Carolyn April 11-15

Hey everyone! To say the last few weeks have been hectic would be an understatement. I have been really busy with almost no down-time for the past two weeks. Spring is typically the busiest season for Amnesty International because it is when it issues its most integral reports. There was also a large event that needed to be planned- Get on the Bus: DC. Get on the Bus DC was a large demonstration in front of several different embassies about different issues. I had to write the media advisory for it; here are the locations and descriptions that were sent to the media.

Locations and Times: Foundry Methodist Church, 1500 16th St. NW, 10:30 AM: Speakers forum of afore mentioned guests
Consulate of Iraq, 11:30 AM: calling for the release of Walid Yunis Ahmad, Kurdish man accused of being "a threat to security" and one of an estimated 30,000 cases of detention in Iraq Embassy of Zimbabwe, 11:30 AM: supporting the leaders of Women of Zimbabwe Arise and all human rights defenders by demanding the police in Zimbabwe quit harassing, intimidating, jailing and torturing people fighting for their rights
Indonesian Embassy, 1:30 PM: urging the government to release prisoner of conscience Filep Karma
Chad Embassy, 2:15 PM: calling for better treatment of displaced persons
Myanmar/Burma Embassy, 2:45 PM: calling for the release of Burmese political prisoners who were jailed for non-violent protests
Sri Lankan Embassy, 2:50 PM: reminding the government of the need for an international war crimes investigation and journalists at risk
Embassy of China, 4:10 PM: bringing focus and attention to the Chinese government’s detention of Tibetan Dhondup Wangchen, filmmaker of the documentary "Leaving Fear Behind," and to call on China for his immediate and unconditional release

This was an all-day event that garnered over a hundred participants and some media attention. I was happy because I convinced a radio show to arrive early in the morning and provide coverage of the event- this allows more people to hear about it to work toward our goal of promoting awareness. Anyway, aside from this event my time in DC has become really hectic too! A lot of the interns are starting to leave to go back to their hometowns or school, so most days have been filled with goodbye dinners and lunches and in general a lot of preparation for all of us to leave.

The other day my boss invited another intern and I to dinner at her house in Annapolis. It was really nice to be recognized, and my boss made a point to say how much she has appreciated the work that the other intern and I have been doing. I have also been putting in significant time researching career possibilities, because after the months that I have spent at Amnesty, I have decided that I definitely want to do international work but I probably do not want to work in the non-profit/ NGO realm.

I had a friend visit from home over the weekend who is planning on being an accountant and just finished up a full-time internship. At one point I was talking to her about the time that I have spent at Amnesty, and the things that I like and don't like about the work. The main thing that I like about the work is that I feel that it is an admirable cause that helps to alleviate injustice and cruelty in the world through its human rights work. The main thing that I don't like is that it is very hard to measure results. It is really fantastic to hear that a person that we were campaigning for has been treated more fairly, or even better, has been freed from an unjust incarceration. However, these successes take large amounts of time and results can not be attributed to any one factor. Maybe Amnesty had a large role in a person's freedom, or maybe it didn't.

I realize that it is unrealistic and naive to think that a large multinational organization will be able to engender immediate results on an international scale. This is simply not reality for any large multinational or NGO. However, I feel more motivation through having noticeable results and can work toward a goal in a systematic way with benchmarks that display progress. For example, if you are in sales, and you make a sale, that is a measure of progress that you can attain and evaluate that you are doing your job correctly. With Amnesty's type of work, you have to use much broader and more esoteric ways to measure success. I'm not saying that's bad; it's not, and it's the only way that a large scale organization can run. Working here, I have decided to determine my own standards of progress and make sure that I recognize when I do and do not meet them.

For example, the fact that I made sure that a radio station came to our Get on the Bus event was a success. If I talk to a journalist and am able to help them reach a contact to interview, that is a success. Basically, those are the aspects of my internship that have a measurable positive or negative reaction. I do other work, but there is generally no way to gauge if I have done it in an effective way aside from checking over my work. Sorry about the long rant on that, but I have been thinking about it lately as I consider the kind of work that I want to do post-graduation. I have come up with the fact that I want something where I will be able to derive satisfaction from broad, overarching goals (like Amnesty's vision of a world free of human rights violations) while still feeling like I am making day-to-day progress that is not simply based on ideas and rhetoric. Thank you for listening, have a good week!