I can hardly believe it, but my time at UBC is coming to an end.  The last two years have been an amazing experience for me and I have learn and grown so much as person and as a citizen of this world.

Right now, graduating feels a bit like jumping off a cliff into the abyss as I don’t have any immediate plans for my life.  I’m hoping that the next four years of my life will be as filled with learning as the previous four.

Sometimes when I feel like taking a break from school work I check out a documentary posted on the CBC.  They often have a great selection of interesting videos to choose from.  A few weeks ago I decided to watch a CBC airing of a BBC production call “Last Chance to see Castro’s Cuba,” which focused on the dramatic economic changes sweeping the country.  The documentary shows that the strict communist economic system is on the outs and is making room for concessions where capitalism is concerned.  We have spent several GRS classes discussing the merits of the Cuban agricultural system, especially how the farming profession is popular and respected. It seems to me that farming is such a popular profession because it was at one point the only job where Cubans could earn and save a surplus.  Now that this is changing with the allowance of other entrepreneurial businesses I think that it is likely that Cubans will migrate out of the agricultural sector into other sectors such as real estate or retailing.  I would definitely recommend watching the documentary to get a better idea of the changes Cuba is currently undergoing.

http://www.cbc.ca/passionateeye/episode/last-chance-to-see-castros-cuba.html

In my FRE340 class, International Agricultural Development, we were assigned the task of writing a group paper about some sort of issue in agriculture and coming up with a set of policy recommendations to help remedy the situation.  My group and I decided to investigate food insecurity in Ethiopia.  I was tasked with finding out what effect foreign direct investment in agriculture, aslo known as “land grabs”, has on food security issues in Ethiopia.  Because agricultural FDI is so new the jury is still largely “out” in terms of definitively proclaiming the effects ag FDI has on Ethiopia’s ability to feed itself.  One aspect of ag FDI in Ethiopia that I found exceedingly interesting during my research is the fact that much of the land used by investors is used to grow flowers.  I find it unbelievably offensive that in one of the most food insecure countries in the world, foreigners are allowed to come in and use arable land to produce consumer products.

Feminism is an ideal that I hold close to my heart and it makes me a little bit sad when I hear people suggest that it is irrelevant in 2012.  The idea of the irrelevancy of feminism may seem positive to some, “hey! if feminism is irrelevant, that means women must have gained equality right?!”  But, I would argue that it is important to recognize that oppression and inequality can still exist regardless of whether or not you are in the capacity to see/feel it.  It might be possible for someone in Vancouver to feel as though equality has been reached, just look at the gender ratio for students at UBC, just over half are women.  But you only have to step foot in one of Vancouver’s many mediocre eating and watering holes to realize the misogynous and sexist reality of the food service industry, where sex sells and discrimination based on looks is rampant.  The objectification of their female staff members is the name of the game for these restaurants and this objectification surely plays a large role in the success of the restaurant.

These are only very modest local examples of the need for feminism in 2012.  Taking the debate to the international level, one only has to look at Malala Yousafzai, the 15 year-old girl who was shot standing up for her right to go to school.  One can even take into account the recent parliamentary argument given by the Prime Minister of Australia regarding rampant misogyny present in her own government.

Feminism in 2012 is not only relevant, it is necessary.

As my last year of my undergraduate degree is quickly coming to a close I have often found myself questioning my post-secondary education choices.  I have always considered myself to be a very practical person and I’ve always prided myself on the fact that my practicality extends to my education as well.  It took me four years to go back to school after high school graduation, because I knew that I would be the most successful at school if I found something to study that I was truly passionate about.  After travelling around the world on and off for four years I discovered the field of international development.  It seemed like the perfect fit for me as I have always had a passion for social justice and helping others in need.

I began my schooling in a great program at Capilano University called Global Stewardship.  I learned more at Cap than I ever thought I could and the two years I spent there were some of the best of my life.  My education consisted of a lot of theory and history, but these were two categories that I needed to do a lot of catching up in.  When I transfered to UBC I continued along the path of taking courses with themes of theory and history which caused me to ask myself “what am I getting out of my education?” I realized that I had strayed from my practicality focused approach to life.  I began to question how all my general theories and history could really help me be a successful development worker.  What skills have I actually gained in my post secondary education?  These thoughts and questions led me to almost completely change my course schedule for my final year at UBC, in the quest to obtain real and tangible skills for my life and my future career.

