Immigration, Internet and Globalization
Collective contribution
Diplomats, military officials and academic experts from across the nation and around the globe filled the University Student Center at USF St. Petersburg to discuss topics on world affairs.
The university hosted the St. Petersburg Conference on World Affairs, drawing over 60 speakers to the event. The college’s honors program director Thomas Smith said panels purposefully have an “unusual mix of people” to offer diverse perspectives and spark discussion.
Elite Tastes vs. Basic Needs: Organic, Genetically Modified or Insufficient Food
By Emily Tinti
While four billion people suffer from chronic hunger or malnutrition worldwide, one third of all consumable goods are wasted every year.
And yet, by 2050, the earth’s human population will still require at least 70 percent more food than what is currently produced.
Five renowned individuals deliberated possible solutions to this imminent dilemma, citing unequal food distribution, the use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), and the implementation of sustainable methods.
Dr. Janet Chrzan, a nutritional anthropologist, posed the opening question: “How do we think about hunger, and how does that affect the way we solve it?”
Chrzan then shared three steps to solving world hunger: (1) Use the pile of food effectively and educate the public, (2) Build the pile higher and put more land into production and (3) Share the pile and use it to engage in social, political and economic change.
The panel ultimately concluded: There is no empirical evidence of either the benefit or the harm of GMOs.
Simi Mehta, a Fulbright-Nehru doctoral research fellow, argued that using GMOs is justified because they stimulate production and provide an amount of resources that developing countries typically don’t have access to.
Dr. Michael Lynch offered a unique take on the subject, coming from the world of culinary management, food law and product liability consulting. He agreed that on a global scale, yes – GMOs are valuable. But in the U.S., not in the slightest.
Lynch explained that most small farmers in the country don’t have access to actual seeds due to companies like Monsanto that specialize in the production and sale of GMO seeds, taking over the business entirely. He also said that only around two percent of the food in America – including imports – is actually inspected.
“There’s no food police. Inspecting food is on a voluntary basis now,” said Lynch. “The European Union won’t even let us export.”
Emmanuel Roux, the executive director and president of Urban Food Park, Inc., focused on individuals, suggesting that people are “disconnected” from the food they consume. Roux and Dr. Leslie Liberman, a biomedical and nutritional anthropologist, both suggested that solving global issues like world hunger starts with the individual.
“We need to reconnect to our food and our people,” he said. “Getting together and sharing food is very important and something that we’re not valuing as much as we should.”
Immigrants: A New Wall or a Screen Door?
By Paola Bruzual
Immigrants are often stereotyped as lazy, poor or just cheap labor who take job opportunities from American citizens.
Scott Solomon, associate professor of government and international affairs at USF Tampa, dismantled the demeaning label by presenting statistics on how immigrants engage in the community and contribute to the economy by paying taxes, thus helping the U.S. economy grow.
“The United States is a country molded by migration,” Solomon said.
Eliane Elmaleh, Professor in American civilization at Université du Maine France, said Europe economic depression has increased due to the construction of expensively large walls to keep migrants from countries such as Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq – out.
Sajjad Wali, a U.S. military interpreter a refugee from Afghanistan said, “Refugees don’t choose to be refugees, they become refugees out of anger and frustration.”
Breaking News: The Overlook, The Shadows, The Good Stuff
By Ryan Callihan
There’s more to the news than what you see on the television or in the newspaper.
The panelists, consisting of Amelia Arsenault, Leo Seligsohn and Roy Peter Clark, agreed that it’s crucial for viewers to question the importance of the news they consume.
Arsenault spoke about certain tactics, such as clickbait, that is used on the Internet to make stories seem important.
“With the Internet and the 24-hour news cycle, this is the Penny Press model on steroids,” she said.
She also discussed certain software programs that are often used to create fake personas online, intending to drum up conversation about a certain topic.
Seligsohn pointed out it’s also important to consider what isn’t being shown in the news, saying that he believed this could be attributed to the decline of investigative reporting.
