Dangers of Tear Gas

Hey everyone, sorry I keep posting so much! It's my way of procrastinating on other work.

I just saw this article on BBC and thought it was interesting, particularly with all the riots going on in Egypt, Syria, and even at Occupy Oakland.

What do you think? Should tear gas be used as a means of dispersing angry crowds? Or does the threat of injury and sometimes death outlaw its use? How should governments deal with potentially violent mobs? Do citizens have an unlimited right to free speech and assembly, or should governments place limits on human rights?

Life in the "Golden Cage"

For many undocumented immigrants, life in America is a "Golden Cage"--full of prosperity and a better life, but without true freedom. As an undocumented immigrant, the threat of being found out by authorities is ever-present. Undocumented immigrants go to extreme lengths to protect themselves, making life a "prison" at times.


Recently, Carlo Alban came out and revealed that as a child actor on the TV show Sesame Street, he was actually without proper documentation. Coming from Ecuador, Carlo and his family were waiting to get their proper paperwork:

"The family had been working with a lawyer to earn their green cards, but the process was taking much longer than the four to five years they initially hoped, as changes in the law obliged them to resubmit forms and information. Throughout his tenure on the show, Carlo's immigration status continued to be an issue. When the cast was scheduled to appear in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, they had to provide their documentation to parade security. "I had to turn in a photocopy of my fake green card and for whatever reason, it had the wrong birthday on it," he says. "They knew me and they knew when my birthday was because I'd celebrated it on the set. I was terrified that someone was going to notice the date, get suspicious and start looking into things."No-one ever found out, but it was one of a series of close calls."

Luckily, Carlo has now received his green card and has a happy life in America: the perfect Hollywood ending. However, it makes you wonder whether there are other children who are not so lucky, children who could grow up and benefit America as a whole. 

What do you think? Is a right to immigration a human right? Carlo came from Ecuador, a relatively stable developing nation in South America. His family came to America not out of fear, but out of hope for a better life. Is it a human right to get to live in America, or should Carlo and his family have been thrown out had they been discovered to be illegal?

Fight over Immigration Detention Center in a Florida Town

A fight has broken out between residents of the south Florida town of Southwest Ranches and their local government. The local government has been working for years to have one of the governments largest detention centers for immigrants. The town stands to make a significant amount (between 400,000 and 1.5 million) annually in revenue from the prison, and it should create about 300 permanent jobs. Local residents, however, tend to have higher incomes and do not feel they need the jobs and do not feel comfortable having a prison in their town.

The new detention center is not a regular prison, but a special detention center for immigrants who have not committed any crimes. It is supposed to provide more humane treatment for non-offender immigrants and provide easier access for family members and lawyers.

The residents of Southwest Ranches may be skeptical, but I for one and very much in support of the idea. Every day immigrants flee to this country in search of a better life and every day we throw them in prison, alongside murderers, rapists and other offenders, even if they have committed no crime other than crossing our boarder. While I would prefer we not detain them at all, if we have to I think specialized detention centers that can accommodate the unique needs of these immigrants is a great idea and something that should be pursued.

http://news.yahoo.com/upscale-fla-town-fight-over-immigrant-prison-172908497.html

Always Those Darn Christians

One interesting thing I’ve found while taking the Human Rights Human Wrongs class is how involved Christian organizations are in the fight for human rights. Atheists such as Richard Dawkins or Christopher Hitchens always blame Christianity for atrocities like the Crusades or the Inquisition. But in the twenty-first century, it seems that the majority of the organizations that are fighting for human rights on the front lines are Christian!

Think about it. Every day in class, we hear about the incredible work that Church World Service and Lutheran Immigration & Refugee Service both do with refugees in Lancaster. Water Street Rescue Mission in downtown Lancaster provides meals and shelter to hundreds of homeless people every day. The Salvation Army also does great work in feeding the hungry and caring for the poor. Notably, the largest nonprofit organization in the entire world, WorldVision, is a Christian organization. Examples abound: Living Water International has dug 10,000 wells in nations where drought is prevalent. Every day, while living in Jerusalem, I could see the ancient church on the Mount of Olives that is now a non-profit Christian hospital run by Lutheran World Federation.

Victoria Augusta Hospital. Mount of Olives, East Jerusalem

Obviously, there are tons of charities and many of them are not Christian. It just seems odd to me that SO many charities are based on Christian principles. And these aren’t just to make converts: pushing Christianity is explicitly forbidden in WorldVision’s code of conduct.

The stereotype that some people have, that Christians only care about the afterlife, seems not to be true. So what exactly explains the preponderance of Christian aid organizations? Are they motivated by Jesus’ commands to care of the poor, the weak, the oppressed, the widows, and the orphans? Or is it just a coincidence that they happen to be Christian?

What do you think? Should religion play a part in advancing human rights? Or should Christians stay out of it?

I have my own opinions but I’m curious what you think. 

Charity Water

Recently, I came across a charity that's dedicated to bringing clean water to people around the world. I know it's not necessarily about asylum seekers but everyone should have access to clean water and I just want more people to be aware of this cause. Honestly, I would even argue that access to clean water should be a human right. Charity water funds projects like water facilities in a clinic/school/village. Here is what they have done so far:

http://www.charitywater.org/projects/projects.php

In five years, they funded 4,282 projects and helped over 2 million people. I think this cause is very inspiring and I hope you all feel the same way.

Occupy Wall Street: Is This Really About Human Rights?

Last night, I was walking around downtown Lancaster with my friend Mike and we decided to stop by the local “Occupy Wall Street” gathering, Occupy Lancaster. When we arrived, we were handed a couple of pamphlets urging the “99%” to rise up and protest the oppression of the “1%.” We then sat in on a meeting where the shivering, sickly protesters discussed recent crackdowns in Harrisburg and New York against other #OWS movements.

