Protests in Ukraine and Venezuela have turned deadly. In Ukraine, demonstrations were triggered by brokering economic deals with Russia and pulling away from deals with the European Union. In Venezuela, citizens are raising their voices against the state of crime and human rights violations. Governments and media are dancing around the big issue attributing the cause of these protests to a number of problems without addressing the central theme.

Protesters are not just upset with current conditions, but are instead fighting against many years of oppression reflecting the style of former governments. The escalation of communist-leaning measures in these supposedly “democratic” nations has placed the people on edge as the governments appear to be reverting to their old dictatorial ways.

Both nations have been characterized by the demonstrations of unhappy masses. Large-scale peaceful protests, in an almost recurring trend for Ukraine, have erupted at 10 year intervals for the past 20 years. In Venezuela, violent protests have flared up several times since former president Hugo Chavez came to power in 1999.

Responding to current protests, Nicolás Maduro’s current administration in Venezuela and the former administration of Viktor Yanukovych in Ukraine have both focused on crushing protests rather than trying to fix the root causes of civil unrest. Yanukovch having close ties to Russia, and Maduro acting as a much harsher form of Chavez, cannot seem to shift their communist allegiances.

In Ukraine the protests seen today, termed Euromaidan, stem from Yanukovych’s rejection of an European Union Association agreement in favor of economic deals with Putin, who wants to set up a Russian-led customs union involving ex-USSR nations. Many Western Ukrainians, shocked by this move, mobilized peaceful demonstrations against the Ukrainian government. But the protests intensified violently after garnering no response from the Yanukovych administration.

In Venezuela, the ongoing nationwide protest was triggered on Feb. 12 when outrage over the mishandling of an attempted rape case inspired students to act. Following years of rising crime, increasing censorship, growing shortages and expanding impunity beginning during Chavez’s reign, the protesters’ concerns have widened.

In short, both of these countries’ problems are connected to relations with past oppressive regimes.

Many citizens in both nations feel as though their government is not being held accountable to the people anymore but instead is following the shadow of former communist leader’s actions. Maduro in particular has been described as relying largely on Cuba, a strong ally of Chavez because he lacks the charisma and leadership that his predecessor held. Yanukovych, on the other hand, clearly acted in the interests of Russia and the Eastern Ukrainians who are of Russian descent.

The actions of the Maduro and Yanukovych administrations have distressed many in their countries. After the fall of the USSR, Ukraine broke free from the communist block but still maintained close ties to Moscow that have stunted economic and political progress.

Following in Chavez’s footsteps, Maduro has continued the push to systematically repress virtually all forms of political dissent and has given the presidency a stronger reign on the government. This increased power has given Maduro all the room he wants to deny people their basic rights and to control the state.

Citizens of both nations are upset with these developments and have called for similar actions: the resignation and removal of their respective head of state. Problems in each nation regarding the political and economic situation have only amplified calls for constitutional changes to reduce the powers of the presidency as well.

Existing under the influence of regimes like the USSR, or that of Chavez, has made it hard for leaders in either nation to think that they can operate under a different governing structure. But that is exactly what the people want. They want change. They do not want to continue to be suppressed like many of them have been for so many years in the past.

Just as many nations have fought to shed the skin of former empires, Ukraine and Venezuela today are in the midst of breaking free of the bonds of former regimes that haunt their history.

Stephen Nemeth is an undeclared first-year. He can be reached at snemeth@oxy.edu or on Twitter @WklySNemeth.

The benefits of reading extend far beyond the academic sphere. Unfortunately, students in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) lack access to these benefits due to the closure of about half of the public elementary and middle school libraries.

The positive externalities of reading are especially strong for children, who can find solace in a relatable character or glean lessons from their travails. Unfortunately not all children have equal exposure to books and their distant worlds. More dire is the fact that those students who are losing their school libraries are most likely from low income families that benefit most from a library’s myriad services. Easily accessible libraries are vital to providing an equitable education to all children. With the advent of the e-reader and the closure of public school libraries, books threaten to become a commodity only available to those who can afford it.

