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.

RALLY TO RESTORE SANITY AND/OR FEAR!!!!!!! & THE CORN MAZE!!! :)

Great Sign

     So yesterday was the "Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear" on the National Mall. Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, 2 hysterical comedians who talk about politics hosted it. President Obama and King Abdullah were just recently on Jon Stewart's show.

     Everyone was supposed to dress as people who America has taught us to hate to go to the rally. I didn't dress the radically, but I had "Lenin" written on one arm and "Stalin" on the other arm. I also had "Commi" written on one of my hands. Some people went more radical than others. 1 girl at SEGL, Rosa, dressed as Karl and another, Zoe, dressed as Marx. It was hysterical. The signs and costumes at the rally were so funny, and some pretty meaningful. I was surrounded by people who pretty much felt the same about alot of issues as I do.

Our hands! Mine says "Commi" :)

      It was crowded to the extreme! One report today says that there were 87,000 people there! The Mall was entirely filled up, you barely could move because everyone was pretty much shoulder to shoulder trying to push through the crowd. We eventually jumped a gate to get closer (don't worry, not illegal...) and we pushed our way through the crowd to get closer. Alot of people were in trees, on top of porter potties etc. just to try to see. Where we eventually were we could see some of the stage, but we could see the big jumbo screens and we could hear pretty well :). Still, we were shoulder to shoulder with everyone around us, so we made some friends :).

HUGE CROWD

 There were alot of performers. Some of them were John Legend, the O'Jays, Sheryl Crow, Kid Rock, some more, and of course Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. Stewart and Colbert were hysterical! I was on the ground cracking up at some points. Jon Stewart was the sane one and Stephen Colbert was the one spreading fear, which was really interesting. They had video montages which were SOOOO funny showing how the media spreads fear (especially FOX...just saying) and they gave out medals too. Some fear awards went out to the media stations that wouldn't let their employees go to the rally because of fear, so they gave a medal to a 7-year old girl who's more brave. They also gave a fear award to the founder of facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, for instilling fear and paranoia into everyone. He didn't come because "He cares more about his privacy than he does about yours..." -quoted from Stephen Colbert, haha.

Love this sign!

    Some sanity awards went to some baseball guy who was a good sport and a few other people.
    Jon Stewart ended the Rally on a serious but funny note. He said something that really really struck me, something that I totally believe. "The fact that America can't distinguish between a Muslim and a terrorist makes us less secure, not more."That is SOOOOOO true. Him and Stephen Colbert went back and forth about Muslims earlier, with Colbert being the devil's advocate saying that it was Muslims who attacked us so they are terrorists. Stewart replied by saying those were just a few of 1.5 BILLION Muslims in the world! I was like, "AMEN!!!!!" That is SOOO true! My roomate and I actually had a conversation about that same topic a few days ago.
     So basically the Rally was unbelievable, like Woodstock....kind of. It was actually one of the best things I've ever been to.

At the Corn Maze

     Our night was amazing too! We drove an hour and a half away to a Corn Maze in Virginia. The place was so cool, they were playing Iron Man 2, there were bonfires, pumpkin cannons (legit) and of course the Corn Mazes. The Corn Mazes were something pretty much out of the Tri-wizard tournament, I though Voldemort was going to come out and get me! lol, Harry Potter reference. There were 4 different Corn Mazes and they were all so fun, but creepy too. It was pitch black, and our group; VJ, Alex Daniels, Aarati, Arielle, and I only had a little flashlight. After our corn maze adventures, we all sat around a bonfire, ate some  french fries and played some intense "WAHHH!" (SEGL thing).
     We got back at 1am and I just passed out, it was REALLY long day. But one of the best days EVER!!! :)


MORE PICTURES FROM THE DAY:

Us at the Rally with Captain Planet

  

Me

                                 

Me with sign guy

One of the best signs of the day!

Me making friends with cool sign people.
Clearly got a little sunburnt.

Rosa and I on the Capitol Building lawn after the rally

Rosa, Zoe and I all rallied up!

