This is my opinion

Hello wise owls:

While I was wandering off the last few weeks perusing T-shirts in street markets, downing turkey on thanksgiving, and extending my visa in the north of Thailand, my students were opening their eyes in ways they had never done before.

They received a human rights and women's rights training from one of the MWO staffers, and indeed came away reeling with incredible thoughts and what bill nye the science guy refers to as "ah-hah" moments. I asked them to keep a journal. For security purposes, their names have been replaced with letters or pseudonyms. The next few postings will be excerpts from the writing of ten students...

From student Eye Chan:

I have learned about the basics of human rights. There are many things which are interesting to me. Human rights and dignity are critical and connected with each other. All people already have dignity and human rights equally from the beginning of their lives. We can’t buy, sell or change human rights. Human rights are universal. Everybody owns their rights. As we learn about our rights, we should not ignore other people’s rights. We also should have a law for human rights in every country. If we lose one of our rights, other rights will be lost as well.

During this training, I really loathed the military junta because they break many people’s rights in Burma. I also feel bad for the people who live in Burma and also me. Most people don’t know what human rights are. This training is important to me because I should know about human rights, and share it with people who don’t know it yet, especially people who live in Burma. I didn’t even know about human rights before I came here.

From Cho Win:

I was interested in learning about the situation of women in the world. There are about 876 million people who can’t read and write. Among them 2\3 are women who can’t read and write. I felt bad for women who can’t read and write during the training. Women were in a much worse situation then men for everything. It is important to know the current situation of women in the world like how many women are illiterate.

I felt that this training was very important for me. Although I have heard of CEDAW, women’s rights and human rights, I didn’t exactly know the meaning of these words. Now I am aware of them.

From A:

I am impressed by the amazing women who tried to make (CEDAW). One thing that I learned from the training was that even though there are human rights for the entire society, women have to make a law for women's rights. Since long long ago, people have always undervalued women. They didn't want accept women as the same as men in anyway.
I was interested in the position of women internationally. There are a lot of women who lack education, lack property, died from complications of abortion. Most women are in low positions in many different situations. Even though men and women have different genders they can do anything they want. On the other hand, women also have to give birth. This is a big adventure. Unfortunately, they can die easily from giving birth. For a family, women have to manage the whole family. For example women have to manage their children's education, their housework, their husband, etc.
Therefore, we should have the same rights as men. This is my opinion.

From S:
I am interested in the game we played because it has a deep meaning. This game involves crossing under the electric wire. If we touch that wire, we have to do it again and we are all together. It's like in Burma, the citizens have to live under the military junta. We can't move to do something and have no chance for movement and activities.
It is important for us because if we try together, we can reach our goal. We all have a chance to be the same and have equality. We also have to understand and bear each other.
I felt happy, worry, and excited when we played this game. If I think deeply , I feel sad because of how we are oppressed by the military government.

Umm... delicious, no? Just hold onto your subway seat for the stuff to come.

:) Laura