7th annual aso spring forum - university of...

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ABOUT THE ASO AND THE ANNUAL SPRING FORUMS

The African Students Organization is a registered student organization at the University of

Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Our mission is to create and identify opportunities for members

from the African continent, of African descent in the diaspora and people interested in Africa to

enhance awareness about African issues, cultures and values. We pursue our goals through

forums, seminars and workshops.

ASO organizes annual forums aimed at promoting campus awareness and activism on matters

regarding the African continent and diaspora. These forums provide students, faculty, and staff

with an opportunity to showcase new research ideas in a casual and open environment. Our hope

is that our forum will support creative debates, broaden knowledge, inspire innovations, suggest

solutions to Africa’s problems and foster professional networking. So far, we have successfully

hosted six forums and have collaborated with departments such as the Center for African Studies

(CAS) and the Department of linguistics; and associations such as the African Cultural

Association, a registered student organization at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

President: John Oyelakin

Email: [email protected]

Vice President: Esther Eke


General Secretary: Hapsa Wane


Publicity Secretary: Lavern Byfield


Social Secretary: Imelda Kanchule Moise


Treasurer: Lwaga A Kibona


mailto:[email protected]






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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We wish to thank this year’s keynote speaker, Prof. Rozell W “Prexy” Nesbitt for taking time off

from his busy schedule to come and speak at our forum.

Many thanks go to the Department heads and professors who supported our work: Prof. Merle

Bowen and Prof. Maimouna Barro from the Center for African Studies, Prof. Ilesanmi Adesida

from the College of Engineering, Prof. Ayo Awobode from the Department of Physics, Prof.

Bekisizwe Ndimande from the Department of Curriculum and Instruction and Prof. Ibrahima

Ndoye from the Humanities Department at Parkland College. We also extend our thanks to Dr.

Mathias Twizeyimana.

The 2010 ASO Spring Forum was made possible through the efforts of a committee of dedicated

graduate students: John Oyelakin from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Esther Eke

from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Imelda K. Moise from the

Department of Geography, Hapsatou Wane from the Department of Comparative World

Literature, Kibona Lwaga from the Department of Economics, Fredrick K. Lugya from the

Graduate School of Library and Information Science, Lavern Byfield from the Department of

Curriculum and Instruction, Anne Lutomia from the Department of Education Policy and

Human Resource Education and Wang’ombe K. Gitonga from the Department of Human

Resources Education.

We gratefully acknowledge the support of the following organizations:

African Cultural Association (ACA)

Students Organization Resource Funds (SORF)

Center for African Studies (CAS)

College of Engineering, Office of the Dean

Wal-Mart

Meijer

Special thanks to Leonard Muaka for his generous donation and Christina Augustyn for

volunteering her graphic design services.

A TRIBUTE TO THE LATE PROFESSOR IBULAIMU KAKOMA, A MENTOR

Last year, we lost a mentor and father, Professor Ibulaimu Kakoma. We celebrate his life today

and remember him as a great supporter of ASO, and elder among the African community in

Urbana-Champaign.

He will be greatly missed!!!

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FORUM THEME STATEMENT

Africa is the second largest continent with a total area of 30.2 million km² (11.7 million sq mi)

including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total

land area. Total African population as of 20th April 2010 is 1,013,000,000 (USA statistics: US

statistical abstracts) which is one sixth of the world’s population of 6 billion and is set to double

in about a quarter century because of a high fertility rate of 4.5 on average. Naturally indulged in

terms of resources, Africa is the earth of developing countries whose role at the global level has

yet to be acknowledged fifty years after their respective independence.

Twenty-seven African countries celebrate 50 years of independence this year. What remains of

colonial life? What has changed in the past 50 years? What is the assessment we can make out of

the fifty years of independence in terms of development strategies, education, language,

entrepreneurship and arts?

MEET THIS YEAR’S KEYNOTE SPEAKER: ROZELL W. “PREXY” NESBITT

Prof. Prexy Nesbitt is a human rights activist and a

speaker and educator on Africa, foreign policy, and

racism. Over the course of his career, he has combined

organizing and learning, activism and education. He was

a special aide to Harold Washington, the first African

American mayor of Chicago; worked for the Institute for

Policy Studies and the John D. and Katherine T.

