spring 2009

2 Café Abroad InPrint Spring 2009

COVER SHOT: Cover Shot: “Market Day Showdown” by Tara Jo Quinn. Ned Kelly, an infamous Australian outlaw who roamed the outback with a band of gunslingers during the 1870’s, remains a folk icon today and is featured in artwork throughout the country. At Sydney’s Glebe Markets, Bent & Twisted Creations sells this Ned Kelly wind chime.

CONTENTS Vanessa Veiock smells

what’s cooking in Spain’s

Basque country and

discovers a feast of culture, tradition and

brotherhood. Venture into the heart of

a gastronomical society and learn a few

lessons from the cook: recipes included!

FOOD:SPAINP12

Holy cow – there are dogs

on the fi eld! A softball team

and a bunch of dog walkers

square off as an American sport struggles

to gain traction in Dublin.

SPORTS:IRELANDP14

Bustling markets, botanical

gardens, local wine and

“hoopla” jazz are just a few

offerings that distinguish this world-class

Australian city. Delve deeper with Café

Abroad Team Sydney and visit some of the

city’s offbeat highlights including talking

pigs, mysterious murals and more.

INSIDE:SYDNEYP20

Paul Hollick, CIEE's

Resident Director in Perth,

Australia, invites students

to view the climate crisis from a new

perspective, writing Café Abroad from a

water conscious country.

FACULTYLETTERP22

Will Nichols gains a new

perspective on international

education when he becomes

a teacher in Cairo. The real schooling begins

when one study abroad student stands in

front of his own classroom and puts his

professorial skills to the test.

EDUCATION:EGYPTP19

FASHION: ARGENTINAFunky, sophisticated and

modern fashions are on

the rise in Buenos Aires as

young designers are making their names

known locally and on the world stage. Dina

Magaril takes a closer look at some of the

styles that are blazing a path on the run-

ways and in the dressing rooms of Argen-

tina’s fashion capital.

P10

FILM:JORDANOne of the most progressive

nations in the Middle East,

Jordanians take pride in

progressive laws that protect women’s

rights. But what’s enacted in government

meetings is not always apparent in the

streets. Filmaker Dalia Al-Kury discusses her

latest piece, which confronts the issue of

sexual harrassment in Amman.

P18

How do you apologize for a

sordid and bloody legacy?

Australia moves towards

healing its tattered past while America

remains silent about its own. Dana Liebelson

looks back on Australia’s groundbreaking

apology to its indigenous people.

POLITICS:AUSTRALIAP16

MUSIC: ENGLANDThe British Invasion has

been revamped with new

sounds that are criss-

crossing England from Leeds to London.

An eclectic mix of poppy, gritty and

fresh homegrown bands are rocking the

Queen’s country with new and regionally

disctinctive beats.

P08

A thin barrier of parched

soil and rock sits between

the team of Honduran

archaeologists and a history fi nd. Join Wade

Shepard as he uncovers modern lessons –

and warnings – from the excavation site of

an ancient Mayan burial.

P06ANTHROPOLOGY:HONDURAS

cafeabroad.com 3

Café Abroad welcomes feedback! Send your opinions to [email protected].

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to write for Café

Abroad last semester. I’m not an English or journalism major,

but the experience I gained with Café Abroad helped me land

an internship with Finding Dulcinea, www.fi ndingdulcinea.

com, an online news company and encyclopedia. The CEO

likes my writing so much that I’m now publishing my own bi-

monthly food series on the site called “What’s Fresh.”

Erin Harris,

New York University

I wanted to write you and tell you about a recent “Café

Abroad in action” story. I work in the University of Iowa’s

study abroad offi ce and a student came to me worried

about whether she should choose the home-stay option

or not for her upcoming semester. Turns out she wants

to study abroad in the same place I did, so I referred her

to the most recent issue of Café Abroad InPRINT, which

includes the story I wrote about homestays in San

Sebastián. Sure it was coincidence, but it was pretty

awesome to have a reference that wasn’t just mean-

ingful to me and the students in my story but also to a

prospective study abroad student as well.

Vanessa Veiock,

University of Iowa

MANAGING EDITORDan Schwartzman

ART DIRECTORAdrian Antonio

www.AandLgraphix.com

COPY EDITORSWade Shepard, Long Island University

Vanessa Veiock, University of Iowa

ONLINE EDITOR Katherine Lonsdorf, Occidental College

STUDENT CONTRIBUTORSNicole Carretta, Penn State University

Molly Lee, DePaul UniversityDana Liebelson, George Washington U.Katherine Lonsdorf, Occidental College

Dina Magaril, Middlebury CollegeKatrina Mansmann, Penn State University

Nate Owen, Northeastern UniversityTara Jo Quinn, Eastern University

Wade Shepard, Long Island University Vanessa Veiock, University of Iowa

FACULTY CONTRIBUTORPaul Hollick, CIEE Perth

Café Abroad InPRINT is a student-generated magazine distributed to more than 320

university study abroad offi ces.