“There’s been less and less investigative journalism. It takes money and it takes courageous reporters,” he said. “Many of them risk jail.”
Women Passing through the Glass Ceiling: Inevitable, Rarely, or Ouch it Hurts?
By Evy Guerra
Five women sat at this panel to tell their stories on what it’s been like to be the only women in the room throughout their careers. While the talk covered many different stories and life experiences, there was not a lot of diversity on the panel.
“I was very disappointed that in a city like St. Petersburg, they couldn’t find one woman of color to represent a diversity of opinion on this panel,” attendee Arlene Zaucha said. “I thought the discussion would have been much richer had a more diverse panel been represented.”
Eliane Elmaleh discussed France’s history and how the country has lagged behind on women’s rights such as not allowing women to vote until 1944.
Sheryle Bolton spoke of her time in Harvard Business School and emphasized that we need to encourage more young women into STEM education.
Janet Crane worked in the finance industry for 30 years and said breaking the glass ceiling in lower management is inevitable, but that she’s not too optimistic in regards to Silicon Valley.
Film: My Africa Is
By Abigail Payne
Released this month, the documentary series “My Africa Is” gives an inside look into the influx of entrepreneurship in multiple cities across sub-Saharan Africa.
The pilot episode was showcased at the conference and the series will play on World channel.
Nosarieme Garrick, the film’s executive producer and director, is a Nigerian native who travels the world as a writer, activist and entrepreneur.
In the documentary Garrick displays the obstacles that African entrepreneurs face on a day-to-day basis.
She says that displaying the young entrepreneurs on an “open platform” has been successful in expsnosing the reality of Africa.
“The response we’ve gotten is a testament to how refreshing the content is and the potential that it has,” said Garrick. “With enough resilience and enough persistence you can achieve your goal and for the student body, as crazy as their ideas might be, they should pursue it, and I hope that this film served as inspiration for them about what is possible when you just try.”
The ISIS Caliphate: Religious Frenzy, Sex Slaves, Bad Behavior, and lots of Shoot’em Up. How do we Tackle that Combo?
By Elisa Duka
The speakers all agreed that ISIS is a revolution of radical Islamist ideas that are anti-western.
Richard Miniter, CEO of the American Media Institute, said that “Terrorism exists because it solves someone’s problem in life.
Miniter told a story about an 18-year-old student from Egypt who went to Germany to study abroad. But soon he felt isolated in the foreign country, and retreated to a mosque to feel more at home. He unknowingly met an ISIS recruiter and became radicalized.
He was told what most recruiters tell vulnerable newcomers – “The problem is not within you, it’s with them.”
The panel highlighted the notion that even if ISIS were destroyed tomorrow, another group would replace them almost immediately.
This is partly due to the divide between Arabs and Persians, not Sunni and Shiite Muslims, as the two Islamic groups have been targeting each other for millennia, mostly due to border issues and territory.
Frederick Hutchinson, who served as chairman of the National Intelligence Council, claims that the U.S. is too fastidious in choosing its allies, and should focus on creating no-fly zones in Syria, as well as counterfeit Iranian currency to dissuade scientists from creating weapons for the country.
That Foreign Policy Vision Thing: Presidential Tradition or a Big Yawn
By Kenny Owen
Foreign policy: A major sticking point on both sides in the current presidential race.
The panel consisted of three experts in the field: Eliane Elmaleh, professor in American civilization at the Université du Maine France; Richard Miniter, CEO of the American Media Institute and Gene Poteat, a retired CIA officer.
Elmaleh discussed how public opinion is shaping foreign policy across the globe and specifically in France, where leaders tend to act in favor of public opinion.
Poteat discussed the consequences that certain foreign policy decisions have on the population and how American foreign policy is affected by outside sources.
Miniter summed up the topic by saying, “At the heart of foreign policy is a divide between the politically correct and the ‘cowboys.’ I believe foreign policy needs both to succeed.”
