Buffalo Girls

Typically when we think of the human rights of children issues like child labor or abuse against children come to mind. These are the two main issues that have come up in our discussion about the film Buffalo Girls. While the issue seems to be very black and white, there are a few other things to consider before denouncing or supporting children participating in muay thai fighting. 
         
      We must first consider the cultural aspect of muay thai fighting in Thai culture. Article 30 of the “Convention of the Rights of the Child” it states “ Minority of indigenous children have the right to learn about and practise their own culture, language, and religion. The right to practise one’s own culture, language, and religion applies to everyone; the Convention highlights this right in instances where the practices are not shared by the majority of the people in the country” While muay thai fighting seems to be widely embraced in Thailand, it’s not something that is usually practised here in the west. Those of us living here in the west cannot expect others of a different culture living in a different country to raise their children in a fashion similar to ours. I’m sure things like child beauty pageants might seem bizarre and a potential human rights issue in other parts of the world. That’s not to say that there are plenty of cultures that practice things that are a clear violation of human rights and shouldn’t be allowed to continue, but does something like muay thai fighting fall into that category? 

         The biggest issue that most people seem to have with children participating in muay thai fighting is obviously the violence. Which is a valid concern, no child should be subject to abuse. Article 19 of the CRC states, “ Children have the right to be protected from being hurt and mistreated, physically or mentally. Governments should ensure that children are properly cared for and protect them from violence, abuse, and neglect by their parents, or anyone else who looks after them” The main difference between the children participating in muay thai fighting and what’s stated in the CRC is that in the CRC it seems to be discussing child abuse at the hands of a parent or guardian. It doesn’t necessarily address the issue of things like sports, which is what muay thai fighting is a sport. Muay thai fighting isn’t the only sport that children participate in that is considered violent, here in the US we have kids who are roughly the same age as the children in Thailand who participate in little league football. Football is notorious for it’s brutal tackles that leave players with concussions and potential neurological issues later in life, yet we allow American children to play. There are also little league rugby or hockey teams, two other notoriously “violent” sports, yet no one seems to object too much to kids here in the west of “global north” participating in these sports. As long as measures are taken to ensure the safety of the children participating in these sports, there should be no reason why they shouldn’t play them. Playing sports can lead to a whole new world of opportunities for many children living in poverty and can change their lives for the better significantly.

