The Issue of Trust at Abbey Court

I know there has been a lot of discussion in class surrounding the issue of the residents mistrusting us at Abbey Court. I realize that we all have great intentions when giving our time and energy to the residents and that it is difficult when we do not receive a lot of participation with soccer and other activities at Abbey Court, due in part because we haven’t completely gained their trust. However, we must take a step back and look through the lenses of the residents in order to realize where they are coming from, how many things they have been through, and the persecution they receive daily from society. I believe French essayist Joseph Joubert said it best when he stated, “We must respect the past, and mistrust the present, if we wish to provide for the safety of the future.” After all the deceit some of these residents have experienced, they have reason to trust our intentions are of merit, especially not in the few months that center has been there. They are simply looking out for what is best for themselves and their families. I believe the best we can do is to continue to respect the residents of Abbey Court and give them all the time they need to warm up to us. In time, and through time only, is trust built.

-Terrence Bogans

Youth Theatre Complete

Hello Fellow Classmates,

I wanted to inform all of you that we have completed our youth project idea. DJ Berry, Terrance Bogans and I came up with 15 stories and play developments to be used by local theater groups. They are free to enhance the stories as the wish, but they must stick to the basic premise, they all have to deal with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. These plays are designed for all ages and demographics and may be a very humanizing approach to the Declaration. The interactive youth theater and UNC-CH could easily enhance these plays and make them audience interactive. Nonetheless, we also performed one of the plays for the class in order to give them an idea of how these plays could revolutionize the way we conceptualize socioeconomic justice. The play was successfully carried out and most of the students were in awe at how well this play turned out. Hopefully, these stories will be put to good use during the following year.

-Abbas Rattani

Soccer Part II

Hello Fellow Classmates,

Last Sunday, I visited Abbey court once again to play some fun soccer with the local community members. This game was extremely entertaining because we saw a multi-generational involvement. Whether it was from people playing the game with us, or on lookers, to those who started a game of their own. This community development and building helped us all see the impact we had as individuals, even if it was just from our presence. More individuals were happy to try to things and challenge themselves because other individuals were investing their time and energy in somebody else's life. As one of the fellow players mentioned, the 12 year old girl, upon the end of the game mentioned she had more confidence to join her school's soccer team. This was something she was not comfortable joining, but with our 1 hour presence, it brightened her prospects. Who knows where she may be in the future, but if we can plant a seed in someone's heart and encourage them to look after it, we have just cultivated a flower, one extra, much needed flower in society.

-Abbas Rattani

287(g)

This week the New Yorker has a great profile on “America’s Toughest Sheriff,” Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Arizona. Since 1993 he has been a controversial figure in Arizona, repeatedly accused of depriving prisoners of their rights and allowing abuse within his jails. The writer follows Arpaio as he visits one of his jail tent camps, draws up press releases, and even makes an appearance on the Colbert Report. Arpaio oversees the enforcement of immigration law in Maricopa County under 287(g). His department conducts raids on Latino towns and communities and has created a general atmosphere of fear in the county. The mayor of Phoenix, Phil Gordon, has called Arpaio’s relentless pursuit of undocumented immigrants a “reign of terror” and publicly denounced his practices. An interesting read if you have a few minutes. http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/07/20/090720fa_fact_finnegan

A little closer to home, the Independent Weekly has an article about 287(g) and its effects on Durham and Wake Counties.
http://www.indyweek.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A398284

Breaking Barriers

As we've all learned this semester breaking barriers is all about taking the first step. We all had the luxury of using soccer as a medium and saw immediate results. The residents of Abby Ct. proved that making an effort provides immediate reward and that you can have a good time in the process. A simple soccer game creates trust that carries over well beyond the field. Today it's a high five and tomorrow it's full trust in the work environment and healthy dialogue that continues to promote good values.

-Abdul Salem-

Class Experience

My experience in this classs was definitely worth wild. The fact that the entire class was focused on making a differenve in one community ( the Carrboro community) was quite intriguing and unexpected. It was definitely rewarding and satisfying to get the chance to view how our influence can have a positive influence in the community. The discussion of a "Decent Society" was one of the most interesting discussions that we had in class. The amount of ideas that students came up with was amazing. However, the most engaging discussion was when we talked about our personal experiences with human rights violations. I described my own experience in Tanzania when my rights were clearly being violated. I was discriminated because I was Black in a Black country. This was contrary to conversations that highlighted how certain races discriminated against other races. All in all, I intend to take the lessons I've learnt in this class and apply it to the real world.

Gay Rights

I feel like this class covered what should be the rights of everyone yet mainly looked at the rights of illegal immigrants in our community. I believe it is easier to examine what rights are not being given to illegal aliens because the discrimination and prejudice is much more obvious.

Gay rights were briefly mentioned in class but they too are not being recognized in the United States.

One of the prominent reasons that gay rights remain unrecognized is that its group members have had difficulty joining forces to rally their cause. What's different is that unlike with Blacks, Native Americans, or Hispanics, gays (for the most part) come from the opposing party. Therefore, with homophobic, heterosexual parents enforcing a hierarchy of shame in which homosexuals rank at the bottom, these individuals are mentally assaulted at every stage in their life. If they are capable of staying closeted they remain so as to not make their live's "difficult". With African-Americans, parents can teacher their children to be proud of who they are from the very beginning of their lives. It is solely up to the individual to stand up for who they are. It is solely up tot he individual to be proud of who they are. In many cases the consequences are losing their families and the one's they love most.

