As I stood under the Milky Way in
the pitch-black night on a rural olive farm somewhere about an hour and a half
outside of Cape Town, South Africa, I saw the stars like I had never seen them
before. Stretched above me, seeming as though to be bits of heaven falling,
comets shot across the sky. The scene fit perfectly with the context of the
weekend. I was on the farm, along with my fellow co-educators and members from
Africa Unite to learn about human rights.
It was truly an amazing experience to be able to meet and talk with
peers from around the African continent. To hear their stories and their
perceptions on everything ranging from politics to music was an opportunity I
am extremely grateful for. Though we may not have agreed on every issue we discussed,
the exchange of ideas across cultural boundaries was priceless.
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| President Emily (far left) |
If you know me, you know my love of
model United Nations. It began in high school with my first conference and my
participation with it has continued through college as a part of the UCONN
Model U.N. club and by working for a Model U.N. company for the past 3 years.
So needless to say I was extremely excited when I heard that we would be having
a Model U.N.-esque experience (It wasn’t quiet Model U.N. since it didn’t
follow Robert’s rule of parliamentary procedure). We began by organizing into
groups, deciding what country we wanted to be and whom will be the president.
My group chose to represent Zimbabwe with myself as president. We held a
presentation asking the World Bank for a 1 billion USD check to improve living
standards in the state. We ended up receiving the check, beating out 5 other
teams in the process.
The most interesting part of the
country role play for me was an exercise where we had to imagine that earth had
been destroyed by climate change and a new planet was being settled by four out
of the six countries. Two had fertile land while two did not and the other two
wanted to settle and were asking to be let in. We had to decide whether or not
to let the other two countries in and what rule to set for them. We fairly
quickly turned inward holding fast to our nationalities and our borders. Rather
than all share the land evenly we were on the brink of war. The exercise showed
all too clearly the state of international politics today. During my time doing
Model U.N. conferences each delegate always looked out for our own national
interest though others were in need. This is a sad but accurate portrayal of
how politics work. Rather than think outside the box of how to best solve the
problem for everyone, for a better future, countries and us as individuals
retreat inward, trying to protect ourselves not realizing we are all one in the
same. All too often we get caught up in our own labels whether it be
nationality, race, religion, etc. and cannot see ourselves as a piece in a
puzzle rather than the entire puzzle.
These were
the thoughts running through my mind as I stood under the stars, facing my own
insignificance in the cosmos, and I couldn’t help but think of Carl Sagan’s famous
quote:
“The Earth is a
very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the endless cruelties visited
by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable
inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how
eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Think of the
rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory
and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot.
Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some
privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale
light. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will
come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.”
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| Emily receiving her Human Rights Training Certificate |
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