Little Bee Essay

Samantha Tamale
Hayes
5/19/14
Eng. 1A
Word Count: 1295
Little Bee
                    Little Bee by Christopher Cleave is a story that many of us here in the west or “global north” are unfamiliar with. We might hear stories similar to Little Bee’s on the evening news but haven’t seen or connected to a more personal side of it. Cleave does a great job of bringing those stories we hear in passing on the news to life in Little Bee. Caroline Elkins, a New York Times reviewer, says this of Little Bee: “Like Little Bee, Sarah is a survivor. But the lessons of the past are not enough to steer either woman to safety. Instead, in a world full of turpitude and injustice, it is their bold, impulsive choices that challenge the inevitability of despair, transforming a political novel into an affecting story of human triumph.” In this review, Elkins makes a great argument that both Little Bee and Sarah are survivors after overcoming various although different traumatic experiences and that the novel showcases great examples of “human triumph”. While I agree that the “human triumph” aspect of the novel is important, the political issues it addresses is more important to the story as a whole. It’s the moments in the book where the violations against human rights are described in detail that will stay with the reader long after. Little Bee addresses the human rights issues of refugee children,oil companies having more priority over the rights of citizens, and federal-local identity issues.            
          Being forced out of your home country and leaving everything you know  in order to escape war or persecution is a daunting enough experience for adults, let alone children who are sometimes forced to take that journey alone. That is why it is essential that refugee children are especially taken care of when seeking asylum in other countries. According to the “Convention on the Rights of the Child” the definition of a child is anyone under the age of 18, when Little Bee arrived in England she was fourteen years old, making her a child under British law and most importantly under the rights listed in the “Convention on the Rights of the Child”.  Article 22 of the CRC says,“ children have the right to special protection and help if they are refugees (if they have been forced to leave their home and live in another country), as well as all the rights in this Convention.” The CRC explicitly states that when a refugee child seeks asylum in another country, it is the host countries responsibility to not only provide asylum but to also ensure that the well being of the child is it’s top priority. Therefore, Little Bee’s rights were first violated when she was placed in an adult detention center, even though she lacked the proper identification the British government should have been more careful of her placement when she told them she was underage. By placing her in a adult detention center it not only caused her further distress, her fear of the adult men in the detention center, but it prevented her from having the rights afforded to her by the CRC as a child refugee. Little Bee should have been given a social worker to overlook her overall well being and to make sure that she is being represented fairly in the system. The British government caused further damage by sending her back to Nigeria where her life is in danger, thus completely violating her human rights and her rights as child refugee.
             In Little Bee the interests of the oil companies in Nigeria is more of a priority for the government than the rights of the villagers. The state or country is responsible for protecting the human rights of it’s citizens, not the profits of corporations. Neuwirth writes, “ Operating largely outside the scope of international law, corporations have their own code of conduct. Unlike governments--which are at least in theory based on popular will and purportedly representative of public interest---corporations don’t represent anyone other than themselves.” In this passage Neuwirth explains that corporations care only about their own interests mainly because they don’t have to answer to anyone for their actions. Operating mostly outside international law,  they don’t have to answer to anyone when they conduct themselves shamefully and commit unspeakable acts against human rights, especially the oil companies operating in the Niger Delta. Which means that it falls on the Nigerian government to hold the oil companies accountable for any human rights violations against it’s citizens. The only thing keeping the Nigerian government from protecting Nigerian citizens is not that they are unable to do so but that the Nigerian government itself profits a lot of money from the oil industry. Money that is hardly ever spent on bettering or protecting the lives of it’s citizens.
                  The issue of federal-local identity explains why the Nigerian government is unhelpful in protecting villages in the Niger Delta from the oil companies. In Country Watch: Country Overview Nigeria it says, “ This is an issue of federal-local identity. The government sees oil as the country’s most lucrative natural resource. Nigeria is currently the world’s sixth largest oil exporter. The oil profits, however are not funneled back to the people of the region by way of infrastructure development.” pg. 5 (Country Watch) In this passage it discusses the issue of how the Nigerian government fails to distribute the wealth it’s made from oil profits back to it’s citizens, creating an issue of federal-local identity. If the government used more funds from the money it’s made from oil profits towards things like law enforcement, there might be more protection for human rights that would keep villages like Little Bee’s from being attacked by the oil companies.
                Elkins and other readers argue that the importance of a novel like Little Bee is the emotional aspect of the story or as Elkins put it “an affecting story of human triumph” and that the political issues addressed in the novel aren’t central to the novels theme. While I agree that Cleave utilizes an emotional approach in Little Bee, it is the political issues in the book that Cleave writes about that make the book important. Throughout the story he repeatedly brings up issues that many refugee’s deal with in their host countries. Such as the loss of cultural identity in order to better assimilate into British society, prejudice from British citizens, and most importantly how many refugee’s fail to succeed in gaining asylum despite the fact that they have legitimate reasons for leaving their home countries. Cleave also addresses the human rights issues and violations that have forced refugees out of their home countries like the slaughter of Little Bee’s village at the demand of the oil companies and the murder of Yvette’s family in Jamaica for political reasons. These issues make the political aspect of Little Bee the overall central theme of the book. Which is important because novels like Little Bee bring much needed  awareness to the plight of refugees and to human rights violations as a whole.
                   While Little Bee may be a fictional novel, the issues it addresses are very real. There are countless people across the world in situations like Little Bee’s, some are living in even more dire circumstances. Unfortunately for those people is that there aren’t enough people like Sarah who are willing to sacrifice a finger let alone speak up to defend the human rights of their fellow human beings. Little Bee not only makes those of us living here in the west or the “global north” aware of the atrocities being done in other parts of the world but it also makes us think of what role we have in the human rights discussion.

Book Club Nomination

1.  Malala Yousafzai's I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban is a non fiction autobiography on education rights for girls in Pakistan.

2.  The education of women is a critical component in the discussion of human rights and most definitely in the international women’s movement.

3. It is 352 pages long.

4. I have not read this.

5. The text is challenging enough without being too difficult to read.

6. Avaiable for purchase through either Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble. Prices range from $12-$25. Used copies are also easy to find and purchase.

7. Available in english.

Nomination:
                       While I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban is an autobiography I feel that it is an important book to read in addition to our studies on human rights and the international women’s movement. The topic of the book, education rights for girls and women, was  a crucial part of Wudunn’s argument in her TEDGlobal talk and in the discussion of the rights of women in the “global south” overall. I feel that it should be considered despite being an autobiography because Malala’s story is one that many students might already be familiar with but also because it is a part of current events. Malala Yousafzai is an extraordinary young woman and her story is critical in understanding the fight for human rights today in 2014.

