The great thing about living in New York is that day-to-day, you never really know what’s you’re going to get. Like when Tillie and I were waiting in line (for 3 hours) for the Daily Show when 6 men all dressed like and wearing George Bush masks walked by handing out shot glasses that read, “Everyone deserves a shot.” Or the bright M&M candy leather-jacket-wearing Starbucks regular who thinks he’s Elvis. Or the wedding in Times Square. Or Sponge-Bob Square pants walking down the street. Or the people selling Sarah Palin, Barack Obama and Joe Biden stimulus package condoms, only $10 for 3.
The UN interns also recently got the chance to hang with Billy-bob Clinton and Ban Ki-Moon (oh Ban!). I sadly missed those events, but did attend a Care movie screening which was followed by a panel featuring, among others, Natalie Portman and Madeleine Albright discussing women’s economic empowerment in the developing world. And if I had been organized, I would have been at the MDG awards where Macy Gray and Akon were among the guests performing at a lifetime achievement event for Desmond Tutu, whom I had the wonderful privilege to hear speak 3 years ago while with Habitat in SA.
The past two weeks have been action-packed, and there are so many stories that it’s hard to know where to begin, but maybe I will offer a few. First, the Commission on the Status of Women was on for the first two weeks of March, and was an incredible experience. For reasons that are not entirely clear to me, this was the biggest CSW yet, with more than 5000 women descending on NY from all parts of the globe to find better ways to fight for the rights of women in their home countries. For many, including myself, this was their first CSW, and on the first day, and it is a rather remarkable experience to hear women speak about their experiences. A lot of the material covered in this conference is not for the faint-hearted. Like the documentary on how increasing violence in porn can be linked to increased domestic abuse. Or the presentation on how the presence of handguns in households following post-conflict situations can also be found to have a similar effect. Or the Iraqi woman who apparently couldn't contain herself and the fact that she could speak freely and got up and told everyone about how she has recently become an MP. Or the woman from Mali who spoke about challenging traditional within the patriarchal society that she lives in that prevents girls from getting an education. A sampler of a pretty intense but amazing week.
I also recently had the opportunity to visit the Iranian mission to the UN with the UN interns where I witnessed an example of political spin quite unlike anything I have seen before. For example, in response to the question, what exactly did Ahmahinejad really mean when he said that Israel would be wiped off the map, the Counselor replied that he simply meant that “if a democratic referendum was held today in Occupied Palestine, Israel would cease to exist as a country as a result of demographics.” To the question about Holocaust denial, the Counselor replied that Ahmadinejad simply meant that, “if one can question the existence of God, why can they not dispute the existence of a historical event?” Perhaps some may view this as a legitimate academic question, but I hardly think that he will make new friends with these explanations. Three women were also present (from CSW) who explained at length how many improvements had been made in the situation of women in their country, such as laws guaranteeing equal opportunity and compensation, strong female education enrolment rates, careers where women are dominating such as medicine and within government bureaucracy. But to my twice-asked question about female parliamentary representation, I got a very long-winded non-answer (it turns out there are 8, which amounts to 2.3%). And after spending 2.5 hours in their company, I was struck by the incongruity, at least from a Western perspective, of the message they were delivering and the fact that they are forbidden to shake our hands or look us in the eye as we parted ways. And also by the reminder that words such as progress and freedom are all relative terms.
Last weekend, I also flew to Calgary to speak at a military conference on two papers I write this year, the role of media in inciting violence, and on the impact of resolution 1325 on Security Council behavior. Although I was quite nervous going into the conference, seeing how nervous everyone else was actually calmed me down, and I was really happy with how my first academic presentation went.
Finally this weekend, Deb came to NYC for a fantastic visit and managed to be the voice of reason when my computer tanked when I was hours from completing my submitting my first draft of my Masters research paper (I was able to retrieve the data, and stayed up all night getting it out). We had a fabulous time hitting the city and checking out all the cool little corners. Until we go to our graves, I think that the words “its in the toaster” will lead us both ti keel over laughing hysterically.
And this coming weekend, I fly to Texas for the first ulti tourney this winter with the U of O ladies. Hope I can keep up! It will be a few more weeks before I can get another post off, but wanted to share some of the stories from this amazing month.
