New York!

Wow, I cannot believe that I am halfway through the semester already!!! Here are some updates from the past couple weeks.

Last week, my class traveled to New York City to visit the United Nations. After a long bus ride and getting stuck in traffic (it took us a hour to go 12 blocks) we arrived at the upscale Grand Hyatt Hotel in the heart of the city. After a brief respite during which we all found our rooms, unpacked, and ironed suits for the next day, we headed out as a group of 60 for dinner. New York City is by all accounts a shock to the senses. I had been there before in 2006 but had forgotten the intensity of the lights of Times Square, the incredible number of people on the streets (even on a Sunday night), and the overpowering smells of street venders and pollution from thousands of cars. By the time we finished dinner at 9, I was ready for bed.

On Monday, we were dressed and ready to go by 9. We walked over to the UN, where we passed through rather stringent security, and waited another 30 minutes for our tour. After the beautiful architecture and elegance of Washington DC, the plainness of the UN was a bit surprising. The buildings are rather run down and the decorations are decidedly 50s style. I guess the architects did not want to cater to any one nations’ style of architecture or design, but if you think about it, the inelegance of the building reflects the nature of the UN perfectly. Our tour was interesting but fairly superficial. I don’t think our tour guides knew how much we already knew about the UN and its structure and organization. We were able to see the General Assembly room, which has the weirdest paintings on the wall, but unfortunately the Security Council building was under reconstruction. Whatever my feelings about the tour, lunch in the Delegates Dining Room, provided for us by the Dean of the Washington Semester program, completely made up for it. They had dishes from all over the world and it was delicious. Dessert was even better.

After lunch we heard from a number of speakers. The first was a representative from the United Nations Environment Programme the headquarters of which are located in Nairobi, Kenya. He was a very good speaker and talked about global climate change and the international and domestic efforts that are being made to address the problem. While I was familiar with most of what he talked about, it was a very interesting session, and I am glad that my classmates were engaged in the presentation. Another interesting, but rather frustrating speaker that day was a ambassador from Cuba who was unapologetic about his country and their economic, political, and social conditions. All the blame was placed on the United States and referred to the country as a socialist republic and did not even mention Castro. He claimed that Cuban citizens enjoyed “free and fair elections”, that everyone belonged to the same party, and that any opposition was due to interference from the United States government. I was a bit surprised, because as an ambassador, you would think he would have a broader view of the world, but I guess not. Other speakers that day and on Tuesday included a woman from UNICEF who talked about child poverty around the world. She impressed upon us the importance of using indicators other than just income to measure poverty, and that it is necessary to talk to children themselves, and to ask what poverty means to them. We also visited the Division for the Advancement of Women’s Rights where we heard from a woman who talked about the international efforts to define and uphold the rights of women and how the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women has not been signed by the United States. We also heard from representatives from the US Mission to the UN, so these are people that work for the General Assembly and the Security Council. The primary focus of these talks was the need for reform in the United Nations. Currently, the Security Council is structured so that the US, the UK, France, China, and Russia have veto power over all resolutions. Many calls have been made for expanded representation or the elimination of the veto power. However, all of our speakers seemed to indicate that this is unlikely to actually happen anytime soon because of course reform measures would have to be voted upon by these countries, and none of them are going to want to give up that power.

Perhaps our most interesting speaker was a young man who came here from Palestine. Given that here in the United States we are inundated with pro-Israel news, it is incredibly important to hear the other side of the debate. In addition to telling us his story about how he was finally able to come to the US to study, he outlined for us the history of the Israel/Palestinian conflict and the demands that both sides are making in the “peace” process. Clearly, the fault lies with both sides and in the actions taken by the United States and the European countries, so it is necessary that any solution requires cooperation from all the parties involved. This, however, seems unlikely given the irreconcilable demands being made by both Israel and Palestine. A two state solution seems necessary, but how are Palestinians supposed to travel between Gaza and the West Bank? Will Israel actually stop building settlements on Palestinian land? Does the Palestinian government have the capacity to rule? Will the creation of a Palestinian state even stop the fighting? Finally, and perhaps most importantly, what are they going to do about Jerusalem? It seems like no one has the answers. Yet, Obama’s recognition of fault on the part of the Israeli’s as well as the Palestinian’s is an important part of the process.

In the evenings, we headed out to various restaurants around the city. It’s amazing that the streets are packed until late weekdays and weekends alike. On Wednesday we were able to do some sight seeing. Our professors bought us tickets to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. It was a pretty choppy ferry ride to the island, but it’s always cool to see Lady Liberty. We also tried to visit Ground 0 but they are rebuilding so the whole area is closed off. In the afternoon, we went to the Museum of Modern Art. In addition to all the sometimes crazy looking really modern pieces, including some interesting pieces of furniture, they had Monet on exhibit as well as a few Picassos and Van Goghs. Before heading back to the hotel, I also stopped by St. Patrick’s Cathedral, which is really quite beautiful.
We got back late Wednesday night, and we are back in full swing until we leave for Europe on the 7th of November. Midterm this week, and rough draft of research paper due at the end of the month. It feels like I have a lot of work, but then I remember what the work-load is like at St. Olaf. Adjusting back is going to be fun….

This weekend should be pretty good. It is “Fall Break” which means we have Friday off – pretty pathetic break in my opinion. I am using the day to write my paper and visit Georgetown Law School, which should be good hopefully. It feels like I just applied for college, I am not looking forward to beginning that process all over again. Friday night we are going to tour the monuments, so I will finally see Lincoln. Sunday we’re going apple picking which will probably make me feel like I’m in Minnesota again. Speaking of Minnesota, I hear that the snow has come! It has been cooler here, but it was 80 on Saturday. Yesterday was in the 50s and I and my fellow Midwesterners out here laughed at all the people who were wearing Uggs already : )

My internship is also going very well. The climate bill is hopefully going to be passed along to the EPA for review, and that will take between 2 and 5 weeks, and then hearings will start. It is unlikely that we will have anything in place by Copenhagen, which is unfortunate, but at least things seem to be moving forward, if slowly. Last Thursday I was able to attend a meeting with representatives from all the major environmental groups in DC. It is good that we are all tailoring messages and working together to pass this legislation!

Pictures will come tonight or tomorrow!!