The Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship, in partnership with the U.S. State Department and the Institute of International Education brings mid-career journalists and communication professionals from emerging democracies to the Cronkite School for a year of intensive leadership training, academic study and professional experiences.
So.. another phase of life behind…something new and excited in front… a lot of emotions, experience, expectations, achievement all together in me…During this year I have changed.. a lot… probably not at the first sight..only for those which dare to dig into personality…
I have never been person which fit into any kind of frame..I always was trying, testing, daring more… My life is much more then many ot the other ones..but still… I have discovered new horizons… no matter if we are talking about professional or personal discovering… professional for a long time already, living in Bosnia I have learned that nothing is impossible and that there is no job that I can’t deal with… but personally… I went deeper, much deeper inside my self and put some additional life into the darkness of undiscovered soul rooms… Emotions could be tricky, but if you don’t make compromise with yourself they are amazing…. strong, powerful, honest… you become yourself in pure naked way…and you realize how, at same time that is vulnerable but also powerfully… and when you dare to fell like that nothing becomes everything..
Love have many faces…best one is when u trust her and let her to overwhelm you…
It is risky because reciprocally it hurt as much as you love…
but no matter what will be or not be born out of it..I can totally say it…
It is worth ..every minute of it…
For me, the journey to becoming a leader has involved many role models. I spend my life absorbing pop culture and interviewing those around me about their lives, and these two activities are the main influences in my life. For my leadership paper, I sorted them around three qualities: delegation, selflessness and confidence.
Valve is a video game company that has no rules. Its employees are not assigned any projects and no one has titles. They all work on the same level and create greatness, according to the employee handbook. This type of leadership is extreme delegation since everyone works toward a common goal, and nothing needs to be delegated in the first place.
Two other leaders who show this quality are Dumbledore and Keridwen Cornelius, the Editor-in-Chief of Phoenix Magazine. They both understand the abilities of their staff and work to hear ideas from everyone. However, they must also make weighty decisions that affect that fate of their work.
Selflessness is seen in Superman and Nira Lee, an officer in the Israel Defense Forces. Superman obtains much of his strength from others, simply by knowing they need him. As an alien species, he could not belong to his community if he did not help it. So he leads, and he saves lives.
Another superwoman, minus the power, is Nira Lee, who left everything in her home in Arizona to work for the Israel Defense Forces. She believes in the IDF code of conduct and spends every day of her job on the Gaza strip transporting goods into the people of Gaza.
I personally feel that a true leader must be selfless because it means they can empathize with others, and therefore lead with compassion. Both of the above examples emulate that personal strength.
A leader must have confidence in his or her decisions and mistakes. Sid Holt, the former managing editor of Rolling Stone, had to reestablish the magazine’s image in the mid ‘90s during a cultural and musical transition. In order to lead efficiently, he had to believe in his vision and inspire his staff to collaborate toward a goal.
Barack Obama seems like an obvious leadership example, but I want to emphasize his confidence when he speaks in public. His voice never falters, his message is strong and he carries himself with much conviction. This type of confidence can hold even the most disagreeable group of people captivated.
Lastly, Harold Kushner emphasizes personal strength through personal weakness in How Good Do We Have to Be? Only by accepting their flaws can humans advance.
All of these qualities add up and overlap to make an outstanding, strong, gentle, effective leader. While the path to leadership is not straightforward, like any route in life, it is best accomplished through a mixture of power in the self and power in others. As I move into the responsibilities of adulthood I will keep the above examples in mind and improve not only as a leader, but as a human being.
My leadership profile paper reminded me that I didn’t have to already know how to be a leader in order to become one. I just had to know that capability was already within me.
I was thrilled to be able to spend some time with myself, thinking about my strengths (some experience, confidence, fearlessness) and areas to improve (write more, read more, act more) but I realized I couldn’t get anywhere until I started with others. They would have the best advice for me to understand what makes a good leader.
I talked to two female coworkers advancing in their careers at a young age (under 35), who told me that anything is possible, as long as you had a few attributes:
Courage, or being able to go after your dreams and recognize that even you have a “seat at the table”
Confidence, or knowing that your unique talents are valuable to others
Curiosity, or willingness to learn anything and everything
Passion, or the perseverance to stick with your chosen field
Integrity, or being able to be trusted by your peers.
I was surprised at how simple those traits were. Many people don’t realize it, but they have the ingredients for a leader within them; it just may take some practice to reveal them!
