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(05/21/12 6:19pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Chicago-- Sunday marked Chicago’s first ever NATO summit. At 10 a.m., protestors and organizers from the Coalition against NATO-G8, who were largely responsible for the march, started arriving in the cities Grant Park, where a three-hour long rally took place with protestors from across the country.Student from Minnesota University gathered in the park, making signs and banners on behalf of Students for a Democratic Society and would later join the march down Michigan Avenue.There was strong anti-Obama sentiment throughout the rally, with much of it directed at the president’s economic policies. In the same vein, the protestors cried out against austerity measures taken through the European Union, claiming these to be the cause of the continent’s continuing economic instability.The rally was a conglomeration of many organizations protesting NATO action and lack of action.Veterans for Peace, an organization composed of American war veterans who oppose war and NATO’s use of military action were one of the many groups present. “We oppose Proxy wars, the use of military drones and believe that NATO is a criminal organization and that America has committed acts of terrorism,” said group organizer Lenny Bianchy.The rally ended at 2 p.m. and the protestors began marching toward Michigan Avenue, chanting slogans like “NATO, go home, worry about the Euro-zone!” and “Today is the day we destroy the system.”After the two-hour long march, the protestors arrived near McCormick Place, where organizers of the protest began making speeches decrying NATO, its use of military force and free-market capitalism. The protestors remained organized and relatively calm through the majority of the proceedings.
(08/10/11 11:43pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The time had come for me to depart for Jorpati. We drove along a dusty road, leaving the noise of the city behind. For miles we saw nothing but the peculiar pastel-colored homes we’d grown so accustomed to until we arrived at what looked to be a construction site. We exited the car and were instantly met with curious glances coming from within the unfinished structure. Children poked their heads through the windows, and as we approached them they shouted, “Hello brother, hello sister!” This unfinished building, consisting of nothing but cement walls and dusty unfinished floors, was the orphanage. My fellow volunteers and I took a tour of the place, only to find small children sitting on the filthy floor eating from dirty metal plates. The children slept on cardboard and makeshift mattresses laid out on the concrete floors. The blankets the children slept under smelled of mold.The staircase leading to the upper floors was covered in cracks. Rust covered the few metal railings, and the rest of the place was nothing but a disaster waiting to happen. However, the children were sweet and all too unaware of their surroundings. They seemed at home there, as any of us would if it was all we knew. I was told the children had been living there for the past two years, and construction had all but ground to a halt. Workers would come and go as they pleased; on the days they did decide to arrive, they spent much of their time smoking and chit-chatting on top of the unfinished roof. There was little accountability for anyone working at the orphanage, and the Nepali government makes little effort to manage these places. The ones that receive funding are not held to quality standards and are often run by third parties that come and go. We wondered where the money we donated to Hope and Home went. Clearly the orphanages weren’t benefiting from our presence and monetary contribution. Are the construction workers pocketing the cash? They did solicit us for funding, telling us they needed at least 100,000 Nepali rupees to complete the floors, which were still in disrepair.There was nothing real we could do for the children. We served them meals, helped with their homework and did as much as we could to make their surroundings more pleasant. But our efforts would always be futile as long as the system was as broken and corrupt as it is in Nepal. As hopeless as it seemed, however, we carried on and did what little we could.
