Issue 2
2008
Director’s Notes
Check out the Starr GSI mission statement at the
bottom of this page. It’s pretty similar to the university’s
mission regarding a global outlook – but it sounds a
bit lofty for us ordinary mortals. We believe in all that
of course, but we have a less complicated job to do for
our school and its community. And that’s simply “to
promote global awareness” here in this corner of Kansas
where we live.
If you live, as we do, in the middle of what pioneers
used to call “the Great American Desert,” where things
appear to move somewhat slower and change happens
almost reluctantly, it’s very easy to ignore the rest of the
world and to neglect our responsibility to it. Oh yes,
we do have a responsibility, didn’t you know? We are
an awesome, incredibly powerful nation; if we sneeze
the world catches cold, as they say. What we do has
impact on just about everybody the globe. So it’s vitally
important that we — students, faculty, and staff alike —
take interest in what happens out there and in what our
leaders do on the international scene in our name. We
must take note and we must participate. After all, we get
the government we deserve.
So, our program for the second year of the Starr
Institute was designed to keep faith with our mission
to promote global awareness and with the university’s
mission to make the world a better place. We strove to
identify important world issues, to emphasize injustices
and promote understanding and tolerance between
peoples. Below is a list of some of the things we did
during this busy year. Elsewhere on these pages are some
brief descriptions of those events. We dedicate this issue of the Starr Report to
our patrons and friends and with deep gratitude to
all of you who supported us in this second year of
exploration and growth.
George F. Steger, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus in History and Global Studies
Director, Lawrence D. Starr Global Studies Institute
Starr Report Contents
Genocide! Genocide! Genocide! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Lectures Series . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
“Brown Bag” Lunch Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
The 2nd Annual Human Rights Confernce . . . . . . . . 4
A Busy Year: The Starr Report in Brief . . . . . . . . . . . 6
From the Sidelines: A Letter for Our Students . . . . . 8
The GSI Team: George Steger, Ph.D., professor emeritus
and director; Matt Budreau and Deanna Monaco, graduate
assistants for 2008-09.
The GSI Steering Committee
Gretchen Wilbur, Ph.D., Director of
Graduate Education Programs
Randy Scott, Ph.D., Director of Political Science and
Global Studies Programs
Marie Brinkman, Ph.D., SCL, Professor Emeritus
in English
Natalie Riegg, Ph.D., Professor of Political Science
and Global Studies
Alexandra Robinson, Assistant Professor, Art
Laura Davis, Vice President of Marketing/
Communications
The Starr Sponsors – The John Starr family, Laura Starr,
Tony and Sharon Albers, and Harry and Louise Bannister.
Many thanks!
Global Studies Institute Mission
GSI believes in the essential dignity of the individual and of
the manifold cultures that constitute the global community.
GSI endeavors to cultivate mutual understanding,
respect, and ethical and charitable attitudes among the
diverse members of the global community.
GSI is dedicated to studying the history, trends,
problems, implications, and potential of the integrating
global community.
GSI works to identify:
• opportunities for the betterment
of humankind
• problems that may accompany
• challenges, obstacles and
opposition that may inhibit
beneficial integration.
GSI seeks solutions to issues of global concern that will
help to foster peace, justice and the enrichment of life for
all the global community.
GENOCIDE! GENOCIDE! GENOCIDE!
This year we had:
• a lecture series on it
• three book discussions
• an all-day human rights
conference
It’s a tough subject, genocide,
especially for a lecture series. Not
many people want to come listen
to somebody talk about starving
children and hands getting hacked
off by runamuck soldiers. But
genocide still happens. It didn’t
just stop after the massacre of the
Jews in World War II. Since then
there’s been Cambodia, Bosnia,
Kosovo, Rwanda, and now the
tragedy in Darfur.
As in Germany during the
World War, the rest of the world
finds it somehow difficult to do
anything about genocide. In each
of those episodes mentioned above
hundreds of thousands of people
got murdered in “ethnic cleansing”
or blatant extermination attempts.
And it took so long in each case
for the world to react. Sometimes,
for long periods, as in Cambodia
and Rwanda, nobody outside of the
country reacted at all.
http://gsi.stmary.edu
And now in Darfur there’s a
situation in which citizens of the
country of Sudan who live in the
west and south of the country and
who are mostly black Africans are
getting systematically eradicated
or removed from their homelands.
