second revised draft

           “Like Little Bee, Sarah is a survivor. But the lessons of the past are not enough to steer either woman to safety. Instead, in a world full of turpitude and injustice, it is their bold, impulsive choices that challenge the inevitability of despair, transforming a political novel into an affecting story of human triumph.” I felt extremely involved into the novel since Cleve wrote it so visualized that made me feel as I was walking on streets of London, or on the beach in Nigeria. I was interested yet inspired to read till the end, despite the fact that “Little Bee” was about human rights with a very   touching example,.  Etkins brings up a perfect point that the novel itself transforms from political novel into amazing piece of writing about human rights, life threatening decisions, rapid thoughts and development in characters. With every page, every chapter we could see new sides of each personage. I was completely confused about my relation to Sarah and Little Bee, because both of them faced unbelievable obstacles during their pretty long journey, although both did actions which caused a lot of emotional pain to each other. At the end I realized that their lives are interconnected, they were meant to meet each other, to learn from one another. We saw an injustice in terms of human rights of refugee and a child in the same face, we saw an unfair treatment and tough life choices of a woman, who did not deserve any “punishment” for her actions. All of that made me consider such issues, it made me think critically who was right and who was wrong, who followed the implicit moral rules and who didn’t, who was showing the most care and who did not, and lastly I was how it all ended.

Little Bee is a book which focuses on human rights in a big picture. Most of the rights refer to refugees and children as well as violence towards innocent citizens in Nigeria. Outrage of the law in terms of conventions created another problem for both Little Bee and Sarah when they had to find solution for every single death threatening problem, was it ethical and moral, was it fair that woman had to survive instead of enjoying their lives?

One of the main focuses of the novel was an insight into life of a refugee girl in terms of human rights. As the book does not provide a clear definition, although gives us a very precise picture, we should understand the exact meaning of the word. “Refugee is a person who is outside his or her habitual residence; has a well-founded fear of being prosecuted […] ; and is unable or unwilling to avail him or herself of the protection of that country, or to return there, for fear of prosecution.”  ( article 1A(2), UNHCR) Escaping from terrifying home land, Little Bee gets on the ship to the London , to the “queens land” , therefore she becomes a refugee. She was not protected from deportation, yet she had to go through many adjustments in her character, however she realized that such corrections would be appropriate and beneficial for her stay in the detention center. She had to learn new “queens language”, she had to change her preferences in terms of clothing, rethink her behavior, which lead to the changes in her personality. Such difficulties often times happen with refugees, despite the fact that convention states the opposite. Those detention centers do not care about basic human rights, not even mentioning human rights of refugees. After some time spent in the UK with Sarah, Little Bee was deported back to Nigeria, without any research done about her background, past experience and reason to execute her home country. According to the Convention relating to the status of refugees and its 1967 protocol, “A refugee should not be returned to a country where she or he faces serious threats to his or her life or freedom”. It was against her human rights to be sent back to a life-threatening place. We see brave behavior from Little Bee, although she gave up to fight her rights, she was accepting every action taken against her, due to lack of knowledge about her human rights, she was driven by instincts of survival. Her main aim was to stay alive, therefore she was trying to please every person who she met on her way.

 At the beginning as I was reading the book I asked myself a question: Why Little Bee would leave her country? Living in a civilized world, myself would not even imagine what can happen in such countries like Nigeria. As it is mentioned in the article “The 1951 convention. Relating to the status of refugees and its 1967 protocol” , “…individuals may suffer such serious violations of their human rights that they have to leave their homes , their families and their communities to find sanctuary in another country.” So did Little Bee by escaping from an oil war in Nigeria, she was aiming to come to a developed country, she expected a protection from the UK. Instead, she was sent to detention center where she was obeying to authorities which treated her poorly. As Sarah found out that Andrew did a big research about detention centers she focuses on the passage that said, “We find the humiliating procedures excessive. We do not see how anyone could abuse an excess of sanitary towels”. This phrase refers to how detention centers are in the Uk, they find normal to intimidate refugees, they do not care about any human rights especially when it comes to the rights of a child.

Little Bee is not only a refugee, but a child as well, she is 16 years old, which is considered under the legal age in the UK. Instead of being given special attention and care , detention centers saw Little Bee in particular and other kids as criminals, nevertheless refugee children do have rights as well as other children. According to the article 22 in the Convention on the human rights of the child,  “Children have the right to special protection and help if they are refugees (if they have been forced to leave their home and live in another country).” That means law requires special instutions to have a closer attention to the kids. Detention centers do not p5rovide simple health care and hygiene not only to kids, but to adults, children have to have a humanitarian assistance in order to develop and mature. Children especially those like Little Bee should have an access to education too, they are forced to learn how to survive, although they are never taught how to read and write, they do not know basic learning skills.

                  (Counterargument about sarah) “ Nigeria is a hub for criminal activity, including the narcotics trafficking, illicit financial transactions, and street crime.”

Most of the articles stated in the Convention are just written on the paper, they are not followed in real life, so I want to prove them wrong, because according to what wee see happening in Little Bee contradicts with all those articles mentioned above. Quotes about Nigeria are chosen specifically towards Little Bee, but not intentionally to anyhow show a country as whole criminal hub. Those quotes are important because they give us clear picture of a background from the events, they give us an insight into oil war. What is interesting is that those quotes show not only the actual events but how people are, how does society work which helped me to answer the question, why would a 16 year old girl run away from home. But once we are cosmopolitanized people read about it and read such books as Little Bee we realize that world Is the way more complicated when we see it. Those quotes helped me think from the political standpoint  how corrupted the government is , and a lives  of one or few little girls are not significant at all, it wont make any difference in terms of government’s development , it makes me feel sad , that cruelty is such a common feature back there. And the only way to get out of it is to take an action and re - teach everyone, but it would take generations, to stop such a violence.