Reflection on Symposium

For symposium, I attended presentations by Danica and Madeline Braver. For Danica, she looked at attitudes towards LGBTQ+ individuals in Latin America, emphasizing the relationship between the number of out LGBTQ+ legislators in Latin American and the acceptance of LGBTQ+ individuals in the countries. She provided a comprehensive analysis, looking at over 10 different Latin American counties and ended up finding a consistent link between counties with LGBTQ+ legislators and improved acceptance of LGBTQ+ individuals. I think she portrayed the region fairly, with equal attention and treatment paid to countries, and no normative claims made without clear data to back them up.

For Madeline, she looked at the maintenance and efficacy of community water pumps in Ghana and a few Central American countries, finding that there are a number of factors that affect the efficacy of those pumps, including community by-in and the regulation of the pumps. While her project was not centrally focused on Latin America, I still believe she presented a balanced and data driven view of the region that left a good impression with me.

IS Symposium

I attended the IS presentation of Nancy Grazon and Alondra Correa. Nancy’s IS was titled “The Opportunity to Succeed: An Analysis of First-Generation, Latinx College Student Aspirations, Family Expectations, and definitions of Success,” and Alondra’s presentation was titled “Lo Bueno Y Lo Malo: A Critical Analysis of Mexican-American Machismo,” which both deals with the diasporic side of Latinx people.

Nancy’s presentation emphasized the children that have arrived in the United States and their hopes for themselves but mostly hops that have been imposed by their immigrant family members.  She emphasized how this pressure from family can have positive and negative effects, mostly at the same time.

Alondra’s presentation discussed the effects of machismo on the Mexican-American women, college educated and not. She empathized that it is not uncommon to have positive experiences with the machismo, however, more commonly was the negative experiences. Another interesting thing emphasized is how the participants were in agreement that both sexes and the different genders can be machistas.

Class Notes April 19th

iMovie Workshop

The class was on the appropriate usage of iMovie for the final project for the class. Since it was a workshop, there was no historical analysis or readings assigned for the day. Questions on iMovie were asked such as how to find non-copyright music and how to backup the file. Sharing the iMovie in other forms such as .mp4 or .avi takes a long time, so a student must finish their work before the last moment. Transitions must be simple, no spinning around, and the photo must last at least 4 seconds.

Students may use other forms such as Windows Movie Maker or Final Cut but iMovie can be the easiest way to approach this project so it was recommended. I have used Windows Movie Maker beforehand and it was really tough to edit the video. This workshop hopefully helped people like me who do not know how to use iMovie at all. Audacity is a great tool to record one’s voice and edit.

Key terms:

No key terms.

For more information:

College of Wooster iMovie Workshop

http://educationaltechnology.woooster.edu/imovie-workshop

  • there are free music site links on the website.

Audacity Official Website

http://audacityteam.org/

IS Symposium Blog

For I.S. Symposium I attended two Latin American presentations on Kauke 2nd Floor. The first one was called “More Coffee Please?: The Present and Future of the Coffee Industry in Columbia and Honduras in Light of Oppressive Climate Change,” by Diana Bickmore. It was about how Climate Change is affecting Arabica coffee bean growth in these countries and could be detrimental to the local farmers growing them. Latin America is considered important in this because most coffee production comes from Latin America, and as well as Africa. The second presentation I went to was called “Adopted Across Cultures: A Comparative Analysis of Adoption Attitudes between the United States and Honduras,” by Sidney Irias. Unfortunately, she was not there to present but, I read through her poster. It was mostly saying that people, dependent on their religious, gender, and age had different opinions as to adopting children from the country. An example of the opinions is religious, and Catholic families in the United States would be more willing to adopt a Catholic Honduran if they cannot have a child. It didn’t have an opinion per say on Latin America, but the topic was related.

From Janitor to Chief Justice: Could Joaquim Barbosa be Brazil’s Next President?

Joaquim Barbosa made history in 2003 when he became the first black Supreme Court Justice. He is a man who came from nothing and fights for the poor and and focusses on stopping the corruption that happens within the Brazilian government. He is a surprise candidate for presidency as he announced that he was running very late. In the first poll conducted on April 15 he was put at 10% of the vote. This was surprising as he has done very little campaigning as well as his lack of notoriety amongst voters. Barbosa being the wild card of the election is taking part of an election that in considered to be one of the most unpredictable in Brazil since the mid 1980s. The man who leads in the polls is Jair Bolsonaro. This is extremely controversial as he was recently charged with inciting racism and discrimination against blacks. This is everything that Barbosa is against. Barbosa is an advocate for the poor and colored community while Bolsonaro fights for the common person.

