HKS `Hyper-utilized`

Transcription

TheCitizen
Vol . 17 No. 6 | n ov e m b e r 3 0 , 2 011
Th e fre e s tu d e nt ne w s pape r of th e Harvard K e nne dy Sc hool
har var dc itiz en . c om
HKS ‘Hyper-utilized’
New Campus Master Plan aims to alleviate space pressures
veys and open meetings to learn how
the HKS community envisions its space
needs.
“We’ve had a lot of positive engagement form all the stakeholders,”
Bowman said. “We’re generating ideas
about how we might begin to look at
things differently.”
It’s no secret that space is at a premium. Since the Littauer Center was
dedicated in 1978, enrollment has
tripled but space has not. An internal space utilization study completed
in 2008 called the campus “hyper-utilized” and included preliminary ideas
for expansion with a price tag of nearly
$100 million. The administration is betting that the economy has improved to
a point that the process can now move
forward.
With offices and meeting rooms
currently taking up over 80 percent
of campus, increasing the amount of
study space, common space, and large
classroom space has emerged as a top
priority. The recent online survey of student space needs returned complaints
that the lack of library and other student meeting spaces is forcing students
off campus to places such as Lamont
Library and Crema Cafe. There is hope
that a combination of creating new
space and retooling what already exists
will alleviate this pressure.
How to build a sense of community is
one of the chief issues driving the planning process. The forum is often referred
to as a model for the concept of multiuse space that organically connects
HKS Students Eat the Way the World Eats
in the food and agriculture sectors to
effect change. “You are in the dawn of
your careers in public service” he said. “
There are hosts of other areas where you
can have immense impact.”
The most unexpected and poignant
comment came a member of the catering staff who had been listening in on
the entire conversation. “It makes me
sad to see how much food goes wasted
everyday,” she said. “When people who
live in poorer countries don’t even get
a bite to eat.” She spoke about how she
alerts her children to economic inequalities and tries to teach them how they can
help by donating clothing and school
items they no longer need. “You give it,
you get it back—that’s what I teach my
children.”
According to the student organizers,
donations of canned goods went to the
GBFB and cash donations to Oxfam
Unwrapped, which empowers farmers in
developing countries.
Alexi White, Opinions Editor, MPP ‘13
Imagine there were a bridge connecting Taubman to Belfer. Imagine a new
building where the courtyard parking
lot sits. Imagine the courtyard itself were
raised to ground level and a central hub
connecting all of HKS placed beneath
it. These are just some of the ideas that
have been floated as part of the sevenmonth task of creating a new campus
master plan for the Kennedy School.
Nearly three months in, Associate
Dean for Operations Timothy Bowman
thinks things are going well. The analysis
phase is wrapping up, and the second
phase – scenarios – has already begun. A
final draft of the master plan is expected
at the end of March 2012, complete with
landscape, building, circulation and
Extreme Makeover: HKS Edition.
donor plans, as well as projected costs of
any proposed projects.
To get there, Bowman, his team, and
consultants from design firm Sasaki
Associates have used focus groups, sur-
Continued on page 5
In the discussion following the meal,
one student commented on how the
event prompted in her a “feeling of guilt
and the awareness of privilege” as a
member of the high-income minority of
the world’s population.
Students brainstormed ideas on what
can be done to address the issues surrounding hunger. One student stressed
on the need for increased awareness.
Another student expressed his skepticism of awareness alone. In order to
combat desensitization on issues related
to hunger, he said, “There should be
an additional step beyond awareness.”
Another student suggested that there
be “…not only awareness of need, but
also awareness of strategies to combat
hunger.”
One of the student organizers sug-
gested local, national, and global
actions students could take. Local-level
actions, she said, could include donating to local food banks, volunteering for
meals on wheels, and buying local food
first. Actions to influence national and
global policy include engaging in the
policy debates surrounding food security and trade issues. This includes being
informed for example, about which
companies are getting contracts to feed
America’s troops abroad, or which companies are being allowed to open businesses in the vicinity of low-income
housing.
David Noymer, the Chief Financial
Officer of the Greater Boston Food Bank
(GBFB), who was present at the event,
assured students that they did not necessarily have to limit themselves to careers
A Great American Export:
Jeremy Rosner
The KSSG Progress Report
Occupy Movement
(Point-Counterpoint)
That’s What Shih Said:
By Cristina Garmendia.
Page 2
By Zachary Rosenfeld.
Page 8
By Alex Pak, Ben Beachy & Jason Rowe.
Page 10
By Irene Shih.
Page 12
Dharana Rijal, News Writer, MPP ‘13
A week before Thanksgiving, the 2nd
HKS Annual Hunger Banquet brought
together students to share an unusual
meal and reflect on the issues surrounding world food security.
Students attending the event agreed
that the arrangement of the meal highlighted the inequalities that exist around
the world, and often, in our own neighborhoods.
At the event, participants were randomly assigned to one of three income
groups such that the proportion of
participants in each group reflected the
income distribution of the world population. It was this arbitrary classification
that dictated what each participant got
to eat at the event.
New s 1– 8 | Opinion s 9– 1 2 | Cu ltu re 13– 15
The Possibilities of Thinking Immortally
2
TheCitizen | Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Citizennews
A Great American Export:
dential campaign
in 2002, subject of
the documentary
film, “Our Brand
is Crisis.”
Reflecting on
his Kennedy
School Experience, Rosner notes that “unlike law
school or business school there is a certain amount of entrepreneurship where
you have to have to figure out how to
apply this to what you do.” He focused
on public finance and political analysis
and completed his PAE on campaign
finance reform. Following graduation
he worked for Common Cause, a D.C.
nonprofit which works on campaign
finance reform. From there, he jumped
into campaigns, serving as a speechwriter for Mondale, Gore, Kerry, and
Clinton. Rosner held 18 different jobs
before settling down with Greenberg
Quinlan Rosner in 1998.
His firm regularly recruits from the
Kennedy School, most recently hiring
David Bluestone from the MPP class of
2010. Rosner says, “We look for a rare
mix of skills: strong statistical skills,
campaign skills, extraordinary writing
skills, and understanding of international affairs and policy, plus foreign languages.” He emphasizes writing because
“the written word is how we move politics, as well as candidates.”
Rosner states matter-of-factly, “There
is a special challenge right now in the
failure of politics to solve problems from technocrats in Greece to supercommittees in the U.S.” He powerfully
relates that to his own failure from when
he was a member of the consensusdriven National Security Council of
1994. Their lack of leadership and defacto policy of inaction during the 100
days of genocide in Rwanda resulted
in the failure of the U.S. to stop the
Hutu Power Movement from killing
800,000 Tutsis. He emphasizes, “How
to make politics productive, ethical, and
respected is vitally important.”
the table, but the collapse of
this supercommittee means
that the cuts in the mandatory budget hammered out
over the summer will be
automatically implemented
instead. While the Pell Grant
Program is protected in the
discretionary budget, the impact of the
mandatory budget cuts is unknown.
According to Lowe, the most important education legislation or programs
affecting her work today are the No
Child Left Behind Act of 2001 and the
Race to the Top Fund as funded by the
American Recovery and Reinvestment
Act of 2009 (ARRA). She admits the
fiscal costs of federal level policies such
as No Child Left Behind Act exceed
the money distributed: “The state loses
because it has to implement, manage,
and hold the districts accountable. We
don’t give the states money to manage
it.”
While Race to the Top Fund uses only
$4 billion out of the $110 billion slated
for education in ARRA, Lowe says, “It’s
changing the way the states are structuring their education programs in terms of
performance measurement.” States are
implementing longitudinal data systems
linking early education to higher educa-
tion at federally funded state schools to
the workforce to pay more attention to
the long-term effects of initiatives.
Jeremy Rosner, International Campaign Consultant
Cristina Garmendia, News Writer, MPP
‘13
Dr. Jeremy Rosner, MPP ’82, believes
that American campaign consultants
have a unique cachet with international
clients simply because they have experience running so many campaigns.
“Because of our federalist structure,”
he explains, “we have more elections
per year than any other country on the
planet.”
Rosner is the Executive Vice President
and Principal of Greenberg Quinlan
Rosner, a progressive consulting firm
specializing in political polling and campaign strategy. He runs the International
Political Campaigns Division for GQR,
which has offices in Washington, D.C.,
London, and Buenos Aires.
He describes his work with relish: “My
days are filled with writing surveys, analyzing surveys, attending focus groups
all over the world, and meeting with
political leaders to discuss how they can
communicate more strongly. We get
the privilege of hearing from voters —
in some of the most remote places on
earth.” Amongst the 36 countries where
they work are Great Britain, Georgia,
and Iraq. His firm has recently helped
elect the Prime Ministers of Australia
and Ireland.
Rosner recently stopped by the Kennedy School to speak to the study group
led by Institute of Politics Fellow Tad
Devine. Rosner and Devine had worked
together on the winning Bolivian presi-
Politics in Practice:
Snapshots from Rappaport Fellowship Alumni
Cristina Garmendia, News Writer,
MPP ‘13
This is the third part of the Harvard Citizen series: Politics in Practice. This week,
Cristina Garmendia interviews Bostonarea alumni of the Rappaport Fellowship,
which matches students from area graduate programs to state and local government positions for a summer. She asks
two graduates who continued to work in
state and local agencies to describe the
legislation, policies, or programs that
most affect their work.
Education watchdog whimpers
Amy Moran Lowe is a 2008 Rappaport
Fellow who graduated from Harvard
Kennedy School with a MUP/MPP
degree in 2009. She is a Senior Analyst at
the Government Accountability Office
(GAO) in Boston. The GAO is an independent agency that acts as a Congressional watchdog regarding federal use of
taxpayer dollars. She analyzes and evalu-
ates the effectiveness of federal grant
programs on the Education, Workforce,
and Income Security team.
Lowe is determining the rates of
undercoverage and leakage of education programs. She explains, “Right now
I’m looking at federal student aid, such
as Pell Grants, and how it is designed to
target certain income brackets.” She follows the money — from how it is first
disbursed to local and state actors to
how those actors implement the activities under their mandate.
Since GAO is a nonpartisan organization, Lowe was unable to comment on
the current budget negotiation’s impact
on Pell Grants. Lowe’s work to make
the Pell Grant Program more effective
is being undercut by members of the
House Budget Committee who view Pell
Grants as unnecessary benefits and plan
to eliminate 500,000 students from the
eligibility rolls. The congressional Joint
Select Committee on Deficit Reduction
put cuts to the Pell Grant Program on
Bedroom communities struggle to
support economic development
Amanda Stout is a 2007 Rappaport
Fellow who graduated from MIT’s
Urban Planning program in 2008. She
is the Senior Economic Development
Planner for the City of Newton, MA.
