rebeccalau’s blog

As the internship draws to a close, this part of a reflection piece I wrote for the August issue of WIT’s intern newsletter:

“In your ideals, keep your eyes on the starts and keep your feet on the ground.” Theodore Roosevelt  

Such is the essence of lessons learnt during our internship at the World Information Transfer.  As youths from diverse backgrounds yet similarly aspiring to gain an understanding of how the international community works, we have witnessed first-handedly the fine balance of international cooperation and decision-making at the highest level.  

With the privilege of accessing the United Nations Headquarters at New York, we attended meetings ranging from a wide spectrum of international issues with great enthusiasm, including those on the world financial crisis and its impact on development, renewable energy, sustainable development, gender equality, international trade, indigenous people etc.   Despite certain inadequacies of the system, especially stymie owing to political will, it becomes obvious that UN and its agencies remain appropriate platforms for negotiation and consensus-building between member-states to address transnational issues that individual governments cannot tackle alone.  Moreover, passionate individuals, whether serving in governments or civil society, never fail to impress us with their fervor and articulated advocacy of their respective causes.  

In the course of producing two issues of the Ecology Enquirer, we had the opportunity to research on a specific environmental or health topic targeted at different corners of the global.  In addition to writing articles focused on marine pollution, plastic bags tax, corporate social responsibility and green burial, but to name a few, photo-journalism also depicted our personal journeys in the developing world.  Through the exercise of pens and minds, we have chronicled innovative solutions as it becomes clearer than ever that our Earth is on the verge of collapsing under unsustainable practices. 

As the generation that will steer our world in the decades to come, President T. Roosevelt’s words could not ring truer as the responsibility of initiating changes and reforms falls squarely on our shoulders.  We realized that practicalities do matter, and at times compromises have to be made in the process of moving forward.  One cannot escape from the realities of gravity, much less those of political gravity.  Yet at the end of the day, the ideals embodied by the United Nations and passionate individuals are not just lofty goals, but a clear direction to strive for a better and more equitable world. 

Indeed, the stars are within our reach.

•  Be part of the United Nations – By sitting among delegates, staff members and NGO representatives in a variety of conferences and seminars held at the UN headquarters, our horizons have stretched tremendously given the wide scope of areas covered. Such settings also provide valuable networking opportunities.  We even met scholars whose authoritative texts are included in none other than our academic materials at school!  

•  Insight from experts – WIT arranges sharing sessions with experts from various UN-related fields, including those with a translator, a diplomat, and a specialist from the WHO, whose wealth of knowledge provided us with new perspectives through in-depth interaction. 
• Utilize different skills to the full – From intensive research, editing our monthly newsletter, to transcribing speeches of conferences, interns take full initiative in exploring their creativity and making the best use of their skills.
• Build lifelong friendships – Not only were the 12 of us a tight-knitted group of WIT interns, we also befriended people from all walks of life, including diplomats and UN security guards!

• Have fun! – From learning Salsa dancing with other UN staff members, to catching the latest movie, to celebrating birthdays, to exploring New York City together, WIT interns never run out of fun things to do after work. 

Having explored most of the scenic ‘attractions’ in Manhattan as well as some off-the-beaten track/ less well-known corners of the city, we headed to Washington during a long weekend to delve further to the roots of American history.  There we found ourselves at a city every bit as modern as
New York (and so much more so in many aspects such as the Subway!),

Our was made more the fruitful by a fantastic walking tour with a part-time local guide, who led us through famous landmarks along the National Mall, spicing up historical facts with interesting (though at times slightly dubious) stories and dialogues from past presidents and politicians.  Amongst the white-washed grandeur of famous monuments such as the Lincoln Memorial and the WWII Memorial, I would have to say I was most impressed by the Vietnam War memorial.   It was, ironically, designed by an Asian student; her design was accepted despite some initial protests concerning her sensitive heritage to Americans at that time.  I found the thoughts that went into the design and its symbolic meaning the most impressive.  The shape of the memorial, a wide V-shape, is seen as a gash on a wound if viewed from the sky, and its material, some kind of black marble, is meant to reflect the onlooker’s face as he/she gazes on the names of those who have been sacrificed.   