I have no idea if the changes I made to my curriculum will have the desired effects I hope for, but I guess only time will tell.  I think all I really want is for my education to have helped me become a more productive and helpful citizen of the world.  I hope that in the end I will have at least achieved this.

This past Wednesday I participated in UBCC350 climate action rally.  The vibe of the rally was really fun and positive and it felt really good to be a participant.   Hearing from great speakers, including environmental activist Tzeporah Berman, was truly inspiring and helped me decide that I really want to make getting involved in environmental activism a d priority in my life.   Something that Tzeporah said that really struck me as powerful, was when she was talking about the current political climate (no pun intended) regarding climate change she said that “this is our moment and they are on the wrong side of history.”  I think that evokes a strong ideas about reflecting on my life and deciding about whether or not I would be proud to tell my grandchildren that I sat around and did nothing during this global climate debate.  It truly made me think about which side of history I wanted to be a part of and complacency just doesn’t seem like a good think to stand for.

I took LFS 350 online this term and I really enjoyed it.  The format is similar to 250 where we have a big group project with a community partner.  My group was assigned to work with graduate students from the faculty of education that work in the orchard garden behind the MacMillan building.  The orchard garden team of students was interested in building a teaching kitchen at the garden to create a closed circle of learning – from growing food in the garden to harvesting it to preparing and eating it.  They wanted to apply for  a sustainability fund grand from the AMS and asked us to do the research necessary to help them successfully get the grant.  It was actually a really interesting project and very enjoyable.  It was really neat to participate in a research project that will have a good, positive impact on food sustainability and education at UBC.  Hopefully with the help of our hard work, the orchard garden students will be able to build a teaching kitchen and help improve the already fantastic workshops they conduct.

As a transfer student a lot of my schedule this school year was occupied with classes that I have to take to meet the faculty graduation requirements.  This was an unfortunate circumstance in the fact that I had to take first year chemistry and suffer (as I mentioned below) through intro to economics.  One great class that I had to take out of meeting my graduation requirements and out of personal interest was my Intro to African Studies 250 class.  It was a relatively new course that the students of UBC had to fight for, as originally there were not any African studies courses offered at UBC.  Our professor, Dr. Suzanne James, is actually a Canadian literature professor who spent quite a few years living and teaching in Tanzania.  Our class focused on African history through the readings of a short history book as well as historical fictions.  Discussion was encouraged and I felt as though I left the class with a greater understanding of what “Africa” means to the world and to  African’s themselves.

As a student interested in international development and trade, it seemed to make a lot of sense to me to try and take some economics classes during my time here at UBC.  Last term I took intro to microeconomics and this term I took intro to macroeconomics.  I found both classes to be extremely frustrating as everything we learned was presented as absolute fact and in an almost scientific fashion.  Although I understand the rational behind supply and demand and I get how certain actions in the market can fairly safely predict common outcomes, I don’t believe that these results are an absolute given.  Both classes completely ignored the fact that human beings are caring and social creatures and instead chose to focus on the perverted idealization of economic growth above everything else in the world.  The idea that my professor could stand up in front of our class everyday and talk about economic theories as though they were the laws of physics was laughable to me.  These classes really made me realize how disconnected people have become from one another in the name of wealth and growth.

A few weeks ago I had an amazing book recommended to me.  It’s called “Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies” by Jared Diamond.  In the book Diamond discusses the various interconnected reasons for the variation of advancement in terms of agriculture, political structure and tools in societies around the globe.  Reading this book has answered so many questions that I have had for a long time.  Such as, why did some societies choose to develop agriculture while others remained hunter-gatherers until the Europeans came?  The answer seems to lie in the fact that it was not so much of a choice, but rather it was more of a prescription of location and environment.  Diamond does an excellent job of relaying to the reader that there is no sort of genetic superiority that helps to explain societal advancement discrepancies, but rather, humans are all the same and the only advantage in societal development is location.  A major factor that contributed to the Eurasian advancement and often dominance over all other societies in the world was the Eurasian ability to develop agriculture due to a very fertile and large landmass that allowed for easy sharing of agricultural developments such as seeds, animals and tools.  It is with the development of agriculture and the movement away from the hunter gatherer lifestyle that allowed for food surplus to feed intellectuals and inventors that eventually contributed to the overall advancement of society.