World Kindness Day was on Wednesday, Nov. 4 this year, and the Peer Health interns from the Health and Wellness Center came out in full force for the “Science of Happiness” event, held from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. on the lawn across from the Career and Counseling Services building.

     Smiles and blue and yellow balloons greeted students as they approached the tables smattered with letter envelopes, tiny notebooks, pens, and leaflets of literature. Peer Health Interns handed out flowers to passersby on the bike path, giggling and urging people to be happy.

     “A positive attitude should be considered a health skill; optimism is a health skill,” said Mark Shishim, a Health Educator for UCSB. “[Students’] positive attitude has an effect on their social and mental health. Wellness is all about that mind-body connection and how we can build on those strengths.”

    All areas of student well-being were addressed, from mental health to physical and social health. Interns handed out stamped envelopes for students to write a “Gratitude Letter,” which allows them to share their appreciation with others. Pocket-sized notebooks were also given out with instructions for students to write three good things that happened to them every day for a week in order to further encourage optimism and appreciation.

      Three boards were set up at tables for attendees to write about what their strong points were, list something good that happened to them that day, and jot down the things that they were thankful for.

     “[The event’s goal was to] promote the opportunities and resources to enhance the students’ experience. It’s a strength-based approach that encourages flourishing,” said Shishim. He explained that “flourishing” is when students focus on using and improving their strengths, rather than working on improving their weaknesses.

     Shishim states that the three psychological points of the event were based off of a study done by a University of Pennsylvania professor. The study promotes “flourishing” through the three routes of positive psychology: pleasure, enjoyment, and meaning. According to the Wellness Center website, all of these routes lead to extended happiness in a person’s life.

    “It’s somewhat rudimentary, but in my opinion, this is the first step in health promotion: building on strengths and promoting positive well-being,” said Shishim.

     According to Shishim, the body knows how to react when something bad happens, but not when something good does. The goal of the Wellness Center is to point out and promote the aspects of students’ personalities that can improve their quality of life. This is done by focusing on the strengths that each person has.

     “My mom always said, ‘Mark, work on your weaknesses now, because if you work on them now, then you won’t have any weaknesses later,’” remarks Shishim. “What I realized was, if you do that, you’re always going to be frustrated and pissed off.” Shishim found that he was only truly happy when he focused on his strong points, rather than dwelling on his weaknesses. The Wellness Center is also encouraging others to focus on their strengths, as Shishim has successfully done.

     For more information on ways to “up” your amount of happiness, the Wellness Center website has a calendar of events for students to participate in. Some of these include sailing trips, prizes (free iPods) and free massages. Check them out at www.wellness.ucsb.edu.

On Tuesday, November 3, 2009, the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the alcohol ban on the beaches in the Isla Vista area after the temporary emergency ban implemented as a result of last year’s Floatopia expired.

“Some of the beaches already had a ban,” said William Boyer, the Communications Director for Santa Barbara County. “But this decision was specifically regarding the beach that borders along the Isla Vista area.”

Since the 12,000 person event beach-and-booze known as Floatopia, the Board has had an emergency six-month ban of alcohol on the beaches. Floatopia cost law enforcement alone $20,000 and it served as the basis of the board’s initiative to set up boundaries along Isla Vista where alcohol was prohibited.

These “temporary” boundaries ran from the western point of Del Playa Drive, along the eastern border to Isla Vista and UC Santa Barbara, reaching north to the coastal bluffs facing D.P., and stretching a hundred yards south of the mean tide line. Boundaries also included beach access points from 6773 and 6769 D.P.

The Board’s unanimous approval has made these boundaries permanent, but whether that will stop Isla Vista residents from bringing booze to the beach is yet to be determined.

“I think if people want to drink, they will find a way,” said Emily O’Dell, a second year French major. “I mean it’s illegal for people under 21 to drink and they still find a way. People are creative sometimes.”

