Bahman Razani

ESL 100

October 9, 2021

Finding Hope in a Tragedy 

    Iran  was the best and the most advanced country in the Middle East until a big tragedy happened. In 1978, there was an Islamic revolution that took control of the Iranian people. At that time, most of the Iranian celebrities and rich people left the country because they felt something was wrong, and they were absolutely right. The first thing the new regime did was kill whoever worked for the king of Iran, without any official trials. In fact, they are still killing the people to this day. The new regime brought some new rules for the whole country. They changed everything, even people’s lives and social behaviors. That was a major reason for the Iranians to leave the country.

    One of the biggest changes was forcing women to cover up and to wear a hijab. The government also required men to have short haircuts because to them long hair was a part of the Western culture. In addition, men had to dress simple. Three colors became popular, black, gray and brown with white shirt, without a tie or a bow tie. When I look at our family’s old photo albums from forty-five years ago, when the king was in power, I can’t believe my parents are the same people in the photos. Their life had extremely changed after the revolution. In the photos, they looked happy and free. However, after the revolution, my parents looked different, but not in a good way. They looked sad and more serious. After the revolution, people had to be the person who the government  wanted or they had to leave the country. However, many people like my family didn’t have the ability to leave the country. In fact, some people tried to stand up for these problems, but they were killed or went to jail just for asking and speaking up.

    The new regime was in power for only two years when the war with neighboring country, Iraq, started. Already the Iranians were under pressure due to all the political changes, and the war made it worse. Most of the people lost their homes and jobs, and many families were killed by the bombing. At that time, I remember anyone who had money was leaving the country and immigrating to other countries. However, some families like mine couldn't leave the country. because they didn’t have money or someone to help them immigrate from Iran, left their city to other cities to find some safe place. Our city was close to Iraq, and it was very dangerous because there was a lot of bombings, so we immigrated to Doroud, a city farther from the border.

    Furthermore, Iran became sanctioned by many western countries after the revolution because the Iranian government was a dictatorship. The new government stopped their communications with the countries around the world, except some few countries like China, Lebanon, Palestinian, and Russia. Those were the only countries that accepted the Islamic Republic of Iran. These problems made Iranians' lives harder, and made them more poor. However, instead of the people, the government and those who worked for them became richer than before. When I was in Iran, my mom always told my brother and me that It is too late for me because of my age, but you are young, and you have to leave this country to have a better life and be safe. However, I didn’t have money or any opportunity to leave the country. The only way I thought I could be successful was to study and try to be perfect in my profession. That is why I started to study fine art in the art academic university in Tehran. One day, at an art gallery one of my classmates introduced me to her sister  who lived in the United States. After a year we got married and after almost four years, I left my motherland for the United States.

A tragedy can change someone’s life forever. This change can be positive or negative. The revolution in Iran made Iranians people’s life worse. Those who had the ability or chance to leave the country to live in freedom, left. However, the majority of Iranians have to stay and try to survive in this situation. The only hope that I have is one day I can help my family to come to the United States and have a better life and freedom for the rest of their lives. This is the hope I found in the tragedy of what happened to my motherland after the Islamic revelation.

Bahman Razani

ESL 100

September 21, 2021

My Lost Tradition 

    In Iran, the new year is the most important celebration. This celebration is called Norooz, and it means new day. The Iranian people believe the earth breathes again on the first day of the Spring. The origin of this celebration is around three thousand B.C. Iranians from all backgrounds and religious beliefs celebrate Norooz, because Norooz is not about a specific religion or city it belongs to all Iranians. During Norooz, the whole country is closed for two weeks, except banks and some companies have to be reopened after five days. Of course since I moved to the United States I haven’t been able to have a real Norooz in my new life.

