Week in Review: Global News Roundup for Nov. 9-Nov. 14

By Lily Cusack 

Beirut Bombings

On Thursday, two suicide bombings took place in Beirut, Lebanon. According to CNN, the bombs killed at least 43 people and injured another 239. The explosions took place within 490 feet of each other, and they each happened within five minutes. They damaged at least four buildings near the explosions. There were three attackers, but two of them died during the bombings. The third bomber told authorities they were ISIS recruits that had arrived from Syria two days prior to the incident. Authorities say the militants could be part of a cell that ISIS dispatched to Beirut. The explosions went off in an area where the Shiite militia has a solid presence. One of the attackers tried to enter a Shiite mosque, but was prevented by security. Friday was declared a day of mourning for Lebanon.

Thursday’s bombing attack took place in Beirut, Lebanon. Courtesy of Wikipedia.com.

Jihadi John

The Pentagon said on Thursday that they are “reasonably certain” that ISIS militant “Jihadi John” was killed during a drone strike in Syria, according to BBC News. Kuwaiti native and British militant Mohammed Emwazi, also known as “Jihadi John,” was seen in many videos of the massacres of ISIS hostages. The first video he appeared was of the murder of US journalist James Foley last August. He has also been a part of the videos showing the killings of U.S. journalist Steven Sotloff, British aid worker David Haines, British taxi driver Alan Henning, American aid worker Abdul-Rahman Kassig, and Japanese journalist Kenji Goto. He was also seen during the mass beheading of Syrian troops. Three drones, one British and two American, carried out the attack during routine attacks that have been performed against ISIS leaders since May.

Paris Terror Attacks

A series of terrorist attacks took place Friday night in Paris. According to The Telegraph, the seven coordinated attacks occurred in the center of the capital, killing at least 132 and injuring another 352. Seven militants, all wearing suicide vests, have been linked to the attacks. The first two explosions were located at the Stade de France during the first half of the France-Germany soccer match.

The explosions went off between 9:20 and 9:30 p.m., minutes apart from each other. The explosions killed one person along with the two militants that detonated their suicide vests. French President François Hollande was in the crowd watching the match, and he was promptly escorted out of the stadium. At 9:25 p.m., gunmen opened fire on Petit Cambodge Cambodian restaurant and Le Carillon bar on Rue Bichet, about four miles from the stadium. Fifteen people died in the attack. The same gunman then drove to Rue de la Fontaine au Roi where they killed at least five at Casa Nostra pizzeria. The fifth attack happened on Rue de Charonne at La Belle Equipe bar at 9:40 p.m. where at least 19 people died. The militant detonated his suicide vest around the corner from the bar on Boulevard Voltaire. At around 9:50 p.m., three militants entered the Bataclan concert venue on Boulevard Voltaire, about a mile away from the restaurant shootings, where the U.S. rock group Eagles of Death Metal was performing to a full house of 1,500 people. The gunmen were brandishing AK-47 rifles and suicide vests.

The siege lasted two hours and 40 minutes as they held the venue hostage. Anti-terror police ended the hostage crisis at around 12:30 a.m. Two of the militants detonated their vests, and the police shot one. The death toll rose to 89. The last attack took place at around 10 p.m. where a militant detonated his vest near the Stade de France outside of a McDonald’s restaurant. One person was seriously injured.

Myanmar General Election

Aung San Suu Kyi and her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), were declared victorious on Friday after the votes were tallied for the Myanmar general election. The party won a majority of seats in parliament, with 348 seats across the lower and upper houses, according to The Guardian. This is 19 more seats required for an absolute majority. The victory for Suu Kyi marked the end of a half a century of military dominance in the country. Although Suu Kyi is banned from presidency due to the country’s constitution, the NLD will be able to push their own legislation, form a government and pick a president of their choosing. This administration will be the first government since 1960 not picked by the military and their political allies. The current government officials have accepted their defeat, and say they are willing to work on handing their power over peacefully. Army generals still control the most powerful aspects of government: interior, defense and border undertakings.   

Aung San Suu Kyi, National League for Democracy part leader. Courtesy of Wikipedia.com.

Japanese Earthquake and Tsunami

An earthquake and a tsunami occurred off the coast of Japan early Saturday morning. According to IB Times, the earthquake was a 7.0 magnitude, and its epicenter was just under 100 miles southwest of the town of Makurazaki, occurring at a depth of about 6 miles. A one-foot tsunami hit the Japanese island of Nakanoshima as a result of the earthquake. However, there were no reports of damages or injuries. The Japanese Met Agency announced a tsunami advisory, but it was canceled after an hour and a half.

