Back at SEGL!

So yesterday most of us got back to SEGL. Some people got back today, and there's still some getting back later today... I think.

Today was our first school day back. It was really good. During Ethics and Leadership in the morning we talked about our Social Venture projects in more depth, and we're starting to work on our Ashoka worksheets. Ashoka Youth Venture gives our organizations money to help start them up if we do all the required stuff, which is pretty cool.

I'm pretty excited about my idea, and feel like it's finally coming along :)

We're starting finals soon which is ridiculous!!! What?!?!?!? I can't believe it! Finals soon and only 3 more weeks!!! AHHHHH!!!!! But I'm trying to live in the moment and not think about it...but still!!!


P.S.
While I was back in Needham for Thanksgiving Break I was on this show thingy talking about SEGL and Civil Rights. That night, it was Richard Cole and I on the show. Richard Cole is a super cool Civil Rights Attorney in Massachusetts who started the safe schools initiative and is a member of the Massachusetts Supreme Court. It was awesome to meet him!

If you want to see the interview you can see it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9hCsexknjE

Back to SEGL tomorrow :)

Tomorrow it's back to SEGL! 

I'm really excited to go back, but also kind of nervous. I think it's because I just kind of got settled in back in Needham, and now I'm leaving. Going back and forth anywhere is really weird for me. So ya....

But I'm mostly excited :)

Thanksgiving Break

So right now I'm back home in Needham for Thanksgiving Break. We're on break until the 28th....I think.

It's really weird to be back, and not in a D.C. It's kind of like a big shock. I definitely needed a little break, but I'll already be ready to go back in a few days :)

P.S. Today I was looking at colleges online, and none of them looked appealing to me whatsoever. I realized that's because they're not in DC. So now I've pretty much realized I would only want to go to college in DC. But I also haven't even looked at colleges yet so I could be wrong....I just have to wait and see I guess.

Policy Paper

Today we turned in our final drafts of our policy papers....phew!!!! Every group turned in their section, my section again is recommendations for civic society. We still have to make a few more edits tomorrow before it's super final. We have to get our final edits in by midnight tomorrow because we're going to the Premiere of Harry Potter at midnight in Gallery Place Chinatown! YAY! I can't wait to see it.

The policy is going really well I think! It's really interesting and doing research about the issue is really fascinating to me. The issue of sex trafficking is really complex, but also simple at the same time. There are many factors to it, but at the same time the factors of it aren't unsolvable. There just needs to be a major effort to solve the issue.

Tomorrow we're going to decide who to present our policy to! :)

Longacre Reunion!

    So yesterday I went to Philadelphia with Dana (a friend from Longacre) for the Longacre Reunion! Longacre is the summer program I've gone to in Pennsylvania for the last 4 years and it's pretty much my favorite place ever.
    We got there about a day and a half late, because I had to work on some things Saturday morning, but it was worth it. We watched slideshows, movies, and Marcel the Shell (the best youtube video ever)! It was so awesome to see my friends from Longacre. I was really happy to see people and catch up.
    This morning Dana and I had to get up early to get on a 9:45 am bus :(. But we slept most of the bus ride so it was all good.

Now I'm back for SEGL.

My first meaningful Veteran's Day

As you probably know, today was Veteran's Day. I've always known Veteran's Day as a day when we have no school and I can sleep late. Today I learned that it's so much more.

All of us went to the Arlington National Cemetery, where there are more than 300,000 people buried who served our country. It's an amazing place. At the Cemetery, we got to meet with General Nicholson, who has served in the military all over the world for 29 years. He is now the Director of the Afghanistan/Pakistan Cell in the Joint Staff, where he advises Congress and the President about issues regarding Afghanistan and Pakistan. He is being deployed back to Afghanistan next year.

On the news, you always see  "27 killed in car bomb" or something like that. General Nicholson put actual people and actual stories to those names. He brought us to the graves of 3 people who died under his command, ranging from 19-41 years old. One was a man who was killed by an IED (Improvised Explosive Device) 3 weeks after his wife had their third child at home. He never got to meet his daughter. Another one that stuck out to meet was 19 year old Justin, who was killed in Afghanistan only a few years ago. General Nicholson told us what a great guy he was, always helping out others. We had the honor of meeting his Mom, who, by fate, was visiting Justin's tombstone. She was such a nice and inspirational woman, who talked all about her son. Meeting her really put a face to the numbers for me.

