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(I THE CAROLINIAN Model UN heads to national conference Elizabeth Fenn Staff Writer The UNCG chapter of the Model United Nations is preparing to go to New York City for a week and participate in the National Model UN Conference on the 26th. After receiv-ing an award at the Southern Regional Model United Nations, their hopes are high for a national win. Not bad for a group most of he campus knows nothing about. "Model UN is a collegiate organization that is world wide where groups like ourselves basical-ly simulate the UN in conferences around the world," said Laura Merrell. junior. "We are given a country that is a member of the UN," said Merrell. "And we split into commit-tees to do research on issues that are cunently or have been in front of those committees from that country in the actual UN," said Merrell. The country the UNCG chapter of Model UN represents at conferences this year is Cape Verdi, a small island nation off the West coast of Africa. "When we all go next week, the students will be |at the confer-ence) as representatives from Cape Verdi and they will be on the com-mittees in the UN that Cape Verdi is on." said Professor Robert Griffiths, the faculty advisor for the team. The conference organizers, well in advance of the conference, choose the three issues that will be discussed in each committee at the conference. The organizers then pre-pare a Background Topic Guide that details the history as well as the cur-rent socio-economic and political rel-evance of the issue. The students do intensive amounts of research on what Cape Verdi's actual policies and stances are on the issues that will be dis-cussed at the conferences. They then debate their country's position on that issue with delegates from other schools representing other countries. The research is often long and slow going. "When it's a small developing country, it's extremely hard to find resources," said Bahiyyah Abdu-Wakil. a senior and president of the team. "You go and argue on inter-national affairs from the point of view of your country who often has different perspectives on internation-al affairs, " said Abdu-Wakil. "You try as much as possible to represent what the position would be of a small, developing. African island nation, because often times it is dif-ferent from the US or from our own personal views." "Model UN is a good way for students to sharpen their research and public speaking skills." said Mary McClellan. vice-president. "And diplomacy: you have to leam a lot about diplomacy because in the committees we try to form resolu-tions to deal with the issues before that committee." Griffiths says that Model UN's relevance today is, "It helps students have a better understanding of other country's perspectives and a much better acquaintance with glob-al issues." This is important to our society says Griffiths because, "We're in an age of globalization where it's import we understand not only the issues that face all the coun-ties of the world but we under why people may have different perspec-tives on issues." The National Model UN Conference in New York is the To China and back: a student's quest UNCG student recounts his Feb. trip to Beijing to protest treatment of Falun Gong practitioners John W. Ayers News Editor Drew Parker doesn't look the part of an activist He is what many would call an ordinary UNCG senior; he's friendly, he's involved in campus groups, he's looking forward to grad-uating soon. But what sets Parker apart is the remarkable journey he took to China this February to protest the Chinese government's treatment of his fellow Falun Gong practitioners. He was beaten, denied food and ridiculed; yet he still counts his ordeal as a positive experience that has helped him become a more com-passionate person. Falun Gong in an ancient Chinese practice of 'cultivating truth, compassion and tolerance'. It is not a religion but a combination of physi-cal and mental exercises intended to foster love and kindness in its fol-lowers, called practitioners'. Though Falun Gong (also known as Falun Dafa) has existed for hundreds of years, it has recently gained popularity in China and across the world. In China, where roughly 100 million practice Falun Gong, the government has imple-mented a program to destroy the practice through techniques of deten-tions, torture and murders, Parker discovered Falun Gong via a search on the Internet. He recalled reading the master text of Falun Gong, the Zhuan Falun, and feeling a profound impact. "I read it one time and I thought. Wow, this is a really pro-found book." he said. "Right after my junior year. I started practicing and I noticed an immediate difference." said Parker. "I found myself much more calm and easygoing- just a much more com-passionate person." Parker said he thinks the Chinese government represses the 70-100 million Chinese Falun Gong members because the practice offers a philosophy different from the offi-cial Communist dogma. "That's 70 million hearts and minds touched by something besides the atheism the Communist government practices.'' he said. He said he had several rea-sons for deciding