GLOBAL

VANTAGE

Resonance
ISSUE 10 || WINTER 2014

Global Journal Project

A Shared Voice

An Interview with
Yo-Yo Ma
Life and Music
On the Theme - page 2

Panama: A Photo Story

Kuna Yala: Rising Tides
On the Theme - page 5

Inside Nor th Korea

An Article and Photo Story
Across Longitudes - page 31

Inside GLOBAL VANTAGE

Editors Note

ISSUE 10 || WINTER 2014

BY BRIAN CHEKAL, CCA 2015 & NICHOLAS MARR, PRS 2016, EDITORS-IN-CHIEF

ur organization is excited to enter the school year with a new

staff, strengthened motivation, and broader goals. With the Editors Note, it is our intention to convey the unity we developed over
the summer between our staffs as we worked closely to create our
largest fundraiser ever and to plan for this issue of Global Vantage. A
part of our mission is sharing voices, and as Editors-in-Chief, we look
forward to sharing both of our voices.
I, Brian, recently began my senior year of high school, and a hint of
nervousness was mixed with excitement and anticipation for the upcoming yearso many questions were unanswered in my mind. Many
of them were mundane, those you would normally expect from a soon
to be college applicant; however, one question that stood out was how
I was to make my last year at Canyon Crest, and potentially in San
Diego, different, more personally fulfilling. I hope this year will be a
capstone, starting with the newest issue of the magazine.
I, Nick, look to the infamous junior year for ways to turn ever-increasing responsibilities into opportunities for personal growth and
community impact. With the release of Issue 10, I aim to make the entry into double digits specialsomething that will resonate more with
our broadening readership. This year marks a shift for Global Vantage,
a shift from the founding editors, the last of whom graduated this past
year, to a new staff energized to carry on their legacy. I look forward
to continuing the vision of the previous editors and bringing the magazine to the next stage in its history.
For us, finding an overarching theme for Issue 10 meant examining
one of our main purposes: fostering interpersonal connections. These
connections are what make our stories powerful. The experiences and
perspectives we share within Global Vantage offer intimate views into
the people who share them. With this analysis in mind, we decided on
Resonance.
What constitutes resonance? The most difficult stage of analyzing the
word was pinning one definition to it. At the beginning of our search,
we considered how resonance relates to ideas. John F. Kennedy emphasized the importance of ideas in his famous quote: A man may die,
nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on. The ability of an idea
to resonate with the world, a community, or a person simply starts
as a vision, or even a blank canvas. The colonists vision of freedom
turned into the United States. One of da Vincis canvases turned into
the Mona Lisa.
As we soon learned, the difficulty of our search was for good reasonthe term does not have just one definition. Through the pages of
Issue 10, we attempt to examine the nuances, and simultaneously the
elusiveness, of resonance. We find that it is something that continually
moves and shapes us, the way Yo-Yo Mas love of music and people
guided his growth into the world-renown cellist he is today (page 2),
or the way the difficult journey of Erika Llevats family from Cuba to
America gave her family a special appreciation for American freedom
and education (page 21). It is also an effect of the defiance of accepted
values, showcased in North Korea, a country to which Alan Press re-

cently traveledthe incredible recount of his North Korea experience, as well as photos from inside the regime, can be seen on page 31.
Likewise, our organization seeks to resonate in our local and global
communities. Through social action projects in Kenya, China, El Salvador, and hopefully many other areas of the globe, we hope to foster
positive change and improve lives in those communities. Through the
stories in our magazine, we hope to move our readers by suggesting
to them alternate ways of considering world issues, perspectives, and
relationships.
Issue 10s definitions of resonance are not limited to the On the
Theme sectiona fact we think speaks to the broad scope of resonance. We have learned a great deal by exploring our theme and seeing
its ability to adapt to virtually any article, and we hope that you can
enjoy, relate to, and learn from the stories we share in this issue as
much as we have.
It is our distinct pleasure to present Issue 10 of Global Vantage.

Executive Editors:
Layout Director:
Web Editors:
Editors:
Journalism Club Liaison:
Business Team
Chief Executive Officers:
Chief Financial Officers:
Chief Operating Officers:
Marketing Director:
Staff:

Human Resource Manager:

Production Manager:
Sales & Marketing Manager:
Faculty Points of Contact:
CCA:
KGSA:
PRS:

Life and Music: An Interview with Yo-Yo Ma by Vincent Wang

Girls by Kauthar Makah
Street Empires by Lillian Atieno
Kuna Yala: Rising Tides by Bear Guerra
How Do I Know Its Love? by Steven Le
The Cuba Effect by Erika Llevat and Nicholas Marr

EXPERIENCES

24

My Career as an Engineer by Brian Muirhead

The Playwrights Project by Devyn Krevat
Beyond Dengue by Jordan Emont
Memoirs of a 13-Year Mainer by Nicholas Marr

ACROSS LONGITUDES 31

Staff
Editorial Team
Editors-in-Chief:

ON THE THEME

Brian Chekal, CCA 2015

Nicholas Marr, PRS 2016
Caitlin Bowen, PRS 2016
Colin Loyd, CCA 2015
Mina Fardeen, PRS 2016
Derek Albosta, PRS 2016
Garret Conway, PRS 2016
Tanner Muirhead, PRS 2016
Beckett Quinney, CCA 2015
Rahul Saripalli, PRS 2016
Asha Jaffar, KGSA
Peter Lillian, CCA 2015
Anthony Oliverio, PRS 2016
Gabriel Piscitello, PRS 2016
Jonathan Prvanov, PRS 2016
Sam Dutt, CCA 2015
Vincent Wang, PRS 2016
Lauren Lipman, PRS 2016
Adrian Agresti, PRS 2017
Dana Carney, PRS 2017
Alex Gorman, PRS 2016
Max Maio, CCA 2015
Kyle Ramsay, PRS 2017
Zachary Weber, PRS 2016
Habiba Andeyi, KGSA
Istabua Hamza, KGSA
Beatrice Awino, KGSA
Tanner Kortman
(tanner.kortman@sduhsd.net)
Richard Teka
(KGSA.teka@gmail.com)
Christopher Burman
(cburman@pacificridge.org)

Whats a Smart Jewish Boy From Brooklyn Doing in North Korea? by Alan Press
If a Man Hits You With a Stone, Hit Him With Bread by Emir Skenderagic
Enlightening Lives Through Education by Sarva Rajendra

COMMENTARY

48

POETRY

57

NEWS & UPDATES

60

Bermudas Economic Hurricane by Kevin Comeau

Shalom by Joshua Kahn
Salaam by Khalid Abudawas
Responsibility by Everlyne Awour
Technology by Lillian Agui
Womens Rights by Kauthar Makah
The Noble Girls of Northern Nigeria by Isha Raj-Silverman

Perspective by Leah Bloom

I Wish I Were the Color Blue by Steven Le
Words by Khalid Abudawas
Peace by Irene Awinga

Social Action Project Update

Global Vantage News
The Last Word by Asha Jaffar

(On the cover) This is a photo of a young North Korean girl with a Gayageum, or
31). Photo courtesy of Scott Stallard Photography.

in Korean (Article and photo story on page

On the Theme: Resonance

RELATIONSHIPS
LEARNING
TRANSFORMATION
COMMUNITY
DETERMINATION

Yo-Yo Ma discusses his life as a traveling musician and philanthropist.

Kauthar Makah considers the importance of girls education.
Lillian Atieno emphasizes our ability to change the world.
Bear Guerra documents the Kuna people in Panama.
Erika Llevat recalls her familys arduous journey from Castros Cuba to America.

Life and Music:

An Interview with Yo-Yo Ma
BY VINCENT WANG
Editors Note: I recently had the privilege of speaking with renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma. He told me about his interests, his journey to becoming a musician, and the struggles and motivations he has encountered throughout his life and career. He also explained how he uses music
and cultural education to support global interactions and understanding. It was a really eye-opening discussion to have for me as a person
who is passionate about music; learning about different parts of a dedicated musicians life was especially helpful in developing my understanding of how lessons learned can resonate and guide future actions. The following is an edited transcript of our conversation:

hen did you decide that you were

going to become a musician?
Were there any special moments in
your youth that helped you with this
decision?
Well, the surprising part is that it was not
until I was 49 years old that I thought it was
okay to be a musician, even though I started
playing the violin at age three. I didnt like
it, and I didnt sound very good. My parents,
who were musicians, thought maybe I was not
equally as talented as they were. Then I saw a
double bass when I was four, and I thought
that was really cool. It was also the biggest
instrument there was, and although I could
not play a double bass at age four because of
the size, I did start on the largest instrument
I could play: the cello.
I played throughout high school and college,
but I kept thinking that I should be doing
something else, though I never found that
something else that really interested me.
People, cultures, anthropology and archaeology were big interests of mine; however, I was
a music major, so I took music courses. After
college, not having found something else that
I wanted to do, I started to play more and
more music.
All throughout the years after college, I kept

2 ON THE THEME

thinking that I should be doing something

else, until I realized at age 49 that my biggest
passion in life was, and still is, trying to
understand people and the human condition.
I could actually explore all my interests in
history, anthropology, and science through
the basic questions of music I always ask: Who
did it, and why? Who is currently doing it?
Whose music is it, and why did they bother
writing or playing or expressing it? Those are
the basic questions that I ask of anything into
which I look.
Many people find new passions early on, and
they get into it. I, however, went very deeply
into something, through a sort of a circuitous
route from believing in anthropology then to
believing in music. I came to a moment of
realization andhere we are.
How has music changed your perspective on people and society? What are
some lessons you have learned that you
would like to share with others?
When I first started music, there was the issue
of trying to do well at playing an instrument.
The first question that I was answering had to
deal with the content: Why does music exist
in the first place? What are people trying to
say and do with it? Moments of celebration,
moments of mourning, moments of commu-

nity gathering, or moments of deep individual

expressionall those things influence the
content.
Describing how music changed my life? First,
if you master something, you try to do well
at an instrument, and obviously there is a
certain amount of pride in saying, Hey, I can
do this! Look, I can play the A-flat Polonaise!
However, I think as I started performing, I asked myself, Well, why are people
coming? Why do you want people to come?
That becomes a social thing, and as I started
touring, I asked more and more, What is it
that Im offering that might be worthwhile
for people to want to listen to? Do I know
the people who are coming? What are they
giving up in their day to spend two hours
at a concert? I started not only trying to
imagine who these people were that came to
the concerts, but also what their days were
like. If I go to a different city, I am a guest
in their community until I come on stage,
and then I feel like they are my guests. That
reversal changes how I look at what I doits
not because watch me play because Im so
good. There is something I really love and
believe in deeply, and I want to share with
the audience. If I am the host at a party that
you are coming to, then I want you to have a
good time. I want you to actually enjoy the
things that I have gathered for that evening.

That is a different way of going from trying

to do well at an instrument and trying to be
perfect at it to actually using the techniques
that I have learned to express something and
understanding the social context for it.
I think there is one lesson in particular that I
can extract from my performing experience
and impart to people as something very useful
for dealing with the nerves that come from
any type of public performance. I would say
that we all worry about being judged when
we do anything in public. We get graded on
so many things, like in schools and jobs. But
actually, when you really love something and
want to share it with others, that emotion is
stronger than any fear of being judged, and
that is what you want to hold onto when you
do something public. You shouldnt worry
about, Uh-oh, how am I coming across? You
do that before the talk but when you starting
performing, you want to be so in the pocket
that you are delivering your message with
passion and really wanting people to understand and feel the same excitement you felt
when you first discovered the certain pieces
of knowledge or the content of the music that
you are sharing.
What was the biggest challenge in
your career? Are there any particularly
frustrating moments you have had?
I think that a career is not just one thing.
Even your life does not progress in a straight
line. Yes, chronologically, you can analyze
someones life in a linear fashion because of
time, but I feel very strongly that as a 58-yearold, I have gone through five to ten very
different phases or chapters in my life. When
you graduate from high schoolthat is a big
moment. When you graduate from college
that is a big moment. When I got married,
also, a huge life change, and with children
comes another huge life change. So your
motivation to do things in different times of
your life changes. You may be doing the same
thing, but in order to stay really motivated
and at the top of your game, you have to find
different sources to fuel your desire to do
things.
I have been playing professionally since I was
20, and have been playing for 38 years since.
Of course, as a musician, I travel. I have to
travel in order to earn a living, and I have
been away from home, out of the 38 years,
probably 24 years. It is not such a great thing
to be away from home that long. It is fun
to discover new places, and it is fun to stay

Photocourtesyof Taeuck Kang.

longer in places because you want to explore

them, but those I think are the most difficult
transitions to make professionallyadjusting to each stage in life. When you go away to
college, it is going to be yet another adjustment both for you as well as your parents
because their lives are going to change too.
To readjust at every stage and feel fulfilled
those are the biggest challenges.
What does your travel itinerary usually
look like? What are some impactful
experiences you have had while traveling that still resonate with you?
I always say that travel is probably one of

the most intense learning experiences you

can have because when you are at home, you
know your environment pretty well. You
know your way to school, you know your way
around town, and you know many places. On
the other hand, when you are away, everything is different. The bed is different, along
with the food, and often the language as well.
This means that you cannot take anything for
granted.
You see similar things, but most things are
so different; that is why a lot of people get
exhausted traveling, because they are in
stimulus overdrive. You cannot take anything
for granted because there are different habits:

ON THE THEME 3

Girls

maybe a different way of greeting, maybe a

different way of being polite, or maybe different types of food. Everything that you know
is being challenged, and it is a great learning
experience because the learning curve is very
high.

BY KAUTHAR MAKAH

nce upon a time, a girl going to school was a dream! A person

would laugh at you at the mention of a girl going to school
but now we are getting on hard matter. It has been said that girls
are being empowered but only talking about it does not make girls
empoweredseriously we still need to talk about it! We are not
done yetfull education has not yet been achieved across the
world.

So how do you adjust to different places while

you are trying to do the same thing? That is
probably the biggest learning experience;
when you find out what is different, why it
is different, and find your way into being
sympathetic to why it is different, then you
end up really liking the place where you are.
You might go to Canada and discover that,
Wait a minute, its less dense. People are
very polite. You go to places, and when you
see the differences, you are able to appreciate that maybe they are different because
of another culture, climate, or geographic
location. Those things lead to slight differences in behavior. You can be sympathetic to
it.You can try and model their behavior: Hey,
if I tried that in my community, I wonder what
my friends would think. Maybe you say, I
know that behavior wont work because my
friends wouldnt understand. You end up
seeing more broadly than you would have if
you had just stayed home.
Can you explain your work with the
Silk Road Ensemble? Also, what do you
hope to achieve through the Silk Road
Connect Program?
Silk Road and educationall of that is an
amplification of my traveling life for the first
20, 25 years. Traveling brought me to saying,
Okay, if you go away a lot, you can bring
your experiences back home and they can
just sit in your head, but what would happen
if you shared those experiences with others
to bring all the things you learn while traveling to different places? I figured out that I
could bring my home and travel experiences
to other places.
The whole idea of the Silk Road is to try
to bring more of the pieces of the world
together. In this case, it is focused on areas
between the Mediterranean and the Pacific,
but it also came across to the Americas
because after Columbus traveled to that area,
everything essentially became a one-world
system. People are constantly going around
the world, trading ideas and materials, and
getting into conflict or partnership in order
to access new ways of thinking and discovery.
There is a way of achieving it in music or in
stories, and a way of examining how a form of

4 ON THE THEME

So they used to laugh back then, but we giggle now? We have only
reduced the longevity of the laugh, but not the work of getting girls
to school and getting them an education. Malala, one of my heroes
as a one-year-old girl, truly showed what lengths girls are willing to
go in order to achieve an education. If some countries allow their
girls to go to school and, others dont that is not an achieved state
of education. Education still needs a sustainable balance. Every girl
in the world needs to be on the same level.
Education to girlswe need to keep the word going. It might have
achieved some momentum, but we still have things to do. We still
have work to do, campaigns to take part in, articles to write, and
lessons to teach about the value of educating women and empowering them to seek justice and fight for themselves
Girls are strong, they have the power to influence change; we are
the ones not giving them the voice to speak out. We keep letting
them be degraded, no one is fighting hard enoughwe are fighting
but not as hard as we are supposed to.

The Silk Road Ensemble. Photo courtesyof Todd Rosenberg.

early globalization has contributed to modern

world culture. Those are the elements that we
play with in todays world. I thought it would
be a good thing to do in my areasmusic,
culture, arts, and humanities. In other words,
the goals are to see what happened in the past,
what the consequences were, and what we
can do today without destroying things, in the
most culturally constructive way.

and you can also do it visually. Those are the

types of things that join people together over
time, and joining people together is what the
Silk Road Ensemble tries to do.

Consider the origins of jeansthe blue dye,

indigo, that created the very jeans we are now
wearing today created tremendous wealth and
popularity of jeans from Genoa and denim
from the city Nmes in France.You can look at
words, chemistry, and historythose are all
part of one product that we use all the time.
You can go through the same observation
process with musical instruments, such as the
pipa. The progression to the pipa starts from
the lute, then goes to the ud, and finally to the
pipasuddenly, you see across ten thousand
miles, miles that a family of one instrument
has traveled. That examination is with a music
instrument, but you can do that with sound,

Youre welcome Vincent. Thank you for

asking me!

Thank you so much for your time, and

your willingness to speak with me. The
Global Vantage team and I really appreciate the incredible opportunity.

This article was solicited by

Pacific Ridge School editors.

Yo-Yo Ma is a Grammy Awardwinning cellist who currently

resides in Massachusetts.

Street Empires

In Kibera, I am still seeing girls at homenot because they have chosen

to be, but because they have no other option. Sad, right? Maybe you
do not know that a large percentage of girls are not able to afford high
school education in many cities and the world seems okay with itthat
disturbs me a lot.
Women are powerfulhave you ever met an educated woman who
wasnt inspiring, independent, and fierce? No. I dont think so. They all
are inspiring; they have knowledge and can stand up for themselves
that is a thing that I look up to most: women standing up for themselves
and fighting for their rights. The world needs more womens rights
activists. But, we are not there yet. The girls of this world need to be
inspired.
Kibera Girls Soccer Academy has produced the strongest women in the
world and I am positive the other ones coming are inspirational also. It
is about taking one girl and inspiring her, and she will pass the positive
effect to the other girls in the world.
Malala and other girls need to be on the same level. We are not done
talking about girls rights and we should not stop until everywhere
in the world, education to girls is accepted and viewed as a normal
thing. It makes me sad to hear people talking about girls rights like
they are nothing. The other day I heard someone say that education to
girls has been over-stretched and we are over-empowered! Really now?
Over-empowered? We are not even on empowerment yet so why are we
talking about over-empowerment?
Let us keep talking about it, because girls have not yet been saved. We
still need the world to speak for us. Loudly!
This article was written by a student at
Kibera Girls Soccer Academy.

BY LILLIAN ATIENO

elcome to the street empireonce you get in, you can be

sure of one thing: respect will not be given to you on a
silver platter. You work hard for itthe streets have taught me a
lot, like that being born in a slum cannot stop you from becoming
a role model for someone else. Whether you have a penny or no
penny, what you say is what counts.
The streets are not always clean but we get by, for the first does
not say whom you are but what is inside you. You have to teach
yourself that youre constrained to your beginnings. You can fully
change your life and re-define your status if you believe in yourself
and your abilities to facilitate positive change in your community.
We work for the lives of the futurewe stop negative energy and
spread more positivity. The world has got to change but it will
change with what we tell our kids, the ones in the slums, the ones
living in poverty.
I see people surviving, but I do not look at the state of survival
in the streets; I look at the tenacity and courage of the young,
energetic change-makers. A boy came and told me that he wants to
become a writer and I told him he can if he continues to believe he
can. The world and the streets we walk tell us different stories but
no one tells us to keep hoping, that there is something better for
tomorrow. We have to keep hoping.

