Sunday, November 16, 2003
A Meeting
It is not often that I lose words, or don't even have the words, to describe something that has happened to me or someone that I have met. Friday, I had to go to the UN for a class. It is a seminar I am taking called UN Peacekeeping. I have dubious feelings about the topic and the class has been amazing. My professor has worked at/for the UN for around thirty years. So, when he invited us to go to meet people I figured it would be worth my while.
I got to the UN and waited in the lobby with my classmates. Our professor, Dr. Lee, came and escorted us to the conference room. We were to hear three speakers. The first was a woman from the US delegation. I cannot remember a word she said mostly because it is the same rhetoric I have heard repeatidly about the US stance towards peacekeeping and the UN. They hold it in contempt. I think that has become clear lately. The second speaker was from the Chinese delegation. I think this shows how much people respect Dr. Lee because the Chinese rarely let someone speak. Again, it was a position I was familiar with. I was impressed that he felt comfortable speaking candidly, though his candidness did not reveal anything controversial. About twenty minutes into the Chinese speaker a man walked into the room.
He was one of those people that you watch walk into a room. Tall, silver hair over brown skin, his face looked like a weathered tree and his eyes....I couldn't even begin to find the words to describe what an incredible wisdom they conveyed. After the Chinese speaker was done we were introduced to this man, Ambassador Ahmad Kamal. I can't tell you how old he is because I don't know. I do know that he was Pakistan's ambassador to China in the late sixties. He is now Pakistan's Ambassador to the UN.
If a talk on UN peacekeeping was worth a dollar, what he gave me is worth a million. He began by discussing the UN Charter. It truly secures power in the hands of the Western world. If you don't believe me read the thing, especially the parts about the Security Council and the P-5. As he informed us, "This is not my UN Charter, it isn't the UN Charter of most of you. We were still in the womb of our colonial mother's." As someone who feels my island is still in the womb, I was just blown away (PR's status, and my ability to have an opinion on it, will be discussed at some future point).
Then he talked about the problems in Africa and how Africa as a whole is ignored. I was the only person in the room with any obvious African descent but he looked us in the face and reminded that we are all African. It wasn't what he said but how he said it that was so gripping. He talked about evolution and migration and responsibility and I was literally moved to tears. Which, of course, I did not want my classmates to see.
I could go on about his talk but you could just go online and read some of the things he has written. Amazing. Then the Ambassador gave us a personal tour of the UN. You could see how much he was loved as every single security guard said HI to him and shook his hand. They waved us into places I don't really think we were supposed to go, so I won't get into what I got to see.
After I was so blown away I went to Don Pedro's (which I didn't go to Thursday) and sat and ate and wrote. I don't think I will ever do this man justice with my words but I will say this.
He affected me. I don't exactly know what type of career I am preparing for. There are classes in law school that are not required, but that people say you "should take". I have not taken any of them nor do I plan on it. My classes are a hodge podge of American Political law type classes and International Law classes. I don't know if I will be happy at a big firm, and I guess I will find out this summer. Little firms don't exactly do International Law. Plus, the classes I am taking are International Political Law type classes rather than business classes.
Example, next semester I want to take three classes; Employment Law, Constitution and Foreign Affairs, and Legislation AND two seminars; Immigration Law and Policy, and Enforcing International Law. I know law school just teaches you to think like a lawyer and you learn the real stuff on the job so, I am comfortable with this. I think I know how I want to apply it all now.
You see for all my studies on International Law and for all my international studies as an undergraduate--I have never left the country. Never been to even Canada or Mexico. But I realized, I think I want to work with refugees. It would be such a combination of what I have studied and am passionate about. I could use my knowledge of national law and politics to get them here and help them stay here. I can then use my knowledge of international law to help them sue the people who abused their human rights. A pipe dream. Maybe. No worse than other people's dreams. When will I do this. I don't know. Right now I am not even in the financial position to volunteer. The thought is out there. I feel compelled. And all because of one friday afternoon.