Visiting the US Capitol was another uniquely inspiring, not to mention educational excursion.  Though it was a bit ironic that the dome was built by slaves under President Lincoln’s watch, but I was told that it was still the political reality back then.  

As June rolls along towards its end, we are given tasks in addition to reporting on the happenings at the UN.  The variety and at times urgency of these tasks, whether big or small, called for our skills in the least explored areas. 

In mid-June, we were sent to our WIT tiny office to transcribe some of the speeches from the International Conference on Health and Environment organized by our organization back in April this year.  I was responsible for making a transcript of a Jamaican speaker, whose speech was on climate change and political process.  Interestingly, when one is listening intently to a speech word by word, one pays attention to each sentence, each allegory, each technical word used and their relevance (or lack of it) to the message in the larger context.  After completing the entire transcript, I was somewhat amuse to find that the speaker’s points were not extraordinary but he managed to elaborate it into a long speech.

A major component of the internship was publishing the July and August issues of the Ecology Enquirer – a newsletter initiated and produced by WIT’s interns each year.  We would choose topical issues on health and/or the environment and its impact on populations in different parts of the globe, I worked on
China’s one year anniversary of its tax on plastic bag and its effectiveness.  Some of my fellow colleagues worked on coral reefs destruction, green burial and many more.  We have also included photojournalism (of our personal travel photos) in the second issue!  Editing and working on the layout of the newsletter also took large amounts of our time and effort, yet everyone had sighed with satisfaction and appreciation once the issues were completed!  You may download the Ecology Enquirer in PDF format on http://www.worldinfo.org/index.php?id=3.

As interns coming from Hong Kong, we were given a special task of translating several of the conference speeches into simplified Chinese for the Chinese version of the World Ecology Report.  Personally this was a huge challenge for me as admittedly my Chinese is quite basic, not to say extremely rusty!  It wasn’t easy, but I gritted my teeth at the challenge, with help from references especially for occasional medical or scientific terms.  That’s when team spirit came along too, as my more talented fellow interns helped to proofread my draft and transformed what was virtually ‘chinglish’ into fluent Putonghua-Chinese colloquial writing.   Likewise, these reports are available for viewing on the WIT website. Do go and have a look when you have time!  We will print these copies in Hong Kong (due to cheaper printing cost) and ship a part of them back to the States, while the rest will be distributed by WIT colleagues in Hong Kong and in Mainland
China.

I shall highlight one of my favorite conferences this week, during which my colleague Tiffany (also a HKU student) and I met a scholar named Dr. Thomas Pogge.  Our eyes opened wide as we registered his name… We couldn’t’ believe it, he was the one who wrote some of our favorite readings for a political philosophy course!  Afterwards, he was kind enough to answer our questions on his proposal and to take a photo with us.  Later I would observe that scholars take up a major role in UN’s work, not lest in the realm of producing reports and substantive proposals, and they are the more approachable ones who would usually have the extraordinary patience and good grace of exchanging views with non-diplomats such as ourselves. 

In the conference titled “Global Financial Crisis and Human Rights”, Dr. Thomas Pogge first gave an overview of the nature of competitive systems, which are originally created to produce socially valuable goods.  However, these systems are endangered by the efforts of powerful players in changing the rules or its application to their own interests through colluding with ‘rule changers’ such as the media, the academia and legislators.  As a result, the system loses its function to achieve public good in conjunction with two problems: (a) Inequality spirals, where only the rich and powerful would have the incentives and ability to change the rules of the game; (b) Systemic instability, where narrow changes made by individual actors to the system result in incoherent rules and an increased vulnerability to crises.

The highlight of the discussion centered on the proposal of a Health Impact Fund, in which $6 billion per annum would be set aside by national governments to reward pharmaceutical companies on the basis of the global impact of medical products.  The Fund is essentially a ‘carrot’ in enticing pharmaceutical companies to invest greater research and development of diseases for the poor by making the returns lucrative, as well as serving as an alternative track to the patent regime under the TRIPS (Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) agreement of the WTO.  Despite the potential criticisms of this approach, it can be said that this Fund would also serve the dual purposes of enhancing access to health care for the poor and providing incentives for suppliers in doing so, as well as strengthening innovative forces for future reforms. 