After we visited 3 men who have died, we got to ask General Nicholson questions. About anything really. One of the questions I asked him was something like, "Why did you decide to join the military? Why do you fight?"
 He explained how he got into the military, and about the time when he joined during the Cold War. He fought because he believed that communism was completely against all the freedom that we value as Americans. What kept him in the military was 9/11. He feels a need to defend our country against those who want to kill us. His office in the pentagon was destroyed that day, and it was really interesting that the plane that hit the pentagon flew right over where we were standing, section 60.

I learned so much from all the questions that he answered and all that he said. He thinks that we can win in Afghanistan, just give it 3-5 more years. He said that he could not morally put other peoples' lives at stake if he did not think that they could win. He talked about how he copes with the deaths of so many, how they view the enemy, and what they do.

He really was not what I expected. He was a sympathetic and caring guy, not like the macho tough guy I had envisioned. Not to say he's not tough though, he could probably beat me up with his pinkie. Meeting with him was such an honor.

After we met with him, we all kind of went off in Arlington Cemetery for an hour. My friend Rosa and I stuck together and went back to see Justin's Mom, who we had briefly met earlier. She visits Justin's gravesite every weekend, and has built strong relationships with families of soldiers buried close to Justin who also have been through a similar situation. You can really feel the love between all of the people there, they all can really relate to eachother on a level that most people can't. It's really powerful. We talked with her for about 15 minutes about how it's so hard to put a face to the numbers when the news doesn't identify people, just numbers and we also talked about how she's doing now. She is definitely a trooper, and I really admire her for that. There were times where I got teary-eyed, but I really loved talking to her. Right before we said goodbye to her I told her that "To me, she is now the face to the numbers," or something like that. She seemed to really like that.

As we were walking away, we turned around and saw her talking with Vice President Joe Biden....all I can say is wow. We sneakily kept walking past to see Biden, and we literally were 5 feet away from him, but it really wasn't the time to say something to him because he was paying his respects with the families. But being that close to him was a huge shell shock. He looks alot different in person, and he had barely any bodyguards which was surprising. He was just like a regular guy paying his respects.

Before we left we went to the Lee house which was really cool too.

So basically the whole day was amazing. it was extremely powerful and meaningful, and I don't think that I'll ever forget it.



General Nicholson's full bio here:
As the Director of the Pakistan Afghanistan Coordination Cell on the Joint Staff, BG Nicholson is responsible to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff  for synchronizing the military activities of the Services and Combatant Commands in the implementation of our national policy in the region.  The PACC supports the decision making process of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs in his provision of best military advice to the Secretary of Defense and the President. BG Nicholson represents the Joint Staff to our international, interagency and non-governmental partners on matters of policy formulation, implementation and strategic communications.  The PACC runs the Afghanistan-Pakistan Hands program in which we recruit talented officers and non-commissioned officers to learn local languages (Dari, Pashto, Urdu) and develop deeper cultural understanding prior to service in key commands in and out of theater.  