I live in the streets, but I know my rights, I know how to defend myself and
I know that whether I was born in a slum or in the streets my voice counts.
We are the voices of the world and no one can stop them collectively. We
are powerful and beyond.
So many have had tough lives in the slum and so many are living below
the poverty line. What I know is that anyone who tells him or herself that
they can do it manages to make it somehow. I know that whether I come
from Kibera or not, becoming a writer or a lawyer is possible. I am going
to make it and so is everyone that believes. Hope is vital in everything. Put
it in practice.
We are going to build empires in the streets and we are going to turn every
sad life into an inspirational story by embracing our lives and the places we
come from. I can change Kibera and you can change your community
that is what makes us one great world.
This article was written by a student at
Kibera Girls Soccer Academy.

ON THE THEME 5

Kuna Yala: Rising Tides

BY BEAR GUERRA

A Kuna man points toward the Kunas mainland forest and slips past thatched-roof huts along the edge of the island as he leaves the
village of Ustupu in his dugout kayak. Every morning, just after sunrise, a steady stream of men in their cayucos (kayaks) head out
to sea to fish or to harvest from their mainland plots.

A portrait of Ustupu Islands chief sahila, or cultural leader, Leodomiro Paredes, with his wife Imelda.
A young boy on Ustupu Island, Kuna Yala, Panama. Although
the Kuna have managed to maintain their traditions and natural
resources to an exceptional degree, they now face some of their
greatest challenges. The impacts of climate change, encroaching
outside influences, and a younger generation that often opts to leave
the islands will have a profound impact on the survival of Kuna
culture in coming generations.

A Kuna woman in traditional dress walks through the island village of Ustupu just after sunrise.

Situated along Panamas north eastern coast, the Kunas islands now frequently flood due to severe storms
and rising sea levels, forcing the Kuna to consider relocating entire communities to the mainland.

Kuna Yala: Rising Tides

BY BEAR GUERRA

ince 2009, I have been exploring life,

culture, and change in the indigenous
territory of Kuna Yala, Panama. Kuna Yala,
one of the most unique places on the planet,
is where the Kuna people have managed to
preserve much of their traditional ways of
life, thanks in large part to their exceptional land rights and sovereignty won after a
revolution in 1925.
At first glance, life in Kuna Yala seems almost
idyllicit is a place without cars, Internet, or
a lot of electricity. It is a place where children
pass warm evenings playing in the main plaza,

16 ON THE THEME

while adults visit with family and neighbors.

But the Kuna are now facing tremendous
challenges to their way of life, particularly
because of the impacts of climate change and
encroaching outside influences.
A majority of the indigenous population
in Kuna Yala, Panama resides on 35 out of
the 365 islands that comprise the San Blas
Archipelago along Panamas Caribbean Coast.
The people depend on fishing, traditional
farming, and eco-tourism for their livelihoods. But in the last several years, severe
weather has caused regular flooding on many

of the islands, and the local sea level has been

increasing about 3/4 of an inch each year due
to the effects of climate change. The flooding is already starting to force many Kuna
families and individuals to make plans to
abandon their island homes and move inland,
into the forests.
In addition to documenting everyday life in
Kuna Yalas most populated island of Ustupu, I
have been exploring, with the help of my wife
and collaborator, journalist Ruxandra Guidi,
how the Kuna have communally managed and
sustainably utilized their mainland forest
the best preserved in all of Panama. I have

also been examining how they are confronting rising sea levels, and how Kuna elders
are trying to preserve their culture at a time
when many Kuna youth prefer to relocate to
the capital city and are turning their backs on
their heritage.
Our work there is also an attempt to learn
from the Kuna and hopefully to be able to
share some of their knowledge and wisdom
about how to live in balance with the world
and more sustainably utilize Earths natural
resources.
This photo story was solicited by
Pacific Ridge School editors.

(Above) With no cars on Kuna islands, the primary means of transportation is

the cayuco, or kayak. The trees used to make cayucos come from the mainland forest,
and they have used its offerings sustainably for hundreds of years. In fact, the Kuna
have the best preserved old-growth forest in all of Panama, and have seen little of the
deforestation that is rampant in other parts of the country.
Bear Guerra is a photographer with over a decade of experience. His work addresses
globalization, development, and social and environmental justice issues. His images,
photo essays, and multimedia stories have been published by outlets including Orion
Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Le Monde, On Earth Magazine,
Virginia Quarterly Review, NPR, the BBC, The Boston Globe Magazine, Texas Monthly,
National Geographic, NewsWatch, Time.com, among other, and have been exhibited
both nationally and abroad. He was a 2013-2014 Ted Scripps Fellow in Environmental
Journalism at the University of Colorado Boulder and a finalist for a National Magazine
Award in Photojournalism (2010). In 2014, he became a producer and board member
for the award-winning non-profit journalism collaborative, Homelands Productions.
Originally from San Antonio, he is currently based in Quito, Ecuador.

ON THE THEME 17

How Do I Know When Its Love?

BY STEVEN LE

hen I was in high school, the rock band Van Halen

released the song When Its Love, whose refrain asks,
How do I know when its love? The question is interesting
because it has occupied the minds of philosophers, poets, and
warriors alike since the beginning of language. It is a pertinent
question because, if you have spent at least one year in what
they call teenage years, you probably have experienced that
mysterious and powerful feeling that chokes you at the most
embarrassing times and always in the presence of the most
important individuals.

The next type of love is philia, or brotherly love, but it applies

equally to all genders. If you dont have siblings, you have friends
and therefore know this type of love well. Most of us experience
this love even before we feel eros, but few of us recognize it as
love. When philia and eros coincide in another human being, the
Greeks thought, we move up along the ladder of love.

As big a mystery as it is, love is something we all know a little

bit about. Somewhere, at some time, another human being
has loved every one of us. We have seen the subject addressed
in countless movies, books, and songsromantic comedy is
a genre and new romance novels flood the bookstores every
month. At least, all of them claim to speak about love. The
clich says that love makes the world go round; the Bible calls
it patient and kind; and the hair bands of the 1980s claim that
it hurts, and even bites.
All of these things cannot mean the same love, can they?
Unfortunately, the English language has only one word to
name love. The ancient Greeks had four: storge, eros, philia, and
agap. In his book, The Four Loves, C.S. Lewis expounds on each
of these types of love, ordering them from the lowest form
to the highest. We will not here consider the first type, storge,
which means affection through familiarity. We have loose
translations of the other three, but words like lust, desire, and
fellowship do not quite measure up; they do not suggest the
same idea of love as their Greek originals. We come closest to
those meanings when we attach adjectives to alter love: physical love, brotherly love, unconditional love, etc.
Even though most of us experience love for the first time in
either the brotherly or unconditional form, we do not realize
love until we get a whiff of eros.Yes, I am talking about physical
love, or even lust; that funny feeling that overcomes our whole
body and mind when that certain person enters the room. The
Greeks considered this type of love to be the basest form, the
lowest of the three. That is not to say that we should dismiss
it or underestimate its power. Considering how different men
and women really are, eros is probably the biggest reason why
we can continue to go forth and multiply.
Sometimes we call this by its more euphemistic name: love at
first sight. To illustrate anecdotally the three types of love that
I have observed, I will refer to the relationship with which Im
most familiar: that of my parents.
As a teenager, my father had kept a journal right around the
time that he met the girl who would become my mother, and
it was an honest and oftentimes incriminating journal. For
example, he talked about how he fell in love (the eros kind)
with her. The incriminating part was how he described his
love at second sight. The first time he spotted my mother, an

18 ON THE THEME

So, he waited at the bus stop. It just so happened that the girl that
day, unbeknownst to him, rode her bike to school and did not
show up. Undeterred, he sat and waited. After arriving home from
school, she returned to town some time later to run errands, but
she took the bus this time. Coincidentally, she decided to take that
same bus line home. Imagine the excitement and relief when my
father finally saw the object of his obsession walking toward the
bench, some four hours after the expected time! That is obsession.

Unlike love at first sight or love at second sight, philia requires

mutuality and connection, usually on an intellectual level. It
requires, therefore, a developed relationship with another human
being.
We take time to develop this type of love. We make small or large
sacrifices for the other person, we bargain and compromise, and we
ask from the other person that which we are willing to give to the
relationship. Friends change or outgrow one another; even siblings
sometimes grow apart. In this type of love, we hurt when the other
person suffers because we care about his or her well-being. In turn,
our feelings get hurt when that person betrays or even misunderstands us. We make changes to our behavior, attitudes, and even
habits to accommodate and preserve philia.

Theoriginalphoto referenced in the article inits1966frame.

older sister of one of his good friends, he thought she was crossed-eyed
and was not impressed. It was the second time seeing her, when he actually
met her face to face, that he realized his error and became obsessed.
I hesitate using that word, obsessed, because it means something completely
different when I hear it used commonly. The way most people use it robs
it of the powerful meaning. You can hardly be obsessed with a pair of shoes
or even bacon. If the object of obsession changes with your mood or the
seasons, it probably wasnt obsession to begin with.
My father as a young man was obsessed with this girl. He would stand
outside her classroom window just staring, during class hours. He only
wrote about the second time getting caught because he actually got into
some trouble with the principal.
He also wrote about his first conversation with her. He had devised a foolproof plan to trap her. He found out that she took a particular bus home
after school each day, so he went to the bus stop one afternoon and waited
for her. He had also discovered that she was studying literature on the
English track (he was on the French literature track), and so he would ask
to borrow a book. Returning the book would guarantee a second conversation. It was a brilliant plan.

My mother passed on to me one of her habits, one that I actually

appreciate very much, but I still dont do it to the extent that she
does. No matter how little or trifling the note or memo, she puts
a date on everything written. I always thought it was a good habit
to have and so I adopted it for myself. I didnt really know how or
when that habit came about until I read about an incident in my
fathers journal.
Long after the bus encounter had happenedand apparently the
plan worked marvelouslythe two of them developed a strong
friendship. Because it was the late 1950s in very traditional
Vietnam, eros didnt play a significant part, at least not for these
two late teenagers. My mothers father was very strict with his
three daughters. They were forbidden to pursue a serious relationship until they had completed college. To beat the system, they had
to sneak around in clandestine operations. Before the age of e-mail,
cell phones, and texting, this meant employing an actual not-soinstant messenger. Her youngest brother was the obvious choice.
One day, my father received a hand-written, hand-delivered note
from my mothers brother informing him that she would be in the
library during certain hours of the day, should he get the chance
to drop by. Ecstatic about seeing her again, even if in a confined
setting, he hopped to the public library. Again, he waited. This
time, however, she never showed up. After six hours of waiting, he
never saw her. When she found out about what had happened and
questioned her brother, she discovered that her little brother had
delivered the note one day late.

From that moment on, my mother has written a date on every single
piece of paper with her handwriting on it, and on every photograph in
our family albums. Such a minor incident provoked permanent changes
in my mothers habits, but it also speaks to the love that she had for my
father, even that early on. In addition to minor adjustments like changing habits, we also are willing to make sacrifices to protect the object
of our love.
I saw in my parents an example of sacrifice when I got to meet my
father for the first time. I was born as Saigon, the then capital of South
Vietnam, fell to the invading North Vietnamese Army. A few months
later, after his career as an official in the former government was over,
my father had to turn himself in to receive indoctrination before he was
allowed new citizenship. He left for what was advertised as a 10-day
reeducation camp that turned into a six-year incarceration at four different concentration camps. When I turned four, my mother took me to see
him for the first time at one of those camps.
The journey took an entire day traveling by foot and in cramped trucks
along dirt roads. By the time we arrived at the camp, darkness was close
at hand. The standing rule was no visitation after dark, so she and I got
to see him briefly before we had to walk back out to a waiting station to
spend the night. The following morning, we returned for a longer visit
before beginning the trek home. Im not sure how many of those trips
my mother made alone on other occasions, but it couldnt have been
that many. We were poor, and she had to feed three small children. There
was not much leisure time. A couple of times there were rumors that
my father had died in one of the camps and my mother had no means
to verify, so she simply hoped for the best. Times were hard and his
imprisonment prolonged without end; she was still a beautiful, young
woman. I suppose she could have chosen an easier path for herself and
for us, but she didnt.
They had been apart from each other before.When the two of them began
their courtship before the war with the United States consumed the
country, she had to obey her father and complete college before making
their relationship official. She knew that doing so would be impossible with him around, so she applied to college at the Texas Womens
University in Texas. For four years they would study without distractions. They made promises of fidelity to each other and wrote daily
during those years. They sent weekly packages of mail overseas to ease
the loneliness and longing and to help time pass by more quickly. Theirs
was a relationship tested long before the suffering during those six years
of reeducation. To me, what still is almost unthinkable is simply a matter
of course for them: they maintained loyalty and love for one another.
When we love someone willfully and on an emotional level, the adjustments we make to our routines and habits become insignificant and
necessary. We go out of our way as long as the other person also meets
our requirements. There has to be a balance for this kind of love to
thrive. As soon as one person abuses the relationship or takes it for
granted, the love begins to deteriorate. I do not doubt that my mother
persevered largely because she knew he would never stop loving her,
even in absence.
The last type of love, and the highest form of it according to the Greeks,
is also the first one that most of us experienced in our lives. When our
mothers held us as newborn bundles of joy, or when our fathers picked
us up for the first time, we were the object of unconditional love, or
agap. They continue to give it to us throughout our lives, even when

ON THE THEME 19

his reeducation, to relocating and starting

life again and penniless on three different
occasions and in three different countries, and
finally to the last three days of his fight with
cancer, through which she sat at his bedside.
When they vowed, til death do us part, they
meant every word.
My favorite photograph of my parents
was taken in September 1966, in southern
Vietnam. They were on their honeymoon. Its
colors have almost faded completely so that
it looks more like a black and white photo.
In it, my mother is resting her head on his
right shoulder as they stand together, and her
left arm is wrapped around his neck. He is
looking over and slightly backward at her, his
left hand holding her hand on his chest. They
both have a look that says, I am wholly and
absolutely devoted to you. The fact that the
picture not only marked the beginning of their
marriage, but also represented the entirety of
it, never fails to amaze me. Watching them
throughout just my own life, I have seen what
unconditional love means in terms of human
potential. Their relationship gives me sober
realizations that love is occasionally painful,
sometimes unbearable, and always difficult. It
also gives me hope that such love does exist
every day and that I, too, can find it.
I hope that every one of us, if we have not
already, experiences each of the three types
of love. More especially, I hope that each of
us will have an opportunity to experience all
three types with the same person.
This article was solicited
by Pacific Ridge School editors.
Aclearerreprintoftheoriginalphoto.
and especially when we reject it. Its the
love that asks for nothing in return and that
gives selflessly and consistently. Most parents
would give up their own lives to save their
children if faced with that choice. Sometimes,
unlike brotherly love, which seeks to accommodate and please, agap chastises and
convicts, but always with the other persons
well-being in mind.
Perhaps much more so than both of the other
types of love, this unconditional love has the
characteristic of producing a legacy. It perpetuates itself through living examples; we fully
know and learn to give it only by experiencing it ourselves. This must be so because it is
least human of the three types. That is, human

20 ON THE THEME

nature, which is egocentric, struggles with it

the most.
A few months after we graduated from
college, my best friend Dave and I drove my
parents to my fathers chemotherapy appointment during his last winter alive. He had
been battling against the final stages of colon
cancer for a year. As we watched my parents
walking down the sidewalk to the clinic with
their arms locked, Dave turned to me and
said, Thats the picture of love. He was right,
of course. My mother and father holding on
to each other as they walked symbolized the
whole of their relationship, from the four
years of college when they were separated
by the Pacific Ocean, to the six years of

Steve Le is one of over one million

refugees in the postwar Vietnamese
diaspora, the largest exodus from
Vietnam in its history. After graduating from the United States Naval
Acadaemy, Steve served in the navy
for five years before starting a teaching career. He recently taught English
for four years at Pacific Ridge School,
where he founded Global Journal
Project. He is its Executive Director.

The Cuba Effect

Yesterday Resonates Today

AS TOLD BY ERIKA LLEVAT TO NICHOLAS MARR
Editors Note: This article presents true stories from 1960s Cuba juxtaposed with photographs from twenty-first century Cuba.
Taken from an interview with Erika Llevat, a first-generation Cuban American, the stories in this article focus on her mothers
family from Santo Suarez, a neighborhood in Havana, Cuba. This article is about the emigration of Erikas family from the oppression of communist Cuba to the freedom of democratic America. Erika discusses the impact of this history on her and her family.
Against the backdrop of Erikas incredible story, we showcase photographs of modern-day Cuba taken by Wylie Mao, photographer
and freshman at Bowdoin College, who recently traveled to Cuba.

n the late 1950s and into the 1960s, as

Soviet influence became increasingly apparent in Cuba, evidenced most personally by
Erikas mother coming home from school
singing Russian anthems, Erikas grandparents
knew it was time to leave. However, leaving
Cuba at that time was not nearly as easy as
leaving America is now. Fidel Castros influence, coupled with his adaptation of communism and support from the Soviet Union, was
overcoming and suppressing Cuban independence and freedom, including the freedom to
travel and emigrate.
The constantly increasing control of the Cuban
government was a grave obstacle to travel
and emigration. Soldiers would occasionally search the house of Erikas grandparents
for counter-revolutionary items (whatever
those may be). Erikas grandfather was a
paraplegic, making it more difficult for him
to leave the country. In one instance, a soldier
waited for Erikas grandmother to leave the
house, so that her disabled grandfather and
nine-year-old daughter (Erikas mother) were
left alone. The soldier entered the house to
search, and during the search, he tormented
the family by putting his rifle through the
daughters hair while Erikas grandfather
watched from his bed, unable to protect his
daughter.

A third major factor that contributed to the

familys difficulty in emigrating from Cuba
stemmed from the desperation of Cubans
to leave the country. For a time, much of
the country was hopeful that change for the
better would occur, because to them, Cuba
was home. However, Cubans were soon disillusioned when Castro took away the freedom
Cubans once possessed. Desperation to leave
ensued. For many, transportation out of Cuba
was nearly impossible to obtain.
So as the demand to emigrate, cost of travel,
and government and Castros influence rose, it
became very difficult to find a way out for the

whole family. With the culmination of those

factors, Erikas grandmother and grandfather
made the decision to send their two daughters, Erikas mother and aunt, to the United
States by themselves. Erikas mother and aunt
came to the United States in 1961 on the last
Pan Am flight, known as Operation Pedro
Pan, 1 from Cuba to America. They were able
Operation Pedro Pan: A deal made by a priest in the
Miami diocese, Father Bryan Walsh, gave him the ability
to sign visa waivers for Cuban children 16 and under.
The result was a program that brought more than 14,000
children out of Cuba and into the United States.
1

History: The Cuban Childrens Exodus. Pedropan.org.

Operation Pedro Pan Group, 2009. Web. 11 Oct. 2014.
<http://www.pedropan.org/category/history>.