to go to China, per-haps the most important being his desire to end the Chinese govern-ment's poIicie* "' nurder and torture towards Falcn Dong ractitioners. "One [NftaOft] is because I've gained so much from practicing that it's hard to believe that people who really just want to be the best kind of people are getting murdered for that in China," he said. "I think human life is really precious." said Parker. "I just could-n't watch any more people get killed unjustly for doing what they believe-in something that is good." But Parker said this wasn't a rushed decision; rather, he coordinat-ed his efforts with about 50 others and planned his trip carefully. "It wasn't a spur of the moment thing." he said. "At some point, I thought. This is really what I want to do'." Parker said knowing the Chinese government would treat Western Falun Gong practitioners differently gave him confidence. "The Western Falun Gong practitioners are in a unique situa-tion." he said, adding that he knew the Westerners would get "roughed up" but not tortured or killed, like Continued on page 8 Parker was detained for almost 24 hours without food, water or sleep Poet Giovanni speaks in Taylor Civil Rights Activist speaks is NAACP s first annual Women's History Month guest Elizabeth Fenn Staff Writer Continued on page 2 The UNCG chapter of the NAACP sponsored poet, writer, pro-fessor and civil rights activist Nikki Giovanni as their first annual speaker for Women's History Month in Taylor Auditorium Thursday. Giovanni was born in Know ilk- in 1943. She is a graduate of Fisk University and cuncntly a Distinguished Professor at Virginia Tech. Author of over 20 books, recip-ient of numerous awards and hon-orary degrees such as the NAACP Image Awards, The Langston Hughes Award, and Honorary Doctorate of Humanities from WilberForce University. "This is something 1 am really totally excited about so I want to tell you being I think today is Thursday and tomorrow I'm going to Montgomery Alabama to receive the first Rosa Parks award and I'm so thrilled she chose me," said Giovanni. When Rosa Parks called Giovanni to tell her about the award. Giovanni told Mrs. Parks that what-ever Mrs. Parks wanted, she would do. "Because Rosa Parks is one of the few people that you have to say yeas to. I can't imagine ever saying no," said Giovanni. "She could have asked me to bake stones, it still would have been the answer." "The best thing you can do is to say yes. You train yourself to say yes first and figure out how to do it later," said Giovanni. Giovanni read poems of hers that had previously been pub-lished as well as new poems. Before most of the poems she told stories of the events and thoughts that shaped her writing the poems. The first poem Giovanni read will be the first part of the new Smithsonian exhibit on Martin Luther King Jr. "I wanted to write a poem for Martin Luther King because he's a nice guy, he's a great guy and he said if he had it to choose, longevity Giovanni is the author of over 20 books has its charm. But of course he made choices that prevented that; but we're not courageous because it's easy but because it's the right thing to do." said Giovanni. The poem spoke of struggle and its redemptive powers. "How much pressure does the earth put on dirt to create a dia-mond'.''' she read. She was also asked recently to write a poem about Rosa Parks for a new book. "I'm thinking about Mrs. Parks and what point I'm going to make that's going to be a little dif-ferent and of course, well maybe not 'of course' to you. I think about who made Mrs. Parks and I thought of the Pullman Porters." said Giovanni. When trains where America's main form of long dis-tance transportation, George Pullman invented the sleeper car which came to be known as Pullmans and totally changed the industry. These cars where staffed by Black men who where paid $37 a month, according to Giovanni, to staff those cars and care for the needs of the whites riding in them. It was a job that kept men away from their families for many months. The men where also subjected to the reg-ular demeaning practice of always being called "George." as in George Pullman, by the white people they waited on and served. The Pullman Porters formed the first black union and where instrumental in much of the change of the Civil Rights movement. "The Pullman Porters are to African American history what shep-herds are to biblical history." said Giovanni. She then began to tell the story of Emit Till, a 14-year-old Black child from Chicago with a li mp and a stutter who was sent on a train one summer, to stay with his great uncle in Mississippi. She told the audience a story of how she imagined the Pullman Porters would have taken care of this young child traveling by himself. "I'm sure they took him and said. 