Teaching During the Wuhan Virus

We had our spring break in the first week of March. My friend in Ohio was already going to start remote/online teaching. Another friend mentioned that her daughter was coming home on 16th March from her university in Missouri after they decided to go online for the rest of the semester. I was shocked! 

Nothing was going on for us yet at Palm Beach State College. We went back to college after spring break and I was a bit concerned about being there. I took tissue to the class and told my students that they were welcome to sit far away from each other if they wanted (they did not). Classes and labs went on as usual. On Thursday I mentioned to one of my classes that if we do go online then it will be class as usual for us.  And then on Friday we got the email saying that classes are suspended for the next week and we will be going remote/online for the rest of the semester, so we have to prepare our courses for it. 

This was very hastily done. We were to report to college on Monday as usual, but no classes. We had a faculty meeting with our Associate Dean where he answered questions. We all decided as a chemistry department to skip one lab, that was missed during the suspended week, and do videos or dry lab for the next two. We all had only three labs left. After collecting all my notes etc. that day, I left. 

Next day I came back to record two organic labs, one for 1 and one for 2. One of our lab techs helped to record. It felt just strange to be there doing this with the virus hanging around. It took him about a week to send it to me and then I worked on it and uploaded it for my students. They were good in watching it and giving me a good report on it.  Once the labs were over, I was feeling a lot better.  I had to make a final exam for my organic 1 lab. It was interesting to make it on Blackboard. It took me a bit but I think I was able to do a good job on it. And so did my students, they did well on it.

I spent the week of 16th March working on changing the dates for the work due and making new calendars. I had done a lot of work already on making all my lectures online on YouTube, so I did not have to worry about that. I had to sign up for some online testing for my organic because I knew that was going to be hard to test on Blackboard (our learning software). We all had to learn how to use Collaborate, which is to teach a class in synchronous manner. It is a good software.

The college messed up a bit on this. They knew this was coming and could have warned us earlier to get ready so we don’t lose that one week. But I don’t know what they were thinking! Because of their lack of timely action, we lost a week and we had to work extra hard one week to get things ready for the rest of the semester. And then within the next week the campus was shut down. The technology we ordered was put on hold without telling us for more than a week. That was stupid. I had to order a laptop in order to be able to teach my classes. I just cannot do without writing in my classes. Other professors may teach using power points but I don’t. 

The students were very good in adapting the new method of learning and I am grateful for that. There were some minor cheating incidents, which was kind of expected.  Other than that, students were participating more actively in class and came to class more and more on time. Although there were some that I lost due to them having kids at home and their time was divided. 

I will be glad when this semester is done in the next couple weeks. I am sure the students are also just waiting for this to be done. 

The couple good things that came out of this were one, I got to learn some new technology in Blackboard. I got a new laptop; a Microsoft Surface Pro and I am really enjoying using it. The second thing that is really working out is that I finally have a schedule that I like. I go for my exercise in the morning, teach, take a break and teach again and then I am free! It's nice that I am free after 2 pm. Although I still have work to do but I can do it at my own time.

I am very much a homebody and I love where I live so it is not a big problem for me to be working from home. Maybe I am even liking it. Although I don’t think it is good in the long term.

Six Weeks of Wuhan Virus

It has been a strange 6 weeks. I started hearing about the virus in February on NPR when they were reporting that Wuhan in China, was on lockdown. Travel to and from China was still going on. At that time, I did not realize how contagious the virus was. I just thought that Wuhan was on lockdown to stop the spread – like flu. It turns out this Wuhan virus has upended the whole world! 

China did not stop any flights. A number of countries flew their citizens out of Wuhan. I remember a Nigerian student saying Nigeria was not flying him home, saying that Wuhan had better way to deal with and treat the virus than Nigeria. Nigeria was probably a little smart in not getting infected citizens back into their country. But a number of other countries still had people traveling to China and back. The spread was inevitable. How much, was not anticipated.

After China, it was Italy that went in lockdown in March. By that time, the virus was in news a lot in USA, but no measures were being taken. I went out for lunch on 6 March and then 15 March with friends. Both times it felt weird to be eating out, but I was okay since there had been no cases in Florida. I was hearing about cases in Washington State. Spain was hit hard next.

