JOURNAL/WEEK 5/THE MIGRANT WOMAN IN AUSTRALIA

The videoo presantation today was in relation to the waves of Immigration to Australia ,with particular emphasis on what happened to the Aboriginal community throughout history,and the experiences of migrant women.As a migrant I can relate first hand to this experiences. I would like to recount my own experiences since my arrival in Australia, in doing this, I would like to give a brief history on my background and country of origin.Originally I come from Ghana. Ghana, a West African Country lies in the center of the West African coast, she shares boarders with three French speaking countries namely, Cote d'Ivoire to the west , The Republic of Togo to the east and Burkina Faso to the north. The Republic of Ghana as it is now known and called ,was formerly known as the Gold Coast mainly because of its large mineral gold deposits. Ghana lies just to the south of the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic ocean.The present population of the country is 22 million, Ghana has a tropical and warm climate but temperatures vary with seasonal elevation and changes.The attraction of Ghana is based on its legacy as the center of the gold,Ivory and slave trade during the 17th and 18th century initiated by the British .Ghana was also the first African country to win back its independence from their colonial masters the British in 1957.The political environment has been stable for over twenty years and the general atmosphere is peaceful as a result of the practice of democratic rule.Ghana is one of the most peaceful African countries in the whole of Africa .Most ideginious Ghanaians are fishermen or farmers but there is a large majority that are well educated. Ghanaians are also known for their warmth and hospitality.In short, this is a brief but concise picture of the country I migrated from to settle in Australia with my my family.We left the shores of Ghana on the 21st of August 2003. It was a three day flight with a transit through South Africa, Johannesburg.We arrived in Perth on the 23rd of August 2003 and connected a flight to Adelaide where we were met by my husband who had by then been here close to a year.We spent the night in Adelaide and proceeded to Whyalla where my husband was working at the time.In all honesty I was not ready for the 'move' to Australia due to obvious reasons .I had a good job in the family business back home,my Dad was a hotelier and all his children except for one of my sibblings who trained as a Doctor ,the rest of as were sent off to hospitality Institutes so we could train and help run the family business ,the other reason was I was skeptical of the unknown but I had my childrens interest at heart and since you cannot eat your cake and have it,I decided to come.We got the children into schools.There are three of them .Two boys and a girl.Once they could find their way to and from schoolI decided to get a job.I sent applications and my resume evreywhere and anywhere but no one would hire me . I needed the job, one,to earn an income and also to get me out of the house. I was very lonely and because I was used to doing something all the time, I couldnt stand the thought of staying home twenty four hours doing nothing. In all this the weather was also foreign ,it was either too cold or too hot,I missed home terribly.To kill time and break my boredom sometimesI would go to the local church and do some volunteer work,but this didnt stop me from missing home because half the time I was all by myself ,with the kids at school and the husband at work I was virtually alone.The change was radical,at home we were surrounded by friends and family,we could greet people on the streets without knowing them without them thinking we were going to ask for money from them ,there was always someone with a smile or a kind word out there,but it was so different here,people were so busy minding their own business,they made it obvious they did not want to know,some actually made you feel like 'nothing'.At that point in time ,I just wanted to go back home,it wasnt easy on the children either,they came back from school with stories about other children being so unkind to them.It was all a nightmare.It was hard to comprehend since we were brought up to love people irrespective of colour , race or social status. My husband was not happy with his job either so he applied for a change and Hawker was available so we left Whyalla for Hawker.Hawker is a small country town in the Flinders ranges with a population of about four hundred and fifty people but with a catchment area of about a thousand people for the hospital.Majority of the people in Hawker are warm and receptive .My husband loves his work with them. Our children had moved on to high school and tetiary level respectively in their education and we needed to move to a town that would cater for these requirements.We looked for proxity to Hawker and decided on Adelaide.To regress a bit, overseas doctors in Australia have to serve a number of years in the countryside.The country towns fell under various categories. Depending on what part of country town the doctor works will determine the number of years he has to serve.The number of years range from five to ten years.Until this requirement is met, they are unable to work in the cities.My husband has roughly about a year and a half more to be able to get his unrestricted provider number that would enable him work anywhere in Australia.With the education of our children being a priority, we moved to Adelaide at the begining of February 2005. My eldest son came to Tea Tree Gully Tafe , the second ,a girl went to Flinders University ,and my last a boy went to St Ignatius College.I believe in the saying that ,"behind every dark cloud there is a silver lining."Things have improved, especially with the chidren, they have made friends and are doing well in school . My youngest son is in his first year in University of South Australia , the girl is in her third year doing a double degree at Flinders Uni and the eldest is doing his diploma in Business and Financial Studies here in TTG. We have also obtained our Permanent resident visas and that has brought a great deal of relief in the amount of money we had to spend paying school fees for the children. The fees have actually reduced to about a third of what we had to pay previously In comparison Adelaide is much more exciting with varied opportunities . I have been able to enrol in this course and have met a lot of wonderful people . Most people in Adelaide are much more receptive.There are a lot more Africans and I have met some from my country as well.I have been back home since.I lost my Dad last year in August so I went back for the funeral.It was a mixed kind of feeling,meeting all the family once more but under those circumstances was more than one could take but what can one do but to take it in one's stride.Little by little we are getting used to the lifestyle some of the ways of the Australians.In the past it was so difficult to understand most people when they speak to me in English, even though I could read and write, I became like an illiterate due to the Australian accent. Sometimes I cant help but wonder what it realy is like for my other brothers and sisters who have been displaced by war in their various countries and are here on humanitarian visas, some cannot speak a word in English. For me Its much much better now, and the fact that I can go back home anytime is enough consolation .In effect, I could look back and reflect on the Whyalla days as a learning period, hard as it seemed then.I still miss home though from time to time .The children like it here and are thinking of making Australia home but for me I guess you cannot teach an old dog new tricks, home will forever be Ghana.

