Week 10- Feminism (WWpt6CH21)

The Collapse & Recovery of Europe

I love reading about the Feminist's movement & how we've over come oppression.

"In factories, women replaced the men who had left for the battlefront, while labor unions agreed to suspend strikes & accept sacrifices for the common good."

For the longest time, men told women that women had to stay home and take care of the kids, be the housewife, cook the meals, clean the house-- NOT work. Working was a man's job. Women can't do a MAN's job. It wasn't until these wars arise did these women stepped into the shoes of the men that once worked there. Women were given an opportunity to show themselves off and prove that they can do the work just as well! Had the wars not have happened, it would have probably put back feminists back a few years, maybe a decade to get to where we are today.

Week 9- Who Makes History?? (WWChap20)

Karl Marx once said, "Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please not under conditions of their own choosing."

Way of the World Chapter concluded this Chapter with the topic of-- "Who Makes History??"

"Winners may write History, but they do not make History, @ least not alone."

Typically, when you think of a battle, people are more interested in HOW the winners won & what they had to do to over come and win the battle. It seems like more in our day in age that people are more interested in the winners AND the losers. A good example of this is The Holocaust. With such a great event such as the Holocaust, we look at the advance experiments Hitler was leading on the victims. At the same time the profound things that Hitler and the 3rd Reich were doing, history in our eyes are in the victims that died and survived. Although Hitler WROTE history, the true history in our eyes lies in the Jews, Homosexuals, Gypsies, Elderly& Infants that were tortured, killed and left for dead.

Or Colonial violence in the Congo-- we see an advancement in technologies with bicycles and cars. We never think that the demand of such products such as rubber made such an impact. Of course you don't think about what they did to GET to this advancement in their time. Belgium leader, Leopold II forced villagers to collect rubber which was in demand for such advancements such as Bicycles and Automobile tires. In our eyes, we see inventions! not death.

"Rather it suggests that history is often made through the struggle of unequal groups and that the outcome corresponds to no one's intentions."

There are always two sides to the story. Although there might be a winner, look at the 'losers' to truly see the 'winning' side of the battle.

Week 8- WASHINGTON DC

Day 1 of Global Advocacy Days:

Our group gathered in the lobby of Dorathy Betts Marvin Theatre of George Wahington University, Monday afternoon to begin our first day with Not For Sale Campaign.

After finding our seats in the small theatre we got to hear from the Not For Sale Campaign Director of Advocacy, Kilian Moote. After introductions and welcoming we went right into our first session; 'Getting to know your Congressional Members.' We gathered into groups based on which Senators and State Representatives we were going to visit on Tuesday. Each group was divided into what state and county you were from, and from there, you were divided amongst State Representatives. I was in group CA2 (California 2) which saw Senator Dianne Feinstein, and State Representatives, Anna Eshoo and Sam Farr. We gathered into our groups to map out weather our Senators and State Representatives were members of the Human Trafficking Caucus (State Representative only), Co sponsor HR 7311 (Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008-State Representative only), Co Sponsor S. 3061 (Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorizatino act of 2008-- Senate only), Co Sponsor of the Unternational Violence Against Women Act 2010 [I-VAWA] --Senate Only, Co Sponsor of the International Protecting Girls by Preventing Child Marriage [S.987]-- Senate Only, Co Sponsor of the Child Protection Compact Act, or apart of any other bill pertaining to Human Trafficking.. As you can see this stuff was complicated and hard to understand due to the complex language and codes! I had trouble understanding it! I still have trouble trying to explain what I was talking about, but luckily I wasn't speaking; I did the Recording!

We then heard Bama Athreya who talked to us about the International Labor Rights and Customs Facilitation and Trade Enforcement [S. 1631 Section 307 & 308] which was the main points that we were bringing to the Senator and the House Representatives attentions! We were basically prepared for what to expect at our meetings

Session 2 Consisted of Role playing and drafting our messages.

Session 3 was a special student session where we go to meet and greet other students and collaborate and exchange ideas for fundraising or bringing awareness to our campus about Human Trafficking. It was really fun hearing other schools ideas and what they were doing to get students attention!

I think the best part of the day was this last part.

The co-founder of Not For Sale Campaign all sparked from a book and abolitionist, Dr. David Batstone, called Not For $ale. He told us about his experience of how he used to attend this Indian Restaurant in the neighborhood quite frequently until he read in a newspaper where a yound woman, Chianti Pratipatte, died of a gas leak in an unventalated apartment owned by the proprietor of the restaurant, who forced Chianti and others into slavery under threat of reporting their illegal presence to the authorities. This shocked Dr. Batstone that his favorite Indian Restaurant had slave workers doing the dishes, cooking meals and performing other tasks. This shock turned into a passion that took him around the world to learn more about how slavery flourished into the shadows. This experience changed his life forever and helped bring us to where we are today, meeting in Washington DC throwing ideas at each other and inspiring others to GET INVOLVED!