Month: March 2011

By Carleen Boyer

Contributing Writer

A Jesuit priest famous for his peace activist movements and his nomination for the 2008 Nobel Peace prize emphasized the importance of looking at peace as a way of life in a talk last week.

Father John Dear gave a talk entitled “The Road to Peace: Practicing Non-Violence in a World of Violence and War” on Tuesday in Trout Auditorium. The talk was sponsored by Catholic Campus Ministry among other organizations.

Though Dear is a Catholic priest, his message does not apply exclusively to people of that religion.

“If peace is life, then life is for every human being whether you are a believer or nonbeliever. I think that’s how he tries to bring it across, as something that every human being has to do,” said Father Fred Wangwe, Catholic chaplain of the University.

Dear began the talk by thanking the audience for its contribution to peace and justice and said to “keep walking the road to peace.” He focused on the need for non-violence and spoke of his efforts to bring peace into the world.

Dear has devoted his life to the efforts of the peace movement, and he described the beginning of his calling. While in Israel, Dear visited a church near the Sea of Galilee and noticed the beatitudes on the sides of the church walls. He recognized the importance of dedicating his life to the efforts of the peace movement and the need “to see life as a journey—one day at a time, one day at a time—on the road to peace.”

In 1985 in a refugee camp in El Salvador, Dear witnessed firsthand the social injustices and violence in this location. In the same camp in November 1989, 28 soldiers stormed the Jesuit house and shot and killed the men there. The soldiers removed the men’s brains from their skulls brains of the men were removed from their skulls, and one survivor named John Sabrino told Dear of his experience.

Dear noted the message he saw in this action: “This is what you get when you think,” he said.

Dear continued with non-violent protests, and in Dec. 1993, snuck onto an air force base. Once caught, Dear was  surrounded by thousands of soldiers.  The air force base contained 75 F-15 bombers, and Dear commented on the message he saw in the Bible. “Love your enemies—don’t nuke them,” he said.

Dear has continued to demonstrate the need for peace in places including New York City and New Mexico. He believes the United States is responsible for a great deal of the violence present in the world, so he focuses much of his work here.

“Everybody would like to live in a peaceful world where there aren’t things like poverty, war and murder, but it’s difficult to get there, so I think he used that ideal world idea as the ultimate goal. His life work is an example of what one person is trying to do to reach that goal” Kate Kromka ‘13 said.

By Olesya Minina

Writer

The national identity of a region can transform and be showcased in the performing arts, impacting citizens’ views of history and current events, said an assistant professor of music and scholar of Balinese and Indonesian cultures on Tuesday.

Bethany Collier demonstrated these unique concepts in a talk last Tuesday in the Willard Smith Library titled “Merchant, Clown or Princess? The Chinese in Contemporary Balinese Performance.” The talk was part of the Faculty Colloquium and sponsored by the Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity and Gender.

Collier has specifically studied Balinese and Indonesian music and dance. She is also fluent in both languages.

“Profound understanding of Balinese culture and customs is necessary, many of which contain Chinese characteristics, that until recently have been discriminated against. This signals a change in public culture towards acceptance and the integration of cultures,” Collier said.

The Indonesian government has recently taken a “pro diversity stance” beginning in the late 90s, which has allowed performance productions to take on a more “accepting, open representation of the dialogue of history and encourages the audience to acknowledge stereotypes and accept Chinese influences on Balinese culture,” Collier said.

Collier showed the complex history of the Chinese and their role in Indonesian culture, especially in Bali. The Chinese have been apparent in the culture for nearly seven centuries and until recently have been isolated, abused and discriminated against by the local governments and peoples.

This transformation in cultural identity is “stimulating and brings the complexities of history to current events,” said Martin Fromm, professor of East Asian studies.

It has also allowed Chinese influences to finally be displayed and even embraced openly in the theatre sector of Balinese culture, which includes world-famous productions. Collier focuses on three different productions, Bali Agung, Arja and Sendratari, that range from local theatre, dance and music performances to more famous and elaborate performances meant for tourists. All of these works display Chinese aspects in Balinese culture, which “manipulate language and movement to call for a realization of unity and diversity amongst differing cultures,” Collier said.

In many of these performances, the audience does not know what story or scene of a commonly known folktale the actors and actresses are portraying. They also contain stock characters rather than the real characters and unfold only as they are performed.

It is inspiring that this “vibrant cultural coexistence builds a new foundation for the peaceful coexistence of different people and ideas and can be displayed to both locals and foreigners through artistic expression,” Robert Jablonski ’14 said.

Many of the performances are now “blending cultural differences with dance, music and movement and creating a cultural bond rather than divide,” Collier said. This is radical transformation that is currently taking place in one of the “culture peaks” of the archipelago and is impacting national cultural exchange and identity in Indonesia and the surrounding regions.

By Katherine Schotz

Contributing Writer

The Bucknell Brigade sponsored the annual Day Without Shoes on Tuesday to benefit and raise awareness for poverty in Nicaragua. In addition to not wearing shoes throughout the day, students wore T-shirts to promote and explain the cause.

Due to inclement weather on the day of the event, most outdoor activities had to be canceled. One of the remaining activities was a picnic in Arches Lounge. These events were open to all, barefoot or not.

“The direct purpose of the event is to allow people to see first-hand how difficult it is to not have shoes,” said Katie McAvoy ’13, one of the event organizers. “This is something you’re able to witness when you travel to Nicaragua with the Brigade. One Day Without Shoes is [also] partially a fundraising event for the Brigade. The profits from the T-shirt sales will go towards the operating costs of a permanent health clinic that the Brigade has established in the community of Nueva Vida, Nicaragua.”

The student organizers were members of the Bucknell Brigade who had been affected by what they experienced while traveling and doing community service in Nicaragua.

“Being able to see first hand the kind of poverty that exists in Nicaragua was such a powerful experience for me, and I think that kind of opportunity also comes with a responsibility to spread awareness about what you have seen,” said Carolyn Breden ’12, who helped organize the event with Katie Janda ’13. “The Day With No Shoes event is unique because it encourages participants to empathize at a different level than simply looking at photos or hearing someone talk about what they’ve seen.”

The event is sponsored nationally by TOMS Shoes and seeks to raise awareness about poverty and how many people do not have shoes. The University focuses the day around Nicaragua because of the Brigade’s involvement there.

“The cause is important to me because I’ve traveled to Nicaragua with the Brigade, so I’ve seen some pretty extreme poverty first-hand,” McAvoy said.  “While in Nicaragua we visit ‘La Chureca,’ which is Managua’s city dump. Families live among the mountains of garbage, and a lot of the kids don’t have shoes. It’s hard for me to imagine not only living in a dump, but also not having shoes to navigate the dangerous trails. As a result, I’ve come to appreciate the value of having shoes, and I think One Day Without Shoes is a nice glimpse for students who haven’t traveled to a third-world country to begin to imagine life without shoes.”

The planning for the event began at the beginning of the year. The students did the majority of the work in organizing and planning the event, said Kristine Kengor, Assistant Director of Service Learning.

The event coordinators anticipated about 250 students to go without shoes and, while the weather discouraged some students from participating, many could be spotted walking barefoot on campus throughout the day.