Has America become apathetic towards human rights?

Doctors Without Borders has reported that 75% of all the rape cases it dealt with worldwide were in the eastern Congo, 30 percent of whom were children.

Rape has become ingrained in Congolese civilian society and is widely used to determine power relations. Men and teenagers rape not only women and girls of all ages, but also other males. Is it safe to declare that those who participate in this atrocity have devolved into something less than human? Resorting to pure physical power in order to have their will become the ‘rule of the land’ IS the result of something less than human.

How much longer can the rest of the world sit back on its pampered laurels and allow this atrocity to continue? How much longer can we stomach the animalistic enslavement of women by saying it is their country therefore it is none of our business? The U.S. has ignored this tenet many times when it is to their benefit.

There is the fine distinction between respecting sovereignty of a nation and respecting the safety of its human inhabitants. Which is more valuable?

We Americans protest any attempt to step on our rights yet we don’t care about what happens elsewhere. And we prove this every day by simply moving onto the next news story.

The U.S. partook of its animalistic behavior by unleashing its formidable military muscle against Iraq based on human rights violations, among other things, but we wouldn’t dream of taking on China over their human rights abuses. Nor will we take on Congo over its human rights abuses, nor Burma over its human rights abuses, nor any other country unless there are oil reserves we want to control and the country is smaller than us.

It deeply saddens me to realize that the U.S. weighs the safety of helpless victims against how resource-rich their nation is. For surely if the Congo had oil reserves coveted by the U.S. we would be occupying them, and saving at least a majority of these women from their hell, instead of occupying Iraq.

Rape represents a grave lack of respect for human life and dignity. To use it as a tool of war is both a war crime and a crime against humanity. To allow it to continue lessens the value of our humanity.

For a man to turn against his wife after she becomes a victim of rape demeans the man and further victimizes the woman.

A society that views a raped woman as ‘damaged goods’ simply validates the power these animals have over them.

Again I ask, how long are we going to allow this to continue?

Tragedy of Falun Gong

clipped from www.aim.org A report by the Falun Gong Human Rights Working Group, entitled “Forget Not the Beijing Olympics’ Victims,” urges readers to remember that despite China’s promises to improve human rights, the Olympics ended up serving as an excuse for the Chinese government to arrest and imprison thousands of people who had shown signs of opposition to the current regime. The report includes a list of people who were arrested in connection with the Beijing Olympics, indicating where each person was arrested, and in many cases where he or she is being held. The list has the names of over 10,000 people, all of whom were arrested since 2007. The main purpose of the Falun Gong Human Rights Working Group report was to “remind those who rationalized rewarding the Olympics to Beijing as an opportunity to help human rights in China that they have a responsibility to come to the rescue of those who suffered the consequences of their failed rationalization.”

The Chinese government “used the Olympics’ security as a pretext to apprehend, torture, and murder people who had already suffered prolonged human rights violations in China.

The U.S. continues to ignore China's humans rights violations in deference to its own economic interests.

Every time we buy something marked with 'made in China' we are contributing to the worsening human rights violations that directly violate pre-Olympics promises.

“Falun Gong practitioners, Tibetans, Uyghurs, Christians, and human rights lawyers and defenders have been victimized and lost their freedom because of their refusal to conform to the abusive regime,” the report ends

“But those who choose to be in the same boat and rise and fall with such an abusive regime have lost their conscience.”

America Is in Need of a Moral Bailout

clipped from www.truthdig.com In decaying societies, politics become theater The elite, who have hollowed out the democratic system to serve the corporate state, rule through image and presentation They express indignation at AIG bonuses and empathy with a working class they have spent the last few decades disenfranchising, and make promises to desperate families that they know will never be fulfilled We kneel before a cult of the self, elaborately constructed by the architects of our consumer society, which dismisses compassion, sacrifice for the less fortunate, and honesty Success, always defined in terms of money and power, is its own justification our moral collapse is as terrifying, and as dangerous, as our economic collapse. unless we grasp the “societal play of forces that operates beneath the surface of political forms” we will be cursed with a more ruthless form of corporate power, one that does away with artifice and the seduction of a consumer society and instead wields power through naked repression.

Moral nihilism. The author of this commentary, Chris Hedges, has been able to put into words the sentiment I have felt about this nation for a very long time.

Our educational system has gone to hell in favor of supplementing corporations and the military, instead of producing thinkers addressing the larger moral questions of meaning and purpose.

We give ourselves too easily to the influence of reality television, mass media, and cultural assumptions.

Our capacity to be affected by human rights issues has been relegated to the occasional financial gift because it makes us feel better, if we bother to give at all.

We turn a blind eye to American corporations involvement with environmental and wildlife destruction as long as we get the latest new product we think we must have.

We subjugate our dignity to the never-ending thirst for more money, things, and power.

Where has our value system gone? What has it been replaced with?

Moral nihilism.

Chevron Is Running a Con Game

Found this blog post at The Unsuitablog that so accurately nails the arrogance of corporate America in general and the oil industry in particular, that I just had to pass it along and, of course, add a few of my own comments.

It’s time to recognize Chevron for the hypocritical, phony, band-wagon-jumping, contemptible, lying, bastards they are.

The con game they are manufacturing against America’s common sense to make us believe they care about what is happening to the environment and us while providing a lifeline for the oppressive and murderous Burmese regime is disgraceful.

They orchestrated a coup against the US House of Rep last year in the wake of the juntas crackdown on it’s citizens by arguing that if they didn’t maintain access to Burma’s rich gas fields then someone else will. And our fool reps, with dollar signs in their eyes instead of compassion in their hearts, bought it.

This has only emboldened Chevron to pull that same wool over the public's eyes so they can stay in a business that enslaves indigents and props up a Fascist government all in the name of profit.

