THE UNIVERSITY DAIRY KANSAN
FRIDAY MONTHLY HALF WEEKEND
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2008
NEWS
3A
CULTURE
'Light festival' provides insight into Indian culture
BY HALEY JONES
hjones@kansan.com
Sudarshan Loya remembers the last time he celebrated Diwali in central India with his family. His house was filled with vibrant shades of orange- and magenta-dyed silk as 40 of his relatives and closest friends gathered for Diwali, the festival of lights.
Loya's mother lit oil-burning lamps, which cast a soft glow on the faces of those in the room. The rich smell of spices and sugary sweets filled the home as his friends knelt to pray together and share what had happened in their lives since their last meeting.
Diwali is a celebration of lights that is celebrated during the time of Diya, which is a widely celebrated East Indian festival. This year, Diwali fell on Oct. 28. But on Sunday, the KU Cultural India Club, a group for international Indian students at the University, will hold its sixth annual celebration of Diya.
"Diwali is like Christmas," he said.
"It's a fun thing for a family to get together."
The event features native dances, music and fashions from various Indian states. After the dancing and singing, Korma Sutra, an Indian restaurant in Kansas City, Mo., will provide dinner, Loya, Maharashtra, India senior and cultural chair of the KU Cultural India Club, or KUCIC, said Diwali was the most important festival of the year.
Families and friends gather for fellowship and to share their lives with one another during Diwali, which lasts one week. Loya said because India was such a large country, families prepared to travel and meet together for the holiday.
"We are waiting for this time to happen," he said. "We look ahead to Diwali so we can all meet together and have fun, enjoy sweets and Indian food."
The festival of lights earned the name "Diya" for the rows of small earthen lamps, or diyas, families light every day for the six days of
Diwali. The lights symbolize the victory of good over evil.
Amruta Bhadkamkar, Mumbai, India, junior and president of KUICIC, said other KU students would benefit from attending the event because it displayed Indian culture.
"India is not Europe or Germany or Spain, which are pretty well known, but India has started coming up recently and becoming economically strong," Bhadakam said.
She said Indian culture in Lawrence was visible and that most Indian students had a strong network of support from other Indian students, which helped many students with the transition to U.S. culture. She said the biggest challenges Indian students had to overcome included the language barrier, the difference in cuisine and the unpredictable Midwestern weather.
"I don't think it's very difficult for Indians to adjust," she said. "If we do find it difficult, there are people who have been here for years and they know what to do and what not to do."
Santosh Thakkar, Maharash, India graduate student, said the KUCIC festival of Diwali was open to people of all religions and cultures. He said the event would accommodate all nationalities and beliefs and celebrate commonalities between individuals.
Loya said he enjoyed bringing
his vibrant native culture to the U.S. while learning about American culture. He said he loved celebrating Halloween and other American traditions, but learning about new culture gave him a greater appreciation of his own.
"America gives us the freedom that we can celebrate our own culture and have other festivals," he said. "We get to see more areas and ideologies in a different part of the world. We are not giving up our culture, but are also celebrating yours."
The Diya festival begins at 6 p.m.
on Nov.16, in Woodruff Auditorium
in the Kansas Union.
INTERNATIONAL
North Korea to close south border amid rising tensions
— Edited by Arthur Hur
BY JEAN H. LEE
ASSOCIATED PRESS
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea's powerful military announced Wednesday it will shit the country's border with the South on Dec. 1 — a marked escalation of threats against Seoul's new conservative government at a time of heightened tension on the peninsula.
The military's chief delegate to inter-Korean talks informed his South Korean counterpart Wednesday that the North will "restrict and cut off" cross-border routes next month, state-run Korean Central News Agency said.
Analysts called it a pointed political move designed to humiliate Seoul by hobbling a joint industrial park in the city of Kaesong, just across the border, that has served as a beacon of hope for reconciliation.
South Korea was preparing to send its official response to the North on Thursday, Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan told reporters. He declined to elaborate.
Relations between the two Koreas — separated by troops, tanks and one of the world's most heavily armed borders since a three-year war that ended in a truce in 1953
have been frosty since South Korea's President Lee Myung-bak took office in February.
