Ellen Swallow, who?

When I was growing up in Jaffna in the 70s a lot of young women studied home science. Most of Jaffna being conservative still, home science was probably an acceptable skill to acquire while the girls waited after grade 10 or 12 to get married. It does sound pretty strange when I put it like that. But unlike middle class Indians in Chennai, middle class families in Jaffna probably educated their girls only half of the time beyond the mandatory classes of grade 10 or SSC as they called it at that time. The exception to this almost always were the children of teachers. Most teachers wanted their children to atleast have a bachelors degree, even if it required sending girls to India, across the waters. My grand parents were such people, whose ambition was upward mobility for their children through education. Sounds a bit like the American Dream, heh?

Anyway, it was common in the 70s and early 80s to find young women waiting for marriage attending home science classes. I was appalled to find the same scenario in one of the homes I visited in my recent trip to Colombo last June. There were two young women in their late 20s, in this particular household, waiting for marriage. Home science has been replaced lately by accounting classes. The women sat around, keeping house, sometimes going for classes without any goal or ambition for themselves except to get married to someone. Even that someone would be chosen by their parents. So in my mind home science, like they called it then, was inextricably linked with waiting, waiting, waiting for marriage.

So it was a surprise to chance upon the the name of Ellen Swallow in last Sunday's New York Times, crediting here with inventing home economics aka home science. The piece itself was not about Ellen Swallow (1841-1911) but it peaked my interest. Was she also one of those who was waiting, waiting........What I learned was that she was the first female chemist of the 19th century. She was born into a poor New England family who thought education was important. She saved enough money by teaching and cleaning houses to get in to Vasser and graduated after two years. After unsuccessful attempts to secure a job as a chemist she was admitted to MIT, the first female student in America to be accepted to a scientific school, to study chemistry.

She earned a second bachelors as well as a masters from Vasser for her thesis on the chemical analysis of an iron ore. She was also the first to complete a doctoral program at MIT, but the school rescinded the prize as MIT did not want such an honor to go to a woman first. She married Robert Hallowell Richards, chairman of the mining engineering department at MIT and supported women's scientific education in MIT. Through her efforts the Women's Laboratory was established, where she taught as an instructor without pay. When the laboratory for sanitary Chemistry was opened at MIT, she worked their as an instructor. The work she did on Massachusetts water bodies was instrumental in bringing about the national water quality standards and the first modern municipal sewage treatment plant.

The chemheritage,org website says this of her contribution to home economics "From her days at the Women's Laboratory, Richards was very concerned to apply scientific principles to domestic topics—good nutrition, pure foods, proper clothing, physical fitness, sanitation, and efficient practices that would allow women more time for pursuits other than cooking and cleaning. In 1882 she published The Chemistry of Cooking and Cleaning: A Manual for House-keepers. By setting up model kitchens open to the public, establishing programs of study, and organizing conferences, Richards campaigned tirelessly for the new discipline of home economics. Growing out of several summer conferences held at Lake Placid, New York, the American Home Economics Association was formed in 1908 with Richards as its first president". She also believed that the environment was a major factor in the quality of life and also used the term ecology widely.

Sigh.....So much for waiting..............

http://www.runet.edu/~wkovarik/envhist/richards.html

http://www.chemheritage.org/EducationalServices/chemach/hnec/esr.html

Single in Japan, will be happy

A newspaper in Japan reports that seven out of ten unmarried Japanese women believe they can be happy being single. This figure has risen 10% from the last poll in 2003. Even though the percentage that believes they could be happy by themselves drops from 73% for those in their 20s to 66% for those in their 30s to 58% to those in their 40s, it is still a significant portion of the population. Even more amazing is that 67% of single men believe that women could be happy being single.

As a single woman in my 30s I am always encountering women of all ages who are attached or married. Those who are single carry it like a burden. Even those who have a pretty good life and are independent economically yearn to be attached. The society we live in places such importance on being married that often times being single is akin to being an outcast. Social events are structured for the couple. One young woman who worked for me told me that she cannot eat out be herself. Having been by myself for almost ten years, that startled me. Societal conditioning plays a big role in how we behave. When we are brought up in families and societies that elevates marriage to a more desirable state of being, we tend to place a lot of our self worth in being able to get married to someone.

Being single by choice is still a novel concept. I find it hard to explain it to many of my acquaintances and friends. As I move steadily towards middle age, some people have given up. After all, in their mind marriage only happens to young, virginal girls, not to brusque independent women. Oh, the stereo types we confront in life! That's what makes it interesting to live, sometimes.