Please, don't support them.

Photo Credit: The Unsuitablog

Clinton discusses global warming in China, but stays away from human rights

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton set a new tone Saturday for U.S. relations with China, saying the two nations would join a common battle against global warming even as they look for ways to pull the world out of economic turmoil and recession.

Clinton cited the "tremendous opportunity" before Washington and Beijing as they unite on "one of the most important issues that has ever, ever faced humanity."

She side stepped the "tremendous opportunity" before Washington and Beijing to unite on an even more important issue that has ever, ever faced humanity.

What can you expect from a politician. Money and economics always wins out over human rights. There just isn’t enough money to be made in human rights.

To the apparent relief of China, Clinton downplayed issues of human rights and religious freedom, saying they were raised in her meetings but that the administration of President Barack Obama saw advantage to working with Beijing on areas of greater agreement.

Several human rights groups decried Clinton's suggestion that human rights would not be a priority in U.S. engagement with China. Amnesty International said it was "shocked and extremely disappointed."

Another advocacy group, China Human Rights Defenders, said police confined some dissidents to their homes during Clinton's weekend visit to Beijing.

Among those under lockdown was constitutional scholar Zhang Zuhua, one of hundreds of dissidents who late last year signed Charter 08, which calls for greater civil rights and political reforms.

Thankfully, human rights groups will not allow China’s continued human rights violations to go unnoticed, even when ‘our leaders’ will.

Close Guantanamo, Yes. Prosecute the Detainees, Absolutely

President Obama has ordered the U.S. government to suspend prosecutions of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay for 120 days “in the interest of justice”.

I am all for “justice”. I am for justice for the loss of life of over 3,000 Americans on September 11, 2001. I am all for justice for the countless lives lost in Iraq (members of our armed forces as well as Iraqi citizens). I am all for justice for the lives lost as the result of terrorists who maniacally take other peoples lives for their own glory.

This military prison, set up by the Bush administration in 2002, has become a major issue because critics argue it has become a symbol of mismanagement and overreach in the war on terror.

Don’t let this ‘symbol of mismanagement and overreach’ become the making of another symbol. That being that in the rush to cleanse ourselves of the atrocities of the Bush administration we allow terrorists to go free.

Jamil Dakwar, a representative for the American Civil Liberties Union at the base, said the ACLU believes all charges against the prisoners should be dropped.

Jamil Dakwar is a moron.

Among those facing trial at Guantanamo Bay is Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the confessed organizer of the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington.

Why should this man go free after his responsibility in killing over 3,000 Americans?

This is the major problem I have with the ACLU. They would rather Americans ‘forgive’ him his murderous actions by turning the other cheek, to allow him and terrorists like him to strike that cheek as well.

Haven’t these bleeding hearts learned anything from the past? Love does not conquer all. Society cannot allow murders and sociopaths to walk free among the very people they feel compelled to kill.

I am a compassionate person. I believe in live and let live. But I also understand the fatalistic flaw of that philosophy. If this world consisted only of people who practiced this philosophy humans rights groups such as the ACLU and Human Rights Watch would not be necessary. Unfortunately, this is not reality. We don’t live in a perfect world where violence is not considered a viable answer.

The true reality is that we are forced to deal with murderous self-interests who are out to eradicate anyone who does not believe as they do. It is our duty, to ourselves, to our future, and to all of the murdered victims, to correctly identify those self-interests and remove them from our society.

The ACLU needs to balance its pursuit of the protection of human rights for the living with demanding justice for the victims of people like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

Human Rights, Democracy and Fascism

Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s president, made the statement that Zimbabwe was his. His ‘dictatorship in democracy clothing’ is showing through, again.

The world sat back and watched as Mugabe systematically evicted white landowners off of their farms, which led to the downfall of the entire economy.

The world sat back and watched as Mugabe’s military coerced the people of Zimbabwe through violence to vote for him.

The world sat back and watched as Mugabe closed down hospitals amidst the worst outbreak of cholera in recent memory. He claims the cholera epidemic is over even while thousands overflowed into neighboring countries desperate for medical help they were denied in their home country. He is silencing health workers and restricting access to the huge number of death certificates that give the same cause of death in order to cover up the true numbers.

He does all this while hanging onto the claim that he is running a democratic state.

All we have heard from the U.S. on these matters is a disagreement to Robert Mugabe claiming Zimbabwe as his.

State Department spokesperson Sean McCormack told reporters "He (Mugabe) thinks that the state of Zimbabwe and the people of Zimbabwe are there only to serve his interest. It's the other way around - or it should be the other way around."

This is a true statement, but when it comes from a representative of an administration that has repeatedly gone against the wishes of the vast majority of American people and stepped on their constitutional rights in the process, it is a hypocritical statement.

He went on to say "Those who govern should govern in the interest of the governed. The governed should be able to determine who governs them and in what manner."

Saddam Hussein came into power as a result of a coup and ruled Iraq with an iron fist but the Iraqi people boasted a strong economy building new schools, universities, hospitals, and factories. Any internal opposition to his rule was quickly and brutally squashed.

China’s leadership is appointed by party officials and controls its people through censorship of political speech in the interest of social stability. Widespread civil rights violations are well known, such as, systematic use of lengthy detention without trial, forced confessions, torture, mistreatment of prisoners, restrictions of freedom of speech, assembly, association, religion, the press, and labor rights. In order to host the 2008 Summer Olympics, China promised to issue permits allowing people to protest in so-called 'protest parks' during the Games, but it was reported that of 77 applications, 74 were withdrawn, two suspended and one vetoed.

The military junta in Burma (Myanmar) came into power as the result of a coup and, after a brief attempt at democracy, became one of the world's most repressive and abusive regimes. The military tightly controls the judiciary, rules by decree, suppresses all basic rights, and commits human rights abuses with impunity. Official corruption is reportedly rampant both at the higher and local levels.

