Yesterday - without realizing it was actually Chinese New Year - I went to the nail salon. I chose the "nail bar" not because they serve drinks and play trendy music videos while you get your nails done but because its nice and they have lots of staff to serve you quickly so you're in and out. The salon has a host/DJ (usually a male) who greets you at the door and helps to get you situated. He noticed my reading material and said "Oh, Human Rights, I know about human rights in my country," then he corrected himself and said "my parents country." We engaged in a conversation about Vietnam and how he came to America in 1975. Here's what happened in Vietnam in 1975. I remember watching scenes on television about the fall of Saigon and the return of fallen soldiers.
When the nail stylist approached, she also began telling me about her family. This might seem a bit odd if you've ever gone to get your nails done because normally there's not a lot of conversation between stylists and customers. She asked me if I knew today was the celebration of Chinese New Year. This got me excited because "I did" (know a little anyway). I wanted to impress her with my knowledge about the year of the "Fire Chicken." (I looked that up later and got a bunch of recipes for chicken pizza.) But I had heard of the celebrations of food, parades, fireworks and parties. About this time another worker walked by and handed her a gift card. She added "and gifts and gambling". If you had to work on New's Years Day at least gifts would be nice.
There were a group of workers in the back gathered around a game board holding dollar bills. When I asked about it, she explain they were playing a "gambling game". They all looked at us about that time and I blurted out, "Happy New Year," to which they laughed, responded and kept playing. Then I asked, "how much to play?" They all got interested then and said $1. Oh, count me in!! I gave them my dollar and learned that I had to pick an animal - well the "chicken" of course. A roll of the dice - and I had lost my dollar. But one of the workers smiled and thanked me for my contribution.
A few minutes later I saw a Latino man talking with the workers - he was describing various fruits - and the stylist told me he was selling to them because he's a smart businessman and knows about their celebrations. He exited the store and I saw him a few minutes later returning with a box a fresh fruit. However, upon his return, the host told him "outside" and wouldn't let him re-enter the store. He stood their looking dejected and then left.
Earlier in the morning, I had seen on Facebook at post the order to suspend Muslim immigrants from entering the country was being enforced at U.S. Airports and abroad. (Not the same article but here's a similar story by Oxfam). I understand the argument to keep U.S. citizens safe from extreme terrorism but I couldn't help think about the women and children and the families being detained and turned away. Those coming from extremely dire situations with the hopes of rebuilding their lives and now what?
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| Chinese Trump Chicken |
Are ALL people truly afforded "inalienable rights"? There I set at my pedicure reading about soft rights (the right to education or freedom from poverty and "hard rights" criminal activities - such as the right not to be "tortured") playing out right before me, access and denial.
The 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights originated with Elanor Roosevelt in 1946 because of the looming trauma of the Holocaust. Never again, we hoped. (Another irony of the day because it just happened to be National Holocaust Remembrance Day. Have we (U.S.) changed our minds about Human Rights? Are there exceptions? There seems to me so much we need to explore about the recent attacks in our country on innocent people. How many of those attacks were not from outsiders but from radicalized insiders (home-grown) within our soon to be walls? And how do we measure the role of mental health on senseless acts of aggression? Were these aggressors truly apart of a movement or moving on their own merely attaching themselves to something for justification. If terrorist can move people to act this way over the internet - what's next? Will we shut down the internet? How far will we go to protect/isolate ourselves? What kind of ends, justify the means? It's definitely a New Year and a whole new world!