This is happening while the United
Nations, NATO, and the great
powers, including the United States,
look on and simply wring their
hands. What’s going on?
One might say, well, it’s because
Africa is not that important in
terms of global politics. That might
be true in some parts of Africa, but
not in Sudan. Sudan has oil. And
that’s the problem. In what might
be the opening moments of a new
“great game” two leading world
powers, China and the United
States, confront each other over
Sudan. The United States might do
something about the situation if it
weren’t for the fact that China gets
so much oil from Sudan.
And right now China is crazed
by the need to provide energy for
its bolting economy. For its part,
the U.S. might wish to oppose
China’s global ambitions but seems
to be afraid to offend Beijing
(and curb its mutually profitable
trade with China) by opposing
the People’s Republic in Sudan –
genocide or not.
As we said, it’s a tough and
thorny subject. So, in keeping with
our mission to alert and inform our
community about global injustice,
the Starr Institute chose this
difficult theme for its spring lecture
series. The theme extended to the
work of the USM Peace Building
Team of Dr. Natalie Riegg’s political
science course on peace building.
Working with the GSI Steering
Committee, the team put on a
successful second annual Human
Rights Conference for more than
one hundred high school students
from the surrounding area. Rabbi Jacques Cukierkorn discusses
effects of the Jewish Holocaust.
Though we are still waiting
for somebody to do something,
at least our community is better
informed and aware of the
scourge of genocide, especially
the crisis in Darfur.
Dr. Natalie Riegg engages with questions
in the second lecture.
Starr Report 2008 | 1
The Lecture Series
Lecture #1: Classic Genocide: The WW II
Holocaust
When Rabbi Jacques Cukierkorn of the New
Reform Temple in Kansas City responded to our
invitation to be the first speaker in the genocide series,
he astonished us by saying he might “tell the story of
the Holocaust in jokes!” His point, of course, was that
the subject is so difficult and tragic that the only way to
talk about it is to laugh at the utter ridiculousness of it –
or else you would just cry.
He did agree to come and he was a compelling
speaker, telling the story, not in jokes, but by anecdote
after anecdote from this great tragedy, each one
accompanied by a philosophical note out of the
Jewish tradition.
Rabbi Jacques turned out to be a controversial
speaker, as well as a riveting one. At least for a week
afterwards talk buzzed in classrooms, halls, and dorms.
It was a bit astonishing to get such insight into the
Jewish experience of the Holocaust and see how it
might diverge from the way Christians look at it.
At least one could see how the deep scar of this
classic act of genocide cuts into all things Jewish and
why genocide must continue to be taken so seriously.
Lecture #2: Contemporary Genocide:
Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, Kosovo
Ms. Holt’s talk not only highlighted some of the
more egregious mistakes nations make in dealing with
the threat of genocide but she gave her audience some
hope that something is being done about it. Think tank
agencies like her own Stimson Center are constantly
scrutinizing the hot spots of the world and putting
together contingency plans that can prevent conflict
from becoming genocide.
The speaker’s dedication to this task was evident in
her remarks that reflected her published work on the
evolution of United States policy toward peace building.
Lecture # 3: Genocide Today: Darfur
Dr. Natalie Riegg and the students of her course on
peace building and conflict resolution, taught annually,
were the most logical speakers for the final lecture in
the series. Their arguments about the Darfur conflict
derived from what they had been studying all semester.
They came to know the story, chapter and verse.
The panel presentation provoked a lively and
enthusiastic response from the audience, clearly
impressed with their preparations. Accompanied by
a short documentary film on the conflict, the team
recounted how it came to be, who the major players
were, what the consequences of it have been and will
be if nothing is done.
The discussion proved to be a timely and lively
preparation for the team’s culminating effort, the annual
Global Human Rights Conference on campus.
The second speaker in the series was Victoria Holt,
Senior Associate at the Henry L. Stimson Center for
Peace and Security in Washington, D.C. Ms. Holt leads
a team at the Stimson Center that looks for answers
to questions:
“Why Genocide?”
“What Are the Warning Signs?”
“What Can Be Done to Prevent It?”
Dr. Natalie Riegg and the USM Peace Building Team
Victoria Holt talks about contempary genocide.