Robert Mugabe was given control of Zimbabwe in 1980 by British authorities decolonizing their holdings in Africa. Since then, he has systematically taken away the rights to shelter, food, freedom of movement and residence, freedom of assembly, and the protection of the law. There are assaults on the media, political opposition, civil society activists, and human rights defenders.

George W Bush was given the presidential office in 2000 by the electorate not the popular vote. Al Gore received more popular votes than did George W Bush and still lost the election due to electoral votes. Since then he has stepped on constitutional rights through domestic spying and created Homeland Security which only cements the federal governments control over its citizenry.

The record of human rights violations of these nations, as well as many others, are documented and well known to the international community.

The U.S. claims to hold the protection of human rights as a cornerstone of democracy, and may actually voice its opinion condemning those leaders whose actions corrupt this idea. But, if the offending country has valuable resources, as does Iraq, and it is calculated that the U.S. military can quickly overthrow that government and gain access to those resources our leadership will resort to lies in order to do so.

China is of course too powerful for America to repeat what it did to Iraq, so we just put on the show of protesting their practices while at the same time helping to prop up their economy with billions of dollars a year for their goods.

In Burma, well America could kick their butts in a heart beat but, U.S. based companies already have an inroad to their resources so the U.S. government only occasionally and mildly protests that junta’s treatment of its citizens and continue to support them by purchasing the products exported by those same American companies. Americans ignore the fact that the impoverished people of Burma are forced into slave labor, raped, murdered and jailed for speaking out as long as they get access to their resources.

Zimbabwe does not have any resources that the U.S. wants so the U.S. basically ignores them until the international cry gets so loud that turning a blind eye is no longer an option. And in the end what does the U.S. object to? Mugabe’s rhetoric in claiming Zimbabwe as his.

You think maybe America’s priorities are a just a bit skewed?

While it is true that we in America have the right to vote without the threat of violence, we have very little sway over who really gets chosen run or over what the elected official does once they are in office. As illustrated when President Bush (owner of the lowest popularity ranking of any American president in history) reneged on many of his campaign promises, which is truly the only thing we voters have to base our decision on.

American democracy in many respects is a sham which can easily by manipulated by ‘masters of the game’. America was manipulated into going to war with Iraq, against the will of the American people, through the use of strategically released misinformation concerning Iraq’s intentions to use WMD’s against the American people. Saddam was deemed a threat to a nation much stronger than his. His refusal to be bullied into opening his borders to foreign inspectors gave the Bush administration the stage from which to launch a plan to build military bases within Iraq’s borders and to gain access to its oil reserves. An entire bureaucracy, Homeland Security, has been created out of the fear of a repeat of September 11, 2001.

Democracy has been stepped on and constitutional guarantees tossed aside by an administration legally bound to uphold American citizens rights when it conducted secret surveillance on American citizens on American soil under the claim of protecting us against terrorism. The only terrorist attacks so far have come from this administration on our civil rights.

Long standing adherence to human rights were suspended when “enemy combatants” were thrown into Guantanamo and held without the right to trial and then tortured. You can label waterboarding by its sanitized description of “aggressive interrogation techniques” if you want but it is still torture, something the American people abhor and, before George W Bush, never thought our government would stoop to.

Our airports have become mini-fascist states. Just ask Australian-born U.S. citizen Anne Summers of her recent experiences with armed agents at LAX. She, like many others, has fallen victim to an overly-suspicious, power-mad agents’ interrogation for ‘your own protection’. I understand the need for vigilance but courtesy and respect for human dignity should not be tossed aside when an agent is given a badge. Reports are rampant of condescending agents exhibiting intimidation, animosity and complete disdain for having to be bothered to deal with what they consider a possible terrorist suspect. Here’s an account of a passenger arriving at JFK Airport from Syria who received inexcusable treatment in the name of national security.

In our zeal to expose a terrorist plot behind every anti-war protest, every person crossing our border, and every passenger who forgets to empty his/her water bottle before entering a security checkpoint, we are turning our country into a fascist state. Or rather, the Bush administration has taken advantage of fear of another terrorist attack in order to do so. But then that’s how fascism spreads, isn’t it? When the World Trade Center was attacked on September 11, 2001 the ‘terrorist’ accomplished their goal to put America on alert that they will not tolerate the disrespectful treatment westerners have shown the rest of the world. With this single act they now only have to threaten the U.S. to get us to react. They don’t have to actually conduct an attack on U.S. soil because they have already shown they are willing to do so.

Fear and Fascism go hand in hand. The measures that are being forced onto us in the name of protection is a response to fear and they are eroding our rights and freedoms.

Fascists invoke an external and internal threat in order to convince the population to grant their rulers extraordinary powers. In the case of George W Bush, he evoked these extraordinary powers through the use of presidential decrees. Much as Burma’s ruling Junta does.

They establish secret prisons that practice torture, prisons that are initially few in number and only incarcerate social pariahs, but that quickly multiply and soon imprison "opposition leaders, outspoken clergy, union leaders, well-known performers, publishers, and journalists."

They develop a paramilitary force that operates without legal restraint. Blackwater International is just such a force.

They set up a system of intense domestic surveillance that gathers information for the purposes of intimidating and blackmailing citizens. If domestic surveillance continues unabated who can honestly say it will not be used for the purposes of intimidating and blackmailing citizens?

They infiltrate, monitor, and disorganize citizens' groups.

They arbitrarily detain and release citizens, especially at borders.

