What GPP 105 Meant to a South Korean Girl

Since my GPP 105 course is coming to an end, I find it is necessary to conclude some thoughts on my experiences with this course. I was born in Incheon, South Korea, but began attending a boarding school alone since 10 in the states. And, I have been working with Women's Economic Agenda Project  (WEAP) in Oakland, California. WEAP is a non-profit organization that works with females from low-income background. 

Taking Prof. Robert Reich's Wealth and Poverty class during my first year at Cal had introduced me to the severity of inequality throughout the globe. Every time I set in his lecture, my mind was busy working with the concepts he introduced. However, working with social and economic justice advocates, and males in the feminist realm of urban development had taught me physically of how gender is imbedded into the structure of urban poverty. I began my practice with an initial understanding of the relation between gender and urban poverty, but the insights I gained from working with WEAP had taught me something new, and different from the countless scholarly readings I had done in my Feminist Theory class or in GPP 105. 

I couldn't understand what had been the difference between physically observing or listening to the cases involving gender, and scholarly reading about them, until I heard the news. The one about South Korean ship sinking. Yes, the one that still remains in the sea with corpses of innocent teenagers. 

It was my gender, race, educational background, and ethnicity that had made the difference. When I was at WEAP's meetings or trainings, I experienced how my appearance as an Asian girl from a renown university affected my work in this field. I was the only Asian present in trainings and meetings, and I felt as the minority within a crowd of colored and white advocates. And, it was not the first time. I had experienced something similar when I worked weekly as a economic advisor in homeless shelters including the one that only had females. To make things worse, I lived alone for the most of my life in cities with high crime rates. With all these experiences and courses I have taken on gender issues, I could not help but to become conscious of the remarks or comments I get from the individuals based on my gender or race. And, what the literature could not provide me was this communication. 

The South Korean ship tragedy demonstrated the epic fail of communication. It was actually a nightmare to watch the news. I often slept with my South Korean news channel played live 24/7 with a hope to hear something better than what I had heard in the previous days. And, I realized I was a South Korean working with issues that seemed to be mainly focused in foreign countries. I could not figure out what I had gained that reflected by nationality. And, I, as a South Korean student completed elementary, middle, and high school curriculums in the U.S., was not happy and confident about my progress in the foreign field. 

I was wrong. Taking GPP 105, interning at WEAP, and exploring my interests in a foreign country was a great way to navigate where I seem to standing in different societal structures. Without this course, I would not have accomplished certain types of self-evaluations within different society. And, GPP 105 was an opportune for me to not only gather qualitative or quantitative data of global poverty and inequality, but also to interact with these issues. I was constantly opening up dialogues about the issues within myself. And, it was GPP 105 that allowed me to do so.

Disaster "Relief" in New Jersey

Find the article here! http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/4/30/fema-sandy-aid.html

Although Superstorm Sandy occurred a year and a half ago, the people of the states of New Jersey and New York are still suffering. As devastating as the actual event was to the people living in the area, the aftermath and lack of support is the real tragedy. FEMA has just discontinued support although Many people relied on FEMA money after the hurricane to pay their high rents while their houses were being rebuilt. New York and New Jersey promised better support at the time of the incident, but little has been done to help former home owners; many are still paying for expensive temporary housing with little sign of return or aid to rebuild their old homes. These expenses leave very little money to pay to remodel homes to fit state standards, especially for people who were low-income to begin with. The applications for state government aid have been notoriously slow to respond, unclear in their language, and not reaching underserved populations such as non-English speakers. There have been many cases and paperwork lost as well. Clearly something is wrong with the process currently in place.

The Fair Share Housing Center, a legal team based in New Jersey, piloted the "Sandy Bill of Rights," a lists of the rights that people recovering from the superstorm should be entitled to. The legal team is urging the governor to sign the bill of rights to show his true commitment to the people of New Jersey. The rights include:  

-The right to a plain language explanation of the application process for any recovery funds;
• The right to know why an application is rejected and to appeal that rejection with a specified timeframe;
• The right to know current status of an application and position on any wait list;
• The right to access information in English, Spanish, and any other language spoken by impacted communities;
• The right to a review of racial and ethnic disparities in funding and corrections of any problems;
• The right to have funds distributed by amount of damage and not based on political or other considerations;
• The right to transparent information online about how funds are being distributed.

The Bill of Rights acknowledges that government-aided recourses are distributed unfairly, leaving poorer and more disadvantaged people even more at risk and in debt. This Bill of Rights seeks to provide better services to lessen the inequality of the resources distribution and make the modes of doing so more fair.

What do you think? Is this another Katrina? Do disasters and lack of relief reveal government insufficiency? Can grassroots organizations, like the Fair Share Housing Center, make a change in government operations?

Preparing for College in Kindergarten

          A New York primary school recently canceled an end-of-the-year play for kindergarteners. The reason? The teachers and administration “are responsible for preparing children for college and career with valuable lifelong skills and know that we can best do that by having them become strong readers, writers, coworkers and problem solvers,” according to a signed letter sent out to the parents. Basically, the school felt that the putting on a play was not an effective use of the kindergarteners’ limited studying time.

Although I personally find this premise ridiculous, I assume the parents enrolled their kids in this school with knowledge of just how seriously it took college readiness. If the parents dislike it, they can switch their kids to other schools. But there is a more serious underlying issue here – as the wealthy start preparing their kids for college in kindergarten, students in less intense schools will fall further behind in their competiveness. Students who have been trained to write college application essays from the age of five will undoubtedly be at an advantage. And since a college diploma is one of the biggest determinants of a well-paying career and success in this country, a vicious cycle will be propagated. The rich will get richer as they become even more advantaged in the college admissions process, while low-income students will struggle or be trapped, unable to get acceptance letters from the top universities.

Canceling a kindergarten play may seem like a minor event, but I think it speaks to larger issues of educational inequality in the United States. I don’t know what the best course of action is, but I know that the current trend is unfair and, quite frankly, makes no one happy. Regardless of background or aspirations, kindergarten should be a time of finger painting and picture books, not standardized tests and studying.

The article can be read here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/04/26/kindergarten-show-canceled-so-kids-can-keep-working-to-become-college-and-career-ready-really/?tid=pm_pop