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Travel
thrills Chosen to represent Sri Lanka at the Phillip C. Jessup Moot Court Competition, held from March 28 to April 3, Hejaaz, Kanishka and I are in Washington DC, USA. Amidst our arduous preparations for the competition this was our first attempt at taking a coffee break! The Jessup in the world of mooting is like the Olympics. It’s big. Ninety-six teams from 84 countries packed the ballroom of the Washington Wyndham Hotel for the opening ceremony. The atmosphere was overwhelming. Afghanistan, Bosnia Herzegovina, Azerbaijan, Latvia…what were previously just names in the news or dots on a world map were now warm, friendly, intelligent individuals. All law students, from different backgrounds, with diverse personalities and distinctive opinions, speaking one language, that of English, in one passionate voice, that of International Law. Here was unity at its best; I couldn’t help but wonder why countries fight? The competition was an experience for Jessup had an unique approach. The focus was not on winning a moot or having the case held in your favour, but as we soon found out, it was all about having a ‘formal conversation’ with court. The judges constantly challenge you and make you think. Their questions come in a volley, brow beating but nevertheless thought provoking. It’s as if they’re picking your brains on a developing area of the law. Even the best and the most prepared teams can’t get complacent. Unlike in Sri Lanka where it is often echoed, “know your facts and the law will take care of itself,” we soon realised factual arguments are respected but legal arguments are valued. You are expected to know the law across the board and not merely that pertaining to the brief. After every moot we would return challenged with wider areas to research, different angles to explore and new interpretations to consider. While other teams had American coaches (former Jessup mooters) and their laptops with Internet facilities, we merely had ourselves and a few International Law texts. But Sri Lanka, in her second year at the competition, lacked only in terms of resources and never in confidence. We gave it our all. Up against Ghana, Malaysia, the Czech Republic and the United Kingdom we won one of the four moots. Towards the end of the competition the organisers had lined up a National Dress Ball. A colourful event, it saw the delegates, free of the rigours and stresses of mooting in their country’s best. Clad in Osari after much difficulty, we had further explaining to do when a curious delegate wondered whether what we wore was called, “Oh Sari”! The Italians quite unaware of the National Dress Ball had first contemplated resorting to wrapping themselves in the hotel bed sheets and appearing as ancient Romans. Dropping temperatures, instead of dampening their ingenuity, saw them in borrowed aprons from the hotel kitchen, posing as Pizza boys with a note book stuck in their pockets and a pencil precariously sitting behind their ears! The competition over, out came the maps and the guidebooks; the remainder of days being devoted to blissful sight seeing. Our first stop was the museums at the Smithsonian. Natural History, Air and Space…there’s no getting enough of it. After two full days of roaming in its vast halls we soon realised that our days in DC were fast coming to an end and we were still to see the White House and the Capitol! Thankfully we soon discovered the ‘old town trolley’; a hop-on, hop-off bus that tours the interesting sights in DC. DC is a State that has strived to preserve its old world charm. In Georgetown, home to some of the Kennedy’s, Abraham Lincoln’s son and Henry Kissinger among others, the houses still retain the traditional architecture of large front porches, louvered windows and gabled roofs. The town planning is such that even in the face of development we were told that ‘what you see is what will be’; that is years down the line the city will remain unchanged in its appearance. Rolling down the highway we got more than just a glimpse of the Washington Monument, the Lincoln memorial, with its 36 columns (signifying the 36 States of America at the time of Lincoln’s death) where Martin Luther King gave his famous “I have a dream” speech, Arlington Cemetery where the American National heroes are buried, the US Supreme Court, the Capitol and the White House. Driving through Massachusetts Avenue famous for the number of embassies situated on either side of it, a glimpse of the Sri Lankan flag was sufficient to raise the loudest cheers from its three patriotic citizens! Our trip to the US would not have been complete without New York. Braving the freak weather experienced at the time (temperatures as low as 3 to 4 degrees Celsius), we took to the streets determined to see as much as our brief stay would permit. New York is like the wild child of the United States. There’s a craziness to it that is exhilarating. Crowded streets, blinding neon lights…the ambience loud and wacky. From the NYPD police patrols to the yellow taxis et al…it was just like in the movies. From Time Square to Ground Zero, Madison Square Garden to Fifth Avenue, a quiet stroll in Central Park, a sky ride at the Empire State building, a ferry ride to the Statue of Liberty…we zig zagged the city loving every bit of it. The highlight of it all was a play on Broadway called “I love you, you are perfect, now change,” a hilarious musical satirising personal relationships and a visit to the United Nations where we were given a conducted tour seeing first hand, the room where States sign treaties, where the Security Council deliberates and the General Assembly sits! On our way back home we spent a week in the United Kingdom. London for me was like a monopoly board come alive. Strolling in the park at Regent Street, visiting the Sherlock Holmes Museum at Baker Street, having our caricatures sketched at Leicester Square or window-shopping on Oxford Street…it all sounded so familiar. Sightseeing in London during the Easter vacation is not easy as we soon found out, having to endure the biting cold in a winding queue standing for hours on the sidewalk outside ‘Madam Tussards,’ the famous wax work museum and the ‘London Dungeon,’ a horror house cum museum based on the darker side of early London where the Queen beheaded her traitors and Jack the Ripper prowled the streets. On a rare sunny day we headed off to Stratford on Avon. The rolling green hills and the tiny bleating lambs gave way to a delightful little town with quaint houses and cobbled streets. Shakespeare’s birthplace, Nash’s House (the house of his grand daughter Elizabeth who married Thomas Nash), Hall’s Croft (home to Shakespeare’s daughter Susanna who married Dr. John Hall), Anne Hathaway’s Cottage (his wife’s home) and Mary Arden’s house (where his mother grew up as a child) were situated within easy distance of each other and offered many a detail of the Bard’s life from his Baptism certificate to his last will in which all he left for his wife was his second best bed! To cricket lovers like us the Lords cricket ground was a must see. On the day we went a match was in progress between Sussex and the Marelyborne Cricket Club. Whilst wandering around we were approached by a guard who informed us that if we stayed we could go out on to the middle, when play stopped for tea. We could hardly curtail our excitement. As the short gate was opened and we were waved through, the guard shouted after us as we made a bolt to the green, “tell your folks you walked on the sacred grounds at Lords!” We ran around with huge grins on our faces and soon joined the rest of the spectators taking pictures of the pavilion and the Long Room. We were also rewarded with a photo of Pakistani cricketer Mushtaq Ahamed who was playing for Sussex, as he posed for us on the balcony! Now back in Sri Lanka each of us is busy with our separate lives. But those three splendid weeks spent together will always remain with us, for like Columbus we discovered a new world. Not merely of sights and sounds but a new world of confidence and inspiration, of new friends and endless opportunities. What a journey it has been! |
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