A weekly look at WACH 2020 intern’s perspectives on current issues surrounding world affairs. This week we heard from Nesibe Deliktas and Miguel Mascarenhas on Black Lives Matter, travel, and police brutality around the world.
Nesibe Deliktas:
My name is Nesibe Deliktas. I am going to be a senior in the fall at Cumberland Valley High School.
We are living in the 21st century and we consider ourselves as the most modern age ever, but racism still exists in our societies. This is so embarrassing and distressing. The only thing that is giving hope to people is young people who educate themselves and gain awareness. Many people have gained this awareness through the Black Lives Matter movement, people who defend their rights instead of being silent become hope, encouragement and light for many young minds and I am one of those young minds. With this movement I gained a new point of view, I realized that I wasn’t educated enough and informed about this issue. I started to do research, read and observe more and more.
If I could make one major change in the world I would ensure that every individual around the world has the ability to empathize. Because I know that if we can put ourselves in the place of other creatures, we will start doing the best we can for them and I believe that this will end all kinds of racism, poverty, hunger, bullying and harm done to nature and animals. I think that if the person puts themselves in the shoes of the person that they want to hurt, she/he will give up that action.
Miguel Mascarenhas:
My name is Miguel Mascarenhas and I am going to be a senior at Cumberland Valley High School. My interests are refugees and their impact on the world economy in terms of their relationships with their communities. Additionally, I enjoy learning about the impact of COVID-19 on the world economy and the problems that must be solved in order to get the world economy back on track again.
My opinion on police brutality in India is that the government is doing a poor job in allowing the brutality to persist across the country. Basically, during the Coronavirus, India has invoked Section 144 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), which prohibits the assembly of four or more people, to ensure that people don’t venture out during the lockdown and to contain the spread of the Coronavirus. Indians violating Section 144 can be arrested and detained by the police. However, the government hasn’t authorized the police to use force to impose the lockdown. Several politicians, celebrities and journalists have highlighted police violence against migrant workers who are venturing out during the lockdown. The measures have forced migrant laborers to travel back to their homes on foot after losing their jobs in urban areas. Numerous reports have emerged of police targeting people going out to buy essential goods or working in essential services such as medicine (Doctors). Officers have reportedly beaten people with sticks and in certain instances, forced them to crawl or do push ups. This is extremely frustrating to see this happen because violence is must not be a solution to anything and especially hurting innocent people can never be justified or allowed.
I love to travel to many places not only in the United States, but also elsewhere in the world. My favorite place which I have traveled to thus far has to be Alaska. When we were there, we took a rental car from Anchorage and drove to the city of Fairbanks. After this, we stayed there for a few days and on our last day in Fairbanks we went to a place known as the Chena Hot Springs. Then, we drove to Denali National Park and we stayed there for a few more days. While we were there, we took a park tour to see the wildlife and the tallest mountain in North America: Mount Denali. Overall, it was a great experience and I would love to go to Alaska again in order to do more adventurous things such as various water activities.
