The Reykjavik Grapevine, September 23, 2019: "Reykjavik Strikes Back: Iceland and the Climate Strike"

Hey, everyone!

I'm working on another post about the first two months of my Fulbright here in Iceland, and some of the biggest events that have taken place therein.

And even though I do intend to go into more detail about this there, I wanted to take a moment to highlight an achievement of mine which is truly special to me.

As I've mentioned a few times, I care deeply and am extremely concerned about the state of the environment and human-caused climate change. I've felt very anxious for over a year now about the urgency of massive, systemic change which is needed to mitigate the worst of its potential effects, and the closing window of opportunity that there is to act sufficiently to prevent massive suffering and environmental breakdown.

It's been one of the main drivers of my awful mental health over the past year (which, thankfully, has improved tremendously over the past two months).

One way in which I've been trying to more productively deal with this anxiety has been participating in climate strikes and other environmentally-focused events. I attended my first global climate strike here in Iceland on the 20th of September. Seeing so many like-minded and concerned people lending their voices, bodies, and presences to the cause was deeply validating and empowering, and made me feel, for one of the first times since I started dealing with all this, like I wasn't alone.

At one point, I was approached by a woman from the Reykjavik Grapevine, the city's English-speaking newspaper, who asked about my homemade sign - which, in a loving tribute to the great Greta Thunberg's now iconic "skolstrejk för klimatet" ("school-strike for the climate") sign, read "loftslagsverkfall fyrir jöklana," meaning "climate strike for the glaciers," meant to call attention to a truly crucial side effect of climate change which is very present here in Iceland: the melting of the country's glaciers. Most notably, the former glacier Okjökull lost its glacial status in 2014 when its ice was no longer able to move, and was recently commemorated with a ceremony earlier this year and a plaque containing a "letter to the future."

The reporter asked if she could interview me, which I of course accepted, answering some questions about my sign, my environmental concerns, what I'm doing here in Iceland, and how I try to live in a more environmentally-friendly way at an individual level in my daily life.

Here is the article, which was later shared by my favorite Icelandic writer, Alda Sigmundsdóttir as well.

I can barely begin to put into words how special this experience was, and how much it means to me. Earlier this year, I spiraled horribly reading about the state of the world and the climate, and began to feel massively guilty about my own contribution to systemic issues far larger than just me or anyone around me, and feeling like I was a burden on the Earth.

In addition to feeling united and bound to the other people around me who attended the strike, it was wonderful for the Grapevine and my interviewer for featuring my voice, and seeing something special in my contribution to the Global Climate Strike. To have this contribution recognized and celebrated in this way is indescribably empowering and validating. I'm honored and humbled. And I hope you all enjoy reading it as well.

"It's not too late. We won't give up. Let's fight for a better future."

"Glee"'s Kurt Hummel and the Power of Representation

Picture this: the year is 2009.

Young Nico is 12, soon to turn 13, years old, in the midst of his sixth grade year, still relatively enjoying the novelty of being in a new, bigger middle school environment alongside new faces from other elementary schools in the Ann Arbor district, still not stressed and overwhelmed by the anxiety, sleep deprivation, and social toxicity that will mushroom the following year.

Barack Obama has just become the forty-forth president of the United States. Iceland has just experienced its intense and dramatic economic collapse in the midst of the Great Recession, and newly elected Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir, the world's first openly lesbian head of state, as prime minister. Michael Jackson's passing has fans the world over in mourning. Velvet tracksuits, multicolored tights, and leggings as pants are all the rage in fashion. Owl City's "Fireflies," the Black Eyed Peas' "I Gotta Feeling," Miley Cyrus' "Party in the U.S.A.," Jason Mraz's "I'm Yours," and Beyonce's "Single Ladies" hover at the top of the hot 100 charts and reverberate on radios anywhere.

And the first season of the hit TV show Glee has just started airing.