To receive InPRINT at your school, or to request additional copies, e-mail us at

[email protected].

Café Abroad welcomes student submissions. Send stories and photographs to

[email protected]. Find more detailed submission guidelines at

www.cafeabroad.com.

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© Café Abroad 2009

Gusts of wind upwards of 20 mph lashed our bicycles and bodies as we pedaled furiously to cross the 3-mile bridge

into Edenton, North Carolina.

The powerful torrents had punished us all along the day’s 60-mile ride, but none had tested our verticality –

and threatened our mortality – until now. My bike shifted beneath my weight and skidded sideways toward the

3-foot guardrail. A truck charged past on the left, suspending me in a vacuum for an instant before sweeping me into a vortex

of slashing, glassy shards of rain.

My body was already low on adrenaline after the repeated encounters with storms that chased us, and dogs that hounded

us, during the 16-day bicycle trip from Florida to Washington, D.C., last October.

The inspiration for that trip, which three friends and I undertook to support and raise money for Barack Obama in the

waning days of the campaign, saw its satisfying culmination in a historic inauguration that took place just 10 days ago.

It feels as though the wind has shifted its direction, now propelling us all forward. Deriving its strength and message from

the Windy City, I hope the tide of progress has the momentum to reach every corner of the globe.

I am optimistic that the surge of support for our new president will buoy study abroad students who serve as cultural

ambassadors for the warm and generous Americans who I met in small towns and cities throughout the Southeast.

The stories pressed into these pages give a voice to these students — fellow adventurers now home from abroad — Wade

Shepard from New York, Iowan Vanessa Veiock, and Katherine Lonsdorf in California, who make Café Abroad InPRINT an

insightful and intelligent publication.

Dan SchwartzmanCafé Abroad

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort

and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

letters

editor

@cafeabroad.com

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[email protected]. detailed submission guide

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Advertise with Café

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© Café Abroad 2009

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brittle remains of the guilty party. “They

cut down all of the trees to build their cit-

ies and the sun’s rays heated up the earth

like an oven.”

The Mayans built their great cities from

huge blocks of stone that were assembled

together with a mortar and lime mixture

that was manufactured in huge kilns fu-

eled by wood cut from the jungle. A large

amount of wood was needed to stoke the

fi res to a hot enough temperature, and the

surrounding forests eventually perished.

On top of this, Mayan agriculturalists

needed to continuously clear more land

using slash and burn methods in order to

cultivate enough food for the exploding

population. The jungles were also hunted

and fi shed to severe depletion to meet

this increased demand for food. Individ-

ual Mayan kingdoms were also continu-

ally engaged in gradient states of war with

each other, and this exuded a pressure that

pushed the society to the brink of collapse.

A great environmental backlash overtook

the ancient Mayan civilization: they had

totally depleted their natural resources,

wrecked havoc on their environment, and

destroyed each other through warfare.

This story sounded familiar.

“So the Maya essentially destroyed

themselves through technology, urban-

ization, and war?” I asked, not wanting to

hear an affi rmative response. To my disap-

pointment, the archaeologists agreed.

Through the same practices that made

their civilization great, the Maya inadver-

tently destroyed their civilization. They

sucked dry their land of lush forests and

raging rivers, and left themselves to bake

dead upon a parched, unforgiving earth

of their own creation. Most of their great

achievements and amazing works fell to

ruins and their cosmopolitan centers were

desserted centuries before the arrival of

the fi rst ships from the Old World. The

massive cities of the Maya were abandoned

to the jungle, as the people migrated to

the north, south, or returned to archaic

means of living. Through an unbalanced,

anthropocentric relationship with the

natural world, the Maya became another

great civilization to fall deep into the trunk

of archaeological time.

As I looked upon the stiff and grim re-

mains of the skeleton before me, I heard

the lessons from the past howling hair-

raising warnings from the depths of an-

tiquity. Again humanity is standing at the

precipice of an advanced civilization that,

like the Maya, seeks nothing more than

to expand, grow and prosper. Again, rain

forest destruction, urbanization, invasive

agricultural methods, and overpopula-

tion loom as threats to our civilization. Are

we, at the beginning of the 21st century,

again stretching the carrying capacity of

the earth in the same ways that the ancient

Maya did in Central America a thousand

years ago? Could we, too, essentially wipe

out our own civilization by abusing nature,

natural resources, the food we eat, and

fi ghting wars of mutual annihilation?