MacArthur Foundation; and co-founded the African

Information Service. He has been the Southern African

representative for the American Center for International

Labor Solidarity in Johannesburg; the Interim Director for America Friends Service Committee

Africa Program; and the National Organizer for Africa Action. Currently, he is a consultant on

Diversity for the Francis W. Parker School and the University of Chicago Laboratory schools; an

African history instructor at Columbia College in Chicago; and the Senior Multiculturalism and

Diversity specialist at the Chicago Teachers Center and Northeastern Illinois University. He

holds an M.A. degree in History from Northwestern University, where he is also a Ph.D.

candidate in African history, and also holds an MA in African history from University College,

Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania—a country he first visited as an AEA student from 1965- 1966.

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PROGRAM AGENDA

Opening and Welcome Address 10:00 -10:15am

John Oyelakin – President, African Students Organization (ASO).

Prof. Merle Bowen – Director, Center for African Studies (CAS), UIUC.

Education Session 10:20 -11:35am

Facilitator: Prof. Maimouna Barro – Associate Director, CAS.

10:20-10:35 am

Language Learning in Kenyan Primary Schools: Socio-Cultural and Dialogic

Perspectives

Esther Lisanza

Education, UIUC

10:35-10:50 am

Africa: Lessons from Library Consortia in Developed Countries

Fredrick Lugya

Library and Information Science, UIUC

10:50-11:05 am

Information and Communication Technologies: A Gendered Perspective

Arnold DoMonique

Library and Information Science, UIUC

11:05-11:20 am

Interrogating Americans: A look at Chevron Oil in Angola

Heather Kourous

Columbia University, Chicago

Q & A Session – 11:20 – 11:35am

Special Session 11:40am -12:20pm

Facilitator: Prof. Ayo Awobode – Physics Department, UIUC

11:40-12:00 pm

Introducing the I-GIVE Initiative

Prof. Pratap Vanka and Prof. K. Jimmy Hsia

Mechanical Science and Engineering, UIUC

12:00-12:20 pm

Address on Technological Developments in Africa

Prof. Ilesanmi Adesida

Dean, College of Engineering, UIUC

Informal Session (concurrent with LUNCH BREAK*) 12:20 -1:45pm

12:20 – 12:50pm

Poster Presentations

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12:50 – 1:30pm

Video Presentation

The Wind of Change: The End of Colonialism in Africa

Dr. Mathias Twizeyimana

1:30 – 1:45pm

Modern Day Slavery in a Globalized World: Human Trafficking in Africa and the U.S

Shana Wills

Executive Director, International Organization for Adolescents (IOFA)

Development Strategies Session 1:50 -3:05pm

Facilitator: Prof. Bekisizwe Ndimande – Curriculum and Instruction, UIUC.

1:50-2:05pm

Enterpreneurship: The Way Forward

Patrick Boadu

Champaign, IL

2:05 – 2:20 pm

Empowering Local Stakeholders in Nigeria’s Oil and Gas Industry

John Oyelakin

Mechanical Engineering, UIUC

2:20-2:35 pm

Developing Africa: Perspective from a Developing China

Ruiyu Wang

Civil Engineering, UIUC

2:35-2:50 pm

Evolving Political Accountability in Kenya

Jacob Butler

Center for African Studies, UIUC

Q & A Session – 2:50 – 3:05pm

Arts and Communication Session 3:10 -4:10pm

Facilitator: Prof. Ibrahima Ndoye – Humanities Department, Parkland College, Champaign, IL

3:10-3:25 pm

Swahili as a Tool for Regional Integration in East Africa

Lydiah Kiramba


3:25 – 3:40 pm

Music, the New Native Tongue in Senegalese Cinema

Hapsatou Wane

Comparative World Literature, UIUC

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3:40 – 3:55 pm

Cultural Nationalism in a Trans-state of Affairs: The Paradox of Popular Music in

Malawi

Rick Deja

Ethnomusicology, UIUC

Q & A Session – 3:55 – 4:10pm

Keynote Address 4:15 -4:45pm Prof. Rozell W. “Prexy” Nesbitt

Interaction Session 4:45-5:00pm

Vote of Thanks 5:00pm

Esther Eke – Vice President (ASO) and Chairman, Forum Planning Committee.