For the uninitiated, Glee is a musical comedy-drama series which aired on the Fox network for six seasons from 2009 to 2015, focusing on the adventures, triumphs, struggles, and close bond of the members of the show choir New Directions at the fictional William McKinley High School in Lima, Ohio. It follows the evolution of the group and its original members from a shaky beginning as a newly formed, rag-tag little bunch of misfits, which the school's cheer coach Sue Sylvester constantly tries to have disbanded, to a strongly competitive, talented, and high-energy powerhouse of excellent covers. The show features and covers numerous social issues in American society through the experiences of the characters and their relationships to one another, in ways which sometimes reflect the clumsier nature of social issues and how they were understood ten years ago - but always with a lot of heart, affection, good intention, and genuine desire for greater understanding and harmony among all people.

Many such examples are to be found with Kurt Hummel - talented member of the New Directions' original founding members, a consummate fashionista, and for much of the show, McKinley High's only openly gay student.

From coming out for the first time to good friend and fellow New Directioner Mercedes Jones, opening up about his sexuality to his quite traditionally masculine father Burt (to great acceptance - Burt later goes on to go out of his way to educate himself on gay issues and sexuality so that his son can come to him with questions like any straight boy could), and never being afraid to sing music, wear clothes, and experiment with forms of expression deemed traditionally feminine, to overcoming vicious bullying issues, and eventually finding a loving relationship with his first boyfriend Blaine Anderson, the other half of the iconic duo dubbed "Klaine" by many fans and shippers, Kurt's role in the show and gay representation in the media is not to be understated.

In the summer of 2018, a Klaine video popped up in my YouTube "recommended" list after I had just returned from my junior year of college studying abroad in Moscow, Russia and Turku, Finland. My curiosity piqued, I then spent the month I had at home before leaving for a summer program in Reykjavik, Iceland watching the first three seasons of Glee. The latter two for the first time. But I was surprised to find that the first season felt almost wholly familiar, like I was rewatching it, even though I didn't feel like I had watched it that closely when it was coming out.

Flashing back to 2009: At the time I had just received my first little netbook laptop as a Christmas present. But in spite of the greater mobility it offered to sit on my oversized beanbag in the quiet comfort of my own room, I still often preferred to spend my long sessions of perusing my new Facebook page on the computer in our living room, and often wound up at least peripherally watching whatever my sister was watching on TV as a result. Case in point with Glee. 

At the time, she was closely following Season 1. And even though I seldom actually sat down on the couch across from her to watch it together, it looked and sounded nice enough to capture my attention and get me to rotate the swivel chair at my parents' desk where the computer stood to pay attention for a while. Perhaps no more so than when Kurt was on screen.

At the time, I had barely even begun to realize that I was gay. I knew very little about what it meant to be gay, or the history and community behind the label, and was not self-aware enough to realize that the feelings I was struggling with were closely tied to feeling uncomfortable in my own body, not understanding the feelings that I couldn't control that so much of society was telling me were wrong, and feeling out of place and unrepresented in such a straight world. But among all the other tensions of feeling lonely, weird, and not enough in the socially cutthroat environment of Tappan Middle School, my baby gay angst and anxiety were some of the top causes of the stress I was undergoing. Even without an exact handle on that being a big source of my confusion and issues, even thinking that my stress and loneliness were exclusively products of the social environment and how I fit into it, I couldn't help but feel like something was deeply, fundamentally different about me compared to many others around me, far beyond the unique interests and habits that had defined me growing up, which often differed from those of the other kids, especially the other boys, around me.

"Gay" at that time was not a word with a pleasant connotation, usually either used as a general synonym of "bad" or "sucky" ("that's so gay") which has thankfully greatly decreased over the years, or to refer to what it actually describes - homosexuality - but in a greatly overstereotyped and disdainful way. Even though I wasn't yet aware of my own sexual orientation, every time I heard the word, or so many other hurtful and nasty ones associated with it, echo down my middle school hallways, my chest would clench and I would go numb with fear.

When I turned in that swivel chair from the ever-important business of making copious amounts of Facebook statuses with positively atrocious spelling and syntactical construction of all sorts (because for some reason I had it in my head at the time that proper spelling and grammar online was not cool), it was for a reason.

