Friday, May 05, 2006
Conference on World Affairs
Here are some papers I wrote on the events I went to at this years Conference on Wolrd Affairs. The CWA is a great opportunity to learn appliable knowledge to succeding outside of the classroom and also to learn about the world. The four events I attended were
Friends - the Family We Choose
Sports and The Meaning of Life
Quarter Life Cunundrum - from college to cubicle
Is Islam a Real Threat to teh West?
Friends – The Family we Choose
The three panelists that spoke on this topic were Barbara Cambridge, Marion Swaybill , and Susan Zolla-Pazner. The three women spoke from very different backgrounds but one common theme prevailed.
Ms. Cambridge was born in a traditional black neighborhood in the south, surrounded by family. As a young girl she married and moved with her husband far from her family and friends to Western Texas. She addressed a scenario that was my main reason for attending this lecture, when you move to a new place, how do you reestablish a network of friends. When I graduate college, there is no telling where I might end up, and probably only few if any of my current friends and family will live there. She explained that she had not reached out and made new friends, that her husband was her only friend. Sadly, her husband passed away and she was left in a town with no one but two children to raise. She learned to branch out and make friends with people of common interest, people from her church and people from her work. In the end, she has had a rewarding life by leaning on her friends for support
Ms. Swaybill and Ms. Zolla-Pazner provided insight on how their relationship was formed. Days after Ms. Swaybill’s husband passed there was a dinner at their common synagogue. When Susan noticed that no one had sat next to Marion she did so sympathetically. After years of seeing each other but never speaking more than greetings, in one night they bonded. Now they have a rewarding relationship.
The biggest learning experience of the lecture may have been an obvious point but it spoke true in a new profound way. Friends are an important and rewarding part of life, they make the best moments better and the worst moments brighter. But making friends requires thought and effort, thought and effort that is worthwhile.
Sports and the Meaning of Life
This one was kind of a waste of time. But I heard a great quote, "I want to have Muhammad Ali's body for one day because there are two guys I want to beat up and three girls I want to screw.”
Quarter Life Conundrum
I learned two valuable things from this panel. One is that Patch Adams, the doctor portrayed in the movie by Robin Williams is insane, more so than even Robin Williams. He was in his late 60’s and had his grey hair slicked back in a pony tail, half of it painted blue. He is so left he is basically a communist and he called Bush a Nazi. The other thing I learned was that it is more than ok, it is great, to leave college not knowing what is going to happen for the rest of your life. An Ex-film student at CU said it best, when you go to High School you come in as a freshman and you don’t really know what it will be like but you figure it out. When you go to college you come in as a freshman and you don’t really know what it will be like but you figure it out. When you graduate college you enter “the real world” as a freshman and you don’t really know what it will be like but you figure it out. That will be me, I will figure it out.
Is Islam a Real Threat to the West
If you were keeping score at this discussion of Ahmad Ghoreishi, Daniel Odescalchi , Lewis M. Simons , and Kim Thachuk, the score would be three to one, yes. Everyone in the room listening to the panelists, including the panelists themselves could tell that an amazingly insightful conversation was taking place. All four panelists had a unique and intimate relationship with the current volatile Muslim world. Mr. Ghoreishi, the sole Muslim panelist, provided insight from his experience as US-Iran relations advisor. Mr. Odescalchi currently works as an advisor in Iraq to establish free-market economic policies. Mr. Simons, a Pulitzer Prize winning author, has extensive personal experience with the Muslim population in South-East Asia. Ms. Thachuk works for the Department of Defense for issues related to transnational terrorism, crime syndicates, and drug trafficking.
The panelists strongly emphasized that Islam itself is not a threat, in fact a majority of Muslims have more common beliefs with modern Americans then Islamic terrorists groups. The war is not between the West and Islam but instead between Muslims who want to live like it is the middle ages and Muslims who want to live like it is the 21st century. Mr. Odescalchi spoke of his experience in Jordan where the majority of its population likes the United States, they just worry because they know that Americans do not separate them from the most extreme Muslims.
Mr. Simons had interesting insight about the largest Muslim population, those of South-East Asia. Where thirty years ago, during the Vietnam war, a majority of the regions Muslims we’re quite ambivalent to world affairs and we’re uninterested in American policy, now anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism is bigger in these countries than anywhere in the Middle East.
With the consensus that the war is not between the United States and Islam, the question was raised, should the United States get involved and protect their interests? The answer from the panelists was as passionate as it was surprising, YES. The United States has an interest for security and the passion for human rights around the world to stop extreme Muslims from committing the atrocities around the world from the World Trade Center, to women’s rights, to mass destruction and genocide in Africa.