'Oh son. this is Springfield, you 'don't to get off here, this is Klan country.'" said Giovanni. But the time came when he had to leave the protection of the Pullman Porters and get off in Mississippi to go to his great-uncle's. "If he hadn't gotten off that train, his-tory would have been different." said Giovanni. After coming into his great-uncle's care. Emit Till said some-thing to or about a white woman in a convenience store and her husband and brother came and dragged him from his home, beat him. and castrat-ed him. Then they tied his body to a heavy object and threw him in the river. Two weeks later when his body surfaced, the sheriff wanted to quietly bury him and sweep the mat-ter under the rug, said Giovanni, but the Pullman Porters asked his moth-er what she wanted and she said that she wanted to take him home to Chicago to bury him. So they sneaked him North. "But they didn't stow him with the luggage." said Giovanni, "where somebody would have dis-covered the body and they would have been killed and buried and that would be the end of it. They kept him with their personal effects and they watched over the boy and cared for him," said Giovanni. "Rosa Parks was willing to put aside her life so that 14-year-old boy in muddy Mississippi would not have died in vain," said Giovanni. "It was Rosa Parks who could not stand that death and in not being able to stand it. she sat." said Giovanni. "It was a Pullman Porter who bailed her out and it was a Pullman Porter who when they had a rally after she got out. suggested they get that new preacher." said Giovanni, referring to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.. "So in writing a poem about Rosa Parks, I thought I should start with the Pullman Porters," said Giovanni. "So it's for the Pullman Porters but it's about Rosa Parks." Giovanni also talked about her experiences with surviving lung cancer and the poems it inspired her to write as well as her opinions on love and divorce. "I want to close on a love poem because it's getting to be spring and people fall in love in the spring." she said. "It's getting to be warm, so you don't need to be in love in the spring, you need to be in love in the winter." \ < -- .
Object Description
Rating | |
Title | The Carolinian [March 25, 2002] |
Date | 2002-03-25 |
Editor/creator | Wilbur, Joe |
Subject headings |
University of North Carolina at Greensboro--Newspapers College student newspapers and periodicals-- North Carolina--Greensboro Student publications--North Carolina--Greensboro Student activities--North Carolina--History |
Place | Greensboro (N.C.) |
Description | The March 25, 2002, issue of The Carolinian, the student newspaper of The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. |
Type | Text |
Original format | Newspapers |
Original publisher | Greensboro, N.C. : The University of North Carolina at Greensboro |
Language | eng |
Contributing institution | Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives, UNCG University Libraries |
Publication | The Carolinian |
Rights statement | http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/ |
Additional rights information | NO COPYRIGHT - UNITED STATES. This item has been determined to be free of copyright restrictions in the United States. The user is responsible for determining actual copyright status for any reuse of the material. |
Object ID | 2002-03-25-carolinian |
Date digitized | 2011 |
Digital publisher | The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, University Libraries |
Digitized by | Creekside Digital |
Sponsor | Lyrasis Members and Sloan Foundation |
OCLC number | 871559342 |
Page/Item Description
Title | Page 1 |
Full text | (I THE CAROLINIAN Model UN heads to national conference Elizabeth Fenn Staff Writer The UNCG chapter of the Model United Nations is preparing to go to New York City for a week and participate in the National Model UN Conference on the 26th. After receiv-ing an award at the Southern Regional Model United Nations, their hopes are high for a national win. Not bad for a group most of he campus knows nothing about. "Model UN is a collegiate organization that is world wide where groups like ourselves basical-ly simulate the UN in conferences around the world," said Laura Merrell. junior. "We are given a country that is a member of the UN," said Merrell. "And we split into commit-tees to do research on issues that are cunently or have been in front of those committees from that country in the actual UN," said Merrell. The country the UNCG chapter of Model UN represents at conferences this year is Cape Verdi, a small island nation off the West coast of Africa. "When we all go next week, the students will be |at the confer-ence) as representatives from Cape Verdi and they will be on the com-mittees in the UN that Cape Verdi is on." said Professor Robert Griffiths, the faculty advisor for the team. The conference organizers, well in advance of the conference, choose the three issues that will be discussed in each committee at the conference. The organizers then pre-pare a Background Topic Guide that details the history as well as the cur-rent socio-economic and political rel-evance of the issue. The students do intensive amounts of research on what Cape Verdi's actual policies and stances are on the issues that will be dis-cussed at the conferences. They then debate their country's position on that issue with delegates from other schools representing other countries. The research is often long and slow going. "When it's a small