In a great interplay of irony, the ancient

Maya grew so strong that they destroyed

themselves. After standing upon the ruins

and looking into the death grimace of this

once proud civilization, I must ask the ques-

tion: Can we learn from the errant ways and

misdeeds of the past? Or will we, too, fi nd

ourselves disassembled, catalogued, and

put on display in some history museum

as the shining bones of a civilization con-

sumed and destroyed by its own inertia?

Wade P. Shepard has been tramping around the planet for the past nine years; he wandered into the outback of Mongolia, lived in a monastery in Tibet, ate a puppy in China, danced with mystics in India, thought he was a gardener in Ireland, and got really lost in Patagonia. He is now fi nally fi nishing his Senior Capstone semester in Brooklyn, New York with Global College, Long Island University. Visit his website at www.vaga-bondjourney.com and read his travelogue, at www.vagabondjourney.com/travelogue.

DIGGING DEEPER: Honduran archaeologists excavte an ancient Mayan burial.


With so many artists to choose from, it is diffi cult to know where to start, which are worth

listening to, or even how to fi nd them. But, as you take your magical mystery tour through the

musical journey of modern England, embracing these bands will open your mind to a new day.

Katrina Mansmann is senior at Penn State University majoring in Mathematics. Dreaming of majoring in journalism, she sometimes tells people that she's specializing in Taxidermy. Delu-sional or not, she is convinced that she should have been born in England, and hopes one day to return to Bath or another UK city to live and work overseas.

To most young Americans, the sound of our parents’ generation like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones still defi nes English music.

But times have changed: the British Invasion 60’s is history and this tiny island is still cranking out top-notch tunes from Leeds to London.

In England, a lot can change in a short distance. It seems that in every city a handful of bands play music that captures the identity of their distinctive hometowns. Strikingly different attitudes and ac-cents are noticeable – even in nearby cities just a stones’ throw away from each other. With every subtle change in scenery and community comes a unique and deeply instilled regional pride and a signature style that distinguishes each city.

So, if you’re considering a jaunt to England in the near future, listen up. Even if you can’t scrape together enough dollars to make one pound, put these bands in your rotation and get up to date on England’s new sonic glory.

HOMEGROWN MUSIC REVIVES BRITAIN

By Katrina MansmannBy Katrina Mansmann

Brighton

While approaching the southern seaside cities

of Brighton and Hove, the poppy sounds of

The Kooks are sure to lighten your mood, par-

ticularly the band’s debut album, Inside In/Inside Out.

With the opening track titled “Seaside,” the lads

capture the dual essence of Brighton. A coastal city of

tacky boardwalk fun, easygoing beaches and artsy bo-

hemian crowds, Brighton has an underlying, scandalous

past and serves as a retreat for debauchery.

The Kooks are a well-disguised pop group, balanc-

ing catchy lyrical refrains with loose, messy rock that still maintains the rough edge

that embodies the laid-back Brighton air. Although their material may be limited to

the subject of girls and…well… more girls, Inside In/Inside Out’s tracks stir up dreams

and thoughts of careless summer fl ings. Precisely the sort of thing that Brighton was

made for, their album is the ultimate guilty pleasure. Amidst the rain and haze, day-

dream of a real holiday and give “She Moves In Her Own Way” or “Sofa Song” a listen.

Sheffi eld

A signature band for their city – truly embodying

the disposition of the area and its young inhabit-

ants – The Arctic Monkeys are Sheffi eld through

and through. The hype surrounding the band in 2005 was

borderline repellent, but after listening to the lyrics and

the throttling band behind those spitfi re lines, it’s hard

to deny the brutal honesty in their unembellished songs.

As a northern city built on the foundations of England’s Industrial Revolution,

Sheffi eld has the air of a bygone industrial town devoid of any romance or marked

substance. The band candidly portrays the redundancy and superfi ciality of Sheffi eld

nightlife. With hopeful cynicism seeping into every lyric of their debut album, the band

gives disillusionment a whole new capital city. Once you, too, have experienced the

British binge-drinking youth culture on another night out, Whatever People Say I Am,

That’s What I’m Not may sum up everything you’ve been trying to express.