Lee pledged to be tough with communist North Korea, an abrupt departure from his liberal predecessors' decade-long policy
of fostering reconciliation with aid and other concessions.
Pyongyang reacted by cutting off diplomatic ties with Seoul. Ties deteriorated further in July when a North Korean soldier fatally shot a South Korean tourist visiting Diamond Mountain, with Seoul banning tours to the jointly operated resort in the North.
After months without contact, the North's military summoned South Korea to the border for talks last month, only to berate Seoul over anti-Pyongyang leaflets that continue to flutter over the border in helium-fueled balloons.
The two Koreas had agreed in 2004 to end propaganda warfare across the border, but the South says it cannot prohibit activists from dispatching the leaflets, citing freedom of speech.
Wednesday's warning — the North's most concrete, calculated threat yet — amounts to an ultimatum to the Lee administration to acknowledge that it must abide by past agreements, analysts said.
"This is a critical juncture in their estimation that they have to take some action," said Paik Hak-soon of South Korea's Sejong Institute. "They feel that they have waited enough."
The warning is "very, very serious," said Lim Eul-chul of Kyungnam University's Institute for Far Eastern Studies in Seoul.
The tension comes amid questions about the health of North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Il. U.S. and South Korean officials say Kim, 66, suffered a stroke, but North Korea denies he was ever ill.
"This is an escalation of North Korea warnings," Paik said.
Pyongyang's tactic may be to wear Seoul down. However, the Lee administration has stood its ground and said little Wednesday about the North's latest move. "Waiting is sometimes a strategy," Lee said, according to his spokesman.
The North's decision to shut the border is "regrettable," said Kim Ho-nyeon, the Unification Ministry spokesman.
Paik said Pyongyang may use Kaesong to humiliate Seoul. Shutting down Kaesong would be a "serious blow to South Korean politics. It will start off a debate what went wrong with North Korea policy."
The Kaesong complex has been a key source of hard currency for the impoverished North and a symbol of reconciliation: South Korean firms send raw materials through the border and the goods come back stamped "Made in Kaesong."
Lim said he doubted North
Korea would kick everyone out Dec. 1.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
He and other analysts noted that North Korea has a pattern of using provocation as a negotiating tactic, both with South Korea and with other nations seeking to disarm the Korean peninsula.
"They will take gradual steps to pressure our government to change their policy. That is their main goal."
Tourists look through the barbed wire fence decorated with messages wishing for the reunification of the two Koreas on Wednesday in Imjingak, a park north of Seoul, South Korea. North Korea said on Wednesday that it would ban land crossings at its border with South Korea.
On Wednesday, the North's foreign ministry announced that it won't allow outside inspectors to take samples from its main nuclear complex to verify its accounting of past nuclear activities.
The North said it never agreed to such sampling, contradicting statements by U.S. officials. The conflicting statements could prove to be a new snag in the long process of nuclear disarmament on the Korean peninsula.
State Department spokesman Robert Wood contradicted the North's claims that it never agreed to allow outside inspectors to take samples. Sample-taking is believed to be a key means of nuclear verification.
TRADITION KEEPERS
Win a behind-the-scenes tour of Allen Field House and meet Coach Self
One lucky Tradition Keeper, along with two friends will win a private, behind the scenes tour of Allen Fieldhouse. The winner and friends also will have a private meet and greet with KU basketball Head Coach Bill Self! This is a new event sponsored by the KU Student Alumni Association.
Registration Dates
Nov. 19 & 20
11 a.m.-1 p.m.
Adams Alumni Center
(Home Football Friday)
10 a.m.-2 p.m.
Kansas Union
The winner will be announced at the Tradition Keepers Finals Dinner, Dec. 15, 2008, at the Adams Alumni Center.
The tour will be given during the first week of school in January 2009, by a KU marketing representative. At the end of the tour, the winner and friends will meet Coach Self and have a chance to get autographs and take pictures.
How to enter
1. Stop by a registration table and fill out an entry form.
2. To be eligible for the contest, a student must be a member of Tradition Keepers for the 2008-2009 school year.
3. Make a suggested donation of $5 to the Assist Youth Foundation. All donations benefit the Assist Youth Foundation.
Questions? Contact Stefani Gerson at 864-4760 or sgerson@kualumni.org.