JOURNAL / WEEK 4 CONDOLEEZA RICE

Dr Condoleeza Rice was born on November 4th 1954 in Birmingham, Alabama, she was born into an educated family,her mum was a teacher and her dad a churh pastor.Dr Condoleeza Rice went to the University of Denver at age fifteen and graduated with a degree in Polical Science at age nineteen, she had after school French and piano lessons ,as a fine Pianist ,she originally enrolled as a music student with the intention of embarking on a concert career ,but while at Denver she came under the influence of one Josef Korbel a Czech refugee and father to the first US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.Under his guidance, she became interested in International Relations and the study of the Soviet Union and consequently switched courses.She achieved her master's from the University of Notre Dame in 1975; and her Ph.D. from the Graduate School of International Studies at the University of Denver in 1981. She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has been awarded honorary doctorates from Morehouse College in 1991, the University of Alabama in 1994, the University of Notre Dame in 1995, the National Defense University in 2002, the Mississippi College School of Law in 2003, the University of Louisville and Michigan State University in 2004. She resides in Washington, D.C. She is the 66th United States Secretary. Dr Condoleeza Rice became the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, commonly referred to as the National Security Advisor, on January 22, 2001.
In June 1999, she completed a six year tenure as Stanford University 's Provost, during which she was the institution's chief budget and academic officer. As Provost she was responsible for a $1.5 billion annual budget and the academic program involving 1,400 faculty members and 14,000 students.
As professor of political science, Dr. Rice has been on the Stanford faculty since 1981 and has won two of the highest teaching honors -- the 1984 Walter J. Gores Award for Excellence in Teaching and the 1993 School of Humanities and Sciences Dean's Award for Distinguished Teaching.