Thousands of books sit behind locked doors in public elementary and middle schools across L.A., inaccessible to students because the district lacks the funds to pay library aides, according to Teresa Watanabe’s recent Los Angeles Times article. About half of all elementary and middle schools in the LAUSD have intermittently closed their libraries since 2008. More worrisome though, as Watanabe points out, is that schools in affluent neighborhoods are more likely to keep their libraries open through private funds, rallies, petitions and calls to elected officials. The parents of children in low-income schools often do not have the resources or abilities to perform these same tasks. Giving only students in more affluent neighborhoods access to these resources perpetuates the current income and education inequality in America.

Library services are increasingly overshadowed by technological novelties and profit-motivated ventures. LAUSD spent $1 billion attempting to provide all 600,000-plus students in the district with an iPad, a program that continues to ignite a huge debate about its practicality and sustainability. Its execution has utterly failed, with delays in developing the curriculum and the uncertainty of whether the district can actually afford not only the iPads, but also the software, training and repairs. While the students who do receive iPads will be able to play Flappy Bird to their heart’s content, most students will be left without either physical books or the latest technology from which to learn.

The race to develop the fanciest, shiniest technology extends beyond the public school realm. Oyster, for example, is a new company being hailed as the “Netflix of books” that allows users to download as many e-books as they want for a set price per month.

Consumers and producers alike seem to forget that public libraries provide this exact same service – for free. Although the reader must place holds like with any other library book, anyone with a library card can download e-books directly to their e-reader for free, for a limited amount of time. The critiques of Oyster fail to mention this irony, focusing instead on whether Americans read enough to make it a profitable enterprise at all.

Libraries, on the other hand, are multifaceted and adaptable spaces. Not only do they provide the obvious service of checking out books, but they serve as a social meeting place and educational hub. L.A public libraries help citizens file their taxes and complete a high school degree online. Most recently, the libraries held workshops and information sessions to help visitors enroll in California’s branch of the Affordable Care Act, Covered California. The programs target the Latino community specifically since they make up about half of California’s uninsured residents.

Los Angeles prioritized the services libraries provide through Measure L, a ballot measure passed in 2011 to increase funding so that all libraries could reopen on Mondays and two additional evenings and purchase more books and materials. Beginning in January 2014, nine libraries reopened on Sundays as well, one year ahead of schedule. The extended hours will not only provide more opportunities for patrons to take advantage of the services, but also create a safe and constructive environment for children when they are not in school.

Considering the breadth of services that public libraries in L.A. offers, it is even more vital for the public school system to reopen and utilize their libraries as well. Without school libraries, children are not exposed to all that a library has to offer. They never gain research skills or pick up the habit of wandering through stacks of books, scanning the spines and checking out those that interest them. When the LAUSD does not prioritize access to literature across all disciplines, an important linkage is destroyed between schools and the outside world.

Sarah Corsa is a sophomore Diplomacy and World Affairs major. She can be reached at corsa@oxy.edu or on Twitter @WklySCorsa.

I remember learning about the Duomo, the dome of the Florence Cathedral, in art history Professor Eric Frank’s “Art of the Early Italian Renaissance” (ARTH 374) class in the Fall 2012 Semester. Frank and I were meeting about my final paper for the class and he asked me if I had ever seen the Duomo in person. I regretfully admitted that I had not.

“You will,” he assured me.

The academic experiences I had in Occidental’s art history department unequivocally inspired my decision to study abroad in Rome because I wanted to see all the Italian art I was studying. I had to see the Dome of the Florence Cathedral.

However, upon arriving in Rome last fall, I realized the focus of my abroad program deviated from cultural and intellectual curiosity to an infatuation with partying. I was not prepared for the American college student culture that has taken over Rome and other European cities for the worse. Stripped from the social and academic constructs of their schools in the U.S., many American students use their study abroad opportunities as a time to party instead of experiencing new cultures and enriching their academic careers. Students should be more focused on immersing themselves in the customs of unfamiliar countries instead of using abroad opportunities as a continuation of American college drinking culture.

