Carnival!

      Well, Friday was the Carnival at Prassel Lawn! There was plenty of jumping in bouncy castle's, eating too much cotton candy, playing games, winning prizes, and acting like, well, kids again. The facepainting, balloon animals, and especially henna were a hit with carnival goers (shout out to Divina and Tanvi for applying henna until their own hands were numb). People enjoyed our guest booths: Trinity University Volunteer Action Community (TUVAC) had two groups, Habitat for Humanity built gingerbread houses and the Cancer Awareness group tie-dyed shirts; Association of Student Representatives (ASR) did a knock down the cans game that I couldn't hit to save my life; and Society of Women Engineers (SWE) did a dart balloon pop game.There was also a cake walk, duck pond game, bucket toss game, guess the number of toothpicks, and booths for TDC and SPB. Congrats to everyone who won a raffle prize and hope everyone else had a great time!

And thank you again to everyone who helped make this carnival a success, it would not have been possible without you!

Carnival- Looking for Artists and Bands!

Current Events, Exec. Board Meeting 11/2

     Happy Late Dia De Los Muertos (November 1st)!  Also known as Day of the Dead, Dia De Los Muertos celebrates the memory of dead relatives and friends through prayer, gifts, and visitation to gravesites. Another well known tradition during this holiday is creating alters (or ofrendas) inside or near the home to remember loved-ones. Latino Exchange, one of TDC's Associate Groups built an altar in Coates for use by anyone at Trinity. Another interesting Dia De Los Muertos altar was erected by Storch Memorial Building to honor Possum, a recently deceased cat. Check them out (and add to them) while you still can!

     Also, Tuesday night was a new TDC Executive Meeting, where we learned about the United States President Obama's visit to India. The debate centered on Obama's refusal to visit India's Sikh Golden Temple and the possible political reasons behind not visiting this historic site. Our fearless discussion leader found the political statement “we can never do as many events as we’d like to do” to be an inappropriate excuse for sure an important holy site (SALDEF news brief). According to the Daily Mail, the President might have canceled his visit because it might make citizens see this act as proof that he is Muslim.  We discussed why this would be (and shouldn't be) an issue for Obama, to have other people perceive him as a  secret worshiper of Islam. Another issue that was brought up was the distinction between the Sikh faith and the Muslim faith: "The temple - called Harmandir Sahib - is the spiritual centre of the Sikh religion and one of India's most popular tourist attractions" (Daily Mail Reporting). However, the concern was that the public would infer Obama is Muslim- because he will need to cover his head out of respect- even though the temple is for Sikh worshipers, not Muslim ones. Obama's running from a possible controversy (if indeed he is), is disappointing for America as a whole because instead of an illuminating conversation about the intersection of religion and stereotypes, we instead get denial and fear.

*If you would like to voice your opinion about the White House's decision not to visit Harmandir Sahbib, see the SALDEF news brief for more information. *

Social Activism: "Educate Yourself"

     Last night, October 26th, was a program on the Trinity campus to raise awareness for refugees. The formal program included an overview of the San Antonio Center for Refugee Services as well as personal narratives from refugees currently living in San Antonio. These men came from Bhutan, Congo, Iraq, and Burma/Myanmar though most of them lived in at least one different place besides there home country before ending up in the United States.

     Tula Durand, from the non-profit Center for Refugee Services, gave us an overview of terms and definitions relating to refugees. Ms. Durand also explained how and where most refugees were located throughout the world and the protections they are offered by UN Sanctions. The number of refugees coming to San Antonio- and where they are from- has changed drastically over time, so that this year alone, SA had over 1,000 refugees. That is triple the amount of refugees that came here last year. Over all, it was a very informative program, with a chance to talk one on one with these refugees at the reception held afterward.

Current Events, 10/19 Exec. Meeting

* from the 10/19 Executive Meeting, presented by Thi Pham.
   
     At our last TDC Exec. Meeting, we discussed the Body Image Program's initiative to end "fat talk."  This program is especially important to our University as the sororities on campus were one of the test groups for the project that is now nationwide. Our athletics and sororities now participate yearly and part of the program is a Fat Talk Free Board- where students can celebrate their bodies by posting what they love about themselves for all to see. One of the issues that came up during our discussion was a question of whether or not this campaign was targeted at creating a healthy nutritional and fitness program to go along with a healthy image. However, Tri Delta we surmised that this project was more to raise self-esteem (as well as discourage "Fat Talk"), rather than to be a resource to a "healthy" lifestyle. Another point of discussion was at the source of "Fat Talk" in our society? Is it caused by parental or peer pressure or some other reason? We followed that media and fashion standards of beauty were partly to blame because they create unrealistic goals for human bodies with airbrushing and other image altering techniques.
     Check out the body image program website  as well as the youtube video for more information.