Friday night, most Fletcher students I know watched at least some portion of the Presidential debates. I did too, and like others, I was sad that the discussion on both the financial crisis and foreign policy issues remained essentially superficial for most of their time on stage.The candidates’ reluctance to get much beyond campaign talking points reflects a lack of leadership on either of their parts.  In Shawn O’Donnell’s class on Global Conflict and Media here at Fletcher, we studied how it largely falls on policy makers and especially the president to set the agenda for media coverage.   The influential communications scholar Robert Entmann argues that media frames cascade down the policy line from presidents to elites to media outlets.  National leaders pick what is important to emphasize and what can be ignored, and news outlets typically follow this lead.  Now, neither McCain nor Obama are president quite yet, so perhaps they can be forgiven for not engaging in more interesting discussion.  Nevertheless, they seem to me to have largely followed mass media cliches (e.g. “main street/wall street”), when they could have injected new issues and interpretations into this important campaign environment.  As a result, they fell into old media frames derived from the Bush administration’s rhetoric, for example “to negotiate or not negotiate.”  Not only would a fresh approach have served the the interests of the nation, it also might have been a good campaign tactic (after all, one sneaky way to win a debate is to shift its terms of reference).

In any case, I’m sure Obama and McCain have their good reasons for being cautious.  Jim Lehrer certainly did as best he could to provoke discussion.  Inclusion of third party candidates might have added a lot more.  Another idea would be to invite moderators outside mainstream media, such as academics or partisan reporters.  Imagine, for instance, a debate with questions from Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman.  Or, what if the foreign policy questions came from an academic panel, say, of Fletcher Faculty (media executives please note: a candidate show-down with Professors Drezner, Uvin, Church, and Klein would make for a very entertaining two hours).

Finally, shifting from a communications frame to one of conflict resolution, perhaps debates themselves are not very useful tools for getting from positions to interests.  Specific policy plans might be useful for distinguishing oneself from an opponent, but as the candidates’ blank-face responses to Lehrer’s questions about post-financial crisis adaptations suggest, campaign policy proposals are not terribly flexible, and, ultimately, they still depend on congress.  Instead, a format other than a debate might do better at eliciting the interests, analyses, and rationales underwriting the candidates’ views.

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This past weekend in Kathmandu was quite tumultuous after the government decided not to allocate budget for traditional jatras (religious festivals). Though the government cited ending the ritual animal sacrifices as the reason for budget-cut, many saw this decision as an attack on ancient culture and traditions. The Newar community in Kathmandu Valley, who have been practicing these rituals for centuries, responded through massive protests.The protests that began on Friday night continued through Sunday. Protests have become a part of daily life in Kathmandu. Protests over hike in fuel prices, over student discount for public transportation, over land redistribution and so on. Because they are so commonplace these days, the unwritten rule is that shops and vehicles are not allowed to run. However, public and private offices are open and people are allowed to walk.On Sunday, I decided to walk to a friend’s place. On the way, the streets were covered in stones and burning tires. From time to time, police were shooting tear gas to disperse crowds. My eyes were burning from the smoke of tires and tear gas. I kept thinking how it would make more sense if these protests were in front of the concerned authorities and not out on the streets where the ones affected are the average citizens.In the evening, we thought the riots had subsided, so my friend took his motorcycle to drop me off home. On the way, a mob stopped us and started kicking the motorcycle and threatened to burn it down. When my friend talked to them in Newari, the language of the Newar people, and explained that we were a part of their community, they let us go.I, being a Newar, cannot speak Newari. My family stopped speaking Newari because we come from a different town and the Newari there is different from the Kathmandu Valley Newari. Had it not been for my friend who speaks the Valley Newari, we would have been beaten up badly. It goes to show that this riot extends beyond the funding issue for the traditional festivals to the idea of culture, language, and identity.The concerned authorities should have realized that their decision would evoke strong sentiments from the Newar community. These rituals have been a part of their cultural identity for centuries and trying to meddle with these rituals was an immature decision on the freshly-formed government’s part. Given the political instability the country has been facing for more than a decade, a move like this could potentially plunge the country back into chaos.The government has now apologized and allocated the necessary funds after signs of communal politics started to emerge. It seems the government has learned a valuable lesson in being sensitive to different ethnic groups and their cultures and traditions, especially given that Nepal is such a diverse country.