The rights I speak of were addressed by bills such as ENDA which were not passed. This means businesses are allowed to fire an individual just because they are gay. This discrimination is tolerated because homophobia can clearly be seen throughout laws that our government has passed.

More GAYS were arrested during the Red Scares than were SUSPECTED COMMUNISTS. This is insane if you consider the amount of press and anger that the country has for cases such as Ethel Rosenberg.

Discrimination towards gays is everywhere. Next time you pass the salvation army bucket with a Santa ringing his/her bell at you, don't feel guilty when you don't donate - the Salvation Army uses donated funds to actively prevent the recognition of gay rights such as contributing to Prop. 8 as well as other things.

Everyone knows the publicized debate of gay marriage - let's forget the name or how it refelcts that America clearly can't get "seperation of church and state". The federal benefits clearly favor heterosexual couples. And before you bring up the children argument, make sure to incorporate how their are sterile couples, straight couple who do not want children, gay couples who've adopted, lesbian couples in which one of the mother's has kids or artificially inseminates herself.

Gay rights need to be recognized.

Reply to 'Refused" Posting

I noticed an article a couple posts below in which someone posted about the swimming pool not letting the black kids in and I was reading on Huffington Post today that Tyler Perry, the playwright/actor heard about this and has announced he is treating all the kids to a free trip to Disney World! I just thought that was a really generous way to show the kids someone cared.
-Juliana Adedoyin

After class?

I was just wondering if any of you will be here after exams end on Friday. I'll be in Chapel Hill for a little while longer and would like to visit the center once more to spread some pamphlets and possibly play a round of soccer or two. Hit me back here or on Facebook if you think you would like to stay around and hang out at the center for a few. Thanks

Soccer

I went out to the center for soccer twice this session. The first day, no kids showed up and we played with a random guy our age. I decided to go again this past Sunday since I still had not had any time with the kids. It started out just the seven of us from class kicking around and playing juggling games, but finally a mom with her two kids met us and her son joined the game already going on amongst us. Eventually, several more kids started creeping out, (but staying close to their mothers of course). Finally we had a good game going with quite a few kids, and even a middle aged guy joined us who had been watching from the steps. Several mothers with smaller toddlers gathered with Professor Blau and a few people that were periodically taking breaks from the game. We all got to sit and talk with them for a while and the women were very sweet and friendly. I listened to Evan speak with them in Spanish and it made me wish I knew more of their language. Nancy, the first woman who showed up politely asked if I spoke Spanish and unfortunately I had to reply no, I only speak French :( The longer we were out in the courtyard, more families stood on the upper levels of the steps and watched the game. The entire experience was amazing because I was only there for an hour and saw a small community appear and begin to interact around me.

Refused

The Story

The story I posted above is about the Philadelphia swim club who refused to allow black children to swim in their swimming pool. This story particularly disturbed me because how could people deny small children their right to swim in a pool because of their skin color! The rights of the children have been violated in such a disturbing way and I can not believe how cruel people can be!

Human Rights Project

It's amazing how so many people say that it is important to concern ourselves with Human Rights and yet they know nothing about what it truly is and how it is being dealt with in countries other than our own.

The project (our group) seems to be doing pretty well.
Recently I was talking with a friend who is planning a trip to Thailand in the next couple weeks and found that he saw the troubles of workers in Thailand but said that it was NORMAL for them to work in bad conditions.

Normal. Really??

Hopefully, our group will be able to pass on all the information that we have collected about Human Rights and slowly but surely people will take notice that what we take for granted, others have not never had the opportunity to experience for themselves, "rights" as we know it.

-- Katherine

Cultural Diversity Project

So the projects are due tomorrow! I only have finishing touches to do and I am complete, mostly just making it pretty! I have tested my packets on children and it seemed to be successful with aiding children to learn about different cultures, even though it is a broad topic from different backgrounds. I hope this can future benefit children and expand their knowledge through a cultural diversity perspective. :-)

gentleman's social

we just finished up our third gentleman's social of the session and despite the poor turnout, i feel like we have still made progress. the first week we had it on a friday at 5:30 and only one man came out. because of the poor showing we decided to advertise more and change the day and time to sunday at 6:30 thinking that it would be a good way to wind up the weekend. little did we know the hispanics who live in abbey court like to do their laundry and go grocery shopping on sunday evenings to prepare for the week ahead. no one showed up. we again changed the day, this time to saturday evenings at 6:30. the third time we had one man come and he seemed to have had a great time and he promised us that next week he would be sure to bring his friends. it's coming along slowly, but surely and in a few weeks i'm positive others will start to come as the word continues to spread. dominoe

Post Away!

Thanks to everyone for posting on the blog! Keep posting during our last week of class. Is everyone done with the projects? I have enjoyed reading about everyone projects but, if anyone has an successes that they haven't shared yet let us know! See you guys later today!

