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Straits Times
27-04-2025
- Politics
- Straits Times
International students in the US worry even as Trump temporarily restores some legal statuses
Demonstrators hold a banner during a 'Stand Up for Internationals' rally on the campus of Berkeley University in Berkeley, California, on April 17. PHOTO: REUTERS International students in the US worry even as Trump temporarily restores some legal statuses WASHINGTON - When Karl Molden, a sophomore at Harvard University from Vienna, learnt that the Trump administration had abruptly restored thousands of international students' ability to legally study in the United States, he said he did not feel reassured. After all, immigration officials have insisted that they could still terminate students' legal status, even in the face of legal challenges, and the administration has characterised the matter as only a temporary reprieve. 'They shouldn't tempt us into thinking that the administration will stop harassing us,' he said. 'They will try to find other ways.' He is not alone in his worry. April 25's dramatic shift from the administration came after scores of international students filed lawsuits saying their legal right to study in the United States had been rescinded, often with minimal explanation. In some cases, students had minor traffic violations or other infractions. In others, there appeared to be no obvious reason for the revocations. After learning that Immigration and Customs Enforcement had deleted their records from the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, or SEVIS, many students sued to try to save their status. That prompted a flurry of emergency orders by judges that blocked the changes. Students and their immigration lawyers said April 26 that they were relieved for the temporary reprieve, but emphasised that it was just that – temporary. Their sense of uncertainty was rooted in what Mr Joseph F. Carilli, a Justice Department lawyer, told a federal judge on April 25. He said immigration officials had begun working on a new system for reviewing and terminating the records of international students and academics studying in the United States. Until the process was complete, he said, student records that had been purged from a federal database in recent weeks would be restored, along with the students' legal status. 'This is a Band-Aid, but it's not yet a successful surgery,' said Mr Clay Greenberg, an immigration lawyer in New York who is representing several affected students. 'The question that remains now is: Well, what is the new policy going to be?' In the meantime, students have been left with the same anxieties as before, which began when the administration moved to cancel more than 1,500 student visas in recent weeks. Mr Kevin Zhang, a third-year law student at Columbia University from China, said virtually every Chinese student he knows is concerned about their visa status. People in the Chinese community on campus, he added, often exchange information about US and Chinese policies, trying to determine how it could affect them. 'It's a very unstable and turbulent period,' said Mr Zhang, 30. Mr Leo Gerden, 22, a senior at Harvard from Sweden, described the Trump administration's decision to reverse its international student visa revocations as 'great news' but noted that the federal government is still demanding that Harvard turn over detailed information about its student body. Mr Gerden, who studies economics and political science, has led rallies on Harvard's campus to protest the administration's efforts to target international students. Now, because of that activism, he said he feared he was a target. 'I have sort of accepted that being at commencement is not a guarantee anymore,' he said. 'I'm definitely worried, but it is a risk that I've accepted because I think that what we're fighting for here is just so much bigger than any one individual.' Recently, his high school guidance counselor asked him for advice because several Swedish students had been accepted to the University of Notre Dame and Georgetown University, but they were now wary of moving to the United States, a sentiment that once felt almost inconceivable. 'The US has always been the top dream for many people, and especially for me,' he said. 'The entire college life and all the opportunities that come with studying at a university here has put US universities in a very special position that is now being taken away.' Evan Mr Sulpizio Estrada, 20, a Tufts University sophomore from San Diego, said his friends who were international students had in recent weeks expressed fear about their situation. After the arrest of Rumeysa Ozturk, a Tufts doctoral student from Turkey, many international students at the school stopped attending classes or eating in the cafeteria because they were afraid of being arrested, Mr Sulpizio Estrada said. Still, he added, many of them were trying their best to continue living normal college lives. Mr Louie Yang, 18, a Tufts freshman from Beijing, said that although some of his friends had expressed concerns about visa revocations, he had tried to not let politics distract from his academics. 'I'm not so worried about it,' he said. Mr Greenberg said he believed the situation exemplified 'the unpredictability and chaos' coming from the Trump administration. In recent weeks, he said he has continued to be flooded with similar questions from international students: 'Should I leave? Am I going to be arrested if I don't leave tomorrow?' NYTIMES Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Jordan Times