Word Count: 244

Lab Activity

                       Our group is researching the human rights of refugees.  An article that I found to be informative of the issues refugees face is "Rough Terrain for Refugees" by Rachel Anderson. In the article Anderson discusses how refugees human rights are being violated and how that also connects to the destruction of the environment surrounding a lot of refugee camps. Anderson brings up the point that many refugees have left a life of poverty in their home countries only to end up in the same position in their host country. A major part of this issue is the host countries refusal to properly support refugees, which forces the refugees to live off the land in order to survive. According to Anderson these camps are crowded and often unsanitary.  Two more articles of interest would be "Human Rights Watch/Africa calls for Protection of Refugees in E.Zaire" and "Tricked, Rwandan Refugees Are Driven Home, U.N Says" . These articles focus on how refugees are sometimes forced back to their native lands, violating their right to seek asylum under the UDHR.

Final Draft: Wudunn/Bales

Samantha Tamale
Hayes
Eng. 1A
4/21/14
Word Count: 1177
                 If we can learn one thing about changing the world from history it’s that every cause needs a skilled orator. From Mahatma Gandhi to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. words have proven to be one of the most powerful weapons against tyranny. A skilled orator has the capacity to emotionally move people and inspire them to take action against their oppressors. Sheryl Wudunn and Kevin Bales are two writers who hope to do just that. Wudunn and Bales both gave talks at different TED conferences but both talks addressed the issue of human rights. Wudunn addressed the injustice against women internationally and Bales put the spotlight on the millions of people currently enslaved across the world. Wudunn and Bales both gave great speeches, but how well organized their speeches were and emotional appeal is what sets the two speeches apart.
               When giving a speech it’s important to organize your ideas in a way that is easy for you audience to follow. Wudunn does a great job with organization in her speech by introducing a solution and setting up how it would work for the audience in one paragraph before going into a story of success that embodies that claim in the next paragraph. For example, before telling Saima’s story, she first talks about economic opportunity and how it benefits women and their communities. She says “I’ve talked about some of the challenges, let me talk about some of the solutions, and there are predictable solutions. I’ve hinted at them: education and also economic opportunity. So of course, when you educate girl, she tends to get married later on in life, she tends to have kids later on in life, she tends to have fewer kids, and those kids that she does, she educates them in a more enlightened fashion.” (Wudunn)  The last sentence is a great example of an effective transition into Saima’s story, “With economic opportunity, it can be transformative” (Wudunn). Transitions are helpful in organizing a speech because it helps connects your ideas and helps the overall flow of the speech. Bales lacked this in his speech. His speech was very informative but not organized.
               Bales speech offered us a lot of information on modern day slavery and a few solutions but fails to organize it in a way that is easy to follow.  He fails to use transitions to make a smooth shift from one topic to another, making it hard at times for me to follow him. For example, he goes from talking about countries where slavery exists today in one paragraph to discussing how slavery impacts the environment negatively in the next. He says, “Now, where is it? Well, this map in the sort of redder, yellower colors are the places with the highest densities of slavery. But in fact that kind of bluey color are the countries where we can't find any cases of slavery. And you might notice that it's only Iceland and Greenland where we can't find any cases of enslavement around the world..We're also particularly interested and looking very carefully at places where slaves are being used to perpetrate extreme environmental destruction…..” (Bales)
He also could have used an organizational method similar to Wudunn when introducing an issue in one paragraph and discussing the solution in detail in the next paragraph. He is very brief in talking about some of the solutions he talks about and fails to offer us an example of how it would be implemented in reality.  For example he goes into great detail when discussing the cost of liberating the enslaved but fails to discuss how exactly that would happen.The lack of organization in his speech makes it seem choppy and is less effective when compared to Wudunn’s well organized and detailed speech. While the topic of his talk stirs up strong emotions, Bales’s fails to really talk about the victims of slavery in a way that is effective emotionally.
           What made Wudunn’s talk work so well is the emotional approach she used. Her use of anecdotes helps us to not only really understand what the issue was but also the victims of these issues. For almost every issue she discusses in her talk she had an anecdote of a woman who successfully overcame the odds. She says, “Dai Manju is 13 years old at the time the story starts. She lives with her parents, her two brothers and her great-aunt. They have a hut that has no electricity, no running water, no wristwatch, no bicycle. And they share this great splendor with a very large pig.” (Wudunn) This is helpful because by introducing the women by name and telling their stories to us makes it possible for an emotional connection to form. We feel like we know these women, which also makes it  more personal. While Bale’s discussed a very emotional topic, he fails to offer us that same emotional connection. He doesn’t introduce most of the people he talks about, he doesn’t go into personal details about their background, it’s all very cut dry. He says, “These young boys are in Nepal. They are basically the transport system on a quarry run by a slaveholder. There are no roads there, so they carry loads of stone on their backs, often of their own weight, up and down the Himalaya Mountains” (Bales) He introduces them, tells us a little bit of their story, and then quickly moves onto the next topic. Were only left with a superficial impression of who these people are and they seem to blend into the other various statistics offered by Bales. Bales utilizes a more logical approach in appealing to the audience about modern slavery. While he does make great use of clips and a few anecdotes in his talk, his arguments rely heavily on statistics. The emotional approach is definitely present in his speech but he fails to really allow the audience to connect to the people in his stories. It’s important that when talking about issues regarding human rights and using anecdotes about it’s victims that we go a little more into depth about who these people are and why their stories matter. This is the difference between telling just a sad story and a story that will inspire change.
           In conclusion, while Wudunn and Bales both talk about very horrifying truths the differences in organization and how well they were able to emotionally connect with their audience is what made one talk stand out over another. Being knowledgeable about an issue is great but in order to really bring about change one must know how to convey that knowledge in a way that is inspirational. After all one speech can spark a revolution and according to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights sometimes force is necessary when seeking freedom. “Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of the law.”