I really liked specifically the “Four Agreements” that my boss Megan mentioned. In the picture, the “agreements” are outlined with their basic requirements: be impeccable with your word, don’t make assumptions, don’t take anything personally and always do your best. These strategies can be practiced in your every day life and translated to the working world fairly easily. Before you know it, you could be advanced in your career due to your professionalism and maturity. The concepts of the Four Agreements show that you can be relied upon to represent your employer well.
Thanks to all the books we’ve read, movies we’ve watched and discussions we’ve had in the Humphrey Seminar, I found this leadership profile to come naturally. And I hope that as I move on from ASU, my leadership skills will blossom just as naturally.
I don’t predict the future, but often times I know what my next year will look like. It will be pretty much the same as the previous one. However, that changed last year, when I heard the news from US embassy in Addis that I am accepted for the Humphrey Fellowship.
The news brought mixed feeling for my families and friends who were caught up with the idea of separation for 10 months. I traveled overseas a few times before but I hadn’t been far away from home for that long. As a full time employee of NGO in Ethiopia I spend most of time working extra hours and going to field trips every now and then. So I could not help being elated by the anticipation of a long break to reflect, freshen up my skills, meet old and new friends, see places and get ready to move forward towards my dream.
I started to receive briefing packages and long emails from Institute of International Education (IIE), which manages the Humphrey Program and from Cronkite School to help me prepared for the program and life in Arizona. But nothing would prepare me for the baking sun of Phoenix, when I arrived on first week of August 2012. I felt like I was pushed into a big oven, and began to feel the thickness of the thin top and jeans I was wearing. It was over 110 ͦ F and I could not even comprehend the figure until I did the conversion 42 ͦ C; that is the highest I had ever experienced in my life.
People would often comment however that I must have found the weather easy to cope as am from Africa. But Addis Ababa, my city has over 7,631ft (2,326 m) altitude with average temperature of 24 ͦ C. Of course we have warm climate regions but, Ethiopia as in the rest of African Countries, has diverse climate condition and vegetation.
New Family
We had our first retreat in northern Arizona in fall
I guess I adjusted pretty quickly in Phoenix mainly because of my new Humphrey family, eight young, dynamic, fun and interesting fellows from all over the world and our American hosts. We learn a lot about each other’s personality as well as country through our discussions in classes and in many of our impromptu gatherings around our pool.
The program offers different opportunities for us to grow and learn. But, I found lessons from my fellows invaluable. Thanks to them I am now able to replace each of their country’s map with faces and feel much closer. Each of us has been ambassadors of our countries and has been challenging stereotypes. Living close by strengthened our ties and enabled us to understand each others true color. My Humphrey fellowship would not have been complete if it were not for the support I got from my fellows.
‘The mountains are calling…’
The Humphrey Fellowship has four pillars, course work, community service, professional development and professional affiliation. Leadership appears to be at the heart of the program as the Fellowship aimed at fostering leadership skills.
Our theme for this year has been “The Mountains are calling, I must go”. Every now and then the theme was making me think of new and old mountains that I need to climb not just in the fellowship year but also in the coming years as well. We draw the leadership lessons from the speakers we listened, the books that we read and mainly from each other.
We would not pass by a mountain without jokingly making reference to ‘the mountains are calling…’, and I think I will be smiling a lot when I go back to my mountainous country.
Ten years in ten months
I found the fellowship even more exciting than I had thought in terms of traveling and participation in professional conferences. I managed to achieve beyond the goal that I set to myself. Looking at the places that I have been to and the conferences that I attended, my friends have been telling me I was able to fit possibly 10 years of travel experience with in just ten months.
The program provides professional development opportunities
I got the opportunity listen to many renowned journalists and public relations practitioners, executives, entrepreneurs including the co founders of twitter and Pandora, President Jimmy carter, civil right and human right activists. I felt privileged to have visited various states and see successful corporations and non profits operations first hand. I will not do justice to my experience if I begin to describe the lessons that I got from each event. In a nutshell, I can say such interactions have reinforced some of my beliefs and opinions and help me grow personally and professionally.
Roll over your mouse to see where we traveled
My observations
I enjoyed my Humphrey year because we got to see and do different stuff. Some of my observations strike me enough to share them with you.
I feel fortunate that my year in the U.S. coincided with the U.S presidential election. Following the presidential campaign from close proximity allows me to see the different sides of American politics and it opened up my eyes to see the animosity between two parties. Even with it’s flaws, the political structure is something that I hoped for my country.