Peace Builders speak in Lecture # 3
2 | Starr Report 2008
THE NOONTIME “BROWN BAG” LUNCHEON EVENTS
P
erhaps the most popular and entertaining events on
this year’s Starr agenda were the Brown Bag talks
presented mainly to staff and faculty at noontime
in the faculty lounge. The idea was to emphasize the
diverse backgrounds and adventures of members of the
Saint Mary community in an informal setting. The results
were surprising , often hilarious, always interesting.
Father Anthony Kiplagat,
a parish priest from Kenya, is
studying at Saint Mary for a
year, maybe more. Father loves
everybody, is constantly in awe
of everything he sees in America,
and is one of God’s truly humble
and joyful servants. While
working on an additional degree
in psychology, he lives in the priests’ house on campus,
eats with the sisters in the Mother House, and says Mass
whenever he gets the chance – for the students several
times a week and at least once a week in the nearby state
prison. At home in the hills of the Rift Valley of Kenya
above Lake Victoria, he walks his daily rounds among his
parishioners and spends most of his time piecing together
resources for the myriad needs of his large parish flock.
Dr. Caroline Mackintosh, a
professor of biology at USM, spoke
of “Kilts, Haggies, and ‘Nessy’
Monsters” in the deep lakes of
Scotland where she was born.
With a captivating Scottish burr
and with a keen sense of humor,
Dr. Mackintosh had some fun with
her audience. She asked if they
knew what Scottish men wear
under their kilts, why the Scots
wear plaid and why Scottish soccer fans are so rowdy.
Her power point on what makes Scotland tick today was
as good as anything on the Discovery Channel.
Darryl Cormier, coordinator of
residence life and assistant coach
of the Spires men’s baseball team,
regaled his mixed crowd with
reasons why Canada would never
become the 51st state and then
proceeded to set these “Yanks”
straight about the differences,
similarities and partnerships
between the U.S. and Canada. He clued them in, too, to
“Squaffles” and the Mounties’ traditional red uniforms.
http://gsi.stmary.edu
Dr. Wei Lin, newcomer this year
to the Natural Sciences Department
as assistant professor of chemistry,
is a native of Beijing and an oldschool Chinese gentleman. This
polite, soft-spoken man is steeped
in his country’s history and
superbly educated. He recounted
his odyssey to the United States,
through Canada, and how he
wound up at Saint Mary. Asked
to speak about the changing face of China, he related
instead, with charming modesty and understatement,
a clear and intimate picture of the changing face of his
home city and of the college where he began his career
as a scientist. In the end, it amounted very cleverly to the
same thing.
Heather Coates, intrepid campus ministry director,
tramped all over India in the summer of ‘07, sometimes
in the company of priest friends from India but often
accompanied only by her backpack. We got the benefit of
her bold journey and of her impressions of a burgeoning,
bustling India careening down the road to modernization
like an express train. The conversation with Heather
gave her audience a close look at the process of “national
transition” – from a poor, overcrowded Third World
country to one of the world’s fastest growing industrial
powers, a new India on the verge of becoming a great
country in every respect.
Faten Halibi was perhaps the most exotic Brown Bag
speaker. She is a high school girl from Israel, on exchange
in the U.S. and attending McClouth High School for
the year. The exotic part is that she comes from one of
the world’s unique peoples – the Druze. Though they
are Israeli citizens, they are not Arabs, Persians, Turks or
Jews. They are Druze, with their separate and ancient
history and their own brand of Islam. Faten was a perfect
ambassador for her people, articulate, dedicated and
highly enthusiastic. Her PowerPoint presentation on her
people and their life in Israel was worthy of any college
student’s work and provided much wonderful insight into
this colorful and singular people.
A seventh Brown Bag on the student trip abroad to Japan
is covered on insert page 7c.
Starr Report 2008 | 3
The Second Annual Global
T
he last piece in Saint Mary’s ambitious efforts to
emphasize genocide and the tragedy of Darfur was
an on-campus conference for students from eight
area high schools. More than 100 students took part in a
day-long conflict resolution workshop, playing the roles
of the principal antagonists in this brutal, seemingly
God-forsaken African war.