Leeds

Further north, ubiquitous students overpopulate

the university city of Leeds. Representing this bus-

tling city’s music scene are Kaiser Chiefs, a Brit-pop

band with riotous anthems and bouncy beats who croon

with the voice of Leeds’ youth culture. Overfl owing with

high energy and cheeky attitude, Kaiser Chiefs’ lyrics and

sound amplify the ambitious but unruly nature of the uni

students that pervade the city. The Northern Yorkshire

attitude also permeates other similarly gutsy bands,

such as the underrated The Cribs, who sing with the indifference and irreverence of no-

frills northerners. For some loud, boozy chants and a dose of classic northern attitude,

check out “Employment” by Kaiser Chiefs and “The New Fellas” by The Cribs.

London

A world bottled up in one booming city, London is

unclassifi able. Its musical output embodies its

eclecticism with new genres and musical fl avors

fl owing out every week. Inspired by punk and rock roots,

many London bands innovate and generate sounds that

are completely novel and unpredictable.

Known for their edginess and careless cool, bands like

The Klaxons and New Young Pony Club embrace the style

of today’s Londoners with their experimental, arty, dance-

pop music. To feel a part of the hip London crowd, try “Myths of the Near Future” by The

Klaxons and “Fantastic Playroom” by NYPC.

As a clubbing capital, London hosts deejays who spin an abundance of rave music, with

more than enough to go around. But England’s capital city is also responsible for inspiring

eccentric albums like Lily Allen’s vibrant Alright, Still, electronic trance like The Warning by

Hot Chip, or even Bloc Party’s swift and fi erce Silent Alarm.

Birmingham

Moving further inland to Birmingham - a mid-

land city known to locals simply as Brum -

comes a band known as Editors, who perform

with a machine-like accuracy and precision, which

encapsulates the intensely structured sound of the

business metropolis and former industrial center.

Although Birmingham does not draw much atten-

tion to itself, it is the second largest city in England, and once donned the reputation

of an industrial graveyard. In recent times, the city has taken on a more sophisticated

image of a modest urban environment. Editors, who also keep a decidedly low profi le,

are exceptionally talented at producing throttling tunes with well-oiled mechanics that

evoke the sounds of cleaned-up industrialization. The lead singer’s guarded, intensely

deep and monotonous voice only adds to the powerful and serious nature of an already

very Brummie band. When you fi nd yourself in the heart of the midlands (and wonder-

ing why on earth you’re here) having a listen to The Back Room can give you a fresh take

on this seemingly bland metropolis.

cafeabroad.com 9


It’s fi tting that Buenos Aires has often been referred to as the Paris of Latin America. With stylish inhabitants,

eclectic cuisine and vibrant nightlife, Ar-gentina’s capital city occupies a top spot in trendsetting, even while the country struggles to fi nd a niche for itself in the global market. Raw edge, talent, and tra-ditional craftsmanship – like its focus on leather goods – are all components of a style scene that propels young Argen-tinean designers onto the world stage.

The fashions that come out of Bue-nos Aires are funky, sophisticated, and modern; refl ecting the attitudes and personalities of the porteños (people) who inhabit the bus-tling city of Buenos Aires. While big Argentine names like Maria Cher, Jazmin Chebar and Maria Vazquez are already making their way overseas and into celebrity wardrobes, younger and newer designers are slowly yet surely creating their own local follow-ings.

“People started recognizing our de-signs from seeing us at different street fairs and asking about our stuff,” says Lucila Perez Portilla, one of the found-ers of Doble Sentido, (Double Meaning) a small, colorful shop on Marcelo T. Al-vear. Lucila and her sister Florencia, both designers who studied at the University of Buenos Aires, worked hard to open their own store in Recoleta, an upscale neighborhood known for streets lined with Gucci and Dior.

Walk into Doble Sentido and instantly be enveloped by the fresh colors and funky patterns adorning everything from the racks to the ceiling. In fact, every-

thing in the store originated from family effort: from its airy and modern feel con-ceptualized by the owners’ mother, who is an architect and designer of the studio, to their father, who works in the back and owns a factory that produces much of the Doble Sentido line.

The sisters share a sense of humor and an eye for the unique and quirky, an attitude refl ected throughout their clothing line. The most eye-catching display in their studio are the colorful shoes hanging from strings that line the store’s walls. This installation fi rst got the sisters noticed, and is a continued

customer favorite. One pair of shoes – striped in pink, blue, and white – displays a comic strip. Another plays around with colorful shapes and patterns. The shoes characterize the store’s message: they are both a practical necessity and chic. . . and they’re an accessory you’ll be hard-pressed to fi nd anywhere in the U.S.

