Well, folks, I probably shouldn't be posting here since I'm not abroad, but I just wanted to bring a message of hope for those worried that public interest doesn't have its own unique payoffs.

Below please find a link to my reward for helping out a community group with some legal questions in my free time:

http://s39.photobucket.com/albums/e196/Floretristan/Fort%20Reno/?action=view&current=IMG_0589.jpg

Neat.

My vote is for law students to take pictures of bearcats in the wild that will be used for the top area.

Or the first one of the students currently abroad that has not yet blogged and not in Africa, where understandably it is hard to find a bearcat, to post any picture or even a phrase which will then be used to fill the top area.

As for all ya'll dying of curiosity I've posted some pics at http://picasaweb.google.com/adamjmoser

Peaces,
AM

Last year I had thought to put pictures of everyone up there, but due to my laziness and a lack of pictures to fill the top area... well, it didn't happen. So everyone vote here on what we should put in the top area of this blog...

At a friendly soccer match between the Chinese National Team and Real Salt Lake, several fans waved Tibetan and Taiwan flags, there was also a sign hung from a rail that read "6-4" eluding to Tiananmen. The fans were asked by security personnel to put the signs and flags away after several of the Chinese players refused to play, the fans did so, but then in the second half pulled them back out, they were then escorted out of the stadium. Lucky not to be beaten to a pulp is what I thought, until I read that this happened in Salt Lake! Talk about coddling. Come on. I hope someone takes this to the ACLU. http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,660228122,00.html

Greetings from the non-capital of The Netherlands and the home of the ICTY, ICC and ICJ.

Den Haag is as lovely as a post card. The food is nice, my flat has a balcony and the beach is a fifteen minute bicycle ride away. The air is cooled to 70 degrees almost every day which only adds to the fun of biking to and from work (as well as to and from everywhere else).

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia is a fantastic and interesting place to work. Touted as the second-most secure United Nations building in the world, I have to go through a front gate (x-ray machine, metal detector and key-card operated revolving door), main door (another key-card operated revolving door) and another key-card protected door before I can even get to my office. Getting to the cafeteria for lunch may be tougher to negotiate than accessing some parts of the CIA building at Langley, Virginia.

I have eight bosses that keep me busy with memos, decisions and witness summaries, the latter of which requires me to dress in a black robe and white cravat and attend court sessions.

When I am not working, I sleep.

Hope everyone is having a good time this summer!

Keith Hagan

On take-off from DC the 747 lost an engine and caused a brush fire at the end of the runway. The plane proceeded to fly 5000ft for over an hour as it dumped 200,000 pounds of jet fuel over rural VA, yes 200,000 pounds, b/c you can't land a plane that ways 800,000 pounds. And don't worry about the jet fuel, Capt. said it evaporates before it hits the ground... hmmmm?

All in all it wasn't that bad, b/c this at least gave me an evening to checkout some of DC.

Did arrive in Beijing and after paddling boats around the Summer Palace hopped on a fast train to Jinan and Shanda U.

The HR institute exits more in name than anything else and I still don't think there is any journal that they put out. So I had to come with a reason to be there rather soon. Luckily the one person that does give substance to the HR Institute seems to be a very nice gentleman and very open about many issues, also very helpful. So I'm now conducting research into how to effectuate China's many environmental laws and how the public can more effectively bring private actions against polluters. China has loads of good laws, but its getting them used properly that is the problem. Hopefully this means me getting out and exposing myself to dangerous toxins and pollutants so as to communicate with people in some of the most polluted areas. Of course there is also plenty of reading Chinese cases, laws.

OK. Now you can stop reading, b/c the rest is just about life in Jinan. It is a city of 3-4mill. That's small to mid-size for the East coast and mid-size for China. It's very hot about 35 on average and this temp will only rise until Sept. Shanda has 4 campuses, old campus, new campus, new new campus, and east new new campus. I live on new campus, but the law school is a ten minute bike ride away on old campus. The law school has 6 or 7 computers for all the students, all I see the students do is instant message and play games, but this has not been an empirical study, but lots of game pop=up windows are always present when I have used the public computers. The school's internet is very slow and does not like Google.
The classrooms do not have AC and there are no screens in the windows, luckily I use David's office, which while smelling of stale cigarette butts and nescafe does have AC.
The best coffee in town is from McDonalds as is the best orange juice, luckily when in China I require neither.
Friends in Beijing warned me that the food in Jinan was poor, they were right. I've never been to a city in China and I've been to many for long periods of time, in which so many of the restaurants are local chain restaurants, this is worth an empirical study of its own. But the school dining hall is one of the nicer ones I have seen on a campus in China.