They target key individuals like civil servants, academics, and artists in order to ensure their complicity or silence.
Dismissal of eight U.S. attorneys for political reasons.
eight U.S. attorneys

They take control of the press. The Committee to Protect Journalists says arrests of US journalists are at an all-time high: Josh Wolf, a blogger in San Francisco, has been put in jail for a year for refusing to turn over video of an anti-war demonstration; Homeland Security brought a criminal complaint against reporter Greg Palast, claiming he threatened "critical infrastructure" when he and a TV producer were filming victims of Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana. Palast had written a bestseller critical of the Bush administration.

The Committee to Protect Journalists has documented multiple accounts of the US military in Iraq firing upon or threatening to fire upon unembedded (meaning independent) reporters and camera operators from organizations ranging from al-Jazeera to the BBC.

You won't have a shutdown of news in modern America - it is not possible. But you can have, as Frank Rich and Sidney Blumenthal have pointed out, a steady stream of lies polluting the news well. What you already have is a White House directing a stream of false information that is so relentless that it is increasingly hard to sort out truth from untruth. In a fascist system, it's not the lies that count but the muddying. When citizens can't tell real news from fake, they give up their demands for accountability bit by bit.

They publicly equate dissent with treason. Most Americans do not realize that when Congress wrongly, foolishly, passed the Military Commissions Act of 2006 the president has the power to call any US citizen an "enemy combatant". He has the power to define what "enemy combatant" means. The president can also delegate to anyone he chooses in the executive branch the right to define "enemy combatant" any way he or she wants and then seize Americans accordingly.

They suspend the rule of law. The John Warner Defense Authorization Act of 2007 gave the president new powers over the national guard. This means that in a national emergency - which the president now has enhanced powers to declare - he can send Michigan's militia to enforce a state of emergency that he has declared in Oregon, over the objections of the state's governor and its citizens.

A disturbing recent phenomenon in Washington is that laws that strike to the heart of American democracy have been passed in the dead of night. Beyond actual insurrection, the president may now use military troops as a domestic police force in response to a natural disaster, a disease outbreak, terrorist attack or any 'other condition’. And the Pentagon is currently reserving 20,000 troops for domestic emergencies.

All of these strategies are being employed in America today.

America only cares about human rights when it is convenient or advantageous to do so. Only when everything that has happened in recent years are taken together can we see the path that America is headed down.

Right now, only a handful of patriots are trying to hold back the tide of tyranny for the rest of us - staff at the Center for Constitutional Rights, who faced death threats for representing Guantanamo detainees yet persisted all the way to the Supreme Court; activists at the American Civil Liberties Union; and prominent conservatives trying to roll back corrosive new laws, under the banner of a new group called the American Freedom Agenda. This small, disparate collection of people needs everybody's help, including that of Europeans and others internationally who are willing to put pressure on the administration because they can see what a US unrestrained by real democracy at home can mean for the rest of the world.



Further reading
CIA Holds Terror Suspects in Secret Prisons
U.S. Secret Prison Ships Hold Untold Number of Detainees
America is going Fascist
Watching out for an American paramilitary
FBI Spied on Peace Group Because os Antiwar Views
U.S. Government Spying and Infiltration
Homeland Security? Abuses by Border Patrol in Arizona
Nightmare at Reagan National Airport
Fired U.S. Attorneys

Burma sentenced blogger to 20 years

Nay Phone Latt, a Burmese blogger, was sentenced by Burma’s tyrannical Military Junta that will not tolerate any semblance of critical opinion being voiced over the World Wide Web.

Judge Daw Soe recently sentenced Nay Phone Latt to a total of twenty years and six months for possession of a banned video and having a blog to express his concerns about the increasingly difficulty of Burmese people to voice their opinions since the protests last year.

Nay was first arrested in January but was released, along with a handful of National League for Democracy (NLD) politicians, a few hours later but was arrested again a few days later. Since then he has been held at Insein Prison (pronounced ‘insane’), infamous for grotesque treatment of its political prisoners.

The blog Freedom For Burma written on February 2, 2008 describes Nay’s fate as well as others.

Bloggers the world over are being asked to post his photo on their blog and to write to Burmese embassies worldwide to request his release.

I have a lot of admiration for someone who can stand up to their oppressors knowing they will be thrown into a notorious prison likes of Insein just for doing so. I don't know if I could personally gather the courage to do it myself. I pray that I will never be tested.

But, there is something we can do. We in America and the world over can exercise the right that people like Nay Phone Latt is fighting for and express our disgust at how Burmese citizens are being treated simply for expressing their views.

Fossil Fuel Profits vs Human Rights

On November 4, 2007, a Buddhist monk, writing under the name U Gambira, published an op-ed in The Washington Post advocating democracy for his Southeast Asian nation of Burma.

U Gambira wrote: "It matters little if my life or the lives of colleagues should be sacrificed on this journey. Others will fill our sandals, and more will join and follow."

As U Gambria wrote, the regime already had arrested his father and brother, holding them as hostages to flush him out. It found and arrested him on the same day that his article appeared.

Since then, U Gambira has been forcibly deprived of his monastic robes and tortured in Burma’s notorious Insein Prison. A half-dozen other members of his family have been arrested or forced into internal exile. At age 29, he has been charged with “crimes” that could bring years in prison.

What are those “crimes”? Leading a non-violent demonstration protesting the oppressive rule of Burma’s military leadership and asking for something we in America take for granted: Democracy and basic human rights.

On Tuesday Nov 4, we in America exercised one of our most cherished rights, to vote a change in leadership. The people of Burma don’t have this right. If they did General Than Shwe and his band of murderous, thieving, oppressors would be ousted and the Burmese people would once again enjoy the enlightened lifestyle of a free democratic society.

The brutal and oppressive military leadership of General Than Shwe and his policies have looted and destroyed sacred monasteries in his efforts to round up political and religious leaders. He has brought Burma’s economy to its knees. They have emptied what was once considered the breadbasket of Asia to the point that it cannot feed its own people. Burma, once known as a light for education and literacy now has closed its schools and universities.

