Life on the Ship.
Well, it’s been quite an experience. I’m a bit indifferent about it, perhaps that’s the best way I can describe my life on the boat. I feel like the days just pass by. The hours quickly go and the day ends. I have no notion of time really, just go according to the hour and my responsibilities, whether it’s class or work. It’s not that I don’t like the ship life. I enjoy the time I spend with my roommate just talking about life experiences and our futures as well as pasts. I enjoy the long conversations held after dinner with Sam and Gaby and/or other friends I’ve made on this ship. We are half way done with this voyage and I’m still seeing new people on the ship that I had never seen before. I also really like talking to the crew, they really are so nice and sweet and a lot of them are actually getting off in Hong Kong, which will be quite sad but I’m happy for them, they are going home. I like my poetry class a lot. I’m learning to express myself differently, more figuratively and clearly. I’m learning to write my emotions down and I’m capturing their essence at the moment. :)
There’s a quote that was put in the daily bulletin yesterday, “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow- mindedness,” Mark Twain. I really hope this is the case for the majority of people on this ship. Oh, I think that it is relevant to point out that the majority of the people on this ship are White Caucasian North Americans. There are about 10-13% “ethnic” people on this ship, that is—brown people. And there is only 1 professor who is not American teaching on this voyage that is supposed to be “GLOBAL” how ironic huh?!? Therefore, it is not rare that we hear about people talking with prejudices or acting on their prejudices. It is not uncommon for people to call others by other names if they vaguely resemble another colored person on the boat. For example, there is one LLC (she’s staff) her name is Joy, she is often called Remy who is also Asian. It’s not an insult that she is mistakenly called Remy, but passengers assume sometimes that she is Remy just because she is Asian. Or how about calling a girl Mary just because she’s Latina, you know what I’m saying? So yeah, I hear a lot about this, for some reason it hasn’t been done to me, being called Mary or being told something that is stereotypical and/or prejudice, but it wouldn’t surprise me if it does happened anytime before this voyage is over. We live in bubbles, well at least I did. Growing up I feel like I didn’t experience racism and prejudice because I always had my close-knit group of friends and we were all multi-cultural, and it didn’t matter. In Santa Barbara, I stuck to “my own.” Although I had friends that were white and still do, I had my group of friends and didn’t really interact with white people now that I think about it, only occasionally at parties I guess. But now, they’re all around me, from the trips I take to the dinner table. My number one priority on this voyage has always been: 1) to learn the history, socio-economic and political frameworks in the countries we are visiting and 2) to interact with the local people and learn more about the realities through them. The priorities for the majority of the students on this trip are 1) travel, 2) Party, 3) Meet people (not necessarily people in the countries we visit, but on the ship.) And this is why what Mark Twain said is still not the case on the ship, but I am hopeful.
Last week Sam and I along with another student, one professor and another staff member participated in a panel about racism and white privilege. I was a little hesitant about participating because well, I didn’t want to be taken as a token brown kid talking about race. But then I also remembered that part of having white privilege is the luxury of not having to think about it because they unlike me don’t have to explain themselves. That is, they are white, they are automatically American even though their ancestors were immigrants just like my parents were decades ago. But after I say I’m north American, I too have to say that I am Salvadoran because my parents are Salvadoran. Not that I mind at all, I love saying that actually because I am proud of my Salvadoran history and people. When I was in Brazil actually that was all I said because I didn’t want to be associated with the American lifestyle nor history, nor present decisions. But here it is quite difficult because I am constantly surrounded by these SAS kids. Anyway, so we had met with a few professors on this ship before arriving to India to discuss some alternative readings like Fanon, because we felt that we were not learning much in our Global Studies class which feels more like geography class actually. Our professor isn’t much of a professor and I don’t feel bad about saying that. There is no critical thinking done in that class and no real study on any of the countries we have visited or will visit. Anyway, after that session of discussing Fanon and his writings about, “On National Culture.” One of the professors told us that she had been asked by the dean of students to conduct a panel regarding the racism happening on the boat because students had approached him about it. And I suggested to her that she should discuss the difference between racism and prejudice. Racism is often used loosely and it’s lost its affect I think because of that. Racism is a question of power PLUS prejudice. I am not racist for example because I do not have the means to be racist; I have no power to subjugate another person on account of my power because I have none in this system. But, I do have prejudices that are fueled by stereotypes that we have all sadly grown up with, whether they are instilled at home, at school or any other public space like the MEDIA which is I think very responsible for the prejudices that many of us hold. Prejudices can lead to racism in the future if you hold positions of power. Racism is institutional and systematic. There is a reason why education is so poor and underfunded in low-income communities made up of “minorities.” Racism is the prison industrial complex that is responsible for the incarceration of many of our young men of color. Why do men of color make up 60-75% of our jail system when we are a minority in this country yet a majority in the prisons? This is institutional racism and these are the realities that we don’t question because we are not taught these realities at school. The university is an institution of power like the military and prison system therefore, it is not meant to challenge the state. It is made to reproduce the status quo. Hence, we are to educate ourselves about these things we are often not exposed to in order to demand social justice that is, real talk, impossible within the capitalist system we live in. (It is our duty I think, to demand another system). And so, that is what I was asked to discuss in the panel.