 

    The atmosphere of Norooz is so unique and amazing. A month before Norooz, people do two things: they clean the entire house and buy new things like clothes and new decorations for the new year. I can do these parts in the United States too, but something is missing. In Iran a week before Norooz, cities and streets are so busy. There are tons of fruit, goldfish, special sweets and flowers ready to sell, and people walk around to buy them. When I was in Iran, I walked in the streets and the smell of the fruits, flowers and fresh sweets reminded me that Norooz was approaching. In addition, before Norooz, there is a big party on the last Tuesday night of the year. People play music, dance and jump on top of the fire to let the sicknesses go out and goodnesses come inside their body. This tradition is called Chahar Shanbeh Soori. Since I came to the U.S, I haven’t been able to have this celebration because in the United States making fire in the street isn’t allowed.

    In Iran, visiting family on this holiday is so important. For the Persian new year, the whole family comes together to pray and wish good luck. For the first lunch in the new year, most Iranians people cook rice with herbs and fried fish, and eat together. This food is called Sabzi Polo Mahi. Another important custom is that the youngest family member has to visit the oldest family as a sign of respect and say happy Norooz and wish luck to them to have an amazing year. My wife and I don't have any family in the United States. We are living in Chicago alone, and we haven’t visited our family in Iran for five years. In the Persian new year I would love to be in Iran and especially be with my family to meet them and hug them for a long time.

    In addition, in Iran most of the people have plans for their thirteen off days on this holiday. Some people visit their family and spend thirteen days off together, and some people have plans to tour other cities in the country as a tourist. They travel to these cities, so they can learn about their culture and taste their traditional foods. In the United States, my wife and I don’t have a day off for the Persian new year, so I can’t make plans like visiting our family or traveling to other cities like back home. I have to stay home, and also most of the time I have to work on the actual holiday, because most of the time I can’t afford to take a day off.

 

    Regardless of how my wife and I have tried to celebrate Norooz, it just hasn’t felt the same. Norooz is the time of the year that everyone waits for it to arrive. Norooz is not just cooking special food or cleaning up the entire house. Norooz is about being together, seeing the excitement of people in the bazaar and preparing for the best time of the year. I can facetime with my family to say happy Norooz to them, but that is not like being there in Iran with them. Therefore, since I immigrated to the United States, I feel like I have lost a big part of my culture.

Why Are We Different?

 

          Discrimination against Chinese-Indonesian has existed for many years. This caused

Chinese- Indonesians to be oppressed and have no freedom since 1740. over the past 80 years, Chinese-

Indonesian have experienced an identity crisis, unacceptable discrimination to both the Chinese and the

native Indonesians. Many Chinese-Indonesian feel that they are not part of the Indonesian state

because of the bad stigma created by society against Chinese-Indonesian. This certainly has

affected my family's personal life from how we get along with Indonesians native people and

how we do business with them.

          Ethnic Chinese are often considered as foreigners in Indonesia. This has affected my

family and me. Mostly we have gotten bad treatment from the environment around us such as verbal

violence and even physical treatment like when we are enjoying the scenery in the village,

many people pay attention to us and sometimes they call us Chinese spit. Therefore, this make

us afraid and has created a negative stigma against the natives Indonesian. Therefore,there is a gap

between Chinese-Indonesian and the native Indonesians. Chinese-Indonesians tend to gather

together with other ethnic Chinese in places like school activities, work, or even social life. My family

usually hang together with fellow ethnic Chinese because they know what it’s like to be in the

minority and they already consider each other as family. My family also has friends from local

Indonesians but not many because of the gap between us.

          Suharto resigned as president of Indonesia on 21 May 1998 following the collapse of support

for his three-decade-long presidency. The resignation followed severe economic and political

crises over the previous six to twelve months. the situation affected my family and they had to

hide so as not to be killed at that time because the conditions were so chaotic. My family had to

return to their hometown and shut down their business for several months due to ethnic

Chinese massacre. After that incident, our family went bankrupt and had to start the business

from scratch. Unstable conditions forced my family to take refuge in my grandmother's house

for some time. As a result of this incident, my parents were severely traumatized by losing all

their hard-earned businesses. Since that incident, the situation is no longer the same and our

family moved to safer city and started a new business from the beginning.