The scenario for the mock negotiations was written
by the members of Dr. Natalie Riegg’s political science
course in advanced peace building. Led by senior
Vanessa Campagna and junior Danny Blank, these USM
students labored all semester to put together a forum
in which the visiting high school students might have
a reasonable chance over the course of a single day of
coming up with a plan for a peaceful resolution of this
Gordian conflict.
4 | Starr Report 2008
While the USM students and Dr. Riegg acted as
mentors, guides, and judges between groups in the
negotiations, the actual “nuts and bolts” organization
of the conference was engineered by the members of
the GSI Steering Committee: Dr. Gretchen Wilbur, Dr.
Randy Scott, Alexandra Robinson, and Dr. George Steger,
and the members of the GSI staff, Matt Budreau and
Deanna Monaco. Students from the Freshman Learning
Community class of Riegg and Scott got introduced to
the intricacies of diplomacy acting as guides and referees
at the negotiation tables.
Naturally, the negotiations were the heart of the
day-long workshop and proved to be not only the
most difficult but the most rewarding part. Students
from the eight schools found themselves representing
entities and ideas they had never heard of and would
Human Rights Conference
never have chosen. They wrestled with unattractive
options, struggling to identify with the institution they
represented and plead its cause.
Atchison students drew the UN, Bishop LeBlond
advocated for the Sudanese military, Cristo Rey for the
Sudanese government, Immaculata for the northern
nomadic Arabs, Lansing for the Janjaweed militia,
Leavenworth for refugees and displaced people,
Pleasant Ridge for black Muslims, and St. Pius X for
the Darfur rebels.
All the participating students wore colorful T-shirts
bearing the symbols of their groups, represented above
the photographs on these pages.
http://gsi.stmary.edu
In the end, as in the actual situation, no miraculous
general agreement was reached. But student postconference comments emphasized that the main goal had
indeed been achieved: they understood “what was going
on” in Sudan and they were deeply aware of the need to
do something about the shameful mockery of justice and
human rights that the situation in Darfur represents.
Last year this conference proved so popular that
planners had to turn away schools who wanted to take
part this year. This year’s conference will serve as a solid
model for what will certainly become an annual event at
the University of Saint Mary.
Starr Report 2008 | 5
a busy year!
The Starr Report in Brief
Although the Genocide Series and the Global
Human Rights Conference dominated the entire
spring semester, the rest of the Starr GSI year was
equally rich and full. These are highlights.
Professor Joy Raser’s reflections on her experience
of Islam and Muslim culture in Jordan kicked off the fall
lecture program. Her insights are included in an essay
elsewhere in the report.
Professor Gerhard Glomm, chair of the economics
department at the University of Indiana, a noted author
and lecturer, was the speaker for the second fall event.
He painted a searing picture of international poverty
and the adverse effects
of globalization in his
talk “Global Poverty: On
Being Our Brothers’ and
Sisters’ Keepers.” Replete
with facts and figures,
Dr. Glomm’s slide show
was both discouraging
and hopeful. Mistakes
and mismanagement of
national economies in the
developing world seem insurmountable.
What was most striking about Dr. Glomm’s analysis
was that he offered reasonable explanations and answers.
The reasons for global poverty are known and apparent,
he assured us. It remains for the developed world to be
smarter about rendering aid and to realize that when
First-World nations end their neglect, offer better advice,
and pay more attention to the plight of developing
nations, “all boats rise.”
Father Michael Gillgannon, a veteran of 30 years
as a missionary in Bolivia, gave a noontime lecture to
the university and the SCL
communities. Invited by Sister
Sue Miller, Father “Miguel”
is no stranger to the Saint
Mary campus. His efforts to
bring attention to poverty and
the social problems of Latin
America have long appealed
to the mission interests of the
SCLs and Saint Mary.
6 | Starr Report 2008
The afternoon proved valuable not so much for
a look into missionary work in Bolivia but for Father
Gillgannon’s comments on the social and economic
sea change occurring today all over Latin America. He
made hopeful observations on the rise of democratic
movements there and had surprising takes on the
potential of new leaders like Chavez and Morales. Father
Michael was equally outspoken on U.S. policy in Latin
America, which he calls “neglectful and out of touch.”
Three Book Discussions at the Leavenworth Public
Library accompanied the genocide lecture series. “Suite
Francaise,” “Pretty Birds,” and “God is Dead” were the novels
about genocide in discussions led by Penny Lonergan,
George Steger, and Sister Susan Rieke. Both the
Leavenworth Public Library and De Paul Library on the
USM campus displayed books and pictures pertaining to
the genocide theme.