On A days, although usually I feel tired and sleepy, I enjoy the conversations I have with the physician on board: Dr. Phil. Yes we have our own Dr. Phil. He’s asked me to practice Spanish with him so that he can improve his. He’s from North Carolina and one time after going back home from a 3 month period in India some 40 something years ago, he said he calculated how much people would have if all the wealth in the world would be equally disbursed: 2-3 thousand dollars each. Today he says, it would be 7-8 thousand dollars each. I knew he was cool after he told me that after our first meeting more than a month ago. He’s a humanist and he believes in helping and improving humanity, but he doesn’t know how. And so we discuss the inequalities that we have seen and witnessed. The causes and products of poverty and globalization. He asks me, “is there an alternative.” Sometimes I get the feeling that he looks towards me for hope, perhaps I am the idealist that he once was. But I commend him for the work he does in North Carolina; the people he helps, the investigations he conducts about methods to better aid the elderly population with Alzheimer’s and other grave conditions affecting the growing elderly population today. He’s a very nice man and one who I’ve been able to talk about things without what my mom would say, “sin un pello en la lengua” that is, without reservations. I think he’s found out where my politics lie and my ideologies and welcomes it, with perhaps a bit skepticism. I think that’s why it is so easy for him to ask me things and for us to conversate about changing the world and understanding the factors that have created the world we live in. A world I think will collapse if there is not an alternative presented for the livelihood of humanity—for a benevolent and humanistic humanity that is slowly drifting due to current deprived realities induced by capitalist principles we’ve all grown up with sadly.
Today in Global Studies we welcomed the interport lecturer Lee Baker, she spoke about the current economic and political situation in Vietnam. She’s been in Vietnam since 1995 when the embargo was lifted on Vietnam and is still there working with various Chambers of Commerce and other such things. Vietnam is politically communist but their economic practices she says can be compared to China who is inevitably capitalist in the economic sense also. There are a lot of things that she mentioned including the fact that there is corruption, there are political prisoners due to their dissidence against the government and that many South Vietnamese are still angry about the war and the situation of the country because they’ve lost so much. I personally think her talk was a bit one-sided, why not talk about the good that’s occurred, which I do not know much about, but I’m certain that there is good. I wanted to ask her about how the country has been affected after its integration onto the WTO (World Trade Agreement). From what I’ve learned free trade only creates more inequalities among the poor and rich and often privatizes social welfare like education and healthcare. Like for example, CAFTA and NAFTA, they’ve contributed to the major displacements of people across borders. Vast inequalities within a country are directly linked to the global capitalist system we abide in today, in which Capitalism through neoliberalism is actively paving the way for not only the dehumanization of the masses, but also their displacement. More and more people are migrating away from their countries. For example when in Cape Town we met a series of immigrants from Zimbabwe, Angola and other western parts of Africa. They are to South Africa what Mexicans are to North America. As global citizens we are to recognize the similarities without failing to acknowledge the differences that are very interdependent to the countries history. Knowing this, I think that Vietnam is going to be an amazing learning experience. I can’t wait to interact with the people, talk to them and just learn from them and perhaps they from me. I know it’ll open my mind to different things and thoughts and so we’ll see.
There were also two men that spoke about their experiences as soldiers in Vietnam. They were very sad. But there was one instant that really got to me, and that was when one of them spoke about how 17 and 18 year olds were being drafted, I knew this but to see someone speak about it who was there and who was drafted when he was only 19, just broke me. How young and clueless the majority of these kids were. How they were thrown into those fields to die not out of conviction for their country but in the name of comradeship they had with their fellow soldiers. How sick leaders have to be to protect their interests before their citizens and especially young kids who had not even lived yet. Whose life had not begun. And what of those kids who did live, how sad were their lives after coming back. How much they had lived in those fields but not lived at the same time. To come home to what? Anger? Sadness? Torment of past memories and memories unlived? How sad. How sad for a mother who said goodbye to a son, a son she would probably never see again, or if she did see again, how different he would be.
Oh U.S. When will you learn? I suppose you haven’t since we have engaged in five wars since then. How quickly we forget the atrocities of one war to then move on to the next. Gulf War, Afghanistan, Iraq now Libya? We? I had a friend once, who asked me, “You consider yourself American? You consider yourself part of a place that doesn’t think you are part of them?” and I thought about it and thought, that is so true. I do not bear the hegemony of a white face or skin, therefore I must not be American, that is what they think at least. I was born here, I have the same rights and this is the culture I know (what culture many of us may ask) well the culture that borrows from every other culture; but that’s made some type of culture which I grew up with. For North America truly is historically a country of immigrants after all. The U.S. is what I’ve known all my life until I hit college and discovered my history as a Salvadoran and therefore my identity as such, which I am very proud of. The government, not the people, did so much damage and continues to do it. But it’s up to us to stop it, create consciousness among the masses and stop it. Iraq and Afghanistan should not be forgotten; people die there every day and the puppet regime put in power by the US is no better and perhaps worse than that which was in power prior to U.S. intrusion. I’ve read a little bit on Libya since I do not have access to the internet really on the ship, but will Libya really benefit from Gaddafi’s death? Will it be another Iraq? I’m afraid to think it will fare the same fate.
Well, until next time. I hope all is well at home. J
I’m an amateur at knowledge
I’ve pursued trivial aims
Thinking I got it all figured out
But I got experience through and through
Metallic is the ailing
I guess I’ll take the whiskey
Perhaps a Three Wise Men please.
You see,
I grew up abandoned, shattered before my time.
Struggling as I cradled
Perhaps deemed shattered before my teething
I grew up running perhaps waiting
To sulk in grey confinement
My catalyst was your brute appraisal
But I am your brute awakening
I am dignity.
I read my days away now not waiting but preparing.
Still trapped in white man’s cells
“I am the rose that grew from concrete.”
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