I guess I never gave due attention to the power of networking until I came here. It is one of the first lessons we picked from the beginning and I saw it working in practice. It kind of reminds me of the saying “It is not what you know, but who you know”, but it is different. When you are in a situation that you are among thousands, who seek attention, I guess it helps immensely to have someone pointing to your direction.
It is a privileged to have grand canyon at the backyard of Arizona
Like many foreigners, I was first introduced to the U.S. by Hollywood and the media. They are so busy showing us the power of America that I think they failed to direct attention to the beauty of this country. I went to see Hollywood, but I was blown away by the scenic landscape along the coast in California than I was by Hollywood. I must mention the magical places in Arizona, Grand Canyon and Monument valley. I have never seen anything magnificent like these places, which give one almost spiritual experience. Actually the main appeal of Phoenix to me is its proximity to Grand Canyon more than anything.
Yes there is freedom of speech in U.S. but I think the media are not so free. As in the case of the politics, businesses have heavy hand on U.S. media. Even though this is something, which is widely known as a pitfall of private media, I didn’t feel the impact until I witness it from the inside. If it is good for the business, anything can be news. I found similarity with the heavily government controlled media back home in the way they manipulate the audience with their own agenda. In both cases audience has to make its own careful selection of media to get balanced news diet.
Gun fighters are proud to show their skills at a performance in festival of the West
One of the issues that the media has been covering in the past months is gun control. It is probably the second to the presidential debates that I paid due attention. I didn’t find it a surprise to see people’s interest to hold on to their right to bear arms. But, I have been keen on understanding the reasoning behind and, I was astounded to hear pro gun right people arguing they need to protect themselves from government. In a country that considered itself as a beckon of democracy, I never thought there exist people who think that their government may turn tyrannical at some point and if that happens they will tackle that with their guns. I am still trying to understand.
Looking a head
As exciting as it is to meet new friends and create new connections, it is indescribable to enjoy the company of old ones. I saw friends and families that I haven’t seen in a while, some even after more than 10 years. But those years seem to melt down immediately once we meet and started talking. Most importantly I learned that in the face of everything new one need some kind of familiarity, which is part of who I am. The St Mary’s Ethiopian Orthodox church in Phoenix has been source of my comfort bringing in that familiarity, which I found very helpful especially in the first few weeks.
People often would ask if the Humphrey experience changed me. My Answer is No! I didn’t come to the U.S to change, I came to grow, build on the experience and knowledge that I brought from home. And the program created opportunities for to do so. Most importantly, it has given me time to reflect and direct my focus towards my passion.
I feel like I have already achieved my goals event if I am left with two months of exciting professional affiliation/internship at the east coast before I go home. As Cronkite Humphrey Fellows we also created a vision ourselves, which goes beyond the ten months. We will continue with our conversation as this year is just the beginning.
By Kibnesh C. Fulas
I attended executive leadership training at the beginning of the year. It was one of the most effective and insightful seminar that I ever participated on leadership. The training allows me to define leadership, evaluate myself as a leader and identify my strength as well as points of improvements.
The best definition of leadership that I could come up is “it is the ability to communicate, inspire and influence others to follow and act towards realizing the common vision.” This statement has key words like communication, inspiring, action, common vision, which are essential in meaningful leadership. There needs to be a common goal or vision in the first place for the leadership to prevail. Who is a leader?
A leader must be good communicator to ensure that there is a common understanding of the goal within the team. Leaders must listen, understand and be understood. It is very important for me to realize the significance of understanding how you are perceived as a leader by the others. After all what people think of you matters, especially if those people are the one you want to lead.
Not all leaders are inspiring but the effective ones make you want to follow them. That is what makes a leader different from a manager. There may not necessarily be a legal binding for you to follow the example of a leader but her or his action, principles, mission etc inspire and influence you to follow them. This is why we see some people without a rank but having better influence on a team and be opinion leaders than the ones in higher position.
A leader must lead to action as the whole essence of leadership is achieving the vision. Otherwise the vision will remain a dream. Hence good leaders have to get things done, and must be able to achieve their goals. But how they achieve their goal distinguishes them as a leader. The best leaders have inspired others and they have followers who are behind the wheel. This brings in the element of flexibility. Leaders should know when to direct and when to let others take the lead. They should not necessarily be in the front all the time.
