An International Tradition

March 18, 2005

'Earn Thy Rights': A Challenge from ND-Cairo to All Students Heading Abroad

I have seen a lot of the world in the past two years. As Assistant Provost for International Studies, part of my job entails visiting students and colleagues in all the sites where Notre Dame operates study abroad programs. So since assuming this position in 2003, I have been to Angers , Beijing , Cairo , Dublin , Innsbruck , London , Nagoya , Paris , Rome , Shanghai , and Tokyo. But no visit moved me so profoundly as my trip last week to Cairo , where I checked in on our 14 students currently enrolled at the American University of Cairo (AUC).

An immense city with a population of 16 million, Cairo has more people than most world capitals, all crammed into a surprisingly small city center. Cairo is also filthy, dusty, polluted, and crowded. At first glance the streets are intimidating. The sidewalks are jammed with people; the streets are jammed with cars, all honking, vying for position and speeding close by pedestrians. Soldiers and policemen wielding machine guns block the passage; pushing through crowds on the uneven sidewalks makes walking a challenge. There are men everywhere; they loiter in dark doorways, linger in coffee shops, smoking the exotic-looking water pipes, eyeing passersby with their penetrating stare. After taking in a bit of the local color, I braced myself for a litany of complaints from our students, and prepared for the worst.

Imagine my surprise to discover that the students there are thriving, that they love Cairo. Why? Because they have found the Egyptians to be a fascinating, welcoming people. Because they realize the rare opportunity this moment of integration affords them. Because they are the right people in the right place at the right time, and because they realize quite rightly, that they are MAKING HISTORY. Although they are sometimes frustrated by the time it takes to decipher Egyptian cultural codes, by talking to their classmates and gradually making friends with students from around the Arabic world, the ND students embark on the most important diplomacy that we can undertake in this day: breaching the abyss separating Muslim and Christian, the Middle East and the USA.

One of the highlights of my visit was the opening ceremony of the Cairo Model United Nations, whose theme was "Earn Thy Rights." The speech presented by AUC student Hedayat Heikal was extraordinarily moving, and sends a powerful message of hope and a demand for involvement to all students world-wide. As she declared:

We of the Model United Nations have every reason to believe that unless we go out of our way today to face the world, then this region will be doomed with ignorance, incapacity and underdevelopment. It is not enough to recognize that the world in general and the Arab world in specific are at a crossroads, there must be action. This is what we lack. Let us stop speaking of what is right and what is not. We are tired of being right by virtue of birth rather than choice. [...] This is the message of the Cairo Model United Nations, that of passion, a message of action. None of us MUN are revolutionaries. None of us claim it, none of us pretend it. It is that we are put into a setting that brings the critic out of us hoping one day that when we leave that box, the strong sense of criticism and idealism, we can make a difference. For difference does not need to be at a state level, difference in our work, to create something of value, to produce something of long life, to forge a home, an office, a street, then perhaps renew a nation and give it a new legitimacy for its existence.

These words should be a wake-up call to all of our students world-wide. Take heed of the idealism of your counterparts in Cairo; ask yourself what have you done to earn the many rights we enjoy as citizens of the US, and what are you doing to reach out to other peoples during your terms of study abroad. Especially in this moment of budget tightening, study abroad itself is increasingly becoming a much sought-after privilege, not a right. So for those fortunate enough to study abroad: don't squander your time.

I present the challenge to all Notre Dame students who plan to study abroad: What will you do, personally, to seek greater integration in your adoptive home-away-from-home? Remember, understanding among peoples unfolds gradually, through people like you reaching out, one day at a time. And for those who've returned from a semester or year abroad: how will you act on your international experience to make a difference in our world?

Sincerely,

Julia Douthwaite
Assistant Provost for International Studies