Weekly Activism Log #4

This past Sunday we finally got to do our Garden Day in Fellsmere with the migrant farm workers. It was a very interesting day. We got to a bit of a late start, but when we arrived we were happily greeted. After some speaking and eating lunch we got outside to do the actual work. I started off in the bamboo group. We drove over to a road with bamboo trees all along the side. We cut and bundled a bunch of bamboo to bring back to the garden. Then we continued to cut the bamboo and stick it in the ground around the plants. I had no idea why we were doing this until later, but I just tried to do my best. Later we tied strings around the bamboo and created lines of the string throughout the garden. I learned this is to support the tomato plants so that they don’t fall over because of the weight of the fruit. We also did many other things like spreading manure around the fields and so on.

It was cool that we were able to use our activism to help others because we really got a lot done. However, we definitely helped ourselves much more than we helped them. We were able to get to know these workers and experience a tiny bit of what they experience. It definitely created a new respect for the workers, at least to me. I think this is something everyone should do. Gathering together as women to see firsthand the cause that we are fighting for is something irreplaceable. It is important to realize that just because we are willing to help, doesn’t mean we know the best way to help. The workers we worked alongside were brilliant and beautiful people that obviously know way more than I about their struggles. I still don’t know the best way for us to organize as women’s groups or feminists, but I know that we need to not only educate ourselves on what we are fighting for, but also really create knowledge through getting on the same level as those who actually experience it. Basically, we cannot feel as if we are above in some way or fighting for, rather we are fighting with.

This week was definitely the most impactful for me personally. I have gained infinite amounts of things that I cannot even fully express. I have gained knowledge, respect, and love for migrant farm workers.

My Year of Meats- Class Discussion 4/5

In My Year of Meats the television network wants to portray the American family as a white middle to upper class family with two to three children. I decided to read an article about the change of family types. In the article “The American Family Transformed” it looks at families in the 1960s compared to families in the 1990’s. This article criticizes the ideal of the nuclear family as a norm because it is something that has changed over the decades. The article explains how the ideal of the nuclear family cannot exist as the majority in our society anymore considering over half of all marriages end in divorce. Also, women’s priorities have changed since before women used to stay home, but now many more want to go out into the workforce rather than focusing on having a large family. Another issue that takes away from the ideal of the white nuclear family as a norm is the amount of teenage parents. Adolescents having children has been on the rise over the past decades. The article goes on to address the issues and problems that can come about because of these changes in the family, and the need for support and assistance in order to help these different family types be as positive as they believe the nuclear family to be.

I am not trying to address which family type is best by reviewing this article. I am simply trying to address the importance of realizing there are different family types, aside from the white, nuclear family that I believe need to be represented, and so does Jane from My Year of Meats.

Works Cited

Hamburg, David A. "The American Family Transformed." Society 30.2 (1993): 60-69. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 7 Apr. 2011.

Weekly Activism Log #3

This week was a difficult week for me specifically because I was very ill and it was also the week of our collaboration movie night with HASA. I worked through my sickness in order to flyer some and help out with our movie night. Last week I spent a lot of time screening movies so we could show the best possible one. However, the difficulties that come with copyright laws and such prevented us from having a wide variety to choose from. We ended up watching Troubled Harvest, which was filmed in 1990, so it wasn’t as current as I would have liked, but it still showed the issues. I think the movie night was a success. Some petitioners came and spoke to us about signing a petition in order to have our voices heard as UCF students about the immigration law that has been passed in California and could possibly be passed here. Also, Dominique from YAYA came and spoke to us for a few minutes.

Overall, it was very informative. We were able to learn about the issues facing the migrant women farm workers as well as the political issues that could potentially affect them as well. It was cool because we were able to take an issue and teach others about it and help them learn more about what they can do. According to Trinh Minh-ha, on the other hand, we may all be doomed. Surely, our movie night contributed to the “othering” of the migrant farm workers. However, I don’t see how else we can teach people about what is going on around them without speaking up for those who don’t have a voice.