Designers Gabriella Iskin and her sis-ter Karina are another family-based de-sign duo that has found the way from local to global markets. Karina manages the line of jewelry, which has an expand-ing selection that combines high con-cept style with simple designs. Iskin’s works have been showcased in trade

shows, museum shops, and collections at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York and San Francisco, as well as Buenos Aires’ own Museo de Arte Lati-noAmericano de Buenos Aires (MALBA).

Karina cites entering into the interna-tional market as one of the biggest chal-lenges the two sisters faced in increasing their client base. “We were a new com-pany without antecedents,” she says.

The Iskin jewelry line works primar-ily with stainless steel, featuring mal-leable geometric designs that draw a background in industrial design. Gabri-ella describes their jewelry as a type of

“modern art for the body.” The bow, a stainless steel ring that comes apart allowing its wearer to change the colored ring in the middle to “fi t their mood” is just one of many examples of an in-teractive approach. Necklaces also come apart, by twisting and turning, to allow a person to choose a design that fi ts the moment or mood. The sisters

see a philosophy behind their jewelry, which allows them to play with designs while still maintaining a sophisticated look.

While some designers like the Iskin sisters are being recognized internation-ally, most young designers are still strug-gling to break through. “Argentinean design is in its development stage,” says Karina, “but a design consciousness is slowly developing in the country.”

While many Latin American countries are too often synonymous with the term “developing nation,” many designers are confi dent that Argentina will soon reach its potential. “Design in Europe and in the

InDesignTalented and edgy

artists propel

Buenos Aires’ fashion scene

into the international

spotlight

By Dina Magaril


By Dana Liebelson

Last February, Kevin Rudd’s historic apology to

the indigenous people of Australia was project-

ed in American as no more than a passing blip on

the media radar. Overshadowed by coverage of Britney

Spears and Super Tuesday, the apology was written off

as another foreign government making a half-hearted

excuse for past transgressions. But for Australians, the

apology was long in the making, hotly debated, and

hailed as a major progress in repairing the nation’s sor-

did relationship with its Aboriginal population.

So why has the U.S. kept silent about the apology

and what can Americans learn from Australia’s lead?

Two Countries, One Troubled Past

Up until the late 1960’s, both Australia and America

removed thousands of indigenous children from their

homes, which was a part of the destructive culmina-

tion of centuries of conflict. The two nations may be

thousands of miles apart but when it comes to gov-

ernment treatment of indigenous populations their

histories are very similar.

Rudd’s apology focused exclusively on the “Stolen

Generation,” a term that refers to the Aboriginal chil-

dren permanently relocated in the 20th century. If the

United States were to issue a similar apology, it would

have to include a wider span of history, encompassing

everything from land removal to the Trail of Tears. In

many ways, Australia’s past policies concerning indig-

enous people parallels America’s, and the two nations

can be effectively compared.

At the heart of the equation, Americans are forced

to confront two uncomfortable questions. First, what

exactly is the importance of saying sorry? And, sec-

ond, why did Australia beat the U.S. to the punch?

The answers boil down to a combination of politics

and ethics, leverage and social responsibility. Before

examining the apology, it is important to look at the

history of the Australian government’s treatment of

indigenous peoples.

Two Painful Pasts

It is well documented that Australian policy was

founded in racial assimilation, which was tantamount to

a carefully orchestrated attempt to eliminate the indig-

enous race entirely. The government’s “White Austra-

lia” policy was a common theme through the 20th cen-

tury, and restricted immigration on the basis of race up

until 1973. Before immigration, Australian policy mak-

ers focused on creating a white society by eliminating

Aborigines. It was believed that pureblood Aborigines

were a doomed race who would ultimately die out.

“The increasing danger…is the 6,000 of the mixed

blood growing up. It is a danger to us to have a people

like that among us,” said one New South Wales politi-

cian, whose view was widely accepted.

Australian assimilation policy ruthlessly targeted

and marginalized Aborigines and their culture. For this

reason, some scholars label the policy as genocidal,

an emotionally loaded term argued by both sides of

the national debate. Aboriginal children were said to

be unable to grasp any sort of higher education and

state-run boarding schools’ curriculum attempted to

erase any sense of indigenous culture. These educa-

tional policies included prohibition against the use

of aboriginal languages and mandated Western style

uniforms and hairstyles. One relocated child, who was

sent to a boarding school in the 1920’s, was interviewed

and recalled beatings for even minor transgressions...

“A girl [in our class] refused to speak English. She was

tied to the old bell post and belted continuously. She

died that night, still tied to the post, no girl ever knew

what happened to the body or where she was buried.”