Last September, the Burmese people spoke up against General Shwe’s rule and many were imprisoned, tortured and slaughtered for it. That bloodbath brought the world’s attention to Burmese plight but very little has changed. General Than Shwe has since sought to portray this uprising as a singular event, now over. A veneer of quiet has replaced the sounds of gunfire on city streets. Unfortunately, many in the international community buy in and actively support this propaganda.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and his special adviser, Ibrahim Gambari, have taken steps to open a dialogue with Burma's generals but little progress is being made.

China and Russia continue to block the UN Security Council from facilitating a dialogue between democratic forces and the regime.

Association of Southeast Asian Nations have condemned the regime's actions but have done little else.

The world's largest democracy, India, continues to provide military assistance and trade deals that help finance the regime's war on its people.

The U.S. claims to be a stalwart of human rights and yet allows human rights atrocities to continue in Burma, Zimbabwe, Tibet, etc. and even writes its laws to allow a U.S.-based corporation to profit from it.

Chevron, based in California, has been making huge profits in Burma as part owner of a natural gas project and is therefore complicit in the human rights abuses through its investment. U.S. sanctions prevent most U.S. companies from working in Burma, but Chevron's investment there existed before the sanctions were imposed and continues under a grandfather clause. The message being sent around the world is “Profit trumps human rights”.

Chevron’s answer to the many letters of protest they have received over their part in Burma is to remove all references to Burma from their webpage.

U Gambira, and many others like him, is willing to die to gain freedom for his fellow countrymen. Chevron and the U.S. is willing to let him die at the hands of a tortuous dictatorial regime in order to make a profit. Now jump to Iraq where Bush’s lies led to hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians to lose their lives in a scheme to enrich his buddies in the oil and gas industry. The main difference between Bush and Shwe is the U.S. Constitution.

Is profiting from fossil fuel worth more than human lives? Those of us who live under ethical and moral standards would say "of course not". But, ask Bush and the CEO of Chevron and we get a much different answer.

Bush feigned moral outrage over Saddam Hussein’s torture of his own people and so therefore felt a "moral obligation" to "save" Iraq from Saddam’s madness. Where is that outrage now against what the Burmese are suffering from? The only difference between Iraq and Burma is that Iraq has more oil reserves.

We owe it to our own conscience to stop supporting Chevron and any other company that makes a profit on the misery of any person.

It is easy to simply buy Chevron gas with our credit card ignoring the fact that in doing so we are aiding Chevron in their complicity in the suffering that the Burmese people endure every day. It is more difficult to think about our actions, tear up that credit card, drive past every Chevron gas pump and not aid and abet in their profiting from human suffering. But really, how difficult is all of that when compared to U Gambira being tortured in a jail cell for standing up for his right to be free?

Further reading:
Words of Power
San Francisco Chronicle

U.S. Corporations are Ugly Americans

American corporations pay foreign countries for rights to extract oil, gas, and minerals from within their borders. Those governments have done nothing to regulate oil company practices that pollute the environment and otherwise endanger the lives of local residents. Their reckless practices (which would not be allowed here in the U.S.) have polluted wetlands and rivers, killed fish and vegetation and destroyed livelihoods.

The Bush administration, in their typically arrogant, misguided, neocon, "corporations-can-do-no-wrong" attitude, have turned a blind eye to how U.S. corporations (as representatives of our country) have done little to provide for the locals’ needs and security.

Security for these U.S. corporations in such places as Nigeria, Burma, and Angola are local military who use villagers as forced laborers and freely rape local women and children. U.S. corporations, stalwarts of democracy and human rights that they are, also turn a blind eye as long as they can keep their bottom line healthy.

Local communities remain impoverished while governments accumulate huge profits from contracts with U.S. corporations.

Congress is currently “considering” legislation that would require all oil, gas, and mining companies to publicly disclose, in their reports to the Securities and Exchange Commission, how much they pay to foreign governments for extracting natural resources. This legislation is a joke. Nothing more than another slap on the wrist lacking anything in the way of teeth to address this issue.

Since the U.S. wants to take on the role as the world’s police and talk tough against human rights abuses then our congress should call for and enforce an embargo on any country who participates in these atrocities. If U.S. corporations have financial interests in these countries then it would be to their obvious benefit to use their connections with these foreign heads of state to help force compliance with basic human rights policies.

Chevron has production arrangements with some of the worst human rights offenders in the world. Anyone who purchases or otherwise provides an income to Chevron is facilitating their part in these human rights atrocities.

These companies continue to profit from their actions against humanity so that we Americans can drive our cars, heat our homes, cook our meals. But we are not dependent on Chevron for these needs. While congress hangs on to the tired old belief that financial transparency is enough to force a change in human rights abuse, these people remain impoverished and their military rulers are well-fed and have warm comfortable beds to sleep in. It is time we did more. It is time we took a hard line against U.S. corporations making record profits and host governments reaping giant windfalls on the backs of host country citizens.

We need to boycott Chevron and all of their subsidiaries.

We protested against the Iraq War on the principle that there should be "No Blood For Oil". This situation is no different.

Vatican Men’s Club Tries to Maintain Purity??

Being able to teach religious ethics and morality is not dependent on testosterone. In fact, in almost every situation, too much testosterone is detrimental to teaching anything worthwhile. The Vatican, by threatening to excommunicate any woman priest and the guy who ordained her, seems to have allowed their self imposed celibacy to cloud their logic.

A priest is a priest is a priest. Being able to teach the word of God only requires a thorough knowledge of the Bible, a good heart and moral character, and a willingness to speak to large masses of people.

How can they with any clear conscience demand human rights throughout the world and then deem a person unworthy to be a spiritual leader because that person has breasts?