Back After Two Weeks

My absence from the site for the past two weeks had nothing to do with being busy as most people would assume. Rather my life is filled with time, time and more time. I would put it rather as a time of introspection and rejuvenation. The past few months have been a hiatus for me. A time to reflect and chart my course for the next few years. This sort of reflection often leaves one quite anti social. I have not been speaking or have been in touch with a lot of my relatives and friends. Some understand, some don't. In the daily chatter that is life, some poeple don't appreciate, let alone know of what it is to be solitary, to enjoy solitude, one's own company. For those who don't understand, I say, stop bugging me and get a life!

Are you a traitor if you don't fly the flag - Conclusion

A year after, on the day of the attack, the company shut down machines in all the plants for ten minutes starting at the time when the first plane hit the North Tower. In memory of the event stickers of Old glory were passed around to every employee. I was sitting in an office with my friend Jeff at that time. “Aren’t you going to wear the flag on your ID badge?” Jeff asked me as he peeled the backing off his sticker. “No” I said. Jeff being a reasonable person wanted to know why. “I don’t like such display of patriotism, I believe in action instead.” I said. “Would you go tonight to a town hall meeting on preventing terrorism and become actively involved in a committee that works on securing our communities or would you be too busy with your life to be involved?” I asked Jeff. Jeff agreed that he probably would not give of his time for something like that, but would pin a flag on to his badge because it didn’t require him to do much, didn’t require him to sacrifice much and would not alter his lifestyle in any significant way. I nodded, fully understanding what he meant. Apart from the military families, I did not see much of an altering of the way of life in Middle America due to the calamity endured by the nation. Prejudices came to the forefront but it also gave a chance for those who liked to patronize to spring into action. One of the General Managers confided in me that she had made sure that everyone who worked with foreign employees like me were informed to be mindful of their actions towards us or else face disciplinary action.

But what I observed was, that for most of the blue collar employees who were mostly gun carrying right wingers I had known over the previous five years, the event didn’t change their perspective of me. I had earned their trust and respect and that was that. The questions and snide comments came from the least unexpected quarters like Sue, who had known me personally for three years, from the members of the so-called educated middle class. These incidents both affirmed my faith in humanity as well as made me question it, a funny feeling which was not strange in those surreal days of the Fall of 2001. The media called it the “the new normal” and we all had to adapt to it whether we liked it or not.

Are you a Traitor if you don't fly the Flag - Part II

I returned to work the following week to find that the company I worked for had new security measures in place. All doors to all the buildings were locked. Only authorized personnel with access cards could enter any of the buildings. The attacks on the towers had altered the collective consciousness of the country irrevocably. It manifested in a myriad ways, as this action of my company in a relatively safe part of West Michigan reflected. For people of color, this alteration of the national psyche would take an entirely new dimension. It manifesting itself in everyday interactions like the one I had with Sue at the Mediterranean Restaurant. It was an uncertain time for those of us living in this country who had come to think of it, and call it, home. Many people started to display attitudes and actions that spoke of their lack of a world view and exposure to other cultures. Any brown or dark skinned person was suspect and was thought to be from the Middle East.

A few days later, Sue, Amy and I set out for another one of our lunch sessions at the box lunch place near work. Next to it was a place that sold flags, a kind of a country store with its porcelain figurines and ornaments that smelled of Old Glory all around. After lunch Sue insisted on stepping into the store. “I need to buy a flag.” she informed us. Flag sales in the US was at a record high after the attack as people wanted to display solidarity and patriotism by flying one in their homes, or on their vehicles. No space was spared that could hold a stars and stripes, including the President and his cabinet members’ jackets.

We went into the crammed store and browsed around. There were flags as big as the ones that flapped on flag poles and ones that could fit in the palm of your hand. Sue picked a big one and asked me if I was going to get one. “No,” I replied. “Why not?” she asked in a half-surprised and half-goading tone, almost challenging me to buy one. I shrugged and pretended to inspect the figure of a painted bald eagle on the glass shelf next to the flags. Flying the flag was a very personal decision and one which did not appeal to me. I felt outrage at what had happened just like most people in the world did. But flying the national flag outside my house was not going to jump start the understanding and healing process that the country desperately needed at this time. Even if it meant proving that I wholly empathized with the situation to Sue and those like her around me who suspected my allegiance to this country, I did not want to engage in this overt display of “I feel for the country more than you do” which had sent the Chinese flag making factories into a frenzy to keep up with demand.