 

Barbosa was raised in the poor city a Paracatu in the Minds Gerais State. His father worked as a brick layer and worked for a short time as a janitor in the courtroom of Brasília. He was also the only black student in his law school class at the University of Brazília. While he looks like a candidate that can speak for the common person as well as all the minorities in Brazil people fear that if he is elected the state of Brazil may be unstable. The support for Bolsonaro comes from this fear as people are afraid of crime. Miguel Oliveira a 47 year old maintenance worker had this to say about Barbosa: “He at least knows what it means to be poor in a country where politicians are stealing all of the money.” While his values are something that many people would want his lack of experience in politics and very little connections within the government make it a stretch that he would get the support for presidency.

Brazil is once again pictured as a broken country that deals with problems of race, corruption, and a lack of support for the poor community. While you see Barbosa making steps in the government as a back man it is still very evident that he will need more people to be open to the idea that he is running. They are however portrayed as showing that they are making progress and want to make change. This will all be up in the air however as the election comes up this October. This election can help bring Brazil further or take more steps backwards in the wrong direction.

This fits into the class scheme as this race has a lot to do with race issues within Brazil as well as corrupted politicians. The leader of the initial poll has had many issues with the law including racism and corruption yet he still leads the polls due to the fear and stability of Brazils government. If Brazil wants to take a step towards a corruption free government and help bring a voice to the minorities and local people Barbosa seems like a candidate that should pick up traction. While he lacks experience and connections his values and blunt attitude towards these issues should be enough to make him a real candidate.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/20/world/americas/joaquim-barbosa-brazil.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Famericas&action=click&contentCollection=americas&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=17&pgtype=sectionfront

IS symposium

The first presentation I attended was a project over the coffee production in Honduras,and Nicaragua, and why the major environmental changes occurring are greatly impacting the production of the coffee beans. Both these countries main coffee bean export is the Arabica Bean, which need specif conditions to grow, and with all the climate change, its getting harder to get the conditions needed to grow these beans. She addressed the why the conditions are changing and what those countries plus other major countries could do to help cut down on the pollution creating these terrible environmental changes.
The second presentation I went to was comparing child adoptions in Honduras and the united states. The presenter took a look at how in the united states adoption is more focused on the legal side and is more formal, and in Honduras adoptions are more informal and not so focused on the legality of the actual adoption itself.

Class Notes 4/17

Todays class was started by two book presentations. The first of which was by Danny which discussed the impact of the Olympics and what the damage of having all the abandoned stadiums. The impact and money spent on the olympics and the stadiums was massive and now these stadiums are not being used. This causes a lot of issues in Brazil. The second book presentation was Woo. This went more into the football aspect of the sport. Talking about the issues of race in football as well as what makes Brazilian football so special. The style of play is unique to brazil as well as having an international impact as many Brazilian players don’t actually play in the Brazilian League. Both of these presentations went well with both of the readings. Going into depth about the slums of Brazil and the idea of sandlot football where you see poor Brazilians play football. This is where the style of Brazilian football comes into play. Because of their playing conditions you see this flashy play as they literally grew up playing on the streets of Brazil. The game continues to be this way as all Brazilian talent goes and plays overseas. This has been an issue for Brazil but as long as the pay does not change in the Brazilian league you will continue to see this.

Key Terms

Mestizo- Term for Brazilians with African American Heritage. This was prevalent today as this was a common term used in the reading as well as in our discussion.

Neymar- Most famous Brazilian Footballer who plays abroad at PSG

Sources

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/09/sports/soccer/brazilian-soccer-pursues-a-remake-by-returning-to-its-past-.html

Explaining where Brazilian soccer will go from this point on.

https://nacla.org/article/beautiful-game-race-and-class-brazilian-soccer

Goes into Brazils past and shows the beginning of football.

https://mic.com/articles/93814/7-big-problems-the-world-cup-left-behind-in-brazil#.Xoo8aJW2p

Shows the issues with hosting the Olympics and what Brazil is doing now to solve the problem.