Indigenous children who escaped the poor conditions

of the boarding schools often succumbed to intense

emotional problems throughout their lives, and suicide

rates were far higher around state relocation centers

than the Australian average. The government’s focus on

assimilation went so far as to indenture Aboriginal wom-

en as servants in white homes. Indigenous people were

also divided between pureblood and those who were ra-

cially mixed, with the latter being given no governmen-

tal support, because they were deemed to be more of

a threat to an all-white policy. Ingrained racism in Aus-

tralian policy also made it diffi cult for Aboriginal people

to actively participate in national politics until late in the

20th century.

These instances of cultural and political racism in

Australia beg comparison to America’s notorious treat-

ment of its indigenous peoples. Although America’s

policies were less explicitly racist, for example the idea

of eradicating mixed-descent blood was not at the fore-

front of the government’s concerns, parallels in policy

abound.

The American program was more focused on return-

ing “assimilated” children back into their communities

and emphasizing cultural homogeny over racial. Ameri-

can policies still caused signifi cant harm, facilitating the

breakdown of indigenous culture and returning children

to reservations that had faced great socio-economic

disadvantages. The policies also mimicked the Austra-

lian path in language abolition and abuse.

Political Reconciliation

So, with this historical context in mind, why did the

Australian government say sorry while the American

government continued to filibuster legislation like a

procrastinating college student?

Australian policy still had a long way to go in 2000.

John Herron, Australian Minister of Aboriginal Affairs,

released this statement at the time:

“The government does not support an official na-

tional apology. Such an apology could imply that

present generations are in some way responsible and

accountable for the actions of earlier generations.”

The remarks were particularly controversial since

Herron said only 10 percent of Aboriginal children

were removed from their homes making the “Stolen

Generation” label an exaggeration. He also argued

that the forced removal of children was grounded in

“good intentions” on the part of past Australian policy

makers.

Saying SorryLooking Back at Australia’s Historic Apology

We apologize for the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, their communities and their country. For the pain, suffering and hurt of these stolen generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry…

- Kevin Rudd, Australian Prime Minister, February 13, 2008.


Dalia Al-Kury’s eyes are sympa-

thetic yet tough behind bold,

black plastic-framed glasses.

She is young, in her late twenties, and sits

with a posture that exudes both feminin-

ity and fi ght. Wearing a slack turquoise

sweater, dark boot cut jeans, and boast-

ing a bright confi dent smile, she could

easily walk down any American street

with few, if any, challenging encounters.

Yet, in Amman her experience walking

on the street – as it is for almost every

woman – is much less discreet. Stuck in

a daily battle between the desire for in-

dependence and the social expectation

of humility, progressive women in Jordan

are thrown into a verbal plight of catcalls

and almost constant harassment.

“I used to pretend I could zip myself

up in this invisible sheet, this shield,” Al-

Kury says. She pulls on an imaginary zip-

per, all the way up to the top of her head

and closes her eyes.

“Some days I feel stronger than oth-

ers.” she says, her hair falling in loose

curls around her shoulders, a rich chest-

nut brown.

Sexism is a huge problem here, espe-

cially in the capital city of Amman, expe-

rienced daily both by Jordanian women

and foreigners, covered and uncovered

alike. It’s the reason any woman walk-

ing alone will be on her cell phone, or

listening intently to her MP3 player, eyes

downcast, drowning out the humiliating

hollers and exclamations, the drive-by

shouts, the attempted grabs or intrusive

stares.

Many remain silent; to fi ght back

would be either futile or completely out

of line with social norms. Al-Kury, how-

ever, decided she had had enough.

“I don’t take injustice very well, and

I felt I was being unjustly harassed,” she

says.

A fi lmmaker and an artist, Al-Kury

took a stance in a familiar, yet innovative,

way: through documentary. Her fi lm,

Caution: Comment Ahead, runs approxi-

mately 30 minutes in length, but dives

deep into the inner workings of catcalls,

harassment, and taunts hurled by Jorda-

nian men at nearly any female happening

to walk by.

“It was a very personal fi lm,” she ad-

mits, “one that I had promised myself to

make one day before I got too numb. I

thought a great deal about how I could

make this fi lm appeal to my main target

audience: men that harass.”

Her point was not to humiliate, but

rather to enlighten.

“I wanted to humanize them—condemn

their behavior, yes, but not who they are as

people. The ultimate purpose was to gain

their empathy, to educate them, to have

them rethink their behavior.”

As the fi lm explains, many women

avoid the street as much as possible, the

stress becoming too much to handle on a

regular basis.

“Sometimes I have to walk fi ve min-

utes to get somewhere, and I take the car

instead of walking to avoid the street,”

says a woman interviewed in the fi lm.

She’s not the only one.

