Klara’s Universe

The biggest challenge encountered by youth in Sweden nowadays is finding our identity, I think. One can argue this is indeed the essence of being a youth and growing up, wherever you are. It is of course true. But at the same time, I feel this issue is even more problematic in a country like Sweden, where due to liberal immigration policies the population has become increasingly diversified over the past 30-20 years. The current generation of youth in Sweden today are exactly the ones who for the first time experience this increasing diversification among themselves, being it in terms of ethnicity, religion or general social practices. This obviously positive aspect of today’s Swedish society however has lead to a more challenging interpretation of finding one’s identity or relating to the other youth members of the society. This in turn triggers a series of other major problems amongst youth, like street violence, use of drugs, asocial behaviour, etc.

The situation can be viewed from two sides. On the one hand the second generation of offspring from immigrant families, who were most probably born and raised in Sweden, speak Swedish to perfection and even are Swedish citizens, are caught between the two realities of their daily lives, of their double identity. They speak Swedish at school and with their friends and they get a Swedish education elbow to elbow with the Swedish youth of Swedish heritage, while at home they might use a different native language with their parents and receive a different education based on different social and cultural values, that can sometimes clash with the ones they get at school. To complicate things further, this crisis of belongingness is doubled by a negative, sometimes violent reaction to what they perceive as discrimination or injustice from other members of the society. They feel other people, the Swedes of Swedish heritage look down on them because of their skin color, religion or “immigrant” status, which naturally triggers an adverse reaction that can translate into hatred towards this group of people and lead to further isolation into their own communities, increasing the gap between the two sections of the society. Many youth feel that since they are discriminated anyway, it is ok to engage in vandalism or other minor crimes, which moreover, could be seen as “cool” or “brave”  things to do to their peers in the group.

At the other end of the spectrum are the Swedes who are descendants of Swedish families. They have played since kindergarden with children of other races, ethnicities and religions, they went to school with them, they even made friends. Still, they see that there are sometimes ovbious differences between them in terms of social standards and culture, in terms of mentality and behaviour. Due to media and other sources of information, they also start feeling unsure whether these people coming from elsewhere should be here, whether they are not taking up their seats in universities or later their jobs and many of them have negative feelings towards the other youth of non-Swedish heritage. They might also notice that some of them isolate themselves in parallel communities and fell that they are having a greater propension for agressive behaviour. For example it is possible for them to feel that young people who are not entirely of Swedish descendance shout a lot when they talk to each other in the public transport, while the Swedish people tend to be more quiet and careful not to disturb others. And they therefore develop a rejection mode which makes it even more difficult for them to be able to reach out and communicate. This also leeds in time to agressive behaviour, discriminative language and attitude towards the children of immigrants.

Another problem which is peculiar to Sweden, and maybe other Nordic countries, is alcoholism. This doesn’t limit itself to youth, but young people in Sweden are definitely drawn to it, since they feel they are young, they have one shot in life to have fun while young and want to drink to attain that happiness, be it during university parties or just the regular Saturday night clubbing. It is interesting to observe this challenge is specific to both youth of Swedish descent and of mixed descent. Peer-pressure also plays a great role and seeing that parents or elder members of society do it uninhibitedly also influences them, just like the other youth in their group might. They might think that they will be left out of their community or group if they do not drink a lot at parties, being considered boring or cowards. If you come to think of it, alcoholism is also a manifestation of the same general challenge, namely finding one’s identity. Youngsters drink to prove to their peers who they are, that they are brave and fun-loving and are not scared of getting drunk. They might also drink to wipe away the problems in their life, their insecurity regarding their identity in the first place.

I think all these challenges and issues can be solved through adequate and targeted education. Just like we hear in the Art of Living courses, nobody in school teaches us how to healthily and harmouniously live our lives. All teachers encourage us to be calm, peaceful and decided, know what we want in life and be kind to the ones around us. You might even want to integrate yourself into a different society or accept people integrate into your society, but what lacks is the knowledge how to do it, how to let go of all past frustrations and misconceptions that accumulated and became a bridge between you and the others on the one hand, and between who you want to be and who you are. One great solution to this is having more community awareness classes and workshops, creating more cross-cultural activities and events where the common points and the common heritage is highlighted instead of the points and practices that divide us. We, youth that live now in Sweden need to understand and believe that what connects us is so much wider and important than what divides us. And then, we will really be able to create a harmonious, stress-free, violence-free society wher we can flourish and reach out to one another!

Language is not only characteristic to human beings, it equally relies on human characteristics and values of tolerance, understanding and reaching out. The existence of languages implies the tolerance of listening, because “All speech, written or spoken, is a dead language, until it finds a willing and prepared hearer”. (Robert Louis Stevenson) Moreover, learning other languages enables you to better and objectively analyse your own. As the great Goethe warned, “Those who know nothing of foreign languages know nothing of their own”. A Swedish proverb says that “The trouble with foreign languages is, you have to think before your speak” and in fact, each language enriches its master with a different perspective of the world and triggers different cognitive-analytical processes.

