Monthly Archives: October 2009

All of us Americanists recall the scenes in the classic 1990s film, Forrest Gump, in which Forrest is initially prohibited from going to school with other kids because his IQ test was considered too low. The Alabama school system of the 1950s used such a system to track its kids—and most school systems do this to some degree still, i.e. as of 2009. Similarly, high stakes testing and school tracking based on tests developed by American eugenics experts a century ago are still used in American schools today.

I recall my personal misfortune at the misplacement of myself on an almost annual basis while growing up in Wentzville, Missouri in the early 1970s. At the beginning of each school year, I was placed into the wrong track. I am sure that the placement of me into a particular level was the result of a standardized exam used in the school district in the spring of each year. Luckily for me, in the fifth, sixth, and seventh grades, my misplacement was noted by my homeroom teachers—and my class level was changed within a few weeks. (I am not even sure whether tracking was still legal in Missouri at the time.) However, it is also likely that if I had been Hispanic or colored, my misplacement in that particular track might have gone unnoticed by the very busy instructors. Continue reading →

As I was reading the book, Double Home Identity: Bicultural Lives in Germany or ZWEIHEIMISCH: Bikulturell Leben in Deutschland (Band 579, BPB 2006, pp. 53-54) I came across the following quotation and realized that the current visa regulations for foreigners in Modern United Germany are in 2009 frighten-ly similar to the kinds of immigration visas one received in the DDR (the former East German State) under Erich Honaker from the 1970s onwards:
…….
enforced by the same Wiesbaden (Hessen) Integration office.
So, after working in Germany nine full months, my own wife is still abroad and the Wiesbaden (Hessen) Integration office has in the meantime taken no steps to provide family unification. They claim to act under the aegis of the German Interior Ministry. Now, because of this negative approach towards my employment and spousal visa requests and due to my own inability to get a more revised visa, it is not clear at all whether my visa will be renewed in February 2010, i.e. when it comes due again—much as was the case in the DDR, where East German visas for foreign laborers were time-limited.
In summary, 20 Years after the Berlin Wall opened up, as of 2009 the entire country of Germany has consciously chosen to emulate the (anti-foreign ideology of the DDR and) the visa restriction regulations of the DDR-era in both my own case and my wife’s case.
So, I feel I am back in the DDR.

How would you feel?

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Take time and learn history now. I don’t agree with all of these articles totally but they provide an important perspecitive. KAS Continue reading →

cultural self-censorship, in fact, occurred semester-after-semester at a large percentage of schools across Kuwait.

Not only did this blanket anti-traditionalism affect Arab children, but it also affected non-Arab children in some of these same schools. For example, if westerners wanted to share about Christmas in song and dance or if Indians/Pakistanis wanted to share of there culture, that was a no-go, too in many schools.

I pray that this tendency to squelch tradition ceases in Kuwait and in neighboring Arab lands where misguided hate against singing and dancing lead to unnecessary culture wars among adults and loss of rich culture and tradition among the youth of these Arab lands.

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INSTRUCTOR OF LANGUAGES, TEACHER TRAINER, Business Trainer, and POLITICAL SCIENTIST c-v Kevin Anthony Stoda Continue reading →

ICH BIN ZURUECK IN DER DDR GEKEHRT, ODER?

KEVIN ANTHONY STODA, Wiesbaden

Als ich das Buch, ZWEIHEIMISCH: Bikulturell Leben in Deutschland (Band 579
BPB,2006), gelesen habe, merkte ich auf Seiten 53-54 das folgende Zitat.

“Wie in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, wurden auch in der DDR Arbeitskraefte angeworben: Waehrend mehr als 2,7 Millionen Menschen, die in den Jahren zwischen 1949 und bis zum Mauerrbau 1961 von der DDR in die Bundesrepublik Deutschland uebergesiedelt waren, den stetig steigenden Bedarf an Arbeitskraeften in Westen noch deckten, wurden danach Anwerbevertraege mit suedeuropaischen Staaten abgeschlossen. Arbeitnehmer wurden so offiziell im Ausland rekrutiert.”

Der naechste Teil des Zitates hat mir dennoch erstmals klargemacht, dass mein jetziges Visum in Hessen (nehmlich in dem Bundesrepublikdeutschlands) in 2009, bsw. mein Visum und meine Arbeitserlaubnis hier in Hessen zu arbeiten, ein Visum und die Arbeitserlaubnis, die man in der DDR um Jahr 1985 als Auslaender normaleweise bekommen hatte.