Modern-day Cuban offical. PhotocourtesyofWylieMao.

The familys socio-economic status also made

travel difficult. Erika stated that while they
were not extremely poor, they were not
wealthy like many Americans might envision
the people who left Cuba during Castros
takeover to be. Erika wants to dispel this
misconception because her family in particular was not wealthy. Although they were literate, they were not necessarily well-educated.
In fact, Erika is the first one from her family
to graduate with a college degree. Their lack
of money limited their options, for they could
not easily buy tickets for a boat or plane to
take them to the United States.

ON THE THEME 21

for Erikas grandmother, it very well could

have. Ever since the change to communism,
Castro had a network of spies throughout
every neighborhood in Cuba. The spies traded
information for extra rations of food. Erika
observed that living in a place where one
cannot trust ones neighbors, where one has
to stand in line for food (maybe without even
getting food), completely restricts freedom,
yet another example of hardships endured.
After much time had passed, the American
Red Cross was able to make a deal with Castro
for medicine in exchange for the prisoners, and their cousin was released. Upon his
release, he claimed Erikas grandparents as
his parents, allowing him to emigrate to the
United States and stay with the family. Erikas
grandparents were able to come to the United
States and reunite with their two daughters
shortly thereafter.
Erika reflects on her familys hardships and
struggles in their native Cuba, and is reminded
of the impact their experiences have had on her

family. She said that many Cuban Americans,

including her family, have tremendous appreciation for the United States. The United
States offered them a second chance in the
form of a free and democratic nation where
there are opportunities for those who work
hard. She said that the deep-seated appreciation for the second chance that the United
States offers affects how Cuban Americans
think about education. When the Cuban
immigrants came to the United States, they
came with absolutely nothing except opportunity to be educated. That opportunity has
presented itself as an emphasized family value
in many Cuban American families, who value
education above almost all else. Education is
freedom to their families, and it is the reward
of a long, difficult journey to America.

This article was written by a

Pacific Ridge School editor.

Erika graduated with honors from the

University of California at Berkeley
with a BA in Comparative Literature.
She went on to receive a Masters in
Education from Pepperdine University.
She has held the position of Assistant
Editor for Ticketmasters entertainment
magazine, Live and worked in television public relations. She then became
a bilingual 3rd grade teacher in South
Central Los Angeles. She currently is a
stay-at-home mom living in San Diego
with her husband, who is also Cuban,
and her two daughters.

Nicholas Marr is a junior at Pacific

Ridge School, and an Editor-in-Chief of
Global Vantage. He moved from Maine
to California in the summer of 2012.

Modern-day Cuban coastline. PhotocourtesyofWylieMao.

Citizens in modern-day Cuba. PhotoscourtesyofWylieMao.

to stay with their aunt living in Florida, but

all the while, they were not sure if they would
ever see their parents again.
In fact, while families were separated during
efforts to emigrate, the safety and security
of many still living in Cuba were in jeopardy
at that time. While Erikas mother and sister
arrived safely in the United States, their
parents remained in danger in Cuba, and their
cousin had been imprisoned following the Bay
of Pigs invasion.2 Every day in prison, guards
used threats of execution and starvation to
taunt their cousin and fellow political prisoners. Sometimes the Cuban guards would line
up the prisoners as if they were going to be

shot, only to bring them back to the cells.

Erika recalled one story from a visit to the
prison where their cousin was being held.
When Erikas mother and grandmother
arrived at the prison, there was a woman in
line who kept asking the soldiers about her
son and kept repeating her sons name. One of
the soldiers, apparently thinking it timely to
exert power, said, Oh, him? He was executed
last night. The woman collapsed on the spot.
Erikas grandmother, realizing that the soldier
was not serious, went over to the woman,
gritted her teeth, and told the woman to
get up and ask again. The woman did so, and
expectedly, the soldier refused to answer. But
the woman had won that battle because she

Bay of Pigs Invasion: Brigade 2506, a counter-revolutionary force comprised of exiled Cubans, was the focal point
of an American plan to overthrow Fidel Castro. On April 17, 1961, after John F. Kennedy authorized the clandestine
attack, components of Brigade 2506 landed at Cubas Bay of Pigs. By April 19, Castros forces defeated Brigade 2506,
killing a majority of the force while capturing and imprisoning the survivors.
2

The Bay of Pigs Invasion and Its Aftermath, April 1961October 1962. History.state.gov. Office of the Historian,
Bureau of Public Affairs, United States Department of State, 31 Oct. 2013. Web. 11 Oct. 2014. <http://history.state.
gov/milestones/1961-1968/bay-of-pigs>.

22 ON THE THEME

let the soldier see her resilience rather than

her sadness. Erika described this tense situation as a game to Castros people. As it turned
out, Erikas grandmother was right, and the
womans son had not been killed. In other
words, she was right in assuming that the
soldiers were simply terrorizing the woman
for fun. This was just one example of the
hardships that the Cuban people at home had
to endure, and wanted to escape.
Hardships notwithstanding, Erikas grandmother had an incredible determination and
compassion for the other prisoners and their
families. She made food for other prisoners,
and would conceal notes from the prisoners
families into baked goods. Before her expeditions to the prison, when the government
televised the capture of Cubans at the Bay
of Pigs and listed the names of the prisoners, Erikas grandmother was so enraged that
she ran outside and set fire to the Soviet flag.
Although the action carried no consequences

ON THE THEME 23

Experiences
ENGINEERING
THEATRE
HEALTH
CHILDHOOD

Brian Muirhead discusses his career at NASA.

Devyn Krevat recalls her first public production.
Jordan Emont documents his experiences in Tuvalu.
Nicholas Marr reflects on growing up in Maine.

My Career as an Engineer
BY BRIAN MUIRHEAD

am the chief engineer at NASAs Jet

Propulsion Lab (JPL). JPL is the worlds
leading center for the exploration of deep
space. I first started working at JPL in the
summer of 1977. That summer we launched
two spacecraft, the twin Voyagers, on their
amazing journey deep into our solar system.
Now, Voyager 1, traveling at over 62,000
km/h, has entered interstellar space. Since
that summer, I have had the opportunity to
work on many science and technology-based
missions.
My first job after graduating from the
University of New Mexico with a Bachelor
of Science in mechanical engineering was
building spacecraft hardware for the Galileo
mission. That missions spacecraft would
launch in 1989 and travel to Jupiter to
explore the solar systems largest planet and

its many strange moons. Imagine, I was fresh

out of college, and I was already designing,
building and testing hardware for a spacecraft
that would eventually discover volcanoes and
determine that the icy world of Europa has an
ocean that could possibly harbor life.
For me, the high point of my career is easy to
identify. It was the Mars Pathfinder mission,
whose spacecraft landed on the surface
of Mars on July 4, 1997. This was the first
Mission to Mars since the Viking Mission of
1976. It was also the first mission to land a
rover on the surface, and we had to build our
Mars lander with a smaller budget than the
movie Titanic! Many people thought we were
trying to do the impossible. But at JPL, we
love to do things that seem impossible. The
thing I think about most when I think of the
Mars Pathfinder is not the picture of the first

T heS ojour ne rRov e r,thef irstrov e rtol andonMars,dur ingf inala ss e m blyatJPLbeforelaunch.

rover driving on the Red Planet, but rather

the great people with whom I worked.
Engineering is a team sport, and to build
great things you need agreat team. Besides
working on robotic spacecraft, I have had
the great pleasure of working in the human
space program. My early days, which were
spent working on the Galileo mission, had
me in Houston a lot, working closely with
the team preparing the Space Shuttle for its
first launch. Although I was not there when
the shuttle first launched, I was there for its
first landing at Edwards Air Force Base in
California. That landing was a very emotional
event for me since I understood all the things
that had to go right for the Shuttle to return
safely. When I heard those two sonic booms as
it flew over the runway, I knew it had made it
back home. I also had the pleasure of working
on the Constellation Program, now called the
Space Launch System (SLS), building huge
rockets and a new crew-carrying vehicle,
Orion, to return humans to the surface of
the Moon and prepare humans to explore the
surface of Mars.
So what does a chief engineer do? My job is
to help ensure that all JPLs spacecraft are
built and operated to the highest standards
of engineering. JPL is currently flying over
21 spacecraft in deep spaceand around the
Earth, and we are currently working on 15
more. I also work with the project teams to
help identify and solve problems. For me, as
an engineer, thats the most fun. For example,
I have been helping the team thats developing a mission to understand the amount of
moisture in the soil around the entire Earth,
as part of our Mission to Planet Earth. After
all, the Earth is a planet too, and JPL builds
many spacecraft to study it and help us all
understand the changing climate. To measure

24 EXPERIENCES

MyfamilyattheceremonywhereIreceivedtheNASAOutstandingLeadershipMedalformyworkontheConstellationProgram.
moisture, we use a special radar instrument
to map the entire Earths surface every three
days. To map the surface, we need a 6m
antenna to spin at 14rpm (sounds kind of
crazy, doesnt it). We have been having trouble
testing and proving our giant umbrella-like
antenna will work, and I provide my expertise to help the team find and solve design
problems. We just did an important test, and
the antenna worked perfectly. Two more tests
to go, and, and if theyre successful, we will
be ready to launch in January 2015.
Today, in addition to my duties as JPLs chief
engineer, I am currently leading the team that
is studying a new mission called the Asteroid
Redirect Mission. This is a very bold mission
whose purpose is to rendezvous with a small
asteroid, less then 10m in diameter, capture
it, and then redirect it into an orbit around
the moon. Once in orbit around the moon,
the Orion spacecraft, launched on the SLS,
will bring two astronauts to explore this new
small moon around our Moon and bring back
samples for scientists to study. Some people
think this mission sounds impossible, which is
just the kind of challenge I love!
Id like to encourage the readers of this article
to seriously consider pursuing a career in
engineering or science. It is a very reward-

ing career, and I can confidently say there

has never been a day when I was not excited
about going to work. If you enjoy math and/
or science (even a little) and like to solve
problems, work with your hands, or write
software (or play video games), think about
pursing a career in a technical field. Theodore
Von Karman, the founder of JPL, once said,
scientists discover what is, and engineers
create what has never been. I cannot think of
a better way to spend ones life than discovering and creating for the good of Earth and its
people.

This article was solicited

by Pacific Ridge School editors.

Brian Muirhead joined NASA/JPL in

1977, and has worked on many space science and human exploration missions.
He is currently Jet Propulsion Labs Chief
Engineer. He has a BS in Mechanical Engineering and MS in Aeronautical Engineering. He has also received two NASA
Outstanding Leadership Medals. He is
happily married with children.

EXPERIENCES 25

The Playwrights Project

BY DEVYN KREVAT

In September of 2014, I received news

that my play, Fairy Tale, had won the Playwrights Project Contest, and would be fully
produced and performed at the Old Globe
Theatre in Balboa Park, San Diego. The play,
a twisted parody of the traditional fairy tale
form, tells the story of when a narrator loses control of his characters as they conspire
against him.

rounded by the costume designers, set

designers, and directors, I watched many
pitches and discussions and started to understand how something as large and dense
as a play or musical could come together.
Whenever I saw a show, I always wondered
at the detail involved, at how much depth
everything on stage, from the characters to
the set, seemed to have. I could not imagine how something so detailed could be
created, but as I listened to all those creative professionals, I discovered that such
productions are made by teams of passionate individuals coming together to make a
show. The set designer cares about the set as
much as the costume designer cares about
the costumes, and each dedicates all of his
or her respective skill and ingenuity to the
project. The unbelievably complex productions I see on stage are the result of hard
working, talented individuals, and I am so
fortunate I got to see that care and dedication given to something I wrote.

Every year, the Playwrights Project selects

four scripts, to be fully produced on stage,
that are submitted by teenagers ages 14 and
older. The other winners of the contest and
I got the chance to go behind the scenes
and follow each step of the production process. From auditions to dress rehearsal, I
watched the incredible efforts of the Playwrights Project team transform my writing
into something truly special.

Observing rehearsals was a surreal experience. I watched the incredibly talented actors, who were led by an equally talented
director, cast in my play build and discover
their characters in between my words. The
director, George Ye, found in my script a
huge, thematic, and dynamic world. He
made the play funnier than I could have
imagined, and he and the actors added a
depth I did not realize my show possessed.

While I had seen many plays growing up, I

did not consider writing one until the Playwrights Project came to my school, Solana
Pacific, and taught playwriting to the entire
fifth grade over a week-long workshop. The
leader of the program encouraged all of us
to enter our plays in the contest and that
year, I won the 13 and under division and
received a stage reading of the play as my
prize. Once I saw my words come to life on
stage I was in love, but nothing could have
prepared me for seeing my words as part of
a full production.

As I wrote and rewrote the play, dramaturgs

Deborah Salzer and Yolando Ford worked
with me to ensure that the vision I had in
my head matched what went down on paper and eventually, up on stage. They taught
me that like any other artistic endeavor,
playwriting requires an endless amount of
learning. They helped me brainstorm new
ideas for the script, and showed me how to
look at the writing from the audiences perspective.

very audience member looks forward,

facing the stage with their eyes trained
on the set pieces spread out over the floor.
I know this because I am looking left and
right at them, wondering what kind of audience they will be. They represent the final
element and the last unknown of the production I have been a part of for several
months. There is nothing I can change at this
point. The lights are going down, the audience is quieting, and the music is starting to
play. The main character takes center stage,
and all I can do is watch.

After I spent a few weeks on rewrites,

lengthening and adding depth to the script
and the main character, production meetings for the show began. It was at my first
meeting that I realized just how intricate
the process of putting on a show was. Sur26 EXPERIENCES

Soon it was Tech Week, the week before

opening night in which all the actors, set,
sound cues, and costumes come together. I
was given a tour behind the arena-style theatre stage, up and down the various staircases, under the voms that lead in and out
of the stage, and into the prop areas. For the
first time, I saw the trees that the set design-

ers had madetrees that towered over me,

built from wood, wire and paper-mache,
covered from top to bottom with lines from
my script. The Playwrights Project had literally put my words on stage.
The first run-through of my show was a
complete joy to watch. Moments in rehearsal where the director had simply called
out, cue birds, or cue music, now had the
corresponding sound effect. The costumes
were fantastical, the lighting was gorgeous,
and the set was intricate. It was a big production, like the kind I had always admired.
I could not believe it had started as something I wrote. The production and creative
teams had completely elevated the tone and
humor of the piece.
Finally, it is time for the opening performance. I look left and right at the faces of the
audience members. I know there is nothing
I can do to change the show, no more words
to tweak, and no more lines to add. The
music rises. That familiar hush falls over the
audience but as soon as the narrator takes
center stage, commanding the attention of
the full theatre, the anxiety falls away. In its
place, I feel overwhelming pride; pride in
the creative team, in the production team,
and in myself.
I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity
to experience the creation of live theatre in
this way, and am so fortunate to have had
the Playwrights Project produce my play. I
look forward to being involved with theatre
in any way I can at U.C. Berkeley this fall
and I know I will take the wisdom from this
experience with me.
This article was solicited
by Canyon Crest Academy editors.
Devyn Krevat is a freshman at U.C.
Berkeley, where she will study math and
theater. She is the founder and coordinator of the Canyon Crest Academy Writers
Conference, the only free writing conference for high school students in the country.

Beyond Dengue
BY JORDAN EMONT
OnasouthernpartoftheFunafutiatoll,Iswingfromapalmtreeropeswingoverthecalmtealwatersofthe
Funafutilagoon.

ife is full of moments when you wonder,

How did I possibly get here? I recently
spent seven weeks on a tropical island that is
less than one square mile in size and nearly
5,000 miles from the United Statesyou can
bet I asked myself this question more than
once.
I am currently a Master of Public Health
student at Yale University studying the
Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases. My work
concerns the study of the spread of infectious diseases globally. The summer between
the two years of the graduate program, all
students are required to do an internship in a
public health field in order to gain some real
world experience. Through my department
director, I was able to discover a work project
for the World Health Organization and
Tuvalus Ministry of Health. I was to review
the documentation of an outbreak of diarrhea
that followed an unprecedented drought in
2011 in Tuvalu, a South Pacific Island country
composed of nine small coral islands close
to the intersection of the equator and the
International Date Line.

For my project, I traveled to the tiny island

to review hospital records and perform interviews with Tuvaluans to accomplish three
main goals: document the characteristics of
the outbreak, determine how the outbreak
was connected to the drought (if any such
connection existed), and track the measures
put in place during the drought that had an
effect on stopping the outbreak. The overall
purpose of my project was to prevent such
outbreaks associated with severe weather
events in the Pacific for the future, especially
given the growing shadow of global climate
change.
Upon arrival in late May, I was thrust into a
population of 5,300 where I was one of only
20 foreigners residing for longer than a week,
and one of only four Americans at that. Tuvalu
has very poor internet access so I was limited
in my connection to friends and family. Finally,
I lived in an environment where most of the
food tastes bad, vegetables and fresh fruit are
largely the stuff of dreams, the water is not
potable, and showers are frigid.

But I loved almost every moment of it. I spent

only one week of my seven despising everything about Tuvaluthat was the week that
I was infected with Dengue Fever. Dengue is
a disease that comes from mosquitos and is
characterized by a high fever, extreme joint
and muscle pain, complete loss of appetite,
and depression. It was a tough week, but
Dengue is also one of my favorite diseases
Ill admit, the public health nerd in me was
excited by my new battle scar.
Outside of that week, the negatives of the
country did not bother me. The friendliest
and most open people with whom the world
is blessed surrounded me. The culture of the
country is devoid of virtually all crime, and
the physical surroundings are the makings of
a tropical paradise. The teal blue water of the
adjacent lagoon glows during the day, flanked
by green, swinging palm fronds. The evening
sky is brushed with radiant oranges and pinks
of the setting sun. The nights are dotted in an
endless array of sparkling stars, which shine
brightly through an unpolluted black sky. As
a photographer, my ability to capture such

EXPERIENCES 27

Memoirs of 13-Year Mainer

BY NICHOLAS MARR

ainahs. Mainiacs. You know them, or

if you dont, you know of them. They
might just be the most polarizing people in
the United States. I should knowI was one
for 13 years, and I like to think that I still
am one. I take pride in my roots, and Maine
helped shape the person I am today.
There is something to be said for complete
freedom in nature. For the first 13 years of my
life, I lived in a quintessential Maine coastal
town in a home with a giant, open backyard
(perfect for wiffle ball) complete with a creek
and a patch of woods behind it. Opening my
window in the morning to be greeted by
fresh, pine-scented air was one of my favorite things about Maine. It was also one of the
few climate constants in Maine. Beyond that,
each season brought annual challenges and
bonuses.

(Above) Twofishermanreturnhomewithdinneramidafierysunsetoverthelagoon.
(Below) My armdisplaysthecharacteristicrashofaDenguepatient.
natural beauty sustained me through my challenges in Tuvalu.
By the time I left the country, I felt as though I was leaving a new home.
My unofficial Tuvaluan name, Palangi, which means white person,
was a badge worn with pride. Through my interviews, I had interacted
with nearly 10% of the population of the entire country! The remarkable nature of this entire experience was not taken lightly.
I am now back in Suva, the capital of Fiji, which by comparison with
Tuvalu, feels like New York City. I am still wondering how I got to this
point in my lifeI am sure the answer to that could provide enough
material for an entire book, much less a short article. I know that this
will be the first of many experiences in my fantastical future in global
health when I ask myself, How did I possibly get here? I guess for now
the best answer is, I got here on a plane.
Where to next?
This article was solicited
by Canyon Crest Academy editors.