This week I haven’t gotten a lot out of our project. I continue learning more about the issue, but I haven’t experienced anything major. I am really looking forward to Sunday when we will be going to work with the actual migrant farm workers. I am excited to meet and learn about the women firsthand.

Works Cited

Minh-ha, Trinh T. Women, Native, Other. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana Univeristy Press, 1989. Print.

Weekly Activism Log #2

This week I helped work on the partner movie night with HASA. I worked on making the flyer and doing some other organizational things with that. I have been working on screening movies for the movie night on Wednesday. It is interesting because it shows how much we all must work together, even in the simple things. For instance, Heather originally gave movie options, but unfortunately their were some regulation difficulties. Then Schuyler had to find the possible movies we could show for the movie night. He then gave them to Heather who gave them to me to screen. So it takes a lot of people to do something small.

The activism that stands out to me most this week was simply going to Take Back the Night. It truly was a wonderful experience. I wasn’t really feeling well and I was hoping to leave early, but the feeling of being around other people who believe in equality for women and want to fight against these different issues oppressing women is almost unexplainable. It was peaceful and passionate. While this isn’t directly related to service learning it definitely relates to our class. It made me think about the difficulties we have encountered in our class with working together and organizing all of that. We discuss in class the problems of speaking for other people. We also discuss the problems that can arise when attempting to work with women rather than for them. Take Back the Night gave me hope. Here we were, people with all kinds of differences, working together to stand up for something and fighting for it. It was just refreshing to know that it is possible to come together despite differences we may have.  It made me think about our readings this past week from our Feminist Genealogies book. The book’s examples about the activist Indian women was very inspiring. The book shows that they did not always succeed and faced many risks and poor outcomes (Alexander, and Mohanty 118-119). The strength and courage they show is truly inspiring and if they can do it we surely can!

All that I have been doing has been helping me to learn more about working with others. It is a difficult thing to do, but it is possible. I am also learning more about the issue affecting migrant farm workers as I go on and that is definitely something worthwhile.

Works Cited:

Alexander, Jacqui M., and Chandra Mohanty. Feminist Genealogies, Colonial Legacies, Democratic Futures. New York, NY: Routledge, 1997. 118-119. Print.

Weekly Activism Log #1

This week has been interesting and thought provoking. I started working on some boxes in order to collect cans and other non perishable food items for the migrant workers. I am hoping to use my resident assistant job to my benefit and put them around the living communities. However, I still need to get permission to put them in the halls and offices so I am waiting on that. This week I also went and volunteered in the UCF community garden at the Arboretum.

Working in the Arboretum really made me think about these migrant workers. I was in the sun, sweating, and working hard. It was definitely not my idea of a “fun” time. In one sense I felt connected to these migrant workers because I could feel an ounce of their struggle, but at the same time I felt even more disconnected from them because comparing what I was doing to what they do is almost absurd. I was working in the garden for like two hours. These workers work all day long… and then have to go back the next day. Another thing is that UCF’s Arboretum is an organic garden. So I did not have to worry about pesticides or anything of that sort. I knew that I would be able to leave and go to my air conditioned room and take a shower and eat a tasty lunch, and this is not a luxury those workers experience. It makes me feel slightly like Trinh Minh-ha’s “anthropologist” who can never completely understand (68).

This experience definitely made me able to empathize for these migrant workers and feel more empathy towards their situation. It is one thing to read about something, but to experience it is completely different. I didn’t even experience the situation, but it has still affected my mindset. I am very excited for the Garden day when we travel to work side by side with the women!

Works Cited:

Minh-ha, Trinh. Woman, Native, Other. Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1989. Print.

Service Learning Project Proposal

1. Contact Information

Service Learning Proposal to raise awareness and support for the migrant farm workers of Apopka.

