Demographic Survey

Planning Commission (2010). Demographic survey of Tibetans in exile-2009. Dharamsala: Central Tibetan Administration. Retrieved from: http://www.phayul.com/news/article.aspx?id=28666&t=1[b1] 

•     A demographic survey of Tibetans in exile completed by the planning commission of Tibet’s government was conducted in 2009 and revealed that the Tibetan population “outside of Tibet…stood at 127,953” (paragraph 3). 
•       Of the total population recorded, 94,203 Tibetans are living in India, 13,514 in Nepal, 1,298 in Bhutan and 18,920 elsewhere around the world (paragraph 5).
• This is evidence that many Tibetans are still exiled to different countries and that the large portion of them are living in India.  That's it!

Institutional Review Board

Being required to submit a proposal to the IRB has only been a total burden from my perspective until class on Monday.  It seemed like overkill and just another way radical people are taking charge of something, and well, really it was just more paperwork (which is my nemesis).  It reminded me a lot of special education paperwork—all of the boxes we have to check, all the individualized education program phrases we have to use within the truly “valuable” text, all of the signatures, all of the forms, ALL OF THE PAPERS.  On some days I have the perspective of, “This is so useless!” or “What a waste of time.”  My thinking doesn’t even go in a place where I can see the value of ensuring that I use the following phrases when writing present levels of academic achievement and functional performance:

“________ has a disability that adversely affects his/her academic achievement (progress) and functional performance in general education math curriculum and requires specially designed instruction. According to _________ (data source), given ______ (date), ___________ (student) is currently functioning at _______________ (instructional level) and can __________. _____ disability in math affects his/her ability to progress in the general education math curriculum. He/She needs to ___________.”

The stuff that’s highlighted I just don’t understand.  The black print is totally necessary.  Of course we know this person has a disability that affects progress, that’s why they have an IEP!  And of course the disability in the area listed affects progress in the general ed. curriculum…that’s the nature of the situation.  And even though the goals I write in individualized education programs (IEPs) are called “measurable annual goals” and the goal page has a title indicating so, a new requirement this month is for me to write at the beginning of each goal “within one year, ____,” as if we’re not sure how long the goal should be worked on!  It makes the goal harder to read, and detracts from meaning, but I suppose it’s just an additional way to create accountability for the small number of people that might take advantage of a marginalized population, or may neglect them due to no obligation or guideline.

Tuskegee Syphilis Experiments
(http://www.uaff.us/tuskegee_experiments.htm)

Then I remember, there was a time when people with disabilities were not considered people.  There was a time when Nazis performed medical experiments on Jews.  There was a time when human beings with syphilis served as guinea pigs for science and went without medical treatment, many of them dying.   Marginalized populations, vulnerable populations, have been taken advantage as partly a result of lack of regulations, lack of knowledge, and lack of review.  The IRB serves as a protection for these vulnerable populations, and my willingness and adamancy about completing the IRB process has increased monumentally.  I have more commitment, and less complaint, which is such a beautiful product that naturally follows when gaining knowledge, abandoning some more of my ignorance.   I rather comply with strict guidelines that decrease the chances of a study taking advantage of a person or people, than skip through some paperwork for the sake of time.  Overall, the principle on all the paperwork in my life is a good one, and my attitude about the burdens of it has changed.

Nazi Human Experimentation
(http://www.uaff.us/tuskegee_experiments.htm)

The Final Methods Practice

I chose to interview again as my final methods practice, as I imagine most of my investigations will be done through this method.  I'm not sure, but it may be hard to pick up a lot of meaning out of a participant observation where people aren't speaking English.  If the people in Bylakuppe use English frequently with one another, then participant observation would yield more useful information, however, I don't see them using primarily English when talking casually with one another.

For this interview I spoke with an owner of a respite care company that has similar roots as Karuna Home. He started the company because he felt great fulfillment and responsibility in working with people with severe disabilities.  His religious perceptions changed the way he felt about what he wanted to do with his life, as well as the mission of his company.  Because his religion (LDS) believes people with disabilities are blessings and teachers, he regards his clients very positively and treats them like the capable people they are.  I get the impression from the Karuna Home website that the monks that started this home felt similarly about the residents--that they are able and that their lives have meaning.  However, I'm not sure if both religions believe that individuals with disabilities should play active roles in the community, or if they just play different roles.