The 4th Annual UN International Day of Peace,
sponsored by the US Federation for Middle East Peace,
took place for the first time at Saint Mary. Students
and faculty and representatives from the Leavenworth
community gathered to share ideas as part of the
United Nations-sponsored International Day of Peace,
Sept. 21. The program included performance by the
USM Concert Chorale and speeches from a number of
peace advocates and religious leaders. Saint Mary Vice
President and Academic
Dean Dr. Sandra Van
Hoose and Dr. George
Steger spoke for Saint
Mary and welcomed
the participants and
emphasized the
university’s solidarity with
the ideas and intentions
of the Federation.
The IRC Annual Awards Banquet. Saint Mary
is proud to be begins its third year as a member of
the International Relations Council of Kansas City.
Membership entitles students and faculty to attend most
IRC functions in K.C. without charge. At the Awards
Banquet, Oct. 19, USM students and faculty heard U.S.
Senator Chuck Hagel address the group.
At the IRC “Worldquest”Competition, April
15, Saint Mary had a table and a team of six students
and two faculty members. This face-paced, daunting
challenge to the global knowledge of participants proved
both intimidating and entertaining. The “international
gamers” tested their grasp on history, geography, and
current events against a ballroom full of contestants from
local universities, businesses, and institutions. The Saint
Mary team held its own. The contest was won by the
Kansas City World Trade Center – which gives one an
idea of the competition.
The Japan Trip: The Starr
GSI sponsored and supported
financially this annual student/
faculty trip abroad. Upon their
return, the students recounted
experiences and shared
insights at a noontime lunch
event for the Saint Mary community. An essay on the
journey is included on insert page 7c.
The Sakae International Student Initiative: This
renewed contact with an old friend represents an effort
to increase the number of international students studying
at Saint Mary. USM has re-established old ties with the
Sakae Institute in Tokyo and already rents space on their
website. Sakae now offers Chinese as well as Japanese
students for study in the U.S. Next year we hope to send
a representative to Japan, as before, to interview and
select students. A trip to China may also be in the offing.
The River Club Wrap-up on the Starr GSI ‘s
Activities for 2007-08: At the request of Dr. Judy
Vogelsang, consular representative in the U.S. for the
country of Croatia and a USM alumna, Dr. Steger spoke
before the members of the Kansas City Consular Corps
about this year’s activities of the Starr GSI.
One of the results was an invitation to the Saint
Mary nursing department to participate during the
coming academic year with fifty doctors from the Kansas
City area in a week-long clinic in Guatemala. Nursing
students, and possibly students from campus ministry
and the political science program, would act as assistants
to the doctors in this “pro bono” work among the poor
of Guatemala.
http://gsi.stmary.edu
Next Year?
• A lecture series on Diaspora (Global Migration)
• Brown Bags continue, featuring the international
connections of the people of the USM community
and international officers at Fort Leavenworth.
• A Starr connection to the Lincoln Lecture?
• A business trip to Japan and China in search of
international students
• A service trip to Guatemala for nursing students
and campus ministry
• An internship and job-placement program for USM
global studies and political science students,
including a view book on jobs in the international
field and a view book on internships with
international companies in the Kansas City area.
• The 3rd Annual Global Human Rights Conference
for High School Students
• Continued connection with IRC events in
Kansas City
• Possible trips abroad to Vienna, Austria, or Kenya,
East Africa
The Starr GSI Web Pages were successfully redone
and the GSI indicator bar was included on the first page
of the USM website, making information about GSI more
accessible and accurate for users. Check out the website
at http://gsi.stmary.edu.
The Starr GSI Office in Mead Hall, Room 101
was completely revamped and decorated, making it
much more attractive and reflective of the founder,
Lawrence Starr. All guests, as well as all members of the
community of Saint Mary, are cordially invited to come
in and visit.
The Lawrence D. Starr Global Studies Institute greeting area.
Starr Report 2008 | 7
from the sidelines
A Letter for Our Students M
any have called you students of this
decade, born fifteen to twenty years ago,
the Millennial Generation. You can claim
citizenship in two centuries. From what you know of
the twentieth, however, it was not a glorious chapter
of our human history. You’ve met death too soon, in
personal loss or in images of war and unimaginable
natural disasters.