Carrboro Human Rights Day

Hello Class,

So my project is to take on the beginning steps/detective work in planning Carrboro human rights day which will take place on December 5th. I mainly have been involved in contacting campus organizations who I think would want to help and in researching what other cities and towns have done to celebrate human rights. So far, I have emailed the contact person of the following organizations: advocates for human rights, linking immigrants to new communities, student action with workers, and the campus amnesty international group. I have not heard back from anyone. However, it is has only been a couple of weeks and many of these people are probably not currently in Chapel Hill and will have to wait to talk to their organizations before making a decision on whether to help out or not. I may continue to be involved in this project after the class is over, though, and plan on forwarding any emails I receive back to Professor Blau regardless. I also gave her contact information to the people I emailed.

As far as ideas for human rights day I have come up with the following:

• educate people, especially children, on their human rights and the importance of upholding their rights and respecting others' rights in the community
• cultural events to celebrate human rights through dance, music, drama, or art
• have UNC professors who teach or have written on human rights give lectures
• give awards to local human rights leaders, such as businesses who have been good at respecting the rights of their workers
• have poetry performance art or just plain poetry reading that emphasizes human rights
• have panehls on issues such as: equality, immigration, domestic violence, human trafficking, labor rights, racial and gender discrimination
• show a film. The following have been recommended by other human rights centers: Unnatural Causes- is inequality making us sick?, Ballot Measure 9, Race: The Power of an illusion, The Visitor, Milk, Rabbit Proof Fence, and Justice For All

If anyone has any other ideas on campus organzations who may want to help out with Carrboro Human Rights Days or any ideas on events that could take place on human rights day, let me know!

-Taylor

Cultural Diversity Group

I just finished my journals and project. I basically chose three countries of South America, and explain each culture individually. I also attached few pictures of them . I translated all the texts to Spanish. I hope this can help people at Abbey court to know their culture better and being engaged with it.

Modern Day Slavery

When we think of slavery, many of us often think of it in the terms of Africans being shipped to the United States to work on plantations, and in treating it that way, we often think that it is something of the past. Slavery is very much alive and thriving today which is highly disturbing.
To me, one of the best ways to learn about something is directly through someone who has a first-hand account of the situation. Often times, it is not feasible to talk to all different types of individuals in all corners of the world, so the internet and books are a good way to get this experience as well. Books in autobiographical form are perhaps my most favorite literary medium. I had the pleasure of having my eyes opened to the plight of modern-day slavery through autobiographical form in the book Restavec: From Haitian Slave to Middle-Class American by Jean-Robert Cadet. It tells the tale of a boy growing up in Haiti as a restavec, which is basically a child slave, and his horrible childhood to the adulthood in which he gained some sense of empowerment. Cadet still suffers psychologically from all of the trauma he was put through as a child slave and recounts a lot of his childhood in vivid detail. It is not a fun, light read, but, it is a story that once you start reading, you will be compelled to finish. If you are interested in this book, you should borrow the copy from me, it's enlightening.

-Juliana Adedoyin

Futbol && MANO

Hello Everyone!

As a couple of people have already mentioned, soccer with the kids today was total hit! When we first arrived at the field there was no one in sight and the sing that had been made had fallen. We waited for a while to see if any one would show up and then seeing as to how no one was really coming I decided to call up one of the ladies I had worked with during MANO. I asked her if she wanted to bring her kids to the field since we were there, and from there on everything else just seemed to fall into place. Two other ladies also brought their kids outside to play after seeing more kids getting involved. While the kids we busy "kicking our butts", the mothers were sitting under the shade of a tree talking with Professor Blau and some of the other students. I'd say, it was a good way to end the second summer session but wished there could have been more soccer days like this one for the kids to enjoy. Well, there's always next semester!
Since I was able to talk to the ladies that brought their kids out to play as well as Professor Blau, I was also able create two more last MANO sessions before the end of summer school. We will be using the Center for these last days and hold the classes around regular MANO times (6pm) with tomorrow being an exception where the lessons will most likely be before class (around 4:30pm). As I've mentioned before, this will be the last MANO sesssion for them until it resumes normally in September, so they are very greatful for the help we're offering. Hope to see some of you there!

Soccer Success!

Hey everyone,

Today I went to play soccer with other classmates at 4:00 pm...and we actually had a lot of guests join us! It was a multi-generational event today - we had toddlers, kids, and even adults join us for soccer. Some more adults came to watch and sat under the tree next to the soccer field with Professor Blau. As usual we still had many onlookers but I think a lot of team work came together nicely for our soccer game today - we used the sign and verbally invited community members at E8 who were watching to come and play. Some adults, and kids, were still too shy or just wanted to watch, but some took us up on the offer. Hopefully after today a lot more people will join in for soccer in the future (We also told them about soccer next semester). I'm glad I went and played soccer a second time - The first time I went we didn't have anyone join us. It was nice to see how people of all ages and from all different backgrounds could relax, talk, and play soccer together on a Sunday afternoon, and it made me appreciate even more what the center in Carrboro is doing. Now I think the Abbey Court community is really starting to trust us and view us as their friends - I hope this will lead to more people becoming aware of/taking advantage of the services the center offers. It was a really fun afternoon...We finally had a successful day of soccer!

