South East Asia

I just got back from a week-long conference in Kalamazoo on South East Asia.

It was amazing how ignorant I was about that area of the world. It's easy to learn a lot when you're ignorant and receptive to learning.

I learned a great deal on the history of the region and on the current state of its role in global economics. South East Asia really is a dominate force in keeping this world going. It is a region rich with cultural history and immense future potential.(This workshop excluded China, Japan, and India which are each studied individually in other week-long workshops.)

One of the most surprising pieces of information I learned is how much better some of the medical facilities are in SEA than they are here in the US. In fact, Blue Cross Blue Shield is actually sending people overseas for procedures that can be done better and cheaper than they can here in the US. Not surprisingly, the majority of doctors were educated in the US.

For the most part, the US education systems holds great prestige in SEA, and students who come to the US return to their home countries. The only country where this is not as true is the Philippines. Cultural differences between generations has led the youngest generation of that country to leave and not want to return.

I also learned a great deal about Muslims in SEA. This is another area in which I had absolutely no store of knowledge. As one of the workshop teachers told us, SEA is where Muslims are going to learn to work out the rich history of their religion with the modernity of contemporary cultures. The two can co-exist and deeply benefit one another, and SEA is where he said it is already beginning to happen.

I have nearly 50 pages of notes to work through from this workshop, in addition to needing to complete research to develop a module to infuse into one of my classes. I had thought the mythology class would be a no-brainer for this, and it is. I'll be incorporating more myths from SEA as well as information about the contemporary cultures, but for my module I have decided to use my developmental class, ENG090.

I finished reading Stealing Buddha's Dinner by Bich Minh Nguyen this summer and didn't think much of it. However, being able to frame that book in the context of SEA studies as well as under the auspices of Delta's Peace Studies Program, I will definitely be using it next year in my classes.

What a great week away. Exhausting, and as always, good to be home, but definitely I've been schooled and will be building on this in my work.