#inarticulate-thoughts

[drcknowledgeandpower]

“Sounds of Sustainability” Concert

This past Wednesday on April 8th, I attended an event held by ONE, a club organization here at Rutgers that works to fight poverty. The concert they held was to promote and raise awareness for the Electrify Africa Act, which helps give African countries electricity to over 50 million people. This act and others are introduced and are goals being developed by the UN. These goals are called the Sustainable Development Goals, which are greatly focused on helping women and girls. At the event, it was mentioned that the lack of electricity in countries is largely damaging to women and girls because they are discouraged from attending school and educating themselves, because it is so difficult doing so. Providing energy to anyone is beneficial to make people’s lives easier. 

The event was a great time! Upon entering, we were informed about the Electrify Africa Act and were encouraged to either write a letter to the senator or tweet the senator about why we felt this Act was important. Before the concert began, we were given a short presentation about the causes that ONE has been involved with. Then, the concert began and there was a lineup of five music groups. They all presented songs and reminded us about the cause. I took a look at the ONE Facebook page and I saw that it is an organization that is greatly focused on women’s rights and stories. They posted many inspiring songs and informational articles during International Women’s Week and National Women’s Month. They are an organization that finds women very important to the world. 

[drcknowledgeandpower]

"The Complexity of Identity"

For class, we read an article called "The Complexity of Identity" written by Beverly Daniel Tatum. In the very beginning of the article, she mentions how identity is a concept of collective things like family, history, society, history, and many other things. Who we are as individuals not only depends on how the individual identifies his or herself, but also the individuals around him or her. Everyone has multiple identities. These identities can include, but are not restricted to, things like gender, ethnicity, class, religion, and even disability. I found it interesting how students in Tatum's class did not easily identify themselves if they were part of a "dominant" group. I feel like this is a good point. People that have gone through struggles because of their identities are proud of who they are as they should be. Personally, I don't easily identify myself with the identity I have struggled most with, which is me being Indian. As an adolescent, I was bullied because of this ethnic identity of mine. I was a target because I was one of two Indians in my entire town. Now that I have grown older, I have grown to first identify myself as Indian because I am very proud of it as I should be. I feel like everyone should be proud of who they are, no matter what others think about the identity. Also, we shouldn't let others identify us. 

[drcknowledgeandpower]

Indian Woman looked down for Divorce

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gursimran-sandhu/indian-divorce-mom-saved-life_b_6574426.html 

In the Indian culture, divorce is something that is extremely uncommon. A couple that divorces is looked at in a negative way. It is especially looked down upon on the woman. If the woman is the one asking for the divorce, or even if she is being divorced, any future possibility of a marriage is unlikely because she has lost her purity after sleeping with a man. 

The article talks about a woman who has asked for a divorce from her husband because of personal reasons. No matter what, she is looked at in a negative way. In the article, it is discussed how women in the Indian culture, who are married, are forced to stay faithful and appreciate the marriage, no matter if she is sad or happy being in it. On top of this, the man is allowed to do anything he pleases, whether that be having an affair or abusing the wife and kids. 

This part of the article really got to me. First of all, why should it be okay for a man, just because he is a man, to be able to do anything he wants, especially something like abuse his wife and kids and being unfaithful to his wife. When a man does this, it’s okay, but when a woman does this, it’s not? That makes no sense to me and angers me. 

Also, if a woman feels the need to divorce a man, she has every right to do so, and she should not be looked at negatively because of it. If she is being abused by her husband, she has every right, and absolutely should, leave the “man”.

The article goes about talking more about other issues like the importance of pride in the Indian culture, the importance of your worth in a caste system, and the clashing of self-esteem after a divorce for a woman.