She describes herself as the liaison to
government for the business community, “There’s a customer service aspect
to local government. The businesses and
the residents are our customers.”
In explaining the people-focus aspects
of her position she says, “I work with
someone who wants to start a new business and doesn’t know much about
zoning and permits and parking. I staff
the Economic Development Commission, a commission of 15 residents
who want to promote more business
in the city.” Finding people in the City
of Newton to staff commissions and
task forces isn’t difficult for Stout. She
reports, “It’s full of people who love their
community… There are a lot of engaged
and experienced residents who are interested in being involved.”
Continued on page 3
3
Citizennews
thecitizen
Editor-in-Chief
Irene Shih, MPP ‘13
News Editor
Shloka Nath, MPP ‘13
Assistant News Editor
Zachary Rosenfeld, MPP ‘13
News Writers
Matt Bieber, MPP ’11 / MDiv ‘13
Cristina Garmenda, MPP ‘13
Dharana Rijal, MPP ‘13
Ryoji Watanabe, MC/MPA ‘12
Opinions Editor
Alexi White, MPP ‘13
Assistant Opinions Editor
Carli Hetland, MPP ‘13
Editorial Cartoonist
Kate Sheridan, Harvard GSAS
Culture Editor
Khaleel Seecharan, MC/MPA ‘12
Culture Writers
John DiGiovanni, MPP ‘13
Rosalia Gutierrez-Huete Miller, MC/
MPA ‘12
Alexander Remington, MPP ‘13
Business Manager
Mike Conway, MPP ‘13
Web Developers
Kristina Redgrave, MPP ‘13
Luis Capelo, MPP ‘13
Layout & Design
Janell Sims
Website
http://harvardcitizen.com
Contact
[email protected]
Interested in
contributing to
the Citizen?
Please contact
[email protected].
From Central Bank Governor
to Central Bank Firefighter:
Lucas Papademos Assumes Role As Greek Interim Prime Minister
Zachary Rosenfeld, Assistant News
Editor, MPP ‘13
As one of the chief architects of Greek
monetary policy during the 1990s,
Lucas Papademos helped his country to
stabilize the value of the drachma, win
the confidence of international financial experts, and transition the Greek
national currency to the euro. But with
some European heads of state publically
declaring that it was a “mistake” to allow
Greece into the euro-zone, Papademos
now finds himself having to win their
confidence once again.
Papandemos, who has never held
elected office, was named to be interim
prime minister earlier this month. He
has his work cut out for him: global
confidence in the Greek government’s
ability to meet its debt obligations is
at a record low, driving the country’s
10-year-bond yield up from to a staggering 28.4 percent. If Greek debt continues
to spiral out of control, the country will
face bankruptcy within just a few weeks.
France and Germany have warned
Greece that if it does not sign onto the
bailout agreement reached in Brussels
on Oct. 26 – which offers a massive debt
write-down on the condition that the
country implements painful new austerity measures – it will have its euro-zone
membership revoked. (Papandemos’s
predecessor, George Papandreou, very
nearly sabotaged this deal when he
called for a national referendum on
the bailout package.) Yet before he can
secure Greek’s participation, Papandemos will need to navigate a treacherous political landscape of bickering partisans and angry street protesters.
Papandemos, a Visiting Professor of
Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy
School, is no stranger to economics and
public policy. He holds a BS in Physics, a
MS in electrical engineering, and a PhD
in Economics all from the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, and he taught
economics at Columbia University
from 1975 to 1984 and at the University
of Athens from 1988 to 1993. He also
worked as an economist at the Federal
Reserve Bank of Boston. His admirers
say that he is a “skilled and thoughtful”
technocrat whose distance from politics
will prove an asset as he steers Greece
through its fiscal crisis.
Some, however, doubt that Papandemos has the political chops to reach a
far-reaching agreement. “He’s inexperienced on the political side,” said Tobias
Blattner, a European economist at Daiwa
Capital Markets, in an interview with
Bloomberg News. “He’s really just a nice
guy. In this situation where you need
to push through draconian reforms,
it requires a tough guy with political
weight and skills.”
But the soft-spoken Papandemos
seems to be up to the challenge. “I am
not a politician but I have dedicated
the biggest part of my career to economic policy in Europe and Greece,” he
said upon his appointment earlier this
month. “The Greek economy continues to face huge problems despite the
very big efforts at fiscal adjustment and
improvement of competitiveness…
The way forward will not be easy but
the problems can be solved, and will be
solved, if there is unity, co-operation and
consensus.”
On Nov. 18, Papandemos’s interim
government unveiled its budget for fiscal
year 2012. The plan, designed to regain
the confidence of international creditors,
will lower Greek’s budget deficit to 5.4
percent of Greek GDP (or 11.4 billion
euros) from 9 percent this year (or 19.7
billion euros). As per the Brussels agreement, it slashes public pensions and
wages in exchange for a debt swap that
will bring down national interest rates.
The budget goes to the Greek Parliament in early December, and will need
to be approved there before Papandemos
can secure the disbursement of bailout
funds.
Under this budget plan, Greece’s
debt as a proportion of GDP will fall to
145.5 from 161.7 percent in 2011. Gross
Lucas Papademos. Photo Courtesy of Greek Ministry of
Finance, via Wikimedia Commons.
domestic product will shrink again by
an estimated 2.8 percent, after having
contracted 5.5 percent in 2011.
The budget further predicts that
national unemployment rates will average 17.1 percent in 2012, up from 15.4
percent in 2011. Inflation will average
0.6 percent next year, compared with 2.8
percent in 2011.
Papademos will not be teaching his
spring semester course, “The Global
Financial Crisis: Policy Responses and
Challenges,” at the Kennedy School this
year.
“Rappaport,” continued from page 2
In today’s political climate, the challenges of funding community development rest more and more on Stout’s
shoulders. “Funding from the state and
federal [levels are] continually being cut.
As local governments can rely on those
less, we have to think about ways to raise
revenue. Part of my role is how to raise
the commercial tax base in a primarily residential community.” Part of the
funds Stout refers to are those belong
to the Community Development Block
Grant (CDBG), the largest federal program dedicated to supporting economic
development and job creation activities.
While the City of Newton receives only
$2.3 million per year in CDBG money,
the city described these funds as critical
to their municipal budget. The money is
directed mostly to low- and moderateincome housing and community infrastructure improvements.
On November 17, Congress passed its
first spending bill for 2012 (HR. 2112),
which cut the CDBG budget by 12 percent, equating to a 25 percent cut in two
years.
4
SPrIng 2012 CourSeS
New Courses
Advanced Digital Studies in Politics,
Policy and Media
NiCCo Mele, Adjunct Lecturer in Public
Policy
Building on the concepts, vocabulary, and skills
of DPI-659, this course will take a deep dive into
a series of critical issues at the intersection of
politics, policy, media and digital technology including: persuasion in
political campaigns using digital media; emerging business models for
digital journalism; using social media to make municipal government
more efficient and responsive. A significant degree of digital literacy
will be required to succeed in the course; DPI-659 is recommended as
a prerequisite.
The Politics of the internet
MiCAh Sifry, Visiting Murrow Lecturer
of the Practice of Press and Public Policy
This course will cover the rise of decentralized
organizing; open government or wegovernment; the networked public sphere
and the conflict between privacy and
security concerns; the conflict over control of the Internet between
government and private corporations; and critiques of digital
democracy and internet utopianism. This course will not be a
how-to course, but will examine the role of the Internet in politics,
government and civil society. The course will give students an up-todate grounding in how government actors, elected officials, political
advocates and civic activists are adapting to the changing context
of public life in the networked age. Coursework will be structured
around a core reading list and students will be expected to conduct
research and present their findings to the class.
oPen HouSe
for students
Solving Problems Using Digital
Technology
SUSAN CrAwforD, Visiting Stanton
Professor of the First Amendment
When the tools of governing change,
governance changes too. This course examines
how local and national governments around
the world are using digital resources to better serve their citizens
and identifies techniques drawn from these pioneering practices.
The course relies on case discussions, interactive lectures, student
presentations and independent reading. Visitors will provide unique
opportunities to engage with leading practitioners from the sectors
we will discuss. This course will provide a thorough grounding in best
practices currently in use as well as a series of useful concepts and
frameworks that students can directly apply to strategic governance
problems they encounter post-graduation.
The Media, energy and environment:
Global Policy and Politics
CriSTiNe rUSSell, Adjunct Lecturer in
Public Policy
This course will analyze the best and worst
media coverage of recent energy and
environmental events, including the Fukushima
Japan nuclear accident; the Deepwater Horizon oil spill; “Climategate;’
and the Cape Wind energy debate. Students will examine how
researchers, policy experts, and decision makers in the private and
public sectors utilize both formal and informal media to communicate
about their work to the public and how this process can be improved.
Come and meet faculty and learn about
all of the course offerings for Spring 2012.
Thursday, January 19
12:30–1:30 p.m.
Nye A, Taubman Building, 5th floor
5
Citizennews
An Interview with Val Kalende:
LGBT Activism in Uganda
Matt Bieber, News Writer,
MPP/MDiv ‘13
[email protected]
In October of 2009, MP David Bahati
introduced the Anti-Homosexuality
Bill in the Ugandan Parliament. The bill
[link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AntiHomosexuality_Bill] – which proposed
the death penalty for homosexuality –
immediately became infamous around
the world.
At that time, Val Kalende was a veteran activist in the struggle for LGBT
rights in Uganda.
Kalende had come out in 2003 when,
as a student at Makerere University in
Kampala, she co-founded the country’s first lesbian activist organization,
Freedom and Roam Uganda. Two years
later, in 2005, Kalende helped reestablish
Sexual Minorities Uganda, which has
since become a network of LGBT groups
in Uganda.
In the weeks after the introduction of
Bahati’s bill, Kalende agreed to be inter“New Campus Plan,” continued from page 1
people.
“It can be as simple as where we put
food to bring people together,” Bowman
said. “While we know we need more
space, we don’t want to lose the benefits
of bringing talented people together.”
The project is also opportunity to
re-evaluate long-standing assumptions
of how to design classroom space and
office space. Universities are increasingly
moving toward classrooms with moveable chairs and tables that provide flexibility in teaching and learning methods.