Works Cited
Wudunn, Sheryl. “Our Century’s Greatest Injustice”. TEDGlobal. Jul 2010. Lecture.
Bales, Kevin. “How to Combat Modern Slavery”. TED. Feb 2010. Lecture.
UN General Assembly, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 10 December 1948, 217 A (III).

Compare and Contrast: Wudunn/Bale

Samantha Tamale
Hayes
Eng. 1A
4/18/14
                 If we can learn one thing about changing the world from history it’s that every cause needs a skilled orator. From Mahatma Gandhi to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. words have proven to be one of the most powerful weapons against tyranny. A skilled orator has the capacity to emotionally move people and inspire them to take action against their oppressors. Sheryl Wudunn and Kevin Bales are two writers who hope to do just that. Wudunn and Bale both gave talks at different TED conferences but both talks addressed the issue of human rights. Wudunn addressed the injustice against women internationally and Bale put the spotlight on the millions of people currently enslaved across the world. Wudunn and Bale both gave great speeches, but how well organized their speeches were and emotional appeal is what sets the two speeches apart.
               When giving a speech it’s important to organize your ideas in a way that is easy for you audience to follow. Wudunn does a great job with organization in her speech by introducing a solution and setting up how it would work for the audience in one paragraph before going into a story of success that embodies that claim in the next paragraph. For example, before telling Saima’s story, she first talks about economic opportunity and how it benefits women and their communities. The last sentence is a great example of an effective transition into Saima’s story, “With economic opportunity, it can be transformative”. Transitions are helpful in organizing a speech because it helps connects your ideas and helps the overall flow of the speech. Bales lacked this in his speech. His speech was very informative but not organized.
               Bales speech offered us a lot of information on modern day slavery and a few solutions but fails to set it up in a way that is easy to follow. Instead of introducing each issue he jumps right into talking about each topic. He also fails to use transitions to make a smooth change from one topic to another, making it hard at times for me to follow him. He is very brief in talking about some of the solutions he talks about and fails to offer us an example of how it would be implemented in reality. The lack of organization in his speech makes it seem choppy and is less effective when compared to Wudunn’s well organized speech. While the topic of his talk stirs up strong emotions, Bale’s fails to really talk about the victims of slavery in a way that is effective emotionally.
           What made Wudunn’s talk work so well is the emotional approach she used. Her use of anecdotes help us to not only really understand what the issue was but also the victims of these issues. For almost every issue she discusses in her talk she had an anecdote of a woman who successfully overcame the odds. This is helpful because by introducing the women by name and telling their stories to us makes it possible for an emotional connection to form. We feel like we know these women, which also makes it a little more personal. While Bale’s discussed a very emotional topic, he fails to offer us that same emotional connection. He doesn’t introduce most of the people he talks about, he doesn’t go into personal details about their background, it’s all very cut dry.Bale utilizes a more logical approach in appealing to the audience about modern slavery. While he does make great use of clips and a few anecdotes in his talk, his arguments rely heavily on statistics. The emotional approach is definitely present in his speech but he fails to really allow the audience to connect to the people in his stories. He introduces them, tells us a little bit of their story, and then quickly moves onto the next topic. Were only left with a superficial impression of who these people are and they seem to blend into the other various statistics offered by Bale. It’s important that when talking about issues regarding human rights and using anecdotes about it’s victims that we go a little more into depth about who these people are and why their stories matter. This is the difference between telling just a sad story and a story that will inspire change.
           In conclusion, while Wudunn and Bales both talk about very horrifying truths the differences in organization and how well they were able to emotionally connect with their audience is what made one talk stand out over another. Being knowledgeable about an issue is great but in order to really bring about change one must know how to convey that knowledge in a way that is inspirational.