I was captivated and mesmerized by Kurt. I loved his energy. I loved his extravagant and innovative style, his fearless desire to push aesthetic boundaries, his refusal to let himself or anything he loved be defined by meaningless and trite expectations of gender norms. I loved his powerful singing voice and how it seemed to soar effortlessly into alto high notes. I loved his covers and how he brought who he was and his heart and soul into all of what he sang (perhaps nowhere else more so than his cover of "Defying Gravity," which I listened to for years, mesmerized by his beautiful voice and empowered of his rendition of a traditionally feminine song, especially before important turning points and new chapters of my life, like when I went to Italy in middle school for six months, before high school, and as I was getting ready for my high school exchange year in Egypt that I'd dreamed of for years, imagining myself soaring high above the Pyramids of Giza as he hit his high notes - I still listen to it lovingly as a reminder of my periods of greatest drive and determination in life, as well as to find new inspiration). I loved his high-pitched, softer-spoken speaking voice, how relaxing and soothing it was to listen to. I loved how even though sometimes he felt alone, afraid, mistreated, or ignored, he never let himself be walked over, and always called people out on their bullshit and didn't let them stifle him. I loved how bright, optimistic, effervescent, gentle, loving and kind he was. Any time I saw him on screen, I would light up and be mesmerized without quite knowing why. As I was only just beginning to understand at the time, I saw myself in him, I related to him, and I felt connected to him.

I think it's important to acknowledge the fact that there certainly were moments on Glee when various issues were handled clumsily or even in very insensitive ways, or where there were humorous references to things that shouldn't ever be joked about. I will be clear in saying that I don't overlook or play those down. It's definitely important to keep them in mind (in a way, it's also kind of helpful and reassuring to see how far we've come in terms of perceiving those things in just a few years). But conversely, I don't think it makes sense to write off the show completely as being problematic and overlook all the things it got right for those missteps. There are also numerous instances of very important issues, relationships, conversations, and representation that the show absolutely nailed, and as many of those moments and relationships are deeply important to many people, they deserve to be wholeheartedly celebrated.

Was Kurt, for instance, a bit stereotypical? Oh yeah, no doubt about it. But even rewatching the show today, I often find myself forgetting it. Because he's so confident and fearless and self-assured of who he is that he doesn't let the stereotypes define him. He always brings his own unique perspectives, experiences, and approaches to everything that the does, and does everything that he loves with immeasurable passion. He is fiercely devoted to the people that he cares about. He is brave and determined in everything that he does. He is committed to growing, to fulfilling his dreams, to doing what he believes is best. But, in spite of all the pain and hardship of growing up as a feminine, openly gay man in a small Midwestern town, he also remains strongly connected to the place he comes from and conscious of his sentimental connection to it and how it's shaped him, as well as to making Lima and all the places that matter most to him there better. He's an unapologetic hopeless romantic, both in love and life goals. He knows who he is, and he shares that with his loved ones and the whole world in absolutely beautiful ways. He sang with drive and passion, bringing all of who he was and what he had lived into gorgeous covers of iconic songs.

The issue of representation for marginalized people remains a critically important one for this reason. Looking back on how I felt watching the first season of Glee as a twelve and later thirteen-year-old, I am conscious of how important it was to have a character like Kurt on-screen that I could look up to. Seeing him being who he was openly and fearlessly was deeply, deeply validating and empowering. Even not being fully conscious of who I was just yet, I looked at him and I felt calm. Seen. Heard. And like I had a future. Like I could hope for growth and love and community and pursuing my dreams just like anyone else around me.

And for that reason, I will always be deeply grateful to Glee and to Chris Colfer, the amazing actor and singer (and now best-selling writer of the Land of Stories series!) behind Kurt, for allowing me to come into my own as a young gay boy looking up to such a beautiful and inspiring character.

Eco-friendly tips

Hi, everyone.

