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