It was beneficial to interview someone who started a respite care company because my experience with the creators of Karuna Home might be similar in some ways.  One thing I noticed while interviewing was that the informant had little or no interest in providing in depth answers to questions about the logistics of his business.  He did, however, provide lengthy and analytical responses to any questions regarding the way he felt about the clients, his philosophy, religion, etc.  It let me know that his true intentions are to help the clients and that he has a passion for his line of work.  It will be a struggle to learn to word boring logistical questions in a way that elicits concrete, concise responses, if needed.

How People with Disabilities Conceptualize the Body, Sex, and Marriage in Urban India

Addlakha, R. (2007). How young people with disabilities conceptualize the body, sex and marriage in urban India: Four case studies. Sexuality & Disability, 25(3), 111-123.

• “Instead of giving rights to citizens with disabilities and empowering them, a culture of charity and welfare has been systematically promoted in India since the colonial period” (p. 111).
• “A woman with a disability is considered incapable of fulfilling the normative feminine roles of homemaker, wife, and mother” (p. 112).
• “Furthermore, some believe there is no point investing in the education of a girl with disabilities since she will never be able to earn a living.  She will eventually be a life-long burden on the natal family because marriage is also not a realistic option. So, it is economically unsound to invest in her education or vocational training” (p. 113).
• “The four informants express simultaneously experiencing varying levels of alienation in integrated settings, which finds expression in the sphere of intimate relationships” (p. 121).
• This study includes valuable information on perceptions of people with disabilities in India, including their sexual roles.  It discusses heavily the fact that individuals with disabilities are marginalized and considered to have less of an active or meaningful role in society.  The author also points out that females with disabilities are at an even greater disadvantage because of their gender role in Indian society.  Overall, individuals with disabilities have been found, once again, to feel alienated and marginalized in a society that doesn’t know what to do with them.

Inclusive Education in India

Singal, N. (2006). Inclusive education in India: International concept, national interpretation. International Journal of Disability, Development & Education, 53(3), 351-369.

•       “In India, there are serious concerns regarding the accuracy and reliability of reporting the number of people with disabilities” (p. 357).
•        “The Government actively supports special schools, but it is not directly involved in establishing or running them” (p. 358).
•      “Taking note of the outcomes and recommendations of the Project Integrated Education of the Disabled Children, the Integrated Education for Disabled Children scheme, initially launched in 1974 under the aegis of the Ministry of Welfare, was shifted to the Department of Education” (p. 359).
•       “Furthermore, the teachers interviewed in that study expressed their frustration at the lack of resources and support available to them. Such findings are not surprising because even though the Government is highlighting a need to include children with disabilities into the mainstream, they have not paid sufficient attention to the training of teachers” (p. 362).
•       “Thus, while some official documents mention the need to move away from integrated education to inclusive education, they do not elaborate or suggest any significant changes in the processes and practices underpinning this shift” (p. 363).
• Although it’s hard to get an accurate number of people with disabilities in India (Singal, 2006), it was reported by the National Council for Educational Research and Training (2005) that, “the Office of the Chief Commissioner of Persons with Disabilities stated that not more than 4 percent of children with disabilities have access to education” (p. 8). Schools in India are either government run or private, and children have the freedom to attend either.  The Indian government helps support special education schools financially, but does not hold a direct role in creating or “running” them (Singal, 2006, p. 358).

Self-Immolation in Tibet

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/
another-tibetan-sets-himself-on-fire-in-china/910077/1

Along with constantly reading scholarly articles and books, a new addition to my 2012 habits is occasionally checking the news.  Working full-time and going to graduate school full-time doesn't make for prime quality "news-checking," but I've still made an effort to stay minimally informed.  For the past four years I've been in school full-time and working, so news-checking really is a relatively new habit.  Through writing my literature review and studying for this Tibetan class, I've definitely accidentally acquired a feeling of responsibility to stay more current, well really, less ignorant.  


While searching self-immolation in Tibet after reading a few chapters in Tibet, Tibet I discovered that in the past few weeks there have been at least three self-immolations among the Tibetan monks and nuns in Tibet.
I read three articles on the recent demonstrations:


Another Tibetan sets himself on fire in China

• Another Tibetan has set himself on fire in western China to protest government policies while thousands marched in another part of China to show support for their exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

Teenage Tibetan nun sets herself on fire in China

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/teenage
-tibetan-nun-sets-herself-on-fire-in-china/911459/1

• An 18-year-old Tibetan nun has set herself on fire in western China in the latest such protest against Beijing's handling of the vast ethnic Tibetan regions it rules, an overseas activist group said.

