For February’s meeting:
A UNA/Boulder Geopolitics Series library discussion public event
Thursday, February 24, 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Boulder Creek Conference Room, Boulder Public Library, 1001 Arapahoe Avenue
Topic:
“The political future of Kashmir: Can a shared culture and ethnicity trump religion?”
Resource persons: Jyotsna Raj, Ajaz Majid Siraj, and Bharat Kaul
Jyotsna Raj grew up in India, attended Delhi University, where she received a Master’s degree in English Literature. She remains very connected with India through frequent visits, and is a student of contemporary Indian politics.
Ajaz Majid Siraj is a Kashmiri who was born in Srinagar. He is a graduate of Imperial College, London and currently serves as Managing Principal Engineer at Seagate Technology, Longmont. As an avocation, since 1996
he has been moderating an e-mail-based discussion forum on Kashmir. The Web link to that forum is
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/kashmir-global-network/
Bharat Kaul was born and raised in Srinagar, Kashmir. He holds an MS degree in chemistry from the University of Kashmir and a Ph.D. in chemistry from Delhi University.
Reading references for this session are expected to be posted, starting on February 18, at URL
http://www.google.com/notebook/public/16856056956749335607/BDQINSgoQ-pfGsOMl
Do you like to talk about what’s going on in our city, our nation, and the world? Maybe Current Events Group is for you. Our evolving format involves selecting two possible topics for the next month, with someone agreeing to talk for a few minutes on each. Then there could be a large question to which each member responds in writing, at the meeting, as a basis for further discussion. No one would be required to share. Everyone would have an opportunity to talk. We’d all listen, perhaps asking more questions of people whose views we disagreed, but there would be no uncivil responses.
Unless one of the members volunteers her house, we meet on the second Wednesday of the month at 1:30 p.m. at the Senior Center on Arapahoe Ave. This venue costs us $2/person, plus $1 for parking.
In September, we began with a discussion of the Four Mile Canyon Fire, something that just missed or touched the lives of several of our members. This set a precedent for bringing local issues to the group.
In October, Jyotsna Raj expanded our range in her discussion of immigration in America. Of course we did not exhaust this topic, and there’s some interest in looking at in-state tuition for children of illegal aliens.
We continued expanding to issues national in scope with research on the billionaire Koch brothers, our subject for November, following elections that were heavily influenced by money. Virginia Stringi led a discussion on these billionaire libertarians who are behind some of the groups financing extremely conservative or libertarian candidates. There is some concern about the lack of transparency, both as to who is providing money and whether or not there are strings attached. David Koch in particular has also been a philanthropist, supporting cultural organizations in New York and elsewhere, as well as contributing to cancer research following his own bout with cancer.
After a break in December, the group discussed Higher Education, the rising costs of school and the lower wage expectancy. Barbara Turner presented facts and figures and asked provocative questions. The Dept. of Education is cracking down on for-profit schools that enroll students with government loans and have an appalling dropout rate and failure to pay back loans. Ideas spread to a consideration of the efficacy of charter schools, federal funding of medical school, and information on loan forgiveness for public interest education.
In February, events in Egypt bumped a discussion of health care reform to a future month, playing to our interest in world events. Possible Egyptian leaders, the role of the military, the expectations of the young protesters, and America’s possible response were among our topics.
For March we’ll discuss both K-12 education in Boulder and the qualities of a good leader, but there’s no limit. Down the road, health care, the deficit, Medicare, graft, and bike trails are all possibilities.
Join us with your ideas.