More to come on the all the African medical students here and my new good Mongolian friend Baaska.

Just checking in to send my regards from the UK. Anne... your friend is to much... there cannot be a kinder person alive, and they have set me up in a room that I swear is some kind of space-ship.

Well, now that the summer has passed, everyone who was abroad this summer and posting on this blog is now back at school, so if you were curious, that is why the postings have stopped coming. Anyhow, this blog will remain open, and if the contributors would like to post any wrap up materials about their experiences this summer, that would be awesome.

Hopefully we can do this again next summer. One thing that we will do differently is offer the option of posting anonymously since some students were working in sensitive areas of the world and on sensitive topics, and I wouldn't want to jeopardize their safety in any way.

Well, that's about it. I hope the contributors will take a moment and post some of their final thoughts on their summers but I know as well as they do the chaos that is law school, so we shall see. So long (for now) and thanks for all of the fish!

Dave and I are in Paris.



And you're not.

They don't have a Bluebook here so I've been using a copy of the HRQ as my citation manual. But it's cool because people keep coming by saying, "Oh the HRQ!" and then something about how they read an interesting article in it or how it's this well-respected journal and then I get to say "I'm an articles editor (or whatever our title is) with them now."

Also, it is really hard to google for information about sex tourism and keep it all on the up-and-up.

Hello everyone. Things are winding up here in Ireland and I can't say that I am that excited to get back to Cincinnati. Things have been a little crazy here the last few weeks. It was actually pretty exciting for some reason whenever i am travelling i ALWAYS end up in the hospital at some point or another. I was hiking in the woods with my parents in the middle of nowhere and got stung by a bee. I started having a severe allergic reaction and had to hike down the mountain quickly before my throat completly closed. We were in the middle of nowhere so i had to be rushed by taxi to the nearest town about 40 minutes away and be pumped full of steriods. It was a bit scary but an experiance nonetheless.

Also, i was interviewed on national television the other day. There was this big parade in Galway and they decided to interview me while i was watching it. I sounded like an idiot, but at least i can now say that i have been on Irish news.

At work i am finishing up my collection of banned books. I ended up with 27. I am supposed to be designing a website, so i will let you know when i finish.

Ahmed Kathrada was on CNN just now.

Check your local listings for some show on South Africa.

Then, and if you were at the dinner in April, you can say "Hey! I had dinner with that guy!"

I had always hoped that my work in human rights would one day involve a Google search on Gary Glitter's sexual deviations.

Allright,
Check it out Courtney. I think I found the ultimate summer festival experience, which is good, because I didn't get to go to the Cactus after all (never trust a drunk Albanian who has to move that day)...
HOWEVER, this would involve dashing all hopes of Ghent, as well as Amsterdam. The Festival is Sziget, in Budepast, HU. Over 1,000 bands, seven day festival for €100. Looks like the craziest event this summer. Its from the 9th to the 15th or 16th. This is an invite to all who may read this. I am going to see about rerouting flights and such. Check it out at http://www.sziget.hu/festival_english
Right now this is just a whim and a dream, but i've always said there is nothing to it but to do it... C'mon, Radiohead, at a huge festival full of rowdy Europeans... Any positive feedback is appreciated, any negative feedback should be saved for professor evaluation forms...
Didn't get to go to Berlin for the finals by the way, but thats okay, would've been way too much € for a lowly HR intern.
Probably not a chance of making this work, but it looks worth the try....
-dave

Hey guys.

This isn't work related. But it seemed like the easiest way to get in touch with everyone.

I wanted to let people know about this city in Belgium, Ghent, which is supposed to be pretty cool, and see if anyone wanted to meet there to stay on the 11th and 12th because it seems like the PERFECT way to kick back and relax after working our tuckuses off in our respective locations. It would also be cool to hang out with people, and see how everyone's summers have gone.