Similarly, transparent glass and open
spaces can encourage interaction and
spontaneous collaboration within a traditional office environment.
A recent open forum on the campus
master plan gave students a chance to
voice their opinions on these and other
issues.
“I think the office space is really
important,” commented one student.
viewed about her sexuality in a cover
story for a national newsmagazine
called The Daily Monitor. In a country in
which homosexuality is widely viewed
with suspicion, misunderstanding, and
outright enmity, the interview was an act
of enormous courage.
so you agreed to do it yourself.
What was your thought process like?
And where did you turn for support as
you followed through on that choice?
MATT BIEBER: When the bill was
announced, a reporter called and asked
you whether you knew anyone in LGBT
activist circles who’d be willing to sit for
an interview. You couldn’t find anyone,
VAL KALENDE: I think it’s the values
that I grew up with. I come from a background of evangelicals – my mother’s
family – and that’s how I was raised. My
own struggles, fighting with religion and
sexual orientation, my parents’ rules,
and then the fact that my family wasn’t
actually supportive - all those things
are a part of my story. And they’re the
reasons why I decided to come out –
because I always believed that I had
lived a lie for so many years.
I first came out to my guardian. He
had heard rumors, and he asked me. The
first time, I denied it, and then I went to
my room and I cried.
So, the second time he asked, I told
him, “Yes, I’m gay,” and the first thing
he asked was, “Is it because of me?” (He
had put me in a girls’ school, one of the
best schools in Uganda, and he thought
that maybe I had gotten into the prac-
“You go down these dark hallways where
faculty hide. The most radical thing that
needs to be done is to tear out those
offices. Faculty are not in those five days
a week.”
Other students asked for a place on
campus for a quiet cup of coffee with
a friend, or fewer computer terminals
and more printing centers. The campus
master plan will address these and
countless other details of HKS operations, from which entrances to open and
when to whether a volleyball court is a
good use of courtyard space.
The administration is regularly consulting with student leaders as the planning process progresses. KSSG President
Sherry Hakimi is serving as a student
representative on the student space
focus group, one of five focus groups
providing feedback throughout the planning process.
“Our opinions are valued,” Hakimi
said. “I spoke about how space creates a
community. Because classroom space is
so limited and class schedules are so different, HKS students can’t get a sense of
organization in their lives.”
Although nothing is official, Hakimi
said efforts are already underway to fundraise for a new building between Taubman and Rubenstein.
Students often grumble that perhaps
HKS grew too big too fast in its pursuit
of tuition revenue. Bowman disagreed,
citing the school’s desire to make a
greater impact on the world as the primary driver of enrollment growth. He
was clear that enrollment is staying at its
current level for the foreseeable future.
“There are no plans for the Kennedy
School to grow enrollment or to significantly grow faculty or staff,” he said.
As for current facilities, Bowman
believes HKS is in really good shape
from a structural perspective, but some
interiors could use a facelift.
“A lot of our classrooms are tired and
Today, Kalende is a second-year master
of theological studies student at the
Episcopal Divinity School (EDS) in
Cambridge, MA. (She is also applying to
public policy programs, including here
at HKS.)
In the interview that follows, Kalende
and I discuss how her understanding
of God has evolved as she has come to
terms with both her sexuality and her
calling as an activist. We also discuss the
various roles that religion has played in
the homosexuality debate in Uganda.
Val Kalende. Photo Courtesy of Val Kalende.
tice through the school.) I told him no; I
had actually felt this way for a long time.
And it was hard for him to believe. He
felt like I had no future, so we parted
ways. He later disowned me and threatened to stop paying my tuition at the
university. (Thankfully, he reconsidered,
so I was lucky to finish my undergrad
degree.)
So when this bill came out, I was
already doing this work. I was already
an activist, and I was already out. So one
of the journalists from The Daily MoniContinued on page 6
old. Starr, for example, has missing seats,
ripped carpet – it’s just not a particularly pleasant place to learn and to teach.
Classrooms are a high priority for us,”
he said.
Political calculations will also play a
role in the final plan. Nothing can move
forward without approval from the
University and the City of Cambridge –
and the local community is particularly
sensitive to Harvard’s further expansion. Current zoning rules allow significant room to grow, but there are some
restrictions on building higher or lower.
HKS sits on the site of an old MBTA
train yard that was covered in six feet of
concrete. Breaking it could cause environmental problems since no one knows
what might be found underneath.
Bowman also said the foul odor
sometimes detected near Rubenstein is
the result of fermenting peat and is not
harmful.
6
Citizennews
“Val Kalende,” continued from page 5
tor calls me up and tells me, “I need to
talk to an LGBT couple about the antihomosexuality bill.”
Initially, I didn’t trust him. Journalists
in Uganda have a tendency of using gay
stories just to have their bylines read;
when they write a story on homosexuality, the paper sells out.
I didn’t want to just put myself out
there, and I tried to look for a gay couple
that would do this. But I failed; everyone
I talked to either didn’t want to do it or
their partner didn’t. So I offered to do
the story. I told the journalist, “I will do
it, but I don’t want you to put my partner
out there.”
So he came and talked to me. I gave
him the story and pictures, but I think
that was a mistake. He promised that
he would cover up our faces, and they
didn’t do that. So I exposed my partner.
MB: They just covered her eyes, not
her whole face.
VK: Yeah. I exposed her. She wasn’t
out to her family. It was really reckless
courage on my part. (Looking back,
I have no regrets about doing that,
because she has told me I’m one of the
reasons why she has managed to come
out strong to her family.)
On the other hand, I think that story
told our story very differently, because
it was the first time any gay person
in Uganda told a story that described
her life. I was talking about love, what
it means to be gay, to wake up every
morning and go to work and be scared
of going out there to the places that most
Ugandans don’t even feel are threatening.
I’ve been told that when the story
came out, one of the anti-gay pastors
in Uganda called the writer and said, “I
didn’t know these people fall in love.”
I think they have this impression of
homosexuality that gay men have sex
for money. And for lesbians, people just
can’t imagine how we make love. They
think it’s just a big joke. I have friends
who still tease me; they wonder what we
do.
MB: How did your church receive you
after the story broke?
VK: I’d been out for some time, but
this was a very small church. Most of
them didn’t know about me. The only
thing they knew was they had a problem
with the way I dressed. When the story
came out, it got to [my pastor].
So my pastor reads it and he calls me.
I told him, “Yes, this is how I am and I
don’t feel like changing.” So it got bad for
us. Every Sunday I went to the church, it
was a different sermon.
MB: His sermons were about you?
VK: Yes. Even before the sermons,
two people left the church. They told
him, “We cannot worship with a homosexual.”
Continued on page 8
7
Citizennews
TPP = The ‘Problematic’ Partnership or
The ‘Progressive’ Partnership?
APEC Leaders Meeting held in Honolulu, Hawaii. Photo Courtesy
of Japanese Cabinet Secretariat.
Ryoji Watanabe, News Writer, MC/
MPA’12
On October 26 thousands of people,
swinging colorful flags and following
behind farming tractors, took to the
streets of Tokyo to protest against the
Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement, a new free trade agreement negotiated among nine Asia-Pacific nations
including the U.S. This populist movement was organized in anticipation of
the November APEC Summit, where
the Japanese government is expected to
announce its intent to participate in TPP
negotiations.
Japan is now standing at an important
crossroads that it has not faced since
the Meiji Restoration of 1868, which
ended the country’s two and a half century policy of national isolation. Today
Japan is again faced with opening or
closing itself to world trade. The U.S.
first triggered the end of Japan’s national
isolation 150 years ago, when U.S. Navy
Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry
famously steamed into the port of Tokyo
with a black-hulled steam frigate and
threatened the shogunate to open Japan’s
borders, or else. Once again, the U.S. is
playing a big role in compelling Japan
to open its markets up to imports – this
time, not through “gunboat diplomacy”
but with subtle pressure.
The increased U.S. interest in the
Asia-Pacific region has been strongly
affecting Japan’s trade policies in recent
months. At the APEC held in Hawaii on
November 14th, 2011, President Barack
Obama expressed the importance of the
Asia-Pacific for the U.S. interests, saying,
“This is the world’s fastest growing
region; the Asia-Pacific is key to achieving my goal of doubling U.S. exports.”
He referred to the U.S. as a fellow
“Pacific nation.”
Despite the existence of an economic
trade initiative spearheaded by the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN) in Asia-Pacific – which does
not include the U.S. as a member – U.S.
initiated TPP negotiations in the same
region in 2008. Today, TPP is considered an alternative path toward achieving Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific
(FTAAP), a proposed free trade area
among all APEC economies. According
to experts, the U.S. is promoting TPP
out of fear that the integration of Asia
Pacific countries under the leadership
of ASEAN would lead to the effective
exclusion of the U.S. from future FTAAP
trade agreements.
Maki Yamamoto, an MPP’12 student who flew to Hawaii from Boston in
early November to attend the APEC as
a diplomat from the Japanese Ministry
of Foreign Affairs, commented, “TPP
was indeed one of the featured topics at
APEC. I observed the U.S.’s strong lead-
ership and willingness to engage in the
Asia-Pacific.”
Considering the increasing importance ascribed to TPP by the U.S., Japanese leadership is finding that it has no
choice but to engage in the TPP negotiation. However, TPP is problematic
for Japan considering its “high quality”
stipulation, which limits the number
of products that are exempt from tariff
elimination, and other provisions that
do not square with Japan’s domestic
industries, such as healthcare. With the
country still in the process of recovery
from the March 2011 earthquake and
tsunami – particularly in the northern
part of Japan, where rice farms were hit
particularly hard – many farmers and
some politicians are voicing concerns
over TPP. They argue that Japan will
once again face many of the same economic problems that it did when Commodore Perry forced Japan to sign a lopsided agreement in 1868.
Will history repeat itself? Will Japan
suffer from bringing down trade barriers
and see the destruction of its domestic
agriculture capabilities?
It is essential to see Japan from a
bird’s eyes view. Despite the government’s policy of protectionism, Japan’s
agriculture only accounts for 1% of the
country’s GDP and 3% of its labor force.
Many argue that Japan’s agriculture
is dragging down Japan’s economy by
slowing down the free trade agreements
that will increase its exports of hightech products and services, markets
where Japan has a competitive advantage. At the present time, Japan imposes
an import tariff of 778% for rice, the
most important staple of the nation, and
1,706% for devil’s tongue, a specialty
item in Japanese cuisine.