 

Behind the Iron Curtain: MU Lecturer Recalls Life in East Germany

By Andrew Withers

Twenty six years ago, Olaf Schmidt drove through West Berlin for the first time in his life.

“It was mind blowing,” says Schmidt.  “All the maps we had of East Berlin had the roads and the street names and the west borderline and then gray—just nothing.”

Schmidt, an assistant teaching professor of German Education in MU’s German and Russian Studies Department, was born in East Germany in 1965. Schmidt recalls growing up in a country that was the polar opposite of its walled-off counterpart.

“It was so different,” says Schmidt. “When you split up a country and have communist and capitalist governments for 40 years, and you put a wall in between them so there’s no real exchange, it makes you different.”

The Berlin Wall was constructed in 1961 to cut off West Berlin from East Berlin as well as Soviet-controlled East Germany as a whole. An enduring symbol of the Cold War, the wall stood for more than 20 years and prevented emigration and most forms of contact between the two countries.

While West Germany pursued a capitalist, market economy, East Germany employed a centrally planned economy. Unemployment ceased to exist, necessary goods were highly subsidized and education was provided at no cost. Reliable enforcement of price and quality standards made sure that everyone was getting the same deal.

Although essential goods were extremely cheap, unnecessary, luxury goods were very expensive because of limited production. As a result, a culture that focused less on materialism and more on intellectualism emerged.

“This was a really intellectual society that we were coming from,” says Schmidt of growing up in the east. “We were reading like hell. I was reading philosophy without having to. We were talking about these things.”

In keeping with the socialist ideals of the East German government, economic parity was almost absolute. This total control of the economy by the state fostered a nation of equals and, subsequently, trust.

“When people are equaled out, and no one makes more, what that creates is a community,” says Schmidt. “The attitude was completely different. 20 percent of the people I knew had no locks on their doors. When we tell them the most important thing we lost is the trust, they think we’re crazy.”

To many Westerners, the concept of trust in a country where choice was limited, free speech was often suppressed and travel was inhibited sounds absurd. But this control ensured that everyone received the same treatment. No one had any reason to mistrust anyone else because no one was better or worse off.

“Where the West challenged authority, the East relied on it,” says Schmidt.

These differences would be resolved when the wall opened and the two countries became one.

In October 1989, peaceful protests of Soviet leadership were gaining traction in East Germany. Massive public gatherings took place weekly in city squares; people demanded the right to travel and elect officials democratically.

Even as the numbers of protesters reached the hundreds of thousands, the police never engaged in armed suppression. The protests ended in early November at the Alexanderplatz, a large square in the central area of East Berlin. More than half a million people were present.

Just a few days later, on Nov. 9, 1989, the demonstrators would be rewarded. Mounting pressure to deal with an increasing number of refugees, combined with a breakdown in communication between party officials, led East Germans to begin gathering at checkpoints along the wall. They believed that a new policy had been announced, allowing them to cross over into West Berlin. Overwhelmed by the crowds, and without orders from their superiors on how to deal with them, border security allowed them to pass through.

“Politically, it didn’t mean much at that point, but emotionally, wow” says Schmidt.

But it quickly became apparent that unifying two countries would not be easy. Merging two societies accustomed to different economic and social systems was problematic enough, and stereotypes the two sides harbored about one another added to the problem. West Germans perceived East Germans, or Ossies, as lazy. East Germans perceived West Germans, or Wessies, as arrogant.

“The euphoria didn’t last long,” says Schmidt. “People wanted more—just to consume, buy buy buy—which you can’t blame people for, but it was meaningless after all that we’d been through.”

Eager to expand into under-served areas, West German businesses exploited people in the east who weren’t used to a free market system.

“These people came and sold insurances, ripping them off, day after day,” says Schmidt. “Used cars, for ten times the price they were worth. The person who comes toward you on the street is your enemy now. That’s the lesson we learned.”

Decades later, though the economic gap between the east and west had largely closed, the differences remained.

“They had no idea what it felt like to be equal to everyone else,” says Schmidt.

As the anniversary of the wall’s fall passes, it’s a time of reflection for many East Germans, including Schmidt.