- Natalie C

soccer

Hey classmates,

so I went to soccer today with a few other classmates and once again no little kids showed up to play. The sign looked great, however, and hopefully with time it will attract people to come play.
It was great to finally see the center and it looks great, nothing like I expected. I enjoyed talking to other classmates and Professor Blau about our projects and just life in general haha. It was not the Sunday afternoon I was expecting, but in a good way. I definitely think we can start advertising more about the soccer sessions and maybe get more kids for the upcoming fall semester. A sign like Laura was saying would be a great idea and make finding the center much easier as well.

Also, I'm finishing up some ideas for the Carolina Meadows group and cannot do much other than come up with discussion topics until the school year starts. If anyone has any ideas please feel free to let me know.

Thanks,
Areeg

Abbey Court

I commented on Abbas' post about the building being difficult to find and suggesting a sign, but I wanted to post about it too so more people might read it. I definitely think having a permanent sign when you first turn into Abbey Court, pointing people in the right direction of the center would be very beneficial. I'm sure Judith would have to get permission from the owners of the complex, but a legit sign saying "Chapel Hill and Carrboro Human Rights Center: E8" with an arrow pointing that way would be really nice. Does anyone have any connections with a Sign Shop that you think might consider donating one or offering some kind of deal?

-Laura

Business Men's Group

So after meeting with Xavier and Professor Blau we decided that one of the best ways to gain publicity for the centerwhile maintaining a positive image within the Chapel Hill-Carrboro community would be to put on a run/walk for rights at some point over the coming year. This project would be ongoing and students in the fall would be responsible for organizing the event. After doing a little research about how to organize this type of event there will definitely be obstacles to overcome such as setting a registration fee, advertising, and gaining sponsors for the event but I think it would be a really great way to get local businesses to support the center. If you have any other ideas about the run for rights please let us know!

Cookies at the Center!

I meant to inform everyone about this earlier, but I forgot. If you're playing soccer or meeting at the center for a project, please enjoy some great frosted cookies that are now at the Human Rights Center.

Project Completed

Today I completed my project on translating materials from English to Spanish on how to obtain a birth certificate in North Carolina. It came together nicely, and all of the pages are laminated and bound so that it will remain a useful document for the Human Rights Center in Carrboro. The booklet contains information on how to request a birth certificate, how much it costs, where you should send your request, the forms needed, and directions and a map to the Records department in Raleigh should anyone want to send in a request in person (you can also do it through mail). I hope this document is useful in the future - it's a definite asset to the center! It wasn't difficult to find the materials I needed, just difficult to get through everything to figure out what was important - and I got to practice my Spanish in the meantime! I will bring the booklet to class on Tuesday for the project presentations... it feels good to have it completed!

Natalie C

Soccer play

Hello Fellow Classmates,

On July 11th, I went soccer with the other fellow classmates, namely AbduRahman and Natalie. It resulted in good wholesome quality fun. Unfortunately, no one from the neighboring communites wanted to join us. As a result, Natalie and I thought it would be a clever and smart idea to create a sign that was multilingual such that individuals would be less shy and join the game. This hypothesis will be tested this coming Sunday when we return to the field in, what I hope is, an epic match. In the meantime, we are looking for a better soccer ball, that is around official size and fully inflated. If a soccer pump can be donated that would be also useful, because since the ball is deflated it does a poor job curving. There are some soccer balls that have a built-in pumps, which would be ulimately useful. On a side note, I felt that the Abbey Court, building E was very troublesome to find. It took me roughly 15-20 minutes to find the E buiding once I was in Abbey court, which may or may not be an issue for others. I feel that there should be signs at the front gate indicating that a human rights center does exist and is fairly easy to find. With no sign, the huamn rights center does not get the full coverage that it deserves. What are your opinions on such things?

-Abbas Rattani

The Language Decline

In class on Tuesday we discussed the indicators of globalism, listing such things as Translated documents, expansion in different cuisine and food cultures, clothes, architecture, international tourists arrivals, internet users, migration, and the number of musical instruments sold and bought between countries (musical fusion). Another topic we discussed as an indicator of globalism was language, and the ever growing threat to the decline in the number of languages spoken in the world today. For me this was an interesting topic, and I thought it went along with human rights. In a Spanish course I took last semester we read many articles on the concern of the rising popularity and use of Spanglish both in and outside the United States. In one of the articles it talked about how many of the indigenous languages in Latin and South America were becoming extinct due to the fact that schools in the major cities refused to teach or offer courses in any other language than Spanish. This is a big problem for indigenous peoples who want their children to attend school but have to second guess their decisions due to language barriers. To me, this is a human rights violation. While we in the US want everyone to learn English we also offer the opportunities for individuals to learn it while offering classes in different languages and translations in public spaces. I feel that we want to expand language comprehension instead of total conversion from one's native language to English only. Because of this problem in Latin America and South America, many children who live in the very rural or mountainous regions who speak indigenous languages aren't receiving an education and are therefore incapable of moving to or working in the cities in higher paying jobs. The schools in these countries can require that students learn traditional Spanish, but I think they should respect indigenous languages and cultures and offer classes taught in these languages and have teachers who speak both languages in order to help new children in the school systems. What are your thoughts? How can these countries help preserve indigenous languages within their schools and cities while at the same time promoting traditional Spanish comprehension and language skills?

