A weekly look at WACH 2020 summer intern perspectives on current issues surrounding world affairs. This week we heard from Carol Agaiby, Janet Kim, and Sangbin (Jake) Han on COVID-19 and the Black Lives Matter movement.
Janet Kim:
My name is Janet Kim and I will be a rising senior at Cumberland Valley High School.
I enjoy volunteering and I like to take an active role in many clubs at my school. A current issue that interests me is the response to coronavirus in the United States when compared to other countries. From the beginning, the US decided brush off COVID-19 as something that will eventually end even if no proactive steps are taken to limit its spread. However, as months go by without any possibility of a cure, it has become glaringly obvious that COVID-19 is not something that can be ridden off as an issue that will solve itself. Due to the lack of precaution at the beginning of the pandemic, the number of infected and killed continues to rise. Another appalling reality is because of the spread of misinformation from authority figures, people continue to believe that the virus is nothing of importance and that life should simply resume as normal. This is evident with protests against wearing masks and a push to open schools this fall. Only after the country can accept that the virus continues to be an issue can the nation move forward with ways to fix the issue.
Carol Agaiby:
My name is Carol Agaiby. I am an uprising sophomore at Cumberland Valley High School.
While I have not been allowed to join protests due to COVID-19 because my mom didn’t feel safe with me being around a lot of people, I feel as if I have done a lot to help with the Black Lives Matter Movement. I have posted petitions to be signed as well as links to where to donate to across all my social media platforms. In addition, I’ve helped to educate people about the BLM movement and clear up misunderstandings certain people have had towards this movement! I have had the opportunity to listen to people’s point of views on the movement and try to understand where they were coming from, so i could help them understand why we are fighting for the black lives right now, and not “all lives” like some people think. A metaphor that I’ve been using to help clear up confusion is as follows: If a house is on fire you are going to want to help that house, since the other houses are perfectly fine right now so they don’t need the help. All lives are important but right now we are fighting for black lives due to all the mistreatment and discrimination they face.
If I had the power to make one major impact/change in the world, it would be to institute a document similar to the structure of the constitution, granting freedom of religion, education, etc to everyone in this world. I feel like since we are all human we should all be entitled to the same privileges and freedom no matter what our skin color may be or what religion we may follow. Something happening in the world currently that goes against what I want is the mistreatment of the Uighur muslims in China. Due to their religion, they are being put in concentration camps and being treated very poorly. This is continuing to happen despite the fact that it’s their culture that’s bringing tourists to Xinjiang and causing businesses there to prosper! What’s unfair is most of those businesses are run by the Han population, and not the Uighurs themselves.
Sangbin Han:
Hi I’m Sangbin Han, maybe y’all know me as Jake. I’m from South Korea, and am attending Covenant Christian Academy. I’ll be 10th grade this fall, and glad to join this internship. I’m an introverted person, so it is a little rough for me to speak or talk to many people.
Traveling is one of my hobbies. Because my parents like to travel and they thought that travel would expand my mind to think about the world, they took me to a lot of other countries for travel or camping. One place where I think was best is Switzerland, winter of 2017, it was the first time for me to paraglide in my life. Fresh air of Alps mountain with white snow reminds me that I am alive.
