A very small world

I'd like to begin by wishing you happy Human Rights Day. On this day in 1948, the U.N. adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. I've been on a wonderful committee for the past two months planning today's events. We hosted a panel of three speakers who talked about amazing work being done on the front lines by human rights defenders in Vietnam, Syria, Russia, Sudan, etc. The sad thing is, in many respects, the world is regressing. Land grabs are a major issue, whether for mines, sugar, palm oil, or dams. The number of refugees around the world (think Syria, Iraq, various African countries) is at levels not seen since the Second World War. Russia and Egypt are dismantling civil society with restrictive legislation.

On a somewhat positive note, the speakers gave the U.S. high marks for coming clean on its use of torture around the globe. Go USA!

On a totally unrelated note, we spent the evening at the student pub attending an Amnesty International pub quiz. We met Colm and his girlfriend Emma there. Emma's from Derry, so we traded Derry stories (I lived there from 1974-80). It turns out her mother and I ran for the same track team, Sparta, and actually competed against each other in the 100 metres. Emma was recently at her grandmother's house looking at photos from when her mum was young. I was in some of those photos. Our track team was in the local paper all the time. Yes, Ulster is a small place. I still haven't gotten over that one.
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