Ghent is pretty ridiculous in that it seems to be a combination of a college town, with bars with all that famous Belgian beer, etc., and also a medieval architecture destination. Pictures of the town center look like the most beautiful stuff I've ever seen.

What makes it weirder still is that while they don't have many hostels in the traditional sense, they have tons of these fancy bed-and-breakfasts where you can get a private room, private bath, gourmet breakfast, and be in walking distance of everything for like 45 euros. So it's like this little town has almost been designed for people who want to chillax on the cheap.

I'm going there on the 11th and 12th, like I said, as the last leg of a very whirlwind tour of France and Benelux, which I'm heading out to right after my last day at work, so I know I'm going to really love partying with Belgian college students and then crashing in a fluffy double bed in a swanky room. I thought other people might enjoy the same, especially given all that certain members of Team Morgan have gone through this summer.

So yeah; Ghent, anyone?

Just got back from Malakal, in the north of Southern Sudan.

Because the water table is so high, and the land is completely flat, and there is no infrastructure for plumbing, it is basically one large sewer.

But I got to fly on a helicopter.

This is from Keith. Keith is finally telling stories, but not blogging. I have his permission to post this.

I had been talking about the beach, which made me think of a comment BTF made in class about cats, which led to:

FloreTristan: speaking of which
FloreTristan: I realized the other day that I miss Ben Taylor-Fabe
Mssr Camel: How can you not miss that big tub of brains.
FloreTristan: I'd love to hear him explain why cats are "beach animals" for a few more minutes
Mssr Camel: I would love to plop him down in the middle of Yei, SOuthern Sudan, and just see what he comes up with.
Mssr Camel: What would come out of his mouth when a drunken soldier carrying a loaded RPG approacehs him, talking about how President Bush will save him?
FloreTristan: "hey, why are you making those kids carry guns, don't you know they've already got small arms?"
FloreTristan: holy crap - did that really happen to you?
Mssr Camel: Ha, yeah. But, you know, that isn't even a really good story. When I go to sleep at night, and think of what I have seen during the day, I get a little shocked.
Mssr Camel: You know those child soldiers you had told me to avoid?
Mssr Camel: Kind of hard to when there are throusands of them. Armed to the teeth.
Mssr Camel: We took a military convoy two days ago 30 miles outside of yei. The Bangladeshi troops wanted us to wear flack jackets and helmets because there might be LRA. But at the time, we knew the last LRA crossing in that area had been a week prior, and another wouldn't come for another week. So we digressed. So, 40 heavily armed Bangladeshi soldiers escorted my partner and I on a UN fact finding mission.
Mssr Camel: And I went to sleep last night, to the sound of automatic gunfire in the next compound (funeral), and I thought to myself, "What the FUCK am I doing?! SWEET JESUS CHRIST!"
FloreTristan: holy crap
FloreTristan: why aren't you blogging this?
FloreTristan: can I?
Mssr Camel: Sure. Might be funny from another person' perspective hearing about it
Mssr Camel: I haven't been blogging because we didn't have internet.
Mssr Camel: Actually, we didn't have running water or electricity, but that is beside the point.
Mssr Camel: Squat Toilets = Undesirable

Greetings,
I just read the E-currents generic email and the Faculty Club is closed. It is moving to the 7th floor of some Lindner building. I'm not sure how I feel about this. What if the HR dinners are not the same? The horror...
Sounds like everybody is having an interesting summer. Courtney, the Cuban speech is very funny. As I am also forced to read the wonderful sentence structures of the UN, in addition to the Human Rights students' dissertations which can only be described as bad grammer in training; I can relate to your plight. Ala, sounds very exciting, do what you can to be safe because it looks like that area may be in for some heavy damage these days. I can't believe what is happening in Gaza right now...
There is nothing as exciting as that going on here in Utrecht. I get along with my boss very well, so we have a good time talking about the research project and he always has interesting stuff for me to read. I spend my days learning the legal traditions of the US, England, France, and India for this comaparative law paper we are working on. Very fascinating. I've been to a few public defenses of others affiliated with the Institute for their dissertations. Glad to be there for support, but they have been in Dutch, so I am usually lost. Free orange juice afterwards!!! I am expected to read the dissertations, at least be familiar with them, so I can say I am learning a lot of stuff, especially when my boss wants papers on my observations. I think he just wants me to come up questions for him to use at the defenses, but whatever, he seems to really appreciate my work.
Life in Utrecht is uneventful. Since Holland lost in the World Cup, there has been much mourning through the streets. BUT, orange shirts that were €40 are now €20, can you say souvenirs? I've been to the Hague. I ride my bike out to these fields by the University (outside of town) and read by a cow and sheep field. Its very pretty. There is a stray cat who hangs out by my house, the food is still gross, so being vegetarian is still easy. The Dutch nightlife is fun, but they listen to this god awful racket of really really fast techno, its utter crap. My German cousin says it breeds hooligans and I wouldn't be surprised. The Strokes are playing a small club in a few days, so maybe I'll check that out...
Chris, everytime I attempt to leave a comment on another post, I get some error message that says to thank the spammers. Does this just mean I am unable to do that?
Hope all is well for everyone, see you in the fall...