By way of film and video games you’ve come
close to being immunized to death’s terrors. Violence
pours off every available screen without restraint.
Some days—and nights—you may be glad for fields and
streams unthreatened by destruction, or for towns wary
only of tornados, or for the solitude of mountains. Or
simply quiet streets and playgrounds full of children.
Meanwhile, you’re growing with knowledge.
by Sister Marie Brinkman, SCL, Ph.D.
on Global Human Rights, scripted and moderated by
members of Dr. Natalie Riegg’s annual class on peace
building and conflict resolution.
More than a hundred students from eight area
high schools participated in the event that gave active
roles to the visitors in debating facts and denials of
genocide by those who perpetrate it and those who
try to combat it. Word got around after the first
conference of 2007; applications came in to GSI last
spring from teachers and students who wanted part of
the action at the University of Saint Mary.
Follow-up with 2008-2009 Program
USM Reaches Out to Community
This past year as participants in Global Studies
Institute events, you learned of causes and effects of
possibly the most incomprehensible form of human
violence: genocide. The Holocaust, ethnic wars in
Bosnia, the intertribal butchery of Rwanda, the savage
elimination of villages in Darfur—it would seem that
human beings could suffer no worse. If many of
the horrors lie in the distance of history, the last in
Sudanese Africa is a tragedy of your time.
Students respond to Rabbi Jacques in Lecture #1 on genocide.
Many of you learned from guest lecturers, film, and
book talks about causes and symptoms of genocide:
the lethal hatred and fear that lead to systematic
elimination of millions of human lives. All of you can
be proud of the series’ climax in a student Conference
8 | Starr Report 2008
In the coming semester, GSI will offer all of us new
knowledge about the daily environment, the desperate
world of the dispossessed. Not the homeless of our
country’s streets, but exiles made homeless by new and
unending wars. With such knowledge you can better
understand what has become a way of life for those
uprooted not only by power-hungry dictators, but also
by efforts to generate democracy and defeat terrorism.
Ironies multiply.
Only relief workers and those who have visited
refugee camps know what such oppression and
frustrated effort have produced. A delegation of
religious leaders who traveled in Iraq posted their
report on the Migration and Refugee Services website,
www.usccb.org/mrs. From their account a journalist
writes of the nearly five million Iraqi citizens who have
fled their homes in fear:
. . . The Iraqi exodus now totals more than 15 percent of
the population. Minority communities, like the Iraqi Christians,
are particularly hard hit. More than 1.5 million Christians
lived in Iraq prior to the war. Fewer than 500,000 remain.
The 2.7 million Iraqis displaced within the country continue to
fear daily violence. But more than two million Iraqi refugees
outside the country also live in permanent insecurity. Fleeing
to Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Turkey, they are not allowed
to hold jobs, send their children to school or access health
care. Fearing arrest and deportation, they often live in hiding,
continually indoors to avoid hostile authorities. Without work
they cannot pay rent, and most live in overcrowded conditions
in poor housing, fearful of eviction . . . . (Maryann Cusimano
Love, “A Modern-Day Exodus,” America, February 4, 2008)
In film, selected readings, and the words of guests
acquainted with the life of the exiled, you can learn
much this year about Contemporary Global Migration,
theme of the Global Studies Institute for 2008-2009.
The phenomenon is not new. Once ancient Jewish
people lived in exile from their homes in Palestine;
Pilgrims chose exile from England to an unknown
land where they could freely practice their faith;
Native Americans were exiled from tribal lands in the
East, from guaranteed new grasslands near the Upper
Mississippi, and finally from their reservations on the
Plains stretching west from the Missouri River.
Your privilege as students is to live in a place
where you’re not only required but are free to learn all
you can in the short time you have about people we
need to think of as foreigners. Now they are neighbors,
friends, and classmates. They are valuable as sources
of knowledge we need to understand our world. Their
welfare is closely tied to our own.
Specific facts strike close to home. In the last
two fiscal budget years, thanks to bureaucratic
complications, the United States has resettled only
4,075 Iraqi refugees out of a pledged 19,000, a fraction
of the two million displaced from their homeland.