Politics plays a huge role in this. In
February 2011, Seiji Maehara, a former
Foreign Minister of Japan, blamed political considerations for the shockingly
high tariff on devil’s tongue; he pointed
to the fact that several past Prime Ministers were from Gunma prefecture, where
devil’s tongue is produced. The high
retail price of Japanese rice has allowed
small-scale farmers to continue producing rice in a way that has undermined Japanese rice competitiveness
compared to the rest of the world.
During the 1980s, there were incidents of “Japan ‘BASHING’” when the
country was attacked for its surge in
exports. Today, however, the problem is more one of “Japan ‘PASSING’”,
where countries are passing over Japan
and reaching out to the increasingly
attractive Chinese markets. In order for
Japan to remain a prominent and viable
economic force not only in Asia-Pacific
markets but in world markets as well,
the country must open its doors.
With the recent, aggressive interest of the U.S. in Asia-Pacific integration, the whole dynamic has changed.
ASEAN countries, too, have now begun
to step up the pressure on Japan. Just
like samurais could not keep Japan from
closing itself forever, modern Japan
cannot sustain its current trading policy.
TPP seems problematic and controversial in the short run, but with competition between the U.S. and ASEAN
countries coming to a head, Japan now
has a golden opportunity to negotiate a
progressive approach for its future economic prosperity.
TheCitizen
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8
Citizennews
And he called me again, and told me,
“I can’t afford to lose my people just
because you’ve refused to change.” He
said, “I’m not going to tell you to leave
the church, because as a pastor, that’s not
my job to send you away. But if you’re
not willing to change then I will talk to
the elders.”
Then he said he didn’t want my offerings, my tithes anymore, because he
wasn’t sure where I was getting the
money. It got to the point that every
time he would preach on Sunday, he
preached about homosexuality. And I
felt like I didn’t belong there anymore.
MB: Did you doubt yourself? Were
there points when you thought, “Maybe
I’m doing something wrong?”
VK: I thought about that so many
times - Maybe something is wrong with
me. That’s why people tend to commit
suicide, because they tend to hate themselves for what they hear.
But then I think because of the community of activists we have, knowing
that I’m not the only one, that there are
people like me – I was like, “All these
people can’t be wrong.”
MB: As you were going through this
process, did you look to the Bible for
strength or guidance? Or were you at
more of a distance from the Bible at
that time?
VK: I didn’t understand anything. In
the Bible, all those verses, Romans 1,
they just didn’t make sense to me when
I read them. I’d grown up being told not
to question the Bible. I kind of looked
to them for their fruits, or I would just
ignore it and say, “If this is what really
God is all about, then I think I have to
let God be who He is and then move on
with my life.”
So there were instances when I would
spend several months without going to
church then I would find myself going
back. I just love being in church, and so
coming to EDS and reading the Bible in
a whole different way has opened up my
eyes to several truths that were hidden
from me. This place has been part of my
journey, to actually reconcile my faith
with my sexual orientation.
MB: Say more about these truths
you’ve encountered.
VK: Well, I’ve learned to question the
Bible. Before that, I felt like it was a sin
to question certain things. But here, I
questioned so many things and I knew
that the Bible is not… what can I say?
MB: Infallible? Perfect?
VK: Yeah – it has a human side to it,
and because of that human side there are
bound to be some mistakes, things like
personal attitudes.
MB: Before you came to EDS, you
spent some time on a State Departmentsponsored speaking tour of the U.S. Let’s
talk about that. Where did you go, and
whom did you speak to? Were you were
able to build allies to support pro-LGBT
work in Uganda?
VK: The American Embassy in Kampala nominated me for the International
Visitor Leadership program. They tried
to get me in touch with people who are
already doing this work and people who
had shown interest in doing something
for us.
The meetings I had with [Congressmen] John Lewis and Barney Frank
were actually about that, because Barney
Frank had already passed a resolution
regarding that. So they wanted to know
what we were doing, and how they could
continue supporting us.
I also met an interfaith group in Louisville, Kentucky. They had expressed
interest in how their faith community
in the U.S. can be supportive of LGBT
rights – not just in Uganda, but in Africa
more generally.
The group included a Catholic priest,
someone from the Anglican Church,
someone from Metropolitan Community Church. There was a Jewish man
too. Not all of them subscribed to the
values that I have, but at least they knew
that this is something that needs to be
addressed, because it’s a human rights
issue. So our conversations were around
how we’d get the faith community in the
U.S. to care about these issues beyond
the United States.
I also had meetings in Utah; I had a
meeting with the Mayor’s office in Salt
Lake City. The story in Uganda is similar
to stories in Utah – it’s religious homophobia, mostly. So they wanted me to
compare the two places, to see how
LGBT groups in Utah do their work and
whether we can use a similar strategy in
Uganda.
MB: How have these insights proven
useful back in Uganda?
VK: The first thing that I noticed
was the influence and the power that
women have in the United States. And
in Uganda, even though women lead
churches in several places in the coun-
The KSSG Progress Report
Incomplete
Stalled
0
0
8
Complete
Partially Complete
4
25
In Progress
Zachary Rosenfeld, Assistant News
Editor
We have just a few updates this week.
Kevin Chee’s Finance Committee has
formed three new sub-committees to
work on transparency, funding regulations, and sponsorship, respectively.
They also discussed major funding
requests for the African Caucus and
Women’s Policy Journal and established
a new “Quorum Call” funding procedure, for which we have awarded them
with a [COMPLETE] rating.
Natalie Fabe’s Professional Development Committee ran a successful
Summer Internship Networking Session earlier this month, for which she
has earned a [COMPLETE] rating.
Unfortunately, she only managed to
recruit enough 2nd-year volunteers to
fill 39% of the time slots rather than the
projected 90%. We won’t disparage her
for setting such a high bar for herself,
though – hopefully similar events in
the future will have higher participation rates!
Finally, a correction to one of the
Student Affairs Committee’s goals.
While it may have been amusing to
try, they’re very silent on these issues.
They’ve never come out to say anything;
they have their little churches and they
seem to mind their business.
So I asked, “Why are they so powerful
in the U.S. and they are silent in Africa,
even with all the money and influence
The KSSG Scorecard.
imagine how the SAC would have
achieved the goal of reducing “HKS’s
harmful impact on the government,”
the actual goal should have read
“reduce HKS’s harmful impact on the
environment.” Sorry, Ahmed!
FINANCE COMMITTEE [VP: Kevin
Chen, MPP1]
•
Establish special “Quorum Call”
funding procedure
[COMPLETE]
STUDENT AFFAIRS COMMITTEE
[VP: Ahmed Moor, MPP1]
•
Reduce HKS’s harmful impact on
the environment
[IN PROGRESS]
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
COMMITTEE [VP: Natalie Fabe,
MPP2]
•
Secure 2nd-year volunteers from
diverse geographical locations
and organizations to staff at least
90% of time slots during Summer
Internship Networking Session
(Nov. 18)
[COMPLETE – but only 39% of
time slots were filled]
they have?” I’m still questioning that.
MB: And the Anti-Homosexuality
Bill – it’s still being considered, isn’t
that right?
VK: The bill is still alive. It’s actually
Continued on page 12
9
Citizenopinion
Diversity: What’s It Good For? Revoking the “I word’s” visa
Brian Hull, MPP ‘12
Recently, an email was sent out by KSSG
that contained an image depicting a
certain female Black student as “Muffy,”
the monkey character from the cartoon
Arthur. This, understandably, led to a
school-wide conversation on diversity
attended by well over one hundred students. While I do not wish to discuss the
specific incident or the racial narrative it
evokes, I felt the context was important
to better understand why I’m writing
this article.
I hope most of us agree that diversity
is important. Individuals coming from
different backgrounds bring their own
unique perspectives on the critically
important issues we’re all discussing at
the Kennedy School. Engaging in these
discussions helps us learn from each
other, promotes creative thinking and
expands our own worldliness. Diversity
helps us develop socially and intellectually, and prepares us for our future
careers in a globally integrated society.
Most importantly, diversity helps us be
more socially and self-aware. Being a part of a diverse community
can break down stereotypes that are
typically the unjust historical artifacts
of past racial, ethnic, and cultural narratives that have unfairly sorted groups
into social and class categories which
are perpetuated over time. It is important to remember these historical legacies of oppression and segmentation
because they can and do compose a
person’s identity. We generally fail to
recognize these hierarchies and assume
that because “we’re not racist,” a supposedly racially benign system is fair. This is
unfortunately untrue.
Addressing diversity in a proactive
manner and really engaging in a process
of cultural humility brings attention to
the structural, institutional, and bureaucratic injustices that have developed
and ossified over decades and centuries. Long-standing historical legacies of
social, racial, and ethnic sorting not only
shape how people view themselves, but
how the broader society views them. Maybe I’m naïve to think that people
should have equal value, that no one in
the world is better or worse than anyone
else, that all people regardless of the
arbitrariness of their birth are deserving of human dignity. People’s feelings, their histories, their experiences,
their cultures, their personal values all
matter, not just to them, but to everyone. They should be acknowledged and
validated as important and meaningful. Likewise, words and actions matter.
Being aware of how one’s words and
actions are perceived by others is
invaluable in a world as wonderfully
diverse as ours. To look past a person’s
history and experiences, to gloss over
the fact that everyone has a past that is
important for who they are, to disregard the impact one can and does have
(intended or not) on those around
them is to ignore everything that is
meaningful and special to an individual’s self-worth.
To me, all the tension surrounding
individuals’ identities requires us to
have very difficult conversations about
race, ethnicity, culture, religion, sexual
orientation, and all the other ways
people can be and are subject to oppression, exploitation, and devaluation. I
cannot begin to articulate the immensity of knowledge I have gleaned by
talking to amazing people from around
the country and the world about these
and other topics. It may not be easy, nor
should it be, but understanding who
people are is critical to understanding
who you are.
Our microcosm here at the Kennedy School, while trying to reflect the
world’s diversity in the student body, in
the faculty, and in the administration,
has come up short. I acknowledge that
efforts are being made to be as inclusive
as possible, culturally, racially, ethnically, etc., but it appears that there are
missed opportunities for the school to
do more in this regard. To name a few
critical first steps that would engender
a better understanding of the importance of diversity and cultural humility, HKS should work toward: a more
robust orientation that includes discussions on diversity, implementing
mandatory faculty diversity training,
holding regular diversity conversations
(that include professors) similar to the
one held on November 16, and instiContinued on page12
People are not “illegal.” We should know words matter.