Oh YEah! I'm going to Berlin for the finals! I'm meeting my roommate from undergrad and some other kids from CLifton. No place to stay, no prospects on a place to stay, millions of wild fÜtball fans, sounds like a worthy adventure....

Update: I am currently working on a banned book collection. Basically I just collect books that have been banned or censored at some time and write about why they were banned. It is a great excuse to leave the Centre and spend my days in book stores.

I was actually surprised at the number of books that have been banned in the States. I am currently reading the Ugly American, which I guess was considered to promote Marxist thinking. I will let you know how it goes.

Last weekend we went to the Aran Islands, which are near Galway. There are only 200 people that inhabit each of the islands, I couldn't imagine growing up there. We also just happened to be there for a pagan festival, so there were bonfires on every corner of the island to celebrate the pagan gods. It was a lot of fun.

I learned today that in 1995 Pope John Paul II wrote in a letter to the women of the world that he was truly sorry for the off chance that "more than a few" members of the Catholic Church were responsible for the historical oppression of women. Interesting.

In an update on the baby swans, they are no longer baby swans but rather vulture like beasts. To use an appropriate term, they have become ugly. There is a runt of the litter that is still cute because its growth is stunted. While it may not survive much longer, it is definatley the cutest, and that should count for something in the survival of the fittest (cutest).

I keep seeing sentence pairs like this, and I think they may be the most irritating duo I've run across:

"A lot has been done in the field of human trafficking/AIDS/kicking of puppies. Last year, the Commission/Committee/Working Group/Council adopted a resolution inviting member States to create a plan for combatting this practice/epidemic/form of entertainment."

Who writes this stuff?

I was going to report on key phrases, but the whole thing is a goldmine and it's just a few pages:

Cuba

This speech actually got a LOT of applause. It also got a LOT of laughs from the NGO gallery (mostly populated by young interns).

After the high-level segment ended, the floor was opened for replies. In case you're curious, the US response was, "If Cuba was really as concerned with protecting rights as they claim to be, their speech would be about that and not about how evil the US is. And, the American people can speak for themselves, thanks." The majority of the reply session was Japan and N. Korea tearing into each other about abductions (Japan) and occupation-related atrocities (Korea).

Three things worked against us leaving Juba for Malakal today.

(1) The flight was overbooked, so UNMIS arranged for another helicopter to also fly to Malakal today. Two flights to choose from! They overbooked that flight as well.

(2) They arranged for both flights to leave one hour early.

(3) We were told to go to the wrong terminal. By the time we realized we were in the wrong place, the flight had already been airborn for twenty minutes.

We wil try to get to Malakal two weeks from now.

A few new videos for you to enjoy. I am off to Malakal today and will be back in Juba on Saturday.

There's a chicken in our office!

The view outside of our UN tent camp in Juba.

For your eyes only!

(and my mom's, and anyone else who clicks on the link)

exclusive photographic record of the 1st Plenary Session of the Human Rights Council!

Human Rights Council Pictures


plus some other stuff, sorry but I'm too lazy to create a new folder.

Danielle taught me the most wonderful traditional every-one knows things in the whole world..making popcorn on the stovetop. I've been a slave to Popsecret for many years now, unaware all I needed was a stove, a pan, some popcorn, and a little determination. I made my first batch on my own the other day and in my excitement to look at the popping kernals forgot about physics, opened the lid to take a peek, and all the popcorn poppped right out of the pan. It was quite a debacle, but as an adult, I was able to handle it calmly.