Some interesting articles:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/the-100-best-signs-at-the-rally-to-restore-sanity

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/us-politics/8100978/Thousands-attend-Rally-to-Restore-Sanity-in-Washington.html

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-rally-to-restore-sanity-was-amazing-no-wonder-our-idiot-media-are-dissing-it-2010-10

Facebook detox

So this week I had a friend of mine change my facebook password so I can't get on it for the week, because I was getting way too distracted and I wasn't getting my work done enough. Kudos to Katherine Hodges, by the way, for introducing this idea to me! I have til Sunday with no facebook, and I'm not going to lie, it's been rough. I keep wanting to go on facebook, but I can't :(. But I've gotten so much work done without facebook!

Something that I think is interesting is how embedded facebook is in me. I never really realized before that I don't really go on facebook to talk to someone, or to do something, it's just because I get so distracted, bored, and just randomly. Now without facebook, I've been noticing that when I turn on my computer, the first thing I do is click my facebook bookmark, without even thinking about. Also, when I'm on the computer I randomly click the facebook bookmark, with no intention, I just do it. The only reason I think that I'm realizing this now is because I can't get on it! So when I get to the facebook page I just get to the login page, which makes me notice how much I go on facebook. When I get to that login page, I don't even remember trying to go on facebook, it's really weird....

So bottom line, facebook is actually a habit/addiction....no joke....

War on drugs...stops 2,3,4, and 5....plus some random stops along the way :)

To continue my research about drug trafficking and the Mexican War on drugs, I met with a few other people today to talk to about it. Some of the stuff we talked about I can't write down because it's secret(ish), and I don't want this post to be like a gazillion pages....

Stop 1:

Who: U.S.-Mexico Border Coordinator Stewart Tuttle

When: 10am

Where: The Einstein Memorial (So I didn't have to go through security at the State Department where he works)

My first meeting of the day was with Stewart Tuttle, who is in charge of the U.S.-Mexico border. He gave me a lot of perspective that I hadn't heard of before, like the strengths of the border, instead of the weaknesses which are always talked about. The third pillar of the Mérida initiative is to build a modern 21st century economically secure and stable border between Mexico and the U.S. He is pretty much in charge of setting that up!

   Some of what I learned:

• Border states are setting up master plans, of their priorities for what their borders need. The Government gives funding to their top priorities first. California is the first state done with their master plan
• There are 3 Master Plan borders in Texas, because it's so big.
• Cooperation with Mexico right now is really good
• Every day, $1 Billion in trade crosses the border, and 1 million legal people (not necessarily immigrating, just crossing)
• Almost half of the states in the U.S. have Mexico as their primary trading partner
• Violence makes the cost of business go up and makes the U.S. more security conscious
• SENTRY cards are like fast cards for crossing the border. People who have them have been pre-screened so they can cross the border quickly
• There's a really good idea in progress that would decongest the border...but I can't say exactly what it is... ;)
• The Master Plans (and most of the new border) will hopefully be done by 2013
• Why should YOU care? An efficient border will return investments alot, there will be more jobs, a more modern border means easier trade which means less expensive products and more fresh fruits etc. etc.
• You know an issue is important when the White House takes charge, which has happened. Federal Organizations, the White House, etc. come together to form an Interagency Policy Committee (IPC), there's an IPC which deals with the border. Coordinator Tuttle is a main staffer on the IPC and chairs the discussions about border infrastructure. He is at every meeting too!

After my meeting with Coordinator Tuttle I made my way too....

Stop 2:

Who: Ricardo Ardayl

When: 12pm

Where: La embajada de México! (The Mexican Embassy!)

Ricardo Ardayl works in Communications and Media at the Mexican Embassy. I met with him for around an hour and he gave me Mexico's perspective on the issue, which is really interesting. He talked about the President, Felipe Calderón, alot because Calderón is really cracking down on drug trafficking.

     Here's some of what I learned:

• President Calderón is a lawyer, his wife is also, he's passionate and tough about the law. He's in the PAN Party, considered more to the right, but right and left aren't the same at all as they are in the U.S.
• Alot of the deaths from Drug violence are people who are involved in the drug trade. Only a small amount are civilians. 
• Because Ciudad Juarez is the most affected region in Mexico, they have alot of Armed forces there. Things have gotten slightly better there.
• Many people in Mexico grew up with the PRI (a party), which wasn't great, so they still don't have a big sense of democracy, and there is still distrust/suspicion about the Government embedded int he culture
• There's very good cooperation between the U.S. and Mexico.
• Most of the weapons of the Cartels come from the U.S.
• Bribing gets alot of money and drugs across the border.
• Mexico's economy is very connected to the U.S.'s economy. "If you sneeze, we catch a cold." -Ardayl
• Mexico is the U.S.'s 3rd biggest consumer
• La Barbee, a drug trafficker thought to be Mexican who was just captured/killed, was actually American.