16-04-2025
- General
- Jordan Times
Climate crisis threatens cultural heritage in Middle East — Scholars
The mosaic floor of the Byzantine church in Jerash (Photo courtesy of ACOR) AMMAN — The climate crisis directly impacts cultural heritage in the Middle East and it will continue to affect historical monuments and sites in the coming decades. Two recent collections of studies authored by archaeologists demonstrate a growing awareness of the situation, especially as it pertains to coastal and inland river flooding's impact on cultural heritage sites, noted Professor Benjamin Porter from Berkeley University. The professor added that the authors stress the need to work with various publics, from government policymakers to community stewards and stakeholders, to mitigate the emerging crisis. "Nearly all of these studies are based in the so-called developed world—North America, Europe, Japan and Australia—and, notably, none are concerned with the Middle East,' he said. 'How then should one start to think about the practice of Middle Eastern archaeology within the context of the region's climate crisis? Rather than begin with the discipline's instinct to 'preserve' and 'protect' the archaeological record," asked Porter. Middle Eastern archaeology in the 19th and early 20th century was directly influenced by European scholar and European imperialism and colonialism. Since World War Two, archaeology has continuously benefitted from European, North American, and now East Asian interests in the Middle East's carbon resources. Critics continue to describe Middle Eastern archaeology as a neo-colonialist enterprise that extracts evidence for Western research priorities under the guise of ethical 'salvaging' of global cultural heritage, the professor explained. Porter noted that this critique is not entirely fair, of course—some of archaeology's most important contributions to the governments that host their research is the discovery and documentation of monuments on which national cultural heritage and tourism destinations are based. "However, even if these contributions are viewed positively, they also serve as reminders that Middle Eastern archaeology is not and has never been a neutral bystander in the region's local and national politics.' 'Invoking archaeology's historical legacy while reflecting on the climate crisis is important as it situates archaeological practice, regardless of the position of its practitioners, within a systemic regime that has already proved harmful to Middle Eastern societies. Setting aside the visible well-documented examples of archaeologists who contributed their research to the region's ethno-national narratives," Porter elaborated. Archaeological practice can create tacit inequities despite the well-intentioned motives of researchers. For instance, local communities that live adjacent to cultural heritage sites often receive very limited benefits beyond seasonal labour and small business patronage despite their participation in the research and site interpretation process, according to Allison Mickel. In some instances, in fact, archaeological research and site development projects have displaced entire communities in the name of preservation and security, such as the relocation of families living in or alongside the archaeological sites of Umm Qais and Petra in northern and southern Jordan, respectively. "Growing awareness of the negative impacts that Middle Eastern communities can experience have led archaeologists to develop more ethically engaged sensibilities and practices in their research programmes," Porter said. To do so, they have drawn on community archaeology models that consider local groups as stakeholders in the documentation and interpretation of cultural heritage. Indeed, these collaborative programmes have grown common in archaeological practice around the work, especially in North American and Australian projects that bring indigenous communities together with archaeologists to achieve shared goals. "Over the past two decades in the Middle East, archaeologists have adopted community archaeology as a framework that can potentially reverse the discipline's imperialist and colonialist legacy. Despite early enthusiasm for the approach, collaborative and community archaeology programs have not been widely adopted. Only a handful of projects have risen in visibility," Porter said. The professor noted that this brief autopsy of community archaeology in the Middle East is key because it is likely the local rural and suburban communities that live alongside archaeological sites that stand to be the most affected by changing climate conditions. "Rural communities who are responsible for supplying a significant portion of the region's food supply will be stressed by warming conditions, erratic winter weather patterns, and increased erosion of valuable soils,' the professor said. 'Archaeological projects, regardless of the extent to which they collaborate with host communities in their research, remain dependent on communities and their businesses for basic services," Porter underscored.