Let's be honest, since 1949, has the AK-47 ever gone out of style? While they look sheek when slung low over a Ugandan military uniform, or in the hands of a 13 year-old SPLA child soldier, I prefer mine to be in the hands of drunk security guards. Especially when they smile at you, say hi, and demand $50.

Not that they understand a word of what they are asking. I am sure they think "Give me $50" is English for "You look very hot, are you Dutch?" Either way, you just can't bring down their kind spirit and happiness to see you.

The AK-47 punctuates this kindness in a way you can only find in Africa.

Last night it was cold, so Judge Newman decided to make his first fire in the fireplace. Since the flew wasn't open, the house filled with smoke. Then the chimney caught fire and flames were pouring out of the top of the house. Since Lobatse doesn't have a reliable fire station, we just waited for the flames to go out while the house filled with smoke.

In all the excitement, Becca and I didn't make it to bed until ELEVEN! On the bright side, the house still smells like campfire which is a nice scent.

Hello all. Sorry not to have posted an update yet. Internet is hard to come by for me, since I don't have it at work. There is a separate building being used for the Basarwa/San case since all of the materials from it have been piling up over the two year evidence portion of the hearing. Fortunately, a separate building means there is a kichen, and the 3 secretaries who I share the building with make lovely Southern African cuisine for lunch. Unfortunatley, there is no internet to speak of and I only get to go online now and again from home.

Life is good, there isn't a lot to do here in Lobatse so after two long walks today, I took a nap and read another book. My life is never going to be this calm again. A 20 minute walk in one direction gets you to the court. 20 minutes in teh other direction gets you some cows and a store.

that's the news for now.

Anne

We checked out of our tents this morning, all of our bags were packedfor our trip up-country, and all we had left to do was go to UNMIS compound to confirm that we were on the flight manifests for Malakal.

One Problem Arose: Both of the flights to Malakal were cancelled for today. But not to worry, another flight leaves Wednesday. No complaints. It is a lovely day in Juba, and it will be nice to have a full weekend break.

Keith

There is a chicken in our office.

That is all.

Hello. I am finally out of classes today. We had a really interesting summer school on Minority and Indigenous rights around the world. It was very informative and i had to chance to meet some amazing people from around the world that are working for human rights in their respective coutries. At one time there were 35 different nationalities in the room and arabic was the main language.

A day unlike any other day in Sudan. It rained last night, which means that the full force of the sun will bake all the water from the ground within minutes, creating a steam room effect that you can't help but be impressed with. Walking the mile back to my tent camp for lunch is also something special. In the African Sauna, by the time you have walked to lunch, eaten, and walked back to work, you have burned all of the calories consumed.

Today I have a lunch meeting with my UNMIS boss to discuss what we accomplished this week, and I have to get to the market to trade in some $US for Dinars. Then a meeting at the IRC regarding interview techniques (we are actually teaching them for some reason) and home again to pack for tomorrow's flight to Malakal.

Special Added Bonus Feature Friday

Video! Here are some shots taken at a local secondary school. Enjoy!

Entering Juba Day Secondary School

Balloon Frenzy

I am STILL ALIVE!

And when I figure out how to use the blogging tools, I will write some more.

Keith Hagan
Juba, Southern Sudan

hey,
Maybe Cuba just has a lot on their mind these days... Ha ha ha. I am settling in to life in Utrecht. World Cup dominates the evenings and work the days. The Institute I am researching at is amazing. Everyone is either a professor banging out papers or a student working on their Phd's. We had a meeting for a farewell to Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'Im, who is a Professor from the Sudan who teaches at Emory in Atlanta. He has been working on a paper on the concept of global citizenship in relation to Muslims in Europe and at the meeting we were supposed to critique based on our reading. Very interesting to say the least. At the happy hour afterwards, he told me UC Law had offered him a position and he was familiar with Bert, is there anyone that Bert doesn't know?
My research is very open ended, but lucky for me I am embarking on a crash course in international human rights law and the corresponding legal theories which support strong Int. law. My boss is a huge fan of Ronald Dworkin, who I believe is at NYU Law now. Lots and lots of articles...
This place is pure academia... Theory theory theory,... more later

I went to the UN for the first time today.