Hearing his side and opinions was super interesting and I learned alot. I even got to speak spanish while I was there! :) After I met with him I got a piece of pizza and then headed for....

Stop 3:

Who: Person would like to remain anonymous

When: 3pm

Where: the Ford House Office Building

For my next meeting, I met with a guy (who would like to remain unnamed) who works specifically with this issue and issues regarding Latin America on Capitol Hill. 

   Some of what I learned:

• With increased law enforcement, things will get worse before they get better. Many Cartels retaliate with violence against strict Law Enforcement. (Sidenote: The PRI, which ruled for more than 70 years in Mexico had ties with many cartels, but Calderón doesn't tolerate them and cracks down on them so the Cartels retaliate with violence, unlike when the PRI was in power).
• President Obama and Secretary Clinton have said that America is responsible too (finally!)
• Latin American issues/ Mexico is increasingly higher up on Congress' radar with bipartisan support
• Things are moving in the right direction
• Mexico and the U.S. are cooperating really well!

The meeting with this guy was really good and I also learned alot. He was really cool and he deals with these issues everyday so he knew alot. 

     A House Committee on Terrorism and Human Rights was a few doors down so I went in to ask a question. I asked something like, "What is the line between Spill-over violence and terrorism?" Because many consider Spill-over violence  only violence that targets civilians, not other traffickers, so there has been discussion about if it's considered terrorism or not. He told me to email him the question, so I did. Hopefully I'll get an answer soon!

    Also before my next meeting, I stopped by Senator Scott Brown's office to introduce myself to the office. Scott Brown was the lead Senate Sponsor of the bill I filed in Massachusetts, so I worked with him about that. He's a really cool guy. Then I quickly stopped by Senator Susan Collins office to tell her staff how cool their boss is! I love Senator Collins, and her staff do too (I know that seems obvious but you never know)! I got to meet Senator Collins at an event a little while ago so I told them how awesome it was to meet her and they appreciated the flamboyancy. Then I headed down the hall to...

Stop 4

Who: Emily Mendrala, works for Sen. John Kerry on the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations

When: 4:30pm

Where: Dirksen Senate Office Building

So my next meeting was with Emily Mendrala, who works on the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and is a 'Western Hemisphere gal." She knew so much and I could tell how content she was working on the committee and with Sen. John Kerry. I think we were pretty similar with our high-energy! :)

 Here's some of what I learned:

• Balloon effect, if we give $$$ to one place, crime goes up in another place etc. etc. so we need to evenly distribute money etc.
• Spill-over violence into the U.S. is very low right now
• Many Mexican people are leaving Juarez because of the drug situation there. 
• Many routes used for illegal immigration into the United States are also used for trafficking drugs, money, weapons etc.
• The DEA is taking precautions against drugs in hot-spot areas in the U.S.

Her boss had actually just come back from Juarez where he met with Mexican officials about drug trafficking and other issues. She was super cool and from what she says of Sen. John Kerry, I'm glad he's my Senator

Then I went.........home. 

It was a really interesting day. I learned a ton and got to meet with some awesome people. On Friday, every student will be presenting some of what they learned, so I'll be presenting about this.

If you have questions about any of this feel free to ask! :)

P.S. Will put more bathroom pictures up soon! :)

Mexican war on drugs, stop 1.

     So this week we're all kind of individually researching policies that interest us, and meeting with people in DC to learn more about it. My policy is of course, the Mexican war on drugs.