Shadow of suicides over Tibetan New Year

• 40-year-old monk at the Bongtak monastery in Qinghai

All three articles were within the month and have some similarities, as well as some differences in the reported information.

They are similar in that all three articles discussed the fact that "the government has blamed overseas groups for the unrest, and said the measures were in response to 'secessionists led by the Dalai Lama [who] appeared more determined to plot conspiracies this year'" (http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/article2920441.ece).  The "government" referred to in the articles is the Chinese government.  All three articles relay the fact that the government blames the Dalai Lama for the self-immolations.

They all differed, however, on their reports of the number of self-immolation protests.  One article said there have been 25, 16 of which are confirmed by the government.  Another article claimed that 18 "monks, nuns and ordinary Tibetans have set themselves on fire over the past year," 12 of which resulted in dead (http://www.indianexpress.com/news/teenage-tibetan-nun-sets-herself-on-fire-in-china/911459/2). And lastly, the third article reported at least 17 monks, nuns, and Tibetans haveset themselves on fire (http://www.indianexpress.com/news/another-tibetan-sets-himself-on-fire-in-china/910077/1).  In this article, the author alludes to the idea that the government is unwilling to admit that other reported self-immolations took place.  The author said there "were reports of three other self-immolations on Friday" that the government denies.  The differences in these reported numbers is not a result of articles being more recent or dated--simply different reports.  It was disturbing to read that the government doesn't acknowledge all of the self-immolations, and it leaves me with a desire to continue researching.

Overall, it's shocking and sad to read of the demonstrations in Tibet.  There is definite unrest among the Tibetans at having been denied the right to truly practice their religion and culture, in addition to having their leader and people exiled to another country.  It's unjust that just persists because it's on another continent, and the people are in a vulnerable position. 

Special Education in India: The Success of a Model Program

Vakil, S., Welton, E., & Khanna, R. (2002). Special education in India: The success of a model program. TEACHING Exceptional Children, 34(5) 46-50.

•       “Only in the past decade has the Indian government enacted legislation that has empowered children with disabilities and their farmilies” (p. 46).
•      “In 1992, India enacted its first piece of legislation related to special education: the Rehabilitation Council of India Act” (p. 46).  This act mandated “minimum standards” of education for people who work with individuals with disabilities.
•      “…most of the services seem to be provided to children with disabilities through private or nongovernmental organizations, where the family has to pay a fee or depend on charity” (p. 47).
•      “Lack of appropriately trained personnel has been one of the many constraints in providing services for children with disabilities in India.  Training programs were isolated with little or no collaboration.  There were no standard syllabi and little uniformity in the teaching curriculum at various institutions” (p. 47).
•      “Though India has passed legislation to meet the needs of students with disabilities, these services have still not been provided to people with moderate to profound mental retardation” (p. 47).
•    The school in this article believed that individuals with disabilities (intellectual) can take an active role in society as people who are productive and capable.  They also designed their curriculum to be vocational for the most part to ensure that students leave the school with skills to enter the workforce or the community in some meaningful way.  They go through the following stages while in the school: (1) basic stage, (2) prevocational stage, and (3) vocational stage.

Tibetan Dance

Tibetan Dance: An Identity for a People without a Home

By Debora Colby

http://kennedy.byu.edu/events/inquiry/video/2011/index.html

McLoed Ganj, India is in the state of Himachal Pradesh and the Dalai Lama lives there in the Tibetan community in exile.  The three major regions of Tibet are Amdo, U-Tsang, and Kham.  Lhasa is the biggest city and the place where the Dalai Lama used to reside.  Tibetans circumstances and lifestyles have changed as a result of their exile to India.  The communities from the regions were being preserved in India.  They preserve it through culture, dance, etc. and they even have a leader over each community.  The Dalai Lama created the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts to preserve the performing arts.  Students there spend 10 years studying dance, culture, costuming, etc.  Learning and Idea for Tibet (LIT) is a community organization that aims to remember Tibet and to prepare Tibetans to live in the evolving world.  It was a community teaching people to dance, cook, etc. Music has been modernized; they don’t use traditional instruments as much because they synthesize it.  It’s hard to find instruments.

Dance helps preserve Tibetans’ sense of identity.  Dance also helps show the respect between elders and the people they teach.  They have a deep respect for authority.  Tibetan dances have distinguishing features, which is an obvious way to show the differences between Tibetans, Indians, Chinese, etc.

