When you think of the word “parasite” I don’t think that the first image that comes to mind is a highly rated international thriller. I can say that was the case for me, but form now on, this film will cross my mind whenever I hear that word. This was a film directed by Bong Joon Ho and lucky enough for me it was being shown at the Gateway Theater right here in Columbus. I didn’t know what to expect when going to see this film, but it was most defile thy worth every dime spent on the ticket.

To start, this film is about two families; the Park and Kim clans. The Park family is very wealthy and they live this perfect life in a large modern mansion with nice staff and even nicer cars. The Kim family, however, is struggling to make ends meet as they do anything to get free wi-fi or make money to keep themselves afloat. The world of these two families collides when the only son in the Kim family, Ki-woo, is asked to tutor the only daughter of the Park family, Da-Hye. After the Kim family realizes how much money Ki-woo is making as a tutor, they begin to devise plans to take all of the jobs that Park’s family is offering, even if the jobs are currently filled. There was no length too long for the Kim family and in the end, everything came to an explosive conclusion.

While the film was very interesting to watch, some messages and themes relate much more to the international community than the plot of the film itself. The idea of class discrimination is evident and is a source of tension in many countries. In the film, it is obvious how the Park family treats the people they hire to work for them. They would belittle them, yell at them, and even made fun of the way they smell. They treated them as inferior to themselves simply because they don’t have tons of money. This concept is evident everywhere from the grossly wealthy in the U.S who have everything and then others who are living under the poverty line with almost nothing. This brings attention to this issue and shows that the wealth gap needs to be managed to help bring those who are less fortunate up and help them live better lives. This idea also goes into the concept of greed. Simply because the Kim family is poor does not excuse their actions that where driven by greed. They took the jobs of other people who needed them too. They wrote out scripts and rehearsed plans and were meticulous down to every last detail. This kind of planning is manipulative and on some level slightly insane. In this case, greed led to murder and the destruction of two whole families.

The themes from this film and many others, where they are domestic or international, show that we all go through the same experiences and have similar problems. It shows that since we have similar issues, working together to solve them is in the best interest of everyone while letting them just continue on freely will lead to more pain in the future. If you ever get the chance to view parasite or a film like it, I would take the opportunity to so. Some of the best films we will ever see are ones made in other countries, so take the time to watch one. Sit down, grab some popcorn, turn on the subtitles, and enjoy an international film, I promise you won’t regret it.

Religion plays a role in everyone’s lives, but whether it is a large or small role depends on the person. The other day I had the incredible opportunity to hear from Edward Curtis who is a professor at Indiana University School of Liberal Arts. He came to OSU to speak with a group of students and community members about what it is like teaching the religion of Islam in a society and world that is highly islamophobic.

When starting his presentation, Mr. Curtis talked about the impact of the events of September 11th on the view of Islam and the teaching of it to non-muslims. Having taken Arabic in college, after 9/11 he stopped wearing t-shirts with Arabic on them and became fearful to share his ethnicity with other people for fear of retaliation against him based on a stereotype of middle eastern/Muslim individuals. When it came to the way he taught about Islam, his style changed. He took on a more apologetic way of explaining the Islamic religion and working towards ending the stereotypes that are made against Muslims. Before these events, he had taught about the beauty of the Quran and the religion itself, but now he has to mix violence and terrorism into his lessons to help combat the stereotypes and better educated people about this religion.

Something that I found very interesting in Mr. Curtis’s presentation was that there are two ways that one can teach Islam. There is a liberal and radical narrative. The liberal narrative is the one the is most commonly accepted by non-Muslims and Muslim allies. It is a narrative that embraces Muslims as a part of a story of unity in diversity. It also talks about how Islam is a global religion and it’s a story that confronts stereotypes of this religion. The radical narrative is a less widely accepted one but is still prevalent in views all over the world. This story talks about explicitly confronting racism and colonialism that is at the heart of the U.S world order while covering Muslim resistance to it and other forms of colonialism.

The final part of Mr. Curtis’s presentation discusses the ways he teaches about Islam. A few of the ways he teaches about this religion is through books, leading study abroad programs, training K-12 teachers, writing op-eds, training community college instructors, and being a scholarly activist for the religion. One of the most engaging forms of education that he discussed with us was community engagement. Mr. Curtis said that he proposed a competition to the public to see who could find the most creative way to prevent islamaphobia. Some groups held preventative workshops and others even had a photo exhibit. The event that stuck out to me the most was one where a group had a collection of poetry composed by Muslims and attached them around Monument Circle in Indianapolis. This was such a powerful message and it was such an artistic way to introduced people to the religion of Islam in all its beauty.

There are questions that I know a majority of Americans don’t think about too deeply. One of these glossed over questions came to my attention in the form of a presentation a few weeks ago. The question that was posed was what is the meaning of America? I think the reason many people don’t cover this question in depth is that there are already statements that can efficiently answer this question. An example response to this question could be something along the lines of “well, America is the land of the free and home of the brave of course!” While there is some merit to statements like this one, they are generalized and don’t delve deep into what the true essence of America is. While no answer is the same for every person, acclaimed author and professor Danielle Allen gave her perspective on the issue and her response to the question what is the meaning of America?

