February 16, 2005

• …back to school…

  Today was the first day back at school and I must say that the break was far too short…

  Now that I’ve gotten the pictures and fun aspects of Thailand aside, there were some cultural observations that I wanted to address. Yes, it’s the Ethnic Studies side of me kicking in again…

  GLOBALIZATION

  So the shopping was great. Everything was incredibly cheap as the conversion rate totally favored the dollar. It’s about 38 bahts to US $1. Our buying power was incredible there, and every one of us exploited it. Obviously we’re supposed to bargain with the people, but when you step back and start putting things into perspective, you realize that you’re literally bickering over just a couple of cents. A case in point, we were trying to bargain a tuk tuk ride: 4 people for 80 bahts. That’s a little more than US $2. The driver wanted 100 baht. Hmm, another 20 baht–less than US $1. Obviously, the driver yielded to us, but why is that? As a citizen of a hegemonic power, I can’t help but feel a bit guilty that my buying power is so much greater than a person of a Third World country just because my country has the ability to manipulate and exploit Third World peoples. Yes, I shouldn’t complain because I stand to gain from these exploits, but as someone whose roots come from the Third World, my heart cries out to these people. I think I’m always humbled whenever I come to places like Thailand because it makes me appreciate my privileges so much more.

  Question: How do you keep America a dominant and hegemonic power?
  Answer: You step on and exploit people from all walks of life.

  In terms of shopping, I paid about US $4 for each shirt that I bought in Thailand. In the States, I would pay anywhere from $16-60 for a shirt that was probably made in a place like Thailand. Is there something wrong here???

  WHITE HEGEMONY

  Deep within the social fabric of our society, there is a course thread that undergirds the whole infrastructure of our mind, of our concept of what beauty is. I was taught early on in my life that I was different. I was categorized into pre-determined sexual/social/racial/economic boxes that are supposed to help me determine what my identity is, all the while merely brainwashing me into thinking that I was less than what I really am. In other words: Different = Sub-human. I forget what day it was, but it was towards the end of my Thailand trip that we started up a conversation about what our types were (i.e. the characteristics that we found attractive). Suddenly, I felt as though I was living out my Ethnic Studies textbooks all over again. My Asian friends were saying that when they were growing up, and even now, they wish that they were White; they wish that they had blonde hair and blue eyes, that that was what beauty was. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. This hearkens back to the studies they did in Brown v. Board of Education in which little black girls were asked to choose what they thought was the more beautiful of the two dolls: one black and one white. Each and every time, the black child chose the White doll. I don’t want to sit here and lecture about how White people have done such a good job at brainwashing people, so I won’t. I’ll just say that our world is a sad one if, in this day and age, people still can’t learn to love and appreciate themselves and the roots they come from…

  My Valentine’s Day was pretty cool this year. We all decided to have a potluck to celebrate our singleness–be it forced due to our being abroad or by choice. There was a massive amount of food there and I was stuffed to my gills with food. Shirley made this huge dish of chicken pasta–sooooooooo good. I didn’t get enough mango sticky rice in Thailand, so that was my dish of choice. It was a total success and we were all quite bloated at the evening’s end. I should have walked back to the dorm instead of taking the bus though, I needed to walk all that food off. Needless to say, food coma set in and I totally crashed when I got home. They say that mango sticky rice induces sleep, I wonder if that’s true or if it was just regular food coma? Hmm…

  • 10:43 pm
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