Jordan Times
01-03-2025
- Climate
- Jordan Times
Impact of climate change on cultural heritage: Middle East at risk
AMMAN — The climate change directly affects monuments in different parts of the world. The current climate of the Middle East ranges from mostly temperate in its northern half to extremely arid in its southern half. Precipitation falls mainly November through April, the most abundant amounts falling in the region's northern half. However, due to climate change, some winters are colder and with more precipitation. For a few years, rain fell in May and early June which was not the case 20-30 years ago. These environmental conditions, especially the timing and abundance of precipitation, play a key role in the region's economies, whether industry, tourism, or, perhaps most importantly, agriculture, noted Professor Benjamin Porter from Berkeley University. Porter added that the extent to which countries depend on agriculture for food and jobs varies across the region and is contingent on the availability of arable land, labour forces, and proximity to markets. "Exacerbating the current economic situation even more are the region's relatively high unemployment and underemployment levels coupled with the destabilizing events of the past decade, including international wars, civil wars, and the Arab Spring that have introduced volatility and uncertainty into local and national governance," Porter underlined. The professor noted that models developed in the last decade that considers a two- and four-degree increase in global temperature levels before 2050 together project substantial changes in global and regional climate patterns. These changes will impact the Middle East's environment in several ways. Annual summer temperatures will increase and episodes of intense heat will become more common. Winter precipitation levels will also become more erratic; while the southern half of the region will see decreased levels, the northern half may experience extreme unpredictable storms that could cause flooding, Porter elaborated. The professor added that high-altitudes now pack in the northern mountain zones that supply major river systems (e.g., the Euphrates, Tigris, Orontes) will have reduced input, leading to downstream supply being reduced. "Sub-surface aquifers that supply fresh-water springs and oases will not be as fully recharged. At the same time, sea levels will rise, inundating coastlines and the fresh-water river systems that drain into the Mediterranean Sea, the Red Sea, and the Arabian Gulf," Porter explained. Unpredictable extreme weather events, such as spikes in summer temperature and sudden winter rainfalls, will further stress the region. Studies considering global climate change impacts on human populations often point out that the Middle East will be among the hardest hit regions in the world, regardless of whether a two-, four-, or greater degree change is achieved; and these drying conditions will stress the region's rural agricultural industries that are mainly based on crop and livestock production. The contagious disease typical for arid environment will also increase. "At first glance, it may appear insensitive to reflect on the future of cultural heritage in the Middle East given the severe impacts the climate crisis will have on the region's peoples." "However, arbitrary the constructed category of cultural heritage may be, the objects, places, and, at times, practices that constitute it are nonetheless non-renewable resources that play an important role in the quality of life in the Middle East," the professor highlighted. Porter added that many cultural heritage sites serve as the basis for cultural, religious, and national identities, leading countries and their international partners to make significant investments in maintaining them. Despite its deep and sometimes unfortunate entanglements with politics, Porter continued, cultural heritage is, ultimately, maintained by institutions, communities and individuals existing in webs of often-problematic relationships, large and small, a point that Meskell has illustrated in her rigorous treatment of UNESCO "Cultural heritage has served and continues to serve as a key economic resource in the Middle East," Porter said. "The United Nations World Tourism Organisation's report on the Middle East and North Africa region recorded a 10 per cent growth from the previous year's level [figures from 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic] in international tourist arrivals in the region," the professor noted. "This growth during the past few years signalled the region's recovery from internal conflicts and economic decline during the previous decade as well as the robust economies of developed nations with people with spending power to visit the region," Porter concluded.