Thinking about indicators of globalism, I think we could add Dance to our list. As shown through various television programs, and even on campus, many more different types of dance are becoming popular among American audiences. For example, this week on the television show "So You Think You Can Dance", Indian, Russian, and Latin dance routines were showcased alongside "the Foxtrot" and "the quickstep". If you watch Bollywood films it is also apparent that American dance styles (particularly pop dancing) have become fused with Indian dance styles. Can you think of any others we didn't think of in class?

- Natalie Cummings

Last Week of Class

Hey everyone,

I was slightly confused about what all we have due over the next week, so I thought I would post here what I think the schedule is and let me know if I'm wrong. (And this might also be helpful for those who haven't been in class recently ;)

1. We do have class Tues 21st (syllabus says we don't), I think we're presenting about our projects to the class.
2. Tuesday 21st our journals are due, which is just a reflection about your contributions, project, experience, thoughts, etc. It can be any format: a narrative, dated entries, etc.
3. Our written final is due next Thurs 23rd, and we're getting those questions tomorrow night in class (16th).
4. Next Thurs we are having a group discussion final where we each bring in a question on a notecard that we want to discuss, any topic that we're interested in related to the class.

That's what I got! Let me know if this seems right, and hope this helps :)

-Laura Everett

Gentleman's Social

We have been running into a few obstacles in trying to get together our gentleman's socials. We found out this past weekend that most of the Mexicans prepare for the week by going out and buy groceries on Sunday evenings. This has been a learning experience. We did have one domino player a few weeks ago. Gra and I thoroughly enjoyed playing with him and learning the basics of dominoes. This weekend we are going to try Friday evening and hope that it goes a little better. We will keep you posted.

ESL for children

For the month of July I've been working at E.K. Powe Elementary School in Durham, in a summer school type program for kindergarteners. Its a program aimed at providing at-risk and minority children the opportunity to get some classroom experience under their belt and to prepare them for going to school in the fall. So far I've had to do a lot of ESL work and translating/interpreting for many Latino families so naturally I figured it would be a great place to focus on for my project and put together some resources for these families who really have a hard time with the language barrier.

I'm looking to put together information for the parents that tells them about NC school systems and how they can ensure that their child goes to school. Also I hope to include some information for them about how to navigate the school system and understand more about their child's education, in particular; keeping them in school, and taking advantage of great programs such as ESL, afterschool programs and special needs programs schools provide. I'll get a good look at what parents need and want to know since I talk to them often and hear their comments.

If anyone else is interested in this just let me know! I know the school looks for volunteer tutors for struggling students, often ESL tutors also, so if that is an area of interest to you also please just let me know.

--Sindy (spena@email.unc.edu)

The Women's Circle

Hello All,

Due to scheduling confilicts The Women's Circle is having a hard time getting the ball rolling but we are hoping to set a date for our first meeting with our contact this week. During our initial class meeting we came up with possible topics to discuss once the group starts. Some of the topics include women's health, women in the workplace, and violence against women. Hopefully, we can start recruiting for participants soon and get some good discussions started. If any of you have suggestions on other topics to discuss please let us know!

Language Barrier

I just wanted to mention what I picked up when we were conversing with one of the residents interested in participating in the ESL course we were planning. From his tone of voice it was clear that he was a little bit frustrated. We were asking him what he wanted to learn and it only seemed to upset him a little more. The fact of the matter was that there were many individuals who were interested in actually learning English, it just had to be organized. By organized, not only do I mean schedule-wise, but I also mean structured, with some sort of curriculum; we need a place to begin and an idea of what direction we're headed in. Other than that, it appears that this opportunity could be an excellent learning experience for both student and teacher.

Human Rights so far....

this weekend marks the 3rd time that i have volunteered at the Human Rights center in abby court. So far i have noticed some progress with the soccer field. the first time i went out, there was absolutely nobody, not even goals. This second time around, there were new goals, which made the play area attractive, and we even had an interested crowd from the surrounding buildings. I believe that the problem is not that people do not want to participate, i think that the people observing simply do not know that they are welcome to join. It is up to us to go up to the spectators and invite them to play a match. Saturday, my friend and I aproached a man who had been watching us for a while and as soon as we invited him to play, he was eager to join. He even got a group of 4 of his friends to join in the game. I find that the adults are more interested and attracted to the soccer field than the children are. It is important to use the relationships we establish with the residents on the soccer field in order to encourage more participation, from adults and children alike.