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I’ll admit to having mixed feelings about being back home. It’s been exactly a week since I landed at Dulles International Airport and received a personal “Welcome Back” from our friends at the Department of Homeland Security.

The physical transition was the most difficult I can remember from my travels. I’m hoping that I’m now back on a normal sleep schedule, but there were many days of waking up between 4-6am and going to bed around 8pm. Are morning people naturally more productive? I swear that my first morning back, between 4-9am I accomplished more than I do in the average month.

I’m happy to report no food-related adjustments (and you’re happy to avoid any details that would’ve been associated with that). However, how have I never noticed the extent to which ice cream and baked goods play such a central role in my family’s everyday life? Seriously, I ate ice cream twice all summer. Had I not protested, I would have matched that in my first 19 hours in Boston!

I moved back into my Somerville home on Sunday and helped a friend move her stuff out of my basement. I cannot understand how she, living in a tiny dorm-room, has more possessions than I do. Then we made a trip to Target, where — continuing a frustrating pattern — my credit was rejected. Oh, and in two days I spent four hours on hold with RCN to get my cable & internet working (four days later I learned that the Comcast technicians like to pull RCN wires out of the sides of houses). Additionally, my bedroom window blinds collapsed over the summer. Hopefully they’ll be fixed tomorrow, but for the past week I’ve been sleeping with my British Airways eye-mask to keep the street-light out of my face.

But certainly the most difficult part of my transition was that I jumped into classes first thing — 7:45am — Monday morning (this was made slightly easier by the fact that I was up at 5:45 anyway). I don’t mean to blame anyone other than myself: I planned to come home late and I knew what the consequences would be. And don’t think I regret it: for all my interesting experiences this summer, those over the last couple weeks stood out. I’m simply stating the realities.

Added onto that, I should really issue personal, individual apologies to anyone I ran into on those first days this week. I was running around campus, over-caffeinated and disoriented. Without my computer set-up, I had my schedule for the day written out on a piece of scratch paper, as I ran back and forth, out of control, across the Hall of Flags.

I sat in on my very interesting classes, only to learn that I was already hundreds of pages behind in reading. I was overwhelmed by the number of new faces around Fletcher: ultimately, I look forward to meeting you all, but if I accidentally introduced myself last week please forgive me for not remembering your name… or that we did, in fact, meet. I mean, for gosh sakes, I locked my new locker combination inside my new locker!

But so this post doesn’t seem to just be one complaint after another, here’s a list of positives to end with:

1. Despite the workload, my courses are going to be very interesting the semester. Two (International Legal Order and International Finance) will delve into topics I don’t know near enough about. And, I registered for Arabic at Tufts, which I can already tell will push me.
2. I’ve had some good appointments with old and new professors and look forward to scheduling a few more to discuss my summer and possible thesis topics.
3. I really like my new roommate and I think it’s finally a good match for our little home.
4. It’s good to have family around. Last night my only in-house option for dinner was a giant chocolate chip cookie. I opted, instead, to call my Baubie and Zaydie, who couldn’t believe I was left alone and invited me over.
5. I’m very much hoping to stay in touch with the handful of good friends I made this summer. But I’m also glad to be back in my comfort zone of having friends I choose, not friends chosen for me (a result of our 24-hours/day together). And, once I’m back in the swing of things, I’m looking forward to catching up with my Fletcher and Boston-area friends.
6. Hmmm, how can I spin it being relatively cold into a positive?
7. One thing’s for certain, I shouldn’t be able to complain about boredom for some time… I have plenty on my plate!

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