A week earlier, the English teacher at LPC Hayley Goldberg sent out an email for 10 students who wished to attend the “2011 USC Global Conference" – Global Challenges and Enhancing Opportunities. The concurrent session was going to be on Holocaust and Genocide testimonies and whether they can prevent such atrocities from happening in the future. I immediately approached her, saying I really wanted to attend this session. I absolutely love history. I had studied about the holocaust in my History courses here in Hong Kong as well as in Pakistan, however when I had done the Cambodian War back in Pakistan, there had been no mention of the genocide there, and I did not know much about the Rwandan genocide either. Hence, I was really excited to attend this session and learn more about it, and see how these events can be prevented in the future.
Today, 10 students of Li Po Chun including me left the school at 11 30 am along with Hayley to go to the Marriot Hotel Hong Kong in Admiralty. We reached them a bit early so went to see the Hong Kong Park, the turtles, the fountain. At around 12 we went inside and they offered us lunch. At around 12 30 the session started. There were 3 speakers. Here are links to each of these people:
http://www.usc.edu/dept/pubrel/specialevents/gc2011/bios/bioGreenberg.php?iframe
http://www.usc.edu/dept/pubrel/specialevents/gc2011/bios/bioMutanguha.php?iframe
http://www.usc.edu/dept/pubrel/specialevents/gc2011/bios/bioPath.php?iframe
Sara Greenberg from Poland, Freddy Mutanguha from Rwanda, Kosal Path from Vietnam/China. First, Sara talked about her grandparents who were survivals of the Holocaust and how they related their stories to her. We watched 5 minutes of her 12-minute movie that she made in her final year at Yale University. It was emotional and touching, and it brought back the thoughts I had had when I had first read about the holocaust back in my history class. Next was Kosal Path who talked about how the genocide in Vietnam has been horrendous and had been aggregated by the US bombing of Cambodia and this made me think about the drone attacks by the US in Pakistan.. and it was Freddie's talk that really brought out the tears in me. I could not help but sympathize with him. Both his parents had been killed in the Rwandan genocide, and days before they were killed his mother had told him to stay in his friend Peter's house. A day before her mother was killed she had brought him beans, and said she knew he did not like beans but she would always try to be there for him. He was 18 when they both his parents and his 4 sisters were killed. Tears streamed down my face, and my heart went out to him and he inspired me so much at that moment when I thought of how he had risen up from the ashes and become such an important and well-known man. He gave me courage and strength. It was amazing. I talked to all three of the speakers afterwards, and it was just amazing. I loved every minute of the afternoon. It made me think a lot about what one of the speakers said 'If it can happen there, it can happen anywhere.' I think it's very important to relate these stories to the future leaders of this world, to make them realize the value of human life and the strong bond that we each have with each other. Freddie may never see his parents or his sisters, but by relating his stories he is trying to make sure that others do not have to go through what he went through and that is what makes him so inspiring.
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| The 10 students of LPC with the 3 speakers |
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