Unfortunately, our ESL group is not such a success story. In my first session, i spoke with a man who was somewhat frustrated with the center's services. He seemed frustrated at the fact that there was no sense of organization with the services the Center provided. He said that he spoke with many people that lived at abby court and that the whole community was frustrated aswell because the center offers services, but when they arrive to these events there are usually not many people there or they sometimes find it closed. I had to explain to him that the Center is in its infancy and that we are still developing different services and trying to better organize our already existing services. Another thing that he and many people in the community do not realize is that most the people that volunteer at the center are students who are there on behalf of this class, therefore the participation of these volunteers is not as strong as other similar volunteer organizations. I just believe that there is miscomunication between what we can provide for the community and what the locals expect from us. hopefully, these kinds of miscommunications can lessen as the Center matures a little more and becomes more established in the community.

Cultural Diversity Group

I have been working on my project and trying to find something fun and interesting for the kids. I'm trying to make short text which would cover the basic things about South America's culture, mostly Mexico with some colorful pictures of the popular places. I just need to make sure when do we have to present this?

I've also been at abbey court once for the soccer, but no one showed up.

Yeah, I feel instead of having all these different soccer days, it would be a lot more efficient if we had a just one day that was advertised so that we don't have three separate days where we don't have any kids show up. All in all at least if anything, we are publicizing for the fall semester class when they come out.

Soccer

I haven't gotten to play soccer yet, I'm a Sunday person. But it's kind of disappointing to hear that there often are kids out to play with. Does anyone else think maybe there is a more efficient way to do it? A way to let the kids no further in advance so they can plan to come if they are interested? I just think if we let them know, we may be able to get a larger group to come on one day, since we don't really have a whole semester to let kids happen upon us. If anyone has any thoughts on this, you can respond on here, or maybe can discuss it in class.

Kids Human Rights

So there is good news for our group- Dr. Blau heard back from the principal of McDougall Middle School and she may be interested in adding human rights learning materials into their "Learning without Borders" program. Our group is basically just looking through the available materials online and seeing what is applicable. Now though, we have a target age group which is helpful. Hopefully our work on the project will give us a foot in the door and the fall semester can continue where we leave off.

Soccer Today! 7/11

Hi guys! I played soccer today at 4pm. Unfortunately, no kids showed up!! But, like someone posted earlier, there were a lot of people watching. I did have a good time talking with my fellow classmates and learning about each of their projects. I also saw the center and thought it was very nice especially with its brightly painted walls. See you guys on Monday.

Carolina Meadows

Dear Classmates,

I wanted to inform all of you more about the project I am working on. I am trying to set up a discussion group with Carolina Meadows with the senior citizens and anyone else who is interested. I have emailed the man in charge but have yet to receive any news or feedback. As soon as I do I will let you all know. If you have any suggestions or ideas feel free to let me know as well.
Thanks,
Areeg Rehman

Adding to our "decent society"

In class on Thursday be discussed our contributions to what makes a “decent society” and Professor Blau asked us to think of any attributes we left out and to also think of other “methodologies” in incorporating these ideals and characteristics into society. After looking at the list, I noticed that we left out a lot of the securities offered and rights protected by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. While we incorporated women’s rights, we didn’t include rights of the disabled, rights of the worker, protections against child labor, the right to marriage, the right to social security, the right to form and join trade unions, and gay and lesbian rights. A decent society would uphold the treaties set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, so we should probably include these in our list. As far as methodologies are concerned, the only other one I can think of that we didn’t mention is some sort of awareness-raising on human rights, whether it be through public publications and newspapers, fairs and parades, concerts, speeches, posters, etc… We mentioned that it starts in the home, but for older adults who haven’t heard or been involved in a movement to improve human rights, advertising would definitely be needed.

- Natalie C

Soccer - Saturday July 11th

Hi all,

Today Abbas, Abdul and I went to play soccer at the Center at 5:00 pm. Professor Blau informed us when we arrived that a lot of kids had played earlier in the day, so we were prepared to not have that many participants. Our anticipations were correct - no kids came to play soccer but we did have 1 older man play for a few minutes with us... and we had a small crowd watching from the steps of 3 of the buildings around the soccer area. We felt like some of them wanted to participate but were too shy to ask, or didn't know if we wanted any other players. So we have decided to make a large poster to hang on the tree in the area where the soccer goals are that will invite people to come and play. Hopefully this will increase the number of players in our soccer matches and help individuals who want to play overcome their hesitations. We will bring the poster to class on Monday and it will be kept at the center for use by students who go to participate in soccer in the future. When you go to the center to get the soccer balls make sure to take the sign out with you and hang it on the tree (we're putting string on it). Overall it was a fun day. It was my first time at the center, and I was pleasantly surprised. It's very inviting and there are pictures up of past visitors and events at the center. If you have any more ideas on how to get more people involved with soccer, or to spread the word, let us know!

- Natalie C

Hillary Clinton and TIP Report 2009

Today, I was watching CSPAN. Hillary Clinton held a Town Hall meeting for internal reviews of the State Department. She was asked about the State Department's strategy on Trafficking in Persons and Drugs. She answered with, what I find, an interesting response. She first discussed the Trafficking in Persons Report (TIP) of 2009. This report ranks countries in 4 tiers of trafficking prevention, prosecution and suppression mechanisms. I worked on a report in Singapore as the TIP Report was being written there, and I know that this report has major limitations.