Though students may still find a way to drink on the beach, Floatopia may have seen the end of its infamous run.

“I don’t think Floatopia is going to happen [this year] because drinking was the main part of [the reason for] it [the ban],” said Colin Burke, a fourth year cellular biology major. “It just sucks that one day made [the Board of Supervisors] change their mind.”

However, not all students agree that the alcohol ban is a bad measure for the Board to have passed. In addition to putting an end to costly events like Floatopia, the ban may have a positive effect on the local beaches, preventing additional pollution.

“Personally, it’s not going to prevent me from drinking [on the beach],” said Christopher Benham, a third year. “I think the mess that was left was terrible, and that we have this really beautiful beach; we’re lucky to go here. We should have more measures to keep it clean. It’s a shame the study body doesn’t respect [the beach].”

     In a decision made to offset current budget cuts, UC Santa Barbara will be eliminating the Exercise and Sports Studies department by August 2010, which will end the ESS minors, classes, and all internships created by the department.

     What students are fighting for now is to save the ESS classes. According to Erica Stenz, a fourth year ESS student, some students are also fighting for the opportunity for sophomores and juniors who have started minors to complete the necessary courses.

     “We found out the vote for terminating the minor was held in secret,” Stenz said. “We want to show [through protest] that it’s not alright for students not to be a part of this: you [the university] have to tell us.”

     While it may be too late to save the part of the department that offers minors, students can still fight to save health and exercise classes. An estimated 5,000 students enroll in ESS classes each year. A group of students, including Stenz, has organized in order to protest the cuts and try to save the classes for all students, even if they cannot keep the minors.

     These students have teamed up with Healthy Eating and Living interns (HEAL), Associated Students, Campus Democrats, the Health Professions Association, the Recreation Center and the Communications 175 university course to organize rallies and petitions, fighting for their cause. “Being Planned” is an exercise-a-thon scheduled for November 20 that will bring ESS program alumni to campus to run activities in health and fitness, demonstrating what the school will lose without the ESS department.

     “This will have a huge impact on Student Health,” said Adrienne Hancik, a HEAL intern. “It will become Student Health’s responsibility to cover topics, such as substance abuse and nutrition, and spread this information to the UCSB population. That’s our job as interns, but you can’t do that for a mass amount of people.”

     Currently the school plans to end the ESS minor program in August 2010, meaning that those who have started work on a minor will be unable to finish the program. Approximately 1,200 students begin work on an ESS minor annually, and some come to UCSB specifically to work on an ESS minor, which is the only program of its kind in the UC system.

     There are now students who will not be able to complete their minors. Professor Art Gilbert, the advisor for Exercise and Health Science, understands this concern and wants to make sure that students do not lose out on their education. “What I am pushing for is to extend the program for at least a year, if not two, to give those people who have already committed to doing this a chance to get through,” Gilbert said. “There are juniors who have now spent two years doing this program who are going to get the rug pulled out from under them.”

     In addition to losing the ESS minor program, all internships cultivated by the department will also be lost. The ESS department presently offers positions with professional sports teams, such as the Los Angeles Lakers and the San Francisco Giants, as well as in the community at local schools and businesses. According to Gilbert, what happens at the university affects the town and the university is pulling support from the community in order to save the ESS program.

“The exercise and sports minors are mainly about taking care of yourself and the people around you; it’s about giving back to your community,” Gilbert said, “and that’s being taken away.”

In spite of the current lock-down status, students are still attending classes and walking freely on campus.
Call 805-893-7188 for recorded UCPD updates.

UPDATE: 4:20 pm–South Hall is cleared and evacuated; UCSB alert reports, “Univeristy business can continue as usual.”

UPDATE: 4:33 pm–Investigation indicates no weapon or actual threat.

     On Wednesday, October 7, 2009, two UCSB students staged an anti-war rally in the Arbor to protest United States involvement in the war currently taking place in Afghanistan.  Noor Aljawad, a first-year political science major, and Alessandro Morosin, a first-year global studies graduate student, felt an urgent need to build a student resistance to the war in Afghanistan.

