*Human Rights : US vs China* * *
The buzz word is human rights and it has found itself a perfect tool and political instrument to advance western imperialism and usurp the sovereign status of nations. Countries that have committed and continue to commit human right abuses have in essence no moral, legal or political right to accuse others. The US continues to ignore its own human rights abuses. With international media owned and run by the West it has become a great means of manipulating the people’s minds into thinking that only the US and the West are champions of human rights. Unless people of these countries wake up and start questioning their governments the future is likely to be continued conflicts and unnecessary deaths simply to allow a handful to profit from wars. In response to the US Congressional Executive Commission on China released in October 2011, China has issued the US Human Rights Record for 2011. The US report has over 300 pages of what the US considers to be human rights abuses committed by China. There is nothing new in the US report except to highlight that China continues to ignore human rights of its people and completely flouts international rules of laws. The US accuses China of “disappearances” of lawyers, human rights activists, journalists etc, the US accuses China of denying worker rights to organize trade unions, and also highlights worker safety. The US is also critical of China’s internet regulations and monitoring of websites. The US also mentions that only 5 religions have been formally recognized and those unregistered were subject to various harassments especially the Catholics and Protestants. Whilst it is ridiculous to compare the two reports and claim one nation is better than the other in terms of human rights what is worthy to note is that whilst the US uses all international covenants to argue its case against China what appears to be the crux of the problem is that all these international “standards” and laws have been designed according to Western thinking, western mentality and western ideology. What has never been taken into consideration is the fact that the countries of the East have a culture that supersedes that of West. The way the people of the East think is far different to those of the West. It is unfair and unjust to expect the people of these nations to think and function like those in the West. Though there is a massive campaign to culturally hypnotize the East into thinking and behaving like the West it is unlikely to get anywhere. There are enough and more International Covenants and Universal Declaration of Human Rights – but truthfully how many countries follow these with sincerity? So when people of the East do not behave like the people of the West can these nations be accused of wrong doing? Must Asians, Africans and Latin American nations think like the Americans and the Europeans? When the US accuses China of injustice records reveal a different story. There were 131 crimes per 100,000 people in 1997. China has 119 prisoners per 100,000 people whereas the US has 751 per 100,000 people in prison. The US prison population is the world’s highest with 2.3million. Rape statistics in China for the year 2005 was just 15,000 while in the same year the US was 94,347 (population 311million) In short whatever US accuses China off, it is far more dangerous to walk in the US at night than it is in China. Anytime China’s streets are full of people even young women and this certainly is not the case in any city across the US. Occupational illness issue is a valid point raised by the US against China. But China has revised its Regulations on Work-related injury insurance. Valid too are the points raised about child labor. Then again there are various schools of thought that argues for and against child labor. What does the US want from China? US wants China to release 40 human rights advocates who are in prison, establish exchanges between Chinese provincial law enforcement agencies and US state law enforcement agencies – we know where that is likely to lead to. The US also wants the disclosure of “black jails” and other secret detention facilities and allow UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention to visit China. If we recall the number of UN visits to Iraq to investigate WMDs resulting in bogus reports that facilitated the US illegal invasion of Iraq. What about the US secret detention centers in Guantanomo Bay and Diego Garcia – shouldn’t the US have closed these centers before pointing fingers? The US also finds faults with China’s population planning policies and deems it interfering in the reproductive lives of its citizens. What is poignant to remember is that China’s policies maybe abhorred by the West, its way of living may be detested by the West but China has brought its nation to an enviable level which partly attributes to the negative international media coverage China is receiving. Every area of polity has seen significant changes in China and its towns and cities are the envy of the US and all other European countries. China wouldn’t have come to where it is globally able to dictate terms even to the US if it did not have a strong policy that was nationalist and one that kept China’s development always at the forefront. China has had to take strong policy decisions. All land in China is owned by the State, private and commercial entities are only leased land. When China plans projects, China takes steps that may not be liked by the West but it is for China to decide. China constructed 25,800 large dams, and the associated land requisition projects reportedly have led to the relocation of more than 10 million people. China in 2010, raised the minimum wage levels by an average of 22.8% in 30 provinces. In Shenzhen, effective April 1, 2011, the government raised the minimum wage level by 20 percent, to 1,320 yuan (US$204) per month, the highest in China. The US has also highlighted unfairness in employment and males gaining better advantages isn’t this the case in the US and Europe also? Though US accuses China of not being liberal China has allowed many civil society organizations into China. As of 2004 there were 447,000 civil society organizations in China. It is believed that together with the unregistered grassroot organizations