* Note: Complimentary lunch will be provided at the conference venue for all participants.

**POSTERS

The I-GIVE Initiative

Prof. P Vanka and Prof. Jimmy Hsia

Mechanical Science and Engineering, UIUC

Educational System in East Africa

Lwaga Kibona and Kevin Gitonga

Business / Human Resources Education, UIUC

How do work groups from different cultures form Performance Norms?

Anne Lutomia and Elaine Wachira

Human Resources Development, UIUC

How HIV/AIDS infected parents affect their children’s perspective on AIDS

Abiodun Adesope


Artificial Reefs and Tourism in Mauritius: A Symbiotic Relationship

Poonam Jusrut

Geography, UIUC

Neighborhood, Mosquitoes and Swimming Pools

Imelda Moise and Marilyn Ruiz

Department of Geography and Pathobiology, UIUC

Poster from the Center for African Studies

Poster from the African Cultural Association

Language Learning in Kenyan Primary

Schools: Sociocultural and Dialogic

Perspectives

ESTHER LISANZA PhD Candidate: Elementary Education in

Curriculum and Instruction, Language and Literacy

Division, UIUC

This paper looks at language learning in rural

primary schools in Kenya. It draws its

illustrations from a preliminary study I carried

out in January 2007 for one week, Government’s

educational documents on language learning and

teaching, and other studies done in Kenyan

primary schools. It seeks to answer the

following questions: What is the role of English,

Swahili, and other indigenous languages in

Kenyan classrooms? How do children

participate in the official speaking, reading, and

writing activities? What is the role of talk, play,

and drawing in the children’s language learning?

What is the role of cultural resources in

language learning? What are Kenyans’ guiding

ideologies about languages in schools? What is

the role of Government’s language policy in

primary schools? What is the nature of teacher-

child relationship during language activities?

Finally, what are the implications of

Government’s language policy on schools?

This paper draws heavily from sociocultural and

dialogic theoretical frameworks. According to

sociocultural view, children develop as speakers,

readers, and writers through repeated

participation in speaking, reading, and writing

activities with the help of knowledgeable others.

In addition, dialogic view acknowledges that

each oral or written utterance is influenced and

shaped by past conversations in which speakers

or writers have taken part. Therefore, children

become language users by appropriating voices

that surround them. Also, from a dialogic view,

language is not neutral but is implicated in the

way we speak, read, and write. Moreover, social

tools like language that literacy practices employ

are political and ideological.

Africa: Lessons from Library Consortia

in Developed Countries

FREDRICK KIWUWA LUGYA School of Library and Information Science, UIUC.

The notion and the need for cooperation in

developing countries and the benefits of

collaboration are not new phenomena

worldwide. To a greater extent developed

countries have experienced tremendous

successes, whereas developing countries still

face challenges. Could the successes in

developed countries be attributed to good

funding? How about outstanding leadership,

effective communication, innovation,

networking and involvement of membership, E-

resources brokering, shared integrated library

systems, and efficient delivery of print resource?

Could the identified success factors be a solution

to the challenges that still face developing

countries amid lack of enough funding?

Many researchers have attributed consortium

failure in developing countries to poor funding

without looking at other factors such as

committed leadership, effective communication,

cooperative and participative membership. Lack

of funding to facilitate consortium activities is

not the central factor in the failed progress of the

planned consortium activities, rather it is the

lack of committed leadership and cooperation

among participating member libraries. Central to

the establishment of consortia are: the

establishment of a consortium leadership, the

sharing of responsibility and decision making

processes, effective and right communication,

advocacy, sources of funding and government

involvement, role and responsibility of

participating member libraries and their

contribution to and expectations from the

consortium.

Research findings are presented from the review

of Consortium of Academic and Research

Libraries in Illinois (CARLI) staff and

committee reports, minutes and Bylaws;

questionnaire feedback from directors of CARLI

member institutions; and interviews with

CARLI staff. Conclusions emerge from issues

that relate to developing countries like Uganda,

and how challenges will be locally addressed.