     Although the pair is not affiliated with any campus clubs or organizations, they are still trying to raise student awareness regarding U.S. military activity in Afghanistan.  They are concerned that students are basing their opinions regarding the war solely on what is reported by the popular media. Morosin expressed his concern about this, stating that “there is very little talk about the U.S.’s strategic interests and goals in that region [of Afghanistan].”

     Aljawad and Morosin contest the idea often portrayed by the press that U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan has been mandated in order to liberate Afghanis and promote humanitarian goals.

     “This is an imperialist war of occupation,” Morosin said.

     Morosin and Aljawad both expressed their shared view that it is impossible for Afghanistan to build its own liberating government as long as the U.S. remains militarily involved in warfare.  They jointly stated that they oppose U.S. imperialism in Afghanistan as well as Taliban rule.

     “As U.S. citizens there’s not a lot that we can do at this point in time that’s going to benefit the Afghani people as long as the occupation and its goals are tainting everything there [in Afghanistan],” Morosin said.  He further claimed that the humanitarian alternative to non-humanitarian imperialism is simply to “GET OUT” of Afghanistan.

     Aljawad feels the same way about the need for the U.S. to pull its troops out of Afghanistan, stating that the U.S. is not liberating women nor protecting their civil rights.

     “Militarization has never helped women, never benefitted women,” she said.  “Those who think that we’re [the U.S. government] liberating women are completely delusional.”

     She further claimed that U.S. servicemen commit sexual assault against Afghani women, supporting her point that warfare is not a valid method of protecting or liberating Afghani women.

     Aljawad also expressed her concern that U.S. military participation in warfare is “actually helping the Taliban strengthen.”

     Although Morosin and Aljawad set up the rally independent of any campus organization, they were not the only vocal students present.  Morosin invited student spectators to step up to the microphone to express their opinions about military action in Afghanistan. 

     One female student reiterated Morosin’s commitment to raising student awareness about war in Afghanistan.  “We think this is just some war far away, but these are our tax dollars,” she said.

     The same student speaker continued to discuss the Israeli blockade of the Gaza strip, claiming that food was not delivered to Palestinian people, nor was appropriate medical care.  A male student who had been in line to purchase Woodstock’s Pizza in the Arbor nearby could not contain himself, interrupting her and shouting, “Hold on, hold on, hold on.”  He proceeded to engage in using profanity, stating that what the female student speaker had asserted was a complete lie.  When she reprimanded him for interrupting, the student stormed off in a rage.  His outburst is a testament to the reality that “facts” about the war in Afghanistan can depend on the perspective of the source.

     The conflicting viewpoints of the student speaker and the student who stormed off illuminate the need for circulation of information regarding the war in Afghanistan.

     Aljawad and Morosin want to host other campus events in order to build a significant student resistance to U.S. militarization in Afghanistan, but concrete plans have yet to be set in stone.

Faculty, students and concerned citizens from across California gathered at Campbell Hall at UCSB on Wednesday to participate in a historic “Teach-In” that addressed the budget crisis currently enveloping the University of California. The eight-hour event, attended by an auditorium of rotating audience members, featured a diverse list of speakers who weighed in on the likely causes of the crisis, and potential solutions to help solve it.

“We need to push the UC to be a progressive factor for change in California,” said Christine Petit, President of UAW Local 2865, a union which represents TAs, readers, and tutors employed by the UC.

“We’re actually seeing first hand who’s bearing the brunt of this crisis, [and it’s] the students.”

Budget cuts have already cut a wide range of programs and services at UCSB. Senior Erica Stenz described her personal dismay that Exercise Science is being cut as a possible major, and described the value that she has derived from her personal studies in the subject.

