There must be some kind of rule that makes all lighting in museums dark and mysterious, while at the same time emulating hope and light.
This past weekend I traveled to Geneva, home of the Palais des Nations, or the United Nations office in Switzerland, some of the best chocolate I have ever had the pleasure of tasting and the International Red Cross Museum.
My friends and I made the mistake of not checking the seasonal hours for the U.N. office and found it closed when we arrived. Just down the street was the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum. Thinking it would be somewhat historical and interesting, we went over.
What we found was so much more meaningful than I could have imagined.
The museum had a permanent and temporary exhibition set up. We received a free audio tour due to it being the first Saturday of the month and started our tour through the humanitarian exhibit.
The museum preaches three mantras — defending human dignity, restoring family links and reducing natural risk — through its permanent exhibition.
This place was eerily relevant to me. All anyone can ever talk about recently is the refugee crisis. All the museum reminded me of was the travel ban that has been in contention with a federal appeals court this past week.
Here I was, walking through the chamber of witnesses and surrounded by tales of struggle and strife resounding from different cultures all over the world.
My own country has long boasted of its compassion and role as a country that reaches out to all those in need, despite criticisms of meddling. We are now turning into what we have fought against for years.
The International Red Cross has already been offering relief to individuals affected by Trump’s executive order, which at its outset implemented a 120-day ban on all refugees trying to enter the U.S. and a temporary ban on individuals from seven majority-Muslim countries.
The order also indefinitely bans all refugees from Syria, according to the Washington Post.
The countless faces I saw connected me to the stories I am hearing about back in the U.S. — a friend of mine’s sorority sister being denied entrance into the U.S. after visiting her family in Iran or the two Iraqi men who sued the government after being denied entrance with valid visas.
The true eeriness of my visit was seeing the similarities between stories of refugees from years ago in an exhibit focusing on refugees in World War II.
I poured over books of records telling stories of prisoner refugees who were never heard from again. The Red Cross admits its involvement in the war was a failure, and the Red Cross struggles with being a humanitarian organization and not getting involved politically.
As I tried to decipher the yellowing pages of their failure, I couldn’t help but wonder if history is simply repeating itself. I hope this is not the case. But when I left the museum I had that sense of uneasiness.
It seems that no matter what people do, there will always be more who need help. The International Red Cross and Red Crescent is such a large organization, but nothing ever seems like it can be enough.
Its last exhibition section talks about prevention — prevention of natural disasters, prevention of letting people get in too deep where they cannot get help.
The U.S. needs to start getting with the prevention program. We cannot shut our doors so severely to people who do everything right, who have valid visas and have taken the necessary steps.
Organizations such as the Red Cross will continue to struggle to find this balance of humanitarianism and political neutrality. But it is important to not be neutral enough that the political aims of those in the wrong are not given an advantage.
haask@umail.iu.edu
@khaas96
