Theme this month: Genocides in History
Upcoming Events:
* Refugee Campus: TOMORROW April 22nd 3pm ( to set up)
Banaa update
-students in process of interviewing, planning an event for September 24th to introduce student and make an event about humanity appreciating other cultures (Douglass dinner), for community too, want keynote speaker, 6 student speakers ( promoting harmony through diversity, symbolism)
- new scholar every year, full scholarship, house students HERE instead of DC over the summer. If any members here this summer. LET US KNOW so we can better help them get acclimated.
Refugee CAMPus: 5-9
VOLUNTEER TIME SLOTS
3-5pm
4:30-6:30pm
6:30-8:30pm Adrienne, Bridget and Brinda
8:30-9pm Justin and Luke
West African dance group comes at 6:30, perform then do a workshop.
Genocide Jeopardy
Posterboards
-print out powerpoints! Images, information that will be quizzed on for jeopardy
Collaborative Visual:
-question: If you were a world leader, what would your first step be towards creating a more peaceful world?
Guerrilla theater:
- Justin!
Order of events;
5-5:30 videos/chill
530-630 sports/games/eating
630-730 west African dance
730-830 jeopardy
8:30-9 chill/ wrap up
*visuals the whole time
Ongoing projects:
* Orientation Volunteering Application
o Due May 14th
o Elena, Cassie, Luke, Bridget, Justin
* Banaa.org - Bridget, Joseph, Luke
* Build schools in Kenya - Suresh Eswarathasan
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Thursday, April 15, 2010
URGI Minutes 4/12/10
Theme this month: Genocides in History
Upcoming Events:
* Refugee CAMPus: April 22nd 3pm
Shropshire at Eastman
-In places like Kosovo, Darfur will teach kids music (therapy through music and its healing power)
→need awareness help (perhaps a powerpoint on Uganda), will co-sponsor and help them out.
→April 29th-as a study break in Hirst. Send some volunteers
Awareness- Joe
Joe’s big question! What do we do post-genocide?
- issues in Kosovo, South American (Chile), Holocaust, oppression in Burma/Sri Lanka or even NYC and yet the international community always vows not to let it happen again
- Darfur- we had the chance to help and stop it but we didn’t. why?
What happens after and why is there an inadequate response? 3 things: trials/ tribunals and truth commissions, reparations
1)trials
benefits: air the issues, create an aura of fairness, accountability, re-establish/establish cause, learn from past atrocities, serve to warn others about consequences if they continue their violence, public records
problems: retroactively apply to international standards (Guantanamo bay), international tribunals rely on politics, effect: they prosecute low ranking officials and not the greater people responsible, process doesn’t HEAL- people subject to intense questioning, cross-examinations
2)truth commissions (when govts officially investigate wrongs committed ex. Congressional hearings for Iraq war in mid 2000s)
benefits: seek to have a more complete record, emphasize plight of vict ims and those affected. (ex. Hutu were writing history. Commissions interviewed Tustis- often time journalists), help victims tell experience and feel better, non-involved bystanders can tell stories as well.
Problems: unrepresented populations that still remain (Iraq-Sunni’s experience with Saddam were left unaccounted for while Shiite’s weren’t.) , those who establish commissions impose constraints on time/ area., do not test witnesses assertions so they don’t criticize them
3)reparations- consist of money/ other valuable assets as a symbolic representation of violence that has occurred, shouldn’t replace, should be more explicit and those responsible should be more public about acknowledgement of atrocities.
benefits: process for seeking them builds public support, builds awareness, gi ves victims recognition
problems: lead society to believe the people no longer need to discuss atrocities because government has given amends.
-restitution (form of reparation) – returns property seized. Seems lke morally correct thing to do but, it is difficult to find artifacts after some time. When a new government gets into this, difficult to return because the people that have gained them over time will be upset as well- dissonance between those people and the ones who it has been seized from.
Symbolic; significant items (ex. holy land)
Pure: return everything
APOLOGY: admission of an error with expression of regret. Official apologies can be made which will help in healing
Problems: fail to change behavior, fail to acknowledge acts that have been committed. May also be deficient when made by others than those who actually committed crime (Japanese and Chinese)- words without action ( not fulfilling) , makes it hard for apologies to be effective.
→Emotions: vengeance, forgiveness, - variables that make those three topics ineffective.
→mix of the three the best idea and can there be peace?
