7.2 Magnitude Earthquake Hits Haiti

Just over a month after the assassination of their president, and 11 years after their last disastrous earthquake, Haiti was struck by a 7.2 magnitude earthquake.

This caused obvious extreme damage to the physical infrastructure of the country itself, but even more damage to the safety and wellbeing of the inhabitants of the island. Numbers currently report just over 300 deaths and 1800 Haitians injured by the eathquake. With a government in complete disarray and a geological foundation lacking stability, how can a country be expected to find its footing again? This is the question that the leaders of Haiti will need to face. For now, it is immediately unclear who those leaders will be. This poses a clear issue, especially when one factors in the growing issues of gang violence and widespread poverty across the country. Although international nonprofit organizations like UNICEF are and will continue to offer aid to Haiti, the effectiveness of this outside support is somewhat contingent on the Haitian government ability rally and ready themselves to confront the crisis. Having never fully recovered from the devastating 2010 earthquake, the Haitain economy cannot reasonably be expected to sustain the rebuilding, rehousing, and medical care that will be required in the aftermath of the earthquake. While it would seem that fiscal contributions to the country would carry great weight, without a clear leadership system, it is unclear to whom or where to actually donate the money.

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Santa Teresa, Costa Rica

I spent the past week in Santa Teresa, Costa Rica, a small surf town in the Puntarenas Province. There are no stop signs or street lights on the unpaved streets of the town, but during the 3:30 rush hour, you hear a cacophony of laughter as opposed to honking. This small town- with a resident population of under 3000- seems to rely on communal joy as a source of fuel. Because the town is so isolated from any main city like San Jose, there is a lack of variety in job opportunities, resulting in what seems to be a lack of wealth disparity amongst the population. These somewhat limited jobs revolve mainly around tourism and fishing, two fairly job industries. In the absence of tourism due to COVID, Santa Teresa’s population relied heavily on fishing as a means to maintain a steady income. Armando, our hotel manager and a lifetime resident of Santa Teresa, let me know that COVID weighed heavily on the town, not because of case numbers, but because of the lack of fish on the coast of the su

Capstone Project Reflection

On Thursday, May 12, Jackie Sabbag and I presented our capstone project with our other GS cohort members. In attendance were a handful of budding global scholars- it was inspiring to see the continued interest in the program. Jackie and I outlined the specificities of our early relationship with I Am A Girl, and the grant proposal process that followed. The presentation marked a very special culminating moment for our time with the GIP. We presented a similar set of slides to our audience today to the slides that we presented to the grant donors. We wanted the audience today to fully understand why we chose to work with I Am a Girl, why the work we wanted to do through our project was important, and what the money would allow for within the Ugandan Mbale community and beyond. In addition to the grant proposal information we also shared our take-aways from the project. We spoke about the importance of really being able to fulfill our theme of empathy into action.

Drought Plagues Iran

While Hassan Rouhani closes out his term as President of Iran, the Islamic Republic is facing a serious water shortage. Rouhani has enlisted the government to aid areas that have been the most seriously impacted by the drought. Many report that the drought is a direct cause of global warming. I found it interesting that Iran, a country that supplies much of the world's oil (a fossil fuel), is experiencing first hand the effects of climate change, something that is caused- in part- by the burning of fossil fuels around the world. The drilling required to harness the oil has also impacted the natural landscape of the country, disrupting ecosystems and artificially carving away at the land. Because Iran’s economy, as well as the world’s oil needs rely so heavily on the exportation and distribution of oil, it is not as though Iran will implement tactics to minimize the exportation of this oil in the face of the drought. While the drought is certainly a result of environmental factors,

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