Language is a living organism. Language continuously changes in both content and shape, in both time and space, because, to borrow the words of Victor Hugo, “A language does not become fixed. The human intellect is always on the march, or, if you prefer, in movement, and languages with it”. New generations entail new ideas and the discovery of a new language entails new ways of formulating ideas. This sharing of goods and exchange of ideas has historically contributed to spreading awareness of and lead to the concept of a common identity.

Globalization was born out of the same impulse to communicate, to reach out and explore. It therefore equally implies the necessity of a common ground for communication and relies on the pre-requisite existence of a lingua franca. As proved by Ferdinand de Saussure‘s linguistic research, a language becomes lingua franca based on the gradual tolerance of it by the community and not on a unanimously endorsed agreement. When becoming lingua franca, a language also inherits the multiple responsibilities of a common media. Its strength relies, as formulated by Goethe centuries ago, not in rejecting what is foreign but in assimilating it: “The force of a language does not consist of rejecting what is foreign but of swallowing it”.

A lingua franca has therefore the responsibility to show tolerance and engage in efforts of protecting other languages and cultures. It should equally help avoid misunderstandings and provide a rational common base for consensus, because more often than not, “Language is the source of misunderstandings”. (Antoine de Saint-Exupery) One of the pre-requisites for a language to be used on a global scale, as previously stated, is easing the flow of human resources and ideas. Ensuring the continuity of this flow is also a vital task for a widespread language. It has been repeatedly underlined that knowledge of languages not only guarantees a comfortable travelling experience, but also acts as a self-defining mechanism. In Anton Chekhov’s words, “Without a knowledge of languages you feel as if you don’t have a passport”.

After Latin and French in Europe or Chinese and Persian in Asia, it is the turn of English to play the key role of lingua franca in our highly globalised and technological world. As with its illustrious predecessors, English’s status as a lingua franca today is a real fact and subjecting it to debates based on the moral dichotomy of good and bad is already an irrelevant endeavour. However, the English language itself has certain features that recommend it as a successful lingua franca. Leaving aside the debatable claim to its simplified grammatical and syntactical structure, it is undisputable that English is constituted of a wide variety of languages: the basic grammar and structure are those of Germanic languages (Anglo-Saxon) and many basic vocabulary elements come from the Celtic languages (Briton, Gaelic, etc), whereas elaborate vocabulary and concepts are inherited from the Romance languages (mainly French) and Latin. In addition, contemporary English has already merged with other languages to create new varieties: Afro-American English, Singlish, Hinglish, Franglais etc. and represents the base for many creole languages or pidgins: Nigerian Pidgin, Jamaican Patois, etc. It is also considered to be the most globally taught second language and its worldwide influence reflects in the high level of English borrowings in many other languages across the world. Moreover, simplified versions like Basic English and Special English have already emerged, a process not alien to the vernacularization of Latin throughout the Roman Empire.

What the world needs now is a new concept of globalization. It is time to shun away old notions of globalization as an offspring of colonization, rooted in exploitation and imposition of culture and language. Globalization today must rely on mutualism and promote sustainability and tolerance among the highly diversified cultures of the world. In order to achieve that it is essential to shift the focus from a monocultural to a multicultural approach to globalisation, where a lingua franca such as English will facilitate the spread of ideas and the mediation of political and economical issues but this time, between countries and cultures communicating on an equal footing/ from equal positions.

Globalization and Languages is the title of this year’s joint conference of United Nations University and UNESCO, to take place at the UNU Headquarters in Tokyo this week on August 27-28. I will be giving a hand on both days and will certainly attend it. More information can be found at:

Globalization and Languages Official Website

Girls’ education has rightly gained the spotlight in recent years as an important strategy to achieve not just one, but many of the international targets set at the Millennium Summit in 2000. It has been widely documented that getting girls into schools is essential not only to put the goal for universal primary education on track and empower women, but has a central role in the struggle to achieve other MDGs, if not all. South Asia is the region where the boys/girls student ratio in access to primary schooling has seen the most dramatic change and India is outperforming some of its neighbours in South Asia in reducing poverty and improving child and maternal health. Based on the results of many well-documented studies, it has become clear that women’s education has a strong positive impact on several other social development areas in India and this paper aims to set a comprehensive and global perspective on the role of girls’ education and achieving the MDGs.

It is widely recognised that educated women can not only take better care of their own health and that of their offspring, they can also improve their work and income, participate in sustainable development and gain a more prominent role in the partnership for development. These are in fact the major areas the MDGs are mostly concerned with. But while many isolated studies linking girls’ education and reproductive behaviour or mother’s education and children’s health, there are few studies that cast a comprehensive view of the impact of girls’ education on each of the MDGs.

