Submitted by Anna Cauchy on the 2020 winter session program in Paris, France and Geneva, Switzerland sponsored by the School of Nursing…
This week in Geneva we visited the International Red Cross. While this is an organization with a worldwide presence, they have headquarters in Geneva because Switzerland is a neutral country. The Red Cross was founded by Henry Dunant after he witnessed the aftermath of the battle of Solferino. Visiting the Red Cross was eye-opening for several reasons. I think that in the United States we see ourselves as being more progressive and superior to many countries, however, as evidenced by exhibits at the Red Cross Museum that simply is not the case in terms of human rights abuses. For example, at the museum there was a video of someone who had been a prisoner at Guantanamo Bay for six years testifying about his experience. We have no right to pretend we are better than other countries, and think of ourselves as saviors, when we are committing equally atrocious crimes. Aside from the very personal videos of victims giving testimonies, another very moving exhibit were the records kept on the millions of prisoners of war from WWI. The sheer amount of space the note cards alone took up was staggering, let alone thinking about all the work that was put into making them and keeping families updated on their loved ones.
I was also surprised to learn about many wars and other conflicts that I had never even heard of before. I have taken multiple history classes so I was shocked to find out about so many wars that had affected so many people, and it made me wonder why I had never even heard of them before. This made me realize that Americans need to be more aware of global events, past and current. A current example of this would be the Rohingya refugee crisis which has not received as much media attention as it should, or the Yemen humanitarian crisis. Both of these examples, as well as examples from the past that I learned about while visiting the Red Cross, indicate that Americans are severely lacking in global awareness. While we, too, have committed human rights atrocities it is still important for us to discuss events concerning human rights around the world and what we can do to protect human rights whenever possible. I also learned on our visit that the Red Crescent is the same organization as the Red Cross except that the Red Crescent is used in Muslim countries, as the cross is a symbol of Christianity. This was interesting new information to me, but it is just another example of a deficit in my global awareness.