I started calling and emailing my friends in key places to see how they were doing. They were okay, all at home. I knew the virus was coming here but I did not realize how much it would impact our daily life.

Once the teaching/working from home began on the 16th of March, reality sunk in that we would not have a normal life. Florida did not have anything other than social distancing recommendations. Spring breakers were still coming to Florida. But I took that week of 16th March as the last one of freedom and went shopping a bit, and did some major groceries and vitamin shopping. Some essential items were hard to find like toilet paper, bleach and sanitizers…and for some reason, eggs. Luckily I did not really need of those things. I got my alcohol from the lab and was all set.

It has now been 6 weeks of staying home. Teaching has been going on. I commend the students for transitioning into the online system and coming to classes. 

I have been trying to discipline myself in more than one way. I started going for morning walks….every morning so I could get some exercise. Our community closed the gym and pool also at this time. So morning walks is the only excercise I count on. I started eating a little more healthy. Instead of snacking on junk food, now I snack on vegetables and fruits. Intermittent fasting is becoming normal for me now. I eat only between 9 and 5. I feel if I don’t do all these things, I will become really unhealthy sitting at home all the time. 

I watch little news and all my comedy shows and movies.  People are saying they are getting bored and watching a lot of TV, and I wonder how?? I don’t have time to get bored. Between teaching and preparing for summer classes, I don’t have much time during the week. I try to keep weekends free for relaxing.

I am talking a lot more on the phone now to my extended family and a lot of friends. It has been nice. Some days go by with just being silent all days, which are not different than what I used to have before – hehe.

Going out once a week for vegetables and milk is a little strange now. We have to wear masks (as of two weeks ago) and now I always carry hand sanitizer, which I never bothered with before. It is amazing to me that people in Florida do not maintain a good distance and they don’t care about wearing masks also. Some shops have restricted enterance based on wearing masks or how many people are inside, but other than that, things seem to be normal. Yeah, we cannot eat out or go shopping, some parks are closed but its not India where there is a complete lockdown. 

I got my driveway painted (well my HOA wanted that…I did not care). I have made my office room a much more inhabitable room. I like all the pictures I put on the walls. Otherwise my home is quite set, I don’t really need much work and may God keep it that way.

Sometimes I feel like going out to eat, or ordering pizza, but I let that thought pass since I have always believed in “better safe than sorry”. I can always eat out next year. 

This experience will stay with me for my lifetime. Very unusual.

White Supremacy

With the number of attacks going up because of white supremacy, I feel I should write a few things on my mind. First white supremacy is nothing but white ISIS/al-kaida or simply a group of terrorists. They are just white - that's all. Their leaders are equivalent to Osama bin Laden, plain and simple.

These white supremacy groups sadly are not recognized by American government (or I think any other government) as terrorist groups because these governments are generally also white. Their attacks are also not called terrorist attacks. They are classified differently. Why? Again white supporting white?

In my opinion any race/religion that kills any other one is not "superior" - they just have more weapons and they cause terror in people's lives. So the main culprit here really are the weapon makers. They provide a means for these delusional people to go out and kill innocent people.

When I look at some of these white supremacist terrorists who are caught or shown in videos parading etc., there is nothing they are saying or doing that makes them superior. Just because you are white does not make you superior. Look at what you are doing - your actions are what make you superior. If you are not doing good for the society then you are not a good person. I know the white supremacist thinks they are doing good for their white people - but how? That is not clear to me.

In my opinion, wherever the white people have gone, they have caused only death and misery to that host country. They have killed indigenous people and caused them to become a minority in their own country, they have looted countries, they have displaced people by taking them as slaves.  They have forced indigenous people to change their religion, way of life and education. This has happened in African continent, Asian continent and in the South American continent. How much more damage are they going to cause? And now they think they are being suppressed? What a whole lot of BS.

The whole reason behind Brexit has been also the increased immigration into Britain. So British can go anywhere and invade but no one should come into Britain?? Also, why would anyone come there if there were no jobs in Britain. Which then means that the British did not want to do the jobs that the immigrants took. Same thing is happening in USA. The "white" Americans don't want to do certain jobs so they hire cheap labor from other countries and then they cry that their jobs are being taken away.

