Tuesday Times Roundtable
The World Mental Health Month Tuesday's Times Roundtable was led by Dr.Paige Telan of the Psychology Department. We spoke about different mindsets and beliefs around the world, how they are developed and ingrained in us. Factors such as culture and gender play an important role in our mental health. In certain cultures, mental health is seen as something connected to the spiritual world and is often ignored. Based on culture, some parents fail to support their children emotionally. As a society, we form gender roles and norms that affect us mentally. Boys are taught to suppress emotions connected to passivity, an attribute that is said to define females. Males are expected to be powerful and show dominance while females are expected to be powerless and subordinates. The suppression of emotions such as sadness, pain, fear, etc. creates an inner battle with oneself for men, affecting their mental health. Women are taught to suppress emotions connected to men, such as anger. As one can see, suppression of emotions is unhealthy for the mind. We must learn to communicate our feelings positively to sustain our happiness and well-being. The mental health month discussion allowed me to think about how the standards of my culture affect my everyday life and psyche. I realized that certain beliefs restrained me from expressing certain emotions which is detrimental to my well-being. It made me realize the importance of a healthy mind to maintain relationships, both personal and professional. With my understanding of culture and gender roles, I will work towards improving my idea of self and being aware of how culture affects others.
The “Creating Local Leaders to Achieve Global Goals” Tuesday Times Roundtable was led by Flavir GoldenBerg and Tarek A. Raouf. We spoke about the Sustainable Development Goals that the United Nations created to help the world become a better place through the work of individuals. Some of the goals were no poverty, zero hunger, quality education, and good health and well-being. Particularly, we spoke about goal 4, Quality Education, goal 5, Gender Equality, and goal 11, Sustainable Cities and Communities. The great thing about the Sustainable Development Goals is that they are all interconnected. For example, when we talk about goal 1, no poverty, we can also look at goal 2, zero hunger as they relate. Also, there are many ways to incorporate several SDG’s within our lives and projects. When we spoke about quality education, we also mentioned gender equality. There are many countries that forbid females from attending school and receiving the education needed to excel in life and be knowledgeable on world issues. As a Millennium Fellow, I had the opportunity to attend a webinar with the other Millennium Fellows in the world and met an Indian professor advocating education for young girls and women, which I find important. Women all over the world are oppressed and controlled through this very notion. We were exposed to statistics of women being paid less in corporate jobs and working in lower positioned jobs. Along with gender equality, we spoke about sustainable cities and communities. We worked together to discuss possible solutions on how to implement eco-friendly substitutes within our jobs. For me, I thought about going paperless at my job. Overall, the discussion made me realize that I needed to pay attention to things outside the local level and focus on dealing with global issues.
The topic of immigration has always been controversial. The arguments go as followed, who should get citizenship and visas and who shouldn't? What makes one person eligible and the other not eligible? With immigration comes issues such as human trafficking, labor trafficking, and sex trafficking. A lot of people get lied to and tricked into working for lower wages by being sold a fake dream of a better life. Scared of deportation and getting in serious trouble, victims remain in unfair and abusive work conditions. Also, I was not aware of the different visas available, specifically the t1 visa. The T1 visa is granted to victims of human trafficking. One should know that there are courts that deal with immigration cases. Although these visas may seem nice on paper, the process to receive one is extensive. A couple of years ago, the Trump administration canceled the Central American Minors Program (CAM) that was created by the Obama administration. This program allowed parents int the United States to request a refugee or a parole status for the children residing in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. Obama created this program due to the increase in gang violence in these countries. There needs to be a better solution to immigration and granting visas to those seeking asylum.