The Florida Farm Workers Association of Florida

Kelsey Paul

February 10^th, 2011

2. Community Profile

Community Partner: The Farm Workers Association of Florida (FWAF)
Address: 1264 Apopka Boulevard, Apopka, Florida, 32703
Contact: Phone: (407)886-5151

http://www.floridafarmworkers.org/

One of the major issues with migrant farm workers today is that “The food that overflows our market shelves and fills our tables is harvested by men, women, and children who often cannot satisfy their own hunger” (Cesar Chavez). These workers are abused and exploited day after day and generation after generation. It is not only the fact that these workers are underpaid, but also the dangerous working conditions and multiple forms of mistreatment that they face. The pesticides and chemicals used on the crops are dangerous and account for why “Farmworkers suffer the highest rate of chemical-related illness of any occupational group” (Farm Workers Association of Florida). They work long hours doing intensive labor and then go back to their poor living conditions at the end of the day. For women it can be even more of a struggle. “Farmworker women "do nearly every kind of farm labor on every kind of farm. They routinely earn less money than men for doing the same work." Many face sexual harassment at work and are frequently isolated… (Farmworker Justice Fund, Inc.)” (National Farm Worker Ministry). The exploitation of these workers is extremely troubling and is why we chose to work with this project.

The Mission of the Farm Workers Association:

“FWAF’s long-standing mission is to build power among farmworker and rural low-income  to respond to and gain control over the social, political, workplace, economic, health, and environmental justice issues that impact their lives.”

3. The Proposal

Considering “85% of our fruits and vegetables are hand harvested,” the plight of migrant farm workers definitely affects us all, even if we are not aware of it (National Farm Worker Ministry). There are many interrelated aspects that contribute to a problem, and we have recognized that “women’s issues vary by society and require multiple strategies for liberation” (Naples and Desai). Therefore, as a class, we could not possibly address just one area. We have decided to set up our service learning project into three different categories which are raising awareness, hands on work, and raising support.

1. Raising Awareness

One of the biggest problems with human rights and other social issues happening around the globe is simply ignorance of the issue. People cannot change what they do not know. That is why we feel it is important and necessary to raise a consciousness throughout our community (and our world) if we are to work towards ending this problem of mistreatment of our migrant farm workers. We have a variety of ideas for how to spread the word on this issue. We plan to create pamphlets, flyers, posters, etc. that can be used while tabling. Kendall is going to get in contact with the mall manager of the Waterford Lakes Town Center to see if we are able to table at the Waterford Farmers Market. We will also be raising awareness through a symposium that will be headed up by Athia and Gumbs. In our tabling measures and our symposium there are a variety of topics that we can choose to focus on. The topics are as follows (as compiled by Athia and Gumbs):

•             The displacement of environmental racism

•             Legal rights for immigrant women
•             Pesticides and immigrant women’s agency over their bodies

•             Isolation and (in)visibility of immigrant women

•             Lack of accessibility to education, healthcare, etc.

•             Child labor laws effecting immigrants

2. Hands on Work

Another way we will be attempting to create positive change is through working directly with the migrant farm workers. We are hoping to arrange a “Garden Day” where we will carpool together and spend a day working side by side with these workers. This is a very important aspect of our service learning project since the issue of the migrant farm workers conditions is fairly new to some of us. It is important that we work with these farmers in order to somewhat understand the issue. We do not want to become like the anthropologists Trinh T. Minh-ha writes about as “the (unaware) informants who ‘gossip’ about other people’s business…”, although, how to completely avoid that is not known to me (70). However, we shall give our best effort to understand these farm workers and represent them accordingly.

            This is the area of our service learning project that I am most interested in. I do not like to speak of things I do not know about and I can say I know very little about the issues of migrant farm workers other than the research I have done for this class and the conversations with my good friend Kaley, who is very knowledgeable about this issue. I commit to helping in the organizing of our “Garden Day.” I also commit to educating myself further on this issue so I can be a better resource in the other aspects of our project such as the symposium and tabling.