Sophie Brion, MPP ‘12
In a recent class, our discussion turned
to the ubiquitous topic of immigration.
As per the Kennedy School usual, the
comments were informed and thoughtful. My classmates eruditely discussed
negative perceptions of immigrants.
They pondered what role race plays in
U.S. immigration policy and parsed
the practical demands of running U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement. On the whole the comments were
knowledgeable and engaging, with one
conspicuous exception: Nearly every
person used the term “illegal” in some
form or another – “illegal immigrant,”
“illegals,” “an illegal.”
When I hear the terms “illegals” and
“illegal immigrant,” I wonder whether
people understand the harmful message
those particular words convey and if
they grasp the impact that these words
can have on real people. Somehow, I
doubt it.
This isn’t the first time that I have
heard this terminology on campus. Last
year, a professor chalked “ILLEGALS”
on the board as one important consideration for a case study, prompting a
somewhat uncharacteristic outburst on
my part calling into question this word
choice. “I didn’t know that there was
controversy about this word,” the professor replied.
This response surprised me. I had
expected pushback of a different sort,
but here was a professor of public policy
who was unaware of the negative connotations.
There is, however, both a growing
awareness and debate regarding the
negative impacts of the “I word” being
played out in newsrooms and among
advocates and policy makers. The
Associated Press Stylebook explicitly
cautions against using the shortened
terms, “an illegal” or “illegals.” Journalist groups such as the Society of Professional Journalists and the National
Association of Hispanic Journalists
(NAHJ) have taken positions against
the use of “illegals” and “illegal immigrant.” NAHJ proffers the alternative terms “undocumented worker” or
“undocumented person” because both
“are terms that convey the same descriptive information without carrying the
psychological baggage.”
Why is the “I word” so problematic?
First off, use of the term is incorrect.
There are no illegal people. There are
illegal actions. But simply being undocumented isn’t a criminal offense; it is a
civil violation, like parking tickets. A
person may have improperly parked, but
we don’t regularly describe people with
parking tickets as “illegals.”
According to Dave Bennion, an
immigration attorney and immigrant
rights advocate, “illegal immigrant” and
“illegal aliens” “are incoherent terms
from the standpoint of immigration law.
It assumes the thing that is to be proven:
status under the immigration laws.” The truth is that while a few immigrants may have committed crimes,
many more immigrants come to do productive and needed work. Many immigrants attempt to follow the rules of the
immigration system, but languish in
application backlogs.
Among the many people I have met
who have found themselves stuck in the
broken immigration system is Idylis.
Idylis confided in me that she fled
Colombia with her children to escape
poverty and escalating violence in her
hometown. She told me that her parents,
who live in the States, had petitioned for
her but that they had waited for a visa
for five years. In seeking a safer life, she
and her children would be considered
by some to be “illegals.” But Idylis isn’t a
criminal, she is a caring and hard-working mother. Painting immigrants who
have diverse stories and complex situations with the same brush of this evocative and negative term is not conducive
to addressing the very real problems
with the immigration system.
When people use the terminology
“illegals” and “illegal immigrants” they
participate in the dehumanization of
immigrants. The use of these words creates unhelpful stereotypes and detracts
from dialogue on policy solutions oriented towards U.S. economic needs,
10
Citizenopinion
Occupy Harvard Is Poorly
Conceived
Alex Pak, HBS Class of 2013
As much as I am a fan of both social
movements and camping, what is occurring on our campus under the guise of
Occupy Harvard disturbs me.
My perception of Occupy Harvard is
that it is less of a social movement than
a proxy war being waged by unions for
leverage in labor negotiations. (The
fancy tents erected in Harvard Yard
were supplied by the Service Employees
International Union.) I find it immoral
to recklessly spend the social capital of
young students for personal gain. The
compensation of Harvard custodial
workers (who receive competitive wages
and benefits) is used so that Occupy
Harvard can quote sensationalist figures such as the 180:1 ratio in compensation between the highest and lowest
paid employees at Harvard. Focusing on
these types of statistics only encourages
non-productive dialog around the outliers (the top and bottom 1%) rather than
meaningful discussion on how to create
jobs and economic growth in the U.S.
Another concern that Occupy Harvard raises beyond compensation is centered on the companies that the Harvard
endowment is invested in through the
Harvard Management Company. I find
it ridiculous to expect this institution to
be held accountable for every one of the
thousands of companies that their fund
is invested in. As a diversified investor
who owns index funds, am I personally accountable for the behavior of all
the companies in the S&P 500? Effectively, the Occupy Harvard movement
is requiring Harvard to invest only in
socially responsible (by their determination) companies with potentially lower
returns and higher risk, increase the
pay for their faculty, and maintain the
benefits that come from a growing and
healthy endowment (generous scholarships, etc.) These demands seem to
be in direct conflict with one another.
Of course Harvard should take steps to
limit investment in unethical companies
if it is under their direct control when
brought to their attention, but given
the size and scale of Harvard’s endowments, I suspect that regardless how
they choose to invest, they will always
manage to offend someone. Like most
social movements born of frustration,
Occupy Harvard has many complaints
yet offers little in the form of solutions.
So let’s get to the rallying cry of
Occupy Harvard that they want “a university for the 99%.” (Cue eyes rolling
across the country.) The vast majority
of Harvard students are part of the 99%
and are here in part due to the generous
need-based scholarships that Harvard
provides to even the playing field. As
the son of blue-collar immigrant par-
Students enjoy breakfast at Occupy Harvard. Photo Courtesy of
Alexi White.
ents, I find it a bit sad that my attempts
to better myself through education here
at Harvard are summarily dismissed
as the product of a self-perpetuating
system of elitism. Criticizing students
who are part of the 99% because they
may become the 1% some day is ridiculous. Most of my classmates aspire to
make a positive impact on society, and
we need your encouragement, support,
and guidance, not your judgment.
I empathize with the frustrations of
many who are part of the Occupy Wall
Street movement and I freely acknowlContinued on page 11
Ask What You Can Occupy
Ben Beachy and Jason Rowe
Since the Occupy movement entered
the gates of Harvard Yard, too much
discussion has focused on the gates
themselves, not the responsibility of
those of us who study behind them.
One of the gates—Dexter Gate—
bears the following inscription: “Enter
to grow in wisdom. Depart to better
serve thy country and thy kind.” One
of our country’s most pressing challenges in the wake of the Great Recession—how to replace runaway inequality with shared prosperity—is precisely
the challenge that the Occupy movement addresses. We are thus surprised
by arguments that posit the aims of
“Occupy Harvard” as antithetical to the
stated mission of Harvard.
True, Harvard students present an
unwieldy embodiment of the 99%. Our
ivy-covered degrees do connote privilege. But doesn’t privilege bring more
responsibility, not less? Endowed with
many opportunities, we should be particularly compelled to further the interests of the 99%.
How should we fulfill such responsibility while at Harvard? We can start
by getting serious about economics,
by studying and debating potential
responses to the yawning wealth gap.
Unfortunately, many of our core economics courses are not so serious.
While the outside world endures the
aftershocks of epic market failure, we sit
inside Econ 101 classrooms and breeze
over such failures as quiet footnotes to
the thesis of perfect markets. Under the
reassuring assumption that investors are
ever-rational machines of utility maximization, we can forget that the subprime housing bubble ever happened,
because, theoretically, it didn’t. While
behavioral economics could inject a
needed dose of reality (and ideas for
preventing future crises), such post1970s thinking unfortunately has not
yet entered most mandatory economics
curricula.
Now that irrational exuberance has
tanked the economy and jettisoned
jobs, how do our microeconomic classes
teach us to respond? According to our
problem sets, the unemployed should
lobby for the abolishment of the minimum wage and then wait until wages
adjust to get hired.
Not even Newt Gingerich would
endorse that plan. But our simple
models do. That’s because they externalize the equity gains of real responses
(subsidizing clean energy jobs, investing
in infrastructure, etc.) and summarize
their impact as “deadweight loss.” As
satisfying as it is to erase those inefficiency-laden triangles from our graphs,
the unemployed probably do not find
erasure of their job prospects similarly
satisfying. If Harvard is to prepare us to
push forward policies in the interests of
the majority, we will have to push Harvard’s economics courses to internalize
the realities of that majority.
While asking Harvard to better train
us as advocates of the 99%, we should
ask the university itself to be a better
advocate in its employment and investment practices. “Occupy Harvard” did
so by imploring Harvard to negotiate a
just contract with custodians struggling
to pay the bills. Thanks to concerted
custodial pressure, Harvard soon complied, handing a landmark victory to
those who clean up our mess.
Harvard should now demonstrate
similar accountability to the 99%
through its investment portfolio. In
the name of increasing its $32 billion
endowment, Harvard has invested in
11
Citizenopinion
Show us the money
The HKS endowment pays for your
education – just don’t ask how
Alexi White, Opinions Editor, MPP ‘13
In fiscal year 2011, HKS collected $37.3
million in revenue from investment
income, the annual return on our $1
billion endowment. About half went to
core operations such as faculty chairs,
financial aid, events, maintenance, staff,
etc.; the other half went to funding the
IOP and research centers.
Although this represents one quarter of the school’s total revenue, exactly
where these proceeds came from
remains a mystery even to HKS administrators. We just cash the check and try
not to ask too many questions.
Given that Harvard has in the past
invested in morally questionable activities, this lack of transparency should be
concerning to our community – administration included. As an institution that
purports to stand up for the public interest, we have a duty to ask whether we are
profiting from activities that subvert that
same interest. Regardless of the answer
to that question, that we are prevented
from even engaging in this conversation
is deeply troubling.
The HKS endowment is a small part
of the much larger Harvard endowment
that is managed by the imaginatively
named Harvard Management Company
(HMC), a separate corporation whose
“singular mission is to produce longterm investment results to support the
educational and research goals of the
University.” As of June 30, 2011, the total
endowment was valued at $32 billion,
making it about equal to the GDP of
Yemen.
I contacted HMC by email to request
specific information on what ventures it
is invested in. Their reply: “Our policy is
not to discuss individual investments.”
When I pressed further, asking to see
this policy, I was told that it is not written down. Two further requests for the
rationale behind this policy went unanswered.