Nayra Pacheco, a UCSB student and representative of IDEAS (Improving Dreams, Equality, Access and Success), spoke of the financial difficulties undocumented immigrants face who are enrolled at UCSB, including her own personal struggle to pay her tuition bill out of pocket. Pacheco was forced to take a leave of absence from UCSB in spring quarter, she said, as a consequence of financial hardship. Although back in attendance this quarter, Pacheco said increasing tuition continues to be a huge issue for her.

Current graduate student in the Department of Geography and President of the Graduate Student Association at UCSB, Reginald Archer, spoke of the shortfall in opportunities facing graduate students in general because of budget cuts that have affected faculty quality at the University.

Despite the grave topic and rainy weather that permitted throughout the day, Archer emphasized to need to remain optimistic and proactive.

“The rain is a sign of rejuvenation and rebirth,” Archer said.  “We are here to move beyond just complaining…[We are here] to come together in solidarity, to make a difference.”

Amanda Wallner, a UCSB senior and President of Campus Democrats, expressed similar optimism. Although acknowledging the problems throughout the University of California, including the increase in tuition fees and the reduction in student jobs, she said students had inherent power through their sheer numbers.

“There are 200,000 students in the UC system, and if we can be brought together under a common goal it gives us immense power,” she said.

Wallner said a lack of information is a pervasive problem amongst students, and recognition of the most important issues facing the University is necessary before appropriate action can be taken.

“Students know there are problems on a lot of UC campuses,”  she said. “What they don’t know is why.”

Education of UC students on the broad consequences of Califronia budget crisis was emphasized even before the Teach-In’s official start at 2:30.

“[The University] is facing an imminent crisis,” said Eileen Boris, Chair of the UCSB Feminist Studies Department, to the crowd gathered outside Campbell Hall before the event began.  “Come out and protest, but through knowledge.”

In a piece to communicate the meaning of the Teach-In, UCSB History Professor Nelson Lictenstein described the determination of Clark Kerr, the first Chancellor at UC Berkeley and twentieth UC President, to uphold the ideal of more equitable and accessible higher education.  Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and the State of California are the ones to blame for the current crisis, Lictenstein said.

“We are presiding over nothing less than the destruction of a great university system,” said Lictenstein, eliciting applause from those gathered in attendance.

-Jenny Housel contributed to this article.

Panels include, Meaning of the Teach-In, The crisis at the University of California, California Politics: What Reforms Do We Need?, Breakout workshops distributed throughout campus, and Where Do We Go From Here?

You can watch the Teach-In stream live here: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/uc

Or You can Listen to the Teach-In live at KCSB: http://www.kcsb.org/

Below is a list of times and speakers for the event today.

Starting at 3:40
-Chair: Michael Brown, UCSB, Gevirtz School of Education
-Stan Glantz, Professor of Medicine, UC San Francisco, past chair of UC  Committee on Planning and Budget: UC’s Budget Blunders
-Robert Samuels, President, UC-American Federation of Teachers: Why the furloughs are unnecessary
-Christine Petit, President, UAW Local 2865, (The union for TAs, readers and tutors); The teaching experience under stress
-Robert Meister, Professor of Ethnicity and Geography, University of Southern California: Why your tuition is rising

5:30 p.m. California Politics: What Reforms Do We Need?

-Chair: Aranye Fradenburg, Professor of English, UCSB
-Lenny Goldberg, CA Tax Reform Association: Where UC can get the money
-Ruthe Gilmore, Professor of Ethnicity and Geography, University of Southern California: The budget-draining prison complex
-Kent Wong, Director, UCLA Labor Center: A “Dream Act” for undocumented students
-Sharde Davis, UCSB: Stop Rising fees!