Damals, in den 80er Jahren, “[d]ie Arbeitsmigration in die DDR hingegen wurde totgeschwiegen oder als Ausbildungswanderung bezeichnet. 1989 lebten noch 190000 Auslaender in der DDR, die meisten davon stammten aus befreundeten sozialistischen Laendern, wie etwa 59000 Arbeitskraefte aus Vietnam und 15000 aus Mosambik. Diese Arbeitskraefte uebten, aehnlich wie die so genannten ‘Gastarbeiter’ in der Bundesrepublik , in der Regel Arbeiten aus, die von den Einheimischen wenig geschaetzt wurden. Probleme entstanden vor allem dann, wenn sie Buergerinnen und Buerger der DDR heiraten wollten: Die Arbeiter kamen auf der Basis zwischenstaatlicher Vereinbarungen in die DDR. Sie wurden im Rotationsprinzip in den Betrieben eingesetzt und erhielten nur kurzfristige Vertraege. In der Regel waren sie fuer diese Zeit an einen einzigen Betrieb gebunden. In den staatlichen Vereinbarungen war geregelt, welches Gehalt die Beschaeftigten erhielten und welcher Anteil davon an die Herkunftsstaaten abgefuehrt werden musste. Nach Ablauf der Vertraege hatten sie in ihr Heimatland zurueckzukehren. Familienzusammenfuehrung war in der Migrationsregelung der DDR nicht vorgesehen. Die dort lebenden Auslaender hatten ein niedriges gesellschaftliches Ansehen und weder politische noch gewerkschaftliche Einflussmoeglichkeiten. Oeffentliche Diskussionenen ueber die Lebens- und Arbeitsbedingungen dieser Beschaeftigten gab es in der DDR nicht. Offizielle Dokumente, Vertraege und Vereinbarungen wurden bis zur Wende unter Verschluss gehalten.”

Hier sind eine von den Aehnlichkeiten fuer mich und meine philipinische Braut, die bis jetzt keinen Einreise genehmigung erhalten hat, obwohl ich seit 4, Januar 2009 in Hessen eingereist bin:

(1) Meine Firme wurde im Januar, Februar, und Maerz 2009 von dem Integrationsamt oder Arbeitsvisumbeamtern mehrmals Unter drueckt gesetzt, um beiden mein Arbeitsvertrag (Angeboten) sowie den Antrag meines Visums zuaendern.
(2) Am Ende Maerz 2009 hatte ich von dem Wiesbaden Integrationsamt ein extreme-eingeschraenkte Visum erhhalten, aehnlich wie was man als Auslaender in der DDRzeit der 80er Jahren erhalten.
(3) Teils wegen dieses sehr eingeschraenkte Visum hatte das Wiesbadener Integrationsamt das Ehevisa fuer meine Frau am Ende Junis 2009 abgelehnt.
(4) Obwohl ich mich sehr angestrengt habe, bis jetzt (Oktober 2009) dieses eingeschraenkten Visum nur Teils veraendern koennen.

Meine Frau ist immer noch nicht hier. Ich habe kaum Glaube mehr, dass im Februar oder Maerz 2010 das Wiesbadener Integrationsamt mein jetzige Visum verlaengern wird.

Im Kurzen ist es etwa deutlich, dass das jetzigen BRD Visum-System fuer Auslaender ist nun im 2009 der DDR system zu aehnlich, in dem viele Visums zu sehr Eingeschraenkt sind.
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This is what I wrote into Radio Bob here in Hessen on the station’s blog at around 2pm while I was eating lunch. Fifteen minutes later, they read my story on air. Continue reading →

A majority of people in America who go bankrupt each year go bankrupt due to health issues. A majority of these even have insurance.
My family personally knows “what dumping the sick” by CIGNA and blatant lying. Many school districts throughout the USA use CIGNA. My older brother has been teaching for two decades. He is now back living in our home state of Kansas teaching, but he has been paying the past 5 to 6 years for CIGNA lies and denials from his days teaching in metro- Denver school districts from the early part of this same decade.
First, in my older brother’s case, he had needed a specialist because his feet and bones keep breaking or chipping due to osteoporosis. Continue reading →

comparing different Harvest and Thanksgiving festivals starts with this web and communion or community Continue reading →

I received the message below from HOPE in the Philippines. Donate here:
https://www.hopeww.org/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=1225
This morning from my church in Kuwait, I learned from one Filipino brother, speaking of his home and family back in the Philippines: “all our things [are] wash[ed] away”.

We, in Manila are still awaiting the arrival of Typhoon Pepeng (Codename: Parma) to hit us head-on. The storm has somewhat slowed down due to another low pressure area from the North (near Hong Kong). This may mean even more rains than originally anticipated. Because the storm is moving slower, its strength can pick up OR slow down at any time. Its direction has also slightly twisted northward so Manila won’t be as strongly hit as originally anticipated.

However, we fear for the provinces up North that will get the bulk of the storm. In light of this second typhoon, the President has the declared the entire nation in a State of Calamity.

We had the chance to meet with people from the NDCC (National Disaster Coordinating Council) yesterday and were told that, barring any additional storms for the rest of the year, the flood waters in Laguna (where our Center (orphanage) is located) will recede BY DECEMBER. This is much longer than anticipated, and therefore our need to secure the Children at our Laguna Center to a rented home will be for at least an additional 3 months.

We were also advised that the NDCC, through the DSWD (Department of Social Welfare and Development) can assist us in bringing in relief goods FREE of customs duties. The items though will be given to the DSWD for distribution with a certain agreed percentage of the goods allotted for HOPE and our work. Please know that there are 89,000 Families in Manila (including Laguna) that are affected by Typhoon Ketsana. Many of them still not receiving help due to the lack of equipment and facilities to get to their area
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