When I went through the green card process, my job had to be advertised and made sure that no American applicant was qualified for the job. And no one was! It means Americans are not qualified to do intellectual jobs, but they also don't want to do the non-intellectual ones. What do they want? The government to keep giving them money? If not, then get out there and work. There is always work for anyone who wants to work.

Back to white supremacy. This will not go away any time soon. Until the whites acknowledge that America is not theirs alone, it was founded on immigration. It really belongs to the natives who were here before the whites stepped on the continent and decided to decimate the natives. If they want a "white" country, maybe they should go back to Britain or Ireland or wherever they came from.

Mustard Seed - Book Review

I never expected an author with the last name Ibrahim to write about something so American so white and so historical about America.

I am really glad I picked up this book to read. It was very nicely written with authenticity to historical facts. The story is about these two families, one white one black connected through a slavery past and connected again 20 years later through freedom.

The story is written from the perspective of two young women, one black and one white, both with very different vision of their future from their older generation. I don’t want to write the whole story but I do want to make some observations:

·        The next generation can choose to be different, if they want to. But it takes a lot of courage to break tradition. I am not saying the cowards choose to stay in the older culture, I think they find security in it. They like carrying out traditions and their family history, no matter how awful it was. But again, to them it is not awful because it is their “family” history.

·        One should learn history. Without history there is no future. Our present is based on our past and if we don’t know what that is, then how do we grow?  We will keep repeating the mistakes of our past.

·        Some things are inherently bad, no matter which century or culture one lives in. For e.g. stealing – always wrong to take something that does not belong to you. Slavery, in context of this book, will always be bad. If you need people to work for you, then you pay them for the work. they will be your employees. And if you treat them properly they will always work for you. But greediness is one of the causes of slavery.  The other is denigrating another person.

·        There is nothing that love will not conquer. Some people are definitely born evil, but there are a number of people who’s lives would change if they got love and compassion from family and friends. This is one reason I despise bullies. They create an environment to create evil just like what they themselves are.

I did not know much about slavery before coming to USA. But then I saw Mississippi Burning, the movie, and it showed me a side of America I had not imagined. And now with Trump in the White House, I see America burning everywhere. I have never felt so brown in my life!

I don’t like watching or reading anything about slavery, but reading about it me gives me more perspective on who these Americans are that I now call my fellow citizens. (It took me more than two years to get myself to watch 12 Years s Slave and it really bothered me that people can be so evil.) All the Americans I had met were hospitable and friendly in Toledo, Buffalo, Missouri.  I could not even imagine they had a racist bone in them. My PhD boss, a British guy, was racist, but it did not affect me so much personally and our research group was quite diverse so a number of things got absorbed or ignored.

In Virginia I could feel the racism from my students, and I had a hard time accepting that any white American could be this way. I left Virginia very soon. But since then I have read some books and watched movies on the slavery issue, mostly fiction. All of the stories are drawn from nonfiction, of course. The atmosphere in America has also changed a lot since Obama became the first black president.  All the racists started coming out and now with Trump in office they are all out. I now find it incredibly hypocritical of Americans talking about not letting immigrants come into their country, when essentially that is what they all are.

I don’t think I even want to venture into reading about the Native’s history or it will make me even more mad. I have seen a couple movies and I some books and that also make me super mad! Some of the whites think that the world belongs to them and they can treat people however they want. The sad thing is they have been getting away with it too!

Back to the book, it was really well written with all the pain and helplessness one feels in certain situations. The best part of the book was the positives in the book despite all the miserable happenings. The two young women were strong in character and ultimately came through for each other.

Book Review - The Taster

I just finished reading "The Taster" by VS Alexander. I have read a number of books and seen movies related to WWII and Nazi Germany. I'm still fascinated by how good level headed people can allow such a thing like Hitler happen in their country. Just like I wonder why India allowed other people to rule over them for so long!

In any case, back to the book. The story is about a German girl who gets a job in the service of Hitler as his food taster. He has 15 tasters who taste his food before he eats. She gets trained and becomes a pro within a few months. Most the books I have read have the Jew perspective - about the holocaust. This book is from the perspective of a German. It was a great story of love, family and adjusting to different environments for this young woman.  She goes through a number of experiences that show her what Hitler is all about.

