Weeks 4 and 5

I saw Obama!!!
Ok, I didn't get to meet him, but I got to see him speak! We left at 5:45 this past Thursday to travel to the University of College Park in Maryland to hear the President talk about health care. We actually arrived rather late compared to many people who got in line at 5... yikes. But we actually got better seats because the people in the front of the line were seated behind him. Media stunt to make it look like the place is full. We "latecomers" had a nice side view : ) We waited in line for a couple hours before getting to go in, and then waited another 2 hours or so before the rally began. He mostly reiterated what he has been saying all along about his health care plan, but he geared the speech towards students. He is an amazing speaker as we all know, but he was also very engaging and quite funny. I'm very glad I had this opportunity and hopefully some more come up!

Class has been quite busy. Our trip to the International Monetary Fund and World Bank were very interesting. Our speakers talked quite candidly about the successes and the failures of these two organizations, and how they are trying to reform and become more effective. I was a little surprised, but also happy to hear them acknowledge so openly that some of their past policies were ineffective and in some cases, detrimental to the countries and people they were trying to help. We also visited the Organization of American States which is not much heard of, and admittedly, is quite lacking in capability. It was interesting however to hear them talk about the current situation in Honduras. Everyone is pretty uncertain as to how that situation will be resolved, and unfortunately the OAS can do little but suspend Honduras' membership, which they have done.

This past week we went to the Holocaust Museum. In addition of course to feelings of sadness and horror at the brutalities that were committed, walking through there mostly made me angry. Not only at the perpetrators of the genocide, but also at the inaction on the part of the rest of the world, and particularly the United States, even when we knew what was happening. What is worse is that genocide has occurred multiple times since then, and the international community has in general stood idly by. The museum's mission is to bring some meaning to the phrase "Never Again"; a goal which clearly we have so far failed to achieve. From an international law perspective, genocide is a very difficult issue to deal with. According to the law, the international community must respond if a situation is declared a genocide, however, this requires a resolution from the Security Council of the United Nations. This is problematic because the United States, France, Great Britain, Russia and China are the five permanent members of the Security Council and furthermore, have veto power over any and all resolutions. Political and economic concerns it has been shown frequently take precedent over all else, so if one of those countries does not want to call something a genocide for whatever reason even when all evidence points to genocide (which was the case with Darfur) then the international community does not have to respond. Certainly a flaw in the system. On the other hand, it would also be inadvisable to allow countries to take unilateral action to address a situation, because then you get into issues of sovereignty and abuse of power. A country might decide to invade another and say it was because genocide was occurring. Obviously, there are many who would not want to give countries this kind of power. I don't have a solution, and my class didn't come up with one either, but as it stands, the current system has failed to prevent these atrocities and certainly some remedy must be found.

My internship also continues to be good. I was able to attend a US Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources hearing on Tuesday. The hearing was "To explore potential costs and price volatility in the energy sector as a result of a greenhouse gas trading program". In other words, what will happen to energy costs if we sign a carbon cap and trade program into law. The Senators heard statements from six witnesses who are experts in the field, and then each Senator was able to ask questions. It was very interesting, and also made me nervous about our chances of success. The problem is that everyone is talking about costs, but I have read multiple articles now that say the benefits, short term and especially long term, far outweigh the costs. Unfortunately, these studies about the benefits are not nearly as widespread as the studies that outline the costs. Furthermore, many of the benefits are not easily quantifiable. How do you put a price on cleaner air for instance?
If anyone is interested in watching the hearing, here is the website:
http://energy.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?Fuseaction=Hearings.LiveStream&Hearing_id=9f3597e7-a135-e397-f850-b22b300d4b24

Looking forward to another exciting week! The time is flying by. I leave for New York two weeks from today and I will be in Europe in 7! Time to get moving on that research paper I guess : )

I promise to upload pictures tomorrow!!!

Until next time!

Rachel