Ethnography. Ethnography was defined in this presentation in depth, which was very helpful to my current situation.  When first brainstorming my project with my professor, we both studied ethnography as a possible way to approach the study.  In the end, I think we decided it was too broad, and it wasn’t as appropriate as other methods for my particular study.  Colby defined ethnography as the study of the people’s “ethos”: the tone, character and quality of life, its moral aesthetic style and mood and their worldview.  Ethos also includes their picture of the world vs. how things actually are.  My study will be more focused on specific ideas, and it will likely involve more case studies.  I’m still not sure if ethnographies are more narrow, or strictly the study of perceptions of a group of people.

Understanding Behavior Disorders in India

Chakraborti-Ghosh, S. (2008). Understanding behavior disorders: Their perception, acceptance, and treatment-a cross-cultural comparison between India and the United States. International Journal of Special Education, 23(1), 136-146.

• “In 1947 the Government of India began an initiative in the education and rehabilitation of persons with disabilities.  However progress was slow until the entire disability sector received a boost in 1981 with the declaration of the International Year of the Disabled Persons by the United Nations” (Singh, 2004).
• “Unlike the United States, the category behavior disorder is not considered a disability in Indian culture.  The implications are: (a) there are no behavior problems among children in India, (b) Indian society does not recognize behavior problems as disabilities or it defines behavior problems differently, (c) behavior is perceived as the responsibility of someone other than the school’s or (d) behavior problems which do exist are so well accommodated that they do not merit additional attention” (p. 138).
• “All teachers in India and in the United States defined behavior problems or disorders based on their own lives and experiences.  In India, Problems are defined as common to all human beings and are not considered disabilities” (p. 142).
• “In India, poor socio-economics, extreme poverty, family problems, and social expectations are considered responsible for causing behavior problems” (p. 142).
• Chakraborti-Ghosh (2008) found that “…the Indian people have been accustomed to dealing with disabilities in a natural psychotherapeutic way rather than depending on western medicine; disabilities were traditionally accepted as misfortune” (p. 137).  This is another example of disabilities being perceived negatively in India.  Researchers also found that behavior problems as a result of disabilities are perceived by teachers in India as being “based on their own lives and experiences” and that problems are experienced by all human beings and are “not considered disabilities” (Chakraborti-Ghosh, 2008, p. 142).

Inquiry Conference 2011: People with Disabilities are Water Babies, not Human Beings, in Ghana

They are not Human Beings but Water Babies: Stigmas, Beliefs, and Life Trajectories of People with Disabilities in Ghana

Measuring Social Perceptions Panel 2011 Inquiry Conference Presentations
By Rachel Morse

http://kennedy.byu.edu/events/inquiry/video/2011/index.html

It’s not just an issue in Ghana—it’s global.  People who were deaf, blind, or have an amputated limb begged in the markets.  Some parents hoped disability would go away, some parents were realistic and said it will never go away.  A father of a deaf son said:

“His disability makes people regard him as though he is not a human being.  People will cheat him out of his money.”  He also said how at school some children would play with him, but that most would laugh at him and tease him.  The father hoped that the son’s future would be brighter with a good education.  Despite his negative, and possibly realist, perspective on his son’s condition, he said to the researcher how much he loved his son—that he loved him “too much.” 

Morse found that although some parents support their children with disabilities and have great hopes for their future, that most individuals with disabilities wonder aimlessly on the town square in Ghana begging for money with no support at all.  They depend on the community to feed them throughout the day, and their mothers will come to them at night to clean them or give them food.    Some believe that they can “catch” a disability as if it were an illness.  Some people in Ghana have stories that tell morals regarding causes of disabilities.

They can’t eat: eggs, snails, tortoise shells, or other slimy foods.  They will make their children drool or have a disability.  Mothers carrying babies known to have disabilities can be aborted.  It said on a slide in the presentation that “children born with disabilities are considered Water Babies.  Water Babies turn into snakes.”

Between the ages of 1 month and 3 years, parents have the choice of keeping their baby with a disability or giving it to the “fetish priest.”  He then performs the “last rights on the child” and takes the baby out to the bush and hide and watch the child “turn into a snake and slither back into the stream where it belongs.”  The child is said to do this because it wasn’t really human in the first place, it was a god…

Some tribes give people with certain disabilities special names.  For instance, individuals with Down syndrome are referred to as a word that means “river god.”

The biggest concern of parents in her study wanted their children with disabilities to fit in, even though they knew it was next to impossible.  Individuals with or without disabilities both have difficulty being hired in a position of work.  They alsousually do not get married.  Families believe that disabilities get passed on to children.  People with disabilities can be victims of hate crimes often times in Ghana.  Their things get stolen, however they themselves steal as well.