(08/04/11 12:14am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Kathmandu, Nepal — For the first time in days I had awoken to the sound of nothing. The city seemed to have all but ground to a halt. No car horns, no music, not even the sound of the rooster living on my rooftop.It seems the whole of Kathmandu, rooster and all, had taken a holiday from producing its noxious sounds, sights and smells. It was only when I had left the comfort of our guest home’s courtyard that I realized what was happening.Bund. The residents of Kathmandu were on strike. It would not be last time the city’s inhabitants would close their storefronts, blockade roads and refuse to provide taxi services for the duration of my stay here.To place the current and severely underreported state of politics within Nepal in a sort of meaningful context, one must first understand the country’s tortured past. Additionally, one must comprehend the events which have lead up to its present level of political disarray, corruption and complete loss of faith in the system amongst the populace.It was only in 1990 that Nepal was declared a Parliamentary Monarchy, a system that allocated political power from the monarch over to a Prime Minister. Prior to this, the country conducted itself as an Absolute Monarchy with then King Birendra enacting executive control over the state. Nepal’s Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) won the 1994 elections. However, halfway through the year, the losing party, Nepali Congress Party, dissolved congress due to political infighting and dissent, thus forming an unstable coalition government within the state. In 1996, the Maoists had committed an insurgency against the state. During the insurgency, close to 13,000 Maoist rebels and civilians were killed. Violent acts against the state, on behalf of the Maoists, continued throughout all 75 districts of Nepal until the government announced a cease-fire in 2001. Maoists continued to commit violent acts against the state even after the cease-fire on a much smaller scale. In Feburary 2005, then King Gyanendra had suspended parliament and enforced martial law, thus declaring himself sole executive ruler of Nepal, claiming the Parliamentary states inability to cope with continued Maoist rebellion. It was soon after that Nepal’s citizens took to the streets in protest of the Monarch; and due to fear of being overthrown by the people, King Gyanendra reinstated the House of Representatives on April 24, 2006.Only weeks later Parliament had taken full control of the state, abolishing the Kings council of royal advisors and declaring Nepal a secular state and no longer a Hindu Kingdom. King Gyanendra was held under scrutiny for his actions and his property was put up for taxation by Parliament.In April 2008, Nepal held elections during which the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoists) gained majority control; and soon after in May, declared Nepal a Federal Republic, thus abolishing the Monarchy and it’s 240-year reign over the country. Much of the populace had believed the country’s political and economic troubles could finally be resolved, but continued corruption and political infighting have made it near impossible for the powers to design a constitution all parties could agree on. The most prominent of the many issues unresolved to this day is that of the treatment of the aforementioned Maoist insurgence, who are forced to live in camps separated from the rest of Nepali society. Economic problems and instability have only served to make the populace increasingly impatient with the governing powers then they already have been.A temporary constitution had been in place for the first two years after Nepal had been declared a Federal Republic, granting Parliament enough time to design a permanent one.The deadline was only weeks away, and tensions were visible within Kathmandu. Bund would only increase in duration and frequency in the coming days, along with the number of armed military and police forces patrolling the streets, wielding arms and bamboo sticks, throwing the occasional civilian a threatening glance or even engaging in a shouting match or two.I had ventured beyond Thamel and along the main streets witnessed the Maoists marching through the streets. They were followed by busses loaded with protestors who had spilled over onto the roofs, shouting, singing and waving Maoist Communist flags.
(07/06/11 10:33pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>It was May 17, 2011, and Buddha’s birthday was upon us. My fellow volunteers and I started our day as we had any other, breakfast with the comically rude kitchen staff and a language lesson before we were off exploring. We spent much of our day wandering about Kathmandu aimlessly, valiantly attempting to memorize streets and landmarks we could use to find our way should we ever become lost.Finally the time came for us to venture to Boudhanath stupa, a large Buddhist place of worship within the Kathmandu Valley in a small community called Jorparti. Boudhanath stupa is the largest Buddhist temple in Nepal, dominating Jorpartis’ skyline and one of the most important religious sites within the valley. The site is visited by thousands of Buddhists from all over the world each year. Tibetan refugees have opened restaurants and set up shops, selling trinkets and jewelry to touring foreigners in the square encompassing the stupa.We had boarded a small van for Jorparti with Rajesh, our young Nepali guide and everyone’s favorite local due to his honest, gentle spirit. If the world were to come to an end, you’d want Rajesh at your side because he’d find a way to make you feel good about it.Upon our arrival in Jorparti, we were dropped off along the main street and waded through the mass onslaught of crowds. I had never witnessed such tremendous numbers of people and vehicles, not even in New Delhi.The air was heavy and thick with pollution from the unusual influx of vehicles in the area. It seemed as though everyone here today came to see Boudhanath. We eventually fought our way to the gate, which signaled the entrance into the square that housed the stupa.To put it quite simply, the stupa was enormous. The stone mandala was awe-inspiring. Like so many important religious sites around the world, the ominous, towering nature of Boudhanath and the massive eyes which had been painted atop the golden pillar served their purpose in making you feel oh-so-small and insignificant.Tibetans, Nepali and tourists alike, paid tribute to Prince Siddhartha, Buddha, born on this very day more than 2,500 years ago, right here in Nepal in a community called Lumbini. Persons of all colors and backgrounds had lit incense and brought flowers and fruit as an offering to the stupa site. It was incredible to see so many people come together and rejoice on this occasion, but this was a short-lived moment of goodness. All around us, beggars and homeless Tibetans cried out in desperation; it was difficult to thoroughly enjoy the festivities knowing that so many people around us, even on this day, were suffering. Child pickpockets were present as well, attempting to distract tourists while their friends did the dirty deed. They tugged on our bags and attempted to do the same with us, performing their cute stick, and one of our volunteers did lose his iPhone to their tiny sticky fingers.Rajesh had made an attempt at retrieving the mobile but to no avail. The culprit had vanished into the crowds, and recovery seemed futile.Nonetheless, the festivities were grand and beautiful. Marching bands played around the square while school children sang and danced. Some were so touched, they wept at the stupa’s walls. Others spent the day sitting atop Boudhanath’s roof with their families to watch the happenings below. While fighting my way through the crowd, clutching my bag and trying as best as I could to stay with my group, I overheard what was either an American or Canadian couple (being from the Balkans still have difficulty discerning from the two) proclaim their disdain for the locals and these sort of events. I was amused to say the least.We left Boudhanath and said our goodbyes to Rajesh. Though there were some casualties, I was finally feeling as though I had grown to like, or at least to understand, Kathmandu.