developing country, it's extremely hard to find resources," said Bahiyyah Abdu-Wakil. a senior and president of the team. "You go and argue on inter-national affairs from the point of view of your country who often has different perspectives on internation-al affairs, " said Abdu-Wakil. "You try as much as possible to represent what the position would be of a small, developing. African island nation, because often times it is dif-ferent from the US or from our own personal views." "Model UN is a good way for students to sharpen their research and public speaking skills." said Mary McClellan. vice-president. "And diplomacy: you have to leam a lot about diplomacy because in the committees we try to form resolu-tions to deal with the issues before that committee." Griffiths says that Model UN's relevance today is, "It helps students have a better understanding of other country's perspectives and a much better acquaintance with glob-al issues." This is important to our society says Griffiths because, "We're in an age of globalization where it's import we understand not only the issues that face all the coun-ties of the world but we under why people may have different perspec-tives on issues." The National Model UN Conference in New York is the To China and back: a student's quest UNCG student recounts his Feb. trip to Beijing to protest treatment of Falun Gong practitioners John W. Ayers News Editor Drew Parker doesn't look the part of an activist He is what many would call an ordinary UNCG senior; he's friendly, he's involved in campus groups, he's looking forward to grad-uating soon. But what sets Parker apart is the remarkable journey he took to China this February to protest the Chinese government's treatment of his fellow Falun Gong practitioners. He was beaten, denied food and ridiculed; yet he still counts his ordeal as a positive experience that has helped him become a more com-passionate person. Falun Gong in an ancient Chinese practice of 'cultivating truth, compassion and tolerance'. It is not a religion but a combination of physi-cal and mental exercises intended to foster love and kindness in its fol-lowers, called practitioners'. Though Falun Gong (also known as Falun Dafa) has existed for hundreds of years, it has recently gained popularity in China and across the world. In China, where roughly 100 million practice Falun Gong, the government has imple-mented a program to destroy the practice through techniques of deten-tions, torture and murders, Parker discovered Falun Gong via a search on the Internet. He recalled reading the master text of Falun Gong, the Zhuan Falun, and feeling a profound impact. "I read it one time and I thought. Wow, this is a really pro-found book." he said. "Right after my junior year. I started practicing and I noticed an immediate difference." said Parker. "I found myself much more calm and easygoing- just a much more com-passionate person." Parker said he thinks the Chinese government represses the 70-100 million Chinese Falun Gong members because the practice offers a philosophy different from the offi-cial Communist dogma. "That's 70 million hearts and minds touched by something besides the atheism the Communist government practices.'' he said. He said he had several rea-sons for deciding to go to China, per-haps the most important being his desire to end the Chinese govern-ment's poIicie* "' nurder and torture towards Falcn Dong ractitioners. "One [NftaOft] is because I've gained so much from practicing that it's hard to believe that people who really just want to be the best kind of people are getting murdered for that in China," he said. "I think human life is really precious." said Parker. "I just could-n't watch any more people get killed unjustly for doing what they believe-in something that is good." But Parker said this wasn't a rushed decision; rather, he coordinat-ed his efforts with about 50 others and planned his trip carefully. "It wasn't a spur of the moment thing." he said. "At some point, I thought. This is really what I want to do'." Parker said knowing the Chinese government would treat Western Falun Gong practitioners differently gave him confidence. "The Western Falun Gong practitioners are in a unique situa-tion." he said, adding that he knew the Westerners would get "roughed up" but not tortured or killed, like Continued on page 8 Parker was detained for almost 24 hours without food, water or sleep Poet Giovanni speaks in Taylor Civil Rights Activist speaks is NAACP s first annual Women's History Month guest Elizabeth Fenn Staff Writer Continued on page 2 The UNCG chapter of the NAACP sponsored poet, writer, pro-fessor and civil rights activist Nikki Giovanni as their first annual speaker for Women's History Month in Taylor Auditorium Thursday. Giovanni was born in Know ilk- in 1943. She is a graduate of Fisk University and cuncntly a Distinguished Professor at Virginia Tech. Author of over 20 books, recip-ient of numerous awards and hon-orary degrees such as the NAACP Image Awards, The Langston Hughes Award, and Honorary Doctorate of Humanities from WilberForce University. "This is something 1 am really totally excited about so I