Over the course of the past year or so in particular, I've been doing my best to cut corners on my own consumption, and make the best choices possible in terms of limiting wastefulness, as amazing movements and organizers such as Greta Thunberg, the Fridays for Future initiative, Alexandria Villaseñor, Earth Uprising, and others fighting against the nefarious forces contributing to climate change have gained traction, and numerous eco-friendly and zero waste alternatives have been coming about.

Let me say first and foremost that I am by no means an expert or authority on this subject matter. I'm simply an average deeply concerned twenty-three-year-old civilian who wants to do his best to encourage conversation, change, and fight for a future for this world and all those who inhabit it, particularly the younger generations. I'm by no means perfect, and have much room for improvement in how I approach these matters. I will also admit that lately the news around climate change have been greatly impacting my mental health, triggering my anxiety and depression, and that at times it is difficult to feel hopeful about the future. But my hope is that by sharing these tips and changes that I try to apply in my everyday life with all the power I have, I can show others ways in which they too can make a difference, in many cases by choosing to do things that are already very much possible and accessible.

1) Use bamboo toothbrushes instead of plastic ones.
Plastic toothbrushes are one of the biggest contributors to the onslaught of plastic products that are finding their way into ecosystems, endangering the ocean in particular, and take hundreds of years to decompose. There are numerous options out there for purchasing bamboo toothbrushes - I myself ordered a pack a few months ago from Wowe Lifestyle which were very cheap, costing about $11 for a pack of four of them. They work just as well as regular toothbrushes, last the same amount of time, and are completely biodegradable - just pull out the bristles when you're done with one and then compost it, or otherwise just throw it out and it will rot in the landfill. I honestly would recommend them a lot. If you happen to have any old plastic toothbrushes lying around and are concerned about throwing them away, there are all sorts of random and creative uses you can find for them - I myself keep an old plastic toothbrush in my guitar case and use it to clean the dust off from the frets in-between the strings!

2) Refuse single-use plastic whenever possible.
It's no secret that the overpollution of single-use plastic products is one of the great crises of our time - because of their durability and the centuries many of them take to break down, they often find their ways into waterways and eventually, the ocean, and are mistaken by animals as food, all the while shedding microplastics that are terribly difficult to clean and work their way up the food chain, causing health complications and wreaking havoc everywhere they go. Limiting our consumption of single-use plastic products is crucial, and there are numerous options available for durable, long-lasting products made from sustainable materials, like glass or metal straws, my aforementioned bamboo toothbrushes, cloth bags to replace plastic ones, and so on. Furthermore, investing in projects and initiatives such as The Ocean Cleanup, Oceana, and others that work hard on cleaning up plastic products already loose in the ocean and other waterways is incredibly important for mitigating the problem.

3) Eat less meat, or go vegetarian/vegan. 
The meat industry is one of the biggest contributors to global carbon emissions, between the power used for the factory farms where most livestock are bred, raised, and cruelly slaughtered, the machinery and mass transportation that has to go into keeping the grounds where livestock are kept, growing the food that they're fed, and transporting them to slaughterhouses and eventually to stores and homes, and the enormous quantities of water that are needed to bring up animals raised for red meat in particular, not to mention the fact that the vast majority of global deforestation, especially in rainforest regions, is done to make way for farming and raising livestock for meat. Obviously vegetarianism and veganism are not accessible or possible lifestyles for everyone in the world to make; many people, especially rural or indigenous communities in isolated environments, many of whom have been sustainably hunting and raising livestock for thousands of years, depend on meat and animal products and may not have many non-animal products to eat. And vegetarian and vegan alternatives are not always necessarily good the environment inherently, as mass production of anything does require a great amount of resources and labor and can also be harmful. But they're also undoubtedly better for the environment compared to most animal products, so for those of us who live in regions of the world where most animal products come from highly polluting factory farms and there are ample non-animal product alternatives available, eating less meat and animal products is a surefire way to make a massive difference in one's individual carbon footprint. It pays to be cautious with these products as well, to chose, say, rice milk over almond milk given that almonds are a highly water-intensive crop, and to make sure that products are sustainably grown and harvested, avoiding, say, quinoa that is grown and harvested by impoverished communities in Central America that are greatly overworked, mistreated, and underpayed.