A Maine autumn is the best autumn anywhere

in the nation. I remember watching the leaves
turn to amazing colors and then watching
them fall and raking them up into massive
piles (for eight bucks an hour, a decent rate
for an 11-year-old). I remember running out
20 yards and my dad tossing the football to
me as I dove into a waiting pile of leaves. I
will always love the days when I walked into
the house, went to the couch and collapsed in
exhaustion because I had run so muchin my
own backyard!

degrees out, time to wear shorts!!! reaction

each spring. Then, there was baseball. Not
only was it great competition, but also the
annual Memorial Day Little League cookout
with the home run derby was reliable fun.
Finallysummer. Maine summers were, on
the whole, humid, full of bugs and downright
painful. But, Mainers wait all year for them,
because in relative terms, summers are worth
the wait. Summer was when the boats, grills,
and carnivals came out. Long days were spent
at a lake or biking around town with friends,
going down to the Royal River and stopping
at Andys, a small mom-and-pop store, for
candy on the way home. Nights were spent
swimming, roasting marshmallows or at Two
Lights Lobster Shack on the Cape Elizabeth
shore. Then, there was the Clam Festival, a
tradition of 50-something years that attracted
townies (myself included) by the thousands,
as well as produced the best fried dough in
the state. Its routine parade, shows, and rides
always entertained.
As much fun as I found in every season in
Maine, I believe that the best part of Maine

is the people. That close-knit sense of family

that I found in every community I was a part
of, whether neighborhood, school, or team,
is unmatched. That is not to say that people
elsewhere are not as friendly, but there is a
special allure surrounding Maines communities. Mainers are nature survivors who possess
a down-to-earth demeanor and dry humor
that are reflective of the charming environment of Maine itselfrocky coastline and
woods, dotted with friendly, colonial towns.
The two most impactful lessons I learned
while living in Maine were perseverance and
people skills. Practice in perseverance came
each year with the never-ending winter and
the fact that I had to plan everything around
the weather forecast. The people skills came
from my interaction with born and raised
Mainers. With its sparse population, Mainers
from all walks of life live side by side. With
them, I learned humanity. Mainers taught me,
however indirectly, to see humor in the difficult, not a cruel humor, but a dry, self-deprecating inward sort of satire that comforts.
While Maines climate is harsh, perhaps
because it is harsh, Maines people are nurtur-

Marshall Point Light at Port Clyde, Maine. PhotocourtesyofLarryE.Peterson,

larrypetersonsmaine.com.

A Maine winter, as I am sure you have heard,

is a trying experience. It lasts for seven
months, which is absurd; however, it makes
for great stories. There was the two-day-long
power outage when the neighbors had to take
showers at our house because we were the
only ones with a generator! I will never forget
waking up early to shovel snow, an activity
that I truly enjoyed, nor will I forget clearing
out the area of the driveway in front of my
basketball hoop and shooting hoops despite
wearing my ski gloves and a huge winter coat.
I will always cherish the long drives for a day
ski at Sunday River, the snowball fights, the
crafting of tubing trails on the snow banks,
and then the hot chocolate waiting inside.
A Maine spring is not much of a spring. It is
a couple of months of rain, slush, and mud.
In my opinion, spring is the worst season in
Mainethe grayness and the rain are too
persistent. Yet there was also the, its 50

28 EXPERIENCES

EXPERIENCES 29

Across Longitudes
NORTH KOREA
BOSNIA
INDIA

Alan Press documents his incredible adventure to North Korea.

Emir Skenderagic explains the restrictions on the school curriculum in Bosnia.
Sarva Rajendra discusses her fathers mission to educate and empower young women.

Whats a Smart Jewish Boy from Brooklyn

Doing in North Korea?
BY ALAN PRESS
Wandering...Wondering...Impressions...Observations
Arrival Date: April 25, 2013
Departure Date: May 4, 2013

hy does growing up in Brooklyn

have particular relevance to what has
always seemed to be my special calling to
wander and wonder? Well it all started there.
Perhaps it was the result of happenstance.
When I was six years old my parents bought
a home in Manhattan Beach. It was and still
is, for all intents and purposes, an extension
of Brighton Beach and Coney Island on the
South Shore of Brooklyn.

(Above) Cabin on Walker Pond in Sedgwick, Maine. (Bottom)MarkIslandLight,WinterHarbor,Maine.CadillacMountainonMou

ntDesertIslandloomsinthebackground. PhotocourtesyofLarryE.Peterson,larrypetersonsmaine.com.

ing. Maine also taught me to appreciate life, because life isnt around
forever. Carpe diemespecially when its over 50 degrees outside.
Do not get me wrong; I love living in California. I appreciate the opportunities, diversity, and broader experiences that are here. I have found
a great community through school and have made incredible friends.
However, I would not trade my 13 years of living in Maine for anything,
even for growing up here in San Diego. Everything from the pine trees
to the red lobsters shaped me, altered my perspective, and made me
who I am today.
I have kept in touch with a few friends from Maine, and I have noticed
one thing. Some are well on their way to being the future generation
of Mainers: as their family has been there for years, so they will be
there for years. In that sense, Maine is staticlife is more or less the
same. For some, there is little inspiration to progress, innovate and
excel, but that is okay. I hope it never changes. It offers such a unique
and irreplaceable experience that it does not need to change. If you
do not think you would enjoy Maine, because of bad weather reports
or unusual stereotypes of people there, I urge you to look past the

30 EXPERIENCES

perceived oddities and just visit. Challenge your perspective. Travel

the most extreme diagonal in the continental United States. It will
change your life, guaranteed.
This article was written by a
Pacific Ridge School editor.

Nicholas Marr is a junior at Pacific Ridge School, and

an Editor-in-Chief of Global Vantage. He moved from
Maine to California in the summer of 2012.

But it was special for me. In 1948 Idlewild

Airport (since 1963 JFK International)
opened on the South Shore of Queens. In
those early days before the first Boeing 707s
took to the skies, Idlewild was planned as
the gateway for all air travel into the United
States from Europe and South America. From
our house I could sit and watch the incoming Douglas DC-7s, powerful turbo-prop
Bristol Brittainias, and the incredibly graceful
Lockheed Constellations fly south along the
beach, bank into tight right 180 degree turns,
and begin their final descents to the runway
about 20 miles from our front porch.
I memorized the tail markings of all of the
airlines whose planes thundered in over my
head. I wondered what it would be like to go
to the places they came from. When I was
finally old enough to drive, and a girl whom I
asked for a date said yes, I thought
it was incredibly romantic to take her to the
observation deck of the airport. We would
listen to the boarding announcements, and
watch the elegantly dressed men in suits and
ties, and women in their smart dresses walk
to the stairs to the aircraft.

TheRyugyongHoteltowersoverthecapital,Pyongyang. Photocourtesyof
ScottStallardPhotography.
I was filled with wonderment, almost to the point of tears. What kind of people were they,
getting on those planes that would take them to places like London, Rome, Paris, or Rio? They
had to be at least extraordinary, if not well beyond. Of course it took me quite some time to
figure out why I could never get a second date with one of those pretty girls, whom I had taken
to what at the time I thought was the most romantic, adventuresome destination in all of New
York City.

ACROSS LONGITUDES 31

North Korea

Why are you going to North Korea? Of all of

the places you could go to, why there? Isnt it
dangerous? Arent you afraid that you will be
kidnapped? In infinite variation, those were
the kinds of questions most often asked by
my friends upon their learning of my plan
to visit the Democratic Peoples Republic
of Korea 1 (as North Korea prefers to be
known).
My answer, depending on my mood, to
whom I was talking, maybe the phase of the
moon, or how much I enjoyed the corned
beef sandwich I had eaten for lunch that day
at the Carnegie Deli, might have been one of
the following: Curiosity, a reference to the
old Gypsy proverb He who travels learns,

a simple Why not? or an If Im kidnapped,

so what?
Prior to departure I gave explicit instructions to my wife Hanna as to her course
of action in the event that I were to be
kidnapped by hostile elements, as follows:
under no circumstances are you to accede to
any demand for ransom in order to facilitate
my safe return. Rather I expect that before
very long the miscreants will find me to be
such a complete pain in the ass, that they
will make a generous offer to induce you to
take me back. You are to refuse to negotiate
until the first offer is at least doubled, which
I fully expect it will be. Upon confirmation
of the deposit of a large amount of bullion in
a numbered vault in Zurich, I will make my
triumphal return.

The formal name of the country is an interesting set

of contradictions. On the bell curve of Democratic
Republics, North Korea is out at the very end of the
third standard deviation. It is governed by a very small
group of people for their own benefit. All the other
people work for them. It occupies about 50% of the
Korean peninsula.

32 ACROSS LONGITUDES

Adventure Travel

There are a number of travel agencies that

specialize in a category of travel known as
Adventure Travel (AT). Mountain Travel
Sobek (MTS) of Emeryville, CA packaged

our trip to North Korea. I consider MTS to

be amongst the very best in the AT business.
The downside of AT is that you risk experiencing some inconvenience, discomfort,
boredom, and disappointment on your
adventure. It is not cheap. You have to
expect the unexpected, and keep your sense
of humor. The potential reward is that AT
offers the possibility that you just may have
what turns out to be a spectacular National
Geographic experience. If you want to travel
knowing in advance precisely what to expect
on your vacation, go to Disneyland or on a
Caribbean Cruise. You wont be surprised or
disappointed. Nor, in all probability, will you
have the thrills that AT can offer.

Fellow Travelers

About half of my trips are solo. I research

where I want to go, construct an itinerary,
and arrange with one of the AT companies to
provide infrastructure, guides, vehicles and
drivers. I like traveling alonewhen I travel
alone, all of the others in the group always
laugh at the jokes I tell. If I think there should

ThePyongyangSubway,thedeepestintheworld,isadornedwithchandeliers
andenormousmurals. PhotocourtesyofScottStallardPhotography.

be a change in the itinerary, the rest of the

group always votes unanimously to follow
my suggestion.
The other half of my AT trips are usually with
small groups. In the case of North Korea
there were 10 travelers in our group, including an excellent American guide provided by
MTS. Group AT is a lot less expensive than
solo travel. But it can be dicey. You suddenly
encounter people you have never met before,
know nothing about, and probably will
never see again after the trip ends. You then
proceed to have three meals a day with them,
and spend up to 14 hours in their company,
every day. Within those constraints, most
people who go on group AT trips quickly
learn to try to give the others the space they
need, and at the same time to reserve some
for themselves.
My expectation prior to departure was that
North Korea would be far from the most
exciting trip I had ever taken. But consider-

ing how much about it was being reported

upon and discussed in the media, and how far
out much of what I was reading and hearing
seemed to be, I thought that it would probably be an interesting place to see for myself.
I was wrong on that one. Interesting is far
too mild a word to describe the reality of
North Korea. It was so appalling, so surreal,
that nothing in the media can prepare you
for what you experience once you get there.
Before I went to North Korea, I thought
Albania was the craziest country I had ever
visited. For sheer insanity it doesnt even
rate an honorable mention when compared
to North Korea. The country from a geopolitical point of view is so interesting, so
bizarre, that it now rates as the most exciting
travel experience I have ever had.
And speaking of the media, North Korea does
not welcome flacks. The visa questionnaire
prospective tourists must complete asks if
you are a journalist. If your answer is yes,

you dont get a visa. You dont see crews

from CNN, Fox News, or the BBC riding
around in their trucks in North Korea. Just
about everything the press reports about
the country comes from some place other
than North Koreamost often from South
Korea, China or Japan.
Almost no one who is reporting about North
Korea has ever been there. Or if they have, it
was not recently. So, the plastic pundits (who
seem to have some of the largest, whitest,
most perfect teeth I have ever seen) are all
blathering on with information they have
cribbed from others who havent been there.
As it is written, you have to experience the
experience, in order experience the
experience.

The Go, No Go Decision

We were scheduled to arrive in North Korea

right smack in the middle of the latest and
greatest confrontation between that poor,
benighted country, and the rest of the world

ACROSS LONGITUDES 33

that has the leisure time to pay attention

to it. The issue, of course, was its program
to develop nuclear weapons, and missiles
capable of delivering them. The threat, in
North Korea speak, was that it would turn
the Imperialist, War-Mongering, Aggressor
United Sates, and its Puppet Lackey Regime
in s. Korea 2 into Seas of Fire in retaliation
for any action deemed improper or disrespectful of its sovereignty.
My calculus in making the final determination as to whether or not it was safe to get
on the plane to go to North Korea, in light
of the threats, was based on the result of the
simple equation that I always use when possible to guide me through my decision making
process: What does he have that I want?
What do I have that he wants? If I have more
of what he wants than he has of what I want,
I play. If he has more of what I want than I
have of what he wants, I try not to. I had the
necessary time and funds, and I wanted to
see North Korea for myself. So it was a go.
It is obvious that the geriatrics on the top
of the pile in North Korea prefer not to
have guys like me wandering around their
fiefdom. So why did they let us in? Its
simple.With the combined effects of the
economic sanctions imposed by the West, the
recent generous amounts from the United
States and South Korea, North Korea is a
country desperate for foreign currency. If
you have little else going for you as a country,
one of the best ways to increase revenue is
to promote tourism. Therefore the North
Korea mandarins will hold their noses and
retch while we putter around. As long as we
were there, they were going to make sure
that nothing bad happened to us.
These are extraordinarily smart, tough guys.
They have climbed to the top of a very greasy
pole.They have a country of 25 million people
with lots of resources under their complete
control. They know if they do something
really dumb like launch some missiles at
population centers, with or without nuclear
warheads, in all probability, they and their
mistresses are all going to be dead within 24
hours. And I figured that they didnt want to
be dead. Therefore my equation told me that
I would be perfectly safe going North Korea.

Air Koryo

The most convenient way to get to North

Koreas capital, Pyongyang, is from Beijing
on Air Koryo (North Koreas only airline).
When referring to South Korea, as a sign of its disrespect and non-recognition, the North Korea press limits
itself to the use of a lower case s instead of using the
capitalized word South.
2

34 ACROSS LONGITUDES

Air Koryos small fleet is made up of

antiquated Russian planes, the best of which
are two old TU-204s that are used for the
Beijing run.
The seats were hard. The upholstery was
slack. The in-flight entertainment system
consisted of drop down video screens that
showed us propaganda about the glories of
life in the Democratic Peoples Republic of
Korea, and how fortunate its citizens and the
rest of the world are to have the glorious,
wise, strong, generous, heroic leadership of
the magnificent Kim family (more on this
below). To say that the food on board the
plane was inedible is an under-statement.
SKYTRAX rates Air Koryo as the worlds
only one star airline. Perhaps. My only criteria for rating an airline are did the pilot get
the plane off the ground, find where he was
going, and land the plane safely? The Air
Koryo guy did all three, admirably. I never
ask for more.

The Arrival

The terminal looked like a crappy old

warehouse: dark, cold and drafty. We
processed through immigration and customs
quickly, with minimal fuss and baggage
examination. The personnel on duty were
professionals. Of course there were no
other arriving planes when we landed, so
when we appeared the guys there finally had
something to do. There were no cabs at the
airport. Instead, there were buses waiting
to pick up arriving tourist groups, and mini
buses for arriving or returning businessmen,
diplomats, or trade delegations.

The Rules

There are many no-nos for tourists in North

Korea. When you get to North Korea you
cannot rent a car and drive anywhere you
wantthere are no rental cars. Wherever
you wish to go outside of your hotel, you must
have at least one of your two government
assigned tour guides with you at all times.
The government sets your itinerary, what
you will do every day, and which hotel you
will stay in. Despite all of the restrictions,
if you do some thorough preparation before
your departure, you can observe and intellectually digest a lot of what you seea lot
that the government doesnt want you to
recognize. The primary rule for North Korea
travel is keep your eyes open, nose clean, and
mouth shut. Follow that not so simple rule,
and there is a good probability that you wont
get arrested and put on trial.

The Big No-No: Photography

You cannot take pictures of lots of things you

would like to in North Korea. The guides
are required to be very restrictive with what

they allow you to photograph, particularly

when the subjects that interest you will show
how terribly backwards most of the country
is. They had no problem with anything we
wanted to take pictures of in Pyongyang,
because it is a very modern city, but they
particularly did not want us taking pictures
outside of Pyongyang in rural North Korea,2
through the bus windows of people walking
with heavy loads on their backs, their
bicycles, or bent over working in the fields.
The photography dynamic between the
guides and our tour group unfolded in an
interesting way. I sat in the front seat of the
bus across the aisle from the driver because
I suffer from motion sickness. The only way I
can be comfortable in a vehicle is to be
able to look out of the front window. The two
North Korea guides sat directly behind me.
They could see everything I might do. Under
the circumstances, I did not even bother to
take my camera out of its case on the bus.
Everyone else was spread out behind the
guides towards the back of the bus. As long as
the guides faced front, they could not see
what those behind them were doing with
their cameras. And a few of them, slumped
down low it their seats as if they were
napping, were doing quite a lot with their
cameras whenever a subject of interest
presented itself.
If the guides dont enforce the rules rigorously, they will lose their jobs. Tour guide
jobs are very lucrative and prestigious in
North Korea. Visitors know that. Tourists are
a source of tips in scarce foreign currency. So
most of us pretty much played by the rules.

Traffic

The first thing we observed was that the road

into Pyongyang was almost empty, with
very few cars, and some trucks. We arrived
in town at about 6:00 p.m. There was almost
no traffic in the inner city. Buses and trolleys
are plentiful. But many of the people were
either riding bicycles or walking. Outside of
Pyongyang, bicycles and legs are the
primary means of transportation.
In all of the time we were in North Korea
we never saw anything close to a traffic jam.
Sightings of private cars, especially outside
of Pyongyang, are a rare occurrence. When
seen they are mostly new, large, black,
Mercedes, Audis, BMWs, Lexus, and some
Buicks, all made in and imported from
China. They are available only to important
government officials, or high business executives who, because all large businesses are
owned by and managed for the government,
in effect also work for the government. We

PhotocourtesyofScottStallardPhotography.

never saw an automobile agency that sold

new or used cars.
By far the most outlandish vehicles seen
frequently on the roads of North Korea
outside of Pyongyang are the coal or
wood, steam-powered trucks used to carry
produce, goods, people, and even military
personnel. You instantly know one is near
because of the racket the engine makes, and
the smoke full of pollutant coal and wood
particles rising and blowing directly into
faces of the men, women and children who
share the bed of the truck with the boiler.
Diesel and gasoline, because they have to be
imported, are very expensive by comparison
to coal and wood, which are indigenous and
plentiful.

Pyongyang

The city was almost totally destroyed by

bombings during the Korean War (19501953). We carpet-bombed it into a pile
of rubble. When it was rebuilt, it was as a
planned city with wide avenues and boulevards (many of which are close to empty).
Talented, imaginative landscape architects
have created beautiful parks and open spaces
full of lawns, flowers, fountains, and water-

falls throughout the city. There is not a city

anywhere else in North Korea that I saw that
displays anywhere close to resources that
have been invested into making Pyongyang a
showpiece city. The rest of them were dreary.
Pyongyang is a sterile, antiseptic place. None
of the people walking the streets of the city
look like they are having fun. There are no
young couples walking, laughing, or holding
hands. No one is flirting (how sad). There
are very few stores, and the ones that are
there seem to be mostly empty. No one is
window-shopping because there are no
window displays. Most people are working.

there are so few vehicles, smog is never a

problem. I could not exist in such a place
for very long. Knowing what I was in for,
I brought an inhaler full of rich, organic,
holistic New York City air along with me.
Whenever I had withdrawal symptoms
(the shakes) for lack of a life-saving dose of
proper, filthy smog, I gave myself a fix. A
few quick puffs from the inhaler, and I was
able to come back to my essential self. If the
air looks so empty that you cant see what is
in it, you certainly cant trust it enough to
breathe it.