want to tell you being I think today is Thursday and tomorrow I'm going to Montgomery Alabama to receive the first Rosa Parks award and I'm so thrilled she chose me," said Giovanni. When Rosa Parks called Giovanni to tell her about the award. Giovanni told Mrs. Parks that what-ever Mrs. Parks wanted, she would do. "Because Rosa Parks is one of the few people that you have to say yeas to. I can't imagine ever saying no," said Giovanni. "She could have asked me to bake stones, it still would have been the answer." "The best thing you can do is to say yes. You train yourself to say yes first and figure out how to do it later," said Giovanni. Giovanni read poems of hers that had previously been pub-lished as well as new poems. Before most of the poems she told stories of the events and thoughts that shaped her writing the poems. The first poem Giovanni read will be the first part of the new Smithsonian exhibit on Martin Luther King Jr. "I wanted to write a poem for Martin Luther King because he's a nice guy, he's a great guy and he said if he had it to choose, longevity Giovanni is the author of over 20 books has its charm. But of course he made choices that prevented that; but we're not courageous because it's easy but because it's the right thing to do." said Giovanni. The poem spoke of struggle and its redemptive powers. "How much pressure does the earth put on dirt to create a dia-mond'.''' she read. She was also asked recently to write a poem about Rosa Parks for a new book. "I'm thinking about Mrs. Parks and what point I'm going to make that's going to be a little dif-ferent and of course, well maybe not 'of course' to you. I think about who made Mrs. Parks and I thought of the Pullman Porters." said Giovanni. When trains where America's main form of long dis-tance transportation, George Pullman invented the sleeper car which came to be known as Pullmans and totally changed the industry. These cars where staffed by Black men who where paid $37 a month, according to Giovanni, to staff those cars and care for the needs of the whites riding in them. It was a job that kept men away from their families for many months. The men where also subjected to the reg-ular demeaning practice of always being called "George." as in George Pullman, by the white people they waited on and served. The Pullman Porters formed the first black union and where instrumental in much of the change of the Civil Rights movement. "The Pullman Porters are to African American history what shep-herds are to biblical history." said Giovanni. She then began to tell the story of Emit Till, a 14-year-old Black child from Chicago with a li mp and a stutter who was sent on a train one summer, to stay with his great uncle in Mississippi. She told the audience a story of how she imagined the Pullman Porters would have taken care of this young child traveling by himself. "I'm sure they took him and said. 'Oh son. this is Springfield, you 'don't to get off here, this is Klan country.'" said Giovanni. But the time came when he had to leave the protection of the Pullman Porters and get off in Mississippi to go to his great-uncle's. "If he hadn't gotten off that train, his-tory would have been different." said Giovanni. After coming into his great-uncle's care. Emit Till said some-thing to or about a white woman in a convenience store and her husband and brother came and dragged him from his home, beat him. and castrat-ed him. Then they tied his body to a heavy object and threw him in the river. Two weeks later when his body surfaced, the sheriff wanted to quietly bury him and sweep the mat-ter under the rug, said Giovanni, but the Pullman Porters asked his moth-er what she wanted and she said that she wanted to take him home to Chicago to bury him. So they sneaked him North. "But they didn't stow him with the luggage." said Giovanni, "where somebody would have dis-covered the body and they would have been killed and buried and that would be the end of it. They kept him with their personal effects and they watched over the boy and cared for him," said Giovanni. "Rosa Parks was willing to put aside her life so that 14-year-old boy in muddy Mississippi would not have died in vain," said Giovanni. "It was Rosa Parks who could not stand that death and in not being able to stand it. she sat." said Giovanni. "It was a Pullman Porter who bailed her out and it was a Pullman Porter who when they had a rally after she got out. suggested they get that new preacher." said Giovanni, referring to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.. "So in writing a poem about Rosa Parks, I thought I should start with the Pullman Porters," said Giovanni. "So it's for the Pullman Porters but it's about Rosa Parks." Giovanni also talked about her experiences with surviving lung cancer and the poems it inspired her to write as well as her opinions on love and divorce. "I want to close on a love poem because it's getting to be spring and people fall in love in the spring." she said. "It's getting to be warm, so you don't need to be in love in the spring, you need to be in love in the winter." \ < -- . |
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