7-8:30 p.m. Breakout Workshops and Panels

Panels include:

“The Impact of Prisons on Education and the Way Forward in Reversing That Trend” Phelps Hall 3523
-Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Department of American Studies and Ethnicity, USC
-Craig Gilmore, Critical Resistance
-Damien Schnyder, author of First Strike: The Effect of the Prison Regime Upon Public Education and Black Masculinity in Los Angeles County, CA

“Breaking the Stalemate: the Politics of Public Education in California” Phelps Hall 3515
-Loni Hancock, California State Senator, East Bay
-Hannah-Beth Jackson, former South Coast Assemblywoman
-Das Williams, Santa Barbara City Council
-Julian Posadas, American Federation of State County and Municipal Workers

“The UC Budget and California Tax Policy” Phelps Hall 1260
-Stan Glantz, UC San Francisco
-Lenny Goldberg, California Tax Reform Association
-George Lakoff, UC Berkley

“Legislative Action: Dealing With and Against UC in Sacramento & What is Next” Phelps 1420
-Rodney Orr, Legislative Director, United Professional and Technical Employees
-Ali Cooper, Political/Legislative Director, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Local 3299
-Robert Campbell, former chair of Assembly Budget Committee
-Christine Petit, President UAW Local 2865

“The California Dream Act: Help for Undocumented Students” South Hall 1431
-Kent Wong, UCLA Labor Center
-Nayra Pacheco, UCSB, IDEAS

“Save Exercise and Sports Studies!” South Hall 1609
-Erica Stenz, LeAnn Lopez, Andrea Chase, Kathleen Jequinto, Megan Killian, Adrienne Hancik, Chris Mcelhatton, and Sarah Bennett’

“How is the economic crisis impacting Black and Latino students and communities? How are students and communities responding? How should they respond?” South Hall 1430
-Clyde Woods, Black Studies, UCSB
-Gaye Johnson, Black Studies, UCSB

“How Education Actually Changes the Brain” English Department Conference Room, South Hall 2607
-Aranye Fradenburg, Department of English UCSB
-Kay Young, Department of English, UCSB
-Janis Caldwell, Department of English, UCSB

“Strategy Chart/Strategy Breakdown” Building 387, Room 104
-David Preciado, Isla Vista Tenants Union, 2008 UCSB Get-Out-the-Vote leader (This workshop teaches organizers how to develop effective strategies for their campaigns)

“University 101: Student-Friendly Breakdown of the UC System and the Budget Crisis” Campbell Hall 7pm-8pm
-Celina Ayala, External Vice Presidents of Statewide Affairs, Associated Students, UCSB
-Armando Carmona,  SIRRC, UCSB

“Campus Left: Educate and Escalate: No Surrender in Defense of Learning” Campbell Hall 8-8:30 pm

-Cathy Kwon, UCSB: An introduction to the Cmapus Left and the political struggle ahead
-Megan White, UCSB: The lessons of the 1968 campus movements at San Francisco State, UC Santa Barbara and beyond
-Jeb Sprague, UCSB: Contemporary struggles at UCSC
-Mitchell Stewart, UCSB: The nature of our present predicament

Although it has been a long time since any event on campus has garnered as much excitement as the visit of the Dalai Lama, his visit Friday, April 24, was noticeably absent of any sort of political controversy.
Few points of contention between China and the West cause more angst than the ongoing activities of the Dalai Lama. Although the Dalai Lama fled Tibet 50 years ago, and no government in the world recognizes the current Tibetan government-in-exile as a legitimate entity, the international recognition and respect that the Dalai Lama commands, exemplified by his receipt of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, serves as a permanent reminder to the government of the People’s Republic of China that opposition to its ongoing rule in Tibet is still strong throughout the world.