The ultimate goal is to identify factors that have

led to the success of CARLI and how such

factors can be locally applied to developing

countries like Uganda.

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Information and Communication

Technologies: A Gendered Perspective

DOMONIQUE ARNOLD Graduate School of Library and Information Science

The 'digital divide' is a phrase with which many

scholars and activists are becoming more and

more familiar. It is an urgent concern that is

repeatedly brought up in studies involved in

globalization and its effects. Due to many

socioeconomic and political factors, many areas

across the continent are unable to keep apace

with the accelerating boom of information and

communication technologies (ICTs) in more

developed regions. The goal of disciplines such

as Community Informatics is to bring the power

of the wealthy into the hands of those living in

underprivileged and embattled communities.

Unfortunately, this goal is easier to state than to

accomplish; despite efforts originating in the

mid-1990s to institute wider use of ICTs within

different types of communities in Africa, there is

still a large measure of progress which should be

made in order to bring all of Africa up to speed

in this new information age. In addition to there

being a digital divide between the whole of

Africa and other developed countries, within

Africa itself there is a growing digital divide

between urban and rural centers, and there is

also the concern of the digital divide between

men and women. ICTs have the potential to even

out the possession of power that information can

give, so that change, change which would come

from those within these communities, from those

who know what the problems are, can be more

easily enacted.

In order to comprehensively understand the

phenomenon of information and communication

technologies, and the ways that ICTs may be

tailored to fit various African communities'

needs, there are a number of factors which

should be investigated. The main factors to

consider when evaluating ICT use are: access

(and lack of it), relevance in the life of the user,

sustainability, and technological environment.

Interrogating Americans: A look at

Chevron Oil in Angola

HEATHER KOUROUS Department of photography

Columbia University, Chicago

In the early 1920s, Gulf Oil* was one of the first

oil companies to brand itself, using a familiar

orange logo to signify consistent quality to the

consumer. According to the Gulf Oil website,

the Gulf Oil logo reassured consumers that they

were purchasing a reliable product during a time

when unbranded gasoline was unpredictable and

often of poor quality. The positive nostalgia that

many Americans feel for Gulf Oil is at

significant odds with the reality of the

company's history in Angola, and is indicative of

the separate existence that the American

company has maintained from Angolan realities.

Within my paper I interrogate the history of Gulf

Oil's presence in Angola, and show the ways in

which Gulf Oil has profited from Angola's civil

war and utilized various tactics to extract the

maximum export profit while avoiding actions

that would provide stability to Angolese citizens

themselves.

*In 1984 Gulf Oil became Chevron when it was

acquired by the Pacific Coast Company. In 2001

Chevron merged with Texaco and together the

two companies became Unocal Corp.

Entrepreneurship: The Way Forward PATRICK BOADU Champaign, IL

An entrepreneur is a person who is willing and

able to convert a new idea or invention into a

successful innovation. Creating new partnership

to bring about better and newer ideas for social-

economic development will be examined.

Empowering Local Stakeholders in

Nigeria’s Oil and Gas Industry

JOHN OYELAKIN Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering,

UIUC

Nigeria attained independence from British

colonialism in 1960, shortly before the major

crude oil discoveries of the ‘60s and the oil

boom of the ‘70s. The task of crude oil

exploration and production requires a level of

technology and expertise that the young Nigeria

in the ‘60s could not provide, but needed help

from oil prospecting companies from developed

countries. Partnerships were loosely defined at

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first, until the emergence of the present day Joint

Venture (JV) partnerships with the Nigerian

National Petroleum Company (NNPC).

Nigeria, a prominent member of the

Organization of the Petroleum Exporting

Countries (OPEC), currently produces about 2

million barrels of oil per day, accounting for

80% of the gross domestic product (GDP), 95%

of foreign exchange earnings and 65% of

government revenues.

In recent times, there have been calls to increase

the participation of local stakeholders in the

Nigerian oil and gas industry, with the aim of

establishing independence from foreign

expertise. Furthermore, the incessant crises in

the oil-rich regions have made it unsafe, or

otherwise expensive, to maintain expatriates and

keep the cost of doing business low in the

multinational operating companies. The

Nigerian Government has created departments

whose functions are to develop blueprints and

implement local content policies. This paper

examines current proposals and pilot policies, in

an attempt to define what constitutes a

sustainable and beneficial local content policy.