(06/27/11 9:24pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Kathmandu, Nepal. The glamour of this place had all but evaporated upon closer inspection. Though Nepal may be home to extraordinary natural beauty, history and culture, it has also become home to an unstable government, civil unrest and immense poverty.Nepal is the twelfth-poorest country in the world according to the World Bank, a fact visible through the entirety of the nation’s capital. A walk along the haphazardly paved streets of Kathmandu entails dodging piles of cow dung, holding your breath as you pass burning piles of rubbish and evading vehicles, the drivers of which seem to have little regard for your presence.Kathmandu is not a city one can tackle and hope to overcome; it is instead a place you must submit to wholly. You can’t fight the traffic, because it has little qualm with fighting back. You cannot ignore the beggars, peddlers, petty thieves, homeless children, bhelpuri stands or that terrible, spine-chilling and ever-present sound of the locals hacking and spitting, something I feared I could never grow accustomed to being witness to. For all its noise, hideous sights of human suffering and pollution, there is still a certain wonder about the place. No, it is not the lush layer cake of lights and romance like Paris. It is not sleek, modern nor polished in the vain of Berlin. It is not fair old London, and it lacks all the ambition and ingenuity of New York City. Kathmandu is instead a place difficult to imagine for many of us westerners, nestled in an ancient land and desperately forcing itself into modernity.The city largely a hodgepodge of loosely related architecture, structures colored in pastel shades, with a design philosophy seemingly consisting of the general idea that one only need design a single floor, and repeat it, stacking each segment on top of the other. Much of Kathmandu excels at offending the senses, or at the very least, my own western sensibility. The ever-present sound of cars and motorbikes honking is accompanied by a thick wall of brown air, lingering over the city.There are exceptions, however. One must simply venture to Durbar Square, located in the heart of the city, to find escape from the chaotic and disorganized muddle. It is perhaps one of the most tranquil sights within the capital, though not entirely untouched by the hands of time. The occasional motorbike must still be evaded, and the crowds are difficult to maneuver during certain times of the day, but the sights are worth the effort and the entrance fee.The Square houses a multitude of Hindu temples and was once the place in which Nepal’s kings were crowned. To this day, it remains one of the few places in which traditional Nepali architecture can be seen within Kathmandu.The entrance into Durbar Square is a narrow alleyway lined with shops, selling the same trinket, jewelry and scarf seen in every other shop dispersed throughout the capital. It is only within the square that you finally see a Nepal more akin to the romanticized fantasy depicted by Internet travel sites and brochures. Even within this sanctuary, Nepal’s poor and disenfranchised masses make their way through the hoards of tourists, begging for scraps and, on occasion, soliciting them for a rupee note or two in exchange for a photo.Crowds of Nepali gather to pray at the temples, into which entrance is not permitted to tourists or non-Hindus. At the same time, crowds of Nepali gather around the wells and water fountains located throughout the square, filling their metal jugs and plastic water canisters.Despite the fact that shopkeepers are out to scam every western tourist who enters into their place of business, the people are extraordinarily gentle, kind and affectionate.Nepali men go as far as walking hand in hand with one another or wrapping their arms about each others shoulders in public, something one would not see from many heterosexual men in our overtly macho western societies. Nepal is a place of many unique wonders, but Kathmandu will wear away the patients of any visitor when inhabited for extensive periods of time. The hours in this city pass with a sort of lethargy and the heat is becoming a minor nuisance when compared to wondrous mess that is Kathmandu— asimic@ius.edu
(06/01/11 11:33pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>As the plane approached the Kathmandu Valley for a landing, the enormous rolling green hills seemed to stretch into eternity, the vegetation thick and relentless. Then the hills gave way to a pastel colored urban sprawl.Nepal is densely populated, including the capital which houses an estimated 3.4 million people and some of the most important religious sites for both Hindus and Buddhists worldwide.I ventured to Nepal for three reasons. The first was to volunteer, the second was to see something extraordinary and the third was to learn something along the way. I could easily check number two off my list right away. Everything was breathtaking, at least from a distance.This was my first time seeing Asia properly, and it seemed like the planet’s last great bastion of antiquity. The