Mayor's Diversity Award Winners for 2007

Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson today recognized five local businesses and organizations during the sixth annual Mayor's Celebration of Diversity Awards.

More than 1,200 people attended a luncheon this afternoon to salute the winners:

WellPoint, Inc. (Sam H. Jones Award); Wishard Health Services (workforce diversity); Fay Biccard Neighborhood Center (development of diversity education); Children’s Museum of Indianapolis (community activities encouraging diversity), and Butler University (leadership in diversity strategies).

For more, see the press release issued by the Mayor’s Office.

Ethnic Hoosier for February 2007

The Ethnic Hoosier newsletter for February 2007 has been posted to the Nationalities Council's website.

IU Bloomington's Annual Middle Eastern Festival

"The Arts of the Middle East Festival" kicks off Thursday at Indiana University Bloomington, running through 10 February.

Most of the events are free, and all are open to the public, including Middle Eastern dance, talks on art and ethnomusicology, art demonstrations, films, presentations of Middle Eastern folktales and poetry, and lectures.

For a schedule, check the website.

Sudanese divestment urged for Indiana

State Senator John Broden (D-South Bend) has authored Senate Bill 380, which would prohibit the investment of funds held by various state entities in institutions that are directly or indirectly involved in business with Sudanese companies, according to the Indiana Senate Democrat Caucus.

Senate Bill 380 would require that any investment of funds held by the public employees’ and teachers’ retirement fund or by a public officer of the state must not be with companies that loan money to, engage in business with or in or have invested in another company engaged in business with or in Sudan or its instrumentalities.

Affected institutions would be given three years to come into compliance with the legislation, according to the press release.

Six other states, including Illinois, have passed Sudanese divestment legislation.

Senate Bill 380 has been assigned to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Public Policy & Interstate Cooperation, where it awaits a hearing.

Estonia and Latvia -- After the Soviet Collapse

Can you ever go home again? Dr. Ain Haas explores "Return Migration to Post-Soviet Estonia and Latvia" in the next presentation in the Sabbatical Speaker Series 2006-2007 of the Indiana University School of Liberal Arts at Indiana University-Purdue University in Indianapolis.

Dr. Haas, associate professor of sociology and an ethnic Estonian, examines the experiences of first-, second-, and third-generation exiles/emigrants of Estonian and Latvian heritage (primarily political refugees and their descendants), who returned to their ancestral lands when the Soviet regime collapsed. Personal interviews with some 130 returnees covered their reasons for moving, adjustment to life in the Baltic countries, and comparisons with their old life in the West.

Check out what's happening these days in two of the former "Captive Nations" at 4:30 p.m. Friday, 2 February, in Room 508, Cavanaugh Hall, IUPUI, 425 University Boulevard, Indianapolis.

Polyglot Corner of Indy

According to the Demographics feature on page 48 of this week’s Indianapolis Business Journal, 10 percent of the 17,080 people living in the 8,408 households in the 46250 ZIP code speak a foreign language at home.

Indy to Host 12th U.S. Latvian Song Festival

Mark your calendars for a unique event in downtown Indianapolis 4-8 July.

This event is so big it'll take place at Conseco Fieldhouse, Indianapolis Artsgarden, Murat Centre, Athenaeum, Circle Theatre, St. John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church and the Scottish Rite Cathedral!

The schedule is on the extensive website.

North Americans of Latvian descent are expected in the thousands, and the colorful performances of music and dance are open to the public (see here for ticket information).

Ron Miller is committee chairman for the all-volunteer event hosted by Indy Latvians.

Ye banks and braes of bonny Doon, How can ye bloom so fresh and fair...

If you hear poetry wafting through the ether this weekend, don't fret.

It's just the Scots gearing up for their annual Burns Suppers. There are three scheduled in central Indiana this weekend.