He served as the Deputy Commanding General for Regional Command (RC) South, International Security Assistance Force (ISAF)
from November 2008 thru September 2009.  He was principally responsible for the governance, development and civil-military
integration aspects of ISAF’s campaign plan as well as planning and executing the introduction and employment of over 20,000 US 
forces into RC South in 2009.   
From July 2007 to October 2008, he served as Deputy Director for Operations, National Military Command Center, J3 Operations 
Directorate on the Joint Staff where he supervised the principal, national-level, military command and control facility which provides 
worldwide monitoring, crisis response and strategic watch for the President, the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint 
Chiefs of Staff.    
From July 2004 to June 2007, BG Nicholson commanded the 3rd Brigade Combat Team (Task Force Spartan) of the 10th Mountain 
Division from Fort Drum, New York.  After building and training the unit, they deployed to eastern Afghanistan from February 2006 to 
June 2007, where Task Force Spartan’s nine battalions and eight Provincial Reconstruction Teams conducted counter-insurgency 
operations as part of ISAF’s Regional Command East.  Task Force Spartan was responsible for 10 provinces, 570 miles of border with 
Pakistan and 7 million Afghans.  In concert with joint, interagency and multinational partners, they successfully promoted governance, 
economic development and reconstruction within secure environments created by combined operations with local governments, the
201st and 203rd Afghan National Army Corps, the Afghan National Police, and tribal leaders.  The Task Force pioneered a successful 
tactical level COIN methodology based on persistent presence with key segments of the population and improved civil-military integration.  
BG Nicholson was commissioned into the infantry in 1982 upon graduation from West Point.  He has lead soldiers in Airborne, Ranger, 
Mechanized, Stryker and Light Infantry units in five different Infantry Divisions and the 75th Ranger Regiment in the United States and 
Europe.  His other assignments include service on the immediate staffs of the Secretary of the Army; Chief of Staff of the Army; 
Commanding General, Peace Stabilization Force, Bosnia-Herzegovina; Commanding General, US Army Europe and at the George C. 
Marshall European Center for Security Studies. 

BG Nicholson has bachelors’ degrees from the United States Military Academy and Georgetown University, a master’s degree
in Military Art and Science from the School for Advanced Military Studies and a master’s degree in National Security Studies from
the National Defense University.

His awards and decorations include the Defense Superior Service Medal, Legion of Merit, Bronze Star Medal for Valor, Bronze Star
Medal, NATO Medal, Combat Infantryman’s Badge (2d Award), Expert Infantryman’s Badge, Ranger Tab, Master Parachutist Badge
and Pathfinder Badge.

Best.Night.Ever!

So we just had the best night ever!!!!
    I'm really tired so I'll blog about it tomorrow :)
             ....It's tomorrow!!!

So all week there have been signs up around the school and the house with a black seagull and VI. It's super creepy, but obviously it was Robbie and Lucy doing it. They said that last night we were going to be watching V for Vendetta....NOT. They made a movie that started with the preview of V for Vendetta and then everything got sketchy...The video all our Residential Staff made was hilarious.... They told us our mission...Our Res. Staff have been kidnapped and we have to find them by looking around DC. P.S. We're superheroes.

We were put in groups and given superpowers ( I was fire) and then we had to go around DC on a scavenger hunt for clues as well as doing funny things. Por ejemplo, I had to get a bunch of random girls to do a dance with me. Rosa had to get a random guy to propose to her, and apparently it was his third time proposing...

The scavenger hunt was so fun, even though it was freezing, and we were given a code when we finished all of our tasks. PA303, which is Pennsylvania Ave. 303 so we went there and it's Good Stuff!!! So all of us, including our living Residential Staff, got milkshakes and it was super fun and chill.

Then we came home and played mafia. The End.

:)

Saw 3D

So right now me and one of my roomates, Mario are watching Saw 3D. It's so scary!

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

So on Wednesday, November 3rd, we ran on a Friday schedule and went to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace for Ethics and Leadership at the end of the day. Carnegie is the oldest U.S think tank, and it's right around the corner. We went there to learn how to write policy documents in order to write our group policy document about Sex Trafficking in Thailand.

We met with the Communications Director, Jessica, and also the Editor, Mary Lynn Jones. They were both really helpful.

Mary taught us alot of good writing skills, and gave us a list of the most important 8 to think about when writing a policy or any other document really. A few of the 8 points are know your audience, state points clearly, state things concisely/avoid SAT words (which I like because I really don't know alot of SAT words). Her points were really helpful.

Mary also gave us some tips on writing an op-ed.

A few of her many tips are:

• Always have a summary that highlights the paper
• Be cautious about language, soften tone if necessary
• You can use an acronym if it comes up more than twice
• If you use a graph in a policy it should be something that's hard to say in words
• Don't include so many numbers that the reader gets confused. 
• Each paragraph should have a purpose/function. 

It was a really cool day and going to Carnegie was awesome :)

Carnegie Endowment Video

John Hopkins conference on Human Trafficking

So we're are starting our policy document capstone project, where all 16 of us write a joint policy document about a certain issue. Last semester they did Piracy in Somalia, and presented it to the Ambassador of Somalia.