city was magnificent and multicolored. The buildings were painted pastel shades of green, blue, pink and yellow, with Buddhist prayer flags waving from masts and adorning almost every building. Yet Nepal is the poorest country in South Asia and the 12th poorest country in the world, according to the World Bank. This fact becomes more apparent when you enter Kathmandu.I took a taxi to a guest house in Thamel, the tourist district in the city, where I was scheduled to meet with fellow volunteers and spend a few days learning the language and culture of the locals. The drive there was eye-opening. The roads were covered with potholes and at certain points disappeared entirely only to be replaced with dust and gravel. The streets were lined with piles of rubbish, some of which were lit on fire by the locals, and from close up, the pastel buildings looked as though they were either falling apart or never quite finished with construction. Stray dogs and the occasional cow crossed our path. The smell of cow dung was at times both potent and inescapable. The streets were also filled with beggars, homeless persons, children begging tourists for spare change and the occasional mother using her baby to draw sympathy from foreigners. It was a huge contrast compared to what I had seen from far away. In spite of it all, the place had a certain charm about it. The streets are lined with small shops selling everything from jewelry to hand stitched local garb and Hello Kitty knit gloves. The local women dressed in traditional Hindu Saris and decorated their necks and wrists with opulent pieces of gold jewelry. However the younger generation, aside from few exceptions, seemed to prefer jeans and T-shirts.After the somewhat disturbing ride — drivers seemed to have little regard for the Western rules I was used to — we arrived at the guest house. It was a small and tranquil Italian-style yellow brick building with a courtyard, quiet reading nook and private garden. After getting to know a few fellow volunteers, I went to the rooftop. Witnessing the city from afar, I found the charm all over again.
(03/09/11 3:56am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Located in Bloomington’s west side neighborhood, The Owlery, a vegetarian food restaurant co-owned by musicians Ryan Woods and Toby Foster, yielded a successful opening night, serving about 100 to 120 customers.“Everyone seemed pretty happy with the food,” Foster said. “We made food as fast as we could.”Woods, a singer and bass player, spent the last eight years producing original artwork and touring with his band, Defiance, Ohio. “We tour pretty constantly. We just finished a tour of the West Coast and Australia,” Woods said. “We are all from different parts of Ohio, from different cities, but we all met up in Columbus, Ohio. I think it just seemed like a fitting name. None of us are actually from Defiance, Ohio, but it seemed appropriate.”Woods said he had contemplated opening a restaurant in Bloomington, his current home, for several years and managed to do so upon returning from his tour in Australia. “It’s been a plan for a while. The tour was already booked when we decided to open the restaurant,” Woods said. “Toby and I got a real plan down six or eight months ago.” Woods, a vegetarian for 15 years, said he found it difficult to eat vegetarian foods when dining out in Bloomington, despite the sizable vegetarian and vegan community the town has to offer.“I think we were just tired of waiting for the right kind of vegetarian restaurant,” Woods said. “I’ve been in Bloomington for about eight years, and the kind of place I wanted to eat at just has not come about. I think we just wanted to have a restaurant that has the kind of food we like to eat.” Woods said the restaurant is to him a more honest way to earn a living.As a musician, Woods said he never felt comfortable selling his music or artwork, but that opening a restaurant was different.“I think for me, with playing music, I really enjoy it and am lucky to get to go to a lot of places and meet a lot of people and actually get paid sometimes to do that,” Woods said. “I guess for me I found that I wanted to spend more time in Bloomington and not be gone as much, so I feel like a restaurant and selling people food is somewhat more honest.” Woods said he wanted to use the restaurant as a vehicle for a greater social message about conservation and animal rights, issues he said he feels very passionate about. He also said he wanted the restaurant to serve a more unique brand of vegetarian options.“It’s flavorful vegetarian food. There are lots of places you can find in town that offer some sort of Asian or Asian fusion meal and get one thing on the menu that just happens to not have meat,” Woods said. “I guess we wanted to offer more traditional dishes that people have gotten used to eating growing up, things people and their families have an affinity for.” The “traditional dishes” include vegetarian style “Spaghetti & Meatballs” and “Fried Chicken Dinner,” which, according to the menu, is “tofu fried chicken, smothered in vegetarian gravy, served with roasted garlic mashed potatoes and a daily vegetable.”Along with serving a more unique vegetarian menu fashioned by chef Bobb Easterbrook, who received training from the Natural Gourmet Cookery School in New York, Woods said he wanted to provide his customers with a greater range of price choices.