Posts

Showing posts from February, 2014

Privilege

One of the best class sessions we had was on the question of privilege and why do we do this “comparative” program of human rights. The deep life question pushed everyone’s thinking and in many ways felt like an existential crisis. Why do we bother to compare three countries and write a paper on it? What good does it do? For one, writing about our experiences is a way to respect, acknowledge, and thank the ones who shared so much of their lives with us, who allowed us into their lives and histories and stories. I remember at the end of my summer working at Cerecare in Shanghai, my supervisors were really enthusiastic that I was going to write a reflection on my experiences there. My presence during those two months did very little to substantially change the quality of life for the kids who inspired me, and the least I could do is to thank them in ways that I do know – by writing about it. Even though not that many people read that reflection, it IS important that I wrote it. Another