The Scottish American Club of Indiana will salute the bard at 6 p.m. Saturday in Ritz Charles, Carmel. The Scottish Society of Greater Bloomington holds its celebration Saturday in the Indiana Memorial Union, Bloomington. The 42nd Royal Highlanders hold their annual Burns Dinner on Saturday at Judy's Place in Lafayette. (See the Nationalities Council's calendar for more on these and other events.

Burns penned "Auld Lang Syne" and is also responsible for "the best laid schemes o' mice and men", "my love is like a red red rose" and other familiar refrains.

To get in the mood, surf on over to some poetry sites and recite a bit of Rabbie Burns yourself!

Plaisir d’Amour for Valentine's Day

Art, music, literature and distant cultures will combine Feb. 14 at the University of Indianapolis in a unique event called Plaisir d’Amour ("Joy of Love").

Featuring members of the Indianapolis Opera Ensemble, guest vocalists from China, Asian landscape painter Master Au Ho-nien and UIndy faculty performers, the Valentine’s Day event begins at 7:30 p.m. in the university’s Christel DeHaan Fine Arts Center, 1400 E. Hanna Ave. Admission is free.

Shanghai Normal University vocalists Wu Mei and Zhu Yinyuo and local opera ensemble members Jenny Searles, Angela Keeton, Nathan Bick, Samuel Spade and Dana Jones Milan will perform love songs from their respective traditions. Soprano Kathleen Hacker, associate professor and chair of music at UIndy, will perform Western love songs with accompaniment from faculty pianist Jacklyn Chan.

The program also will include readings by Billy Catchings, associate professor and chair of the UIndy communication department, including Chinese poetry and the ancient Chinese folk tale “The Love Story of Liang-Zhu,” also known as “The Butterfly Lovers.” Master Au Ho-nien, the Taiwan-based traditional landscape artist whose paintings fill a standing gallery at the university, will create a themed work of painting and calligraphy as the musicians perform.

Plaisir d’Amour is sponsored by University of Indianapolis Asian Programs and cosponsored by the UIndy Department of Music, Shanghai Normal University, the Indianapolis Opera Ensemble and the Au Ho-nien Cultural Foundation, Taipei.

World Language Tours of European Galleries at IMA

Hats off to the Indianapolis Museum of Art for its innovative foreign language tours of the newly expanded and renovated European galleries.

Last Sunday, a Spanish-speaking docent led visitors on a tour of the galleries.

On 18 February, the docent will be speaking German. The tour begins at 2 p.m. at the information desk at the top of the escalator on the first gallery level.

The Nationalities Council hopes that the IMA has more "World Language Tours" scheduled in the future!

Foreign Language Immersion Program To Be Cut Back?

A rare foreign language immersion program in a Marion County public school is on the bubble, according to a report by veteran reporter Howard Smulevitz in The Indianapolis Star today.

Fortunately, the Lawrence Township School board, parents and students objected to the proposal “to remove kindergarten classes from a Spanish immersion magnet program as part of a plan to balance enrollments in elementary buildings” at a meeting Monday night. Read more here.

Lawrence Township is justly proud of its international studies programs, which began in 1994. The school’s website notes:

“We are an international magnet school serving over 700 students in grades kindergarten through five. At Forest Glen we believe that through a strong focus on understanding other cultures our students will be better prepared to meet the challenges of the global community of the future.”

Forest Glen's Global Studies Program enables students develop an in-depth interest in world studies and geography as they make cross-cultural connections. In addition students attend daily Spanish classes, according to the website.

In the Spanish Immersion Program, all conversation and instruction in classrooms is in Spanish, from kindergarten through third grade. Students in fourth and fifth grades have instruction in Spanish for half of the day, and in English for half of the day.

The Nationalities Council agrees wholeheartedly with the board, parents and students! Don't cut back on this innovative program! What about adding immersion Spanish to kindergartens in the other Lawrence Township Schools instead?

Potential for Israeli Investment in Indy

According to Inside INdiana Business, the Indiana Economic Development Corporation says starting tomorrow it will host a delegation of Israeli life sciences companies, which are exploring potential partnerships and possible relocation to Indiana.