In spite of the increase in trade between China and the West over the past several decades, which has helped lift millions of Chinese out of poverty and permitted equal numbers of consumers in the West access to cheap Chinese-made goods, China’s ghastly human rights record has continued to cause considerable friction between the Chinese government and various Western governments. The brunt of the criticism that China receives over its human rights record concerns its 50-year occupation of Tibet, as well as the various injustices that Tibetans have been submitted to there.
As the Dalai Lama is such a widely recognized symbol of the ongoing struggle in Tibet, reception of him by Western governments has often led to formal government protests by the Chinese government, as well as informal protests by Chinese nationals residing in countries that choose to have him as a guest. This is a lesson that French President Nicolas Sarkozy learned the hard way when he chose to meet with the Dalai Lama last December, when France still held the rotating chair of the European Union presidency. When Chinese premier Wen Jiabao visited Europe the following month, he refused to visit France despite visiting the United Kingdom, Belgium, Germany, Spain, and Switzerland. As President Sarkozy has gone to great lengths to play a leading role in global politics, such a snub was a clear indication of Chinese displeasure with his audience with the Dalai Lama.
In March of 2008, major protests erupted against Chinese rule in Tibet, obviously intended to coincide with the upcoming Olympic Games in Beijing. The games themselves proceeded almost without incident, although Western press reported considerable demonstrations and counter demonstrations in Beijing while the games were in progress, in no small part concerning the ongoing Tibetan issue.
It is therefore almost surprising that the Dalai Lama’s visit to UCSB provoked so little controversy. Although there was certainly a beefy security presence at both events over the course of the day, including bomb-sniffing dogs and private security personnel, there were almost no political demonstrations either in favor of the Dalai Lama or in opposition to him — this is in spite of the overtly political nature of the UCSB student body (particularly in regard to issues of social and environmental justice) and the presence of numerous Chinese students both at UCSB and Santa Barbara City College who might have taken the opportunity to protest his visit.
Even the Dalai Lama himself refrained from mentioning politics. Although he briefly discussed a visit he made to China’s capital, Beijing, after the Chinese occupation of Tibet, his only other mention of the Chinese throughout the entire afternoon talk was in telling a joke whose punchline was at his own expense.
Richard Blum, who is Chair of the Regents of the University of California and a personal friend of the Dalai Lama, spoke briefly at the beginning of the event, and lightly touched on the political status of Tibet. “We continue to speak with the Chinese [about Tibet], and really what the Tibetans are asking for is not much,” said Blum, who nonetheless implied that the issue will not be resolved anytime soon. Blum is also Chairman of the American Himalaya Foundation, a non-profit group that attempts to improve living conditions across the Himalayas, including Tibet.
In addition to his visit at UCSB, the Dalai Lama visited several other college campuses during his two-week stay in the U.S., including the University of Washington, UC Berkeley, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Although there were minor protests at several campuses concerning his visit, including the State University of New York at Albany, in general his trip was fairly smooth, and his overall message rather apolitical.
The Dalai Lama did not meet with President Barack Obama while he was here, the president himself having given a strong hint to the Chinese government back in February that the U.S. was willing to overlook human rights issues at the moment in favor of more pressing concerns, including the global economy and climate change. However, the Dalai Lama will return to the U.S. in October, and his visit will include a trip to Washington. Although Obama will be under considerable pressure from various human rights and religious groups to meet with him then, the Chinese government has stated its intense disapproval of any audience between the two leaders, particularly in regards to matters of Tibetan separatism.
The Dalai Lama received personal audiences with former Presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush during their respective offices.

These are the words of Bukeni T. Waruzi, the Executive Director of Ajedi-Ka, a volunteer organization focused on demobilizing and reintegrating child soldiers in the South Kivu Province of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Waruzi, who has worked on the issue of child soldiers for the past nine years, came to UCSB’s MultiCutural Center on Monday, April 27, along with former child soldier, Madeleine, to speak about his organization. He described his work as a process.