Suggestions are also made that should assist the

development and long-term implementation of a

successful local content program.

Developing Africa: Perspective from a

Developing China

RUIYU WANG PhD Candidate

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Fifty years ago, most of the countries in Africa

won independence. The task of forging a path

towards modernized countries is however, still

being explored. The concept of modernized

country is viewed by Chinese to have three

components: the feeling of a nation; the

modernization of society and politics; and the

modernization of science, technology, industry

and culture. Developed western countries have

usually been used as paradigms of

modernizations of developing countries, with

little regard to the enormous differences between

them in many aspects. China, however, may

provide another perspective, since Africa and

China have more historical and present

similarities. Equality between nations is

regarded as the basic assumption of any ideas

put forward about our world, even if this

assumption will never be really proved. It is

revealed here that due to the limit of resources,

the order of our world can be seen as a mixture

of zero-sum game and co-operation. Our world

is strongly hierarchical, and from many

perspective, not fair, and it is righteous for any

country to strive for a higher hierarchy.

Strengthening of administration, education,

industrialization, control of population,

protection of environment, democracy and law

enforcement are all necessary for a country to

develop. Experiences and lectures from China

can be useful and intriguing for African

countries, though many things are still open to

discussion and debates.

Evolving Political Accountability in

Kenya

JACOB BUTLER M.A. – African Studies (1st Year)

The political structure of Kenya changed

dramatically in 1992 when multiparty elections

were held for the first time in the country’s

history. This development was a divergence

from the country’s history as a one-party state in

which public dissent and oppositional politics

were dealt with by violence, detention, and loss

of access to political patronage. In adopting the

democratic principle of multiparty elections,

Kenyan politicians entered a new political world

where accountability, a key characteristic of a

functioning democracy, would be expected from

leaders. Throughout this paper I will analyze the

evolving political accountability in the country

from a historical perspective. I will argue that

the push for accountability by the voting public,

the media and other civil society groups, and

international donors and actors has been a highly

contested and evolving battle as entrenched

politicians have abused power in order to avoid

being held accountable, thus allowing them to

engage in politics as usual. The paper opens by

indentifying a working definition of what

political accountability is and its importance to

democracy, followed by a discussion of

accountability (or lack thereof) in Kenya. Next,

I turn toward different arenas where the game of

political accountability manifests itself: the

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media, the judicial court system, and the

involvement of international actors in domestic

politics in the country.

Swahili as a Tool for Regional Integration

in East Africa LYDIAH KANANU KIRAMBA Center for African Studies, UIUC

The regional integration process is at a high

pitch at the moment, following the signing of the

treaty for the establishment of the East African

Community. The East African Community

(EAC) is the regional intergovernmental

organization of the Republics of Kenya, Uganda,

the United Republic of Tanzania, the Republic

of Rwanda and the Republic of Burundi with its

headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania. The EAC

hopes to strengthen the export bargaining power

of the region, as it tries to compete with southern

African countries. This co-operation between the

five countries is aimed at widening and

deepening economic, political, social and

cultural integration in order to improve the

quality of life of the people.

With a population of around 120 million and

varied resources, languages and culture,

inadequate information dissemination is one of

the major challenges facing the EAC, as it seeks

to meet its objectives. As a matter of fact, the

illiterate and semi-literate, form a big proportion

of the people in the region. They are not likely to

study English, a thing that will greatly hold back

business transactions in the region. This calls for

an effective communication medium to link the

five states, enabling appropriate flow of

information.

This paper examines the potential for Swahili as

a tool for integration in East Africa among

people with different linguistic backgrounds. It

argues that Swahili is an adequate tool for

regional and international interaction for

political, economic, social, cultural, educational,

scientific and technological development of East

Africa. The challenges hindering the use of

Swahili in this process are highlighted and

recommendations provided for the

empowerment of Swahili to adequately meet the

challenges.