A month later when the days were growing darker and shorter and the leaves had turned color, I was reading the weekly company newsletter during break. At the end of the newsletter was the usual “For Sale” section where employees advertised things that they wanted to get rid of. It was always interesting to look through the items each week. There were furniture, appliances, cars, boats and even houses advertised for sale, some complete with pictures. Towards the end of the section I saw an item that caught my eye. It said, “Flag for sale, brand new still in plastic cover. Price $17.99. Sue’s name and her extension number were given for those patriotic folk who were looking to buy a flag to call. I read the item and chuckled, so much for patriotism. At the heat of the moment, it is extremely easy to join the patriotic fervor. But, what I felt from those around me was mostly talks of bravado and outward display of patriotism or foreigner bashing. There was no dialogue or deliberation that could have formed a part of the healing process. In fact, the talk soon turned to consuming more and preparing for the holidays that were just around the corner.

Are you a traitor if you don’t fly the flag? - Part I

We met for lunch a few weeks after that terrible cloudless September day, Val, Sue, Amy and I. We were at the Mediterranean place on 28th street. They had huge Gyros filled to the brim with your choice of meat, vegetables and condiments. My favorite was the one stuffed with lamb and mint sauce. I found the food here much more flavorful than at the other Mediterranean place on 44th street which was Sue’s favorite. She said that the meat retained its flavor in the gyros served there. My taste buds, used to the spicy pungent flavors of South Asia, naturally liked meat which was thoroughly marinated in spices and cooked to perfection.

“So what do you think of what happened, do you think it’s wrong or do you agree with the logic of the perpetrators?” Sue asked me as she munched into her gyro.

Val and Amy grew silent and tense. I could feel their unease as they stared right down at their food. They were probably thinking why Sue had brought this subject up. But I had come to accept such strange behavior from Sue who was for a brief time an extremely good friend of mine.

“It was cruel and quite horrible,” I said looking straight at Sue. I couldn’t believe that a friend of mine could ask such a question of me.

“So you agree that it was evil and wrong,” she asked again, wanting to confirm one more time that I didn’t support Al-Queda. The expression on her face seemed like she half expected me to say that I agreed with the rationale of attacking America that was being put forward by the so-called television and media pundits and attributed to the Arabs.

“What is there to agree or disagree. Any act that kills thousands of innocent people is wrong and utterly despicable irrespective of who commits it and the motive behind it.” I said trying to understand where this conversation was headed.

“That’s what I thought,” she said with a satisfied expression as she sipped her lemonade. What in the world did she mean and why did she question me in such a strange way? Her voice had seemed like an interrogator’s trying to unearth some shady motive behind the actual words spoken. This unsettled me. But for old times sake I tried to shake away the feeling and joined in the conversation about the male chauvinist engineers and their ignorant ways. This was a favorite topic of ours. Sue and I being one of the few female engineers amidst a host of men were constantly trying to fight against the various micro inequities that were meted out daily towards us.

When I got back to my desk, the phone rang. It was Val. “That was a strange conversation,” she said. I agreed with her and wondered aloud the motive for such questioning. The world has changed quite drastically for the country in the last few weeks. It had not taken too long for the fear to reached Middle America, where the white middle class was safely ensconced. My sister was going to marry a Muslim man on 9/15 and I had distributed invitations for the wedding a month before that. The wedding had to be postponed to November as some of the family living in England and Canada could not make it due to the ban on international flights. I had invited Sue to the wedding although she had declined. It crossed my mind then if her question had something to do with this fact.

The weekends are for stories of my life........

I will be posting from articles and short pieces that I have been working on on Fridays and possibly on the weekends. The genre I work on are the personal essay and memoir forms. This might evolve in to other forms as I go on, but this is what I am most comfortable with right now. I start with a piece on the subtle effect 9/11 had on some of my friendships.

Prince Charles to Wed Camilla Parker Bowles

It's time for some juicy gossip and what better topic than another royal wedding to fit that description! It comes as no surprise to royal watchers that these two plan to wed. A civil ceremony is set for the 8th of April at Windsor Castle. The groom is 56 and the bride is 57. They met in 1970 at Windsor Castle. After Princess Diana's death, the two lovers had started to make public appearances and in recent years had also started to live together at Clarence House, the home of the Queen Mother before she passed away.

The Queen and Prince Philip are "delighted" with the news as are many other notables, including the Archbishop of Canterbury. Before this, The Church of England had frowned on the heir to the throne marrying a divorcee. All this is probably old news for most of us who are former residence of one of the old British colonies. The Royal Family, and it's exploites were carefully followed and discussed in our circle. I remember, as a teenager, devouring every bit of information on the royal wedding of Princess Diana and Prince Charles.

Live television was still years away in Sri Lanka in 1981. Recordings of the event came to our part of the world a couple of months after the actual event. The privileged few who owned VCRs at that time invited friends for the viewing of the event touted as a "fairy tale wedding" by the press. At that year's talent contest a few months later a friend's mother suggested making Diana's going away dress for our singing group. The resulting dress hardly resembled the original, but that was besides the point.