the CSOs are likely to be around 8million. Now what the US and the West may not like is that China has a good grip on who is doing what and where in China. It has been quick to realize that majority of NGOs are agents of the West and use their “charitable” status as a camouflage to carry out hidden agendas. China has thought out mechanisms to handle these situations and this is what the US and the West do not like. Unlike other nations, NGOs have not been allowed to function as they like in China. This is a good lesson for Sri Lanka as well. China’s population is 1.3billion and there are over 1billion mobile users. US population is 311m and its mobile users number 327m. One of the main accusations against China is that it is denying freedoms and rights to its people. Yet, after the Patriot Act and the Homeland Security Act introduced in the US, do the Americans really think they are a free nation? How many Americans know that these two acts allow the FBI to search personal information, read people’s emails, listen to their private phone calls….before 9/11 federal agents had to seek permission from the courts, yet these Acts are denying Americans freedom of expression, speech, information and the irony is that Americans do not know it! The Patriot Act allows federal agents to take away property without notice just on the premise that the person is a “terrorist”, FBI can search private records such as medical, phone, internet, library records even student records. The Patriot Act violates the Constitution of the US and also represents the loss of US individual liberties. We do not need to reiterate that the US and the West are envious of China. Its rise has been phenomenal and it is something these nations cannot accept. The response therefore has been to do what it knows best – use its media to embarrass and shame China. This is not to say China is without faults of its own. No country is including Sri Lanka and it is upto every Government and civil society to highlight the areas that could be improved. *China’s response to the US report on China’s human rights is one of exasperation and voicing what all smaller nations are thinking themselves – how can the world’s worst human rights abuser not feel any shame to accuse nations of human rights abuses when it knows how horrendous its own record is.* While US is busy usurping nations, creating conflicts and funding puppet dictators its nation is falling apart. 3.8m violent victimizations, 14.8m property victimizations, 138,000 personal thefts, 6m children experiencing bullying in a country that says “thank you’s and “pleases” and speaks of good behavior. 47% Americans own a gun US being the leader in gun violence and gun deaths – 30,000 Americans die annually from gun violence. It will soon be a country where children will have only mothers and mothers and fathers and fathers marrying…the natural father-mother, marriage and thereafter children concept is on its way to oblivion. In the land of freedom, the world saw how the Occupy Wall Street protestors were treated by US police force and US officials may like to look at these footage and question how well they have treated the protestors. While accusing countries of not giving enough press freedom, how many American journalists would care to admit how their reports are screened before being published and how many of the gulf war covering journalists were able to really report the truth? Furthermore, what is the mentality of any worker when he comes to work and finds his resignation letter on the table – no notice given whatsoever. 13.3million were unemployed by 2011 in the US. There are 2.3m to 3.5m homeless Americans. By 2010, 49.9million Americans lacked healthcare insurance while 75million deferred treatment because they could not afford it. This is the record of the country that claims to have the best health care service in the world! In the US, 600,000 have died from AIDS and 1.178,350 Americans are infected with AIDS. US speaks globally about discrimination and racism forgetting its own sordid past and present being no different. Blacks and Asians are still given second class treatment in the workplace and by law enforcement authorities. The statistics reveal the true story and one which America cannot hide from with hate motivated crimes rising to prove the allegation. In the land of freedom and rights, 2m American women are victims of domestic violence annually. 1.6m children in the US were living on the street, more than 1m children are victims of child abuse. This is the state of affairs in the US and what about the nations that US has illegally invaded? On an excuse termed “humanitarian intervention” the US is responsible for the deaths of over 1m Iraqis since the time of sanctions through the US intervention, thousands of Afghan civilian deaths, thousands of Pakistani civilian deaths from unmanned drones, millions more lives lost since 1950s and thousands more suffering as a result of US influenced sanctions, structural adjustment programs and other such manipulations meant to keep developing nations nowhere near progressing….and this is the human rights the US is proud? The term human rights has been abused beyond comprehension. None of us realistically speaking can claim to have our rights and freedoms and one doubts any of the politicians themselves have either. We are all victims in the end. * * *Shenali Waduge* -- තෙරුවන් සරණයි ! -- If You Unable to read SINHALA, GET SINHALA From, http://www.siyabas.lk/sinhala_how_to_install.html ================================== E-MailSriLanka E-Mail Group ================================== http://groups.google.com/group/emailsrilanka මෙම පණිවිඩය ඔබට ලැබෙන්නේ ඔබගේ ඊමේල් ලිපිනය ඊමේල් ශ්රීලංකා හි සාමාජිකත්වය ලබා ඇති නිසාය. ඊමේල් ශ්රීලංකා සමුහයෙන් ඉවත් වීම සදහා. To UNSUBSCRIBE from this E-Mail Group, send email to : [email protected] ================================== ඊමේල් ශ්රීලංකා සමූහයට ඇතුලත් වීම සදහා. To SUBSCRIBE to this E-Mail Group, send email to : [email protected] OR Go to, http://groups.google.lk/group/emailsrilanka/boxsubscribe ================================= For Invite Members ඊමේල් ශ්රීලංකා වෙත ඹබගේ යහලුවන්ගේ ඊමේල් ලිපින හදුන්වාදීම සදහා http://groups.google.com/group/emailsrilanka/members_invite ............................ බුදු සසුන බැබලේවා !
