On Saturday January 25th from 4pm to 8pm I attended the academic event “Human Rights in Eritrea”. This event detailed the history of the oppressive regime in Eritrea, the stories of those facing religious persecution and mandatory indefinite military service in the region, and the movement opposing the regime called Yiakl. In addition to history and data, personal stories about the refugee experience were shared. The speakers included Father Athanasius Ghebre-Ab who spoke on the religious persecution of Orthodox individuals, Muftasta who spoke on the religous persecution of Muslim individuals, Yonatan who spoke one the religous persecution of Pentecostal individuals, Habtay who spoke on the religous persecution of Catholic individuals, and Michael who spoke on the 3 waves of refugees.

This event gave examples of the main themes we have covered in my Politics of Immigration class, including why people migrate. People migrate from Eritrea to flee the oppressive government, religious persecution, and mandatory military service. The government outlawed all but 4 religions. Members of the now illegal religions are the victims of discriminatory practices and mass arrests. The religions that remain legal lost their leaders, because government officials took on these positions. Anyone who speaks against the government’s policy or continues to practice an illegal religion is arrested and held indefinitely without a trial. Father Athanasius Ghiberti-Ab spoke about the difficulties he faced as he witnessed and recorded the Orthodox community’s reaction to the arrests, deaths, and replacements of their leaders. The government action that seemed to upset Father Athanasius Ghiberti-Ab the most was the arrest of the leader of the Eritrean Orthodox Church. This leader is now the oldest political prisoner at age 94.

Mandatory indefinite military service was the last straw that caused many men to flee Eritrea. After you complete 12th grade all men are required to serve in the military for as long as the government decides they need them to. The conditions the men are required to work in are unbearable; it is known that they regularly starve and die under mysterious circumstances. One man named Michael shared the difficult journey he took in order to escape this fate. He first traveled for 23 days to Sudan. Once in Sudan, he overcame harassment and earned a visa to study in Egypt. He received the visa on a Friday and was set to fly to Egypt on Monday. That Friday night, Michael was arbitrarily arrested and sentenced to 6 months in jail. Luckily, his brother had connections and managed to bribe the authorities so that Michael only served 2 weeks. Once free, he flew to Egypt where he was arrested again. He was arrested because he did not have the 150 dollars required to enter the country. Under a rouse of calling his brother, Michael called the United Nations for help. They had helped organize his visa and were able to free him from jail. Michael said he had the strength to complete this difficult journey because he believed his generation would be the last to flee in this manner. He believed change would come in Eritrea that would make this no longer necessary. Unfortunately, young men like him are still fleeing mandatory indefinite military service using the same methods he did. The thought of this made Michael visibly upset.

I am very grateful that Michael and other refugees were open to sharing their personal stories. The organizers hoped that by sharing these experiences and exposing the abuse committed by the regime, they could give a voice to victims within Eritrea who are silenced. The government is determined to keep its victims silent through any means necessary, earning them the reputation as “Africa’s North Korea”. Free press and leaving the country is illegal. Foreign aid is refused. They imprison people within freight boxes in desert conditions with little food, water, and sanitation. The movement Yaikl is an attempt to call attention to these human rights abuses and prove to the Eritrean government that they will not be silent.

In Politics of Immigration, we have started to study how and why people migrate. By looking at the reason Eritrean refugees have fled their home country, I am able to connect individual stories to the large trends we are studying. This is a valuable action because it humanizes the issue. I will continue to attend events like this and interact with different kinds of migrants in order to make sure I connect the content I learn with the perspective of the migrants. I think it is unfair to study the topic if you do not hear their side of the story.

The following are pictures I took of the speakers at the event:

On Saturday April 6th I attended day 2 of the 2019 International Conference on Conflict Resolution Education in Graves hall on the Ohio State University’s campus. I was unable to attend day 1 due to classes. The conference was from 8:30am to 4:30pm. I attended this event because I have an interest in social justice and I am eager to learn about the ways I can contribute to the field. I attended 4 workshops. They were “Conflict Resolution for the 21st Century” by Rodney Chatman, “Youth and Peace Informal Education – Experiences from the Far East and North Africa” by Khaled Emam, “Supporting Ex-offenders: Creating Community with College Social Systems” by Heidi Arnold, “Effective Activism: Mapping Tactics and Strategies, Allies and Opponents” by Michael Loadenthal.

In the “Conflict Resolution for the 21st Century” workshop, Chatman drew from his time in the armed forces and as the police chief of Dayton to explain the best ways to handle conflict. Chatman started by addressing what we all bring into conflict, bias. If we acknowledge this bias it will be easier to make progress towards resolution. We also need to acknowledge the emotions we bring with us and experience during conflict. When we do this, we can form a point of connection. To solve a conflict effort needs to be exerted by both sides. Both sides need to be present and respectful, using indicators like tone, proximity, and active listening. Additional ways to progress towards resolution during a conflict are labeling emotions, giving an item to someone to stimulate reciprocity, open-ended questions, and minimal responses to encourage continuation of explanations. I sincerely enjoyed this workshop. Chatman was engaging, funny, and insightful. I learned skills I will apply to my everyday life and that will be extremely applicable to my professional career and how I conduct myself in the workplace. I even got to practice these skills when I volunteered to be involved in a 1 minute debate.