It is not often that I lose words, or don't even have the words, to describe something that has happened to me or someone that I have met. Friday, I had to go to the UN for a class. It is a seminar I am taking called UN Peacekeeping. I have dubious feelings about the topic and the class has been amazing. My professor has worked at/for the UN for around thirty years. So, when he invited us to go to meet people I figured it would be worth my while.
I got to the UN and waited in the lobby with my classmates. Our professor, Dr. Lee, came and escorted us to the conference room. We were to hear three speakers. The first was a woman from the US delegation. I cannot remember a word she said mostly because it is the same rhetoric I have heard repeatidly about the US stance towards peacekeeping and the UN. They hold it in contempt. I think that has become clear lately. The second speaker was from the Chinese delegation. I think this shows how much people respect Dr. Lee because the Chinese rarely let someone speak. Again, it was a position I was familiar with. I was impressed that he felt comfortable speaking candidly, though his candidness did not reveal anything controversial. About twenty minutes into the Chinese speaker a man walked into the room.
He was one of those people that you watch walk into a room. Tall, silver hair over brown skin, his face looked like a weathered tree and his eyes....I couldn't even begin to find the words to describe what an incredible wisdom they conveyed. After the Chinese speaker was done we were introduced to this man, Ambassador Ahmad Kamal. I can't tell you how old he is because I don't know. I do know that he was Pakistan's ambassador to China in the late sixties. He is now Pakistan's Ambassador to the UN.
If a talk on UN peacekeeping was worth a dollar, what he gave me is worth a million. He began by discussing the UN Charter. It truly secures power in the hands of the Western world. If you don't believe me read the thing, especially the parts about the Security Council and the P-5. As he informed us, "This is not my UN Charter, it isn't the UN Charter of most of you. We were still in the womb of our colonial mother's." As someone who feels my island is still in the womb, I was just blown away (PR's status, and my ability to have an opinion on it, will be discussed at some future point).
Then he talked about the problems in Africa and how Africa as a whole is ignored. I was the only person in the room with any obvious African descent but he looked us in the face and reminded that we are all African. It wasn't what he said but how he said it that was so gripping. He talked about evolution and migration and responsibility and I was literally moved to tears. Which, of course, I did not want my classmates to see.
I could go on about his talk but you could just go online and read some of the things he has written. Amazing. Then the Ambassador gave us a personal tour of the UN. You could see how much he was loved as every single security guard said HI to him and shook his hand. They waved us into places I don't really think we were supposed to go, so I won't get into what I got to see.
After I was so blown away I went to Don Pedro's (which I didn't go to Thursday) and sat and ate and wrote. I don't think I will ever do this man justice with my words but I will say this.
He affected me. I don't exactly know what type of career I am preparing for. There are classes in law school that are not required, but that people say you "should take". I have not taken any of them nor do I plan on it. My classes are a hodge podge of American Political law type classes and International Law classes. I don't know if I will be happy at a big firm, and I guess I will find out this summer. Little firms don't exactly do International Law. Plus, the classes I am taking are International Political Law type classes rather than business classes.
Example, next semester I want to take three classes; Employment Law, Constitution and Foreign Affairs, and Legislation AND two seminars; Immigration Law and Policy, and Enforcing International Law. I know law school just teaches you to think like a lawyer and you learn the real stuff on the job so, I am comfortable with this. I think I know how I want to apply it all now.
You see for all my studies on International Law and for all my international studies as an undergraduate--I have never left the country. Never been to even Canada or Mexico. But I realized, I think I want to work with refugees. It would be such a combination of what I have studied and am passionate about. I could use my knowledge of national law and politics to get them here and help them stay here. I can then use my knowledge of international law to help them sue the people who abused their human rights. A pipe dream. Maybe. No worse than other people's dreams. When will I do this. I don't know. Right now I am not even in the financial position to volunteer. The thought is out there. I feel compelled. And all because of one friday afternoon.
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