Good morning!
I'm writing from home in Hawaii before the sun has risen (prolonged jetlag owing to a mix of nerves and excitement that stirred about this past week, but I'll get to that).
First I'd like to share an excellent program I heard a couple of days ago that suggested innovative ways of creating a counter-narrative to ISIS. Many have pointed out that continued and heightened Islamophobia only helps ISIS since it fuels their narrative of Western hostility toward Muslims. Last week, for instance, 31 governors went out of their way to be cruel by proclaiming they wouldn't accept refugees into their states -- a power they don't even have. Hawaii's governor David Ige stood, at first, firmly in the welcoming refugees minority, but even he was met with much resistance from citizens of the Aloha State (also for a number of reasons like the limited capacity of islands, high standard of living, and Micronesian migrants who haven't received sufficient state support, Hawaii is not ideal for Syrian refugees, BUT I'm proud that he extended aloha to them anyhow)
This issue is complicated but it's not going away, and we cannot use the Atlantic Ocean as a buffer that excuses our lack of involvement. The world has been made porous through globalization, and, as I've said before, we must treat the refugees as a globally shared responsibility.
Anyway, this program helped me to understand how ISIS has gained so much traction and to consider how to dismantle it, so I thought I'd share:
http://www.npr.org/2015/11/22/456989124/can-we-construct-a-counter-narrative-to-isis-s-end-goal
Now onto the news! The reason for my early wake-up and aforementioned
nerves/excitement. This weekend I had some exceptional luck: I won the Rhodes Scholarship! Even typing that feels surreal as it hasn't fully sunk in. Here's a nice write-up of the four (!) Princeton winners this year: http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S44/82/12A27/index.xml?section=topstories
As it says in the article, this is the first Thanksgiving I'm spending with my family at home in six years, and I feel immensely lucky to have so many reasons to be thankful.
Happy Thanksgiving! And thanks for reading :)
I'm writing from home in Hawaii before the sun has risen (prolonged jetlag owing to a mix of nerves and excitement that stirred about this past week, but I'll get to that).
First I'd like to share an excellent program I heard a couple of days ago that suggested innovative ways of creating a counter-narrative to ISIS. Many have pointed out that continued and heightened Islamophobia only helps ISIS since it fuels their narrative of Western hostility toward Muslims. Last week, for instance, 31 governors went out of their way to be cruel by proclaiming they wouldn't accept refugees into their states -- a power they don't even have. Hawaii's governor David Ige stood, at first, firmly in the welcoming refugees minority, but even he was met with much resistance from citizens of the Aloha State (also for a number of reasons like the limited capacity of islands, high standard of living, and Micronesian migrants who haven't received sufficient state support, Hawaii is not ideal for Syrian refugees, BUT I'm proud that he extended aloha to them anyhow)
This issue is complicated but it's not going away, and we cannot use the Atlantic Ocean as a buffer that excuses our lack of involvement. The world has been made porous through globalization, and, as I've said before, we must treat the refugees as a globally shared responsibility.
Anyway, this program helped me to understand how ISIS has gained so much traction and to consider how to dismantle it, so I thought I'd share:
http://www.npr.org/2015/11/22/456989124/can-we-construct-a-counter-narrative-to-isis-s-end-goal
Now onto the news! The reason for my early wake-up and aforementioned
nerves/excitement. This weekend I had some exceptional luck: I won the Rhodes Scholarship! Even typing that feels surreal as it hasn't fully sunk in. Here's a nice write-up of the four (!) Princeton winners this year: http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S44/82/12A27/index.xml?section=topstories
As it says in the article, this is the first Thanksgiving I'm spending with my family at home in six years, and I feel immensely lucky to have so many reasons to be thankful.
Happy Thanksgiving! And thanks for reading :)
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