In the “Youth and Peace Informal Education – Experiences form the Far East and North Africa” workshop, Emam shared the recent history of Egyptians and their conflict with their government. He played videos and spoke about the peaceful protests in response to brutal violence. Egyptians largely remained peaceful even when they were gunned down and beaten in the streets. Emam focused on the actions of Egyptian youth. Egyptian youth make up a majority of Egypt’s population, 60 percent. Because young Egyptians make up such a large percentage of the population, Emam decided to focus on children to develop peace in the region. Emam ran a program in which he brought together Muslim and Christian families. Once brought together the families would spend time together eating, performing tasks, and doing recreational activities. The tension between the two religious groups represented faded away by the end of the program. During this workshop I became more informed about a topic I was previously ignorant about. I am fascinated by the bravery displayed by the Egyptians. It is amazing that they have the strength to largely remain peaceful in the face of such awful violence. It reminds me of Martin Luther King Jr. and his commitment to nonviolent action and civil disobedience. At the end of the workshop Emam had us discuss if nonviolence is effective in relation to violent action. My answer was yes. In order for long lasting peace to occur violence must not be the main contributing factor to that peace. I based my answer off of circumstances similar to the conflict in Egypt. These included nonviolent protest and civil disobedience by Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.

In the “Supporting Ex-offenders: Creating Community with College Social Systems” workshop Arnold shared her experience teaching communications at the Dayton Correctional Facility and how that has shaped her outlook on ex-offenders and their re-entry to society. Arnold and a panel of ex-offenders shared the extremely difficult process of re-entering society upon release from prison. Once released from prison ex-offenders must find housing and employment quickly. This is hard to do without social support. The panel of women shared their experiences with this process and the difficulties they faced. They faced very high obstacles to achieving a stable and happy life. Job opportunities were very slim. Even with masters degrees these women could not find jobs to match their professional skill level. Student loans weighed them down. Illnesses like cancer confined them further. Adjusting to a new kind of motherhood was draining. The panel of ex-offender women were strong in the face of this adversity, they decided to help other ex-offenders even though they are struggling greatly. They were brave to share the intimate details of their lives. They were kind, open, and understanding. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to have a discussion with these women. They have impacted how I view those around me, the justice system, and my future career.

The last workshop I attended was “Effective Activism: Mapping Tactics and Strategies, Allies and Opponents”. In this workshop Loadenthal detailed many tactics that are useful for nonviolent action in activism. The goal of these tactics were to create a liability or crisis and then shift the responsibility to your target. Some tactics he mentioned were: blockades, arson, exposing, public shaming, and mapping allies and opponents through social media. Loadenthal mainly used these tactics to target domestic terrorist groups that promote white supremacy. He is very successful in finding their public communications online and exposing them to employers through public images and social media. Throughout this presentation I was confused why he had gathered all of this data and the FBI had not. The data Loadenthal collected indicated serious threats on public safety. I asked him about this and he told me the FBI is aware of these threats but they do not hold them to the same level of importance as foreign terrorism. This was very alarming. It has inspired me to look further into this line of work, data collection and analyzation, and to seriously consider it for my future.

On November 27th I attended a non-IA event at 1015 McPherson. The event was TEDx Red Light, Breaking the Cycle of Human Trafficking. This event showcased how survivors were able to overcome their experiences of being trafficked for sex. Each talk focused on a different aspect of how survivors lives are impacted by sex trafficking. An Ohio judge spoke about a program he instituted in his court to help rehabilitate human trafficking victims instead of sending them to prison like they are criminals. Two survivors told the stories of how they became trafficked, how it affected their lives, and how they escaped it. One survivor even brought her son and together they explained how it shaped their lives.

The topic of the TEDx talks that night related to content in many of my courses. The texts I have analyzed for class directly address it. For example: while reading “How the War on Trafficking was Made to Unite the Right and Left” I found similarities to the TEDx talks I heard. They were similar through connection to religion and their refusal to address prostitution as a separate issue. During the TEDx talks the survivors addressed how their faith was important in how they made it through their hardships. Many of the organizations fighting human trafficking in the article are also using faith to help people survive. Both the TEDx speakers and the policy of the United States and Conservative Christian human rights groups considered prostitution to almost always be a result of trafficking. When I first became interested in the issue of human trafficking I believed the same thing. Now, as a result of learning different perspectives I am not so sure.

I think Anne Tickner would address this problem similar to Gallagher from the “How the War on Trafficking was Made to Unite the Left and Right article”. Anne T. Gallagher said “It fails to seriously interrogate the deep economy of human exploitation- to ask what would happen to global wealth and productivity if such exploitation were suddenly removed” (Grant 5). Gallagher like Tickner looks at the ideology of the problem. They look at what would happen if that ideology is changed and how it will cause a chain reaction. For Tickner it is how a better perception of women will create a more prosperous nation. For Gallagher it is about how the issue of human trafficking is not black and white and if exploitation were removed completely there could potentially be bad effects.

I recently finished the podcast “Sold in America”. This podcast examined human trafficking through all the possible angles. One episode focused on prostitutes and how laws addressing human trafficking negatively affected them. I interpret Gallagher’s quote to be addressing this issue. Prostitutes explained how laws banning sex work put them in danger. When sex work is legalized and regulated they are able to do their work in safer conditions.

The difficulty I face as I learn more about this issue is finding a good solution. From looking at many sources I think what is needed to make up a good solution is very complicated and it must have many parts including the following: The people buying sex should be prosecuted instead of the women selling it. There should be tougher legislation and more resources to punish those who are trafficking others. Sex work should be legalized and regulated. More resources should be provided to survivors and the homeless.

Noor, Tagouri. “Sold in America” 28 Nov. 2018

Grant, Melissa. “Beyond Strange Bedfellows How the ‘War on Trafficking’ Was Made to Unite the Left and Right.” Politicalresource.org, 2018, www.politicalresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/PE_Summer18_Grant-1.pdf.