          The effect of the event from the 1740s and the 1998 still lingers today. The

government created the law to prevent these type of reoccurring. However, the

discrimination toward Chinese-Indonesian still existed until now. For example, There are a lot

of Chinese-Indonesians being discriminated indirectly in the various fields from the politics to

workplace. My father graduated from college with a law degree and he does not want to work

as a lawyer because it’s too risky, so he changed his job as a businessman. My father realized

that working for the government as a Chinese-Indonesians is a bad idea because we are still a

hated minority. According to my father, being a businessman is a safer job and far from conflict.

That is why my father chose that job.

          Discrimination against Chinese-Indonesian still exists until now. Discrimination against

Chinese Indonesians will always exist until now, depending on how we react to it. However,

Chinese Indonesians will always be part of the Indonesian state. I strongly believe that all

human have the same right no matter where they come from.

 Yaboh Donaldia Emmanuella Koumassou 

ESL 100 CE 

October 10, 2021 

Essay 2, second draft 

Topic: From Nigeria to Benin because of war 

 

My Ethnic Roots 

I have lived away from my real root country for many years. I still cannot believe I am half-Nigerian and half-Beninese. I have always qualified myself as a complete and real daughter of Benin, but I have realized lately that I am not. My great-grandfather, my father's grandfather was from Oyo, Nigeria. He came with his wife to Benin in 1906 because of the war that was happening in Nigeria, so I am a Nigerian born in Benin. He took the risk of leaving his hometown, leaving the  family house, and losing communication with his family for his safety. Thus, until now, none of my family members in Benin knows anything about our ethnic roots and our family still in Nigeria. My great-grandfather also took another wife in Benin, and that act had created a conflict between his first wife and the second one.That conflict has affected my family for more than a hundred years. My great-grandparents did not make a mistake by running away from the war to survive, but that decision affected the whole family and the generations that followed. 

My great-grandparents had lost every contact with the family members still in Nigeria. I mean, the rest of the family, my great- grandparent siblings, decided to stay in Nigeria no matter what, so the family split in two. In that period, it was not common for anybody to have a landline and my great-grandparents had none. Therefore, it was difficult to maintain relationships and communication between both sides of the family. Even though the war in Nigeria ended many years ago, my great-grandparents could not call the family just to make sure that they were still alive and doing well. Also, they were the only ones that knew the way to go back to their hometown. When my great-grandparents were still alive, they had not told anybody how to access the village, so the generation that followed their death had no idea how to contact the family to announce the news. My family was just living in Benin as their home country.  

In addition, I do not know anything about the cultures, or the home languages of Nigeria. Every part of the country has its own culture and its own language, and in Oyo, people speak English and Yoruba. I am supposed to know those languages since my childhood, but I don’t know them. Right now, I am already learning English, and I wish I could know how to speak Yoruba too. However, no one taught me how to speak it. Unfortunately, even my parents know nothing about the language we were supposed to know, so instead of speaking English and Yoruba with my parents, I speak French and Fon-my dialect from Benin, with them. The culture in Benin is the only one that my family and I have learned and have practiced all those years. If eventually there were a way for my family and me to go for the first time to our village in Nigeria, it might be difficult to familiarize ourselves with the new culture, just because we were not used to it.  

Moreover, there has never been peace, or unity between the children of my great-grandfather. My great-grandfather came to Benin with his first wife, and then he married another wife after spending a few years in Benin. Unfortunately, the first one was not happy about it. My family is Christian, and like some Christians in Benin, my great-grandfather chose to get a second wife according to the tradition. It was at that moment that a conflict has started between the two wives, so the children from both sides took over when they grew up. Until 2021, some of my uncles and aunties do not speak to each other because of that old conflict. Also, some of the grandchildren like me do not know each other or have not met yet. I always pray for a united family, but this situation has really affected the whole family and me. I wish my family could come together as one. 

 The war that happened at that time in Nigeria had made so many people run away from the country, and that was the case with my family. Since my great grandparents left Nigeria for Benin, the connection between the family members has been broken and the Nigeria culture has been lost. I wish I could know better about my ethnic roots. Besides, there is no connection or union between my family members since my great-grandfather took another wife in Benin after his first wife. All I want for my family is more unity and joy, but I am still unsure of how to achieve that.