4) Shop locally and in-season as much as possible. 
Farmer's markets are amazing things. By patronizing local businesses and farmers and getting to taste locally-grown products in all their respective seasons, you'll also minimize the distances that food needs to be transported, and ensure that it doesn't go bad while having to travel crazy distances. Whenever you're able to, choose strangely shaped fruits or vegetables - even if they're in perfect condition to eat, deformed or weirdly shaped specimens that don't comply with typical aesthetic standards are simply thrown away on account of their appearance alone. Additionally, keep food and ingredients visible or in clear containers in the fridge to minimize the chances of it spoiling and having to be thrown away, as studies have shown that we eat what we can see clearly, and compost everything that you're able to.

5) Use soap and shampoo bars instead of ones that come in plastic bottles. 
Another huge contributor to the plastic crisis is that of plastic soap and shampoo bottles. I personally have exclusively used soap bars since the start of this year, and have only used one small plastic bottle of shampoo, using shampoo bars almost exclusively. Soap bars sold in paper bags or small cardboard boxes are widely available, even in places where they're sold alongside bodywashes packaged in plastic, for comparable prices, and so are quite accessible. Shampoo bars often tend to be a bit on the pricier side, but I've found them just as, if not even more, long-lasting than bottled shampoo, as it often takes just a quick rub against a wet head in the shower to have enough to wash with. It's a switch I cannot recommend enough.

6) Travel responsibly. 
This one is definitely tricky. Most forms of long-distance transportation rely on carbon-based technology and are a source of greenhouse gas emissions. It goes without saying that making the choice to walk or bike whenever possible is greatly important, as it avoids unnecessary emissions. As for the others, it's not necessarily as easy or clear cut as saying that, for instance, taking a train is inherently more efficient or causes fewer emissions compared to a plane, as the footprint depends on a large amount of contextual factors, such as the technology used, distance traveled, number of passengers transported, energy inputs (i.e. using a train over a plane in Europe almost definitely would emit less, given that most trains in Europe are electric), and so on. But it can be tentatively said that, in terms of emissions relative to number of passengers traveled, the modes of transportation could be ranked as follows: local public transportation, bus, train, plane, car. Of course, it pays in any context while planning travel to research available options and keep factors like those listed before in mind, and to carefully look into options for offsetting emissions from travel.

7) Avoid retail, thrift and shop responsibly!
Due to the resources needed to produce new clothes, the fashion industry is another huge contributor to global carbon emissions, as well as to waste, as many metric tons of clothes wind up in landfills every year, and many clothes are made from materials that shed microplastics into the water system whenever they're washed. Therefore we need to reevaluate our relationship to fashion and retail. Only buy new clothes that you need, and whenever possible, buy your clothes from thrift shops and drop off your old clothes there, and look for clothes made from sustainable materials such as hemp. As for the issue of microplastics from existing clothes, there are laundry filters out there that can be used to trap them and minimize the offset from loads of laundry as much as possible.

7) Organize, protest, and most importantly, VOTE.
Although things may seem gravely daunting and it's easy to get bogged down and feel hopeless, individual choices DO make a big difference, especially when done en masse, as it helps to keep the conversation alive, open people's eyes, and lobby for change. But it's no secret that, while important, individual choices can only go so far when 100 corporations are responsible for over 70% of all carbon emissions, and it will be pretty well near impossible to make any significant, lasting improvements without massive systemic and policy changes. So support and uplift the voices and messages of climate activists, join movements, join protests whenever you are able to and feel comfortable doing so, and vote for candidates with eco-friendly platforms and explicit intentions to enact important and necessary changes and control on dangerous industry.

8) Delete your old emails and stored online files.
This seems incredibly simple and banal, but many computer servers need air conditioning to be cooled, and the more emails and files they support, the more cooling they need to properly function. Deleting old, unneeded files and emails is a great little way to keep emissions to a minimum!