At Stanford, she was a member of the Center for International Security and Arms Control from 1981-1986 (currently the Center for International Security And Cooperation), a Senior Fellow of the Institute for International Studies, and a Fellow (by courtesy) of the Hoover Institution. Her books include Germany Unified and Europe Transformed (1995) with Philip Zelikow, The Gorbachev Era (1986) with Alexander Dallin, and Uncertain Allegiance: The Soviet Union and the Czechoslovak Army (1984). She also has written numerous articles on Soviet and East European foreign and defense policy, and has addressed audiences in settings ranging from the U.S. Ambassador's Residence in Moscow to the Commonwealth Club to the 1992 and 2000 Republican National Conventions.
From 1989 through March 1991, the period of German reunification and the final days of the Soviet Union, she served in the Bush Administration as Director, and then Senior Director, of Soviet and East European Affairs in the National Security Council, and a Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs. In 1986, while an international affairs fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations, she served as Special Assistant to the Director of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In 1997, she served on the Federal Advisory Committee on Gender -- Integrated Training in the Military.
She was a member of the boards of directors for the Chevron Corporation, the Charles Schwab Corporation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the University of Notre Dame, the International Advisory Council of J.P. Morgan and the San Francisco Symphony Board of Governors. She was a Founding Board member of the Center for a New Generation, an educational support fund for schools in East Palo Alto and East Menlo Park, California She was rhe first African American female to be appointed as US Secretary of State ,she was also the first to occupy the key post of National Security advisor,she is the most academic member of the Bush foreign affair team and because of her gender,background, and youth,one of the most distinctive.I agree she should be included in the list of the fifty women who have changed the way we live due to her unique achivements in the world of academics and that of politics. For her most significant contribution for instance,she had led the tricky negotiations with Russia over missile defence. During the september 11 2001 attacks in Washington and New York she stood by the side of the President giving advise and support in what was one of the most difficult times in American history .She worked closely with France through the United Nations to persuade Syria to withdraw its military presence in Lebanon.In effect , I would say she is a real role model and inspiration for lots of women of today,especially those with diverse cultural backgrounds.In conclusion ,I feel confident in saying that anything men can do do ,women can also do and even better.

WOMEN'S STUDIES 1/JOURNAL WEEK 3

This week's video on Women of the sun set me thinking .It reminded me of my ancestors whose colonial masters treated them in a most demeaning and astrocious nature ,sold them into slavery and sent them off in ships to foreign lands making them loose their roots forever. Even though "Women of the sun 3, Nerida Anderson, was set in a completely different era, the similarities were quite unique.The episode is based on the event known as"The Cumeroongunga Walkout". Nerida who became a leader to her people had been working in the city as a bookkeeper .While she was away in the city conditions on the government established reserve deteriorated so badly that she attempts to motivate her people to improve their leaving conditions. Nerida was independent, she was outspoken , compassionate ,had a resilient nature and was stuborn .Most of all she had her peoples interest at heart compared to the two young male relatives who gave up easily and resigned themselves to fate.The characters in this episode did not feel they were Australian for various reasons .The major one was,obtaining permits to reside on the reserve,they also needed permits to visit family and friends .Their young ones were seperated from them forcibly and sent to live with total strangers and this caused all sorts of emotional problems. They felt alienated from their own country and culture due to the inhumane way they were treated.For instance, their food was rationed to the point of starvation ,healthcare was non available ,Tuberclosis[TB]deaths were commonplace.They did not have ready access to their land and were deprived of their culture.They had no rights whatsoever, in effect,the problems Aborigines experience today could be reffered to as deep root seated and traced as far back as several centuries ago.In the movie ,Mr Felton ,the reserve manager was portrayed as a man with no character ,very low morals with little or no regard for human life.In my opinion, the film makers demonized him unnecessarily, this is because most of the problems were just part of the system,take the leaking roofs , the health system , education,obtainng permits for residential and visit purposes for instance, just to mention a few, were rules and issues that should be addressed by Government , but if blame were to be apportioned ,I would say Mr Felton should bear part of the blame due to the bogous manner in which he run the reserve .He was biased and prejudiced.An obvious example is his sharing of the food ,he gave more to his favorites and then he also created the impression to
Government officials ,that all was well on the reserve.I think, the least he could have done was to have made sure the Aboriginees grivances were forwarded to the right quarters, instead, he implemnted the laws with all rigidity,it was no suprise therefore when through Neridas motivation,her family and the entire population of the reserve,packed their belongings ,left the reserve and their tribal land never to return. The statistics on Housing ,Health, and Crime on Aborigine Women,showed clearly that they are the most disadvantaged and the most vulnerable. Crime rate is overwhelmingly shocking and that is the part that struck me most.The statistics have said it all.Australia has a strong economy and a high standard of living,am at a loss therefore as to why the most obvious issues about the indegineous women has been left to fallow for this long .In my opinion ,if Government finds out why these women commit certain types of crime ,they could put in place strategies to prevent these crimes by training these women in different trades in their own communities, since most of them feel more comfortable amongst their own people, also recreational activities play a significant role in society,indeed it has great meaning for many people,if sport and physical activities are introduced in their communities,the benefits will be high,it will keep them busy and the crime rates wil be reduced.The Government could also see to it that the same rights that the non-indeginous women have had for decades is giving to the indegenous women,until then ,this women wil be sexually violated and be victims of domestic violence and yet continue to suffer in silence.