship and makes them stateless because they are considered immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh, who came along with British troops in the 1800s.”

The story of the Rohingya follows much the same pattern as that of the Roma. The ethnic divide between the Rohingya and the Buddhist population of Myanmar began as the result of an alleged rape and killing of a young Buddhist woman by Rohingya men. In retaliation for this alleged crime, 10 Muslims were beaten to death by a group of angry Buddhists.

One of the few Rohingya politicians in Myanmar, Kyaw Min, fights for the rights of the Rohingya people. According to Min, the Rohingya have existed peacefully in the country formerly known as Burma since before British colonization, and more specifically, since the year 785.

How is it that a nation can rewrite its history and marginalize an entire ethnic group and get away with it? The UN considers the Rohingya to be “one of the most persecuted minorities in the world,”[2] but still nothing is done to help the situation. After reading the article, do you think there is there anything that can be done to help improve the current situation in Myanmar for the Rohingya people?

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[1]  Aldama, Z. (04 Feb 2014). Myanmar's Buddhist-Rohingya ethnic divide. Al Jazeera.

[2] Ibid.