9) Don't despair. 
I know that, as I mentioned before, this is pretty difficult. I myself will make no secret of the fact that I'm terrified of many aspects and implications of the future with all of these issues going on. But let's not give up. We owe it to ourselves, to everyone in the world, especially to the younger generations that will have to take it over and the marginalized and impoverished communities suffering the most who have contributed the least to the problem, to fight for what's right, to demand change, to show governments and corporations that they must be held accountable for their undeniable role in the climate crisis, and that we will not let them get away with destroying the environment and, as Greta Thunberg so accurately puts, "stealing our future and selling it for profit." Use your energy and motivation to support change and justice. Remember that no one is perfect, and that what we need and can realistically have right now is not a world of people living perfectly zero waste lifestyles, but a world of people consciously making choices for good, even if they can't access every alternative. Keep the conversation alive, help people open their eyes, and above all, continue to demand change. The beautiful Earth is our only home, and we have to take care of it and fight for it.

A letter to my representatives in the United States legislature

(I'll let this letter speak for itself. Kindly join me in writing to/calling your local representatives if you are an American citizen, signing this petition, and doing all you can to stand up against bigotry and populism wherever you may live in the world).

I think I'll let this letter speak for itself. 

Dear Representative/Senator,

I am an alumnus of the National Security Initiative for Youth (NSLI-Y)’s 2014 program in Bursa, Turkey. This State Department-sponsored scholarship program sends high schoolers abroad to learn languages considered critical to the interests of the United States government, those being Arabic, Mandarin Chinese, Hindi, Korean, Tajiki Persian, Russian, and Turkish. This program is currently under threat from the budget cuts targeting funding to ECA State Department programs, save for the Fulbright Fellowship. 

I can go on at infinite length on the benefits of exchange. As the son of an Italian immigrant who first came to the United States as an American Field Service (AFS) exchange student in 1978, and having participated in multiple exchanges myself, in Alexandria, Egypt, and Bursa, Turkey, these experiences and the members of the communities built around them are a part of who I am. They helped me to better understand and relate to other cultures, shaped my worldview beyond recognition, and allowed me to connect to people in every country I’ve visited since with new mediums and languages. 

Every single alumnus and alumna I know have said the same. 

Particularly on my NSLI-Y program, I forged a passion for a language that I intend to make an integral part of my personal life and future career, an opportunity I would almost certainly never have had prior to college if it had not been for the State Department’s generous support of these programs.

The Turkish programs which I participated in have been particularly affected by the violence and senseless populism which have plagued various parts of the world, having been canceled since 2016 in the wake of Turkey’s numerous terrorist attacks and attempted coup. But such attacks and political turmoil are not endemic to any region in the world, as can be clearly seen in our country currently. 

Though travel and exchange at any point in life and education will only serve to foster understanding and eliminate bigotry, high school exchange represents a particularly precious opportunity, allowing students to fully become part of families in their host countries and learn their target languages from within the culture itself, more fluently than would ever be possible in most other contexts.

Aside from my personal feelings regarding this wonderful program, it also cannot be ignored that these are an irrefutable positive force for United States foreign relations. Many alumni I know have expressed interest in one day working for the United States government and State Department as a direct result of this program. Many of them intend to work in countries or regions where their target languages are widely used or understood, most of which are of great importance as strategic allies to the United States, and are instrumental to the maintenance of a stable and productive US foreign policy. 

Quite frankly, given the current state of affairs in the world, treating any program like NSLI-Y as though it is not necessary, some sort of “extra cost,” is utter folly. The only way that we can hope to foster true peace and understanding is to uphold and push the goals enshrined in programs like this. I urge you thus to vote against this measure and to uphold these values yourself going further. I know for a fact that for myself and many other members of the NSLI-Y, AFS, Critical Language Scholarship (CLS), Youth Exchange and Study (YES) Abroad, Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange (CBYX), and countless other exchange alumni communities, this will become a crucial element which will heavily influence our reelection of future officials.

Thank you for your concern,
Nicholas Borbely
Beloit Resident