Basel Hamad, a counselor in humani-

tarian institutions in Jordan interviewed

during the fi lm, puts it in context. “(If I am

harassed), I will not go out the next day,

my self image will turn upside down, my

self esteem will change. If twenty peo-

ple will tell me every day in the street

that I am a bitch, how will I go on with my

life then? I can’t imagine it.”

The problem, it seems, is rooted on

many levels, too complex to boil down

to a single cause. The extreme discon-

nect between the sexes plays a huge

role, which Al-Kury refers to as “the bro-

ken bridges between men and women,”

mixed with the misconception between

fl irting and unwanted attention.

Al-Kury explains, “When both sexes

don’t communicate because of cultural

repression, then they won’t understand

each other. They won’t sympathize with

each other, and they wont respect one

another.”

Hamad expands on this, pointing out

the unhealthy gap between the age of

meeting girls and the age of marriage.

“We even refuse friendships between

boys and girls,” Hamad says. “If we are

preventing these types of relationships,

then the desire, the feelings, emotions,

and the need to mix with the other sex,

where will all of this go?”

Much of the harassment comes from

young boys, some not even teenagers.

The fi lm explains why: “[The average boy]

gets used to it at home. He is served by

his 30-year-old sister, and maybe be-

fore she goes out, he tells her to change

her clothes if he does not like them, or

to switch the TV channel, or not go out

too late, and this makes him feel that the

20-or-30-year-old girls on the street are

inferior to him, he can catcall her and do

whatever he feels like.”

Many women have a problem stand-

ing up to harassment for the same rea-

sons. Both domestically and culturally,

they are often subservient. Others fi nd

themselves too jaded by the situation to

respond, and foreigners are at a loss for a

language with which to reply.

“I can't imagine the hell [foreign wom-

en] go through not being able to under-

stand or respond back in Arabic,” Al-Kury

says. “What a shame that such a beauti-

ful country can’t be explored by women

traveling alone without having to be vic-

timized by the stares and comments of

disrespectful men.”

Of course, laws are in place and of-

ten used to counteract the problem—in

2006, approximately 240 incidents of ha-

rassment were reported. However, very

few men actually end up behind bars,

and the amount of cases followed

all the way to the court drop sig-

nifi cantly from the number

reported.

Al-Kury’s fi lm fo-

cuses on the need

for grassroots

movements in-

stead of govern-

mental ones.

“If you have

a problem in

the society, try

to present so-

lutions for it,

don’t repress

it,” points out

one person in-

terviewed in the

fi lm. Al-Kury has

attempted to do

just that. The fi lm has

been screened on satel-

lite TV nine times, promoted

in Palestinian cinema clubs and

schools and shown in festivals all

over the world. Completely in Arabic

with English subtitles, the fi lm is aimed

at the exact audience Al-Kury set out to

reach.

CautionComment Ahead

Controversial Film Reveals and Reviles Sexism in Jordan

“I think women were thirsty to vocal-

ize this taboo and overlooked issue and

I offered them that voice,” Al-Kury says.

“There’s defi nitely a movement. It’s not a

revolution, it’s slow and it’s been taking

centuries, but I’m positive that women

will be equal to men when they’re fi nally

ready, ready to fi ght to the end, when

men are willing to give up their comfort-

able privileged positions.

“I know I am fi ghting,” she proudly

claims. “Films like this one stir up de-

bates to build the bridges that must be

built.”

Katherine Lonsdorf is a senior at Occidental College majoring in diplomacy and world affairs, intending to become a journalist in some worldwide context. While studying abroad for the year at the University of Jordan in Amman, she survived on thick Turkish coffee and fresh baked bread. While she is enthralled with the Jordanian culture, Katherine is convinced a little Ultimate Frisbee and a few yoga studios could do wonders for the society.p , y

ally end up behind bars,

nt of cases followed

he court drop sig-

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lm fo-

need

ots

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-

t

-

he

has

do

fi lm has

on satel-

es, promoted

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own in festivals all

d. Completely in Arabic

btitles, the fi lm is aimed

dience Al-Kury set out to

y g y

B y K a t h e r i n e L o n s d o r f

cafeabroad.com 21

He lurks in the basement at Pancakes

on the Rocks, a 24-hour diner in

Sydney’s Rocks district, peering out

from behind a quartet of dining chairs. Hid-

den in a wall mural is Australia’s most fa-

mous antihero, masked by a metal bucket

helmet that covers his entire face, save for

an eyehole slit.

Who is this masked man?

Ned Kelly.

Think Robin Hood without feeding the

poor.