“We also wanted to have a range of if you want something fairly inexpensive like a sandwich, but also if you want to go out for the night and to have a pretty nice meal, not just one or two choices, but to have an entire menu of vegetarian choices,” Woods said.Foster, who performs his music solo, compared the experience of being a musician to eating out.“Playing music and going on tour is a way to connect with people,” Foster said. “Going out to a restaurant is very similar in a way.” Foster and Woods both said they enjoy being musicians because of the different people they get to meet while traveling and performing at various venues. They said the experience of owning a restaurant is similar and that they hope their customers feel a connection to The Owlery.“We want it to be a place where people like to come, a really inviting place where people feel welcome and are happy to be,” Foster said.
(03/04/11 3:16am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Kick starting its 25th season, the Monroe County Civic Theater will be presenting Clark Gesner’s four-time Tony award-nominated, and two-time winning, revised musical production of “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown.”Headed by MCCT’s Producing Director Sheila Butler, “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” will mark the theater company’s 120th production milestone, starring a cast composed of local area students. “Most of my cast is from IU and the Ivy Tech colleges, and I have three from the public schools, two from the high schools and one eighth-grader,” Butler said. “One of the Sally’s and Snoopy are from South High School and the other Lucy is from Jackson Creek Middle.” The off-Broadway hit premiered in 1967 and was revived on Broadway in 1999 to great critical acclaim, winning two Tony awards, for Best Featured Actress and Actor. The production also won a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Revival of a Musical. “This was a show that I wanted to do for many years, so I decided that this was the year I wanted to try it,” Butler said. The production is based on the iconic and much beloved Peanuts comic strip written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz. It first launched Oct. 2, 1950, and later found its way to television screens all across the United States in the form of Emmy Award-winning cartoon specials.“I was asked if I would keep them traditional or if I was going to make it different. ... I’m keeping it traditional,” Butler said. The MCCT production of “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” will feature original dance by choreographer Georgeanna Dent. “I really go with the music when I’m choreographing. I really let the music be my guide,” Dent said. “My training is mostly classical ballet, so I think a lot of the choreography probably looks more like classical ballet as opposed to modern or jazz.” The show has gained popularity among amateur theater companies due to its simplistic set design and small cast. “It’s nice working with such a small cast,” Dent said. “They are more mature and more seasoned. Also, with a small cast I feel like you can show choreography and patterns better than having a cast of thousands on the stage and they just sort of sway back and forth.” The choreography may receive a more original treatment, but audiences can expect classic fare when it comes to the production’s music, which features several tunes heard on the television specials and will be played by music director Eric Anderson Jr.“It’s a particular challenge because I really have to get it right,” Anderson said. “The tunes are so popular that people know exactly what they are expecting to hear, and they have a very clear idea of the music going in.” Anderson said the talent and the casts’ vocal prowess live up to the task. “They are very good... which isn’t any surprise,” Anderson said. “There is a great pool of talent at IU, and it’s nice to be able to draw from that.” IU sophomore theater major Travis Lampke will be playing the part of Charlie Brown. “There is a little bit of nerves. The name is in the title of the show, so people have an exact idea of what they are looking for and what they expect to see,” Lampke said. “Many times you’ll hear, ‘Take the part, make it your own,’ but that’s not how this one works ... I’m staying true to the original character, which is the reason people are coming to see the show.” “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” is directly based on several comic strips and parts of television specials. “This isn’t groundbreaking or Pulitzer Prize-winning material — we are making a musical based on Charlie Brown,” Lampke said. “This is funny and fun. It’s designed to bring back memories of watching the old cartoon films and reading the strips. We are trying to take people to that place.”