I also asked to see their policies on
responsible investment. I was told that
two bodies have been established to consider these issues: the Advisory Committee on Shareholder Responsibility
and the Corporation Committee on
Shareholder Responsibility. The former
has student, faculty and alumni representatives and provides advice; the latter
does not have these representatives and
makes the decisions. I asked to see the
policies that contained each committee’s
roles and responsibilities. Their reply:
“I’m afraid that is all I have for you.”
Refusing to share their policies on social
responsibility doesn’t exactly engender
trust that HMC is doing the right thing
in our name.
Outside HMC, little is known about
what activities this money is funding
and what profits are made as a result,
but this has not stopped some from
unearthing examples of controversial
investments. The Student Labor Action
Movement, a Harvard student group,
has raised concerns that HMC has
invested in HEI Hotels, a company that
buys hotels, turns them around, and sells
them for a profit. It has been accused
of violating labor laws and engaging
in anti-union intimidation. In another
case, the Oakland Institute revealed
HMC has invested in Emergent Asset
Management, a hedge fund specializing
in agricultural investments. It has been
accused of signing agreements with corrupt African leaders to buy large swaths
of land in Africa, displacing the local
farmers.
As Katie Grace, the coordinator of the
Initiative for Responsible Investment at
the Hauser Center pointed out, this is
likely the tip of the iceberg when compared to oil, mining, and other potentially controversial investments that the
average university endowment fund may
hold. She believes HMC should be held
to a higher standard.
“[A lack of] transparency is endemic
across most private universities,” she
said. “They’re charitable, tax-exempt
organizations that benefit from the state,
but they aren’t required to disclose their
Editorial Cartoon by Kate Sheridan, Harvard GSAS.
investments to society.”
According to Grace, HMC would
counter that secrecy is necessary to
maintain its competitive edge.
“Their duty is to the endowment, not
to anyone else,” she added.
Since HMC apparently doesn’t discuss their rationale, we’ll have to settle
for guessing at it. As an aside, the Initiative for Responsible Investment is
funded entirely through grants and
sponsored research.
Whether or not HMC’s investments
can be adequately defended is not what
I am arguing here. I suggest only that
sufficient concern exists as to cast doubt
on whether the HKS endowment is
serving the public interest, as we aspire
to do. This doubt compels us, as members of the HKS community, to demand
a higher level of transparency.
Ignoring such an abstract issue is
easy, especially when acknowledging it will likely mean a certain level of
sacrifice. Nevertheless, we – administration, faculty, staff and students –
should stand together for the values we
espouse, and ask HMC to tell us what
we need to know.
A request for a comment from Dean
Ellwood was not returned by press time.
“Visa,” continued from page 9
human rights and dignity. The result is
an immigrant population at the center
of a debate being framed by often
racialized and abstract conceptions of
who is the enemy and who is the resident. Through this frame it is impossible to separate stories like Idylis’s from
oversimplified depictions of hardened
criminals.
Ultimately, use of these words contributes to an attitude that creates
favorable conditions for ruthless immigration policies and practices that tear
apart families and undermine basic
human rights, including harmful raids,
armed civilian border patrols who hunt
so-called “illegals” like animals, indefinite detention, forced family separations, and racial profiling.
Words are powerful. Words that
dehumanize, objectify, demonize or
mischaracterize are dangerous. Their
power and danger is reflected in their
pervasive use and subliminal effect and
manifests in actual outcomes. At the
Kennedy School where words are carefully chosen to effect real-world policy
goals, we ought to know that words
matter.
12
Citizenopinion
That’s What Shih Said:
The Possibilities of
Thinking Immortally
A Profound Conversation with a Former Student
Irene Shih, Editor-in-Chief,
MPP ‘13
To Our Weary HKS Readers:
Before my caffeine-guzzling, pajamadwelling days at HKS, I worked as a
middle- and high-school English teacher
in Phoenix, Arizona (more accurately,
I worked in a little-known town called
Surprise which, if you’ve never heard of it:
Surprise! It exists). Teaching continues to
be one of the most rewarding experiences
of my life – not for the weak-stomached,
especially in the trenches of puberty, but
it brought meaningful relationships and
“Anti-Occupy,” continued from page 10
“Pro-Occupy,” continued from page 10
edge that capitalism in its current form
does not adequately address many issues
of social justice. I see value in dialog that
helps us understand the tenuous balance
between business as an engine for societal progress, our role as stewards of the
environment, and our duty to preserve
the dignity of the human person. Issues
of corporate greed, accountability, and
business ethics are important ones that
absolutely should be discussed, debated,
and shared. However, Occupy Harvard genuinely offers none of this and
the reality is that at best it is an unproductive use of time and at worst it’s a
distraction from the real issues that we
need to address.
shady private equity outfits like Emergent Asset Management, a contender in
the escalating race to acquire appreciating African land. Field research reveals
that such land deals have tended to
sacrifice family farmers’ livelihood and
food security in exchange for unfulfilled
promises of jobs and technology transfer.
Our financial aid need not come on
the backs of African farmers. Sound
investments do not require unsound
ethics. Such is the conclusion of a host
of studies showing equivalent performance between responsible and irresponsible investing. Such is the premise for hundreds of Harvard students
Have you or anyone in your organization interacted with the Americans who
came to Uganda and helped the government devise this bill?
VK: We haven’t. Our strategy was
that it was best to have Americans
interact with fellow Americans. So it’s
mostly been our allies in the U.S. Rachel
Maddow has talked about this extensively. The Advocate has written quite a
lot. There’ve been several media stories
about this, which has helped Americans
see what’s going on in Uganda – that
there’s a very direct relationship between
U.S. evangelicals here and the funding that goes to anti-gay churches in
Uganda.
I think because of that advocacy, the
Ugandan anti-gay pastor Martin Ssempa
being brought up again.
At first, we thought it was going
to pass right away. And it could have
passed, had it not been for the international community making noise and
saying, “This has to stop.”
So I think that’s the best thing our
coalition has done so far – we’ve managed to alert the whole world to what’s
going on in Uganda. And in a way that
has put pressure on our government, on
Members of Parliament not to pass the
bill, because they know it would be a
very big mistake for them to do so.
MB: There has been a lot of attention in the American media on the role
of conservative pastors in all of this,
including Scott Lively and Rick Warren.
thoughtful moments to my life that
would not otherwise have come to fruition.
I have continued correspondence
with many of my former students; I
find that learning is a two-way street
and that their microcosms often reflect
my own. Here, I will share with you
one particular conversation, which
gave me profound pause to consider the
concept of change – a prevalent (if not
always apparent) theme at any given
stage of life’s not-so-clandestine plan to
make us grow up. Moreover, my former
student reminded me that grad school –
not unlike most other experiences – can
at times bear more weight than perhaps it should (or at least, in the wrong
ways), given all of life’s other priorities.
In the semesters that lie ahead, I’ve been
pursuing careers in social enterprise and
microfinance. It’s time that Harvard
invest in the 99%.
In sum, Harvard should be a university that directs our minds and money
to the interests of the 99%. But it won’t
do so unless we ask. With the Occupy
movement now behind Dexter Gate,
now is the time to ask.
Want to respond to
something you’ve read?
Submit a letter to the
editor at
[email protected].
has lost out on some of his relationships
with groups here. They don’t want to
have a relationship with someone who
is calling for the death of many people.
Americans have said, “No, you cannot
go to Africa and do this, when you can’t
even do it in your own country.”
MB: Do you think the coalition’s
activism is having an impact on the way
religious communities in Uganda think
about homosexuality and homophobia?
VK: I believe that the impact is going
to be a slow and gradual process. What
the coalition has done is to show Ugandan clergy that they can no longer get
away with hate. What might ultimately
dismantle religious homophobia in
Uganda is when LGBT Ugandans begin
to claim their religious freedom and to
inspired to take it upon myself to rediscover myself within and outside of the
HKS world.
My student is now a freshman in high
school and, for journalistic purposes, will
be referred to as “Karen.” And, also for
journalistic purposes, I will be referred
to as “Me.” Good luck trying to guess our
real names.
KAREN: More than anything, what I’m
taking away from these past few months
is that it isn’t the friends you lose, or the
times that meant so much to you, that
matter. Even those wonderful memories
that keep you from drowning on rainy
days have their place, and they aren’t in
the making of new ones.
I guess the bullet point version would
“Diversity,” continued from page 9
tuting a thoughtful process for properly responding to issues as soon as they
arise. To their credit, KSSG is moving
in a positive direction on some of these
and other changes.
Talking about diversity is hard, and
engaging in proactive efforts to critically
examine the shortcomings found within
specific communities can be a distressing and challenging experience. But
no matter how laborious this task may
seem, it is even more important to
do. The richness of our experience as
Harvard Kennedy School students is
diminished when the administration
fails to live up to its commitment to
diversity.
see the church as a potential ally.
MB: How do you see things playing
out over the next couple of years? Do
you feel at all hopeful?
VK: I do. The bill has really changed
so many things in Uganda. About ten
years ago, when we began organizing
our movement, there was nothing like
public dialogue, there was no debate
about these issues, and the bill has generated that kind of debate.
So in a way, I think that we’ve managed to change public opinion about
LGBT issues. I see more leaders coming
up; it’s no longer just a few of us. Even
within the LGBT community, there’s
this sense that we cannot fight this while
struggling in the closet, so people are
coming out every other day.
13
CitizenCulture
Come along for a ride with Leaves, Love and Apples
Passenger
Rosalia Gutierrez-Huete Miller, Culture
Writer, MC/MPA’12
Album Review - Lisa Hannigan: Passenger
John DiGiovanni, Culture Writer,
MPP ‘13
The first thing you’ll notice is this voice.
Immediately delicate and surprisingly
grave, Lisa Hannigan’s haunting tone
rises from a charming hush in conversation, defined as much by its fragility as
its Dublin-bred texture, to find its fated
depths in the corners of her songs. It
is a howling, velvety thing, channeling
weathered weariness throughout its
native purity. A long-time member of
Irish singer-songwriter Damien Rice’s
band before embarking upon her own
solo career, Hannigan introduced her
tranquilizing persona on her 2008 debut,
Sea Sew, a beautifully ethereal and critically acclaimed album widely hailed as
one of the best Irish albums of the year.
