Today 60 years ago the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the United Nations. The cynical view is that not much has changed in the world; there's still a terrific amount of war going on, terrorism, exploitation, etcetera. However, look at all the things that have changed: In 1948 the US had racial segregation laws, South Africa with its apartheid was a friendly nation, many european countries still were colonial powers and/or fascist dictatorships, the rest were communist lackey states.
Things have changed indeed, and call me an optimist, but I believe more things can change if we put effort into it. Today I had the honour to meet with Justine Masika Bihamba a couragious woman who for 20 years has been fighting for human rights in Congo. In this memorable day Justine Masika was awarded the Tulip (Dutch annual human rights award).
Tomorrow I will interview Ibrahim al-Muqaiteeb, a human rights activist from Saudi Arabia.
These are the people who show us the way, all we have to do is follow. It's not that hard.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
5 comments:
Your optimism is. . .good. It really is, but please remember that we've taken several large steps backwards in the last decades. For example,the United States has made great strides on racial and gender equality, but it's falling behind in religious equality. In large parts of the country, not being a christian is considered somewhat not done. You can usually get away with not being a southern baptist though, so that's good ;)
Not to defend what's geoing on in the States. Apart from not knowing enough about what's happening there's plenty that I see that does worry me. However, wouldn't you say that at least part of the process of places becoming more conservative has to do with the great mobility of people in the US, resulting in liberals banding together on the coasts and in liberal cities like Austin?
But it's true religious nuttism does seem to be on the rise worldwide.
I don't know that liberals band together on the coasts - more specifically, I think the upwardly mobile just don't like living in bumfuck, alabama. But make no mistake - even in progressive strongholds like San Francisco, the overwhelming majority of the populace professes christianity. Don't get me wrong, by the way - I don't think christianity is bad per se, but I do think that the way its been insinuating itself into the government over here is a bit scary.
I agree, whatever happened to seperation of church and state?
Post a Comment