I believe that a person’s leadership style is highly shaped by his/her personality traits, which is formed by culture, education, and life experience. The people that I work with, lived with, or met briefly have left some mark in who I am. I think presenting my personal principles and traits say a lot as to who I am as a leader. There is no one best leadership style, it depends on circumstances and looking into my personality tells better as to what style am going to adopt in different circumstances. Principles
I see myself as open minded, objective and practical person. Being open minded help one to listen and avoid prejudice. I am always ready to learn and face new challenges and this is probably the major factor, which made me reach where I am at the moment.
I don’t often find myself attracted to unrealistic goals like ‘changing the world’. Not that I don’t want this world to change, but I want to spend my energy on something that I can accomplish. I believe that I change the world if I start with aiming at changing a village, a small community, or a group. I am a strong advocate of bottom up approach or starting with a small. This allows me to be part of bigger cause.
Among several talks that I have heard this year, one statement that stays with me and I relate to is about building a cathedral. We have to see ourselves like those people in the medieval period, who built cathedrals. They might not lived to see the end result, but they knew that their cathedral would not come up without their contribution. This is useful to keep in mind specially for someone like me who is in the sector, which is facing a number of challenges and could be frustrating most of the times.
A leader must have core value that she or he lives by. Respect, trust, honesty, and positive thinking are my principles; l live by them regardless of where I am, what I do or who I interact with. This traits that define me and are reflected in my leadership.
Here is the first in a series of catch-up blogs that cover what I was supposed to write about (my book and my leadership paper) and some other topics I had thought of blogging about, but neglected to sit down and write!
First, I will discuss the main points of my leadership book, How Good Do We Have to Be? by Harold Kushner. I think this summary will almost be more effective several weeks after I presented my book, because it challenges me to summarize Kushner’s main points without them fresh in my mind. Kushner argues that people are under constant pressure to be perfect in modern society, constantly comparing themselves with others and competing for love. These actions lead human beings to live lonely, impossibly depressing lives.
Kushner starts with the story of Adam and Eve and uses as it an allegory of man’s struggle for excellence against the forces of his very own humanity. Adam and Eve partook in the Tree of Knowledge and are forever evicted from the Garden of Eden, but in this paradise lost, they experience what it means to be truly human. They think. They love. They suffer. Animals in the garden are not conscious of death or love or sin. They simply follow a network of instincts and Darwinian schemas, breathing, mating and eating. Humans are more than that.
And that’s why we should not be distraught when we occasionally stray from the path of righteousness (or turning in every assignment on time). We were not meant to overcome every obstacle or achieve every accomplishment. Our relationships with parents, siblings and significant others must not function from expectations of perfection, but acknowledgements of flaws. But from those unrealistic ideas form the majority of conflicts, Kushner argues.
What I learned from Kushner’s book applies to leadership because a leader should not, in fact, be seen as a leader. A leader should be someone who conducts his or her tasks with transparency and dignity. As a leader, I do not need to be the only one in charge. I must simply be the person who overlooks the project as a whole and delegates where help is needed. And, as Kushner says, I should acknowledge my flaws and mistakes with as much confidence as I flaunt my talents.
Having most of the Hubert H. Humphrey program finished and behind me, I have unique opportunity to reflect this year where I was exposed to all kinds of leadership styles and persons, and to try to discover what kind of leader is growing inside of me?
During this Humphrey year I have worked with many leaders, tested my leadership skills in completely different situations. Observing different leaders thorugh books and conferences. First book which I choose to read was pocket guide for a leaders “Developing The Leader Within You” by John C. Maxwell. One of the best citations from this book is for a sure a Chinese proverb which says, “ If you are planning for one year, grow rice. If you are planning for twenty years, grow trees. If you are planning for centuries, grow men” (pg. 181.)
Because I love to take different perspectives, for second book I choose to dig into the early years of growing artistic New York City, reading biography of Patti Smith in the book “Just Kids”.
I will share two of most significant quotes from this book : “Where does it all lead? What will become of us? These were our young questions, and young answers were revealed. It leads to each other. We become ourselves” pg. 79; and “I didn’t feel for Warhol the way Robert did. His work reflected a culture I wanted to avoid. I hated the soup and felt a little for the can. I preferred artist who transformed his time, not mirrored it.” pg. 69.
For the final part of my professional year at Walter Cronkite School journalism and communication, I had to do several interviews with different professionals and try to dig into their perspectives discovering their opinions about what leadership is and how do they see their personal leadership style?
Some of the answers were:
“Collaborative Leadership – I prefer to work as part of a group or team to achieve goals.”
Casidy- bussines woman, owner of Vineyeard, USA
“I like creative leadership style because creativity only, I think, leaves the necessary openness that is often synonymous with the birth of something truly new and revolutionary.”
