News

01.11.2006

Michael Slaby's New York Diary (Nov 2006)

Yes! I made it through the tight security controls at the airport, and here I am, on my first flight to the US, ever!

However, the trip began on a sad note: While waiting to get on board, I phoned my good friend and colleague Sylvanus Murray from Sierra Leone. Sylvanus is the founder and coordinator of the Earth Charter Youth Group Sierra Leone, who achieved incredible successes in reintegrating former child soldiers into their communities. Sylvanus has also been invited to come to New York, and participate in the Young Leaders Peacebuilding Retreat at the Retreat Center in Pine Bush, upstate New York, that is run by the Chan Buddhist community Dharma Drum Mountain. Sylvanus told me he had spent eight days in Conakry to apply for his visa and was rejected. Eight days! While I can enter into the US without any visa at all, and even felt my hands shaking just when I couldn’t find my hotel’s address when I was asked to fill out one single paper form for my visa-free entrance into the US, poor Sylvanus spent several weeks to get all his files ready, and still was rejected.