Brazil History and Culture

For my Brazil history and culture post I read an article about Jair Bolsonaro, a highly controversial right wing candidate in the Brazilian presidential election. The article begins by describing a Bolsonaro rally in Roraima, a town in northern Brazil, and vividly describes the excitement and enthusiasm he inspires among his supporters. It then goes on to describe Bolsonaro’s distasteful characteristics, such as his racism, sexism and homophobia. In addition to these alarming traits, Bolsonaro’s history of supporting dictatorship over democracy is also discussed. Indeed, he publicly stated that he was “in favor of a dictatorship” during his first term in congress. The article also points out that he was convicted of inciting hate speech due to his long history of attacking women and minority groups. However, despite these glaring problems Bolsonaro is currently the front runner in the election with 18% support in polls, although he is considered unlikely to win.

Bolsonaro about to address a crowd at a campaign rally:

Image result for jair bolsonaro campaign rally

The article continues its analysis by comparing Bolsonaro to Donald Trump. It described his populism campaign pledges to promote “law and order”, be “tough on crime”, root out corruption and curb Chinese influence. In addition to similarities in political agendas the article argues that Trump and Bolsonaro share a style of speaking that is improvised, rambling, and light on facts. It goes on to say that Bolsonaro may be actively copying Trump’s strategies, which could be effective given the similarities between the United States and Brazil. The article concludes by comparing Trump’s claims of a “rigged” election to Bolsonaro’s claims that electoral fraud could take place, raising the possibility that even if he is defeated, he could undermine the legitimacy of the government.

Bolsonaro at a Campaign rally:

Jair Bolsonaro during a rally in Curitiba, Brazil, on 29 March.

The overall portrayal of Brazil in this article is fairly neutral and unbiased, and often based on comparisons to the United States. The reader gets the impression that the United States and Brazil share important political similarities that have contributed to populist success, much as Trump and Bolsonaro themselves are similar. In general, the article focuses mostly on Bolsonaro and his similarities to Trump rather than on Brazil as a whole.

Bolsonaro’s campaign can be understood in the context of a worldwide surge in populist politics. In addition to Donald Trump’s victory in the 2016 election, populists have also become increasingly common in Europe with Brexit representing a clear populist victory. Additionally, populist parties have increased in popularity in many European countries, particularly in Germany, Italy, and France. Bolsonaro has also exploited racial and social tensions in order to motivate his voter base and promote his candidacy. His attacks on women and people of color are calculated to draw the support of a voter base that is resentful of change and wants to maintain a stranglehold on political influence. These tactics are reminiscent of Trump’s attempts to blame America’s problems on immigrants. Bolsonaro also attacks the social structure of Brazil by claiming that his opponents are spreading fake news and dismissing all of their claims as lies, thus spreading distrust and discontent and undermining the validity of objective truth. These tactics are also common among populists including Trump. In conclusion, I agree with the article’s claim that Bolsonaro is essentially using Trumpian tactics and that he poses a threat to democracy in Brazil.

link to the article: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/19/jair-bolsonaro-brazil-presidential-candidate-trump-parallels

IS Symposium

Happy Symposium Day!
I attended Danica’s poster presentation on the effects of LGBTQIA+ legislators on public perceptions of same-sex rights. Her results show that while all aspects of an individual’s identity factor into levels of approval for same-sex rights, having an out LGBTQIA+ member of the legislature does have an additional impact on public perception. She portrayed the Latin American countries in her study as significantly more progressive on the issue of same-sex rights than what many US and European focused scholars/publics might expect.
I also attended Sarah Vonck’s G&IS/Spanish poster presentation on the connection between Ecuadorian environmental policy and the treatment of Ecuador’s indigenous population. Her project emphasized the tension between the demands of political structures and humanitarian concerns of indigenous populations. In discussing part of her data, Sarah focused on her interpretation of primary reports of oil extraction, arguing it is skewed lower than the numbers suggest as the Ecuadorian government wanted to appear to be making environmental progress regardless of the real state of extraction.

Wasteland questions

What are some of the negative aspects of activist art?

Preliminary answer: sometimes the practice of activist art like the kind portrayed in the film is exploitative and can be used to elevate the clout of an artist rather than think of the long term implications of their work and charity.

How does the film add to your perception of life in favelas?
Preliminary answer: I had heard and seen vague documentaries about the poverty, but not seen the human aspect of it. It was intriguing to see people in such crushing poverty attempt their best to be happy and make the best out of the situation. The one scene that really made me sad and showed me how difficult life could be in these favelas was when the boss and his workers cried because he was mugged when trying to come back from the bank with the Picker’s wages and the workers had to get by for a week without money.