In terms of gender parity in primary schools, South Asia has climbed up two places from holding the lowest position in the regions’ chart in 1991 with a ratio of about 0.75, to reaching a ratio of 0.93 by 2005 and out coming Sub-Saharan Africa and the Arab States. Home to the world’s largest illiterate population (268.4 million), a 65 percentage of which are women, India still has a long way to catch up with on its way to achieving several MDGs. Although performing much better than some of its neighbours in South Asia in several of the MDGs, and largely due to its large population, India still houses a large number of people living with HIV/AIDS, has increased rates of child and maternal mortality and is among the top countries where deforestation and access to safe drinking water are a major issue. It is therefore especially meaningful to look at India as an example of a country where the recent boom in increased girls’ enrolment and completion rates has the potential of being the key to improving its performance in many other international targets.

 

In an increasingly globalised world, which has seen the recent surge of various regional associations across the globe, new issues of identity and integration arise as a necessity for states and individuals to define themselves on the global stage. On the other hand, the role of education in helping define identities is but too well known to educationalists and not only. It is therefore not surprising that recently there is, an “increasingly globally structure agenda for education”. (Dale and Petterson, 2002) As the main engines for developing human resources and promoting ideologies, universities are being the educational institutions most exposed to such phenomena as “globalisation” and “regionalisation”. The recent increase in programmes offered in English in universities across the globe is one such trend clearly connected to increased human mobility and regional integration.

 

It is therefore highly relevant to look into the provision of higher education in English and try to establish a correlation between the existence of such educational arrangements and the students’ perspective on issues like regional integration and identity. English is recognised by many as the lingua franca of the contemporary world. However there are many who challenge its legitimacy and are rather reluctant to consider it as such. The students’ opinion on the problem of establishing a common language is also an interesting topic for analysis in this regard.

In international relations integration can be observed at various levels, from national integration to globalisation. Asian integration is an example of regional integration, similar to other worldwide initiatives, the most famous and successful of which is European integration. The phenomenon is far from being new. Integration has existed historically as a constant component of human society and historically has reached its highest potential in the context of multinational empires and colonisation. Asia has an ancient tradition of empires and countries such as China and India are until today highly heterogeneous states where different ethnicities, languages and religions coexist. Most Asian countries experienced colonisation at some point in history and their links to different European countries, their culture and language can still be observed throughout Asia today.

 

Arguably the most culturally and religiously diverse continent, Asia faces its greatest difficulties in terms of cultural integration. On the global stage, steps have been taking towards including higher education among trade agreements such as GATS (General Agreement on Trade in Services). As previously seen, some of the regional associations have also taken certain steps towards approaching the area of higher education, but they are yet to concretely materialise into generally accepted norms.

Human Security Approach for Global Health, The Lancet, July 5^th 2008

Toyako Framework for Action on Global Health, Report of the G8 Health Experts Group

1. Summary

Published on the eve of the G8 Summit, both papers are meant as a memento and a recommendations list for the world’s leaders and their countries’ policies in terms of global health. Needless to say, as a the heads of the world’s leading economies, these leaders are the key to increasing the international aid scheme, so vital for achieving the MDGs, for eliminating infectious diseases, decreasing maternal and child mortality ratios, reinforcing sexual health measures and family planning and other health related international targets.

The first paper focuses on the need to reinterpret access to basic health services on a human rights basis, targeting individuals and not just communities at large. Written by a team of Japanese experts, it is rather specifically addressed to the Japanese government, praising its past initiatives and claiming rapid further development of health-related support in the future. The second paper is more comprehensive and represents a list of general recommendations regarding strengthening of commitment and financing in the field of global health and it is equally based on a dual approach of praising past achievements and reiterating the need for further improvement. Both papers agree on the imperious necessity of including global health on this and future G8 meetings’ agenda.

2. Discussion points

 

I got accepted to both Waseda University and the Renault Foundation MBA program.
I still haven’t really made up my mind.
I thought I wanted Waseda but the Japanese government takes annoyingly too much time to deliberate if they ‘ll extend my scholarship or not. I will be informed only on the 25th of February…
Should I add that I am supposed to quit my current apartment by 29th February? No way to find a nice apartment which on top of everything accepts foreigners in only 4 days…
And my graduation thesis has merely reached its half…

Life is complicated huh?:P

    Glimpses of Christmas decorations dominating the major centers of Tokyo since early November, almost 2 months before the celebration day itself.  Paradoxically, Japan is far from being even close to a Christian country and the Christmas Day is not one of the otherwise many days off that all salarymen enjoy throughout the year, while people seldomly even give a thought about it in their homes. Here Xmas lives only in the stores and around them, a means for attracting more clients and therefore profit. In a word, commerciocracy at its best!

Santa’s reindeers in Shinjuku

Pile of Xmas presents in Roppongi Hills

Xmas trees cover the sidewalks of Ginza boulevard