Hannigan’s recently released sophomore album, Passenger, carries a bit
more weight than her first. Where Sea
Sew wore little more than an airy, acoustic shroud over its deliberate reliance
on Hannigan’s distinctive pipes, Passenger chooses a bolder outfit. Armed
with the relaxed assurance of a proven
artist, Hannigan’s songwriting has taken
on a reverent fortitude reminiscent of
Blue-era Joni Mitchell. With Passenger,
she has dreamed up a decidedly more
complex foundation for her voice, which
slides seamlessly across myriad singing styles, finding solace in the calming
buoyancy of her multi-talented backing
band.
“This album is a bit more confident
in itself. You can hear it in the songs,”
Hannigan relays to me from the road,
where she is promoting her album on a
whirlwind international tour. She’s right.
From the start, the direction of this
album is more urgent than forthcoming.
As Hannigan wades through notions
of nostalgia and anticipation alike, she
sings with both the purpose that she’s
proud to have earned and the regret
that she wishes she hadn’t. “And Oh,
every promise that we broke/Is sewn
to our clothes,” Hannigan sings on the
album’s opening track, “Home,” a lovely
song paced by violin and energized with
the heave and chime of percussion and
piano.
Hannigan pushes onward with the
extraordinarily eloquent “A Sail,” a stunning nod to the silent pain of fractured
intimacy. Lurching forward from a dark
baseline accompanied by Hannigan’s
pained admissions (“Well, I was the
loudest/While you stayed quiet”), the
singer finishes defiantly, unrepentant in
her frustration. “I will roll my heart up,”
she wails repeatedly against a backdrop
of clanging symbols and layered violins.
Hannigan’s mood quickly changes with
“Knots,” the first single off of Passenger
and undoubtedly the most uplifting song
on the album. Brought to life by Hannigan’s undulating ukulele, “Knots” delivers the listener an irresistible bundle of
anxiety and amusement.
Hannigan hopes that Passenger can
“make you aware of things that you
always carry with you in your pocket
- what you take with you when you’re
on the move.” And it is of this inherent concept, one rooted in the fraying
ties of travel as much as the sturdy idea
of home, from which these songs stem.
From “O Sleep,” a strained lover’s duet
with the talented Ray Lamontagne, to
“Safe Travels,” a humorous hymn of fearful compassion, Hannigan is unbiased
in her exploration of life’s journey. Her
knack for coupling the joyous liberation
of possibility with the saddened reflection of love’s stubborn impermanence is
never more transparent than on “Little
Bird,” the album’s strongest and most
poetic song. “You are lonely as a church/
Despite the queuing out your door/I am
empty as a promise, no more,” Hannigan
shares with the delicate finger-picking of
a guitar and the quiet moan of a violin.
Yet, as always, the songwriter’s hopeful
resolve trumps her perpetual bereavement. “I think of you often/But for once
On my way to school one sunny crisp
and breezy morning, I asked random
passers-by what they like about fall.
“What? Oh yes, I love fall because
all the trees turn red” said one, “I don’t
really like this time of the year because
I don’t like the cold” and another said
“I love fall”, why? I asked again. “Well,
I like it because it’s a time to get cozy.”
Lastly, one guy said “its apple picking
time. Do you like to bake? No, not really,
but I like to eat-- apple pie.”
Thus, my column was set in my mind.
LEAVES & LOVE
Autumn Song
By Margaret Elizabeth Sangster (18381912)
Let’s go down the road together, you and I,
Let’s go down the road together,
Through the vivid autumn weather;
Let’s go down the road together when the red
leaves fly.
Let’s go searching, searching after
Joy and mirth and love and laughter
Let’s go down the road together, you and I.
Let’s go hunting for adventure, you and I,
For the romance we are knowing
Waits for us, alive and glowing.
APPLES
When the English colonists arrived in
North America they found only crab
apples, the only apples native to the
United States. The settlers brought
with them their English customs and
favorite fruits. They planted seeds and
grew numerous fruit trees, but especially apple trees. Those early orchards
produced very few apples because there
were no honeybees.
Around 1622, colonies of honeybees
were shipped from England and landed
in the Colony of Virginia. More shipments were made to Massachusetts
between 1630 and 1638. The Indians
called the honeybees “English flies” and/
or “white man’s flies.”
In 1629, the Massachusetts Company
listed the following to be brought over
to the New World: Vine-planters, wheat,
rye, barley, oats, a hogshead of each in
the ear: beans, pease, stones of all sorts
of fruits, such as peaches, plums, filberts,
cherries, pear, apple, quince. According
to accounts, these sprung up and flourished.
By the 1640s, orchards were well
established. Nearly all landowners
planted apple trees.
Today, the top apple producing states
are Washington, New York, Michigan,
California, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
At least 55 million tonnes (tons) of
apples were grown worldwide in 2005.
China produced about 35% of this total.
The United States is the second-leading
producer, with more than 7.5% of world
production. Iran is third, followed by
Turkey, Russia, Italy and India
Here is an 1800s apple pie recipe for
your enjoyment:
MALBOROUGH PIE
Juice and peel of 1 lemon (omit if using
applesauce)
2 large fresh apples or 1 cup applesauce
1 cup sugar (use only 1/3 cup if applesauce
is used)
3 eggs
1/2 cup butter
1/2 recipe for Puff Pastry (below) for bottom
shell, or favorite one-crust pastry recipe
Directions:
If fresh apples are used, follow Step 1. - If
using applesauce begin with Step 2.
1. Squeeze lemon and grate peel into
large bowl. Grate apples and lemon
juice and toss to coat apples (to prevent
darkening).
2. Pour sugar over fruit and mix well.
3. Prepare Puff Pastry. Line deep, 8-inch
pie plate, with pastry.
4. Beat eggs until light.
5. Cream butter until soft and add eggs,
blending well.
6. Stir butter and egg mixture into
sweetened fruit and spoon into pie
pastry.
7. Bake 15 minutes at 400 degrees.
Reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake
45 minutes more or until knife inserted
into center comes out clean. Cool before
serving.
Puff Pastry:
2 cups butter
3 1/2 cups whole-wheat flour, measured
after sifting
1/2 cup cold water
14
Citizenculture
Annual football tourney brings out
class competiveness
Alex Remingon, Culture Writer,
MPP ‘13
On Sunday, November 20, HKS students came to defend the honor of their
class at the annual HKS flag football
tournament. It was surprisingly beautiful, all the players wearing shorts as the
sunny weather hit 66 degrees, defying
all late-November Massachusetts logic.
The MPP1s won the day, beating the
Mid-Career class as well as the favored
MPP2s, who won the tournament back
in the spring, when they were MPP1s
themselves. But the victory was not
without controversy.
The MPP1s were unable to field a
team at first, as only five first-years
showed up at the start of the tournament at noon. Two others showed up
afterwards, but they needed to supplement their number in order to field a
full eight-man team. (The MPP2s and
Mid-Careers each had one woman on
their teams, but the MPP1 squad was
all-male.)
So the final MPP1 was the lone MPA
on the field, Jamal Jones. Fortunately for
them, this was not the first time Jones
had played football. He played four years
in the NFL with the Packers and Saints,
as a punt returner and wide receiver.
Photo Courtesy of Jenn Hoegen.
He was the only player on the field who
had ever caught a touchdown thrown by
Drew Brees. They were lucky he came.
“Somebody talked me into going,” he
said. “I mean, it was fun, but now my
body’s paying for it.” In the games, he
played quarterback and receiver. (But
really, everyone other than the QB was a
potential wide receiver.)
Three games were played, with the
MPP2 team beating Mid-Career 20-12,
MPP1s beating MPP2s 14-12, and
MPP1s beating Mid-Career 18-13.
Several MPP2s were heard to grumble
about the augmented squad that was
beating them.
The tournament was held at Hoyt
Field in Central Square, on an approximately 60-yard pitch of grass in what
was essentially the outfield of a little
league diamond. On the sidelines were
piles of backpacks, bicycles, and $2.99
six-packs of Trader Joe’s canned beer,
Name Tag Lager and Simpler Times
Lager, sponsored by student government. “Can we have a new rule? After
every drive someone has to drink some
beer,” one MPP2 shouted, to no one in
particular. “Seriously, we have a lot of
beer.”
Flag football is a variant on touch
football: it’s football without tackles,
where every player wears a velcro belt
with two flags, one on each buttcheek,
and on each play, the defensive player
tries to yank the flag off the player with
the ball. There were no uprights, so there
was no kicking: no punts, no kickoff, no
field goal, no kicked extra point. After a
touchdown, a team had to go for it, and
would receive one point if they elected
to spot the ball close to the end zone,
two points if they spotted it further
away.
Two referees were on the sidelines,
watching the first down lines and monitoring the time in the 20-minute halves.
At turnovers on downs and halftime,
players switched in and out of the MPP2
and Mid-Career squads. After the end of
her game, Jenn Hoegen, the lone MidCareer woman on the field, sat on the
grass to do her API-201 homework. It
Photo Courtesy of Alexander Remington.
was the first time she had ever played
football. But she is a rabid Patriots fan.
“They’re playing tomorrow night,” she
told me. “Thank goodness. I don’t think
I could be here if they were playing.”
The woman on the MPP2 team was
Sarah Haig, and she was a tenacious
pass rusher. “If I am outdoors playing
competitive sports, then I am a happy
person,” she said. By rule, each blitzer
had to wait until the end of a count of
three by the referee before rushing the
passer — and by the time “three-onethousand” left his lips, Haig was rarely
more than a few steps away from the
quarterback. However, Jones proved
adept at scrambling out of the pocket for
extra yardage.
Most of the players were American,
and, with the exception of Jones, the
MPA and MPAID classes were absent. “I
don’t know that the MPAIDs are big on
football,” mused one of the MPP2s. “At
least, this kind of football.”
The MPP2s called several numbered
plays, which they had devised at halftime. That layer of complexity was deliberate, said Ryan Ross, the organizer of
the event. “Last year, we had three practices before the game, but the MPP2’s
had everything drawn out. We lost to
the Mid-Careers, who had some of their
kids playing,” he recalled, with a pained
expression. “Then I took over this year.”
Sports and higher education go hand in
hand for Ross, a graduate of the University of Florida who was wearing a Gators
hat on the field. He pointed to the sidelines. “We have a trophy over there that
we’re gonna drink beer out of later.”
“Passenger,” continued from page 13
I meant what I said,” Hannigan sings
over a suddenly stirring chorus line.
With the assistance of veteran producer Joe Henry, Passenger promises a
bigger, bolder sound than the endearing but broken-down feel of Sea Sew.