There are no trash cans to be seen anywhere;

there is no need for them. People dont
drop their soda cans, plastic bags, cigarette
boxes and butts on the sidewalks or in the
street. They know what will happen to them
if they do. You never have to worry about
stepping into dog poop anywhere in North
Korea. I never saw a dog on or off a leash.
There must be dogs somewhere because dog
soup is available in some restaurants. It is
considered to be a delicacy. I did not try it.

Incredible numbers of relatively new highrise apartment buildings have been built, or
are under construction in Pyongyang. They
are architecturally exciting. Some are even
audacious. Many have balconies that offer
great views of the city. At the other end of
the housing spectrum in Pyongyang and
most of the rest of the country, are many
old, dowdy-looking rectangular four and
five-floor walk-up apartment buildings.
They are best described in Eastern Europe
as Khrushchev housing. Apartments are
allocated by the government based on how
important ones job is to the government, or

If Pyongyang has one great failing, it is that

the air in the city is incredibly clean. Because

Housing

ACROSS LONGITUDES 35

were the North Korea road repair crews.

All of the North Korea military officers we
saw wore large clips of campaign ribbons
pinned to upper left side of their tunics.
While we did not see any General Officers
in person, we did see many portraits of the
Kims surrounded by their broadly smiling
generals (of course, the Kims were always
the tallest figures in any group portrait).
In addition to their multiple campaign
ribbons, the generals dress uniforms bore
vertical rows of very large gold medallions,
the kind one might think were awarded for
extraordinary, courageous leadership in
combat. The last war fought on the Korean
peninsula ended in 1953. That being the case,
one might wonder which battles they led their
men to victory in, that earned them those
formidable rows of ribbons and the enormous
medals they wore?
There are many YouTube videos showing very
impressive North Korea military parades,
with huge numbers of heavily armed soldiers
and sailors goose-stepping through the Kim Il
Sung Square in the center of Pyongyang. But
the military was nowhere to be seen in the
areas of the country where it would have been
needed were a war to break out. One could
almost believe that North Koreas 1.1 million
man army is no more than a Potempkin
military.

Agriculture and the Economy

NorthKoreansoldiersatTheDMZinPanmunjom(BorderbetweenNorthandSouth Korea).
PhotocourtesyofScottStallardPhotography.

how close one is to someone who is important to the government.

The Military

For all intents and purposes, the military is by far the most powerful influence in North Korea. Whatever the countrys Spin-Meisters
would have us believe otherwise, the generals rule the country.

The Military Metrics3

We traveled on the main north/south road from Pyongyang to

Panmunjom, the southern most point in North Korea in the
Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between North Korea and South Korea.
We saw no unusual military activity of any kind on the trip. We were
3

Source: The Guardian Data Blog

36 ACROSS LONGITUDES

stopped at a few military checkpoints. A soldier in a dress uniform

with an AK-47 over his shoulder came out of a small guardhouse. He
gave a perfunctory look at the bus, nodded to the guides, rolled back
the light gate blocking the road, and saluted the bus as
it rolled through.
When we finally arrived at the DMZ, on the North Korea side, we
were ushered into a rectangular Soviet block-style building with an
open pavilion facing south. Across an open area about as wide as Park
Avenue in New York City, there is another building with a pavilion
facing north. It is in South Korea. We stood on the Norths pavilion
with a bunch of other tourists and some North Korea guards, and
took pictures, but the only thing to take pictures of was the South
Korea building facing us. There were no South Korea or American
soldiers to be seen. This was at the height of the tension when,
according to the media, all-out war was liable to break out at any
minute.
We did, in North Korea, see large groups of men in army uniforms
marching along the roads. Almost all of them were carrying shovels
over their shoulders. A few were at either end of 3 x 4 platforms
with handles, on which there was sand and gravel for cement. They

Prior to the Korean War, the economy of the

northern part of the country was primarily
devoted to manufacturing, while the south
was largely devoted to agriculture. With
the disastrous results of the Kims efforts to
create a planned socialist economy modeled
on the failed Stalinist experiment, as opposed
to the embrace by the South of a marketdriven economy, that pattern has completely
reversed.
Now, there are very large state farms in
North Korea. But there are very few tractors
or pieces of mechanical farming equipment
of any kind in the fields. Much of the work
is equal-opportunity stoop labor. We saw
women, in far greater numbers than men,
doing brutal field work. That is because most
of the young men away in the military, though
in the fall, at harvest time, soldiers are also
assigned to agricultural fieldwork.
Speaking of agriculture and tractors, almost
all of the plowing we saw on the farms
involved crews of one or two men, a bullock,
and a wooden plow, which is pulled by the
bullock. When two men are available, one of
them walks in front of the bullock leading
him with a rope. The other man is behind
the plow, guiding it through the furrows. If

only one man is available, he does his best to

direct the bullock from behind the plow. In
agriculture, as in many other dimensions of
its economy, North Korea is a third-world
country, about 100 years behind the developed world.

May Day

In countries with a socialist tradition, May 1

is a day of celebration. It is a workers
holiday. In North Korea, the day is marked by
concerts and picnics at which men, women,
and children do things they rarely do in
public. They celebrate. They sing, dance and
have a good time.
Our group started the day at an amusement
park. It was full of wonderful attractions:
a carousel, a roller coaster, bumper cars, and
all kinds of whirl-around rides. If I were to
try to go on any of them, they would make
me, always prone to motion sickness, so
debilitated that I would be afraid I was going
to die before it ended.
At the end of the park, a huge sound stage
had been set up. One after another, talented
costumed singers, dancers, gymnasts, and
acrobats took their turns entertaining the
3,000 or so enthusiastic people sitting in the
grass. Considering the security issues that
generally apply when a large crowd gathers
in an outdoor venue for a concert in our
country, we experienced another surprise.
There was not a policeman to be seen.
Obviously none were needed; it appears that
crimes of any kind rarely occur in North
Korea.
In the afternoon we went to a much larger
park. My guess is there were between 10,000
and 15,000 people in the park (in this
instance we saw two policemen). Group
after group of extended family and close
friends were gathered around blankets on
the ground, on which all kinds of picnic food
delicacies had been laid out. In each group,
there was someone beating on a drum.
Perhaps someone else was playing an accordion, or some kind of wind instrument.
And everyone in the group was singing and
dancing. No rock, rap or hip-hop. Rather,
it was music that had melodies, rhythms,
and harmoniesmusic to which a geezer
like me could relate. It was a scene that any
amateur travel photographer would die for.
I moved in with my huge Canon SLR and
monster zoom lens for some close-ups.
The next thing I knew, someone shoved
me into the center of the dancing group.
A woman grabbed me and started to dance
with me. Before long another woman cut
in to dance with me, and then still another.

As I moved from group to group, the same

sequence kept repeating itself. Whoopee! It
was Alan In Wonderland!
Fortunately for me, no one was discoing.
Rather, the dancing might be best described
as decorous. As a dancer, I would never be
described, even generously, as anything more
than a severely challenged klutz. But on May
Day in North Korea, I was not going to miss
the moment. I became their Fred Astaire and
Gene Kelly shmooshed into one. I clomped
around with the North Korea women as
if I knew what I was doing. At first, in all
modesty, I allowed myself to believe that the
women who fought to dance with me, were
fatally attracted by my animal magnetism,
or perhaps by a certain essential, elemental,
existential musk that I secrete when I am
thrust in such situations.
But alas, it soon became abundantly clear
that the fantasy was no more real than the
rest of my fantasies. If truth must be told, the
women wanted to dance with me because I
was obviously an American. In each group,
there was at least one person with a cell
phone camera, recording the scene of the
women dancing with the American. It was
one of those extraordinary travel moment
that I will never forget.

Of Cults and Myths

Before I left for North Korea I had read of the

countrys efforts to create a cult of personality around the succession of father to son
Kims, who have ruled the country for 70
years since 1945. They are, in sequential
order, Kim II Sung (the Eternal Great Leader,
born April 15, 1912, began rule September 9,
1948, and died July 8, 1994), Kim Jong Il (the
Dear Leader, born February 16, 1942, began
rule July 8, 1994, died December 17, 2011),
and Kim Jong Un (the Supreme Leader, born
January 8, 1983, began rule December 17,
2011).
I pride myself on being a skeptic. But nothing
that I read could possibly have prepared me
for the suffocating pervasiveness of the huge
portraits of Kim I and Kim II that hang on the
facades of just about every public building.
Then there are the giant statues, the outdoor
billboards with poems and hymns of praise,
and the seemingly millions of paintings and
photographs on display everywhere, all
devoted to celebrating the wisdom, courage
and brilliant leadership of the various Kims.
The regimes propagandists are, as it would
appear, with singular success, attempting
to turn mortal men into gods, a cult into a
religion, and a state into a church.
Just a few particularly grotesque examples

ACROSS LONGITUDES 37

will give some indication of the lengths to which the regime will go to accomplish those objectives.

Mansu Hill

In a park in the middle of Pyongyang, there are two 60-foot bronze statues of Kim I and Kim II. They
share an enormous single pedestal that is about five feet high. On their assigned days, busloads of
citizens arrive from their factories and offices, as do buses full of school children. Every bride and
groom is required to make the pilgrimage of obeisance to the gods before their marriage ceremony can
take place. And, all tourists make an obligatory visit to the golden statues on their itineraries.
Each of us, including the children, was required to buy a bouquet of flowers from a nearby kiosk for
four euros. When we reached the area in front of the statues, we formed shoulder-to-shoulder lines,
approached the pedestal, and laid the flowers on it. Then we backed up 10 paces, and, in absolute
silence, were instructed to bow from the waist to the statues. When the floral pile grew to a size that it
was almost unmanageable, a man came along, gathered the bouquets, and returned them to the flower
kiosk for resale.

The Kumsusan Memorial Palace

About 10 miles out of the center of Pyongyang, at the end of a subway line, is the Kumsusan Memorial
Palace, the mausoleum of Kims I and II. It is, of course, a required stop on any North Korea itinerary.
Before we left the United States, we were instructed to pack a jacket, collared shirt, and tie in order
to be appropriately dressed for the occasion of our visit with the eternal ones.
The building design is inspired by the Stalinesque Wedding Cake School of Architecture. The building
itself is about 115,000 square feet in size. A bit of a hike from the huge parking lot, immediately upon
entry with the exception of your wallet, everything you have with you must be checked.
We proceeded on people-mover walkways through seemingly endless marble corridors,
which were lined on both sides with gilt-framed painted portraits of the Kims. We came to what looked
like a security gate. It was a device that had mechanical rollers on the floor that cleaned the bottoms of
the soles of our shoes. A short distance further was a second gate. It let loose a blast of air to blow off
any dust that might have been on us.
We then entered successive rooms that memorialized each of the Kims. On display in glass cases were
endless medals awarded and proclamations published in their honor, in addition to honorary degrees,
academic gowns, gifts of swords and daggers from other socialist countries Heads of State, armored
black Mercedes, private armored railway cars, and a yacht (in this instance used by both I and II).
We finally entered Valhalla, an enormous hall about 30 feet in height. It contained the embalmed
mortal remains of the gods. Each of them was lying on an enormous bed, covered up to his neck with
a royal crimson quilt. Their heads were raised on crimson pillows. The beds were enclosed in glass
walls that rose to the ceiling of the hall. In each corner of the hall was a member of an honor guard
with an AK-47 on his shoulder, while others were spread around the hall.
We were directed to line up four abreast at the foot of the Kim Is glass enclosure. We were then told
to proceed around to the left side of the enclosure as we faced the foot of the bed, bow deep from the
waist, move around the back to the right side of the enclosure, and bow once more from the waist. We
then repeated the ceremony as we marched around Kim IIs glass enclosure.
Every citizen who works in and around Pyongyang is expected to make at least two visits annually
to the Kumsusan Memorial Palace. They are notified as to the day a bus will arrive at their factory or
office to take them there, and reminded of the strict dress codes required of them. On our return to
the city we saw a number of groups of about 50 men in each marching along the road back to wherever
they came from. Apparently there werent enough buses available that day for them.

Theg iantbronz estatuesofKimIlSungandKimJong-IlatMansuHillinPyongyangreceivedailyvisitsandgiftsofflowersfromschoolchildren,tourists,andevenweddingparties.

PhotocourtesyofScottStallardPhotography.

Other Reinforcements of the

Cult of the Kims

Throughout the country, one frequently sees

vans with loud speakers mounted on their
roofs, driving slowly through neighborhoods
or towns blaring at high volume patriotic
messages of praise for and obedience to the
Kims and their regime.
Every man and most women wear a small
lapel pin in the upper left sides of their
jackets, with an image of Kim I on it, or a
slightly larger one with both I and II on it.
When I was there I did not see any lapel pins
with III on them, but I was told that they are
available, and some people are wearing them.
Portraits of Kims I and II hang in the entry
room of every apartment and home in North
Korea. Imagine if every time you entered
your home, you saw 10 x 14 photographs
of two dead Presidents of the United States
looking down at you.
At one point during our trip, we were standing on the shore of a very beautiful little lake
in the mountains in the south of North Korea.
There was a sandy beach about 100 feet away
from where we stood. One of our guides,
who obviously drank a quart of the Kool-Aid
every morning with breakfast, pointed to the
beach and with great reverence, sonorously
informed us, From that spot, our Eternal
Great Leader, Guide, and President, Kim Il
Sung shot a duck.
There was silence from our group. Finally I
couldnt restrain myself. Impulsively, at risk
of summary execution and with great gravitas, I responded, I am sure the duck was
very pleased to be shot by your Eternal Great
Leader, Guide, and President Kim Il Sung.

Why the Cult?

Cults have been around forever. They are

most often built around a national, religious,
or sometimes business leader who aspires to
immortality. It is helpful if the aspirant is in
some combination: good looking, charismatic, smart, talented, and ruthless. The more
of those strengths he or she has, the better
the chances of building a devoted following
of acolytes.
The entire cadre of North Korea mythmakers
and every resource of the giant state media
apparatus are totally dedicated to the mission
of building, reinforcing and maintaining the
mythology surrounding the Kims. Of course,
nothing can beat having control of a couple
of hundred thousand guys with guns, not to
mention some of the worlds cruelest gulags
reserved for those who might be foolish

40 ACROSS LONGITUDES

enough to question the mythology. Those last

two resources can add a lot of power to the
equation.
If the cult leader can conveniently create a
profoundly evil enemy for his followers to
hate, i.e. The Puppet, Lackey Regime of s.
Korea, and the War-Mongering, Imperialist
Aggressor United States, with all of the
passion with which they must revere him,
the chances of success (immortality?) are that
much greater.
On the receiving end, if ever since you were
born, the guys building the myths tell you
something totally absurd often enough, loudly
enough, and are never contradicted, there is
a good chance that you will come to believe
it. And the guys on the sending end may even
come to believe themselves, and particularly
so when they know all too well what will
happen to them if they dont. If anyone were
to mess up in any way, every North Korea
citizen is mandated to attend a criticism and
self-criticism meeting once a week.4 They are
required to publicly criticize any deviations
from expectations that they know about by
others in the group, as well as admit to any
about themselves that may have occurred in
thought or in deed since the meeting of the
previous week.
The frightening fictional images created by
George Orwell in his seminal novel 1984
of life in the Workers Paradise, aka the Soviet
Union, are all too real in North Korea.
You cannot escape from the Kims until you
thankfully leave the country. If you are a
North Korean, leaving the country is a very
difficult undertaking.
Kim I and Kim II demonstrated that they were
smart enough and ruthless enough to build
their dynasties. Of course it didnt hurt Kim
II when Kim I decided that the best way to
ensure his own immortality was to arrange
for Kim II to inherit the family business.
Certainly both of them had access to more
than enough guys with guns, and some of
the worlds most brutal prisons, required to
help insure their success. Kim II then made
sure that III was in place to inherit Kim Inc.
before, in 2011, he moved on to join Kim I in
the Great Presidential Palace In The Sky.

Succession Planning

The future of the reign of Kim III is, for many

reasons, an open question. For the moment
at least, there have been no sightings of a Kim
IV. A country is, amongst many different kind
Source: North Korea, a country study; pub: The Library
of Congress
4

s of entities, a business. As with any commercial enterprises, such as universities, hospitals,

houses of worship, NGOs, and governments,
a country must be managed as businesses. If
you dont run the business as a business, if
more money goes out of the enterprise than
comes into it (with the notable exception of
governments), the business will usually shut
down.
Family businesses are particularly dicey
entities. Family Business Survival Statistics
published by the Family Business Council,
indicate that the percentage of family
businesses making it into succeeding generations are as follows: second30%, third
10-15%, fourth3-5%.
North Korea is a family business. Kim Inc. has
been and is run for the benefit of the Kims.
There is no indication that, when at age 29,
Kim III inherited Kim Inc. and was anointed
First Secretary of The Korean Workers Party,
First Chairman of The National Defense
Council, and Supreme Commander of the
Korean Peoples Army, that the Toy Boy
Generalisimo had any prior administrative or
military, training or experience. Nor were his
academic credentials any more impressive.
As to charisma, III looks like he might have
been sent by central casting to star in the role
of First Chairman of the National Council of
North Korea Village Idiots. I would give long
odds against Kim Inc. successfully making
down to the yet unborn Kim IV.

some, the changes accelerated and multiplied.

Many of us who were fortunate enough to
have witnessed the accelerated evolutions,
and in more than a few cases, revolutions, still
have difficulty believing that we actually
witnessed it happen.
The Soviet Union: The enlightened
policies of glasnost (openness) and
perestroika (restructuring) introduced by
Mikhail Gorbachev, General Secretary of
the Soviet Union from 1985 to 1991, and
the countrys first President from 1990
until it imploded in 1991, resulted in the
miraculous destruction of the Berlin Wall
in 1990.
East and West Germany: The two former
enemy countries combined into one
country and became the democratic,
capitalist powerhouse that Germany is
today.
Republics of the former Soviet Union:
Fifteen former Soviet Republics, ten in
Eastern Europe, and five in Central Asia,
emerged from the darkness as independent countries. Most of them are now

democracies.
East European Satellites of the former
Soviet Union (not including East Germany,
which effectively ceased to exist): Seven
previously independent countries, which
were at the time behind the Iron Curtain
and part of the Soviet Sphere of Influence,
became independent democracies.
States of the former Yugoslavia: In 1995, as a
result of the Dayton Accords, eight independent countries in the Balkans emerged
from what was once Yugoslavia. They would
probably all prefer to kill each other, rather
than to trade with each other. But, fortunately for the present at least, they are not
killing each other.
China: Under Deng Xiao Ping, China began
to open economically, if not politically. The
results have been nothing short of spectacular for the people of China, and astonishing
to the rest of us. Any of us who have made
multiple visits to China returns home in
wonderment at the extraordinary changes
seen.
Vietnam: As a result of the Vietnam War,
North and South Vietnam unified, initially

to our sorrow. Under successive presidents

though, Vietnam has gradually liberalized
its economy to the point where, though it
is not yet an Asian tiger, it is worthy of our
respect. Presidents Bill Clinton and George
H.W. Bush made state visits to Vietnam.
President George W. Bush received the
countrys President Nguen Minh Triet for
a state visit to the White House in 2007.
Myanmar: Under the liberal leadership of
former General and now President Thein
Sein, the country is opening and evolving
at an astonishing rate. Economic sanctions
certainly contributed to moving the process
along. With the political liberalization, the
sanctions have been lifted. With the lifting
of the sanctions the pace of liberalization
has acceleratedsanctions work.
Aung San Suu Kyi, the winner of the 1991
Nobel Peace Prize, has since been released
from house arrest. She is now a leading
member of Parliament, and has announced
her candidacy for president in the next
election. Similarly, all political prisoners in
Myanmar were released, and many of them

ParticipantsawaitinstructionduringthefestivegamesattheMayDaycelebrationsjustoutsidethecity.PopularactivitiesincludeTugofWarandvolleyball. PhotocourtesyofScottStallardPhotography.