Other countries have failed as well. Of $261 million
requested by the United Nations for Iraqi refugees,
seven countries, excluding the U.S., have contributed
only $10.2 million. Only Syria and Jordan have more
than given their share in the gigantic effort of accepting
refugees. (J. Kevin Appleby, “Lost Nation,” in America,
June 9-16, p. 12)
Learning in a world like ours cannot be confined
to internet or classroom. Alternative spring breaks,
service learning, concerts, and lectures all contribute.
GSI is open to your questions, your comments, your
critique. Plan to participate as actively as you can in
the program of the coming academic year.
Education in a New Century
Today entire peoples are driven from their
homelands into camps surrounded by violence. Infants
die of malnutrition; parents patch together some kind
of education for their children. A generation parallel to
your own looks for ways to change such conditions—if
they can manage to stay alive. That generation is not
one of strangers from alien cultures in unreachable
lands. Another class at Saint Mary has corresponded
with students in Armenia who want to continue the
association at even closer range.
http://gsi.stmary.edu
Instructor Ken Mulliken and three of the travelers describe
their visit to Japan.
Starr Report 2008 | 9
Lawrence D. Starr
1932 – 2004
Sharon and Tony Albers
San Diego
Louise and Harry Bannister
Leavenworth
The GSI Human Rights Team and Students
April 22, 2008
4100 South 4th Street
Leavenworth, Kansas 66048
www.stmary.edu (800) 752-7043
NON-PROFIT
ORGANIZATION
U.S. POSTAGE
PAID
LEAVENWORTH, KS
PERMIT NO. 31
Around the Globe – from Jordan….
by Joy Raser, Ph.D., Associate Professor in English
We have inherited a [. . .] a great “world house” in which
we have to live together—black and white, Easterners and
Westerners, Gentiles and Jews, Catholics and Protestants,
Moslem and Hindu, a family unduly separated in ideas,
culture, and interests who, because we can never again
live without each other, must learn, somehow, in this one
big world, to live with each other. We must now give an
overriding loyalty to mankind as a whole in order to preserve
the best in our individual societies.
Martin Luther King, Jr., Nobel Peace Prize Lecture,
December 11, 1964
Dr. King’s words are even more relevant today
in an ever-shrinking world. Our lives are affected by
such distant events as a shortage of rice in Thailand
or a drop in oil production in Saudi Arabia, a world in
which “we can never again live without each other.”
Left - Public transportation in Petra—a welcome respite to sore
feet at the end of a long day.
While Jordanians enjoy greater individual freedom
than people in neighboring Arab countries, they still
desire greater democracy in their traditional monarchy.
However, most don’t wish for a totally open society
like ours. To maintain religious standards they see
a need for some government control over personal
expression. Consequently, they have serious concerns
about the influence of Western media in their culture.
We learned that a majority of people in the Middle
East feel the American government and American policy
are directly responsible for most of the area’s problems.
Many students in our discussion group, children of
Palestinian refugees, expressed great frustration and
anger over what they see as the U.S. government’s
favoritism towards Israel. Many have a passionate
sense of place regarding Palestine, even though most
have never set foot on Palestinian soil. They have an
immovable commitment to regain possession of their
former homeland and to someday return.
Some of their anger about American policy stems
from the fact that the United States, which created
this refugee problem, has taken in only a tiny fraction
of that number—only 600 between 2003 and 2007,
leaving Iraq’s neighbors like Jordan to bear the burden.
Most Jordanians we met felt that people in the United
States are ignorant of and/or unconcerned about these
repercussions of America’s Middle-east policies.
I believe that the only way we will ever come
to live in peace with one another is to listen to one
another’s hurts, frustrations, joys and hopes and to give
equal consideration to those living in all the rooms of
the “world house.”
Right - A merchant serving us tea before showing us his wares:
typical Jordanian business etiquette.
Learning to live together in the “great ‘world
house’” was the goal of a conference, teaching about
Islam and Islamic Culture, that I attended with eleven
other college professors in Amman, Jordan, in January
2007. It was in regular exchanges with a group of
university students that I learned the most important
things, not about Islam as a religion but about the
people who practice it. These students spoke fervently
about their commitment to God: the decision by the
young women to wear hijab in a country that does
not require it; the discipline of praying five times a
day beginning at 4 a.m.; the call to follow the moral
teachings of Islam; and the dedication to study of the
Qur’an. One of the young women has mdemorized
the entire Qur’an.
http://gsi.stmary.edu
The women in our group attired in traditional dresses from
the vicinity of Jerusalem from the collection (of over 1,000
garments) of our hostess for that morning.
