Human Rights Abuses

Two dozen people protested outside China's Foreign Ministry to mark the 60th anniversary of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The end result was obvious in that they were all bundled onto buses and taken away. The significance of the event was not how they demonstrated or were arrested but that numbers who took to the street to voice their indignation. Governments every where tended to have a bad perception of humam right advocates. Many see them as "trouble makers" and others classify them as a "threat" to political stability. It is indeed a shame that basic rights are not widely followed by countries who are not just members of the United Nations but even those who sit on the Security Council. While I am not advocating that one should take to the streets to push for governments to pay more attention to human rights issue, I think the UN body should revisit the charter and look at how this matter can be given a new dressing and made more palatable to its wider membership.

There are so many countries where governments abuse their power and steam-rolled their way through to get things done to their advantage. The events in Zimbabwe is pathetic and given the ills that have beset the world's economies, free governments are not too enthusiastic to put their finger in lest they be drawn into a deep bottomless pit. While politicians look polished in their suits and lavish office, large parts of the people are dying of cholera and suffering from starvation.
Sudan and Myanmar are other examples where human rights are abused in broad daylight. But such abuses are not just confined to the Third World. We see absuses in developed nations which makes it difficult for anyone to throw a stone at the likes of Zimbawe and Sudan since everyone seems to be living in a glass house.

Meantime the people must suffer, finding solace only in the writings in their religious books where sufferings is seen as an atonement for past sins given by the Greater Being. Suffering is also seen as a way to greater glory in the life hereafter.