Meeting Henri Tiphagne (People’s Watch)

A couple days ago, we were given the opportunity to speak with a man named Henri Tiphagne, who is the executive director of a large human rights organization called People’s Watch. I’m extremely honored to have taken part in the lecture/conversation, and I’ll certainly remember his words for a long time. But in all honesty, it was a bit frustrating. Henri told us much about the difficulties of the state of Tamil Nadu that we’re in, as well as the whole of India, and he gave us several specific stories that were very heavy, although most had good endings. Everything he said was full of passion, and I felt a huge amount of respect for him just seeing him talk, but the realities he spoke about left me feeling rather helpless. I felt helpless not just about what has happened and what is happening here, but about my inability to have a significant effect on any of the overwhelming number of problems in my community, let alone the world. Regardless, he nailed several important points into my brain: even if I don’t feel like I can cause a noticeable or significant change in the world, that doesn’t mean I should stop trying, and it’s okay to be angry, because that’s the first step towards truly wanting to make a change.

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