Starr Report 2008 | 7b
…To Japan
By Sherry Wells
Eleven University of Saint Mary students traveled
to Tokyo, Japan during Spring Break in 2008 with Ken
Mulliken, chair of the history department. The group
included Betty Dudley, Kaitlin Peterson, Jay Arthur,
Brian Mulberry, Bonaventure Ndifore, Carmen Hughes,
Deanna Monaco, Sherry Wells, Michaela Forge, Mary
Bohnert, and Geoff Peterson.
On our first day, Keisuke Kawasaki led us through
his Mami Flower Design School where students are
educated in the Japanese art of flower design. The
philosophy of the school is to teach only foundational
techniques and leave the students free to express
themselves through creative expansion of those basic
methods. The students’ skills were evident in a city
whose only gardens are small pots of flowers placed in
front of offices or condominiums. The school was started
by Mr. Kawasaki’s mother with her love of flowers and a
Western influence from her college studies in Missouri.
A huge smile on the face of Yuji Higashimura opened
our visit at the Yanasegawa Junior High School, filled with
more than six hundred 12 and 13-year-olds.
He and principal Koma led us through classes in physical
education, English, science, and music with the seventh
and eighth graders. They were delighted that the
University of Saint Mary students joined in their volleyball
games, tested their English, and sang with them.
The Japanese youngsters were particularly taken with
Michaela Forge’s beautiful blue eyes and Bonaventure
Ndifore’s height and dark skin. A third grader in Japan
must learn more than 1,000 Kanji (writing symbols).
On their second day, Christina Hansen, a former
USM library assistant now residing near Tokyo, planned
a presentation for the group at the United Nations
University by the Rector, a Swiss under secretary. The
UNU is not a school but a research engine dedicated
to resolving pressing global issues focused on peace,
security, governance, poverty, and environmental
sustainability. Contributing countries fund their research.
One rainy day, Koji Higashimura, Yuji’s brother,
accompanied the group to the imperial palace grounds
built by the Tokugawa family. A walk to the Sumo
Wrestling museum rounded out the day for those willing
to further tolerate the rainy weather. Here USM students
learned of the history and popularity of this traditional
Japanese sport.
Later in the week, the group walked through the
Ueno Park where the Cherry Blossom Festival was
just getting started. Vendors were beginning to line
the walkway, some with Japanese treats like chocolatecovered bananas and octopus pancakes. The group came
7c | Starr Report 2008
home with several curiosities like a “Gone with the Wind”
poster in Japanese.
The Shitamachi Museum replicates the traditional
Japanese lifestyle in life-sized dwellings and shops. The
average family of four occupied a multi-purpose room
approximately ten feet square.
Near the Shitamachi Museum, the Kansas visitors
enjoyed the chaos of the Ameyoko open market. The
narrow streets were lined with vendors selling everything
from shoes to dried jelly fish. The more cluttered the
streets were with customers, the more bargaining was
heard from the vendors as they made “sets” of their
products to entice customers to their store.
The Japanese often sell their goods in sets which
reminded the USM students of American infomercials
that declare…“but wait there’s more.” One example is
the Japanese version of a McDonald’s value meal, which
is called a hamburger set: cheeseburger, fries, and drink.
McDonald’s Shrimpburgers were an option. It was typical
to find rice or noodle bowls on the menu or a hamburger
topped with a fried egg.
Of the many Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines in
Japan USM tourists visited Sensoji and Kaneji Temples
and a Meiji Shrine. Several students followed the
customary cleansing ritual before entering and placed
coins inside before praying. While visiting one of the
temples, they observed two separate traditional Shinto
wedding processions.
On a clear day the observation deck provided a
view of the massive city and a glimpse of Mount Fuji in
the distance. Tokyo lacked the diversity of residents that
one might expect in such a large city though the signage
often included English. The Japanese excel in service and
patience. Residents always smiled, patiently worked through
language barriers, and often stopped to help the group as
they studied maps at train stations without success.
The travelers came home enlightened and happy
despite airline delays and the effects of jetlag.