When beginning her presentation, Danielle Allen talked about seeing if there was anything that the American people had in common regarding our national image. She cited a study in which the aim was to find a commonality between Americans on that subject. The commonalities I expected to see were ones referencing freedom, diversity, rights, democracy, and other similar words/phrases. This was when Ms. Allen surprised me and a few other people in the audience with the findings of the study. The one thing that Americans have in common about the view of our country is that we have nothing in common. This took me a few minutes to fully comprehend, but once she explained the premise more in-depth it began to make sense. After this she proposed a question to us, how do we go from sharing nothing to starting a collective understanding of America?

To answer the question she just posed, Ms. Allen turned our attention to the founding documents of our country, specifically the Deceleration of Independence. She said that to find common ground and collective understanding we have to comprehend what America was supposed to be like. She referenced various parts of the Declaration and Constitution but mainly highlighted the second sentence of the Declaration. When she summarized this sentence she said that it boiled down to three main parts, the first being rights, the second being good government, and the third a right to change. She went on to assert that it was our job as a nation to ensure these ideals for everyone. She also made mention that it is important that as a democracy we connect policy/institution to these values. In essence, the future of our democracy, or any democracy, relies on knowing what our shared values/contributions are.

After covering this aspect of a collective understanding of our country, Ms. Allen talked about what was being arranged to include these values into our government. She first discussed how John Adams and his wife Abigail were pushing for the inclusion of more of these rights in the Constitution when it was being drafted. Abigail focused heavily on pushing for women’s rights. Ms. Allen then talked more about the injustices and what has been done (or needs to be done) to correct them. She called these philosophical corrections to our founding government documents. She made mention of the line “all men are created equal” and reviewed the laws passed and policies implemented that worked to make principles of inclusion a reality and ensure that the government worked for and secured the rights of every American and not a select few.

The final aspect of her presentation was an interactive one. Ms. Allen had surveys that the group would take to inquire about our views of America and to respond using our own words to help prove the central concept of her presentation. I thought this activity was so interesting and it taught me a great deal about the views held by Americans.

This experience was such an eye-opening one and it was one that made me think surprisingly deep about what the meaning of America is to me. As a political science major and a politically active citizen, I had thought of the question and came up with answers, but this presentation made me take my thought process to the next level and gave me the tools and knowledge to assist me in explaining my views and better understand what it is that makes America great.

Something that many people, myself included, never really give a second thought is our air quality. When we think of “bad air” we don’t typically think of the air that we are breathing in right here in Columbus, but the truth is that there is bad air all around us. On September 6th The Center for Urban and Regional Analysis hosted a panel of community professionals who were on campus to talk to us about urban air quality. The information shared by the panelists was quite interesting and brought my attention to the issue of air quality not only in Ohio but around the world.

The first panelist was Dr. Kerry Ard of the School of Environmental and Natural Resources (OSU). I found it quite refreshing how Dr. Ard changed our perspective on what the environment is. She said that when most people are asked about the environment most people think of cute animals or scenic images of mountains or oceans. She elaborated and said that while that is a component of what nature and the environment is, this idea encompasses much more of our lives than that, like air quality and what our neighborhoods look like. She went on to talk about environmental justice or injustice in certain cases and how environmental injustices unfairly impact certain groups in our communities based on where industry and development are being built which changes were air toxins are being distributed into our air.

The second panelist was Dr. Ayaz Hyder of the College of Public Health (OSU) and he talked about ways that data collection and analytics are being used to help combat the polluting of our air. His main message was about how he was placing low-cost air quality sensors in certain neighborhoods to test that air quality. He said that these sensors could be made a such a low cost because they were sent to schools who had students assemble them which helped keep costs down. By measuring the air quality in certain communities, Dr. Hyder was able to then relay the information to the community and raise awareness and understanding of the problem of air quality in certain communities.

The third panelist was Carolyn Watkins of the Ohio EPA. Her insight on the panel was fascinating and captured my attention. She first talked about the history of poor air quality in Ohio and talked about how over the past several decades Ohio has made great strides towards improving air quality. She even informed us that Ohio became the first state to become re-designated to full obtainment with certain air quality factors. This re-designation means that the overall air quality has improved enough that now there is time to focus on the main hubs of air pollution in the state which is helping us get to the root of the air quality problem in Ohio. She also discussed with us the impact of caused from public transportation and how there is an effort to help change the fuel system of public and school buses to decrease the number of pollutants that people are exposed to, most notably children and older adults who are the most susceptible to adverse health effects from poor air quality.

The final panelist was Dr. Brooke White of the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission. Dr. White discussed with us about community outreach and how to spread awareness about this topic. She said that if we want to change the air quality, we have to change our behaviors. She went on to say that this begins with altering the language we use when addressing this issue and using clear and simple language that everyone can understand.  Dr. White said that by encouraging more people to use public transportation and by updating the current modes of transportation to clean energy, we can make positive changes to our air quality.

All in all, this event was truly eye-opening.  It made me think about how the choices we make and can have a huge impact on others around us.  It also made me realize that there are so many problems that we can tend to overlook and not even realize are happening.