But for the time being, Kim III is in complete

control. In celebration of Kim IIIs recent
ascension to the pantheon, the North Korea
Mythmaking Machine has been cranked up to
full power. Recent editions of The Pyongyang
Times have included the following headlines:
Kim Jong Un Inspects Outposts and
Different Sectors, Sees Live Shell Firings
Mass rallies vow to be victorious in faceoff with United States
United States and s. Korean Puppets to be
Responsible for Catastrophic consequences
No Mercy to the Enemy
Well Settle Accounts With The United
States
Kim Jong Uns Works Published Abroad
Evil Doers Will Never Escape Severe
Punishment
No Mercy to Scum of The Earth

The Role Models for Change and

Unification

Once upon a time, long, long ago in another

galaxy, beginning in 1989, absolutely unthinkable, seismic geopolitical changes in Eastern
Europe and Central Asia suddenly exploded.
Then, to the joy of many and the horror of

ACROSS LONGITUDES 41

sit in Parliament with Ms. Suu Kyi.

Just as Vietnams relationship with the United States has
improved, Myanmars relationship with the United States has
enjoyed increasing political attention. In November of 2012,
President Barack Obama visited Myanmar. In May of 2013,
President Thein Sein came to Washington. Myanmar now
welcomes tourists from the West. Those who choose to visit
are richly rewarded.
The one element shared by all of the countries referenced
above is that, like North Korea,
each was a planned and failed centralized economy. In fact,
there has never been a successful one. Prior to the time of their
systemic disintegration as socialist states, most of us in the West
could not imagine that they would collapse of their own dead
weight. We thought the brutal authoritarians who ruled them
were too powerful, had too many guys with big guns committed to maintaining the status quo, and too many gulags to be
overthrown.
Nonetheless, the unsupportable built-in economic and social
contradictions, as well as the inefficiencies of their economic
systems were suffocating them. Most of the goons and thugs
who ruled those countries realized they had two choices: they
were going to allow substantive economic changes, or they
were going to lose political control.
Like the Kims, they were not idealistic visionaries. They
certainly had no intention turning their countries into shining
models of democracy. The small self-appointed group who had
crowned themselves as virtual czars and emperors understood
that they had little choice. They were and in some cases still
are world-class hard, calculating, ruthless survivors. Many of
them had barrels full of blood on their hands. They chose what
was for them, the least of the bad choices: painful, systemic,
economic change.
By any index, North Korea is a failed socialist state. We need
only measure the comparative achievements of its brethren in
the South to see what North Korea could accomplish if it were
to be reunited with the South Korea as one country driven by
an open-market economy.

The Depressing Legacy of Kim Inc.

Data Summary5

North
Country Korea
Infant Mortality Rate, per 1000 live births
26.21

South
Korea
4.08

Life Expectancy at birth (total population)

Internet users per 100 people
Exports, $ billion (U.S. currency)
Imports, $ billion (U.S. currency)
Net official development assistance (ODA)
and official aid (U.S. currency)
5

69.2
< 0.1
4.71
4.00
- $8,842,000

79.3
81.5
552.6
514.2
+ $69,070,00

Source: North Korea Economy Watch

Kim I and Kim II have created a horrific legacy for their countrymen.
They have succeeded in doing something that, without their guns and
obscene prisons, would have been thought to be almost impossible. As
the metrics demonstrate, and as anyone in the United States who lives in
a neighborhood blessed with a large South Korean population can attest,
you have to work very hard to make most Koreans poor. Kim Inc. has
managed to make most of the citizens of North Korea poor.
North Koreans and South Koreans are one people. Today, they are
unfortunately and artificially divided into two countries. Intellectually,
linguistically, and culturally, they are the same. Innately, they share the
same positive family values, aspirations, and work ethic. They will surely
come together. Hopefully it will happen sooner than later. When they
do, 75 million Koreans, along with the rest of the world, will celebrate.
And the world will be a better place.

He Who Travels Learns

The Gypsies got it right. Given an opportunity, they would get a lot
of things right. Not only can we learn new lessons from AT, but also
re-learn some of the vital lessons that we absorbed long ago, and with
the passage of time, faded from our memory banks.
Some of those lessons are still so important that they are worth re-learning. We re-learn the importance of our universal languages that have no
relationship to the different tongues we are all taught to read and write
in our childhoods. Music and dance are universal languages. Laughter
is a universal language. So too, is sorrow. And let us not forget prayer.
North Koreans love to sing, dance, and laugh. They weep when the same
tragedies strike them that make the rest of us cry. Given half of a chance
they would pray the way we do. Perhaps not to the same gods, but pray
they would, and for the same things the rest of us pray for.

Final Observations

Adventure Travel is a wonderful way to escape. Most of us live lives

where, in order to make our livings, we must endure a goodly amount
of repetitious drudgery. In return, every so often, we may be fortunate
enough to experience an extraordinary moment. The kind of moment
that the kind nebbishes like me can only fantasize about, but do not
expect, that anything special will ever happen to us.

For a short time, Adventure Travel allows us the possibility of becoming someone else someone who we would prefer to be. Tall, elegant,
urbane, athletic, witty, devastatingly handsome, somewhat dangerous,
and certainly, irresistible to beautiful women. Why not? And, if one of
the moments were, perchance, to occur on an AT trip, we would never
forget that which once upon a time it happened to us. And no one can
ever take it away from us. Its ours forever. Maybe thats why we do it.
I still get excited whenever I get on an airplane. I dont care where
it is going. If the plane is going to a place like Tashkent, Ulan Bator,
Katmandu or Timbuktu, I begin to vibrate. I ask myself, Alan, do you
know where you are going? And what you are going to do when you get
there?
In fact, I still love airline food. It is the last of my obsessive perversions.
If I havent had an airline meal in a long time, I drive down to the United
Airlines Commissary at Newark Airport, pick up a First Class Hawaiian
Chicken Dinner, and bring it home. I go back to my big Lay-Z-Boy chair
and wait. Hanna puts on her Continental Airlines Cabin Attendants
uniform (a Chanukah present, 2005). She nukes the chicken, and with
her dazzling smile brings it back to me. Thats all I need to make me feel
important again. Thats all I need to make me happy.
I do so miss the observation platform at Idlewild Airport. And the pretty
Brooklyn girls I took there, once upon a time, long, long ago.
Authors Note:This article was first published in 2013 by Webdelsol, an online
Literary Arts Magazine edited by Walter Cummins and Thomas E. Kennedy. I
am grateful to Dr. Cummins for his encouragement, his insightful and sensitive
editing, and his permission to allow the article to appear in other publications.

TheviewacrossPyongyangfromthePeoples
StudyHallandLibrary. Photocourtesyof
ScottStallardPhotography.

This article was solicited by Pacific

Ridge School editors.
Alan Press is an avid traveler who has visited 68 countries, most of
which can best be described as off the beaten path. And he likes to
write about them.
In his real life, he has spent his career in the life insurance business.
He has written numerous articles addressing Life Insurance Industry
Market Conduct Issues, and the need to protect consumers from unscrupulous sales practices. The articles have appeared in leading financial
services publications.
Alan is particularly proud that in May of 2014, another one of his
non-life insurance articles titled My Amazing High School 50th
Anniversary Reunion was published by the Serving House Journal, an
online Journal of Literary Arts.

If a Man Hits You With a Stone,

Hit Him With Bread
BY EMIR SKENDERAGIC
The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who dont do anything
about it.

hat is Albert Einsteins message that

stood on a banner for 120 days in front of
the Office of the High Representative of the
international community in Sarajevo. It was
made by pupils from Konjevi Polje, a village
near Srebrenica, eastern Bosnia. They were
deprived from the right to learn messages
by Einstein, Hemingway, Copernicus, Tesla
and others. Instead of being in school, they
ended up in tents because all subjects with
curriculum in Bosnian are banned in their
school. There are only subjects with curriculum in Serbian, because the school is in the
Republic of Srpska entity, spreading over
49% of the territory of B&H. The other
entity covering 51% of the territory is the
Federation of B&H.The same ratio: 49%
to 51%represents losses of pupils, that is,
parents, from Konjevi Polje. The pupils lost
49% of the school year, because they did not
attend the first term, and the parents lost
51% of their crops because they were absent

from their farms from September 2013 until

February 2014.
The loss ratio of Muhamed Ahmetovi
and his daughter Amina is 51% to 49%.
As the President of the Parents Council of
the primary school from Konjevi Polje,
Muhamed spent four months in tents in
Sarajevo, demanding use of Bosnian language
in the school. Because of this, dozens of kilos
of potatoes, carrots, green beans and other
crops he planned to use to feed his family
went to waste.
At the end, Muhameds winter pantry was
empty, as well as Aminas notebooks. Because
she did not attend the school for four months,
she missed the geometry lessons, addition
and subtraction of the first 20 numbers,
traffic safety lessons, as well as other important chapters from the secondgrade schoolbooks. All she learned was a lesson she did

not need in her life: the most important

thing in Bosnia is the nationality and religion
and that she can exercise her rights only if
her people is the majority.
At the end, Bosnian language was not introduced to the Petar Koci primary school
in Konjevi Polje in the Republic of Srpska.
Instead, the children were enrolled in
Vladislav Skari primary school in Sarajevo
in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
At the end, their parents made a present
of three breads to the Office of the High
Representative in Sarajevo, which did
nothing to help them, thus symbolically
sending the old Bosnian proverb message: If
someone hits you with a stone, hit him with
bread.
This article was solicited
by Pacific Ridge School editors.
Emir Skenderagic lives in Sarajevo,
Bosnia and works for Bosnias Hayat TV.

Enlightening Lives Through Education

The Story of the Sahasra Deepika Foundation
BY SARVA RAJENDRA

very morning, millions of children in India go to school.

They pack their backpacks, walk through dusty streets, ride
public transport or cram into auto rickshaws, and head to their
classrooms. Of these millions of children, the United Nations
estimates that only one in ten children in India who start school
are likely to complete their education and receive a college
degree. Poverty, lack of familial support, inadequate nutrition,
and poor quality of schools all play a role in this low graduation
rate.
My father, Dr. T.V. Ramakrishna, was a one of the few children
who went to college. He faced the same obstacles growing up
in rural India in the 1930s. His widowed mother could barely
support her children, and he did his best to help her by working
in the fields before and after school. He was inspired by stories of
great leaders and dreamed of going to college and contributing
to his young nation, but he had no one to guide him in the right
direction. And as all too often happens with so many impoverished children, he could have easily dropped out of school, never
reaching his potential.
However, one school day, his lifes trajectory changed. While
discussing student performance on an exam, his teacher called
him up in front of his middle school class. Much to my fathers
surprise, his teacher patted him on the back and recognized the
young T.V. Ramakrishna, saying, Excellent work. I know you
can do it. This simple act of encouragement altered my fathers
self-perception and allowed him to believe that he could become
successful in his life. A hope for the future transformed into a
plan for the future. In an instant, the young man facing many
difficulties was able to view his life in an entirely different way.
With determination, hard work, and the support of his teachers,
he was able to continue his education. He eventually became an
engineer and moved to the United States to work.
My fathers story has always appealed to me because it shows how
the simplest act of kindness and praise made such a difference to
a child. The teachers words stayed with my father throughout
the decades, and he longed to someday repay that kindness. He
wanted to bring that same, transformative power of encouragement to a new generation, so, with the help of my mother, he
founded a nonprofit organization, Sahasra Deepika, to provide
impoverished children in India the stability, home environment,
and quality education they need to succeed.
Initially, the institute educated both boys and girls, but it became
(Top to Bottom)
T hes e ni org irl sreadythe m s elv e sforad ancepe r formance.MusicandtheartsareabigpartofthecurriculumatSahasraDeepika.
Supriya,a10thgradeclassleader.
Kav y aandPree thali ste ninte ntlytoag u e std e s c r ibingwhatittakestobecomeadoctor.

44 ACROSS LONGITUDES

ACROSS LONGITUDES 45

with paying, middle class students. Having

the girls go to a school with children from
more advantaged circumstances allows them
to compete in a setting where they are not
stigmatized for being poor. This gives them
confidence as they move forward in society.
Our outreach program brings Sahasra
Deepika into the community. We can never
serve all of the children who need our help,
but by bringing English tutoring to children in
slum schools, we can assist them in gaining a
skill that is vital to their future. The outreach
program also allows Sahasra Deepika to
identify candidates for scholarship support.
Maheshwari is one such student. She cleaned
houses before and after school to help her
family. Despite her long hours, she achieved
top scores in her exams, but her family had
no money to send her to college. Her teacher
realized that without assistance, Maheshwaris
future would be as a maid or factory worker.

She contacted Mrs. Ramakrishna at Sahasra

Deepika, and with our support, this bright
young woman is now in college studying to
become an engineer.

and we hope to continue doing so for decades

to come.
This article was solicited
by Pacific Ridge School editors.

Sahasra Deepikas motto is lives enlightened

through education. Education can inspire,
connect, and enlighten people. It illuminates
a path forward. The path to Sahasra Deepika
began decades ago when a teacher encouraged
a student in his classroom. For the past 16
years, Sahasra Deepika has been lighting the
way for impoverished children in Bangalore,

Sarva Rajendra is the Executive

Director
of
Sahasra
Deepika
Foundation
for
Education,
a
non-profit organization providing
education and care to needy children
in India. She has a B.A. from Wellesley
College and a Masters in Health
Sciences from the Bloomberg School
of Public Health at Johns Hopkins
University.

(Top) Dr. Ramakrishna discusses the importance of Mahatma Gandhis legacy on the
Gandhi Jayanti holiday.
(Bottom) The children gather Dr. and Mrs.
Ramakrishna, founders (second row center)
at Sahasra Deepikas 15th anniversay
celebration in 2013.

(Clockwise from left) Thechildrenenjoythe

playground,donatedbystudentsatDominionHighSchoolin
Sterling,Virginia.
Thekindergartenerswalkhomefromschool.
FounderDr.RamakrishnalearnsaboutSowmyasweekatschool.

increasingly evident that girls were the most

at risk of not completing their education. It is
estimated that 50 percent of girls in India will
drop out of school, leaving behind so much
untapped human potential. Often they have
to take care of younger siblings or work to
help support the family. The simple fact that
many schools lack adequate toilets for the
girls keeps them at home. In a country with a
strong cultural preference for male children,
for many parents a daughters education is
considered of far less value than that of a
sons. The plight of the daughters of single
mothers and orphaned girls is even more
difficult. They need outside support to rise in
society.
Sahasra Deepika wanted to make a difference
to this most vulnerable population. Thus, the
education of girls has become the primary
focus of our residential program. Sixty girls
currently live at Sahasra Deepika Institute
and attend Deeksha High, the school on our

46 ACROSS LONGITUDES

campus. Sharing the type of encouragement

that my father received is only the starting
point of what we try to give the girls. Our
goal is to provide them with the stable and
caring environment that they need in order to
not only stay in school, but also thrive there.

place in society. We strive to inspire in them

the desire to learn and achieve, as well as
strengthen their confidence while working
with their parent or family members to
ensure that they give do not pull the child out
of the program prematurely.

Where do these children come from? Although

a few of the girls are orphans, the majority of
the children in our residential program have
single mothers who work as a maids, laborers, or garment factory workers. The mothers
often work far from the city and are unable
to provide any type of childcare or financial
support for their children. I came here after
my father passed away, says Chaithra, a 2013
Sahasra Deepika graduate who now studies at
Christ University. My mother, a farm laborer,
couldnt take care of me and my brother.

How has this charge been translated into a

viable program? Sahasra Deepika focuses
on three key areas: residential life, academics, and community outreach. At Sahasra
Deepika Institute, girls from ages four to 16
live together on a four-acre campus, where
they are raised in a caring atmosphere. Dr.
and Mrs. Ramakrishna, with the help of staff,
oversee all aspects of their upbringing. They
arrange for tutoring, counseling, and healthcare for the students and constantly communicate with the teachers about their progress.

Because of the girls difficult circumstances,

Sahasra Deepikas challenge is changing the
girls perception of themselves and their

Deeksha High is the educational component of the program. It is a unique arrangement wherein our students attend school

ACROSS LONGITUDES 47

Commentary
ECONOMY
PERSPECTIVES
EVOLUTION
CONNECTION
OPPORTUNITY
INSPIRATION

Kevin Comeau analyzes the causes of the Bermuda recession.

Joshua Kahn and Khalid Abudawas explain their experiences with Hands of Peace.
Everlyne Awour considers our responsibility to change the world.
Lillian Agui discusses the impact of the Internet in todays society.
Kauthar Makah emphasizes the importance of advancing womens rights.
Isha Raj-Silverman analyzes her interview with Nigerian girls and its impact on her.

Bermudas Economic Hurricane

BY KEVIN COMEAU
Editors Note: This is a follow-up of Kevin Comeaus Issue Nine article, Bermuda on the Precipice, in which he
discusses the suggestions he made to the Bermuda government in 2010 to confront Bermudas impending economic crisis.
Unfortunately, the government failed to take appropriate action and its economy quickly collapsed. This article, written
about present-day Bermuda, discusses several theories as to why the Bermuda economy collapsed, and highlights some
lessons that can be learned as a result of the collapse.

ver the last 30 years the tiny island of

Bermuda changed from a niche tourist
destination for East Coast Americans to
an International Business center for major
reinsurance companies, captive management
firms, and mutual funds.
Down came many of the old hotels, cottage
colonies and guest houses, and up went large
office buildings and mansions, dramatically
changing the landscape while increasing per
capita income to $95,000 per annumthe
third highest in the world and 60% more than
that of the United States. But in 2010 the
economy began to collapse and Bermuda has
since remained in an economic depression.
There are two widespread theories as to the
cause of the islands economic collapse. The
first theory, as espoused by the Progressive
Labour Party (they governed Bermuda during
the years leading up to the collapse) is that it
was the global financial crisis and the ensuing
global recession that caused the collapse of
the Bermuda economy.
The second theory, as espoused by many
supporters of the One Bermuda Alliance
(they defeated the PLP in December 2012
and now control the Bermuda legislature) is
that the PLPs anti-business policies, government mismanagement and corruption,
massive deficits and increased taxes caused
the collapse of the Bermuda economy.
An examination of the facts will show that
the first theory is simply incorrect and the
second theory only partially correct. Also in
play was the hurricane effect intrinsic to the

48 COMMENTARY

spectacular growth of Bermudas reinsurance

industryits arrival created a whirlwind
of prosperity but its inevitable departure
left economic devastation, destruction and
depression.