“It involves going to the camps to meet with the commanders and negotiating with them to get the children back home. But before that, I have to negotiate with their parents so they can accommodate them again,” Waruzi said. “And then I try to look for funds to support their social and economic reintegration. But that alone is not enough.”
In 2005, the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 1612, which implements a monitoring and reporting method to protect children in armed conflict. The Security Council strongly condemned the recruitment and use of child soldiers, presenting detailed regulations in the resolution. Although Waruzi feels that Resolution 1612 is a positive step, he knows that much more must be done. He has spoken internationally about the issue, raised awareness among high schools and universities, generated debates about the child soldiers, and even made his own film.
“Right now, the main issue is figuring out how to support the reintegration of the child soldiers. It’s not always easy; many parents do not have the means to support their children or pay for them to go to school,” Waruzi said. He further highlights the issue of reintegration in his film, “A Duty to Protect.” The film shows that not all of the child soldiers are abducted or recruited by force; some of them are recruited as volunteers. The reasons for this willingness to participate in the militia vary, but often times children feel compelled to join either because they can’t afford to go to school or because they receive support to join from their parents and community.
“I wanted to try to raise awareness to make sure that the parents and the community themselves understood what is the danger of sending their kids into militia groups,” Waruzi said. “So I started shooting the film, and I was even myself surprised; I didn’t know that the children who had been reintegrated didn’t tell their parents about what had happened. By showing the film and showing the children telling their stories about how they were being treated and how they were being forced to kill some of their family members, how they were being forced to smoke marijuana…these kinds of stories shocked the parents.” After going from village to village and screening his film to the communities, Waruzi began to see a difference in the attitudes toward children joining the militia.
Since then, the Ajedi-Ka organization has even been able to monitor the decrease in militia volunteers. “The forced recruitment was always there, but now there isn’t as much voluntary recruitment,” Waruzi said. “It’s not just because of our films necessarily, but in some places, it really has helped a lot to make the parents aware of the danger of sending their kids to the camps.”
Along with raising awareness about child soldiers in Africa, Waruzi and the Ajedi-Ka organization have also demobilized more than 300 children. Among these is former child soldier, Madeleine, who came with Waruzi on Monday to speak about her experiences. Kidnapped at eleven years old, Madeleine spent three years in the army before Waruzi came to her camp and talked to her commanders. She was reunited with her family, and now works with Waruzi to raise awareness about the issue in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
“My job is to advise the child soldiers and tell them how they can join the community and how to find their futures,” Madeleine said. “I give speeches about child soldiers, especially girls, and how a lot of them come home with babies. I made all of these speeches, and my commanders in my country heard about everything that I said. So I called my parents and they said that I couldn’t come back because my commanders were looking for me. So I’ve been staying with Bukeni and going to school in New York.”
The powerful words of both Madeleine and Waruzi left many feeling inspired, wondering what they personally can do to help. To many, the child soldiers in Africa may seem out of reach. Waruzi, however, believes that we hold quite a bit of power.
“I think it is a blessing to be living in this country, and there are so many things that can be done,” he said. “First, I always believe in education. This is the most important resource that we can provide for any child. And this is one of the ways you can help. The second way is the legislators in the U.S. They have so much power to influence politics in the global South. We know that our countries have very bad policies when it comes to child protection. The U.S. legislature can pressure those countries on issues of protection of children and women.”
Nicolas Pascal, founder of the Human Rights Group at UCSB, which hosted the event, also agrees that there is still much more that can be done to help.
“So far we’ve been centered on child rights issues, but we’re not limited. We feel that there is a great deal of potential for collaborative efforts,” Pascal said. The Human Rights Group is an advocacy-based student group on campus that is interested in promoting awareness of and taking action toward correcting human rights abuses. The group is currently working on a more local issue dealing with incarcerated individuals in California who have received life without parole sentences for crimes they committed as minors.
“I think the exciting thing about The Human Rights Group is that it’s really limitless, and there’s no one particular issue that we confine ourselves to,” Pascal said. “It’s just the universal issue of human rights. As long as we have the resources, the ability, and the vision, then that project can take off and find a home.”
Those who are interested in finding out more about human rights are encouraged to attend the Human Rights Group meetings every Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. in the Orfalea Center.