Shariq Mohammad

Shariq Mohammad

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Visiting Harlem

0
11 years
by in Neighborhood Visits

Last Friday’s visit through the streets of Harlem was quite enjoyable. As a student that goes to college in the city, especially a college that is situated right in Harlem, I didn’t expect to learn or see much during the tour. After all, we would only be walking through the ordinary streets of everyday Harlem. Of course, the tour guide surprised me with lots of information about the history of the neighborhood and how Harlem really flourished as a cultural center for African Americans. She talked about the Harlem Renaissance, the struggle between white landowners and incoming African Americans that wanted to live there, historical figures, people, and landmarks, among other things. Of course, I didn’t find the history too interesting and much rather preferred the actual sight-seeing as the tour guide pointed out things of interest.

One important landmark that I was fascinated by was the Tree of Hope. Today, it stands as an abstract piece of work in the middle of the road, on a narrow pathway. Back then, it was a busy spot for artists looking for “hope” to get a job in the industry, and it apparently worked, since people looking to hire artists and actors would come to this very spot to recruit hidden and fresh talent. Unfortunately, the original tree of hope was demolished, and the one standing today is the third rendition, since the previous two had been demolished by the city. This of course brings me to the next point about how the city plans of demolishing historical points of significance is a bad idea, especially for the culture of New York. The Harlem 5 basketball stadium nearby is also set to be demolished soon, and the area directly across from the Tree of Hope that is now being turned into some sort of condominium used to be some sort of performance hall. We should be working to preserve and showcase our hyper-diversified culture, but contemporary plans seem to be doing just the opposite.

 

Bangladesh and its Developing, Rich Culture Over Time

0
11 years
by in Immigration Stories

As an immigrant born in Pakistan, which is next to Bangladesh and shares many of its cultural aspects, I found this gallery visit quite relatable. Yet, despite knowing a lot about the general culture, I also saw the country through the eyes of the curator, who depicted a mix of uplifting and depressing images that embodied the essence of the country.

Many of the pictures showcased in the gallery “Eyes on Bangladesh” depicted the culture of the country as unique–full of rich values and of a troublesome past. Bangladesh has many rich features, especially well-depicted in the pictures taken of Dhaka. As seen in many of the photographs, Dhaka is where resides a major Hindu population and where occur many of the Hindu festivals, akin to Christmas in western countries. The curator portrays the joy and rich culture present in Bangladesh, with streets full of people celebrating and performing their own traditions. At the same time, we also see pictures that portray barren and broken-down streets and pictures of people working very hard in factories and sleeping in tightly-packed spaces. They are forced to work in poor conditions, for long hours, similar to the sweatshops in America almost a century ago. There is still much poverty to overcome in Bangladesh, but the gallery shines a positive outlook on this issue. The gallery also shows that Bangladesh had a rich history of conflict and strife: the 1971 split of the former East and West Pakistan into the modern Pakistan and Bangladesh was depicted far more violently than I’d imagined, which again speaks of the rich culture and past of the country.

If we view the gallery in order, starting with the telephone conversation, going around clockwise, and ending with the portraits of people posing as what they most desire, we actually see a very distinct message about Bangladesh. The gallery starts off, mentioning the strifes and struggles that Bangladesh as a country has faced over time, and it also shows how it has overcome struggles and grown into a culturally-diverse country with time. The gallery portrays growth and development of Bangladesh. It shows the past–the revolution. It shows the present–like the cultural custom of having maids. It shows the future prospects–the fact that Bangladesh might go under sea level within a few decades, and that there is major development of buildings. The final selection of works, displaying people dressed up to fulfill their dreams, ends on the positive prospects for Bangladesh’s future. In fact, we can go back full circle, back to the reminiscent work about the artist pondering on the telephone call with his mother, which portrays the message that though the past has been troublesome, the future looks better.

The Tale of the Golden Venture

0
11 years
by in Immigration Stories

It’s shocking what some people will do to try to get to the United States, and the documentary Golden Venture is a testament to that. Sometimes, it’s not about getting a better life in terms of money; rather, it’s getting a better life in terms of “freedom.” The film features the story of a four immigrants who were illegally smuggled from China in 1993 by way of cargo ship filled with hundreds of other illegal immigrants. The individuals each paid grand sums of money on the lucky chance that they would arrive on the shores of America, with nothing but bare necessities to start anew. Yet, what made these people willingly endure the hardships of the arduous journey, knowing there were more hardships to come once they landed in America? It was freedom. Most of these individuals had political issues with their home country (China) and were willing to sacrifice much for a seemingly meaningless journey–to them, this journey meant escaping the cruel laws imposed upon them, whether it be the limit on children or some other form of persecution. They all certainly had enough money to actually pay the “snakeheads” to smuggle them, so they didn’t really have economic reasons for leaving China. And yet, like any other immigrant, they saw a lower opportunity cost of coming here than staying in their home country, and they saw that the long-term benefits would overcome any short-term struggles.

Of course, as is the case with most illegal activities, there’s a chance of getting caught, and the Golden Venture had some rotten luck. The passengers aboard the ship were taken into custody upon arrival just south of New York and were arrested. They stayed in jail for years, though some escaped and some wished to be deported. Some of them finally got paroled in 1997, and even then, the 53 individuals let out on parole remained “illegal” immigrants. This meant that the state didn’t recognize them as legitimate people living in the U.S., and they didn’t receive any of the benefits of the government. This brings up the vehement stance of the American government against illegal immigration–is all this really necessary? This is a legitimately controversial issue, because the method by which illegal immigrants come here is definitely unacceptable, and it’s unfair for those who get real documents and get by the embassy. However, illegal immigrants are still humans and shouldn’t be treated badly, since many of them seek refuge or aid. Now that the number of illegal immigrants in this country have become significant, we need to devise a plan to deal with them, because they are a part of this country as is anybody else.

NYC: The City of Immigrants

0
11 years
by in Census Data

Having lived in New York City for most of my life, I didn’t expect to learn much from Mr. Salvo; surprisingly, he presented an overwhelming number of facts and figures, a lot of which I didn’t actually know. For example, though I knew that New York and Los Angeles were the two biggest cities in the country, I hadn’t realized that NYC outnumbered LA by five million people. In fact, the city is so populous that each borough can really be considered its own city. On top of that, New York was said to be continuing to grow, with an influx of more than 300,000 people over the past decade–that’s more than any other top ten cities.

It’s also interesting to note that the number of immigrants coming from other countries has dropped over the past decade–or at least, more and more people are categorizing themselves as Americans. From 1995-2000, half of all New Yorkers were from the country and the other half from outside the country. From 2007-2011, two-thirds now identify as American. This drop in immigration rate may be due to a multitude of factors, but I think the best reason would probably be due to the recession, which really hurt the U.S.’s image as the golden land of economic prosperity. Immigration peaked in the 90s, and this was probably due to the post-Cold War situation that occurred with the collapse of the USSR, leaving the US as the sole superpower of the time. This attracted a lot of immigrants, especially Russians and the like.

Now, with the “bad economy” here, I wouldn’t be surprised that there is an influx into other lucrative countries that are coming up fast (like Brasil, Russia, India, and China). However, the names ‘United States’ and ‘New York’ will always attract immigrants. It’s kind of hard to imagine how New York will be like in 2040. The data claims that there will be around 9 million people at that point, which means that the city will be even more congested than it already is. However it may be, I don’t doubt that immigrants will still constitute an important part of the population.

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