By Thuy La
PhD Candidate Educational Administration
University of Hawaii at Manoa
EWC degree fellow 2005-2009
I’d like to write to thank the East-West Center Alumni Office for their Travel Award which helped me to make it possible to attend the Pacific Circle Consortium 32nd Annual Conference on Education. The conference was hosted by the Faculty of Education National University of Samoa.
By Jovel Ananayo
Research Topic: Tourism and World Heritage Site Conservation: A Case Study of the Tourism Program of the Save the Ifugao Terraces Movement (SITMo) in Ifugao Province, Philippines.
There are two major objectives of the field work that I conducted over the summer. First is to gather secondary and primary data for my research and second is to have firsthand exposure on the conditions in the project sites. In order to accomplish my first objective, I visited various offices such the SITMo, Ifugao Provincial Tourism Office, and the regional office of the Department of Tourism and gathered information from their reports, financial records, and other documents.
By Kongkea Chhoeun
I was doing a research project on “The determinants of Cambodian cultural values on the Civil Service Reform” during the summer. It was an enriching learning experience and had further deepened my interest and knowledge in Public Sector Reforms in Cambodia. It was a very successful project. Based on the result, I am strongly encouraged to build on this work and include it as part of my thesis.
My initial project was “Perceptions on Public Sector Reforms in Cambodia.” It was my intention to gauge the perceptions of the stakeholders of the reform movements. I wanted to see why Public Sector Reforms have failed. Well, my hypothesis was “Cambodian cultural values are the main determinant to the failures of these reforms.” In carrying this project, my methodology was mainly to collect secondary data and do face-to-face interviews with the stakeholders.
The scope of my research was narrowed soon after I conducted informal interviews with the stakeholders. I went to Cambodia in late May 2008. Before I undertook the core works of my research project, I visited a number of stakeholders whose works and interests are of relevance to my project. I talked to researchers in the Economic Institute of Cambodia, a leading independent think tank in the country. After a couple of meetings, I learned that I needed to narrow the scope of my research a little bit. Rather than focusing on the whole ranges of public sector reform programs, I decided to look specifically on Civil Service Reform, a reform that has been seen as slow progress when compared to Decentralization and De-concentration.
Right after I got a clear-cut research focus, it was time I went collecting the literatures on both the Civil Service Reform in Cambodia and Cambodian cultural values and constructing questions for the interviews. While research papers on Public Sector Reforms in Cambodia in general and Civil Service Reform reports by the Council for Administrative Reform of the Kingdom of Cambodia were readily available in the government institutions and research institutions, it was virtually impossible to collect those literatures on Cambodian cultural values for various reasons. First of all, very few scholars have so far attempted to study Cambodian cultures and society; therefore, few works in these areas have been produced. Second, these scarce literatures are hardly found. University of Hawaii library does not have any of them and Cambodia does not have many large libraries to store them either. Upon a number of conservations with the stakeholders, I fortunately learned that these literatures are scattered in individual researcher’s bookshelf. In acquiring these needed literatures, I used all means, including personal connections. I was very lucky to have known many of my former colleagues in research institutions and as a result able to access to those literatures. It took me almost one month to gather sufficient secondary data on Cambodian cultural values and about two weeks to summarize them.
Then I was able to write the literature review, a precondition before I can do the face-to-face interviews. I was advised by my academic advisor on the project that only when I have adequate background on Cambodian value systems can I do the face-to-face interviews because many of the interview questions are more about Cambodian cultures and value systems. Ok, I agreed. I spent two weeks to do the literature review while sporadically talked informally to a number of stakeholders.
As the summer came to an end, I had a clear-cut research focus, well-designed semi-structure questionnaires, well-written literature review, and a number of important findings. I am more than happy to share you these outputs if required.
In conclusion, I have made a great achievement. However, I would not call this work as completed as I am working on it and upgrading it into a thesis paper. It is still a work in progress!
By Mayco Santaella
There are a number of accomplishments that I was able to achieve this summer in relation to my field of study. After taking five planes, I arrived in Palu, the capital city of Central Sulawesi.
During my stay, I was able to experience first hand the culture of the region focusing on its music. I was invited to participate in a concert held in Jakarta that functioned as a tourist and economical promotion of the region to other investors and ambassadors that attended the event. I also joined a different group from Central Sulawesi that held a tour in the island of Java.
In addition to this, I was able to visit the province of Sabah in north Borneo Malaysia, where I observed similar music traditions related to that of Central Sulawesi.
The EWC travel grant made possible a number of different accomplishments to my studies, some planned yet some unexpected and only possible through my presence in the area.
This year, 10 EWCA travel grants were awarded to deserving students to pursue their research or attend conferences during the summer to further their education. Four grants were funded by the EWCA Hawaii Chapter and the remaining six from the EWCA.
We will start a series called TGS (Travel Grant Series) to feature the write-ups of the travel grant recipients. Today we start with Mayco Santaella of Argentina, who traveled to Indonesia to research the area’s traditional Sulawesi music.
Enjoy!
It is with deep sadness that we announce the passing of Richard A. Via, former East-West Center Visiting Fellow and Research Staff, on August 13, 2008.
From the late 1940s to the mid-1960s, Richard Via’s life centered on Broadway theatre, both as actor and stage manager. It was during the “Hello, Dolly!” run in Japan that Via became enamored with Japanese culture, and subsequently applied for and received a Fulbright award to teach in Japan. Continue Reading »
By Beryl Yang
This week, with the arrival of almost 160 new students, the EWCA Hawaii Chapter, the Friends of EWC and the EWC Alumni Office organized a bazaar of gently-used kitchen and household items at the EWC Friendship Circle. Most items sold for less than a dollar and, near the end of the event, remaining items were even given away for free.
Many new EWC students walked away with boxes and shopping bags filled with kitchen supplies and useful items. Below, a group of students show off their new stuff; it looks like they are all set to cook up some onolicious grinds for this year’s potlucks!
There is a wonderful post on the Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony up on the East-West Views site by EWC alumna Barbara Bornet Stumph (‘65-’66), current chapter leader of the EWCA Northern California chapter.
To view the post click here.
By Barbara Bornet Stumph, M.S., East-West Center alumna and current chapter leader of the EWCA Northern California Chapter
Retired Teacher at Pittsburg and Mt. Diablo Unified School Districts of English Language Development (ESL) and Ancient World History
The opening of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing was dazzling. But what did it mean?
If we can decode the symbolism of that extravaganza, we may glean more understanding of the culture and thinking of this blooming, controlled state.
Two days after Beijing’s performers bedazzled the world in their 2008 Olympics Opening show, Bill Kristol said on Fox News, “Well, the Olympics is just a giant opportunity for People’s Republic of China to deliver their propaganda.”
This is an outdated viewpoint, I believe. Yes, the State uses art for its own purposes.
I am much more intrigued by what three famous artists in China, Zhang Yimou (Film Director), Jang Ligang (Director of Dance), and Tan Dun (Musical Director), tried to convey to us in the Opening Ceremony from inside an economically blooming, controlled state. While Democracies loathe Communist arrests of dissidents, for example, I wonder, what we also can learn from China’s contemporary artists? Continue Reading »
Special thank you to Garrett Kam who resides in Bali and provided the following information.
Indonesian electric current is 220 volts, so make sure you bring a transformer for any electrical equipment. The sockets here have two round plugs, so you should bring an adaptor as well. The hotel may have a few, but with so many people coming they may be in short supply so better to bring your own.
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