Word Count: 791

Rhetorical Analysis of Bales's TED talk: "How to Combat Modern Slavery"

Kevin Bale’s TED talk “How to Combat Modern Slavery” is a reminder that slavery isn’t just an issue found in our history books but that it is an ongoing issue today.  Bales talk reminded me of past stories about modern slavery I’ve heard in the past but I failed to grasp the severity of how large of an issue modern slavery is today. When hearing these stories I naively thought of them as anomalies, the grim truth is that victims of slavery can be found in just about every corner of the world. I was also appalled at how inexpensive it was to purchase a slave, that a human life could be worth so little. Thankfully the issue of modern slavery is also beginning to get more attention in the mainstream media, as we saw when director Steve Mcqueen dedicated his best picture win for 12 Years a Slave to the millions of people still enslaved today earlier this year at the Oscars.
     Bale is an experienced speaker but he isn’t necessarily a great orator. I won’t argue that he gave a great and informative talk but overall I found it to be a little dry. Bale utilizes a more logical approach in appealing to the audience about modern slavery. While he does make great use of clips and a few anecdotes in his talk, his arguments rely heavily on statistics. The emotional approach is definitely present in his speech but he fails to really allow the audience to connect to the people in his stories. He introduces them, tells us a little bit of their story, and then quickly moves onto the next topic. Were only left with a superficial impression of who these people are and they seem to blend into the other various statistics offered by Bale.
     The arguments made in Bales talk were adequate. The main claim made by Bale is that it is up to the global community as a whole to liberate the millions of enslaved people across the world. One of the reasons used by Bale is that slavery plays a big part in environmental issues around the world. Slaves are used in ways that harm the environment like the deforestation of the Amazon. The destruction of the environment is something that affects us all, which is why it’s in all our best interests to end slavery. Bale also backs up his argument by discussing the cost of liberation. His reasoning is that while 10.8 billion dollars sounds like a lot of money, Americans spend that same amount of money every year on more frivolous things. If we can spend 10.8 billion dollars on blue jeans or potato chips, surely we can also spend 10.8 billion dollars to free our fellow human beings from enslavement. While he makes a great point, Bale fails to fully explain to us how exactly we would liberate these people. He does mention that we wouldn’t buy them out of slavery, which begs the question of if not with money then would force be used?
       The transcript of Bales speech would not translate well as a piece of writing. His overall theme is clear but it lacks the organization of a standard essay. An introduction and body paragraphs are present in the transcript but his use of clips and slides make it difficult to work as a piece of writing. There are a few choppy places in the transcript because a slide or video was not included or it wasn’t possible to include it in the transcript. Bale also failed to use effective transitions between topics in his talk. His sentence craft was strong, which is evident most in his introduction. A great example of this is “ Well if you teach, if you worship in the temple of learning, do not mock the gods, because they will take you, fill you with curiosity and desire, and drive you. Drive you with a passion to change things.” His choice of words were effective and cleverly put together.
        All in all Bales talk and the ideas he shares are effective. It’s impossible to hear about the topic of modern slavery and not be moved emotionally. Mr.Bales is correct in that modern slavery is an issue that concerns us all. We live in a country where the idea that freedom is fundamental right is taught to us from a very young age and that we should always go to great lengths to protect those freedoms, so it would only be natural for us to fight for the freedom of others as well. Something we have in fact done many times before, so why not for the millions of those enslaved today?

Word Count: 784