Blog 5: We are back from our first trip together!

Blog 5: 

Before this trip to nyc, I never imagined myself desperately wanting to come back to our "home", D.C. NYC had always been my favorite city in the U.S - even more than D.C. But, visiting there in summer time made it different for me whose every visit there was in winter. I was raised as a city girl so I thought I was pretty used to the city, but the crowd and the smell in nyc in summer really made me miss D.C., cleaner and safer city where I could feel more space to myself. Still, the vibrant and touristy atmosphere of nyc gave me a vacation-like break from the internship. I also would like to highlight the timing of our visit. There was a major blackout near Times Square on July 13th, and I witnessed and heard about how people of strangers came together to help each other in its reaction. Oddly, I just found out that the NYC black out of 1977 happened on the same day. (wow). There was also news about ICE raids happening in Manhattan on Friday the 12th, which was before the officially announced day for the raids to start. NYC is really a transformative place where events (or more like accidents I shall say) like this could happen a day after the next.

Moving on from my feedback on the city, the seminars at GBCS the UN office were very informative and tied strongly with my work at CWS as the topic was on migration, and also with my future vision. Since young, I have always wanted to work on issues on the global level and become a bridge between different countries. This is a reason why I decided to reach out outside my country of origin and expand my capabilities.The UN is the biggest key actor in this vision and hearing stories of NGO leaders who fight against injustice, tackling with different perspectives and cultures of the world’s diverse population, was fascinating. They are critical, realistic and also idealistic on current world issues. These speakers awoke me to know more about and be more involved in the world I live. It is difficult to imagine without an experience, but they taught me that simply, issues in the neighboring community or countries are intertwined with my own issues. 

Learning about the roles and the impact of community leaders, FBOs and the UN leaders, I strongly felt a responsibility to be a global citizen. It nearly explodes my brain just thinking about how many issues the UN needs to work on, but I learned through the seminars that slowly but certainly, the NGOs, the direct representation of the people, are contributing to the progress in the world. Just like migration history of the U.S., there have been ongoing injustice issues in the world, like genocide, discrimination and persecution, and every time, community leaders stood up and condemned so that the world would become a better place. We learn history so that we know we should never repeat the same mistakes, yet, the world is still facing similar issues, waiting to hear voices from the oppressed community. And I am here with a responsibility to fight and advocate as long as there are unjust issues in the world that need to be fixed. 

I was also sad to know the fact that the U.S., the country of global leadership, is one of two nation states which didn’t sign the convention on the rights of children because of the leaders’ self interests. The self-interest is very harmful. First Dutch and English immigrants came to the U.S. for there interest to economically prosper, then passed on the idea of taking advantage of people with less prosperity. This idea is deeply rooted in the nation, still creating discrimination against certain communities set by our own developed boundaries. It is challenging to be critical about oneself. It is challenging to be selfless. But, we need to remember that the self interest can only make a portion of people happy, but the selflessness of each individual can make all people happy.

Dr. Holly Shaw talked about the importance of quality education. And I cannot agree more with this notion because globally integrated education so far has given me familiarity with communities representing different cultures, ideologies and religions, and this familiarity is what makes us compassionate human beings/global citizens with better understandings. I might be in a transitional process of searching where I belong, I might be Japanese citizen and an alien in the U.S., but I know myself that I care about people who are discriminated and I want to fight with them. I know that I am tired of seeing and hearing about racisms and discriminations happening in this country. But at the same time, I also know that the U.S. has such a beautiful history of opening its door to so many diverse people who needed a home, and it has the most powerful social justice leaders, and I am ready to be part of this fight.

P.S. I thank GBCS very much for this opportunity to visit nyc and providing us with a safe educational space to be a critical learner :)

- Tomomi