Pacific students see the American way of life

Press, 1 June 1977, Page 12

Pacific students see the American way of life

An opportunity to mix with people from other cultures and the prospect of seeing the American way of life prompted Jocelyn Howard to successfully apply for and thoroughly enjoy an intensive tour of the United States recently. Ms Howard whc 's studying for an arts oegree in German and linguistics at the University of Canterbury, was one of 12 students from Asian and Pacific countries to go on the six-week tour sponsored by the educational and cultural affairs bureau of the United States State Department. The tour is organised annually to give students from Asia, the Pacific and the United States a chance to exchange ideas and information. and to give students from Asia and the Pacific a first-hand look at American life and culture. Each year the tour is based on a different topic so students selected can meet American individuals and representatives of organisations pertaining to that topic. This year it was “Judicial. political and social change: current trends in the American society.” Ms Howard left New Zealand in early March fot Honolulu where she met the others in her group representing Australia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mariana Islands, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea. Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand. After spending some time! getting to know each other' and sightseeing, the group' flew to Seattle, Washington. I The students spent a week, in Seattle on an orientation programme, conducted by professors and staff of the. University of Washington.! This consisted of a general atudy of the United States, 1

3 with a particular analysis of I citizen-created organisations. . To see the effects of logaging on the landscape, the e group visited a large Seattle e Jogging company, which owns vast amounts of land. From here they travelled ■ i to Lewiston, Idaho, where a -Ijet boat trip up the Snake f River with an overnight stay (at Hells Canyon had been arranged. Ms Howard found ■ the Snake River trip “pretty . phenomenal,” as much of ‘■the water was white. " This trip was arranged to . I point out the site of a pro'posed hydro-power station s which, with a series of L dams, would have wrecked K i the landscape, she said. efforts by the “Sierra Club, an environmen■tai group, this plan had been 'abandoned. n For many of the students, p their stay in Idaho meant seeing snow for the first o 'time. It was still snowing ' when they reached Salt Lake ’ City, Utah. Here the group ’■stayed at the Temple Hotel, II opposite the famous temple of the Church of Jesus ’■Christ of Latter Day Saints. t ’ Again, the students were {looking at environmental . and this included a ti visit to the Bingham Copper .'Mine where, Ms Howard I'said, almost the whole inside > of a mountain had been dug I away to remove copper ore, /They al so visited a coal-fired J power station and studied /the environmental effect of 'it. : The next stop was Minneapolis, Minnesota, where • the group members were the I guests of the local Interi national Centre and the Hennepin County Bar Associ■jation. This Jocelyn Howard 'found the highlight of the II trip and the students stayed I with local lawyers and their : (families. Activities here included a meeting with the Minnesota (Public Interest Research I Group, which is active in consumer and environmental 'issues, a visit to the Sup-

reme Court and a meeting 'with the Attorney General of Minneapolis, Walter Spannaus. The students were also made honorary mem-, ‘bers of the Hennepin County Bar Association. The group visited the Northern States Power Com'pany and discussed with officials the future ofi muclear power and the possi-' Ibility of harnessing solar ; and ’wind energy. While many Americans had no definite opinions on nuclear power, others were fighting against existing nuclear power stations and any future ones, she said. The group’s next stop wasi .New York City, where they! (looked over the United (Nations Building, visited the 'United Nations environment programme, and the “earth watch” programme, which (monitors pollution and environmental problems on a .world-wide basis. I The students saw most ofi (New York City’s popular ■ tourist spots, such as the! (Empire State Building and: I the Statue of Liberty, and (Ms Howard was able to see jlive theatre most evenings. She also enjoyed the ethnic (foods available including (Japanese, Chinese, Mexican land German. ( As the group had travelled; (on domestic airlines sincej arriving in the United l (States, it made a “nice (break” to travel by train from New York to Washington D.C., she said. By then there was a good; group feeling and even the I quieter Asian students were| playing pranks, she said. Visits in Washington in-1 eluded Capitol Hill, Congress, the Supreme Court,!

meetings with United States Government Agency officials, a tour of the White House and a meeting with Ralph Nader, who is active (in various areas of citizen 'reform. The group also attended a luncheon sponsored by the Public Citizen (Forum. ( At Mount Vernon, the stu- ' dents visited George Washington’s house, and at Ar(lington. Virginia, the Tomb (of the Unknown Soldier, the graves of the late President (John and Senator Robert I Kennedy, and the house where General Robert Lee lived. ■ After a brief stay in (Montgomery, Alabama, the group split into pairs with Ms Howard and Mr Chalermchai Pimolsri, of Thailand going to Atlanta, Georgia. Here they met students and administrators of AtJanta University, a cluster (university of six colleges, which only black students (attend. Each college had its own administrators, student president and funding but, was under the auspices of the university, Ms Howard said. The students met again in Phoenix, Arizona, and moved from there to the Grand (Canyon National Park for a rest'stop. This was a pleas'ant rest, since the tour had been fairly intensive, she said. From here they flew to Los Angeles for a week and spent most of this talking (with students and attending (classes at the University of Southern California. I Ms Howard stayed at the (Beverly Hills home of William Hussey, a retired foreign service officer who had worked for the United Nations. He had worked in the Pacific and Asia and Ms Howard found the stay par-

I ticularly interesting. | While in Los Angeles, the | group met a Superior Court | i Judge, Billy Mills, and vis- | ited the public defender’s II office. They also visited DisI neyland, and Universal StuI dios where an episode of the I television series “EmerI gency” was being made. ’ The last stop of the tour was San Francisco, where ; they had a “wrap up” ses- * sion with Professor Daniel Lev of the University of ( Washington. From here the students made their way i home, although for Ms Howard this meant a holiday in Fiji first. “ Although she has no responsibilities regarding the tour now it is over Ms Howard hopes to write an article mainly for use by the United States Information Service to help other interested people and to point out the contacts she found . useful. Ms Howard said the United States tour was something she was looking for after a trip to Europe in 1975. It gave access to places not usually accessible, provided a cultural exchange with other students, and provided contact with United States students. 1 She was particularly imi pressed by the extent to , > which various public pressure I groups had become accepted ■ by authorities in the United ' ' States and were to a large extent, funded by the Federal 1 ; Government or other fbunda- , tions, she said. Although she did not see ‘ any violence while in the 1 (United States, Ms Howard 1 said she felt “petrified” all | the time she was in New i York City. While it was an 1 exciting place, it was busy i and dirty and one could feel t violence in the air, she said. < While many of the group f as law students and gradu- £ ates were interested in I (specific areas of law. Ms Howard said that, because r (she did not have a legal h I background, she had a chance t Ito broaden her knowledge of v I the law and historv and to s (get to know the cultures of t ! other people. ’ p ( Because she had enjoyed t her overseas trips so. much, ii Ms Howard said, she hoped ti to make her next one to Germany in about two years, v She would like eventually to t be a university lecturer, she 1\ said. c