My experience, through attending several different churches of different faiths, has taught me that religious teachings, in the Catholic religion in particular, is riddled with hypocrisy. To see these delusional old men who decorate themselves in ecclesiastical vestments in an attempt to convey that they themselves are the only chosen few worthy of spreading God’s words, formally ban women from their exclusive club, only illustrates their small-mindedness and willingness to divide church membership just to placate their ego.

The long list of atrocities that have been committed against humankind in the name of God, under male leadership, proves that men are not stalwarts of morality. They have failed miserably.

It is unconscionable that church leadership would serve up pedophiles as examples of morality than to welcome the natural nurturing ability of women who are willing to offer their services in God’s name. Again, hypocrisy at its finest.

This in-fighting just to maintain control over that tiny piece of real estate called the pulpit will only limit the number of persons willing to take on this important social need.

Perhaps they are afraid of having to build separate dressing rooms. Maybe they don’t want to have to put the toilet seat down. Or, do they think only men look good in those gaudy robes?

We need all the moral and ethical teachings we can get from anyone with the ability to get people to listen. Spreading the word of God is not exclusive to only those of us who can pee standing up.

Humans Can Be Disgusting, Selfish Animals

Humanitarian aid workers and United Nation peacekeepers are sexually abusing children in war-ravished and food-poor countries, a leading European charity has said. Children as young as 6 are among those who have been forced to have sex with aid workers and peacekeepers in return for food and money, Save the Children UK said in a report released Tuesday. After interviewing hundreds of children, the charity says it found instances of rape, child prostitution, pornography, indecent sexual assault and trafficking of children for sex.

These individuals have abused their power and committed disgusting, filthy, degrading acts against children under the cover of humanitarian aid. Humanitarian my ass. These are foul vermin of the worst kind and should be eradicated from every society on this planet. There is no amount of good that these people can do to override the damage they have perpetrated on these children and themselves.

These people will lower themselves for their own selfish pleasure because they think they will not get caught. Self-governing morality is lost to these people.

I do not understand what drives a man to think that if he has something someone needs, especially if it means the difference between life and death, he envisions himself in control of that person. This is the crux of the problem and needs to be addressed immediately and effectively. Morality and human dignity mean nothing to these scumbags.

Human rights will never be attained for everyone as long as this filth is allowed to roam free and these actions are allowed to continue. As far as I am concerned, these individuals have given up their rights to be a part of this worlds’ society.

Putting more humans in the role of “watchdog”, as is suggested, as a means of controlling this behavior is just allowing more filthy pigs to be in power which will most likely lead to further abuse.

Why Do We Support Human Rights Violations?

Profits from companies based in the United States, France, Thailand, Australia, England, Canada, China and Switzerland, among others, help support the brutal and repressive military leadership in Myanmar.

The world condones and supports this behavior and consequently we all shame ourselves by allowing it to continue.

Any government would realize that a natural disaster is not something they can control. Yet when the May 3 cyclone devastated their country, killing up to an estimated 100,000 people, the ruling party in Myanmar viewed it as a personal affront to their ability to protect their citizens. The extent of the damages are unknown due to the suppression of journalists and internet access. Then when the world comes to their aid, their paranoia, or is it an intense (and petty) desire to not uncover what is really going on in the country, won’t allow these ‘uninvited intruders’ into their country. They would rather allow their citizenry to starve to death, or die of their injuries and the resulting diseases from rotting corpses to take its toll than to allow outside help.

They use this disaster as a propaganda tool to ‘show’ their people that the ruling party alone is providing aid. I don’t think humanitarians care about who gets credit for providing aid, but the fact that the junta is propping themselves up as humanitarian only cheapens themselves and they aren’t fooling anyone. Myanmar’s citizens know first hand of the brutality of this military regime.

The military junta came into power in September 1988, by killing thousands of unarmed demonstrators. Then, in 1990, they staged a ‘show of democracy’ by allowing multi-party participation and then blocked the results when they did not win. The leaders of the winning opposition party were placed under house arrest or were exiled.

In December 1996, students demonstrations were forcibly suppressed and universities were closed.

When Buddhist monks marched in Yangon, the countries capital, to protest the repressive military regime’s treatment of monks during a September 5, 2008 protest in Pakokku, thousands of supporters joined them. The military used tear gas, guns and clubs to disperse the crowd. Reports of 10 to 30 protesters had been killed, monasteries were raided and many monks were beaten and arrested.

The rest of the world knows of their brutality as well despite repeated attempts to prevent outsiders from being privy to internal conditions. Their refusal to allow aid workers into their country to help their own suffering citizens should remind the world that this highly repressive and petty regime should not be allowed to remain in power.

Journalist within Myanmar’s borders have to work in secret because they are under threat of imprisonment for stories that would offend the ruling party. And it doesn’t take much to offend them.

We condemn human rights violations on paper, we actively protest human rights violations during public events, yet we purchase products from the very corporations who are supporting (or are) the violators.

Myanmar has been pretending to be democracy advocates for 20 years and it is time the world take a stand and punish them as well as their supporters for their human rights violations.

Corporations should face stiff penalties for financially supporting such a hateful and repressive regime.

Unocal is the single largest American investor in Myanmar through a 28% interest in a pipeline that will pump gas from offshore fields through Myanmar to Thailand. The French company Total will build the pipeline, and the Thai and Myanmar Government energy companies also have stakes. Texaco and Arco also recently signed deals to drill nearby.

“Companies doing business in Burma argue their presence is constructive and will benefit the Burmese people, but they have yet to condemn the government’s abuses against its own citizens,” said Arvind Ganesan, director of the Business and Human Rights Program at Human Rights Watch. “Keeping quiet while monks and other peaceful protesters are murdered and jailed is not evidence of constructive engagement.”