We chose..........Sex Trafficking! We haven't narrowed it down yet but we're working on it. On Friday we'll be spending the day at George Washington University (GW) Library researching.
UPDATE: This Morning, 11/04/10 we decided on our specific topic...Sex trafficking in Thailand.

Yesterday morning at morning meeting, Noah told us that ironically, the day after we chose our topic, that there was a human trafficking conference at John Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, right down the street from us. It was in honor of the 10 year anniversary of the passage of anti-trafficking legislation in the U.S. Robbie registered all of us. I had 2 free periods before lunch, so of course I went.

It was amazing. When I got there, Dc. Mohamed Mattar had just started talking. He is the Senior Research Professor of Law and the Executive Director of the Protection Project at John Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). He said that there are now 171 countries with some sort of anti-trafficking laws. He said that human trafficking is simply exploiting others. I also learned that the U.S has 44 states with some sort of law against human trafficking.

Right now there is a big movement for the "reduction of demand."

After Dr. Mattar, Mr. Cherif Bassiouni spoke. He is a distinguished Research Professor of Law Emeritus, President Emeritus of the International Human Rights Law Institute at DePaul University, President of the International Institute of Higher Studies in Criminal Sciences. He has also held 24(ish) UN positions, has been cited more the 27 times in Supreme Court Cases and has wrote over 80 books. He personally investigated Yugoslavia's war crimes a while back and also the 1st rape case in history. He is quite a guy! And I got to meet him! :)

Cherif took a more pessimistic view of the human trafficking situation....

I'm exhausted so I'll finish this post tomorrow :)  I'M BACK!

Cherif says that Sex Trafficking is still not a global priority at all. 1 reason he says is that there is still inequality between men and women. Men are still considered superior and women inferior. A second reason for why it's not a priority is because of a sense of quarrelry. The demand for prostitutes has always been considered acceptable. This factor of the problem has always been overlooked. A third reason he gives is that we don't really know the facts, so we use generalizations. The number of trafficking victims can't be quantified, there's really no way to tell. The U.N. has used the number 2 million though as a guesstimate. The number's main purpose should be to "Shock the Conscience," as Cherif says. However, this number hasn't been effective in illustrating how bad the problem is.
How high does the number have to be before this issue is taken seriously? 4 million? 8 million? 20 million?

Cherif talked about how sex trafficking has alot to do with culture and superiority. For example, Women from Nepal are constantly sent into India, where the Indians (not all of them) consider themselves superior to the people of Nepal. This happens with many countries. Those who are considered inferior are thought of as commodities. He says that power is reflected by what type of women a country wants as prostitutes.

He said that patterns of internal sex trafficking are constantly overlooked, like in Brazil, where there's a big internal sex trade. He says that economic development could be the best preventative measure.

Some more things that I learned from Mr. Cherif:

• Policy of repression, like criminalizing prostitution, doesn't work, especially for the victims.
• This issue is driven by profit
• There are 319 world conflicts, that have caused 92 million deaths, twice as many as the World Wars combined. The minimum number of people who could have done it: 1 million. Number of people convicted: 87. The numbers speak for themselves.
• There have been more Palestinians killed by Arabs than Israelis, but the Arab Nations just want to punish the Israelis. Why haven't they been prosecuted? Why just the Israelis? This shows the double standard in world conflicts.
• In the 319 world conflicts, there's usually organized crime, much that revolves around drug trafficking. The Rape of women is common in ALL conflicts.
• the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in Uganda marries young women to their boy soldiers. The girls are commonly raped.
• There IS a connection between rape and sex trafficking, and it has to do with the value of women.
• 70% of all the refugees in the world are women and children
• The U.N proposed a "Global Action Plan" to combat sex trafficking worldwide. The U.S. OPPOSED it and said that it's a distraction from other issues.

One story he told really struck me. He told a story about an 11 year old girl he met abroad. This girl was a slave. She was constantly raped and impregnated by multiple men who "owned" her. By the time they found her, she was in a catatonic state, with no hope left. She died shortly after.

     Imagine if there really were 2 MILLION women and children going through this. 2 MILLION.