Name: Erick J. Santiago Jr.
Social Justice Group: 2022-2023, Nuclear Weapons/Nuclear Proliferation
Date of Fieldwork: January 27, 2023
Name of Organization and person (people) with whom you met and their title(s):Daniel Prins: Chief, Security Reform, and works in The Department of Peace Operations
Type of Fieldwork: Tour of Organization
What I did and what I learned about my topic, activism, social justice work or civil and human rights work from this fieldwork?:
On the day of January 27, 2023 I was very eager to take a trip to the United Nations (U.N.) Building and learn all about the U.N and other countries on Earth as well alongside Ajax, Ajev, and Tyler. When we arrived we were greeted by a man named Daniel Prins. He worked in the Security Reform and in the Department of Peace Operations. Daniel met us at the outside of one of the buildings consisting of the U.N. and showed us the treaties that were placed outside and the other buildings that were a part of the U.N. For example, we were shown the gift of Italy which was called the Sphere within a Sphere and a chunk of the Berlin Wall from Germany.
As we walked inside the building we were greeted with more gifts from a multitude of countries. There was a gift from the Soviet Union which is a replica of Russia’s first Sputnik. This was the first ever satellite to orbit the Earth. As we took one of the elevators to the third floor we passed more gifts that were everywhere I put my eyes to but more importantly we saw the U.N. meeting room. This is the room where 7 people from each state speak on their countries behalf and it was amazing to see in person. Sadly we weren’t able to stay long because the K-9 unit had to sniff all around the room for safety precautions due to it being Holocaust Remembrance Day. People from their respective countries would come and speak on the Holocaust in that room.
We took a right after we exited the Meeting room to go to a room that is meant for tourists I’m assuming because it looked like a mini-museum. This room was called the Disarmament Room and it had a bunch of interesting information on land mines and nuclear weapons. Daniel informed us about the different types of landmines like the ones for human beings or the ones for vehicles. He also talked about the different types of nuclear bombs. For example, a way you are able to detonate a nuclear bomb is if you are able to connect a phone to the bomb to send a code to explode the bomb. After that, we talked about the treaties that countries had with each other and I was blown away by how many there were. 2 of the treaties I found remarkable are the Outer Space Treaty (O.S.T.) and The Treaty on Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (T.P.N.W.). The O.S.T. states that there cannot be any form of nuclear weapons stored in outer space. This was placed because this limits the space where countries are allowed to store the nuclear weapons and it is remarkable to me because Outer Space is enormous. The T.P.N.W. tells us no countries aren’t allowed to own or experiment with nuclear weapons except for 5. Those 5 consist of the United States of America, France, China, United Kingdom, and Russia but North Korea backed out of the treaty and is now experimenting with nuclear weapons and trying to get to our level.
After the Disarmament room we ventured off to a table and chair set to take a short break because our legs were tired. The set of the table and chairs was actually a gift from Finland. We all sat down and asked questions before we had to leave due to Daniel having a meeting at 10:30. It was 10:15 at the time and he gave us one last look of the U.N. Meeting Room before we went back to the first floor and departed. It was an amazing experience and I will cherish it for the rest of my life. Thank you again to Daniel Prins and taking the time out of your day to give us an interview.