While foreign companies doing business with Myanmar are guilty of supporting this country, people who purchase products from these corporations should be ashamed of themselves. Profits ease the corporate conscience but what about the conscience of those individuals who buy these corporations’ products thereby providing the support funds?

Protest China not the Athletes

Celebrations leading up to the Summer Olympic games have become the focal point of pent up animosity towards China. People understand that the Olympic games is a venue for the world’s greatest non-professional athletes to show off their abilities and to perhaps ‘bring home the gold’ for their respective countries. These events are eagerly anticipated by millions the world over. But the fact that so much protest is taking place this year shows the high level of disgust towards a regime that places so little regard for human rights.

The world’s citizens are fed up with people being treated as slaves to do the bidding of their nations leaders and they are taking any opportunity to voice their position. We cannot idly stand by and watch as voices are silenced because they don’t agree with national policy.

What does it say about us as a world community that the Olympic torch, a symbol of world unity and harmony, has to be protected by hundreds of police in riot gear to prevent overzealous protesters from dousing its flame? What has traditionally been a journey of celebration has been reduced to flash points of protest resulting in the arrests of those intent on showing the world their disgust towards China’s policies.

Those of us living in a civilized, relatively free world do not deny that China’s treatment of their fellow citizens is deplorable. And they should be brought to account for their actions against humanity in a world court. But, this journey of celebration is held for those athletes who have struggled and sacrificed to participate in and to achieve the greatness that their abilities deserve. To muddy the Olympic celebration and all it represents for the purposes of furthering your own agenda just denigrates their memory. Even if it is for the overall good of humanity.

Protest! Protest in any way you see fit except to extinguish this flame. These athletes deserve better than this.

That being said, I think the Olympics should be allowed to be held as scheduled but I believe the athletes should boycott them. This is a clearer and more pointed protest to both the Chinese government and the Olympic Committee for asking the world to temporarily ignore China’s record.

The protest is of course against holding any kind of celebration of human achievement within the borders of a country that denies basic human rights and freedoms to its people. The hypocrisy is just too much to accept. It is unforgivable that the Olympic Committee and China would ask a conscientious world to do this.

Denying these athletes their chance, possibly their only chance or last chance, to participate in this time honored tradition is not up to us. Allow them the right to make their own personal choice and respect their decision.

The Chinese government should bear the brunt of our protests not the athletes.

Olympic protests begin on opening day

The Beijing 2008 Olympic Games promises to be one of the most controversial of all time. We are in for a wild ride.

As expected, the protests against China’s treatment of Tibetan protesters began in earnest at the Olympic torch lighting ceremony in Greece, despite heightened security, with three separate incidents.

Moments before the torch was lit, Chinese Party Secretary Liu Qi spoke unfazed to the audience while, immediately behind him, security apprehended a lone protestor attempting to display a banner depicting the Olympic Rings as handcuffs.

China state television cut away from the scene in an attempt to keep the Chinese people ignorant of what the rest of the world thinks and, over fear of losing their jobs or worse, Chinese television commentators did not mention the demonstration.

Also, during Liu Qi’s speech, two men carrying black flags ran onto the field of the stadium. And three men in the audience, representatives of Reporters without Borders, an advocacy group for press freedom everywhere in the world, unfurled the ‘new’ Olympic banner.

In a separate incident, while the torch was being carried on its 85,000 mile journey from Olympia to Beijing, a Tibetan woman covered herself in red paint and lay in front of the runner while other protesters chanted "Free Tibet" and "Shame on China”.

The focus of the demonstrations is China’s latest human rights violations centering around a demonstration that turned violent on March 14 in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa. The resultant heavy-handed crackdown by Chinese military and heavily armed police have lead to a disputed number of dead. China claims 22 while Tibet says 80 Tibetans and another 19 in subsequent violence in Gansu province were killed.

More protests are expected and planned when the Olympic torch is carried through Tibet and to the top of Mount Everest leading up to the August 8 opening ceremony.

China is a house of cards and it is only a matter of time before the Chinese people rise up against the picture of ‘false harmony’ the Chinese government wishes the world to see. The Chinese government has been at this game for a very long time and it won’t end soon. Perhaps the Beijing 2008 Olympics is just what is needed to get this house to fall.

Many people consider a sporting event as off limits to political protests but when world leaders do nothing to bring action against such a ‘bully’ for its treatment of its citizens except to sit on the sidelines talking about how terrible it is then it is up to the world’s citizens to stand up and do something. I back these protests one hundred percent.

Let the games begin!

Sources: CNN, Newsvine, Reporters Without Borders

What is the price for friendly relations with China?

Chinese troops and police in riot gear are roving the Tibetan countryside in an attempt to squelch protest against their authority. Tourists are forced out so there will be no witness to the brutal response that China bears on anyone who dares protest against her. Accounts of deaths differ widely between Chinese officials and civilians living in the area. China disables internet access to the rest of the world.

This is the reality of China. This is the private face their leaders try not to show the world. The ugly face that emerges whenever the inconvenience of human rights flares up.

This is the China the world helps support via hundreds of billions of dollars in trade for her products, some tainted with toxins, some produced by child labor, many manufactured under horrendous working conditions.

This is the China that the United States trade deficit displaced production that could have supported 2,166,000 U.S. jobs.

This is the China that the International Olympic Committee chose to expose the world’s most beloved amateur athletes to.

Why did they do that? Why do we support China?

They are a part of the family of man. They are part of the fabric that makes this world complete. Altruistic reasons. But so too are terrorists, racists, bigots, authoritarians, murderers, rapists, and the list goes on, all members of our family. We shun these characters. We lock them up and execute them for their deeds. But an entire government, that is a different matter. Iran is boycotted for refusal to submit to U.S. requests to stop developing nuclear power. North Korea is ostracized for wanting to keep to themselves and developing nuclear power and a missile delivery system. We declared war on a sovereign nation under false suspicion of weapons of mass destruction. But when it comes to a country who already has nuclear power AND floods our shores with cheaply made products, we ignore their suppression of human rights and send our athletes and money to them.