Yet, ironically, Hannigan and her band
recorded Passenger in only a week, eager
to capture the first-take intimacy that
ultimately does permeate throughout
this entire bunch of songs. The imperfections are what Hannigan enjoys the
most. “It’s not the perfect shiny bits that
you like best, it’s the weird ones - as long
as they’re not out of tune,” she notes
laughingly. Playing last month at Boston’s Paradise Rock Club, Hannigan and
the boys proved that they certainly are at
their best live on stage. Blazing fearlessly
through tracks old and new, including a spare and elegant version of Sea
Sew’s hit, “Lille,” Hannigan was devoted
to the performance. The highlight was
the close - an electrifying rendition of
Depeche Mode’s “Personal Jesus” culminating in an explosion of stately drumming, wailing guitars, and thumping
piano, with Hannigan banging away on
a rarely-used dulcimer, shuddering and
shaking until her voice settled into a
deep whisper.
On Passenger, Hannigan is fitting her
observations on lost love and new paths
into a warm, subtle craft that is growing in the surprisingly witty depth that
seems to be battling Hannigan’s graceful voice to become her trademark. The
result is a first-rate album, anchored by
the comfort of Hannigan’s singular voice
but beautifully and unfailingly accompanied by a mixture of guitars, drums,
keys and violins expertly produced and
operated with steady emotion by Hannigan’s excellent backing band. “I’m really
enjoying myself,” exclaims Hannigan. So
are her listeners – here’s hoping for more
good things to come.
“Leaves,” continued from page 13
Directions:
1. Blend 2/3 cup butter and 2 cups of
flour.
2. Add 1/2 cup cold water, stirring
gradually.
3. Roll out on a floured board. Dot with
half the remaining butter, sprinkle with
3/4 cup of remaining flour, dusting some
on rolling pin, and roll up like a jelly roll.
4. Roll this out and repeat, to use up the
flour and butter.
15
CitizenCulture
“Shih,” continued from page 12
be that it’s so easy to try to replace the
people that matter most to you, because
you don’t want to lose them. Lately,
though, I’ve been trying to accept the
fact that relationships change -- because
of school, their friends, and a billion
other pieces that connect us to who we
are -- and that’s okay, so long as I accept
everyone for who they are. I can’t try to
put things in boxes. Life isn’t a single
shade of black or white. I can’t expect
people to be, either.
ME: I think you’re absolutely right. It
struck me recently that I’m not very
good at living in the moment - which is
why nostalgia hits me harder than most,
for I’m better at recognizing the value
of great moments some time after the
fact. In the microcosmic inertia of our
day-to-day lives, it’s difficult to step back
and absorb the genuine value of what
we’re doing. I find myself caught up in
little things, entangled with one worry
or another that - frankly - isn’t the point
at all. It’s easy to miss the forest for the
trees, to forget that we’ve got air in our
lungs and another tomorrow.
The world is just so much smaller
when we live only within our own neuroses - people will say, “You MUST do
this” or “You MUST be that” when the
truth is...the real “musts” are the things
we FORGET to do, such as spending
time with people we love (and really
LOVING them), waking up early to
watch a beautiful sunrise, and kicking
back on a lazy evening with some Oscar
Wilde and hot chocolate (although
he might go better with eggnog). And
maybe even all of these are only part of
the point. The true point, I think, is to
be complete. To be curious, and to do
things and be around people that make
us feel meaningful, that make us feel
right in our own skin. And accomplishing this, I submit, is the real endeavor of
a lifetime.
To your point about people changing, I would say that’s one of the most
difficult - and sometimes heartbreaking - realities to accept. The idea that
certain things - especially moments we
share with people that make us completely happy - may not last forever is
just such a sad concept. It works against
our human desire to hold on to the
good. You are very perceptive and wise
to consider simply accepting people for
who they are, even if it’s different from
who they have been, because everyone
does change.
But here’s the good news, as far as
I can tell: You can grow and change
together. If you really care about someone, and they really care about you,
there’s every reason to try bridging
changes in outlook and geography. My
best friend from college and I went from
being roommates - that is, literally living
five feet from one another - to living at
opposite ends of the country. We’ve gone
from the naïveté of our undergrad years
to a more world-weary perspective on
life as we move around in the workforce
and adult world. Yet the beauty of being
friends with someone I’ve known for so
long is that we both understand each
other almost wordlessly. We’re definitely
different than we were in college, but
we’re also strangely the same. Somehow,
being in each others’ lives has kept us
rooted to the fundamental things that
make us who we are. She reminds me
of who I was when I was eighteen, and
that’s kind of a cool thing to be able to
look back on. At 25, I’m not old (yet),
but growing older does make us want
to remember the people and times that
made us young. It’s not about being
youthful so much as it is about feeling like anything is possible. You may
not understand this until later (it didn’t
really hit me until last year).
KAREN: Change is a wonderful and
terrible thing, in the deepest sense of
both words. It can never be all “good”
or “bad,” but maybe it’s better that way.
These differences startle me out of the
catatonic state that I so easy to settle into
-- a place where routines are perfect, and
it isn’t necessary to dig deeper under
the meaning of everything. While hard
to adjust to, the only conclusion I can
see (in the present situation) is that for
people like me, whose lives are defined
by the things that will remain constant,
such as the smell of a bookstore or walking the same way to class everyday,
change is a wonderful event. Painful,
but only in the way that opening your
eyes after laying out in the sun for a long
period of time.
As much as I feel like I know what you
are saying about it not being about age,
but that feeling of knowing anything is
possible, I know that one day it will hit
me that there was something that I was
missing when I first heard you say that.
So for now, I’ll keep it in mind to enjoy
all the little decisions I make that are
based on that same feeling, on a smaller
scale.
Friends are one of the great equalizers in life, it’s true. It is so amazing that
you have kept up with your friend for
so long -- so many relationships fizzle
out without the immediate sense of the
other person being there, too.
ME: In a fantastic film called “The
Truman Show” (starring Jim Carrey), a
character says the following in response
to a question about why Truman, the
titular character played by Carrey, isn’t
aware that his entire life has been a longrunning television series:
“We accept the reality of the world
with which we are presented. It’s as
simple as that.”
By this, he of course means we don’t
often step outside the realities that society constructs for us to question why
things are the way they are, to desire
to change the world, to (for instance)
wonder if there’s something woefully
incomplete about living a life that constricts our imagination. This is less of
a problem when we are younger than
when we become older, entrenched in
responsibilities that override our capacity to dream and to be creative. There
is something about being young that
makes time and possibility stretch out in
a vast and boundless landscape ahead.
Hours and days tick by slowly, and the
idea of living seventy, eighty more years
seems like immortality in the context of
our limitless youth.
The feeling is universal, but it unfortunately does fade. We do all eventually
reach a point where months and years
roll by rapidly, where we find ourselves
blinking and missing a joke, a gesture, a
conversation and maybe even an entire
relationship. We wonder what happened
to the places we’ve been and the places
we want to go, and when those fantasies
of living artistically while spinning on
our last dime got replaced by a steady
job and quiet routine. Age comes out
of nowhere and surprises us with its
practicality. When I moved to Phoenix,
I traded up for a queen-sized bed and
my own place, and while that was a cool
adult rite-of-passage, I couldn’t help but
feel a twinge of nostalgia for the days
when a bunk bed, a broken futon, or
even the floor shared in a tiny space with
two other snoring friends made me the
happiest person alive.
And so I think about simplifying. All
this isn’t to say that we shouldn’t have
our dream house or buy a comfortable bed-set or purchase the fantasy car
that eats up the road along with everyone else’s share of gas (well, the last one
might be a bad idea). But this is to say
that it should be okay to not have those
things, too. And that’s what I mean
about youth. That it carries simple priorities, such as (but not limited to) traveling the world and writing the world’s
“best” novel and spending time with
people who bring us happiness. As the
embers of possibility fade, we tend to go
for objects within reach, forgetting that
once upon a time, when EVERYTHING
seemed within reach, we wanted simpler
- and I would argue - more meaningful
things.
I suppose this is why I find it so
important to have old friends in my life.
To be reminded that I can still be that
person who writes poetry sitting atop
a rickety bunk bed in the center of a
closet-sized room, balancing watery hot
chocolate (Nestle’s finest) on one knee
and a plate of half-frozen burritos on the
other, if only because that’s exactly what
I want to do.
Here’s to living immortally in the weeks
and years ahead. Best of luck on exams,
happy holidays and a pensive New Year!
We’ll see you again in January.
Children’s Corner
Rosalia Gutierrez-Huete Miller,
Culture Writer, MC/MPA’12
I Went To The Orchard
I went to the orchard
And what did I see?
A big red apple,
On an apple tree.
The wind came “whoosh”
And blew all around,
And then the red apple,
Fell to the ground.
I picked up the apple,
And took a bite.
Mmmmm, it was good,
So juicy and white.
I ate and I ate,
And I ate it all up.
But I saved the seeds
In my little green cup.
- MotherGooseCaboose
16
Top Ten Pop Songs For
a Boston Winter
HKS vs. Reel World
10. “Ice, Ice Baby” by Vanilla Ice
9. “Candle in the Wind” by Elton John
8. “Numb” by Linkin Park
AN ALTERNATE SCENE IN “SOPHIE’S CHOICE”:
7. “It Will Rain” by Bruno Mars
6. “Snow ((Hey Oh))” by Red Hot Chili Peppers
5. “You’re So Cold” by Mariah Carey
4. “Wind Beneath My Wings” by Bette Midler
3. “California Dreamin’” by The Mamas & the Papas
Nazi: You may keep one of your children.
Sophie: I can’t choose! I can’t choose!
Nazi: Make a choice!
Sophie: Hold on, let me draw a decision tree.
2. “Put My T-Shirt On” by R. Kelly
1. “I Saw Daddy Kissing Santa Claus” by RuPaul
AN EXTENDED SCENE FROM “GODFATHER: PART II”:
Michael: I know it was you, Fredo. You broke my heart. And,
you violated Quinlan’s assertion that public servants should
operate in loyalty under any instruction of their bosses,
b*tch.
Fredo: But I’m not a public servant. Also, according to
Applbaum, civil disobedience to a superior is sometimes
necessary.
Michael: Let’s go fishing.
[Cue theme music]
A DELETED SCENE FROM “TITANIC”:
Rose: Holy sh*t, I had the Heart of the Ocean diamond in
the pocket of a jacket Cal put on me when he was fighting
Jack. Yes! A positive externality.

HKS `Hyper-utilized`

Transcription

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