Jordan Times
18-02-2025
- Science
- Jordan Times
New archaeological perspectives on early Iron Age agro-pastoralism in Jordan
The massive tower structure with the wadi in the background at Al Mudayna Al 'Aliya (Photo of Diederik J. H. Halbertsma) AMMAN — Archaeology has become more interdisciplinary science so scholars specialised in environmental sciences became involved in research of archaeological sites. Earlier research paradigms that saw past societies either as victims or destroyers of environmental conditions have given way to perspectives that place humans and the environment within socio-natural systems that seek a state of equilibrium as they consistently adapt to natural and human-induced impacts, Professor Benjamin Porter from Berkeley University explained. Porter added that archaeological research has concentrated on the participation of expansive political polities in socio-natural systems in order to examine the impacts that the development of intensified agrarian economies had on landscapes and how the environment's response to such human-induced changes created a feedback loop that promoted or limited producers' successes. "Still other scholars have discovered that a society needs not be organised as an empire or a state to participate in socio-natural systems. Less expansive societies, such as the Pueblo societies of the American Southwest can make iterative impacts on their landscape through agriculture, irrigation and herding." "Once the degradation of naturally available resources [e.g., water, grasslands, soils] reaches a particular limit, or less optimal climatic conditions persist, such small-scale societies must adapt to new conditions or abandon the landscape for more ideal conditions," Porter underlined. The professor noted that the relatively small size of the Al Mujib settlements should therefore not lead one to assume a priori that early Iron Age producers were less abusive toward the landscape. Rather, such impacts should be investigated using whatever direct and indirect evidence is available. Archaeological excavations in different settlements indicate that agriculture and pastoralism (or, agro-pastoralism) was the principal mode of production, Porter said, adding that faunal and paleobotanical evidence from Al Mudayna Al Aliya reveals that producers emphasised goats over sheep, and barley over wheat, an arrangement often chosen by producers subsisting in semi-arid conditions "The extent to which this agro-pastoralist system was intensified during the Early Iron Age is a key question for determining the short-term and long-term impacts on the landscape." "Geographers have observed that the intensification of agricultural economies in marginal zones can lead to the over-exploitation of naturally available resources and landscape degradation through practices such as overgrazing, aggressive planting, and irrigation," Porter underlined. Such corrosive activities can leave signatures in the archaeological and environmental record that are available for analysis. The fact that preindustrial producers living on the Eastern Karak Plateau in the millennia before and after the Early Iron Age developed agro-pastoralist economies suggests that economic intensification was possible here despite the semi-arid steppe conditions. Landscape and settlement excavations have determined that the Eastern Karak Plateau witnessed five periods of agricultural intensification, albeit different in scale and organisation. During the Early Bronze Age II-III period (c. 3100-2300 BC), nucleated agro-pastoralist settlements were larger compared to the Early Iron Age, said Porter. The professor added that four later episodes, in the Iron Age IIC (the 7th-6th centuries BC), Nabataean-Early Roman (c. 100 BC-106 C), Late Roman through Byzantine (c. 284-551 CE) and Middle Islamic (c. 1250-1516 CE periods, occurred while the Karak Plateau was under the sway of external empires, the Assyrian, Roman, Byzantine and Mamluk Empires, respectively, the professor explained. He added that in each instance, settlement is characterised by a combination of military forts and dispersed farmsteads and towers extending to the very edge of the desert margins. Evidence for agro-pastoralist practices reveals a diverse food economy designed to feed a larger population as well as produce for regional markets. "These earlier and later instances of economic development indicate that intensification was possible on the Eastern Karak Plateau under the right political and economic conditions. The organic and inorganic evidence recovered from Early Iron Age settlements, however, suggest that agro-pastoralism was substantially less intensive compared to earlier and later periods of settlement," Porter explained. The professor added that the faunal evidence sampled from multiple buildings at Al MudaynaAl 'Aliya reveal that domestic sheep (Ovis aries) and goat (Capra hircus) herds were limited in size. This size was likely determined by households that balanced their short-term preferences for primary products such as meat with their long-term needs for secondary products such as milk and animal hair. The amount of available labour may have also determined herd size. "The settlements likely followed a common pattern in pastoralist economies in which households cooperate by appointing a small number of individuals to manage herding duties," Porter said.
