Two UMass Amherst students affected by the January 12 earthquake in Port-au-Prince describe Haitian culture and share their thoughts on development in Haiti.
The story of Somalia is complex, disheartening and violent. It’s hard to imagine the atrocities occurring there daily. The brutality can seem unreal. But to Yasmine Farh, a Somali refugee living and studying at UMass to be a journalist, the almost 20-year-long civil war is never far from her heart and her mind.
After eight years of Republican policy in America, it was no secret where foreign loyalties lay in this year’s presidential election. In a recent poll conducted by The Guardian, eight major countries were asked who they would elect as the next President of the United States, and all eight countries favored Barack Obama.
Markets Plummet Worldwide. Global Fears of a Recession Grows Stronger. In Crisis, Europe Isn’t in Sync. Reading these headlines in the New York Times Tuesday, I felt increasingly out of my league. To make the crisis seem more real, I needed a more personal perspective. So, I started talking to family and friends from around the world to see how their countries were doing.
It’s September 2003 in Iraq. There is a war going on. Huda Yehia is traveling unprotected on the streets of Baghdad, wary of everyone and everything around her. There is a bounty of $200 on her head.
Three years later she sits in the translation center at the University of Massachusetts, continuing the job that put a bounty on her head – translating. She also teaches and bakes at Rao’s Coffee shop in downtown Amherst. Her life has changed drastically but she carries dozens of stories with her about her work with Americans.
United States Marine Corps veteran Adam Belanger sits in the University of Massachusetts library shaking his head as he recalls a recent moment in his geography class.
“I’m the only person in my class that could point out Iraq on a map!” he said. “It’s very frustrating because here in ‘liberal capital’ Massachusetts, where everyone is against the war, no one can find the war.”
Deep into an election cycle, it seems readers like Crosby are more likely to find out about Hillary Clinton’s exaggerated trip to Bosnia or Barack Obama’s breakup with former minister Rev. Jeremiah Wright, rather than the pressing issues facing the nation.
At the same time, coverage of the Iraq War has fallen off. According to a report by the PEW Research Center, just 3 percent of news coverage during February was dedicated to the war, down from 15 percent last July. So, can the lack of coverage include what voters see as important during this election cycle?
Sgt. Kendrick Lau was among the first wave of U.S. Army Reservists deployed to Iraq. As a civil affairs soldier, his mission was to help “win the hearts and minds” of the Iraqi population.
Now, almost four years after his return, the UMass alum feels that continued major military presence “isn’t worth our resources, unfortunately.
When a baby in Iraq was born with a unique and life-threatening birth defect, University of Massachusetts student Eric Valdepenas jumped at the opportunity to lend a helping hand.
AUDIO SLIDESHOW: Eric’s scholarship
The baby was born with its organs outside of the body and couldn’t receive treatment while in Iraq. Valdepenas was part of a group of Marines who volunteered to take the baby out of Iraq and transport it to a hospital in Boston where it received proper treatment. He received a purple heart for the mission.
By Kate Bergquist and Eric Athas
University of Massachusetts junior Justin Rose was training with the ROTC not long ago when someone interrupted the session.
“We had a kid drive by and call us baby killers,” said Rose, a 25-year-old veteran.
Rose is one of many veterans and other UMass students involved in the military who share mixed feelings about their treatment on campus. He said he’s had an overall positive time at the university, but has experienced some remote negative incidents.
