What does it mean to have value? Who decides what is or isn’t valuable?

Welcome once again to another ‘Tip from Nick’, it is the 26th of January and the month of love ( and the much welcomed reading week) is just around the corner. These last two weeks in ASTU have been filled with discussion about The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid. This novel, perhaps my favourite of the assigned readings of both terms, Is one that leaves the reader with many open-ended questions and assumptions. Our main character, Changez, is a Pakistani native living in New York City. Having just completed his undergraduate at Princeton, Changez applies to work at Underwood Samson, one of America’s most esteemed valuation firms. At first excited and motivated to give his all to the company, Changez undergoes a transformation after the 9/11 attacks due in part to America’s racist view towards muslims due to a rising fear culture and its political policy towards India-Pakistan tensions.  However, another influencing factor in Changezs’ is his assignment to valuate a publishing company in Chile run by Juan Bautista. During a conversation over a meal, Bautista tells Changez his job at Underwood Samson is similar to that of a Janissary. In Changezs’ words, “I was a modern day Janissary, a servant of the American empire at a time when it was invading a country with kinship to mine and was perhaps even colluding to ensure that my own country faced the threat of war.” (pg.152).

Underwood Samson In my opinion can to a degree be representative of the power and strength of America’s voice (at the time a unipolar super-power) and stance on an international scale. In the novel, Underwood Samson’s valuations are what make or break a company’s chance to continue to thrive and compete in the business world, a position of power similarly held by the United States when it comes to both foreign and domestic policy. Of course, Underwood Samson is a fictional company, but I was curious to find a real world equivalent. After little searching, I settled upon one of the most well known and trusted business figures on the planet; Forbes Magazine.

Although it is not, in itself, strictly a valuation firm; it does hold power similar to that of Underwood Samson’s in the business sector. Forbes’ opinions and values are held in very high regard, so much so that it would not be radical to assume the majority of people take Forbes’ word regarding topics in the business world as downright factual. A strong example of this, one that led me to chose Forbes as Underwood Samson’s parallel company, is the ‘Forbes Global 2000’.

The Forbes Global 2000 is a list made by Forbes analysts which ranks the top 2000 companies on a global scale. While this is purely an interpretation based on publicly available information, holding a spot on this list is as prestigious as it gets in the business world.  Forbe’s view of the business world (pardon my analogy) is god; it holds power that is’t rivalled by any other competitor, and as such has the ability to dictate just how far a business can ‘make it’.

It is important not to forget that Forbes Magazine is an American company, and knowing this, is it really anything more than an extension foreign policy when it comes to the global market. It is thrusting the view of an American Empire out to the entire world, deftly manipulating the business sector through valuations they feel fit.

Perhaps this is one of the things Changez realizes about his work with Underwood Samson. By taking a job at Underwood Samson, was he really just a servant of America, comfortable in his Financial world to dictate how the lives of others will turn out.  As English Scholar Joseph Darda writes in his essay “Precarious World: Rethinking Global Fiction in Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist”, “Changez has, in Chile, broken from the American frames of life that had earlier con- strained his “arc of vision.” (pg. 118). By throwing away his career in America and returning home, Changez show’s a resistance; a rebellion against a frame of mind that companies such as Underwood Samson and Forbes magazine push out to the rest of the world. One in which finances, opportunity, and wealth trump all else; a view on the world which Darda refers to as a “Fantasy of Mastery’, something in which valuations companies such as the ones above feel comfort and control in the power they hold.

Personally, I believe Changezs’ shift away from this ‘fantasy of mastery’ is one that is needed in the world today. While many see’s his actions as anti-American, I see them more as an anarchic stand against the American superpower, actions that decline American policy as the basis for our global infrastructures and markets. A hegemony(a global superpower) is something that should not be strived for, not if we aim for an egalitarian world, and The Reluctant Fundamentalist reflects this viewpoint. Luckily, the world is at a drastic point of change, and with the next couple years ahead with Trump at the helm of American politics, we will see just how much power companies like Forbes Magazine will really hold(or perhaps lose) on the global stage.

Hello friends,

Welcome back to the second term of ASTU! I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas break and is energized and ready to work hard. Personally I just came down with some sort of illness which spared little symptom wise(even though I got my flu shot). It looks like a second wave of disease is passing around campus, so make sure to wash your hands plenty and dress warmly.

In our previous ASTU classes we have been reading and discussing the graphic novel Safe Area Goražde by Journalist Joe Sacco. This novel details the interviews, experiences, and recollections of Sacco during the Serbo-Bosnian War. Touching, extremely graphic, and at times humorous, it tells the story of the Enclave of Goražde, A UN designated safe zone during the war that is eventually cut off entirely from its home country of Bosnia, save for a small strip of road called the “blue road”. To access this road, a special pass was needed, and even then travel was done mostly with UN protective convoys. Residents of this enclave, many of whom would never have been able to obtain said passes to travel, were trapped in Goražde; their right of mobility taken away from them.

Mobility is a topic that comes up on multiple occasions in Safe Area Goražde, with many of the residents simply just wanting to be able to travel safely and freely again. It is a basic human right that is not usually taken into consideration when thinking about what the average person needs to be healthy both physically and mentally. While the restriction on Goraždes’ residents was without a doubt a traumatizing and debilitating feature of the Serbo-Bosnian War, I was spurred to look more into just how important mobility was by researching the most extreme version of mobility restriction: solitary confinement.

A search of the words ‘solitary confinement’ and ‘mental health’ brings up hundreds of results negatively portraying solitary confinement and its effects it has on the mind. The effects of mobility restriction and solitude, such as being placed in a small room alone with no outside access, has been researched by many top universities and schools, starting in around the mid 20th century. Research is difficult to conduct… as test subjects are needed, but two cases from the 1950’s really stood out to me as exactly how jeopardizing to the mental state solitary confinement can be.

During the mid-1950’s, a team from the University of Wisconsin held a trial in which a monkey’s were placed in a solitary confinement tank shaped like an upside-down pyramid to prevent the monkey’s from climbing out. After no more than 2 days, every test subject was found huddled in the corner of the tank in a hunched position. The monkeys were placed in the tank for different set periods of times, with the longest being a full year. Regardless of the time, all test subjects came out of the tank extremely disturbed, either staring blankly at spaces for long periods of time, pacing their cages, or even mutilating themselves. Most eventually recovered, save those that were in the tank for 12 months, who where completely socially obliterated.

In 1951, a different team from the University of McGill conducted a similar experiment in which human volunteers were placed in a small room with a bed and toilet and were given blindfolds, gloves, and earplugs to deprive the senses. The test was to last 6 weeks, but not a single volunteer was able to last more than 7 days, stating they could either no longer think clearly, or began to experience strong hallucinations.

There are countless other stories of solitary confinement, be it through  Prisoners of War, jailed prisoners, or kidnapped/tortured victims. In all cases, the mental state of mind is always severely affected, and causes numerous social problems.

Mobility seems to be something the average human being takes for granted; having never been a situation where it has been taken away, few know just how it can feel to have the space around you constricted for long periods of time. However, it seems to stand out as one of the ways that can most severely detriment the human mind. For the Residents of Goražde, who were confined to their village for numerous years, I cannot imagine just how anxiety-inducing, restrictive, and frustrating it must have felt to not be allowed to leave. Especially as Goražde was a very dangerous place for many Bosnians who merely wished to escape to safety. In my opinion,  One should never underestimate the power of free movement, and as such, one should never set to abuse it either.