Remember how in class, we used to get frustrated with Spore, because he never shut up? Cuba is like that.

Danielle and I are currently busy in a week long Minority Rights Conference at the Irish Centre for Human Rights. It reminds me a lot of lawschool because we have laptops and internet access during the classes. Needless to say, I'm typing this post up in class

I think Danielle may have mentioned the baby swans in her previous post, but if not, we found some lovely baby swans over here. They're small and grey and fuzzy; not feathery. They are getting a little bit bigger and Danielle seems to be losing interest in them, claiming they're getting too old and big for her liking. I'm currently trying to find her some younger baby swans. I'll keep you all updated on my search.

The classes also come with provided lunches, which included cheese cake yesterday. I think cheese cake must be the offiical dessert of Human Rights functions, which is fine by me.

Evidently among the trainees I am known as the "quick-talking" and "shrewd" participant in this week's training.

But where oh where are the hits from Africa? Poke/Poke, Nudge/Nudge!

Countries			Pages	Hits	Bandwidth
				United States	us		134	363	1.96 MB
				Ireland	ie		21	65	504.44 KB
				Netherlands	nl		12	80	426.93 KB
				India	in		2	9	60.14 KB
				European Union	eu		2	8	10.91 KB
				South Africa	za		1	8	67.91 KB
				Ukraine	ua		1	3	8.18 KB
				Japan	jp		1	1	22.60 KB
				Switzerland	ch		1	1	5.46 KB

Today we began our trafficking training workshops, which will last until the end of the week. There are some amazing people here; we went around the table, talking about our work, and it took an hour and a half, just because everyone has so many projects going on in their home countries. It's interesting, people look at international law a lot of different ways, and this workshop really has only given an overview of how the system is SUPPOSED to work, but you need that general idea when you first start out, I guess there's no need to overburden a bunch of people with all the political hurdles one could meet when one tries to fix something all in the first day.

On a somewhat less office-note, the Franciscans are CRAZY! Not like the actually friars and nuns but the other interns here are nuts! I thought I would be kind of bored and lonely when I first got here but on the contrary I've been so busy I got a cold (and what I thought was a cavity but the dentist said I had been burshing my teeth too hard) and last night was the first night I'd spent in since last week! I mean, it's great, everyone's really friendly and every time I turn around there's some event I could go to, but damn! I see my apartment so little I feel like I should get a reduced rate on my rent! I suppose when you work on such heavy topics and deal with aggravating bureaucracy during the day you're REALLY ready to cut loose when you have the opportunity. Hell, we just got out of our first year,we know what that's like, eh?

Also, I've heard some rather intriguing stories about a young lady named Anne...

Finally, anyone else come to loathe CNN? Seriously I get up, turn on the news, Pope went to Auschwitz, get out of the shower, Pope went to Auschwitz, eat breakfast, hey, did you hear the Popew went to Auschwitz? I feel like it's not too much to ask to get more than 3 news stories in an hour.

The maid at my grandmother's asked me if was true that there was no dirt in America. "Yes," I wnated to say, "and the streets are made of gold."

What's up everyone. I am sorry Chris, I have yet to find a suitable digital picture to send you for the banner, but I will soon.

I arrived in Bangalore early Tuesday morning. So far I've just been running errands and visiting family, but I will start work tomorrow morning. I will be working with Vimochana, a women's advocacy group in Bangalore. My Aunts describe the women who work for this group as "strong" and "divorced." I can't wait.

I will be working on sex selection and burns due to domestic violence. More to come. I hope you all are enjoying a break from the 'nati.

~S

Hello. Beth and I have arrived in Galway. We are settled in and have our apartment. Galway is a nice little city and supposedly we have been having great weather for Ireland.

We were supposed to start work on Monday, but the office was closed. Then yesterday and today we went in to the Centre, but no one really wanted to give us any work so I guess we are technically starting work on Monday.

So far we have spent our afternoons feeding the swans, talking to a drunk Irish guy who used to blow things up for the IRA, exploring the wide variety of grocery stores that they have in this town, sitting on the bay and looking at old buildings.

