A Wanderer in a Distant Place

Swank, H. (2011). A wanderer in a distant place: Tibetan exile youth, literacy, and emotion. International Migration, 49(6) 50-73.

•      “According the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, there are over 110,000 Tibetan exiles living in numerous Tibetan settlements across India, Nepal and worldwide” (p.52).
•      “Since the founding of the Tibetan exile communities, divisions between Tibetan youth and their elders have become increasingly distinct. While much of the older generation has continued many of the everyday practices of historic Tibet, most youth have embraced the fashions, music and language of urban Indian youth. Most youth wear the jeans and casual shirts common among their Indian and Western peers, listen to Hindi music, and speak English and Hindi along with their native Tibetan.” (p. 53).
• According the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, there are over 110,000 Tibetan exiles living in numerous Tibetan settlements across India, Nepal and worldwide” (Swank, 2011, p. 52).  As mentioned previously, even though migration to India is not nearly as rapid as it was decades ago, people from Tibet are still migrating there every year.  Exile elders in Tibet seem to continue the traditional Tibetan practices, while the youth in exile have adopted some of the current Indian culture.  They dress in t-shirts and jeans, listen to modern music, and so on.  Also, it might be mentioned that the Tibetan individuals who grew up exiled in India have a better understanding of the Indian culture, English, and Hindi.  They also have a greater network of friends and people and abilities to get jobs and complete high school and college.  Tibetan refugees that migrated in their teens or later years seem to have a disadvantage in all of these realms.  They are less likely to become proficient in the languages, get an education, and gain employment.

The Greater of Two Goods

I've been meeting with my chair biweekly to keep things moving along with this huge project I've taken on.  My counterparts in my cohort are all at a good place in their literature review and writing in general it appears.  I, on the other hand, had to scrap my first thesis and start from scratch the 2nd week of January.  It was a daunting task to take on, and it seemed like it would lead to failure, but I had a strong feeling that it was a task I needed to accomplish.  After creating a summary of the current residents and needs at Karuna Home, I became pretty emotionally involved in the project, and actually felt like it wasn't a choice anymore, that I needed to continue on.

Well since I've made the decision to carry on, I feel like I get one bit of bad news after another about my status in the project.  They're not really bits of bad news as much as they're just deterrents and "another thing to do."  News about shots, passports, visas, restricted area permits, course substitutions, unexpected fees, financial aid, assignments, in addition to my current responsibilities at work and drama and my personal life have been considered "bad news" I guess.  But really they're just challeneges I need to happily confront.  Overall, I've been completing the tasks in reasonable amounts of time and feel good about my advances. It's been extremely comforting to have support from my classmates in all of my classes, as well as my professors and others willing to answer my "catch-up" questions and entertain my crazy ideas for the project.

So the current "bad news" I got is that there is a chance I'll have to wait two years to take the courses I'll be missing in the summer while in India.  They're only taught every two years, so it's impossible to take them in another semester.  The news was pretty devastating, but I kept asking questions and talking with professors about the possibility of finding course substitutions instead, or perhaps arranging some sort of independent study.  It's still just a possibility, but it's enough to work from and I'll continue working my hardest to make the situation better.  In the moment, though, I felt like I was faced with the choice of taking the classes or going to India, both being good.  In most situations throughout this process it's always been a choice between two "goods."  So I'm not mad about it!  Overall, I've decided to take the approach of being grateful for having two good choices instead of two terrible ones.

Perceptions about Intellectual Disabilities in South India

Edwardraj, S., Mumtaj, K., Prasad, J. H., Kuruvilla, A., & Jacob, K. S. (2010). Perceptions about intellectual disability: A qualitative study from Vellore, South India. Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, 54(8), 736-748.

                The teachers on the other hand blamed the parents and held them responsible for the child’s lack of ability. In addition to expressing the view that parents were not giving adequate support in the development of the child, they went to the extent of attributing the problem to ‘bad character’ in the parents. They believed that the child’s inability to do well at school was a bad trait inherited from parents rather than a skill deficit because of ID.

                Many studies have identified religion as a prime outlet to cope with having a child with a disability, or being the individual with the disability.  Not only do parents report that their faith in God help them see their child’s disability in a more positive light, but caretakers of the children have the same perception as well.  Many commented that parents are able to “place their burden on God” and they get strength from this practice (Edwardraj, Mumtag, Prasad, Kuruvilla, & Jacob, 2010, p. 743).