Your Voice Counts 2007

Thank You for Contributing Your Voice!

Thank you to everyone at Fairfield University who contributed to this blog.  Special thanks goes to Karen Donoghue from Residence Life for encouraging participation by so many resident assistants.  Thanks also to Dean Deb Chappell --- collaborating with Dean Chappell on the Freshmen summer reading program is always a pleasure.

To all our freshmen--- may the next four years at Fairfield U lead you to find your own true voice.

Now that the Freshmen book discussions and the Convocation are over, this blog will no longer be updated. The Library exhibit Genocide: Cambodia and around the World will run through October, 2007 and can be viewed online at http://www.fairfield.edu/lib_genocideexhibit.html

Further comments will not be posted, thank you.

A Khmer Rouge survivor speaks out

I was that child too. I was playing outside on the street while thousand of people flocking the street with guns, bombing and noise and people are running for theirs lives.  I remembered so well that I can't never forget the horrific times of my life.  I am in my late 30 and yet still so much pain for me to forget and move on with my life.  I couldn't understand why it happen to my country. Why we are forced out of our home, our families are separated.  We done nothing wrong and yet we were forced to leave our home, our jobs, school and our families are scattered everywhere.  Within 4 years times, over 2 millions were executed, starve to death, malnutrition, died of sickness but worst of all innocent people were executed specially if they are educated.  I realized all this horrible things happen the American were not inform or they were watching us suffered?  In the back of mind I still have that question after 20 something years later.. I prayed everyday that I will never have to face what I had face 32 years ago. I still have night mare because I witness people being executed in front of me, I still have nightmares because a mother carried her death son walked across me, a Monk who got shot in front of me. I tried to move on but it is so difficult, many of my people tell me they are the only survivor out of 100 members.  I am crying in pain sometimes because of the lost of my grandma.  Only God heard my sadness and my cries. 

Sovath Nhar works for the Socio-Economic Development Center for Southeast Asians in Providence, RI. She is a survivor of the Khmer Rouge

Be Transformed - Posting By Gail Ostrow

University life is filled with opportunities to learn and grow, often in ways no one can anticipate. Who can say what will have the most influence on you during your time here. A word from a professor may alter the direction of your studies. A line in an assigned reading may stun you. A discussion in class may anger or arouse you. A banner in the Campus Center may halt you in your tracks.

Eight plus years ago my daughter was on her way from San Francisco to visit us here in Connecticut when she met a man who had worked at the Nuremberg Trials. From that brief, unexpected meeting came a journey that culminated in her movie about a Cambodian family’s search for truth and justice, “Out of the Poison Tree.” Everyone who supported her along the way—family, friends, even strangers—became a part of this larger community that now knows about the Cambodian genocide and its aftermath.

And this is what I find so exciting about teaching here at Fairfield. Being part of both the larger university learning community and the smaller one in each of my classes places me right in the middle of all these opportunities to learn and grow. I never know which one of you will transform me—how my perspective may change because of something you say or do.

Like me, you may sometimes find yourself challenged both intellectually and emotionally. Learning can be uncomfortable, especially when the content is controversial or ugly or unpleasant. This is the double-edged sword of knowledge. Once we learn something, be it a fact about long-ago events or a disaster that is unfolding right in front of us, we can’t ever not know it again.

Now that we have read "Lucky Child," we can’t not know about what happened in Cambodia between 1975 and 1979 while the world was busy elsewhere. Her story demands that we examine not just the past but also what is happening now in places like Darfur, where ethnic cleansing and genocide have been going on for over four years. There is no better way to honor Luong’s story than to bear witness to and try to stop the atrocities of the present.

Gail

Gail Ostrow
Adjunct Instructor, English

International Campaign to Ban Landmines

According to the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, "In Cambodia, for example there are over 45,000 landmine survivors recorded between 1979 and 2005. Some 20,000 people were killed in this period. More than 75 % of the total casualties were civilians."

To learn more about the problem of landmines and how you can be part of the solution, go to the International Campaign to Ban Landmines website at http://www.icbl.org/problem

Loung Ung Asked Us to Re-Post This for You, on Her Behalf:

"A Birthday Wrapped in Cambodian History"; [Op-Ed] by Loung Ung.   April 17, 2005 pg. 4.15

Here is an excerpt from the New York Times Op-Ed piece:

"TODAY is my birthday. April 17 is what's on my driver's license and other documents. But I don't know for sure, and probably never will. All I know is that I was born in Cambodia, sometime during 1970."

She continues later in the piece ,"On April 17, 1975, the Communist Khmer Rouge regime took over my country, and my charmed life came to an abrupt end. I remember that day well. I was on the street playing hopscotch with one of my sisters when rows of mud-covered trucks drove by. On the trucks, men in uniforms were yelling into bullhorns, ordering us to leave our homes, telling us that the Americans were going to bomb us and if we didn't leave we would die. Chaos and fear swept through Phnom Penh. More than two million people were evicted in less than 72 hours."

Click here to read the entire  New York Times article - A Birthday Wrapped in Cambodian History.

Reflections - Debnam Chappell, Dean of Freshmen

For Members of the Class of 2011, Welcome to Fairfield University! For upper level students, welcome back!