For more, see the news item.

Connectivity between Indy and the World

Patrick Barkey writes this in his current column on Economic Analysis for the Indianapolis Business Journal:

"Even here in the isolated Midwest, it’s hard to find a product, a job or a community that hasn’t been affected by the high degree of connectivity among customers, businesses, and buyers and sellers of all kinds around the globe."

Noting Hoosiers' "love-hate relationship with globalization boom", he concludes that "the essence of globalization is competition." And, he says, competition forces us to produce better products and services at lower cost offering consumers more choices.

Barkey is an economist and director of economic and policy study at the College of Business, Ball State University.

Read the whole column in the 22-29 January 2007 edition of the IBJ.

Foreign Firms Invest More in Indiana

Inside INdiana Business reports today on two new international connections for Indiana companies.

In the first item, it says that Switzerland-based Leman Cardiovascular subsidiary Hancock Jaffe Laboratories is partnering with Bloomington's Cook Medical to develop products in the field of tissue engineering and processing for minimally invasive cardiovascular products.

The second notes that CTS Automotive Products in Elkhart was awarded a production program by a Korean based vehicle manufacturer for its Seat Belt Tension Sensor (BTS). With production starting in the spring of 2007, the CTS Seat Belt Tension Sensor will be integrated in seat belt assemblies for small SUVs built in Mexico for sale in North America.

"Othering" and "Indigenization"?

Don't let academic jargon deter you from attending a presentation on the campus of Indiana University-Purdue University in Indianapolis this week.

The title of the talk by Prof. Didier Gondola of Indiana University-Purdue University in Indianapolis, “Transient Citizenship: The Othering and Indigenization of Blacks and Beurs within the French Republique”, can be "translated" as exploring the roots of racial confrontation and discontent in France.

You're invited to participate at 4:30 p.m. on Friday in room 508 of Cavanaugh Hall, 425 University Boulevard. It's part of IUPUI's acclaimed School of Liberal Arts Sabbatical Speakers Series.

Prof. Gondola, a professor of history at IUPUI, was born in the Congo and raised in Paris. He is the author of The History of the Congo.

For more information on his presentation or the series, contact: Annette Hill, 317:278-1839.

Here's John Clark (of the Sagamore Institute for Policy Research writing about Prof. Didier in IndyBuzz, his postings of "intellectual caffeine served piping hot" in Indianapolis:

"Riots in 2005 wreaked havoc in several French banlieues [French suburbs that feel more like inner city slums than US suburbs such as Carmel]. This led some black and beur [second and third generation French who roots are in North Africa and other parts of the former French Empire] civic organizations — including “les Indigènes de la République” — have attributed the anger fueling the riots to the persistence of colonial relations between France and its population of African descent, the so-called Français issus de l’immigration (first- and second-generation French) as opposed to Français de souche (“native” French). Needless to say, most French pundits and scholars quickly dismissed such an explanation not only as flawed but dangerous as well, a cipher likely to drive a wedge into French society. Instead, these pundits have turned the table on the rioters by putting forth arguments that range from the breakdown of African families living in France, to polygamy, rap music, and more generally their unwillingness or inability to assimilate as more accurate explanations for their marginalization."

Almost 5,000 Foreign Students Attend Purdue

Purdue ranks second among all public institutions in international enrollment, and is third in the nation among all institutions, according to the Institute of International Education.

Of the 4,831 international students enrolled at Purdue in the current academic year, there are 1,021 students from India, followed by China (782), South Korea (680), Taiwan (222) and Indonesia (221).

(information from Purdue University)

India, Purdue to Collaborate

A delegation from Purdue University's Discovery Park will travel to India from Jan. 29 to Feb. 7 to meet with government, industry and university officials and sign a collaborative agreement with the country's Department of Science and Technology, according to a news release from Purdue University.