Ongoing projects:
* Old and new e board members meet
* Banaa.org – Bridget, Joe, and Luke
* Saturday Volunteering:
o *Meet at ITS at 9:40* About 2 hours
o Orientation Volunteering Application
+ Due May 14th
+ Elena, Cassie, Luke, Bridget, Justin
URGI Minutes 4/5/10
Theme this month: Genocides in History – Today: Holocaust
Upcoming Events:
* Potluck and Bracelet Making: April 12th (Mon) at the meeting
* Refugee Campus: April 22nd 3pm
MINUTES
* Orientation Volunteering Application
o Due May 14th
o Old and New E-board meet
o Refugee CAMPus
+ Committee: Adrienne, Bridget, Suresh, Robert, Julia, Brinda – head: Bridget
+ Meeting today after meeting
+ Awareness Discussion: Danielle
+ JOKE
URGI will be participating in the bookstore buy-back competition.
Awareness-Danielle on Bosnian Genocide
Josip Tito was Bosnia’s authoritarian dictator for many years. His death in 1980 sparked strong nationalist sentiments. Also, the existing system of checks and balances between conflicting groups was abolished. At the same time, Serbia and Croatia were becoming militarized. Also, an election in 1990 polarized the groups even further as nationalist parties gained power. The combination of these events caused a 3-sided civil war between t! he Bosnian-Serbs, Bosnian-Croats, and Bosnian-Muslims. In 1992, Bosnia declared itself independent. During the war, the Serbs tried to ethnically cleanse certain parts of Bosnia of the Muslim populations to create a “Greater Serbia” led by Slobodan Milosevic and a “Greater Croatia” in neighboring states.
Between 1992 and 1995 (only 3 years), over 200,000 Muslims were starved, tortured, raped, and murdered in concentration camps. The bodies were buried in mass graves.
Srebrenica Massacre: July 1995, Serb troops entered the town of Srebrenica, which was supposed to be a UN safe area. They held the town under siege while depriving the 400,000 Muslim inhabitants of food, water, and supplies. They also shelled homes and buildings. The UN soldiers did little because they were ill-prepared and had no back-up. Between 8,000 and 9,000 men and boys were killed, and the remaining 25-30,000 inhabitants were forced to leave the area. Another s! ource (ICRC—International Committee of the Red Cross) said that up to 200,000 people were killed, 12,000 of them children, up to 50,000 women were raped, and 2.2 million were forced to flee their homes. This was the largest massacre in Europe since WWII.
Although most consider the ethnic cleansing to be genocide, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) have ruled that, in order for actions to be deemed genocide, there must be physical or biological destruction of a protected group and a specific intent to commit such destruction. By this definition, only the Srebrenica massacre has been found to be a genocide by the ICTY. Even the Massacre was not considered to be genocide by some because supposedly only the men really seemed to be targeted. It was not established that those accused of ethnic cleansing (former Bosnian Serb leader Momcilo Krajisnik) had genocidal intent. Only one of the 30 pe! ople indicted for genocide was found guilty in an international court (Radislav Krstic).
What happened to stop this? NATO.
*Update: UN voted on DRC and they are going to continue with supervised intervention in DR Congo.
Ongoing projects:
* Banaa.org – Bridget, Joe, and Luke
* Saturday Volunteering:
o *Meet at ITS at 9:40* About 2 hours
Upcoming Events:
* Potluck and Bracelet Making: April 12th (Mon) at the meeting
* Refugee Campus: April 22nd 3pm
MINUTES
* Orientation Volunteering Application
o Due May 14th
o Old and New E-board meet
o Refugee CAMPus
+ Committee: Adrienne, Bridget, Suresh, Robert, Julia, Brinda – head: Bridget
+ Meeting today after meeting
+ Awareness Discussion: Danielle
+ JOKE
URGI will be participating in the bookstore buy-back competition.
Awareness-Danielle on Bosnian Genocide
Josip Tito was Bosnia’s authoritarian dictator for many years. His death in 1980 sparked strong nationalist sentiments. Also, the existing system of checks and balances between conflicting groups was abolished. At the same time, Serbia and Croatia were becoming militarized. Also, an election in 1990 polarized the groups even further as nationalist parties gained power. The combination of these events caused a 3-sided civil war between t! he Bosnian-Serbs, Bosnian-Croats, and Bosnian-Muslims. In 1992, Bosnia declared itself independent. During the war, the Serbs tried to ethnically cleanse certain parts of Bosnia of the Muslim populations to create a “Greater Serbia” led by Slobodan Milosevic and a “Greater Croatia” in neighboring states.
Between 1992 and 1995 (only 3 years), over 200,000 Muslims were starved, tortured, raped, and murdered in concentration camps. The bodies were buried in mass graves.