General overview of
International Business in
Bermuda

With a population of 60,000 people and a

land mass of only 21 square miles, Bermuda
is simply too small to ever be a viable
exporter of manufactured goods, and so,
when it decided to diversify its tourism-based
economy, it chose to specialize in the exportation of International Business services.
When building that industry Bermuda
carefully created a unique economic structure
to ensure that the large international companies arriving on the island would not destroy
the small local businesses that had served the
island for generations. In particular, laws were
enacted that prohibited the sale in Bermuda
of any of the financial products and services
generated by these international companies.
In other words, these large companies could
incorporate in Bermuda, build offices in
Bermuda, develop financial products in
Bermuda and hire employees to work in
Bermuda, but their financial products and
services (such as mutual funds and insurance
policies) could only be sold internationally
(i.e., outside of Bermuda); hence the names
International Companies and International
Business.
But why, you may ask, would these interna-

tional companies want to come to Bermuda

at all? Two main reasons: no income tax and
geographical location.
Bermuda does not levy a tax on income.
Instead, it relies on four alternative sources
of tax revenue: land tax, import duty, payroll
tax and capital tax.
Corporations operating in Bermuda pay land
tax on the buildings they own, import duty
on the goods they purchase, payroll tax on the
salaries they pay their employees, and capital
tax on the shares they issue. While these taxes
can be significant (sometimes hundreds of
thousands of dollars per company) they are
generally less than the taxes these companies
would have paid if they were operating in a
country that levied taxes on income (such as
the United States, Canada and Great Britain).
Although there are numerous other alternative-tax jurisdictions in the world, Bermuda
is particularly attractive to companies selling
their financial products in the United States
and Canada because flights from Bermuda
(which is located 700 miles due east of North
Carolina) are less than two hours to New York
and three hours to Toronto.
That short distance gives International
Business executives greater control over their
work and family lives. For instance, they have
the ability to catch the early morning flight
to New York, meet with clients and suppliers,
and be back in Bermuda for dinner with their
families.
Over the last thirty years numerous

Photo courtesyofScottStallardPhotography.
International Companies have set up operations in Bermuda to take advantage of
Bermudas alternative tax system and its
convenient proximity to the United States and
Canada. But recently the glow of Bermuda
International Business has diminished significantly, resulting in many companies moving
to other countries.
With that background, lets now look at
the two popular theories of the cause of
Bermudas economic collapse: global recession and government mismanagement.

Did the global recession cause

the collapse of the Bermuda
economy?

During the last five years there has been a

large number of job losses in Bermuda, at
first in the International Business sector (e.g.,
reinsurance companies, captive management
companies, fund administration, and mutual
funds), then in the local companies that
directly serve that sector (e.g., law firms,
accounting firms, computer companies,
office supply companies) and in the local
companies that indirectly serve that sector
(e.g., restaurants, retail stores, construction) and finally in the charities that received
funding from that sector (basically all chari-

ties in Bermuda).
As we can see, and as all political parties in
Bermuda have agreed, it was the loss of jobs in
the International Business sector that principally caused the job losses in the other sectors
of the Bermuda economy. In other words, if
International Business were still booming as
it was five years ago, Bermuda would be just
fine.
So if we can identify what caused the job
losses in Bermudas International Business
sector, we will know the principal cause of
the job losses in substantially all sectors of the
Bermuda economy. That may sound difficult
to do, but in fact it is not.
The key is to look at what happened to those
lost jobs in the International Business sector.
If International Companies eliminated those
jobs because of the global recessionthat
is, the companies were simply cutting costs
by downsizingthen those jobs would have
been eliminated. But for the most part,
they werent. An overwhelming number of
the job losses in Bermudas International
Companies over the last five years were not
job losses at all. They were job transfers. The
companies simply decided that their interests

were better served by moving specific jobs

and, sometimes, whole departments out of
Bermuda to other jurisdictions. Finance jobs
were moved to the United States; captive
management jobs were moved to the United
States, Canada and Ireland; insurance claims
jobs were moved to the United States; entire
fund administration operations were moved
to the United States and Canada; accounting
functions were moved to Canada and India;
investment research jobs were moved to
Canada, the United States and Switzerland;
marketing jobs were moved to the United
Statesthe list goes on.
As several International Business executives
noted, large increases in Bermuda taxes, rents
and wages had increased costs of operations
so significantly that it became cheaper to
operate numerous departments in incometax countries such as the United States and
Canada than it was to operate in income-taxfree Bermuda.
To make matters worse, CEOs and Senior
Vice Presidents of some of Bermudas biggest
International Companies decided to leave
Bermuda (and their large rental houses) to
move to the United States, and now they only
travel to Bermuda a few days a month. As

COMMENTARY 49

than 60,000 people.

were a collection of variables, some of which

were driven by the marketplace and some of
which were driven by Bermuda.

A large part of that debt came from massive cost overruns on

government building projects, many of which were immersed
in clouds of scandal and possible corruption. In turn, the
growing debt led to huge increases in payroll and capital taxes
that significantly increased the operating costs of International
Companies in Bermuda.

There are many lessons to be learned from

the Bermuda experience.
First, even though great care was taken by the
Bermuda Government to prevent the international companies from adversely affecting
local Bermuda businesses, such precautions
proved insufficient. The reality is that the
variables of the marketplace are so numerous
and often so great in size that it is impossible
to predict, let alone prevent, future negative
outcomes.

Making matters worse, the PLP implemented anti-business

policies that impinged upon the ability of International
Companies to efficiently manage their workforce. For instance,
the Government implemented a policy that limited the length
of employment of non-Bermudian workers to a maximum of
six years (the Term Limits policy) even when there were no
Bermudians capable of doing the work. As a result, companies had to either constantly import and retrain new workers
or simply move the affected employees to other countries to
continue working.

Second, the PLP Government made the

fundamental mistake of believing that these
international companies needed Bermuda
more than Bermuda needed these companies.
So the Government spent recklessly, taxed
heavily, and treated these companies and
their executives as if they were second class
non-citizens. But the reality is that in todays
global economy, international companies can
easily move their operations to many other
countries that are all too willing to provide
low taxes and high service, free of operating
restraints. It is a very competitive world.

Senior officers of these International Companies repeatedly explained to the PLP Government that these high taxes
and anti-business policies were making Bermuda a much less
attractive place to conduct their operations, and if things did
not improve, they would be forced to accelerate the export
of jobs from Bermuda or simply move all of their companies
operations to countries that were more business friendly.
Unfortunately, the PLP refused to alter their anti-business
policies or reduce taxes back to their original lower levels. So
as the exodus of jobs, departments and companies quickened,
the Bermuda economy collapsed.

Third, politically motivated theories that use

one-dimensional factors to explain multidimensional decisions are unlikely to be
either accurate or helpful.

A third theory: The hurricane effect of large

reinsurance companies

PhotocourtesyofScottStallardPhotography.
those International Business jobs and top officers started leaving Bermuda,
the real carnage began. Local companies that depended directly and
indirectly on International Business (e.g., law firms, computer companies,
accounting firms, retailers, restaurants, etc.) suffered losses of revenue
and were forced to lay off employees. Landlords lost tenants, demand for
housing fell, rents fell, mortgages fell into arrears, and many Bermudians
now face the threat of losing their homes.
In other words, an overwhelming majority of the job losses in Bermuda
were not the result of the global recession. They were, in fact, the direct
and indirect result of International Companies deciding that their interests
were better served by moving jobs out of Bermuda to other countries.
That means not only was the global recession not the principal cause of
the massive job losses in Bermuda, but also there is no reason to believe
that when the global recession ends, the jobs in Bermuda will come back.
Which leads us to the second theory.

Did Government mismanagement cause the collapse

of the Bermuda economy?

There has been much criticism leveled against the PLP for the way they
governed the country. For instance, when they came into power in 1999,
Bermuda had a budget surplus of more than $200 million, and when they
were voted out of power in 2012, they left behind a national debt of more
than $2 billion. Thats a lot of debt for a country with a population of less

50 COMMENTARY

Clearly the PLP Government played a significant role in the

sharp decline of the Bermuda economy. But to lay all of the
blame at the feet of the PLP is to ignore the complexities of
the Bermuda economy and its unique mix of International
Companies.
In particular, the business cycle of Bermudas large reinsurance
companies had a major effect upon the jobs in both that industry and other industries in Bermuda. This point is perhaps best
illustrated by briefly looking at the stages of growth of those
reinsurance companies, from inception to present day.
The 9/11 attacks in 2001 and Hurricane Katrina in 2005
created significant demand for catastrophe insurance in the
United States. Unfortunately, U.S. insurance companies could
not meet that demand without significantly raising premiums.
The problem was solved by the creation of large Bermuda
reinsurance companies, some of which were funded with more
than a billion dollars in capital. Since these companies did not
pay income tax on their investment income, they were able to
provide the United States with catastrophe and property insurance coverage at lower rates. In other words, larger profits on
their investment capital allowed them to take greater underwriting risks at lower prices when providing insurance coverage to U.S. residents.
These new companies were also a big boon to Bermuda, creating
many high-paying jobs that turbocharged the entire Bermuda
economy. Unfortunately, in doing so, they also directly and

PhotocourtesyofScottStallardPhotography.
indirectly drove up wages and commercial
and residential rents throughout the island.
Those increases in wages and commercial
rents significantly increased the expenses
(and thereby decreased the profits) of costsensitive International Companies such as
captive management and fund administration companies that operate on very tight
profit margins. In the years that followed
the influx of the Reinsurance companies,
these cost increases/decreased profits
became major contributing factors in the
decisions by these smaller companies to
transfer jobs from Bermuda to less expensive jurisdictions.

to their business model. As a result, certain

departments and jobs were transferred out
of Bermuda as part of the natural maturation
of a global business. In other words, these
large companies had simply outgrown tiny
Bermuda.

As these large reinsurance companies

expanded their markets beyond the United
States into Europe, Asia and the rest of
the world, their need for geographical
proximity to the United States diminishedBermuda was no longer essential

But does that mean that Bermuda and its

government were blameless in the loss of so
many jobs to other countries? No.

As we can see from the above, the decisions by

both reinsurance companies and cost-sensitive International Business companies (such as
captive management and fund administration
companies) to transfer jobs out of Bermuda
to other jurisdictions were significantly
influenced by factors beyond the control of
Bermuda and its government.

Finally, it was inevitable that tiny Bermuda

would eventually get hurt if it played with the
big boys.The large reinsurance companies that
came to Bermuda in response to Americas
growing need for lower-cost catastrophe
insurance were huge even in their infancy.
As they matured through various stages of
growth, they inflated wages and rents that
drove out other international companies, and
then expanded into new markets that took
them to all parts of the globe, leaving behind
a battered island in desperate need of catastrophe relief.
This article was solicited
by Pacific Ridge School editors.
Kevin Comeau is a retired corporate
lawyer. In 2012, he and his family moved
to Southern California, where they
currently reside.

Thats because most, if not all, of these

decisions to transfer jobs out of Bermuda

COMMENTARY 51

Shalom

Salaam

BY JOSHUA KAHN

PhotoscourtesyofMustafaNatsheh.

BY KHALID ABUDAWAS

ands of Peace is a non-profit organization that brings Israeli, Palestinian, and

American students together to discuss the
Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Two years ago
when Scott Silk, a teacher at Pacific Ridge
School, suggested starting a San Diego branch
of Hands of Peace to Khalid and me, I had no
idea what to expect. I believed that I knew
a decent amount about the Palestinian-Israeli
conflict, but I had never been in a room where
it was the main topic of conversation.
It was not until Khalid and I touched down
in Chicago, the location of last years Hands
of Peace conference, that I began to worry
that Hands of Peace, simply by name, would
attract only peace-loving teenagersfifteen
minutes into the program, we would all be
singing kumbaya. I could not have been
more wrong. Hands of Peace attracted a mix
of peoplestrong advocates for peace, as well
as people who hoped to defend their respective countrys point of view. The wide range
of opinions fostered incredible dialogues
between the participants, and the dialogue
sessions offered an opportunity to both share
about and understand each sides historical
narrative and personal experiences.

am a Palestinian-American teenager living

in San Diego, California. Raised in an
Arab-American and Muslim household, I
gained quite a charged outlook on the conflict.
I used to not see any validity in Israeli actions
and beliefs. Rather, I saw Israelis only as
inhumane soldiers.

Throughout last years conference, I had

countless unforgettable experiences, but the
most impactful was the filmmaking workshop.
In the filmmaking workshop, we split into
small groups to make short videos related
to the conflict. The only requirement of the
process was everyone had to agree on the
topic. My group had two of the most politically biased participants on either side of the
conflict, and they made it their goal not to
agree on anything. It was not until the final
hours of the multi-day process that our group
decided on an idea. But it was worth the wait
and negotiation because, despite our time
constraint, we produced a beautiful video that
will always have a special place in my heart.
While I am only 16 years old, I believe that
Hands of Peace was the most impactful and
life-changing experience that I have ever had.
Throughout my time with the program, I have
found that the conflict is one based on perspective, and the program has opened my eyes to
many different perspectives. More importantly, from Hands of Peace I have learned to
love all human beings despite differing race,
religion, nationality, and cultural upbringing.
Salaam, Shalom, Peace.
This article was solicited
by Pacific Ridge School editors.

52 COMMENTARY

PhotocourtesyofMustafaNatsheh.
Joshua Kahn is a sixteen-year-old junior at Pacific Ridge School. He is passionate about
sciences and current events, and enjoys finding conduits to express both.

This past summer, I had the incredible opportunity of founding and participating in Hands
of Peace San Diego. It was only during my first
year with Hands of Peace that I was awoken
awoken to a new perspective of the conflict
one with facts, worries, and fears from both
sides. However, I did not know what to do
with these conflicting emotions, ideas, and
answers. It was clear when I began working
for Hands of Peace San Diego that I needed
not to focus so much on what I learned but
rather on what my knowledge meant in the
grand scheme of things. I later found that it
meant the following: there are always two or
more sides to every story, and there are two
things in every issueconflict, humanity,
etc.to debate.
As I began my second year of Hands of Peace
as an XL (Extraordinary Leader), I thought
of my previous year and expected the same.
However, I soon grew to understand the
true issues of the conflict. I now know that
there may not be a solution to the IsraeliPalestinian conflict, but I do understand that
all sides of this conflict have the same exact

fears, worries, and desires. People worry

not about an all-Jewish state or a Palestinianrun state, but about a safe sanctuary for both
people, who have been killed by the masses,
and people who have been occupied and
oppressed for centuriesthus began my
journey into the possible solutions.
I knew neither where I should begin nor
where I would end. Simply, I knew I wanted
to change something. I wanted, and still want,
to make things change for the better. With this
in mind, I found what I wantedI want the
violence to end. Currently, most Palestinians
are trying to survive against an oppressive
force, and most Israelis are trying to find a
home with the fear of another Holocaustlike catastrophe. The biggest issue that arises
with those two goals is the common, desperate desire for the land of Israel/Palestine.
While this seems small, history has played its
key role in creating tensions, and now hate,
between the sides.
With this awareness, I have embarked on a
journey. I now work with Hands of Peace in
order to recreate the same transformation of
perspective that I experienced a short time
ago within Palestinian, Israeli, and American
teens from all walks of life, opinions, and
religions. In fact, through the program I have
been lucky enough to see this transformation
occur in some participants already. Hands
of Peace has shown, especially at a time like

the present, with the heightened tensions

between both sides, the influence it can have
upon its participantsI have seen Israeli
tears for Palestine and Palestinian tears for
Israel, not to mention American tears for all.
While some may see this as a brainwashing
ideal, it truly is a transformation that involves
humanization, the eradication of stereotypes,
and the education of the other side through
the simple yet difficult act of dialogue, both
with members of participants own societies and members of the other societies and
communities involved in this conflict.

This article was solicited

by Pacific Ridge School editors.

Khalid Abudawas is a junior at Pacific

Ridge School. Raised in a culturefilled home in San Diego, he cherishes
all opportunities to understand global
cultures. He is an avid poet; he wrote
his first poem, about happiness, in sixth
grade, and has been writing poetry every
since.

COMMENTARY 53

Womens Rights

Responsibility

BY KAUTHAR MAKAH

BY EVERLYNE AWOUR

e all have a responsibilityclich I know but lets look at

thiswhat is happening to the world? Are we happy where
we are? Because I just feel like we are lost we have lost the touch with
humanity. Lets reflect.

borhood then why should I care about it? But yeahuntil it happens
to your home is when you will get pushed to do something about it.
You have to work for the people you know and dont know. The world
needs you to speak about injustices!

We always say change the world but no one is looking beyond it. I say
change yourself first. How many times have we had leaders sitting in
parliament telling us what they want and we get disappointed but still
get back and vote for the same people?

If no one had spoken about how girls in Kibera feel about being
married off at an early age then no one would have saved us. No one
would have cared about my education, but now I am working hard
to complete high school and get into university. We have the power
to change! Speak for everyone, the ones you know and dont know.
Because, well, someone needs us to speak!

We might forget how powerful we are as a people. We might forget

that two heads are better than one, we might sometimes forget that
change is cultivated it is done and worked for but I am here to remind
you that change is worked for. If you hate that politician, then decide
to work harder. Wake up every morning and work for your country.
I am a change-maker and with that said I believe that life is not a game,
we sometimes feel the pain, and we feel exhausted with life. We feel
tired but I always say there is someone who needs us to speak out! You
see an injustice; please dont keep quite about it, because we as the
humans of this word are failing the full universe. We are failing in our
duties of fighting for the world.

This article was written by a student at

Kibera Girls Soccer Academy.

omens rightsit is something we talk about but never fully

implement. Women have rights, just like any other person in
this world and their rights need to be protected, they need to be taken
seriously.

until there are no more reports of violence against a woman

until I stop hearing about it and stop hearing women complaining at how men are disrespectful or view them as weak because
they are women.

In Kenya, just few months ago, the Governor slapped a woman in

front of the media. It was the saddest things I have ever witnessed
being carried so lightly. It was not a light matter. Hitting a woman will
never and has never been a thing to be accepted. It should be cursed
with the hardest term possible. It is not right.

This article was written by a student at

Kibera Girls Soccer Academy.

Womens rights are human rights and they should be protected. We

are not going to gamble on them. We are going to fight for them.
Equality is all I ask for. Treat women with the respect they deserve.
They have already proven they can work, so why not give them a
chance to fully execute their potential?
There are things that the world is still accepting to happen to women
a good example being violence against women. In Kenya, violence
against women is getting worse; of every 4 women, 3 of them are
facing violence every day of their life and no one is talking about it. It
has become something we are getting used to.

An injustice in one place is an injustice everywhere! You do not speak

out and others suffer! You keep quiet and say, If its not in my neigh-

Now, you hit a woman, violate her rights and stop her from talking.
Now that is impossible. There are some of us who will stop at nothing

Technology

BY LILLIAN AGUI

view the Internet as a technology.Why? Because it has totally revolutionized the way we have been living and communicating. The world
is becoming a global village, or already is a village where we just send
information and receive information. In other words technology has
changed the lives of so many people, especially in Kenya.
In Kenya, in a population of about 42 million people, only 4 million
people have access to the Internetthat is a sad statistic, knowing
how useful the Internet can be to the lives of people and how it can
make access to information easy. Information is power and when it
is easy to get like just clicking a button then a lot of people in Kenya
could be introduced to another new worlda world where information is easily accessible.
The Internet has been great in so many ways, ways that have either
influenced the lives of students or ordinary citizens.

