Kirstie's Global Engagement Journey : Outcome #1: Knowledge of other world cultures and global issues.

There were many classes at UH-Hilo that I completed that provided me with a deeper knowledge of various cultures and a greater awareness of global issues. Three specific globally enriching courses that I enrolled in were: ANTH 100: Cultural Anthropology, AG 230 Sustainable Agriculture, and POLS 345 Model United Nations.

In ANTH 100 we are currently reading a book called, “Nisa: The Life and Words of a !Kung Woman” by Marjorie Shostak. Shostak's book focuses on the !Kung people that live in the Kalahari Desert in Namibia, Botswana and Angola. This book has really opened my eyes to a hunter-gatherers way of life and how it greatly contrasts from American culture. One specific difference from American culture and !Kung culture deals with the way women have babies. The American based reader could possibly find a !Kung woman named Nisa's recollection of her lonely childbirth as odd and very different. Although there is not one type of way American women give birth, I would say that it differed from a more, “American thought of birth” because in movies and television shows we generally see women giving birth in hospitals with at least 1 or 2 other people (trained medical professionals and possibly a family member) in the room. In contrast, Nisa was all alone and she chose to walk around after her daughter was born. This book offers insight into a very indigenous way of life that American society is not accustomed to seeing. There are many ways to live our life and the beauty of the world rests in the diversity that lives on it.

In order to preserve the beauty and diversity of this planet, everyone should learn about sustainability and how to be self-sustainable. In AG 230 we learned about sustainability and how it has an impact on our planets resources. As a consumer society we have a lot of "stuff". As consumers sometimes we don't know where this "stuff" comes from and where it goes when we dump it. Some of this "stuff" was shipped all over the world before it ended up in our hands. After we throw it away the "stuff" must be transported again. All this production and transportation can cause a lot of pollution that's bad for our whole global society. Something that gets traded and transport a lot is food, so for AG 230 we worked on creating an edible garden. For 4 months I worked with 5 classmates to create a sustainable garden in front of the UH-Hilo Mookini Library. We planted tomatoes, sweet potato, lilikoi, basil, taro, cucumber and many other plants. We also learned about various techniques in gardening and farming. I saw this class as great practice in learning how to start growing my own food instead of always being dependent on a grocery store.

On a very different angle, in POLS 345 I learned the history and basics of how the real United Nations functions and how international political relations impacts our global community. This class was also a great practice to help my fellow classmates and I participate in the 2013 National Model United Nations Conference in New York. During spring 2013 our UH-Hilo Model United Nations team represented Hungary. My role on the UH-Hilo model United Nations team was to represent Hungary in the General Assembly with my partner. For a week we got to work with students from all over the world to come up with a working paper that we would work best to solve the world issue we were given. Our issue was illicit guns and weapons trade. To be honest, I was not very fond of this topic because I was more interested in women’s rights at the time. None-the-less I still didn’t my best to contribute to our working paper group which was made up of students from Belgium, Germany, Venezuela, China and the USA. Since we were are all from different places there were some language barrier issues and cultural mannerisms we all had to get past in order to work together. This experience has taught me about the effort and difficulty that goes into making decisions that influence the world.

I learned different lessons in ANTH 100, AG 230 and POLS 345, but all classes helped me obtain generous amounts of respect for diversity in our global community. Although we are all different, the global community and leaders need to work together to alleviate war and other inhumane acts that happen to people on this earth. ANTH 100 taught me about the differences between our modern American society and indigenous cultures such as the !Kung. AG 230 taught me that our society needs to move toward becoming self-sustainable in order to preserve our natural resources so future generations can enjoy them as well. AG 230 also taught me that while it is good to have a globalized trade system, we shouldn’t be 100% depends on trade and we should remember how to sustain ourselves. POLS 345 taught me about the United Nations and how the decisions there impact the people of the world. By taking these classes I have a broader and informed view of the indigenous cultures that still thrive in our modernized society, global sustainability, and international political relations

ANTH 100: Cultural Anthropology