What was also new to me was how many times different types of people tried to kill Hitler - obviously all unsuccessful. Ultimately it is known that he committed suicide instead of being captured. What a coward! But really - he lived a life of power and glory for 4 years. He caused so much destruction during that time, not only in Germany but so much of Europe and Russia. In Indian terminology, he was a rakshas. And now almost 75 years later, I see his incarnation in Trump. If Trump was allowed he would not only separate the immigrant children from their mothers, he would gas all of them too!

The author does not glorify Hitler, nor does he go into the holocaust. It is a good story about how Germans view Hitler - the cook, the army, the regular citizens of Germany. And it was a little bit about what all was going on during the two years before Hitler fell. It kept me intrigued and engaged. It was an easy read with a good story.

Women in the Trump Time

The one thing that Trump has certainly done in his two years so far has been to bring out all the suppressed women out. More women are running for office, more women are coming out of the dark place to talk about their sexual abuse history. There has been so much in the #MeToo movement that I have also been thinking about my own history. (more on that later)

The one thing that I am observing is that men will be men, no matter which country or what age or what race. They will always think less of women, disrespect them and want power over them. It has been going on forever and I feel it will take a lot more time before we women will be considered the same as men.

I cannot wrap my head around the fact that 99.99% of the rapes or sexual harassment is committed by men.  Why? What is in their DNA that allows them to commit such a horrible act? The male can be a teenager or educated or in places that require some ethics yet they can behave in a lowly manner. Women on the other hand just don't have that kind of gene in them. Not that we always behave properly....but we don't rape men or women.

I also don't understand the women who keep supporting these kind of men. Why is sexual harassment not seen as criminal? It is not just bad, it robs the other person of their humanity and dignity. These women who still stand by these men are equally guilty in these men's behaviour. In the last two years so many older men have been outed by so many brave women, yet the women in their personal life stand by them. How? I would be so embarrassed to be by such a man. But still in this day and age, the women are victimized over and over again about something that happened to them, not anything they ever wanted or caused. Yet, most men don't have to suffer much consequences for their actions.

Now to my story - I cannot write in detail about my experience because it involves family members and some colleagues.  Thank goodness it did not happen too much or for too long. But it did open my eyes to who would support me and who would not. I have a lot of trust issues because of my experiences.

I just cannot imagine why women cannot support each other, create a safe environment for their daughters and girls in general. We would all benefit greatly from a healthy and loved society.

Freedom

We take freedom for granted. Only when it is gone do we realize it's value. This 4th of July I am not feeling that free. The Trump administration has made me feel powerless and miserable. I feel my rights as a human being are being chipped away day by day by this cruel president. How can anyone allow this man to even exist in such a position? It is horrendous.

Anyway, this blog is about freedom. I would urge everyone to appreciate the freedoms they have in life, to speak their mind, to make an independent decision, to eat what they want, to live where they want, and try to live in a safe society - free from the worry of where the next bullet is coming from. This fear for our life has grown exponentially during the past 3-4 years. People are becoming more isolated and therefore less tolerant of each other. We don't want to be with people who don't think like us. We need our "space". What the heck is that???

Human being is a social animal and requires social interactions to feel part of this world. Anytime that does not happen, there is depression and psychological disorders. Why are we doing this to ourselves? The super rich have their nose high up in the air and would not like to socialize with us middle class because they think we are too poor and all we want is their money. But what about us in the middle class? Why are we turning away from each other? Why can't we talk even among families and friends? When did we let our politics become our religion? When did we let our differences become our weakness?

For someone who has lived in different countries and traveled to many countries, it is hard to fathom that people cannot associate with a person of different opinion. I appreciate differences. It makes us unique, interesting and fun to be around. I may not agree with other people's way of life, but I can respect their decision to live like that. I cannot imagine a world where everyone behaves the same way, everyone thinks the same way...how boring that would be!!

Only when one is suppressed after being free, then one realizes the value of being free. Only when the suppressed sees how the free live, do they appreciate what it means to be free. The diversity of life, culture and human beings should be cherished and protected.

I urge everyone to fight for the freedoms we have in USA - the best country in the world to live in! Go out and vote, exercise your right to have your voice heard! Make a difference for someone in this world - other than your own children. Protect our freedom, protect the earth, the environment and protect yourselves from feeling powerless in this big world. Do your part. Don't be an observer, be an active participant in your community.

Happy Independence Day and many more to come!!