People with mental illness or severe mental disabilities are treated like they are impure and are considered “mad,” whereas people with physical disabilities are stil stigmatized, but treated more humanely.  People recognize them as still having functioning mental faculties.

Although this study doesn’t specifically examine the lives of individuals with severe disabilities, it still has pertinent implications regarding perceptions of individuals with disabilities in different cultures.  This study often gave examples and stories from events involving individuals with physical disabilities or blindness or deafness—overall, these are largely mild/moderate disabilities. Even so, it appears as though even mild/moderate disabilities are regarded as completely limiting and people that have them are treated inhumanely.  In more developed countries, this is less likely to happen, which makes it interesting in this culture.

Reflections on Basic Education in Tibet

Zhiyong, Z. (2008). Reflections on basic education under the “three guarantees” policy in Tibet’s pastoral districts. Chinese Education and Society, 41(1), 44-50.

·      “The blind quest for greater numbers of schools and students exceeded the actual needs and sustaining capacity of Tibet’s economic development, causing an imbalance in the internal proportions of education and a grave decline in the quality of education” (Doujie, 1991, p.98).

·      They had a “bloated education system” in Tibet but the policy “brought some improvement to the quality of education” (p.45).

·      The author maintains “that the low quality of education in pastoral districts has to do with the teachers’ identification with their roles.  The behavior and demeanor of the teachers as they handle the relations among the state, schools, and students and their families are a far cry from the status of teachers as knowledgeable and ethical persons in positions of authority” (p. 48).

·      Zhiyong finally asserts that there are definitely other possible causes for the issues in education in Tibet: “religious concepts, the errant mode of production and way of life in pastoral districts, the lack of economic development, the schools’ ecological environment, and so forth” (p. 49).

o   The “three guarantees” policy of having food, clothing, and housing was a good idea in theory, but didn’t get practiced very well.  Through reading this article it appears as though people were going to school just so they could get food (as the policy encouraged this), and not to become a more educated society.  However, it was a good incentive to get educated.  The education in Tibet is “bloated” and of low-quality according to the author as a result of many factors listed above.

A State Within a State?

McConnell, F. (2011). A state within a state? Exploring relations between the Indian state and the Tibetan community and government-in-exile. Contemporary South Asia, 19(3), 297-313.

•      “In terms of the relationship between the exile Tibetan administration and the GoI, the latter has been extraordinarily generous and tolerant host, and exile Tibetans have been grateful and largely obedient guests” (Diel, 2002).
•      “Whilst a rosy picture of good working relations was painted by the majority of interviewees, interactions between the GoI and the TGiE vary considerably across India, with relations generally being more cordial in Karnataka than in the Himalayan states” (p. 300).
•      “Due to being perceived as ‘model refugees’ (Fuerer-Haimendorf, 1990), Tibetans in India have, in general, enjoyed preferential treatment from the GoI “(p. 301).
•      “The increasing numbers of Tibetans coming into exile following the liberalization of Chinese policy in 1979 and improvements in Sino-Indian relations in the 1980s meant that Tibetans arriving after this period have not been recognized as ‘refugees’by the GoI and, although they are generally allowed to remain in India, have no legal status” (McConnell forthcoming, 2009, p. 301; Garratt, 1997).
•      “…under the Indian Consitution Tibetans are entitled to the rights applicable to all non-citizen aliens residing in India, including freedom to work, access to Indian health, and education facilities and freedom to practice and propagate their own religion” (pp. 301-301).      “Tibetan citizenship is materialized in the rangzen lagteb or ‘Green Book’, which Tibetans refer to as a pseudo passport and the annual payment of chatrel or ‘voluntary contributions’ to the TGiE, both of which are essential to fufncitoning in the exiled community.  They enable admission to Tibetan schools, access to TGiE-run welfare services…” (p. 303).
• The government of India allows access to education for Tibetans in their schools, as well as the Tibetan schools.  The Government of India (GoI) and the Tibetan Government in Exile (TGie) have civil relationship with each other in matters involving education.  McConnel (2011) said in her study that interviewees painted a  “rosy picture of good working relations,” but that “interactions between the GoI and the TGiE vary considerably across India, with relations generally being more cordial in Karnataka than in the Himalayan states” (p. 300).  Karuna Home is located in or near the state of Karnataka, and therefore is in an area where the GoI is working well with the TGiE.