What do you think? Do you think this is feasible?

Early June was a whirlwind of meetings and conferences at the United Nations.  These days are literally packed.  Each morning we would get up at around 8am, having checked the UN schedule and our supervisor’s instructions either the night before or during breakfast; arrive at the UN at 10am for a series of meetings before and after lunchtime.  After a whole day of feverish notes-taking, gathering information, digesting and conversing with speakers, we would look around for a reasonably priced place to have dinner, or try our hands at a home-cooked meal (which got increasingly more delicious ^^). 

After dinner, we would all scurry to our laptops and write up summaries of that day’s conferences, which were due the following morning.   Later we also had to write articles for WIT’s monthly intern newsletter. After 2-3 hours of work and other errands such as writing our personal journals and calculating expenditures, we would drop in bed, thoroughly exhausted.  Any traces of insomnia that I previous suffered from were gone.  Then on the weekends we would squeeze every waking hour with all the vibrancy that New York has to offer, going on and off the beaten track: museums, free concerts, ferry rides, cycling along Hudson River… you name it.  

It was a breathless life, yet I felt it was a place I have never breathed so freely and purposefully before. 

Background information:

Host organization: World Information Transfer (http://www.worldinfo.org/)

Nature of organization: Non-profit, non-governmental organization having a General Consultative Status with the United Nations.

History:  In 1987, inspired by the Chornobyl nuclear tragedy, WIT was formed in recognition of the pressing need to provide accurate, actionable information about our deteriorating global environment and its effect on human health to opinion leaders and concerned citizens around the world.

City: New York City, USA

Day 1 – First day of Work  01/06/09 (Monday)

On the first day of work, having barely gotten used to the 12-hour time difference over the weekend, we arrived at UN Plaza 1 on First Avenue (Manhattan) in order to meet the project manager of WIT, Martha Duff.  She helped us through the registration process at the identification centres, and soon all of us received an NGO-Pass for entry into the United Nations Headquarters.  Flushed with excitement, we have Martha took us for a tour of the UN, the main conference rooms, the canteen was absolutely beautiful, overlooking the sparkling East River. 

After lunch, we went back to the WIT office, where we met our immediate supervisor, Dr. Claudia Strauss and the rest of our fellow interns.  As part of our orientation, Dr. Strauss gave us an introduction on the history and role of WIT, emphasizing the educational function of WIT by providing accurate and actionable information to the public and civil society.  We also discussed the trends and growth of NGOs, especially after 1992 Earth Summit in
Rio and 1998 whereby the rules of NGO affiliation with the UN changed.  WIT, by covering a broad spectrum of social and economic aspects of the people from different regions of the world, enjoys a general status (as opposed to a ‘special status’ and ‘roster’) with the United Nations’ Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). (Learn more about NGO affiliations with the ECOSOC: http://www.un.org/esa/coordination/ngo/faq.htm)  

We had an unexpected kickoff to our journey at the UN! While attending the United Nations Population Award ceremony at the ECOSOC Chamber, Mr. Ban Ki-moon – the Secretary General of the UN – was present!  We couldn’t believe our good fortune on the first day of work.  To me, his benign, even grandfatherly, demeanor contrasted with the obvious persuasion and recognition that his presence bestowed on the occasion.  On a more detailed note, the purpose of the Award was to promote the solution of population questions, and the laureates of the 2009 Award went to two gentlemen from Egypt and
Nicaragua, for their respective contributions in family planning work and training of community leaders.  Coupled with a performance by a multi-ethnic choir; the extensive diversity resonated across the conference room and on our faces.  I smiled. It was a celebration, among many, of humanity.   

Interesting fact!  

A special feature of the ECOSCO Chamber is the “unfinished ceiling”, whereby exposed pipes and ducts are left exposed in the public-viewing balcony.  The Swedish architect had deliberately left this ceiling ‘unfinished’, which serves as a symbolic reminder that the economic and social work of the United Nations will never be finished, as there will always be something more that can be done to improve the living conditions of the world’s people.

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