It is better to have them as a friend than a foe. They outnumber us 4 to 1.

So, how do we tolerate a family relative who beats and kills his family members and sends us gifts? We pretend to not see through their veiled attempts at human rights while they imprison and kill monks demanding freedom for themselves and we increase our trade deficit with them.

When is the price of human rights high enough to stop trading with China? Are we willing to continue to support policies that kill protestors?

For the answer go to your neighborhood Wal-Mart and try to find a product not made in China. They are in every neighborhood now, right? Oh look, a cute little toy for junior and it’s only 99 cents! What a bargain!

School of the Americas

Bill Quigley of TruthOut.org recently ran an article in AlterNet reporting how an annual gathering for peace and human rights was staged at Fort Benning, Georgia in an attempt to shutdown the School of the AmericasT.

The annual event drew more than 20,000 activists gathered at Fort Benning while simultaneous protests occurred in Santiago Chile, Tucson Arizona, Toronto Canada, and Berkeley California.

I direct the readers attention to this article for the purpose of illuminating how our government callously disregards human rights whenever someone protests what the government is doing.

The article, entitled ‘Twenty thousand protest at Fort Benning: Eleven face federal criminal trials” can be found here.

Humanity shows its ugly side

The latest fiasco in Iraq, involving Blackwater USA, serves to illustrate the downward spiral of depravity that humanity is taking. Another example is Abu Ghraib.

Those individuals involved in these two atrocious incidents validate to the world that we are a violent nation bent on destruction.

Sure, we have laws and rules against this kind of behavior but that seemingly does nothing more than merely indicates civility, because when individuals are placed in situations such as these people were, well, just look at the results. If we did not have this tendency to ‘devolve’ into violent beings then these two situations would not have turned out as they did.

There are many other examples of mans inhumanity to man.

Another example is how easy it is for religious groups to kill other religious groups because they don’t worship God as zealously as they do.

Saddam Hussein ordered the slaughter of anyone who defied him, the Myanmar government killed monks because they stood up to their repressive regime, Hitler killed Jews just for being Jews, Pol Pot killed millions for trying to better their own lot in life.

Americans killed Indians because we wanted their lands. We enslaved people for our own financial gain. The list goes on throughout history and involves every country that has ever been touched by human rule.

Human rights are being trampled on in every nation. The blame cannot be placed only on the nations leader who is derided as a sociopath. We are all becoming sociopaths. There is a basic flaw in the human psyche that has been loosed onto humanity that needs to be identified and repressed.

You see it every time you are in your car on today’s highways. The car riding on your rear bumper sees you as nothing more than an obstacle that is blocking their path. They don’t give a second thought that you are driving the posted speed limit and have every right to. They flip you off because you are in their way. It doesn’t concern that person that you are a human and could be seriously injured or killed if they run you off the road for slowing them down.

It has become too easy for the common man, the everyday Joe who is under so much pressure to just get by, to resort to violence if he feels he has been wronged. This behavior did not use to be this common.

The easy availability of handguns is directly related to the rising murder rate and only serves to facilitate our uncivilized, downward slide into de-evolution. But the problem runs much deeper than the accessibility of handguns. There is always something that can be used as a weapon.

People kill each other out of simple greed, jealousy, or perceived disrespect. People kill each other over material things that are valueless compared to human life.

Human life is devalued every year, every month, every day by people who have no respect for themselves. Gangs live by a rule that dictates if anyone ‘looks at you wrong’ or ‘dresses wrong’ or is ‘in your hood’ then that person should die. What the hell is this all about?

It has become too easy to objectify each other. Too many people have forgotten that we are all in this together and should work together to make life more beneficial for each of us instead of only looking out for number one.

Once you objectify a person, making them seem less than human, it becomes easier to kill them, to steal from them or force them to work for you. You can, at that point, forget that they are flesh and blood, made of God’s flesh, that they have family, that they suffer pain just as you do.

Insurance companies demand their monthly payment on time to keep active a legal document that they know is meaningless when you need it the most. Look no further than the Hurricane Katrina victims to see this in practice.

Big oil companies purposefully hold back oil in order to artificially drive up prices of a commodity they know we will pay ever higher prices for.

Corporate executives raid our retirement funds for their own personal use knowing they will be long gone when it comes time for us to collect and we discover there is no money.

Politicians line their own pockets with our tax dollars knowing we can do nothing about it and if they get caught the punishment isn’t enough to prevent others from doing it.

Our president lies to us to send our husbands, sons, and brothers into harms way so his wealthy cronies can get richer from lucrative pentagon contracts.

People are becoming more and more ruthless everyday. We are becoming immune to the damage we cause others in our quest to get what we want.

What can we do about it? Each person has to find it in themselves to stop behaving like the world owes them as if they are more important than anyone else.

We have to forgive past transgressions and move on. Or we could just kill everybody for wronging us and simply start over.

Which is the best way? I’m pulling for humanity to straighten out before it is too late. We each have the power to make this world a place worth passing on to our kids. And it takes each and every one of us to make that happen. We can’t just put the responsibility off onto someone else.

Have you ever noticed that children have the ability to get along with other children without regard to race or socio-economic background? If you have ever ‘allowed’ your children to be around children from other socio-economic backgrounds then you would see that they do get along quite well. It is only once they become adults and start seeing these superficial differences that the world changes. This is where adults do a great disservice to their children and ultimately to themselves. This is a sure sign that the problem is within us, just as the solution is.