Srebrenica Massacre: July 1995, Serb troops entered the town of Srebrenica, which was supposed to be a UN safe area. They held the town under siege while depriving the 400,000 Muslim inhabitants of food, water, and supplies. They also shelled homes and buildings. The UN soldiers did little because they were ill-prepared and had no back-up. Between 8,000 and 9,000 men and boys were killed, and the remaining 25-30,000 inhabitants were forced to leave the area. Another s! ource (ICRC—International Committee of the Red Cross) said that up to 200,000 people were killed, 12,000 of them children, up to 50,000 women were raped, and 2.2 million were forced to flee their homes. This was the largest massacre in Europe since WWII.
Although most consider the ethnic cleansing to be genocide, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) have ruled that, in order for actions to be deemed genocide, there must be physical or biological destruction of a protected group and a specific intent to commit such destruction. By this definition, only the Srebrenica massacre has been found to be a genocide by the ICTY. Even the Massacre was not considered to be genocide by some because supposedly only the men really seemed to be targeted. It was not established that those accused of ethnic cleansing (former Bosnian Serb leader Momcilo Krajisnik) had genocidal intent. Only one of the 30 pe! ople indicted for genocide was found guilty in an international court (Radislav Krstic).
What happened to stop this? NATO.
*Update: UN voted on DRC and they are going to continue with supervised intervention in DR Congo.
Ongoing projects:
* Banaa.org – Bridget, Joe, and Luke
* Saturday Volunteering:
o *Meet at ITS at 9:40* About 2 hours
URGI Minutes 3/29/10
Upcoming Events:
* Saturday Volunteering:
o *Meet at ITS at 9:40* About 2 hours
* Potluck and Bracelet Making: April 12th (Monday) at 8pm in Gleason (one of the Studios)
*Refugee Campus: April 22nd
Refugee CAMPus
o Committee: Adrienne, Bridget, Suresh, Robert, Julia, Brinda – head: Bridget
Douglass Advocacy event – PPAC
- got a good amount of signatures
- people who signed were interested (contact for women’s caucus)
- need to reserve a table
- maybe send an email to other groups so they know we are tabling if we do have to move to Wilson Commons
+ Do it again? Week before Refugee CAMPus where we have flex machine.
Elections!!
Results:
President: Bridget
Vice President: Cassie
Business Manager: Luke
Social/Fundraising AND Webmaster: Justin
Publicity Chair: Kelli
Secretary: Julia
Awareness Discussion, open forum:
1) Elections tomorrow! Bashir trying to kick out people who are attempting to regulate the election. About international election monitors “ Cut off their fingers…under our shoes”
2) In DR Congo, Lord’s Resistance Army kill/massacre people in villages, if they try to es! cape they cutting off lips/ears/tongues to scare people into not telling media. December 14th-17th in at least 10 villages, just got released. Conflict minerals are funding individual members of the LRA them. Kill most of men, took women and children and forced them to walk 60 miles, any who were too slow were executed.
3) Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe- process of colonization before and during they came in. Major part is religion- helped people conform.
Ongoing projects:
* Banaa.org – Bridget, Joe, and Luke
* Saturday Volunteering:
o *Meet at ITS at 9:40* About 2 hours
* Potluck and Bracelet Making: April 12th (Monday) at 8pm in Gleason (one of the Studios)
*Refugee Campus: April 22nd
Refugee CAMPus
o Committee: Adrienne, Bridget, Suresh, Robert, Julia, Brinda – head: Bridget
Douglass Advocacy event – PPAC
- got a good amount of signatures
- people who signed were interested (contact for women’s caucus)
- need to reserve a table
- maybe send an email to other groups so they know we are tabling if we do have to move to Wilson Commons
+ Do it again? Week before Refugee CAMPus where we have flex machine.
Elections!!
Results:
President: Bridget
Vice President: Cassie
Business Manager: Luke
Social/Fundraising AND Webmaster: Justin
Publicity Chair: Kelli
Secretary: Julia
Awareness Discussion, open forum:
1) Elections tomorrow! Bashir trying to kick out people who are attempting to regulate the election. About international election monitors “ Cut off their fingers…under our shoes”
2) In DR Congo, Lord’s Resistance Army kill/massacre people in villages, if they try to es! cape they cutting off lips/ears/tongues to scare people into not telling media. December 14th-17th in at least 10 villages, just got released. Conflict minerals are funding individual members of the LRA them. Kill most of men, took women and children and forced them to walk 60 miles, any who were too slow were executed.
3) Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe- process of colonization before and during they came in. Major part is religion- helped people conform.
Ongoing projects:
* Banaa.org – Bridget, Joe, and Luke
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