     Monday, for my first meeting about the subject, I went into my Congressman's office and met with the woman who deals with foreign policy in the office, Mariana. I met her last year when I came to DC with my temple confirmation class, and lobbied for the DREAM Act. So of course we caught up for a little while and talked about the DREAM Act. Unfortunately, getting it passed isn't looking too good :(

     We then started to talk about the Mexican war on drugs. We talked about how many Americans don't really care, because they think this is just a Mexican issue. Wrong. This is not just a Mexican issue. The drug cartels get most of their money, hundreds of billions of dollars, from Americans who buy their drugs. It is Americans that are keeping the Cartels running for the most part. We also talked about how most of the weapons that the Cartels have come from...THE U.S. OF COURSE! There was a ban on exporting guns to other countries that just expired. President Obama doesn't really want to renew it because of pressure from organizations like the NRA, who think it would limit their gun rights, but it really doesn't.
     We talked about alot of other aspects of the Drug War too, and the Mérida initiative. We even talked about Afghanistan and Israel too! Mariana is awesome. So down-to-earth and knowledgable, I loved meeting with her.

Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)

     So today we went to the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). They're a public sector/bank that's partially owned by 48 countries. The U.S. owns 30%. Countries put money in to help development specifically in Latin American Countries and the Caribbean.
     The 2 people we met with, Fabian and Eliana from Buenos Aires, work with youth and help young social entrepreneurs worldwide. They pointed out that 60% of people in Latin America are youth (ages 15-30). Through working with youth in different countries, they help development there and alot of countries really like their successful young people being recognized. IDB sends out a newsletter every month reaching a wide network talking about what youth are doing in the world.
    Fabian and Eliana talked with us alot about what they do and it sounds amazing. We asked a lot of questions too. It was awesome to be able to go there. The IDB is amazing. You can see more about them here: http://www.iadb.org/

This is a video they told us to watch when someone asked about international girls education which is made by their partner nike:
The Girl Effect
   It's very powerful, you should watch it.

After meeting with them, I starting to think about making my organization more international, as opposed to what I was thinking before. But I still really don't know.


Night:
We went to Good Stuff, got fries and milkshakes, then hung out and had a big dance party on the Library of Congress steps! it was chill :)

Personal Journey Pt. 1

So I can't say alot about the "Personal Journey" of Odyssey Week because I want it to be a secret for future SEGL student, BUT...I will say that it was absolutely amazing! I learned so much about myself, I'm amazed that I could learn so much about myself in 1 day. It was unbelievable and I'll never forget it! And we still have more parts of Odyssey Week(actually 2 weeks) to go! :)

Odyssey week...???

So this week and next week is odyssey week....but we don't know what that means yet! The staff says it's the first time SEGL has done this and we'll find out what we're doing tomorrow, but I'm so anxious to find out what it is! All I know is that it has to do with a "personal Journey..."

Will keep you updated on what it actually is :)

Homecoming at SEGL!

HOMECOMING AT SEGL

Friday night we had a super chill night at the house making pumpkin cookies and listening to chill music...and interpretive dancing! We needed a chill night because we had PSAT's early on Saturday. The PSAT's were ehhh...not horrible but not good. After that, we hung out in Dupont Circle for a while then went to the school to see everyone there for homecoming. It was kind of overwhelming because of all the new people but it was so fun. We met alot of kids from last years' semesters which was cool and they're all pretty chill :) Noah did the mini chocolate case study and then strangely enough we went to a chocolate tasting after. The chocolate was SO good and I don't even like chocolate that much! Then we went back to the school and listened to 4 past students talk about their organizations (which we're in the process of making now). Some have started and some are still getting there, but they're all really cool. One that's similar to the one I want to start is: http://www.teenocracy.net/ made by Markus Batchelor. Then we (the current students) went back to the house to get ready for the Gala!
     The Gala at night was awesome. It was at our school. My Mom and I were both there and we met alot of people. It was really cool to see how much bigger the school is than just "us," the ones who are here now. There's so many supporters of the school and so many friends and past students. The School started just as a vision by Noah and now it's reality and it's amazing to be a part of. I can't even describe the feeling. Everyone in the same room was 1) crowded and 2) really cool because we got to talk to so many different people. P.S. there were really really good cookies! Before we met the students from last year, Robbie (Our Residential Dean/my advisor/coolest guy ever) kind of told us who he thinks we're most like. I think he may have gotten mine right....maybe...a little....But I'm still an individual! :)
     After the Gala my Mom and I went to potbellys and I slept over at her hotel. We had breakfast at a crepe place in the morning which was really good and then she went off back to Boston. Adios Mom! See you for Thanksgiving!
    So ya....the weekend was really cool :)