Charles Rutledge, vice president for research at Purdue, will lead the contingent on the India trip, which will be highlighted by the signing of a research agreement with the Indian Department of Science and Technology on Feb. 5 in New Delhi. Discussions also will take place with the Indian Department of Biotechnology the same day.

Through the collaboration, Purdue and India's Department of Science and Technology will work to establish formal research collaborations and exchanges of researchers, students and faculty between Purdue and Indian institutions, the news release reports.

IFLTA World Language Teacher of the Year

Lisa Calvin, associate professor of Spanish at Indiana State University, has been recognized as the state’s finest college-level language teacher by the Indiana Foreign Language Teachers Association, according to a news release from ISU.

Calvin received the 2006 Collegiate-Level World Language Teacher of the Year Award from the IFLTA, which has a membership of 630 foreign language teachers, at its annual conference in Indianapolis, ISU reports.

Calvin became eligible for this award after the Indiana chapter of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese named her the 2006 Teacher of the Year-University Level this summer. As a recipient of that award, she was asked to submit a portfolio, including essays and letters from colleagues and former students, to be considered for the IFLTA’s coveted Teacher of the Year honor.

The Nationalities Council also sends its congratulations to Prof. Calvin!

Indy's Great Decisions Discussion Series

Two organizations in Indianapolis are hosting “Great Decisions” discussion series in 2007: Church of the Savior and the Indiana Council on World Affairs.

Great Decisions, a global affairs education program, is sponsored by Foreign Policy Association.

Themes are selected each year to engage citizens in learning about the world. The Briefing Book” provided by the FPA places the thematic or geographic issue in historical context and provides background, current policies and alternative policy options. Photographs, maps, charts and editorial cartoons illustrate the text. Discussion questions, annotated reading suggestions and additional resources, including websites, are provided. An opinion ballot for the National Opinion Ballot Report accompanies each topic so that readers can express their views, according to the FPA.

The schedule at Church of the Savior, 6205 Rucker Road, Indianapolis is:

• "Global Climate Change", 7 p.m. 31 January


• ”Mexico”, 7 p.m. 7 February


• ”International Migration”, 7 p.m. 14 February


• ”South Africa”, 7 p.m. 21 February


• ”War Crimes”, 7 p.m. 28 February


• ”Central Asia”, 7 p.m. 7 March


• ”Children and International Conflict”, 13 March

The schedule for the ICWA series, held in the Pharmacy Building at Butler University in Indianapolis is:

• ”Global Climate Change”, 7 p.m. 6 February


• ”Middle East”, 7 p.m. 13 February


• ”Mexico”, 7 p.m. 20 February


• ”Global Migration”, 7 p.m. 27 February


• ”South Africa”, 7 p.m. 6 March


• ”War Crimes”, 7 p.m. 13 March


• ”Central Asia”, 7 p.m. 20 March

For more information, see John Clark’s IndyBuzz.


UPDATE

There's also a Great Decisions series underway this year at Mid-North Shepherd Center in North United Methodist Church in Indianapolis. Information, email or 317:924-0959. Their session on global climate change is 4 April.

Join the fun of Mochitsuki

Mochitsuki is the traditional mochi-pounding ceremony in Japan!

Polished white rice is soaked overnight and cooked. The wet rice is pounded with wooden mallets called kine in a traditional mortar called an usu.

Two people alternate the work, one pounding and the other turning and wetting the mochi, which is formed into delicious small rice balls.

The Honorable Kenji Shinoda, Consul General of Japan, will be the guest of honor at the Mochitsuki Shinnenkai sponsored by the Japan-America Society of Indiana from 5:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. on Friday, 26 January in the Indianapolis Artsgarden above the intersection of Washington and Illinois streets in downtown Indianapolis.

There will be Mochi-Pounding, Sake-Tasting, New Year's Fortune-Reading, Tea Ceremony, KARAOKE (Japanese & English), Hors d'oeuvres & cash bar.

Admission is $35 for JASI members and $50 for non-members; reservation deadline is 24 January.

For information and reservations, call 317:635-0123.