However, Sec. Clinton said that the US was going to be placed on the TIP Report of 2010. (It has never been before, thus judging other countries trafficking problems with no mention of its own) She said that the US needs to look at itself when crafting reports about Human Rights abuses outside the US. This sparked audience applause. I thought that this marked a new outlook for the Human Rights debate in the US, as the US State Department will start comparing its procedures and actions towards HR abuses against those of other countries.

However, I wonder if the TIP 2010 will be biased. I forsee reports with little critical reflection on US policies. What do you think about this? Can this shift at the State Department be trusted?

Women's Circle

Hey all,

We are working on putting together a diverse women's group that allows women to get together and discuss the differences in their lives and challenges they face while offering some type of useful or educational experience or talk. The difficulty, I have found, is in getting people to make concrete suggestions of how to proceed when everyone I have contacted is just waiting for a date to be set to hold the first meeting. If you have any suggestions of how to get things rolling or how/who to recruit for the discussions please let me know. Thanks, Chelsea

Wow! The Blog is going well!!

I just wanted to comment that it is so awesome hearing about all of your projects. Its interesting getting to know both the successes and the failures of each persons individual and group work.

On another note, I thought I would spur outside discussion not just the stuff we talk about in class. So I was looking on Google News and just typed in Human Rights and a plethora of news stories popped up. This wasn't exactly what I was expecting because I definitely thought there would be much less.

Anyways, I thought this article about Obama visiting Russia was very interesting because most of the time when you hear of Human Rights violations, you think of (well at least I do) nations in Latin America, Asia, Caribbean, ect. but not really Russia.

http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE5675UA20090708

What do you guys think about this? Do you even think the United States has a right to score other nations about human rights when the US will not even ratify the Declaration of Human Rights because they feel it does not apply to them?

The Disparity among Professionals

Hello Fellow Classmates,

I wanted to propose an idea in regards to social and economic justice. It is evident through the amount of time children spend at schools that teachers have a tremendous impact and influence on the lives of the future generation. Teachers receive an average annual salary of $38,000, which is comparatively less than a vast majority of professions, providing no incentive for teachers to excel in the classroom and provide a high quality education for students. Therefore, I propose that teachers should be paid significantly higher than a majority of professions in the country in order to insure a solid, well educated future generation. With investment bankers, entertainers, politicians, etc “earning” 6-8 figure salaries annually, the standard for what we value in society is diminishing. I further propose that individuals should get paid based on their level of impact to society. In other words, the more influence and impact an individual has on the development of the community, the more they should get paid. Teachers, Lawyers, Doctors, etc, should be paid higher than musicians or actors who merely serve as providing luxuries. There is something severely wrong with paying a CEO of firm $25,000,000 for his work on mutual hedge funds versus paying a high school science teacher $39,000 for guiding, inspiring, and educating hundreds of students. By paying individuals a certain amount of money, we are obviously setting a standard that society values a particular profession over another. Do we really want to say that we value a musician like Soulja Boy Tell ‘Em more than we value our child’s first grade teacher? What would a society be like if we had the finest people becoming teachers and psychologically affecting our youth?

-Abbas Rattani

The Republic--Socially and Economically Just?

Hello Fellow Classmates,

I wanted to get your perspectives and views on Plato’s Republic as being a socially and economically just society. In short, Plato proposes that we separate members of society based on their individual potential which is discovered through a special education regiment. From this, certain individuals will be selected to serve as guardians of the state, who live for the progression of society as selfless individuals. Among the “Guardians” a ruler would be selected who Plato terms as a “Philosopher-King” who only lives to progress the well being of the community through justice, socially and economically. This community operates similarly to the function of a human body, and together these individuals help the entirety of the community progress by doing what they are best at doing (i.e., living up to their potential). If a person is lazy or feels like he/she does not want to contribute to society, they are either “re-educated” or expunged from society. The goal for Plato is that, individual identity is shaped by communitarian identity. Do you guys think it is an important idea for a state to be invested in each individual to help them understand their potential? Should an individual be invested in the progress of his/her community? What do you make of Plato’s Republic as being a socially and economically just entity?

-Abbas Rattani

Youth Theatre

Hello fellow classmates,

I am working on the Youth Theatre with the talented Terrance and DJ. What we have proposed is to present local theatre groups with storylines based upon the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Theatre groups will be able to use these storylines to construct in depth acts and scenes for their plays in order to humanize these rights. As of now, we have proposed to do 15 stories total with particular emphasis on genocide, poverty, illiteracy, and health. There is speculation about collaborating with other students in order to bring different angles and nuanced perspectives to the metaphorical table. If you have any ideas, or storylines of your own that you wish to share, feel free to do so on the blog via comments. We three look forward to your great and imaginative ideas.

-Abbas Rattani

Idea for Human Rights Survery on Campus

I was trying to think of ideas for questions to include in the Human Rights Survey for next Fall and I stumbled across a website from the University of Minnesota that has a "Taking the Human Rights Temperature of your School" survey in which students are asked to answer questions about human rights and opportunities offered on their campus using a 1-4 scale. A lot of the questions are interesting, and it would be nice if we could do this on UNC's campus next fall before we branch out into the greater Chapel Hill/Carrboro area. Having the results of this survey would be an interesting contribution to campus, something students would like to read about in the Daily TarHeel, and could even be used in classes on campus in which human rights are a major topic of study and discussion. The website with the information on the survey and the questions used is:

http://www.hrusa.org/hrmaterials/temperature/temperature.shtm#q

We wouldn't have to use the exact same quiz, but asking students on campus similar questions could be a good way to start off this project in the fall, and could also be used to test how willing the public is to offer their opinions on these issues.

