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April 10, 2012
We spent the night at a unique Japanese "ryokan"
accommodation called San-san-kan, which used be a local elementary school that
was reformed as accommodation after it closed. The old wooden
building did not get any serious damage by the the consecutive major
earthquakes, although it is located in Minami-sanriku city, which is close to
the epicenter of the 311 Great East Japan Earthquake. This disaster caused
a myriad of tragedies by the huge tsunami, however, it also revealed that...
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April 06, 2012
After touring two distinctly different parts of Japan, the
bustling and modern metropolis of Tokyo and the quiet devastation found in the
wild and scenic northern region of Tohoku, we arrived in Kyoto for the final
leg of our trip. Once the Imperial capital of Japan, Kyoto is largely
viewed as the most "traditional" Japanese city with over 2,000
religious places scattered throughout this beautiful city nestled in the valley
of the Yamashiro Basin and surrounded by majestic mountains....
April 04, 2012
After a
couple of carefree days in Tokyo, today we headed to the Tohoku region which only one year ago was the site of the most powerful known earthquake to ever
hit Japan. The earthquake began at 2:46 PM on March 11, 2011, and was the
first in a chain reaction of disasters that went on to affect this region. By
3:30 p.m. that same day, the tsunami came and tore across the land, taking with it all that
stood in its path - buildings toppled, cars crushed and, sadly, many lives lost
to the...
April 02, 2012
I have never met so
many people who are so incredibly nice, helpful, and gracious in my life. From
the two graduate students - Sean and Yoichi - who showed us around Tokyo for over
8 hours, to our
new friend Mitsu, who gave us an all-day guided tour through the incredibly
complicated subway system, to the recipients of aid we delivered that wouldn't
let us leave withought presenting us with a small gift of
appreciation. Everyone was so perfectly genuine and thoughtful that it was
truly...
March 29, 2012
After twelve hours, one
express train, and one subway ride later, the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs student delegation has
made it to Tokyo! We made our first stop at the Ministry of Environment where
we have a briefing on the reconstruction progress post earthquake and tsunami.
One of the government's main concerns is the contamination caused by the
explosion at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. It is currently
unclear how much radiation the Japanese people were...
February 28, 2012
So here it is – Black History Month! Schoolchildren all over the country
will spend a few days learning about Martin Luther King, Jr., learning
who invented the cotton gin, and even learning how to sing an old negro
spiritual (no, not an Al Green tune!). If you can’t feel the sarcasm dripping from my keyboard, take my word for it – it is.Look, I get it. Recognizing the achievements and contributions of African Americans is a worthy exercise. Particularly given the ahistorical nature of...
February 10, 2012
In a recent New Yorker piece Adam Gopnik writes about mass incarceration in the
U.S. It is an interesting piece and worth reading. In this blog I want to do
a few of things. The first is to offer a critique of the piece from a framing
perspective.Read entire Frameworks Blog.
January 11, 2012
What do the Hollywood Community Plan and programs for Early Child Development
in Australia have in common? Seemingly, nothing. But what I am about to show,
however, is how policy proposals can produce counter-productive results when
officials fail to follow the simple predicates of causal sequencing – what we
call causal chains – in communications. Read the entire Framworks blog.
November 21, 2011
This past weekend, over 30 UCLA Luskin team members participated in the United Way's HomeWalk 2011 -- a 5k run/walk to end homelessness in Los Angeles County. UCLA Luskin raised close to $5,000 (almost doubling our fundraising goal!). The Luskin team was part of 10,000 walkers, runners and volunteers -- the largest in HomeWalk history. To view photos from the event, click here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/uclapubaffairs/sets/72157628056570987/ (during the walk, we ran into UCLA basketball...
October 08, 2011
Dean Franklin D. Gilliam, Jr., comments on "One of the most
interesting and entertaining phenomena of this political season... the
so-called 'Occupy' trend." "Started a few weeks ago by a group generally
referred to as Occupy Wall Street, people have been gathering at city
halls, corporate headquarters, and other institutions of power across
the United States to protest a wide range of social and economic
ills...." Read the entire FrameWorks blog.