During our first week in Rome, students in my program partied at bars and clubs until the wee hours of the morning, a habit that did not let up even after the novelty of living in a vibrant city wore off. While staying out late each night is a cultural norm in some European cities, like Barcelona, it is not the Italian way. In 2008, NPR reported how widespread binge drinking and raucous behavior from American students was becoming the norm in Florence. The recent phenomenon arose due to more and more college students choosing to study abroad in Italy.

The article mentions Letizia Biagi, a saleswoman at a leather goods shop in Florence and local who was upset by American college students’ raunchy behavior.

“Italians go to pubs only on weekends, but the Americans are there every night,” Biagi said in the article.

More bars and clubs have popped up in the past 20 years or so in Italian cities like Rome and Florence, specifically catering to the American study abroad drinking culture. While this may be due to American students’ infatuation with being able to legally drink abroad, it is also related to the fact that American study abroad semesters are unfettered by the cultural restrictions of their college experiences in the United States.

Last week, John Durkin, a 21-year-old economics major from Bates College was reported missing in Rome. He was last seen at Sloppy Sam’s, a bar frequented by American study abroad students. A day later he was found dead in a train tunnel in Rome. The event is tragic and shocking. It is every parent’s worst nightmare. I personally have not stopped thinking about the terrible circumstances of his death because Durkin was participating in the program from which I just returned.

The program, based out of Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., consists of about 55 students who all live together in a convent in an affluent neighborhood in Rome. All students eat breakfast and lunch together daily and students spend hours with each other on walking tours of the city. The professors organize program-wide trips around Italy, and after two weeks in Rome, I knew every student in the program by name. It is a unique community led by erudite Italian teachers, and I cannot fathom losing a peer while studying there.

However, each night, like clockwork, students from the program would head to the bars and clubs where they were met by other Americans and local Italian men who often targeted Americans to pickpocket.

Sloppy Sam’s, where Durkin was last seen alive by his friends, is in Campo de’ Fiori, a historic square in the heart of Rome that houses bars which cater to the American study abroad nightlife. Sloppy Sam’s and The Drunken Ship, eponymously named, are popular pubs where students get very drunk and very sloppy. But why shouldn’t they? The academic curriculum in Rome is less rigorous than Occidental’s. Students do not have meetings with their advisers the next morning and extra curricular commitments like clubs and sports were not part of students’ schedules. Drunkenly flocking around Campo de’ Fiori on a Wednesday night, study abroad students could gleefully have the “when in Rome” mentality and then throw back another shot of Tequila.

Before I arrived in Rome, I was passed down a list of recommendations for places to go in the city from former Occidental students who had studied abroad in Trinity. The first category on the list is “Clubs/Bars,” where there are detailed descriptions for the Drunken Ship and Sloppy Sam’s. The document has many more names of bars and clubs to choose from, and the rest of the list consisted of restaurant recommendations. There are no museum suggestions, no monument highlights and no advice to culturally immerse oneself in the Eternal City.

Regardless, most Occidental students have academic preparation before they go abroad in anticipation of experiences that are both academically and personally transformative. Many Occidental students even thread their abroad experiences back into their coursework upon returning to Los Angeles. However, too many students neglect the academic intentions of their abroad experience in order to focus on going out and partying.

The opportunity to study abroad as a college student is valuable because it makes students take risks studying new languages, meeting new people and living in an unfamiliar culture. According to Open Doors, a comprehensive information resource on international students 38 percent of the 300,000 students who study abroad annually study in England, Italy, France or Spain. The high percentage of American students studying abroad in these countries contributes to the fact that students are taking less intellectual risks and are instead engaging in riskier behavior. This trend seems to be a growing problem as American students try to replicate the experiences their peers had in semesters before them, myself included.

I bought drinks at the Drunken Ship at the start of my semester abroad ,and I’ve barhopped around neighborhoods in Rome on a weekday night. But I quickly realized that this type of abroad experience wasn’t for me, and as the semester went on I traveled most weekends and filled my days with Italian art. I even visited Florence three times, each time stunned by the beauty of the Duomo.

Taylor Majewski is a junior art history major. She can be reached at majewski@oxy.edu or on Twitter @WklyTMajewski.