Giulia – working in branch of assistance, integrating, education of foreigners in Italy.
“My favorite leadership style is a mix of Democratic and People-Oriented Leadership. Because I believe that people are the key of success and if they are involved and responsible they will be more efficient, satisfied and whole business more successful.”
Tomislava-Regional Brand Manager for Deborah, B&H
“My favorite leadership style would be to lead with wisdom and love. It seems this would be the absolute best way to inspire people to bring out the best leaders within themselves. By using wisdom and love, one helps people rise to higher levels of understanding not only about the circumstances we might face as the leader and the led, but also about how decision-making defines who we are.” –
Mat – Safari guide in Africa.
Well, for sure I confirmed through this experience things, which I was feeling before and believing in them. Creativity, collaboration, non-judgmental style of leadership must be the one, which will create health community ready to work together, improve and learn new things. If I have to define in any way my leadership style it must be in some way creative, influential and collaborative. I believe that more of our love patience and time more we invest – more we get back and while we are leading others we are, at the same time, learning new things about ourselves. But also I don’t want to close, define and limit my leadership style inside of any form, just like art work, as creativity is something, which makes us, always go over our limits and try new approaches and that should include infinite possibilities of learning and creating better life for community.
As I reflect back on the many things I’ve learned about leadership this semester, one lesson repeatedly stands out: leaders aren’t afraid of failure. As an extreme “A” type personality and perfectionist, this has been quite the eye-opener for me. Realizing that “grey area” is okay—in fact, often better—than applying black and white rules to the world around me has made this semester one of the best. Not only am I more open, but I’m more comfortable with myself. This, in turn, has allowed me to push myself to new boundaries. Because I’ve learned it’s okay if I make a mistake, I’ve been more willing to take on new leadership roles I normally would’ve turned down.
The other day I was reading an article on Forbes.com titled “5 Ways To Conquer Your Fear Of Failure” that solidified this lesson even more for me. It’s a wonderful article, and one I suggest everyone should read—especially if you have any “perfectionist” tendencies.
Here are the five key actions the author suggests to shake off your fear of fear:
1) Embrace your mistakes. Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck identified a certain way of thinking shared by people who embrace their mistakes in the pursuit of success: the growth mindset is resilient in the face of failure and sees it as necessary for learning and achievement. If you immediately berate yourself for a mistake, you’re probably stuck in a fixed mindset. Dweck’s website offers some powerful insights into changing your mindset, but the bottom line is this: to change your mind about failure, all you have to do is…change your mind. Stop beating yourself up. Successful people don’t see failure as catastrophic, they see it as a good data point to guide their next attempts.
2) Stop trying so hard. Author and researcher (and self-professed “change geek”) Susan Alexander tells a story about being on a biking tour of the French countryside, when she seemed to hit a physical wall on what should have been a fairly easy hill. She struggled to make the climb, wondering if fatigue, mechanical problems or the altitude were making her discouraged and exhausted. With quite a distance left still to climb, she was enduring what should have been an enjoyable ride. Then a man in her party rode up from behind her and told her she was in the wrong gear: she was pushing too hard and making too little progress. Alexander’s lesson: “A quick fix is right there in front of us (hello, Occam’s Razor!), but we miss it. It’s either too obvious, or we forge straightaway into over-functioning or over-analyzing, forgetting that simplicity is often a formidable match for complexity.”
3) Ask for help. We’re afraid of looking less than competent when we ask for help, as if we’ve failed because we don’t know absolutely everything there is to know about everything. Here’s the secret you already understand about yourself, but forget about others: when someone asks for your help, they make you feel appreciated and therefore, you are eager to help them. Now, I’m not talking about the purposeful helplessness that manipulators use to get others to do their work or thinking for them. I’m talking about sincere, meaningful engagement with someone whose knowledge or assistance you value. Remember how you felt the last time someone said to you, “Hey, I’d really appreciate your help on this.” It felt good, right? The asker got what they wanted, and you felt valued. Make someone else feel good about helping you, and in the process advance toward your goal
4) Say no when you’re afraid to. Get out of the habit of assuming that when someone important asks you for something, your reply should automatically be yes. When your manager piles yet another deliverable on your stack, or your best friend asks you to babysit on an exhausting week night, or your daughter asks you to stop planting flowers to go buy her science fair supplies, you do a quick calculation of the consequences of “No.” Often we say yes to avoid conflict, but think for a minute how you’re training these people to view your valuable time: it’s at their command, their needs are more important than yours, and you’re not capable of negotiating things that are important to you.