Campaigns

The Internet these days through the social mediasFacebook and

Twitter have made the work of activists easier as they can just start
an online campaign and also gather people who can easily sign to
petitions and easily help them spread their messages is a thing that I
believe can change the world.

Communication

Technology has improved the lives of so many people. It has rapidly

revolutionized and improved the day-to-day lives of people, especially
in Kibera. Communication, for one, has made the access of information in Kibera very fast, with the rapid growth of cyber cafes and
technology centers information that have been fully opened to the
people of Kibera and that has helped a lot of people.

54 COMMENTARY

Social Justice

Social media these days is being used as a forum to air out anger and
seek justice, and that was brought about by technology. With technology a lot of things in the world can be changed from the touch of a
button or the click of a mouse.

Education

In terms of education, a lot of students in Kibera have adequate access

to information since now many school have access to the Internet,
including Kibera Girls Soccer Academy. With the Internet students
can be able to do research well and be able to develop their own lives
in an inspiring way.
Sites like Wikipedia have been very useful for so many scholars who
would love to get knowledge on the Internet about one thing or
another. It has fully revolutionized the way students view school in
so many cities. It is with the access to technological advancements
that has catalyzed the speed in which knowledge is accessed in Kenya.
And you have to agree with me that Internet and the advancement of
technology can change the world and the world needs some changing
so make use of the Internet as positively as possible.
I believe information is power, which is why I am advocating for the
world to be a global village and to seek justice via the Internet and
speak out on the issues of social justice. The Internet is not for just for
fun but we can use it as a tool to change the world.
This article was written by a student
at Kibera Girls Soccer Academy.

COMMENTARY 55

The Noble Girls of Northern Nigeria

BY ISHA RAJ-SILVERMAN

n April, over 200 girls were kidnapped in

Northern Nigeria by Boko Haram, a group
that believes that Western education of girls is
against God (haram). This horrific event has
brought to light the issue of keeping girls from
getting an education in Northern Nigeria.
But this hasnt only been an issue since April
fifteenth; it is an issue that Northern Nigeria
has been contending with for a long time.
More than a month after this event, girls in
Nigeria continue to try to get an education,
despite the danger. I had an opportunity to
speak with two teenage girls in Northern
Nigeria about the risks they face in pursuing
their education, and why it is so important to
them to continue with school despite these
risks. A third girl I was to interview cancelled
her participation because her father feared
for her safety.
Maimuna, age 17, and Fatima, age 15, are
in secondary school in a provincial town in
Northern Nigeria. While the town boasts
access to higher education, more than half
of the girls there do not attend school. And
while the Boko Haram kidnapping was not in
this town, the incident has provoked greater
fears against girls going to school, for both
girls and their parents. Maimuna and Fatima
are beating the odds, continuing with their
secondary education despite the risks and
their fears.
I started my interview with them by asking
whether or not people in Nigeria support the
education of girls. Maimuna said, In Nigeria,
not everyone supports [girl education].
People prepare boys to go to school and not
girls. Only because the NGO [non-government organization] pays my fees, I can go.
I asked them why there is that preference
for boy more than girl education. Maimuna
said, Families believe that the girl will get
married and move to the husbands house, so
her education will only benefit that family.
They prefer the boys go to school, and the
girls stay back at home to do house chores and
take care of the little ones. I was saddened by
the thought that girls are not being supported
to get an education because their parents
think it will be of less use to the girls and the
family. This is just not true, as a girl getting
an education has been proven not only to
benefit the girl, but also to benefit her entire
society. Maimuna and Fatima recognize this.
They told me that they believe that by getting
educated, they are helping themselves, their
families, their friends, and even their future
children. Maimuna said getting educated will
help me delay my marriage, so that I will be

56 COMMENTARY

old enough when I have children.

They go to school even though they are afraid.
Fatima said, If you are going to school, you
will be afraid because you do not know what
kind of danger you will put yourself into.
When you meet people on the road, you do
not know if it will be good people or bad.
Maimuna, who must go a farther distance to
school agreed, saying The school is really
far. I usually feel lonely and afraid when I am
going because some people might kidnap me
or maybe take me away from my home or
even rape me because of it. It is scary going
to school. I could not imagine having to go
to school in such circumstances. I asked why
they keep going given the situation, and I was
inspired by their answers. Fatima responded,
Because I am concerned about my future, and
I want to be someone in life. So that is why I
keep going to school even though it is scary.
I want to be somebody in life, so I can help
other girls to get to school in the future.
Maimuna had a different, but just as noble
reason: Because I have a dream of becoming
a doctor. There are few female doctors in my
community. Women in Nigeria usually die as a
result of not reaching the hospital because men
do not like to send their wife to the hospital
because she will be attended by a male doctor. I
still go to school despite that it is scary because
I want to help other women be able to go to
the doctor. These girls are getting an education in order to help others, but they do this
at great risk to themselves and their families.
Their getting educated will help their entire
society. This is why we need to support education of the girl child. Not just for the girls, for
everyone.
As part of their educations, both of these
girls are enrolled in an after school educational program that help them in all areas of
life, giving them meetings with mentors that
support them to stay in school, teach them
how to keep themselves healthy and safe from
HIV, and give them vocational training. When
asked about what their favorite part of the
program was, both girls responded saying they
most like the time when they can get together
with other girls and their girl mentors. I think
that this is a beautiful example of what happens
when we get girls talking to one another. Who
understands better than someone who has
gone through the same things? In fact, both
girls I spoke to are mentors in training. Soon,
they will be teaching what they have learned
to other girls, allowing their knowledge to
spread.
Even though they live such different lives than

me and other teenage girls in the States, I

learned that both girls are similar to teenagers here. When asked what they do for fun,
Fatima told me that she likes watching television, and Maimuna told me she loves to
dance. Despite our completely different lives,
these girls are just teenagers like me, which
makes them even more extraordinary. They
are fighting for their right to an education,
while I complain about homework, but we all
are just girls, trying to fix the world just a
little bit.
As a girl in the United States who is so privileged in my access to education, I wanted
to know what I, and others, could do to
support them in their fight for girl education in Nigeria. Both girls replied with the
same things. The first thing both girls wanted
was security. Maybe if it was safer, more
girls would go to school. The second thing
they said they need is free education. Many
families are not sending their girls to school
because they cannot afford it, or think their
money is better spent on sending their boys
to school. In the U.S., donations to non-profit
organizations that help fund education for
girls could be a great start. Finally, they asked
for support to help enlighten parents about
the pros of educating girls. Far more parents
are going to want to send their daughters
to school if they know how beneficial it is. I
think Maimuna and Fatima are helping make
that happen by getting an education, becoming girl mentors in their community, and
spreading the word about the importance of
girl education in Nigeria. They show just how
much of a force for good an educated girl can
be, and how important it is for all girls to be
able to get an education.
This article was solicited
by Pacific Ridge School editors.
Isha Raj-Silverman is a 14-year-old
freshman at La Jolla High School who is
passionate about girl empowerment and
leadership.

Poetry
POETRY
POETRY
POETRY
POETRY

Perspective by Leah Bloom

I Wish I Were the Color Blue by Steven Le
Words by Khalid Abudawas
Peace by Irene Awinja

Perspective

BY LEAH BLOOM

n all my English classes

from fourth to 10th grade
There came a time in the year
when the teacher would ask us
What is poetry?
The question was promptly followed by eye rolls
and muttered I dont cares
alongside the clich teachers pet answers
But the fact of the matter is
there is no absolute
or correct response to that question
Because poetry cannot be solely defined
as one thing.
You wont find it
in a Miriam-Websters definition
or a in collection of work
written by Emily Dickinson,
For it resides in the bones of those
you love the most
In the exoskeleton of the person you were
382 days ago
The ghost of the isolation
you so desperately clung to
until he came along and
gave you a little push
towards the direction of pure
unobstructed bliss
Its in the wails of a mother who is
lost her son
Its in the tales of those
reminiscing of when they were young
and those who have seen more
cruelty and pain
than the rest of the world
And yet still choose love
Poetry is not about syntax
or the iambic pentameter it lacks
But rather the colors you see
and feel
when you turn your favorite song up to max volume

You see, poetry is not concrete

It is not two roads diverged in a yellow wood
Its not even a fork in the street
Its the sore and callused feet
of a boys whos run for miles
to catch up with the one who selflessly
sets him free
Its the radiating smile
of a bride-to-be
And the pride of a father
when his daughter stands up for
her opinions and beliefs.
Poetry is not just words
Its the cadence of the soundtrack
to your soul
Its the electricity between
two shy hands brushed against each other
in the dark
Its how a kiss becomes a work of art
Its the twisted yet beautiful journeys we each
embark upon
and how they curiously intertwine and connect
in the strangest of ways.
Poetry is many things
You, me,
My grandmother,
And that chatty homeless man with no teeth
So next time, dont ask me What is poetry?
Just look around and take a second glance
cause chances are youll appreciate life
-and maybe poetrya little more.
This poem was solicited
by Canyon Crest Academy editors.

POETRY 57

I Wish I Were the Color Blue

I wish I were the color blue

Not the blue mixed with white and red
That leads armies and diplomats
Unfurling in desert winds screaming of democracy
That bleeds so selflessly and dies readily
For duty and honor and glory
Nowhen those returning home
If they step through my welcoming doors
I can be their safe house, but
I am not of the brave.
I would not mind being big
But not immense like the ocean blue
Which gives life and contains multitudes
I am content being small
I am capable of contradictions
But they do matter
Sometimes I struggle
With holding them all at once
My embrace is brief and my compassion uneven.

Peace

BY KHALID ABUDAWAS

BY STEVEN LE

wish I were the color blue

No, not the emotion
Which although can compose one hundred sonnets
Or turn a sunny Sunday morning cold
Can be at anothers whim
Incapable of self-control
BesidesI am not a metaphor.

Words

I wish I were the color blue

Mysteriouslike in that painting
Dominating the background
Leaving the gazers eyes
To focus on the guitar.
But I would not want to be one canvas of many
Not one in a series
That reflects the artists fascination
I would not want to be a period
I would rather be an ellipsis.
The color blue I wish to be
Is unaltered in naturesuch as
When white light takes a turn
And I venture far from red
Just below green and above indigo
Each of us separated from all
Yet all together make up the light
That when you look straight
You can with clear eyes see
And I, I just have to be me.

roblems appear from thin air

People say it isnt but the world is fair
All our minds are put at max capacity
Only sharing when forced to have the audacity
Yet it isnt worth the time if what we say isnt received
And if telling these things makes us feel anything but relieved
So care for your words
Like your sibling or dearest friend
Because they will make you or break you when the story comes
to an end.
This poem was solicited
by Pacific Ridge School editors.

BY IRENE AWINJA

e belongs to a family
A family of poor people
A family that cant say
Anything even if they are hurt
A family so humble
Ready to forgive and live in pain
They are hurt emotionally
Their children are affected
Affected by the words they are singing
Affected by the words they are preaching
They dont know their rights
And to pain they are left
They are slaves
Slaves in their motherland
Men are manipulated by gangs
Women are forced to give birth
Until no eggs remains in their wombs
He is fighting for their lives
Lives filled with danger and hunger

This poem was solicited

by Pacific Ridge School editors.

He is weak, weak and alone

Where will he get the strength?
The strength to fight for his people
To save thousands of lives with his one life
Thousands who live like refugees
Thousands of them dying daily
By the bullets and sufficient hunger
Their right to life is buried
Dug into the earth
Buried for life by rocks
They are of use only during construction
When as miners they strike gold
Thats when they are recognized
Rewarded in words and fake promises
Promises full of lies and hatred
They live like world animals
No peace, food and water
Sleeping while standing
With one eye open
Ready to run for their lives
Lives that they dread to live
He is fighting for their lives
They want peace and security
He wants to live with his family
To raise up his community
Run no more like crazy kids
Return home to smiles
He wants life.

Lobster and scallop fishing boats in Stonington, Maine. Photo courtesy of Larry E. Peterson, larrypetersonsmaine.com.

58 POETRY

A woman in Langa, South Africa. Photo courtesy of Chandler

Abbey.

This poem was written by a student at

Kibera Girls Soccer Academy.

POETRY 59

News and Updates

SOCIAL ACTION
VANTAGE NEWS
THE LAST WORD

Global Vantage News

Look inside GlobalVantages latest social action project.

Learn more about what is happening with GlobalVantage Magazine.
Asha Jaffar reflects on an incredible accomplishment and how she hopes it will resonate with the
Kibera community.

About Our Social Action Projects

At GlobalVantage, our mission is not only to share stories, but also to strengthen our local and global community through our Social Action
Projects. As we collect stories, we develop relationships, shed light on issues, and often discover specific projects we can undertake to help
to reduce or resolve these issues. This is where the concept of Social Action Projects was born. GlobalVantage works independently to plan,
coordinate, and manage our projects. As you read about our completed and current Social Action Projects, please consider the contribution you can make to ensure that we will continue to make a difference in our community.

Nonualco Scholarship Project - $1,100

Overview:
In Issue Eight of Global Vantage, Jos Rolando Barillas wrote an article about
the Nonualco Scholarship Program in the rural village of San Pedro Nonualco, El Salvador, that provides young people with the opportunity to attend college. The scholarship program is currently supporting 12 university
students through college. In order to be eligible for these scholarships, the
students must fulfill community service requirements. However, these students service projects are limited by the resources available to undertake
them. To help, Global Vantage provided resources for students to build a recreational area at an elementary school in San Pedro Nonualco.

Update:
This project has been fully funded as of Augustthe Becas Nonualco students and San Pedro community completed the construction over the summer.The opening ceremony is depicted in the photo below, and the plaques
and banners the community made to express its appreciation for our funding are seen in photos to the right. We feel extremely lucky to have helped
this community in need, and we intend to continue our social action project work well into the future.

GlobalVantage Summer Fundraising Event

GlobalVantage was honored to have Mr. Paul Orfalea speak at its fundraising event in August held at the Hilton Carlsbad Oceanfront, a primary sponsor of the event. Mr. Orfalea founded Kinkos in 1970 near the University of California at Santa Barbara
with a simple idea: provide products and services at a competitive price. From its modest beginnings, Kinkos became a twobillion-dollar a year company and the worlds leading business services chain, with over 1,200 branches worldwide, before
being acquired by FedEx and renamed FedEx Office. He retired from the company in 2000 to start the Orfalea Foundation,
which has been bringing people and organizations together to support school food reform, early childhood education, youth
development, critical community needs, and lifelong learning.
Mr. Orfaleas speech to members of our local community and our staff became the driving force behind our newfound motivations to expand readership and pursue more advertisements. Global Vantage editor Rahul Saripalli commented, Mr. Orfalea
made us realize that there is so much room to grow for our magazine. By challenging our current business procedures, Mr.
Orfalea allowed us to see that room for growth, especially in the business sense. He asked many members of the GlobalVantage
staff where they would go the next week to sell ads, and convinced them that ads could be soldthey just have to ask. He,
along with the generosity of the Hilton Carlsbad Oceanfront, helped to make the event a tremendous success in building financial stability for this school year.
The event was successful beyond financial bounds, as the planning process was an education in itself. Staff members from both
the editing and business teams learned real-world business skills, such as negotiating, partnering with community businesses,
budgeting, and meeting event deadlines. We hope that the lessons and skills learned from this event will directly benefit the
quality and longevity of the magazine.

Find GlobalVantage Online!

We are expanding our online presence through our website (Vantage.theGJP.org)
and social networking platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Find us online by searching for Global Vantage, or simply use the QR codes to the right to go directly to
our Facebook and Twitter pages. Subscribers will receive updates on articles and
Chapter news.
Have a question or a comment? You can register on our website to post comments
on specific articles. If you wish to communicate with the staff, feel free to message
us on either Facebook or Twitter or email vantage@thegjp.org.

60 NEWS AND UPDATES

NEWS AND UPDATES 61

The Last Word

BY ASHA JAFFAR

n December 2013, I was invited to address a crowd of 5,000 people in Kibera by Action Aid. It was an event
that celebrated women who have totally revolutionized Kibera, and I felt grateful to be called. I have to
say it, was a dream come true. A few months later I was published on Guardian-U.K. after winning a writing
competition. All these achievements in a span of a year told me something different: you are really not your
background or where you come from. You are what you choose to be, and I chose to be awesome and brave.
Being called to address my community members in an official way was a moment that took me back to my days
as the students president at KGSA, and as an advocate for girls and womens right in Kibera. I felt that after
a long time, Kibera was looking up to me. There were girls who would hear me speak. I was sure that with the
knowledge I got from KGSA and Kibera, everything would work out. I was taught to be a leader and a fighter,
and to never accept other peoples opinion about me unless it would help to build me.
I always say that belief is a strong item in a persons life. I always knew that I would one day be beneficial to
my community and to the young girls who looked up to me. The speech was the chance of a lifetime, and goes
to show that a person can be an asset to his or her community regardless of age and background.
I was called to give a speech by one of the biggest NGOs in the world not because I knew people who could
connect me, but because they saw in me what many have seen in me: leadership qualities. I was the first young
person to ever be asked to address a large crowd in Kibera.
I told my story of being a student at KGSA, going to university, and encountering many obstacles that I had
to deal with to reach the place that I am today. I had to believe in myself, have courage, and keep going even
when no one believed in me. Once you tell yourself you are going far, you will get there.Your mind gets plans
from you and it is you who must draw a nice diagram of yourself.
After my speech, I was given a chance to work for Action Aids Youth Network. I was to go around Kenya
training and mentoring young people who have the passion to change the world like I did. For me, it only took
one thing: self-belief.

Photo courtesy of Dylan McCallum.

Support GLOBAL VANTAGE

Global Vantage would like to thank all of its donors who made this issue possible. To offset the printing costs, we rely on readers like you to support our
efforts. With your help, we are able to bring you stories from various generations, perspectives, and parts of the world. As you enjoy the stories on
the preceding pages, please consider donating in one of the following ways:
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Asha Jaffar presents her speech to her community.

Colophon
Issue 10 of Global Vantage was created using Adobe InDesign CC on Apple
Macbook Pro computers.
The section headers in this issue were
set in Century Gothic Bold (46 pt.), the
article titles were set in Century Gothic
(26 pt.), the article body text was set in
Perpetua (10 pt.), the authors names
were set in Optima (12 pt.), the biographies and captions were set in Minion
Pro Bold Italic (9.5 pt.), the footnotes
were set in Perpetua (7 pt.), and the
Staff List and Colophon were set in
Century Gothic (8 pt.).
The magazines 64 pages are printed
on 80# paper, gloss finish, saddle stitch,
full color. 1,000 copies have been produced at the cost of $5,000 dollars.
The magazine template was designed
by Alexandra Cortes, Gabrielle Clarke,
Rachel Perelman, and Delaney Miller.
For all other design and layout credits, please reference the Staff List on
the inside front cover. If you would like
more information or wish to reproduce
any articles featured in this magazine,
please contact the editing staff at:
vantage.editor@thegjp.org.

Support our work:

Global Vantage relies on donations from

our readers to produce the magazine
and to fund projects. All donors can
specify where their funds go. If you
would like to donate, please visit
secure.thegjp.org.
All donations are tax-deductible in the
United States.

Canyon Crest
Academy