3.  Raising Support

We all know monetary donations are always appreciated by non-profit organizations. Our third focus is to not only raise funds, but also to acquire donations that will be beneficial to the farm workers. While working on our “Raising Awareness” portion of our project we are looking to gather donations through tabling. We will also need to alert the community of our project so that they are able to donate. We can do this through creating flyers, taking letters to local business owners, having drop boxes in local businesses, and etc.  These donations will be used at the Women to Women conference for the migrant farm working women in Apopka. The needs for the conference are as follows (as provided by Meredith Tweed): shampoo/conditioner full size, hard lotion, shower gel, bar soap, tooth paste and brush, sun block, hair, brush/comb, hair clips, nail files, floss, and hand sanitizer.

Our timeline for the Women to Women conference (created by Kendall):

o   i.        February 11 - Heather will contact community partner for
conference date and times participants are needed 

o    ii.        February 15 - A signup sheet for will be made for those
willing and able to participate 

o    iii.        February 17 - Carpooling arrangement will be made for
participants who need transportation 

o   iv. February 18 - Heather will inform community partner of projected
involvement 

o   v. Conference Day - Participants will volunteer at conference

We will all be working throughout the different groups and helping our where help is needed. Although there are details that still need to be worked out I am confident that with Heather as our wonderful liaison, Athia and Gumbs heading up our symposium, and Kendall, who seems to have taken charge of our donations aspect we will figure everything out. I am committing to do my part and help in any and every way that I can.

Word Count: 1,190








Works Cited:

Farm workers Association of Florida. http://www.floridafarmworkers.org/ Web. 9 Feb. 2011. 

Naples, Nancy A., and Manisha Desai. Women's Activism and Globalization: Linking Local Struggles and Transnational Politics. New York, NY: Routledge, 2002. Print.

National Farm Worker Ministry. http://nfwm.org/ Web. 9 February 2011.

Minh-ha, Trinh T. Women, Native, Other. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana Univeristy Press, 1989. Print.

Introductory Letter

Hi everyone! My name is Kelsey Paul. I am from the Tampa Bay area. I am a second year student majoring in criminal justice and minoring in women’s studies and sociology.  I’m not really sure what my major has to do with anything because, basically, I want to spend my life running around other countries fighting sex slavery (in whatever form that may be). I am a pretty laid back individual and a bit of a jokester, so try not to take me too seriously most of the time.

I became interested in this course when Tweed mentioned that we would look at human trafficking. I, also, read a book called Half the Sky which taught me a lot about what is going on in other countries and things that have happened to create positive change. This book definitely contributed to my interest in the global women’s movement. I am interested in the global women’s movement because I feel that there are so many things happening in the world today that we are ignorant of. Over the past year or so, I have become disgusted by the materialism and consumerism that makes up America. So I truly enjoy learning about the world because it puts things in perspective and makes me realize how much we take for granted. I want to learn about the world and what is going on in it and how we are affecting it.

I am involved in some global activism, but I plan to be involved in much more in the future. I am the vice president of Students Against Slavery, which is a student organization here at UCF that you should all join!  It is an awesome group because we have members who are so different from each other, but it is cool that we are all brought together by this common interest. We try to make an impact on slavery through tabling and having events to raise awareness on the issue, as well as raise money to donate to help the fight. I am also planning to spend a month and a half in Chiang Mai, Thailand this summer. I will be working in the community alongside former victims of human trafficking. I am ridiculously excited and am expecting my mind to be blown.

I am hoping to get a lot out of this class. I honestly do not know very much about transnational feminism so I’m sure there will be a lot to learn. However, the biggest thing I hope to get out of this class is simply to understand what we are talking about. Between understanding the terminology (or foreign language) used in this course and Tweed’s “unpacking” questions, it is definitely going to be hard work for me, but I’m hoping I can make it through. J

*I have read, understand, and agree to the terms of the course syllabus and the blogging protocols, which I see as a contract for our course.