“When you have something, you think it’s going to last forever,” says Schmidt. “But that’s life. If we had known it would be gone, we would’ve appreciated it more, maybe celebrated things that we had and not have been so miserable all the time. I want to go back and experience it—really experience it.”

International students find a second home at MU

By Shy Hardiman

Five months ago, for the first time ever, Dheeraj Srivatsav left his home of Bangalore, India for the U.S.

“People are really nice here,” said Srivatsav. “You need to layer up yourself when you go out but that’s the only thing. It [studying in the U.S.] is a good experience.”

The minimum weather in Bangalore, located in the southern most part of India, is 50 degrees and is usually around 80 during warm days, according to Srivatsav.

He is one of the many students that attended the annual MU Multicultural Hour Welcome Party on Jan. 29. The graduate student, who came to MU to get his master’s degree in computer science, sat next to another student from Bangalore, Aditya Parashar.

“We were there,” said Parashar. “Apparently, we were neighbors but we didn’t know each other.”

Parashar also came to MU to get his master’s in computer science. The two ate pizza and drank soda while mingling with the other international students at the Welcome Party. While Srivatsav said that the weather is one of the biggest differences in between India and the U.S., Parashar said that it was the food – and traffic.

“I’m used to a place where it’s almost like war out there on the streets,” said Parashar. “You literally have to stop [cars] with your hands, so that [crossing the street at MU] has been really nice. I like being given preference when you are walking.”

In addition to both being from Bangalore, studying for their masters in computer science, and being vegetarians they are also both multilingual.

“I speak four [languages] – Hindi, English, Kannada, and Marathi,” said Parashar.

Srivatsav speaks Hindi, English, Kannada, and Tamil.

Although they both speak multiple languages, they came to the Welcome Party to meet people that they have commonalities with and differences. Parties like the Multicultural Hour have been one of the main ways that Srivatsav and Parashar have made friends at MU.

“These things are really good,” said Srivatsav. “You get to meet so many different people – so many different cultures.”

And even though they are thousands of miles away from home, they don’t feel like they’ve landed in a foreign land at all.

“People, invariably, you dig a little deeper and they are all the same,” said Parashar.

Mizzou International Welcome celebrates diversity across campus

by Sifan Ouyang

Student organizations representing more than 13 countries displayed their unique cultures and traditional cuisine on Saturday, Feb. 9, in the MU Student Center.

“This is my second time to represent our country and it’s fun,” said Ahmad Naasa, a freshman studying computer engineering in front of the display board of Indonesia. Dressed in national costume, Indonesian students used quizzes to introduce facts about their home country. They also provided traditional food like “Icy Kela” to attract the students and visitors.

Algerian celebrations: Strawberry Hills and ‘Time to Kill’

by Shy Hardiman

The snow—that’s what Aziz Boussekine describes as his fondest memory of growing up in Algeria, a country located in Northern Africa.

photo by Shy Hardiman/ Aziz Boussekine, an MU student from Algeria, shares memories of celebrations at home.

“It’s a high hill town,” he says of Setif, the northeastern city in Algeria where he’s from, with eyes lit up. Every year as snow falls, Algerian families and friends journey to the hills to experience it.

Another favorite memory of Boussekine’s is visiting Skikda, a city in northeastern Algeria. In May, many Algerians flock to this city for its three-day strawberry festival.

“Everything is red and when you walk there you feel like you are in the strawberry kingdom. It’s awesome!” said Boussekine. Vendors set up tables with mounds of strawberries, strawberry cakes, and other delicious strawberry dishes—“it’s the best,” as he puts it. But the celebration is only in that region, he adds.

Diving into a new culture head-first

by Niki Kottmann

photo by Niki Kottman/ International student Danhee Kim tries her first first fall delicacy on Halloween night at Rollins.

She had never tried a caramel apple before. She didn’t know what pecan pie was. And she had never seen anyone dress up as Spiderman just to get a $2 burrito.

Danhee Kim is clearly not American. She is an international student from Seoul, South Korea who is a part of the Intensive English Program (IEP) at Mizzou, and she is experiencing all the traditions of fall through the Conversation Partner Program.

This program is a vital step in the IEP experience because it partners international students with a native English speaker. The two meet once a week to practice the language and learn about American culture. Speaking from personal experience, I can say that this program is extremely rewarding for both the international and American students involved.

“I like trying your culture, it makes me happy. Sometimes other cultures make me feel strange, but this is fun,” Kim said.