5) Say yes when you’re afraid to. A friend of mine is making the leap from a stable, predictable (read: wretchedly unchallenging) corporate job with benefits into the shark tank of entrepreneurship and individual health coverage. She spent many months unhappy in her job, but was afraid of flying solo for all of the obvious reasons: unpredictable income, no built-in infrastructure, uncertain chances of success, a hangnail turning into an amputation because she couldn’t afford the medical bills. She clearly was afraid to say yes to herself, to the opportunity, to the friends and colleagues who believed in her, because yes meant uncertainty – but also the possibility of enormous growth and success and lots of people watching her and asking things of her because she was successful. Saying yes can be scarier than saying no.
Soo USA year is ending in couple months.. So far have seen: Niagara Falls, Buffalo, Phoenix, Tucson, Lemon Mnt., Kitt Peak, Sedona, Grand Canyon, Flagstaff, San Diego, Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, Hollywood, Santa Monica pier, Santa Barbara, Carmel by the sea, Big Sur with elephant seals tons of them and Henry Miller Library in the forest, Sacramento, San Francisco, UC Davis, Oakland, Seattle, Las Vegas, New York City, Washington DC, Honolulu, Monument Valley Utah, Florida, Hoover Dam, Arcosanti, Montezuma, Napa Valley… and in front of me maybe some other Canyon in AZ and, Washington few days, and then living month and half in New York City well.. I could say I know USA quite a bit now…
Living in Phoenix and traveling around, and being part of ASU I am trying to get all the best happenings which are organized at this enormous University. By case I had opportunity to meet organizing committee of this year 3rd edition of Human Right Film Festival at ASU. This group of happy, intelligent, divers people is creating something very important for Arizona and launching and touching some extremely important issues for USA but also for the World…
During this three days 5th , 6th and 7th of April at University Tempe I had possibility to see couple of really amazing films, all created by very brave and active film makers.
Saturday was related to Israel and Palestine: justice and human rights? , with some very good insights, and some of the audience got completely new perspective at the whole situation. One of the highlights was film created by co-direction of Israel and Palestinian directors.(Emad Burnat & Guy Davidi).. Academy Award-Nominated 5 Broken Cameras (http://www.kinolorber.com/5brokencameras) .
Interesting story is also that Palestinian director was kept for awhile at the custom on the Airport while he was coming for the L.A. Ceremony, and border patrol had 10000 questions for him.
I guess they haven’t believe that Palestinian film director is actually having award nominated film…
We were honored also to have direct Skype talk with France, and film producer Serge Gordey, who was awake a 3 30 AM just to give us opportunity to discuss film from the first hand…
What I love is how film is showing that united Israeli and Palestinians are standing and protesting for justice and human rights equal for both side…
It is very hard and delicate topic as much as situation. And for sure it will take years and years to find a solution. Generations are born under war time and they even don’t know how the peace look like.. But as organizer say- What WE can do? WE can have a voice… This is interesting site suggested by organizers and film makers http://jewishvoiceforpeace.org/,
As it is written on the web site their message would be- “Israelis and Palestinians: Two Peoples, One Future.”
On Sunday festival was dedicated to The Human Rights of Immigrants.
Big issue in USA, specially in Arizona. Amazing film “Two Americans” have been shown to us and we had opportunity that for a while touch this issue and talk directly with film participants after the screening, and to feel their life struggles.
The lives of Two Americans tangle when 9-year-old Katherine Figueroa watches her Mexican parents arrested by Sheriff Joseph Arpaio on the local news.
It is very important to see USA from different perspective and behind the curtain. Also is extremely important create this kind of art and talk as loud as possible about violation of human rights.
Whatever I watch in my head, I do for sure, reflect on my life experiences and life back in Bosnia.
Violation of Human Rights is something what is happening on a daily basis there, and I definitely believe that our duty as citizens, artists, activists is to raise those issues, questions and try to make impact.
Tag line for mentioned film from film makers is: “A daring take on the Nation’s most recognized lawman and his impact on an entire community” .
Biggest message for me from this edition of festival is for sure- Dare to speak up! It is our duty!
Once more congratulation to all organizers, and hopefully they will also find a link to maybe collaborate with Sarajevo festival about Human Rights “Pravo ljudski” in future editions http://www.pravoljudski.org/index.php?lang=en&Itemid=197
and in front of me maybe some other Canyon in AZ and, Washington few days, and then living month and half in New York City 
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