One thing that has suprised me (and made me sick) is the number of Irish people that really like George W. Amazing! I am sure there will be more exciting stories to come.

HEllo all!
Dave Owens here. I've been in Europe for a week now and have started my job today. I thoroughly enjoy the city of Utrecht because it is old, beautiful, and EVERYONE rides a bike. Nothing like watching old, old, ancient people riding in to their jobs dressed to the nines, on an old rusty bike. Its great. I spent the last weekend travelling with family in northwestern Germany.
ITs strange. My mother traced our family tree back to my great great grandmother who immigrated to the US from Germany. She then traced this lady's sister, who didn't immigrate, forward to a family living in Hasselunne currently. We have been friends with this family for over a decade as they have visited me while I was in high school and my mother has visited them in Germany a few times. So, we call them our cousins and I have a cousin, Daniel, who is 31 I believe. So I spent the weekend on a tour of this part of Germany. I even visited the village that my great great grandmother was born in... Ah Heritage... I also went to an offroad car race which was kind of fun, but noisy and dirty. (Every race involved old beat up VWs and Mercedes kicking mud on the spectators). Lucky for me, my cousin gave me an operating cellphone for the summer as he is the supreme tech. geek.
My job seems like it will be very interesting. My advisor is having me prepare research for a World Congress on Comparative Law to take place here at the end of July. His interest is in what he calls "law finding" which is similar to prinicples which govern codes and how they interact. Specifically, human rights as inserted into law judicially (not legislatively). This can kind of be seen as judicial activism, but positive. Basically, my boss cannot stand Bush and I will research this summer on why conservatives are idiots in relation to human rights in the court system... (I think)...
Hope all is well for everyone and I will try to update regularly, though I have yet to find a convertor for my laptop and the battery is very dead...
PEACE, DAVE O

Today was my first day. A bird flew in through a window, and tried to leave the same way, and broke his neck! Right next to me! This Indian nun picked it up with her bare hands and the staff stood about wondering if they should pray over it, Francis was such a big fan of animals after all, well, perhaps we should at least bury it, I mean, you should know, you're the office manager, and let's get the disinfectant so we don't all get bird flu.


So it was a pretty eventful day, even if the work part of it only really involved making the first stabs and seeing what comes of that. I love LexisNexis, by the way.

But no seriously, the first day was pretty fun, we had a meeting first thing in the morning, and it was just so incredible to be at this little table in this little room with all these people from all over the world who are doing amazing things. Like one guy, who is a Friar, was just stopping by on his way to Thailand. And another Friar, he was a physicist, and he was checking in to see what kinds of things the organization is doing in the environmental sector. What with the bird and all, it was pretty crazy.

Here's a photo for the banner. I arrived today. My boss lives above me, and gave me coffee.

I graduated in 2003 from University of Dayton with a degree in Computer Science. After graduation I began interning in Geneva, Switzerland for a human rights NGO, Franciscans International, restructuring their database and serving as the systems administrator for the office. After about 6 months, we hired someone else to deal with the computers and I began coordinating the administration in the office and left my programming days behind.
I came back to Cincinnati (my hometown) to attend UC Law, with the hopes of returning to the international human rights arena at some point in the future, better armed with a law degree.

Hello everyone. My name is Danielle Blaha and I am originally from Chardon, OH ( a small town about 40 minutes east of Cleveland). I graduated from the University of Dayton in 2004, with majors in international business and Spanish. After that I spent a year working in Costa Rica and next year I will be in my second year at UC. This summer I am excited to be working at the Irish Centre for Human Rights in Galway, Ireland. More to come.....

Irish Centre link

Sooo... hopefully we'll start seeing some traffic soon

OK, now that we've got some of the UC Law human rights workers signed on as blog contributors, we need to get everyone to create a bio post and upload a head shot so I can create the top banner. If anyone has any better ideas for the top banner, email me For now going with the option of creating a headshot collage, maybe making cartoon style headshots if I have the time...

As with the rest of my colleagues on this board, I am also going away for the summer - assuming I am able to move after the soul-crushing event known as finals. This summer I will be fighting off mosquito-borne illnesses, the Lord's Resistance army and the Janjaweed biding my time in Juba, Southern Sudan, helping them to establish their legal code. More to come. . . .