- Natalie Cummings

Human Rights Survey

So for my project I am going to be developing a survey to gauge opinions about human rights in Carrboro. I will just be taking the first initial steps, mainly the actual creation of the survey. The actual implementation of the survey will take place in the Fall.

So, since we are supposed to blog about our failures too, I guess I'll be the first. I was planning on creating a mini-survey type thing to hand out at the July 4th festivities in Carrboro, but on Friday after creating my document, I realized that all of the libraries were closed all day Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. So I wasn't able to print copies in order to distribute.

Luckily, this was only a small extra thing that I was going to be doing, so I will still continue to create a more comprehensive survey to distribute in the fall. Also, I may find some time to distribute the mini survey if I notice any big events happening in Carrboro during this session. Please let me know if anyone has any ideas for questions that they think would be interesting to include in the survey.

ESL Kids Camps

Hello Everyone! Prof Blau and I have come up with an idea to create afterschool ESL or English language learning homework help camps in the Fall. I personally am organizing and leading a ESL kids camp at Kingswood Apartments off NC-54, right now. Therefore, Im going to write up my material for the fall. I know that some people are collecting lesson plan materials on cultural diversity, and possibly other things. I would like collaborate with any of you that are collecting materials of this nature so that in the fall the new SOCI 273 students have materials to conduct the ELL camp.
I also wanted to comment on the use of the green space behind F building. I think this is a great space for kids camps. Im not sure if this is where the soccer games are being held, but if they arent, we should utilize this space as it is a more central location for recruiting local residents.
So, please let me know about the cultural diversity materials, and kids lesson plans- you can contact me via this blog or at drcraw@email.unc.edu. Thanks!

Hey,

Hope everyone had a great July 4th weekend. I am the photographer, so I am kind of at a standstill until we have more events to take pictures at. I know they are planning to play dominos this Sunday at 6:00, so I hope people go and get involved. If you attend any events, please take a couple pictures and post them to the Facebook group "Human Rights Center", or email directly to me: elaura@email.unc.edu ...also I had a song suggestion for the concert, "Heal The World" by Michael Jackson would be inspirational/a nice little tribute to MJ ;)

See y'all tonight. -Laura

Cultural Diversity

For the cultural diversity teachings, I am incorporating a wide variety of cultures into easy, fun learning activities for younger children. Thus far, I have researched main points in the Hispanic and Spanish cultures and have included small bits of history to give a general, but main idea. I am using creative tactics to help the kids have fun while learning! I am still putting together other fun activities for other cultures so the kids can learn a wide variety. :-)

Shweet

I went to the E8 Apartment last Friday at 1 for the soccer, but there weren't any little kids there to play... : ( But it's okay because I feel that it was good advertisement to be out there anyways. Hope to hear that more are coming out for the next round of soccer peeps!

YAY Thanks Guys!!

Sooo Our class blog is off to a good start! Everyone keep up the good work and keep posting. Your projects sound like they are doing well. I'll start to think of some topics we could discuss on the blog rather than just the projects. But, anyways.... see you all tomorrow! :)

SSN Translation & MANO

Hi Everyone!

I'm working on one of the translation projects along with Natalie as well as trying to get involved with MANO. I have started working with the SSN form translation and agree that some parts can get confusing and seem unclear. But it's nothing too difficult for the time being. As far as working with MANO goes, I have attended both last Wednesday's as well as today's session and have unfortunately not been able to be paired up with anyone thus far. Today I went and simply got a look at how the volunteers interacted with the students. It helped me get a better grasp of what I'll hopefully get the chance to do next week!

Translating

Hey guys,

I'm working with Mariana to get the forms and directions for obtaining a social security number and a birth certificate in North Carolina translated into Spanish. As far as the birth certificate goes, I have found the form and directions in Spanish online but it is a confusing process and quit difficult to understand and work through. Therefore I'm concentrating my efforts on simplifying the directions and printing off the forms so that individuals without a computer or printer can obtain all of the information they need at the center in Carrboro. Once we have all of this done we will be posting the information at the center for future visitors. Hopefully this will help out a lot! If you're interested in the process for obtaining a birth certificate or seeing how confusing the process is you can click on the link below:

http://vitalrecords.dhhs.state.nc.us/vr/requests/

Concert

Hey,

So for those who were or werent in class to hear our announcement, the musicians group is going to host a concert at Abbey Court in mid-late July (we'll give you a finalized date soon I hope). If you have any song suggestions for us to try learning or know of anyone that might be interested in performing, let us know. We're looking for songs similar lyrically to "Imagine" by John Lennon or "What a Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong. The music can be from any time period, any genre, but should be that feel-good type of message. Let us know if oyu have any ideas that we might want to consider!

Introduction

Give a brief intro and discuss your project's progress. :)