Music, the New Native Tongue in

Senegalese Cinema

HAPSATOU WANE Department of Comparative World Literature, UIUC

“One of the great strengths of cinema is that it is

made with image and sound and these facilitate

the use of native tongues.” Paula Fortner’s

statement hints that cinema is the reflection of a

cultural identity. For years, African cinema has

been this big canvas with which all African

films can identify. In an attempt to provide an

accurate answer to the question of “Africanness”

in African films, critics such as Manthia

Diawara choose to subdivide African cinema

into different linguistics areas. There was a need

to consider African cinema as a common

denominator for many linguistically and

culturally diverse African countries. As the

objective was to deny the homogeneity of

African cinema, critics categorized African films

according to the former colonial languages

institutionalized national languages in some

African countries such as Senegal.

Thus Senegalese cinema has immediately been

labeled as a Sub-Saharan Francophone cinema.

This demonstrates the importance of language in

the conceptualization of Senegalese cinema.

However, Ousmane Sembene’s latest film

“Moolaade” in which very little French is

spotted while the film is almost entirely in Jula,

does not respond to the label of Francophone

cinema and falls back into the canvas of Sub-

Saharan cinema or else Senegalese cinema made

by a Senegalese director. The use of former

colonial language is thus questioned by

Senegalese filmmakers such as Ousmane

Sembene and Mansour Sora Wade. More than

decolonizing the gaze on Senegal, the issue of

language appears as a part of the process of

decolonizing the cinematic language as well.

Although, it displays the specificity of

Senegalese cinema, the plurality of native

languages in Senegal does not allow an accurate

cultural labelization of Senegalese cinema.

Another “language” has been developed as a

cinematic strategy and while acting as an entire

component of film, serves the motives of

Senegalese filmmakers: music.

This paper examines in which ways music is the

new native tongue in Senegalese cinema. In

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selected films illustrating the shift from the

independence to our days, this paper analyzes

how the use of diegetic and non-diegetic music

and songs is an attempt at Africanizing or

“Senegalizing” their films. This paper’s ultimate

goal is to demonstrate that the Senegalese

signature of Senegalese films is to be found

through the filmmakers’ cinematic use of music,

differentiating it from other national and

continental cinemas. The question then will be:

Does the use of music in Senegalese films

parallel the importance of music in Senegalese

oral tradition and act like a new Senegalese

native tongue?

Cultural Nationalism in a Trans-state of

Affairs: The Paradox of Popular Music in

Malawi

RICK DEJA PhD student in Ethnomusicology ,UIUC

During the mid-twentieth century within much

of Africa, nationalism was a state-initiated

process to mobilize and unify constituents in

support of a new and novel collective identity

formation within arbitrary territorial boundaries.

Nationalist agendas occurred with varying

degrees of success throughout the continent, and

independence was ultimately achieved, if only

on paper. Today, the extent of national

sentiment, as well as independence, continues to

vary, though the political state as a territory and

an identity unit appears to be a normal condition

of everyday life. As trans-state networks become

increasingly salient along with the

accompanying mass flows of people, capital,

ideologies, and technology, the relevance and

even autonomy of the state has come under

scrutiny.

This paper considers the current roles of cultural

nationalism, mass media, and individual agency

as they pertain to the nation-state and trans-state

networks. It looks at the popular music industry

and related networks in and around Malawi as a

means of examining these relationships between

the individual, the state, and larger geographic

scales operating within the discourse of

globalization. It considers recent political and

economic developments relating to mass media

and technology in Malawi, and addresses these

elements together with contemporary cultural

nationalism as a means of influencing power

dynamics and agency (‘independence’). It will

highlight the career of Malawian hip-hop artist

Tay Grin as a case study to illustrate these

themes operating within the wake of economic

and cultural imperialism amidst a network of

trans-state flows and processes.

Abandoned, Insolvent, Dire, Sub-

Saharan: How HIV/AIDS infected

parents affect their Children’s Perception

on AIDS (Poster)

ABIODUN ADESOPE Center for African Studies, UIUC

Africa currently stands as the continent with the

highest rate of children orphaned by AIDS. The

current rate stands at 95% and it is estimated that

by 2010, the number of children orphaned by

AIDS will be forty million. One the objectives

of this paper is to take a look at the plight of

children in Africa with HIV/AIDS infected

parents. A serious and devastating impact of

HIV/AIDS is the desertion, abandonment and

absolute neglect of thousands of children that

have lost their parents to the disease. These

children are left desolate and in most cases are

forced to move into and live in deplorable

conditions in slums and ghettos.