As I read and reflect upon Loung Ung's memoir, Lucky Child, I think of a young girl who immigrated to the U.S. as a refugee of war. This is a young girl who left her family, country, and culture, who was thrust intro a strange new culture and forced to learn a new language. But most of all, I try to imagine what it must have been like to grow up with horrifying memories of war, death, and destruction. I am reminded that we have an external appearance and an internal reality. As human beings we carry our memories and our experiences within us.

Loung Ung's book reminds me of the importance of tolerance and understanding of others, and the value of getting to know someone whose culture, life, and experience are very different from our own. The book reminds me of the devastation of war, destruction of countries, and horrific genocide -- all of which are taking place in our world today. We must as human beings do what we can to work for peace and a better world. I also think of what individuals can do and must do to survive the long-lasting scars of war.

Debnam Chappell, Dean of Freshmen

We would love to hear your thoughts about Lucky Child (click on Comments link below), and we look forward to having the opportunity to discuss the book with you during the first week of classes.

Family Ties

In the memoir, we follow Loung through her teenage years.  She talks about how when she was younger she liked to go to the movies with her brother Meng, but "at 14, I've decided that I don't want to be seen by my embarrassing brother in public anymore".  Maybe you've had similar feeling about your own parents?  I can relate to what Loung is feeling, but from the parent side.  I have two teeanage sons who would not want to be seen with me at a movie theater.

But the early teenage years go quickly, and most of us re-examine the bonds within our own families. In one of the final chapters Loung writes, "that living life to the fullest involves living it with family." (p.237)

We are given several glimpses of the way that Meng teaches Loung the values that he feels are paramount: the importance of pride, gratitude, and loyalty to family, community and cultural rituals. Would you share some experiences from your own life where your family taught you something important? Or are there particular examples in the book of the way that Meng teaches Loung these values that resonated with you? Click on the Comments link below.

Jackie Kremer, Reference Librarian, jkremer@mail.fairfield.edu

One Book ----- Three Movies!

FREE Films.....FREE Films.... FREE Films.....FREE Films....FREE Films.....FREE Films.....FREE Films

The DiMenna-Nyselius Library will be showing these three films at 8:30 pm:

1. Tuesday, September 4 - The Joy Luck Club (based on Amy Tan novel)
2. Wednesday, September 5 - The Killing Fields (won three Oscars)
3. Thursday, September 6- Spanglish (starring Adam Sandler)

FREE POPCORN, COOKIES AND A STAGBUCKS RAFFLE!

You've read the book, now see three movies!  These movies were selected based on their themes of immigration (Joy Luck Club and Spanglish), Cambodia and war (The Killing Fields) and family unification. 

Have you seen any of these movies?  Write a review by clicking on the Comments link below.

Out of the Poison Tree

This morning I had the opportunity to pre-screen the film Out of the Poison Tree, made by Beth Pielert, the daughter of Fairfield University professor, Gail Ostrow. This film documents a Cambodian-American family's quest to find out what became of their father during the genocide perpetrated by the Khmer Rouge. The documentary takes the viewer on a trip back to Cambodia on the eve of the long-delayed U.N. tribunal.

This movie is very well made, with great camera work and captivating sound. After having read Lucky Child, it was the closest I could come to visiting Loung's homeland without traveling myself. Hopefully, we'll be able to show this film in the Library when you arrive on campus this fall. I think you will find it remarkable.

Because of this film, I have learned about the Landmine Relief Fund and a dedicated Cambodian named Aki Ra who tirelessly removes landmines so his country will be safe for his people. He and his wife have adopted some 20 children maimed or orphaned by landmines. Learn more at Landmine Relief Fund.

Ramona Islam, Senior Reference Librarian & Instruction Coordinator

What films would you recommend to raise awareness of genocide or land mines? Join the conversation by clicking on the Comments link.

Talking about the Book- Posting by Joan Overfield, Library Director

When I first picked up Lucky Child, I found it challenging and definitely outside my experience and comfort zone to read about genocide, landmines, starvation, the Khmer Rouge, Pol Pot, survival, war, culture shock, immigration and cultural assimilation. Definitely not my typical beach book! Yet, I was drawn in by the fascinating juxtaposition of two sisters, Chou and Loung and their personal, and sometimes riveting, experiences separated by war and growing up continents apart in Vermont and Cambodia. I was drawn in further by themes I had more personal experience with—family, courage, privilege, guilt, cultural awareness, fitting in as a teenager, siblings and, most immediately, separation as my own son prepares to leave for college.

Lucky Child is rich with themes to reflect on and discuss. I am excited that the Library is hosting the book discussions to be held during your first week at Fairfield. I invite you to stay after the book discussions for our film festival featuring “The Killing Fields”, “The Joy Luck Club”, and “Spanglish” –all selected to continue the conversations started by our common reading of Lucky Child.

You can expect great things from the DiMenna-Nyselius Library. This blog, the film series, and hosting the book discussions typify the library staff’s desire to actively engage with students and to provide the resources, facilities and services to support and enrich your Fairfield experience and help you be successful over your next 4 years.

I hope you will join me in being open to new experiences, new people and new ideas at Fairfield University.

Joan Overfield, Library Director

Have something to say about the book Lucky Child? Please click on the Comments link below.