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Arslan Jumaniyazov (Arslanik)
Male, 28 from Dashoguz, Turkmenistan
Joined TIG: May 13, 2004
My name is Arslan. I was born in Dashoguz, in Turkmenistan, when it was still a part of the Soviet Union. When I was 11, the Soviet Union collapsed, and that had a huge impact on my country and on my family. There was an identity crisis, and people thought education wasn’t important. I was a big fan of chess and was a candidate for a master’s degree, but suddenly we were cut off from Russia and most available literature. That’s why I started my undergraduate degree fairly late, at the age of 23, when I entered into the American studies program at the American University in Central Asia in Kyrgyzstan. As a junior student, I was invited to deliver a paper at a conference in Turkey, where I met a delegate from Purdue University. I later applied to the American studies program at Purdue. I was admitted, and I’ve been studying here since August 2007. I love the campus here, especially the library and all the books and journals, and I’ve come to realize that my intellectual curiosity is so far ahead of my ability to learn.
When I was still a freshman in Kyrgyzstan, I unintentionally came across the TakingITGlobal website. I joined TIG and posted a few messages on the discussion boards, but I wasn’t really active. In my sophomore year, I joined other online forums, but those discussions were not very open or active, so I decided to really jump into the TakingITGlobal forums in late 2005. That’s when I started posting regularly, and now I look at the Peace, Conflict and Governance forums almost every day on TIG.
To date, I have over 1150 posts on the TIG discussion boards, mostly on Peace, Conflict and Governance threads. I find that the forums allow me to express my own opinions and to get to know other perspectives. I post for various reasons: sometimes, I will read something encouraging in international affairs and want to share it with other members on TIG; other times, I get frustrated or even angry with other posts on the discussion boards and will respond to express my views.
TakingITGlobal really inspires and encourages me to learn more about specific topics as well as the views and opinions of youth from around the world. When I respond to posts on the discussion boards, I do research through books, journals and Internet sources before I reply. Actually, when I wrote some of my papers for my classes, I referred back to my posts on TakingITGlobal because I usually give links to my sources in my posts! In addition, debating with other members from all over the world has definitely broadened my perspectives. When I first started actively participating on TIG, I posted almost exclusively about America and was overwhelmingly critical. I received many accusations of being “anti-American”, and it was irritating, but at the same time, it made me reflect on my posts and on my focus. At some level, I began to understand that I was perhaps unfair and biased. I am probably still biased now, and maybe everybody is, but at least I think about these things now.
Sometimes, people are convinced that their values and ideas should be universal, but by reading and listening to what other people think, some of these individuals can learn to be more respectful of other cultures. I think TIG is good place for people to not only learn about different views and ideals, but also to accept and respect these differences. For example, Luke (the most active participant on the TIG discussion boards) and I have quite different views and opinions. However, throughout the years, we have communicated frequently through email and chats, and we are eager to meet each other. I have also made a lot of friends through TakingITGlobal, and today, I have friends in Malaysia, India, Canada, the United States, Egypt and many other parts of the world.
About two years ago, I started chatting with Hayk and Anu, the moderators on the Peace, Conflict and Governance discussion boards. They told me about the Geneva International Model United Nations, and encouraged me to attend. The reason that Hayk was interested in bringing me to the Model UN was because of my posts on TIG! They helped me with the application and recommended me to the program, and I ended up participating in the GIMUN in 2007. Ironically, as a critic of American foreign policy, I was the representative of the USA at the GIMUN. It was quite a challenging experience, but also enjoyable and fun. This was all thanks to TakingITGlobal, because without it, I wouldn’t have met Hayk and Anu, or the countless other wonderful people in the community.
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Arslan
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Comments
Anu maheshwari | Sep 21st, 2008
thanks dear :))) I am super duper glad that I got to meet you ...my distant ( 7000 BC 'distant' ) cousin :)))) hehehe
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