This phenomenon raises several questions that I

think deserve attention and consequently,

answers. It is important to find out the outlook

of these children on life and how they see and

feel about things when the greater part of their

life experience is essentially comprised of death

through a disease they do not entirely

understand, when untimely and painful death has

practically become the norm for them.

It is a well known fact that there is a disturbing

lack of adequate and appropriate health care

regimens for the people infected with HIV/AIDS

and the disease has become commonplace and

somewhat ubiquitous. It then makes sense to

find out how the disease affects the general

mentality of Africans and how it affects their

willingness and determination to live. It is

important to know this not only because it

happens to be important to the study this paper

describes, but because the rate of infection on

the continent is increasing at an exponential rate.

In 2001, Sub-Saharan Africa accounted for over

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two-thirds of the forty million people living with

the virus on the whole African continent even

though it only contains about 10% of the world’s

population. It is also sad to know that this region

of the world contained more than 90% of

children orphaned by and/or living with AIDS.

It is correct to infer that all the aforementioned

conditions and issues have a great effect on the

psyche of these children and how they deal with

it. This then leads one to ask if the existing

belief structure that prevails in a child’s

environment or one that is handed down by

parents have an effect on the children they raise

and consequentially, affect their outlook on life.

These children live a life of potential infection

with a disease that ensures death, orphaned by it

and in some cases, live with infected parents or

guardians. They live a nearly hopeless life, one

in which they are largely forgotten and do not

seem to be cared for by anyone. A world in

which the future seems nothing but bleak and

they are expected to die and become another

statistic.

The essential significance of this paper then is to

find out if the belief system these children and

their infected relatives have is enough to provide

them with a sliver of hope and help them fight to

seek means of bettering and extending their life

spans. What health beliefs are infused in the

parents that they in turn pass on to their children.

In this paper I aim to answer the question: How

are HIV infected parents affecting their

children’s perspective on life?

Artificial Reefs and Tourism in

Mauritius: A Symbiotic Relationship (Poster)

POONAM JUSRUT Department of Geography , UIUC

The Republic of Mauritius welcomes almost one

million tourists annually, the majority of whom

are attracted to the combination of ‘sun, sand

and sea’. Since Mauritius is not the only

country offering such a package to tourists, it

has to diversify its product. It can do so by

tapping the niche market of artificial reef scuba

diving to maintain the viability of its tourism

industry, which is one of the most important

pillars of the economy. In spite of challenges,

artificial reefs not only allow the creation of

tourist attractions but also posit as one of the

sustainable reef management methods,

especially by reducing tourist pressure on

natural reefs. While tourism must abide by the

rules of nature conservation for its own survival,

tourism can also act as a catalyst for

environmental conservation and embellishment.

Mosquitoes, neighborhoods and

swimming pools in Post- Katrina New

Orleans (Poster) IMELDA K. MOISE, MARILYN O. RUIZ Department of Geography and Pathobiology,

UIUC,

Studies around the world have shown that there

is a significant link between the environment

and health outcomes in local areas. One aspect

often missing from these studies is the role

physical incivilities play in influencing health

outcomes in urban neighborhoods. Physical

incivilities would include tangible facets of the

environment such as abandoned buildings and

cars, vacant lots, litter and unkempt lawns. This

study aims to examine whether there are

systematic differences in the potential for

swimming pools (conceptualized as urban

opportunity structures) for colonization of

mosquito which can carry diseases such as

West Nile virus and Dengue virus. We used

various data to assess neighborhood

characteristics over time such as, vegetation,

resettlement patterns based on mail delivery,

socio-economic census data and data collected

from site inspections of 3,788 pools, hot tubs

and ponds in winter 2006 through fall 2009.

The information from this study will provide

insights to New Orleans City managers into

what neighborhood features are related to

potential for vector-borne illnesses and the role

of swimming pools in these settings.

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