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| Avery beginning Human Rights Weekend |
I wanted to first extend a sincere thank you
to Africa Unite, an inspiring organization dedicated to providing knowledge and
insight to the community, for hosting this weekend’s Human Rights Training.
From the moment all 60 of us- UConn Students and South Africans alike were all
piled onto the bus and speeding away from the bustle of Cape Town and into the
serenity of the countryside to where over the course of 48 hours we would call
into question our morals, beliefs, and personal views of ourselves.
I
think one of the most impressive activities that we did over this weekend- one
that left me shell shocked in a way, was the New Planet Exercise. In this exercise, everyone on the trip was
divided into 6 groups- labeled as countries. Once assigned our country, we were
given the scenario that Planet Earth had been exhausted of resources and left
desolate. As a result Humans have found a new planet and were in the process of
relocating there. Once relocated, they found that there was some land that was
very fertile- but it was a smaller portion of the planet and the first two
countries to arrive there claimed ownership.
My own country was one of these two. In the other section (the majority
of the planet) there was only barren land 3 other countries found themselves
here. The decision we all had to make
now was about the final planet- if it and all its citizens could come join us
on the planet- and where they would go, what would their rights be, etc.
It
was amazing how this unraveled. My own group thought we were being progressive
and extremely generous when we allocated our own resources and made them
available to the new country on what, admittedly we had claimed as our planet,
and become too comfortable there to see any alternative. We agreed they could
come to our planet to evade sure death on the wasteland of Earth, but they
would have to live in the barren land where that we would exchange resources
with them for skilled labor and manufacturing of goods. Essentially, we were
creating a working class. I am amazed by our decision now. Uninfluenced by
anyone, when we had an opportunity where we could have created any solution to
the problem- yet we fell back into a pattern that history has repeatedly proved
to be flawed. Instead of doing what was
truly most sustainable- moving everyone off the fertile land and using it as
the “bread basket” of the planet- we instead hoarded the land that we had
settled on as if we were any more entitled to it than they were.
A
quote that struck a chord with me this weekend was “I am no more human than you
are, and therefore I cannot assume privilege to anything over you.” This weekend reminded me of the necessity to
not only speak of Human Rights, sustainability, and movement toward peace and
acceptance, but to actually take action and work to be the difference we wish
to see in the world. I think this planet that we have is full of beautiful
people, it is my sincere hope that we will each take it upon ourselves to put
aside our desperate and sometimes instinctive desires and wants for what may at
first feel uncomfortable but nonetheless be extremely rewarding in the end.
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| Human Rights Training Weekend at Goedgedatch Farm in Malmesbury 2013 |
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