Friends - the Family We Choose
Sports and The Meaning of Life
Quarter Life Cunundrum - from college to cubicle
Is Islam a Real Threat to teh West?
Friends – The Family we Choose
The three panelists that spoke on this topic were Barbara Cambridge, Marion Swaybill , and Susan Zolla-Pazner. The three women spoke from very different backgrounds but one common theme prevailed.
Ms. Cambridge was born in a traditional black neighborhood in the south, surrounded by family. As a young girl she married and moved with her husband far from her family and friends to Western Texas. She addressed a scenario that was my main reason for attending this lecture, when you move to a new place, how do you reestablish a network of friends. When I graduate college, there is no telling where I might end up, and probably only few if any of my current friends and family will live there. She explained that she had not reached out and made new friends, that her husband was her only friend. Sadly, her husband passed away and she was left in a town with no one but two children to raise. She learned to branch out and make friends with people of common interest, people from her church and people from her work. In the end, she has had a rewarding life by leaning on her friends for support
Ms. Swaybill and Ms. Zolla-Pazner provided insight on how their relationship was formed. Days after Ms. Swaybill’s husband passed there was a dinner at their common synagogue. When Susan noticed that no one had sat next to Marion she did so sympathetically. After years of seeing each other but never speaking more than greetings, in one night they bonded. Now they have a rewarding relationship.
The biggest learning experience of the lecture may have been an obvious point but it spoke true in a new profound way. Friends are an important and rewarding part of life, they make the best moments better and the worst moments brighter. But making friends requires thought and effort, thought and effort that is worthwhile.
Sports and the Meaning of Life
This one was kind of a waste of time. But I heard a great quote, "I want to have Muhammad Ali's body for one day because there are two guys I want to beat up and three girls I want to screw.”
Quarter Life Conundrum
I learned two valuable things from this panel. One is that Patch Adams, the doctor portrayed in the movie by Robin Williams is insane, more so than even Robin Williams. He was in his late 60’s and had his grey hair slicked back in a pony tail, half of it painted blue. He is so left he is basically a communist and he called Bush a Nazi. The other thing I learned was that it is more than ok, it is great, to leave college not knowing what is going to happen for the rest of your life. An Ex-film student at CU said it best, when you go to High School you come in as a freshman and you don’t really know what it will be like but you figure it out. When you go to college you come in as a freshman and you don’t really know what it will be like but you figure it out. When you graduate college you enter “the real world” as a freshman and you don’t really know what it will be like but you figure it out. That will be me, I will figure it out.
Is Islam a Real Threat to the West
If you were keeping score at this discussion of Ahmad Ghoreishi, Daniel Odescalchi , Lewis M. Simons , and Kim Thachuk, the score would be three to one, yes. Everyone in the room listening to the panelists, including the panelists themselves could tell that an amazingly insightful conversation was taking place. All four panelists had a unique and intimate relationship with the current volatile Muslim world. Mr. Ghoreishi, the sole Muslim panelist, provided insight from his experience as US-Iran relations advisor. Mr. Odescalchi currently works as an advisor in Iraq to establish free-market economic policies. Mr. Simons, a Pulitzer Prize winning author, has extensive personal experience with the Muslim population in South-East Asia. Ms. Thachuk works for the Department of Defense for issues related to transnational terrorism, crime syndicates, and drug trafficking.
The panelists strongly emphasized that Islam itself is not a threat, in fact a majority of Muslims have more common beliefs with modern Americans then Islamic terrorists groups. The war is not between the West and Islam but instead between Muslims who want to live like it is the middle ages and Muslims who want to live like it is the 21st century. Mr. Odescalchi spoke of his experience in Jordan where the majority of its population likes the United States, they just worry because they know that Americans do not separate them from the most extreme Muslims.
Mr. Simons had interesting insight about the largest Muslim population, those of South-East Asia. Where thirty years ago, during the Vietnam war, a majority of the regions Muslims we’re quite ambivalent to world affairs and we’re uninterested in American policy, now anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism is bigger in these countries than anywhere in the Middle East.
With the consensus that the war is not between the United States and Islam, the question was raised, should the United States get involved and protect their interests? The answer from the panelists was as passionate as it was surprising, YES. The United States has an interest for security and the passion for human rights around the world to stop extreme Muslims from committing the atrocities around the world from the World Trade Center, to women’s rights, to mass destruction and genocide in Africa.