I admire Princess Diana, for going public with her story, for being the first wife of the heir to the throne to expose the royal family and for asking and getting a divorce. The monarchy itself is deeply rooted in age old traditions that are very patriarchal. Some Scandinavian countries have amended their constitution so that the throne passes on to the first born irrespective of gender. But Britain lags behind on any kind of reform that would be more suited for a 21st century monarchy. So often marriages are arranged to a suitable spouse to produce the heir and a spare as they say in Britain. Diana single handedly defied a lot of these archaic traditions and exposed the hypocrisy that lay underneath the pomp and circumstance. She was beloved by many for being beautiful, but her true strength lay in her conviction to not be another long suffering wife.

It is unfortunate that hers was such an unfulfilled life. For me today's news makes it hard not to think back and salute this woman who dared. Unconditional love is very rare. Charles and his fiance ought to be commended for holding on to each other all these years. The whole story points to one thing. Changing with the times is not only important for commoners, but equally important for royals as well. If the rules had been altered, maybe these two need not to have waited so long, maybe a couple of hearts might not have been broken.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4252963.stm

Walmart to close only union store in North America

Yipee! They've done it again. The world's #1 retailer never lets me down. They never give me a chance to positively alter my opinion of them. For those who know me, it comes as no surprise that I chose to post this news item in my brand new blog. As I sifted through the news today this caught my eyes and I couldn't help but write about it. Apparently, the only unionized store in North America, the store in Jonquière, Quebec, would close in May because it had failed to meet financial goals. The Walmart Canada spokesman had said that the situation had deteriorated since the union. Well, I guess that is true, for Walmart that is. The Retail giant has this policy of low cost, low wage, no union that has catapulted it to the top of the pile.

I had never been a Walmart shopper. The city I lived in had a huge Meijer superstore which catered to my needs 24/7. A gradual awakening to the corporate exploitation around me made me realize that every time I shopped at the likes of Walmart, I was directly supporting their labor practices. The supply chain of this giant extends to all corners of the globe. The suppliers are constantly under pressure to lower their costs by the company. This directly affects the wages of workers of these suppliers.

Collective bargaining would bring up wages for these workers that could cut into the huge profits that the company makes. That probably might cut into the Walton family's fortune which was estimated at 100 Billion last year by Forbes. It would be too bad if the fortune fell to say, 80 Billion, because the company suddenly started to pay enough. Enough, so that the Bangaladeshi woman who works 12 hours a day in squalid conditions for a Walmart supplier would have enough to feed her children.

Union shop closure:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/10/business/worldbusiness/10cmart.html

Sweatshops in Bangaladesh - Account by Anita Roddick
http://www.anitaroddick.com/readmore.php?sid=201

Carly Fiorina Ousted as HP Chief

The news item that caught my eyes today was the ouster of HP Chairman and CEO Carly Fiorina. For women in Corporate America Fiorina has been something close to a Hollywood Superstar. Fiorina came to HP as CEO in 1999. It was the time of "irrational exuberance" as Fed Chairman Allen Greenspan described it. It was also the time when I was working for a small corporation in Michigan. That year was one of the highlights of my career at this company. I had a very visible and difficult assignment, something like a turn-around, for which I reported to the Chairman of the company.

Fiorina's appointment as the top woman in Corporate America seemed to usher in a new era when women were starting to count in the way men had always counted in the business world; not as the worker bees but as equal partners and decision makers. At that time I was drunk on success and was on the pursuit of climbing the corporate ladder and I looked at these appointments with delight. How my aspirations changed is another story for another time. In recent years, HP stocks have plunged and along with it Fiorina's star.

I saw her at the Business for Social Responsibility conference in LA, in 2003. She was the opening key note speaker. She dazzled the audience with her speech on HP's commitment to the environment and also it's commitment to responsible business practices in emerging markets like India. She was calm and looked great in a stylish black dress. Her whole demeanor was that of a leader.

No doubt great things are still in store for her. As they say, you win some you lose some.....

For more on the story:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10295-2005Feb9.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4250597.stm

To Blog Or Not

I created this blog about a year ago. This is my very first post. Why did I create this blog? At first I just did it because I happened to chance upon the blogger button on my google toolbar. Then I forgot all about it until recetly when I happened to chance upon it. As an aspiring writer, I haven't written much in recent months, nor have I done much of anything. So I thought it would be a good idea to use this to jump start my writing and to sort out my thoughts at the same time. We are living in exciting and difficult times. It is hard somedays to make sense of what's happening in the wider world. It helps when you have a place to air these thoughts. So join me as I trudge on my nomadic journey. Like life itself, I hope this will be a blog of a little bit of everything.