In the late 19th century, Kelly and his

gang of bushrangers roamed the outback,

wreaking havoc and outrunning the law

until they were caught, tried, and hung one

doleful day in Melbourne. Now Kelly plays

hide-and-seek in Sydney, depicted in local

artwork displayed anywhere from muse-

ums to public buildings.

Sidney Nolan, one of

Australia’s most famous

artists and printmakers,

famously captures Kelly in

a series of 27 canvases in

which a one-dimensional

Kelly dresses entirely in

black and wears a rect-

angle for a helmet - the

curious head wear rep-

resents the armor Kelly

pieced together by hand

out of iron plow parts.

This is the Kelly that

hides out in the wall mu-

ral at Pancakes on the

Rocks restaurant, looking

like a low-tech Iron Man

with a robot head. The

Nolan-inspired painting has been hanging

here for years and actually was cut in half

when the diner’s popularity necessitated

the addition of a second fl oor.

Sydney is generally a safe, law abiding

city, where crime rates are low and guns

aren’t legal, so it may seem a little strange

At Reverse Garbage, white manne-

quins wearing nothing but leis work

as greeters and paper hole punches

litter the paint-splotched fl oorboards. A

red robot hangs from ceiling rafters, just

meters away from a wooden T-Rex skull

that looms ominously on a pillar in the

back of the warehouse. Though the dino-

saur head may not be a fossil from pre-

historic times, it is a relic of sorts. And, if

it weren’t for Reverse Garbage, the waste

from an old museum exhibit may have

been discarded in a trash dump.

Reverse Garbage, a secondhand craft

supply warehouse, was established 34

years ago by local artists and school-

teachers in search of inexpensive craft

materials. Businesses and industries were

throwing away large quantities of mate-

rial – such as Styrofoam, fabric scraps,

and wood blocks – no longer useful for

industrial purposes but ideal for artists

and teachers. A group of teachers and

artists opened Reverse Garbage to spare

leftover materials from landfi lls and to

put them into the hands of people who

could use them.

Today, bird-shaped baskets, old re-

cords, and plastic body parts occupy the

warehouse bins, amongst other more

traditional craft supplies. Every year, the

amount of material that Reverse Garbage

recycles could fi ll three football fi elds.

that the outlaw legends remains so be-

loved. But, Australia’s

fi rst European settlers

were exiles from Eng-

land, so there are many

folk legends and ballads

aptly littered with ro-

mance about the nation’s

convict past.

“Such is life,” the out-

law Kelly said, uttering

his famous last words al-

most with a shrug, know-

ing his crimes would de-

liver him the punishment

he deserved. But, consid-

ering the good behavior

of contemporary Austra-

lians, the words adorning

the bottom of another

Pancakes on the Rocks’

bushranger painting may better represent

the current outlook of adventurous Aus-

sies:

“Reckless and daring they were renown,

but never capable of such crimes...”

—Tara Jo Quinn

Meet Café Abroad

NICOLE CARRETTA is a senior at Penn State University, majoring in public relations and communications. Besides traveling, Nicole enjoys singing, reading and meeting new people.

TARA JO QUINN is a writing major at Eastern University. She enjoys traveling, interacting with random strangers and admiring impressive-looking architecture.

Sidney’s Sidney’s Hidden HeroHidden Hero

Secondhand Secondhand Is GoodIs Good

Throughout Australia, reuse is part

of school children’s curriculum. Reverse

Garbage’s education department instills

in the children of Sydney and its suburbs

an appreciation of the beauty of recy-

cling. Furthermore, Reverse Garbage’s

staff goes on tour around the country,

hosting workshops that teach kids how to

recycle creatively.

On Saturday afternoons, local artists

sell jewelry, wind chimes, and other works

made out of old silver, cameos and other

material at a market in Sydney. Maybe, in

years to come, these children will set up

shop alongside the recycled art stalls that

are already fi xtures at these weekend mar-

kets and show what they can do with mate-

rials that would otherwise be wasted.

Outside of Reverse Garbage on Sun-

days, artists sell wooden boxes and land-

scape portraits that show how virtually

any material under the hot Australian sun,

including supplies from inside the ware-

house, can be used as art. Even their busi-

ness cards are made out of old cardboard

food packaging.

—Tara Jo Quinn

TEAM SYDNEY

MR. BUCKET: Bushranger and infamous outlaw Ned Kelly.


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New

York

Uni

vers

ity is

an

affirm

ativ

e ac

tion/

equa

l opp

ortu

nity

inst

itutio

n. P

rodu

ced

by A

dver

tisin

g an

d Pu

blic

atio

ns, N

ew Yo

rk U

nive

rsity

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spring 2009

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