The occupiers seemed genuinely concerned about their rights and freedom. One man explained that in Harrisburg, the police ripped up a tent “with a knife! This big!” gesturing his hands about five inches apart, “And there were still people inside!” (Though there was no statement that any of those people were actually harmed in this action). Those gathered around the circle expressed their shock and horror, lifting their hands and wiggling fingers—the #OWS form of silently agreeing with a speaker.

But meanwhile, I had to stop myself from laughing. I’ve spent the last three months reading about female genital cutting, looking at pictures of decaying bodies, and watching videos of people getting run over by armored vehicles. The occupiers’ claims of injustice do not reach anywhere near what others worldwide have suffered.

While #OWS protesters have some serious arguments about the nature of our capitalist society, I’m dubious about how much injustice they really are suffering. Protest movements can only gain traction when there is a real sense of suffering or the government is tricked into overreacting—which explains why Egypt’s government has been overthrown, but America’s has not.

What do you think? Does economic and political inequity constitute a human rights violation, or is this just part of modern society? Are these protests in the same vein as the Arab Spring, or is this just the whining of educated white kids? Can the protesters really complain about police brutality, or are they overreacting? 

Homophobic Bill Almost Passes in Russia

Consensual same-sex activity has been decriminalized in Russia in 1993, however, LGBTI people still face widespread discrimination and violence all over Russia. St. Petersburg, Russia’s second largest city, has recently enacted a legislation to ban “propaganda for homosexuality” as it’s “converting Russia’s youth.”

The bill, which St. Petersburg’s city assembly passed nearly unanimously on the first of three readings, will effectively ban public events by LGBTI people and organizations under the pretext of protecting minors. Under the legislation, freedom of assembly and expression for LGBTI groups would be prohibited anywhere children might be present. If enacted, the law would allow authorities to impose fines of up to the equivalent of $1,600 for “public actions aimed at propaganda of sodomy, lesbianism, bisexuality, and transgenderism among minors.” Publications and other informative forms of literature and media representations of the LGBTI will also be restricted to what the authorities deem appropriate.

There has been a serious backlash against the bill from both the LGBTI rights activists in Russia and the international human rights organizations; specifically Amnesty International, who has urged St. Petersburg not to enact the homophobic bill which would “threaten freedom of expression and fuel discrimination against the city’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) community.”

“This bill is a thinly veiled attempt to legalize discrimination against lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people in Russia’s second-biggest city,” said Nicola Duckworth, Amnesty International’s Europe and Central Asia Program Director.

When comparing the situation in St. Petersburg to the United States, many would say that we’re better off here because no one would think about passing legislations like that. But is that really true? We say discrimination is wrong, yet LGBTI people do not share many of the rights that are granted to heterosexuals. Is this equality?

HRW calls on Obama to tackle Indonesian abuses

The Human Rights Watch is encouraging President Barack Obama to tackle Indonesia’s leader during his visit this week. President Obama should be meeting with President Soil Bambang Yudhoyono during this week’s East Asia Summit. In Indonesia, the light sentencing that was given to members of a religious lynch mob aggravated the local and international media. This mob was accused of killing three members of the Ahmadiyah minority sect. The same court had jailed one of the Ahmadiyah survivors of the attack in August for six months, who had lost his hand in the violence for defending himself and his friends.

In Indonesia, Christians and the Ahmadiyah Islamic sects are minorities and have experienced persecution based on their religious affiliations. The Indonesian constitution guarantees freedom of religion; however, the persecution of minority religious groups have escalated since 2008. In February, a 1,500-strong mob of Muslims set two churches alight and ransacked a third in the town of Twanging, on Java island, as they demanded that a Christian man be sentenced to death for insulting Islam. More than 80 per cent of Indonesia's estimated 240 million people are Muslim. Five per cent are Protestants and three per cent Catholic.

The Human Rights Watch is encouraging President Obama to persuade President Yudhoyono to take serious action to prevent persecution of religious minority group to provide security and to end discriminatory laws.

I think the United States have the right to step in and encourage President Yudhoyono about this current situation in Indonesia. This country stands to protect and respect human rights. It is disturbing that the president of Indonesia hasn’t taken action to prevent more persecutions onto these minority groups. It is shameful that is all over the media, and it is making the Indonesian government lacking legitimacy especially that majority of the population are Muslims.

Obama administration announces shift in immigration policy

The New York Times is reporting today that the United States government will be reconfiguring its deportation policies and procedures at every level to focus on accelerating deportations of convicted criminals and ceasing, or at least limiting, forced removal of immigrants who have committed no crime other than the illegality of their presence on American soil.

The goal of this policy revision is to reduce the burden on immigration judges, who have the unenviable task of separating families and wasting valuable time deporting individuals with no criminal record, while violent gang members and others remain incarcerated and awaiting trial. This procedural shift has been a long time coming, and ought to bode well for future changes to an immigration system in the United States that, while generous in comparison to many other countries, lacks the cohesion and consistency necessary for it to be successful.

One of the largest problems with the asylum process, and the immigration legal apparatus as a whole, is the fact the immigration judges don't have the necessary time to make the unimaginably important decisions that they are tasked with carrying out on a daily basis. Hopefully these changes will allow them to focus their energy on removing illegal immigrants who threaten our society, rather than those who are merely seeking a better life.

Aids and Orphans in Swaziland - Government does Nothing

"Swaziland's government has failed to pay more than $10m (£6.3m) in grants to Aids orphans because of its financial crisis, an IMF official has said."

Swaziland has the world's highest HIV/Aids rate (26% of its adult population is infected), leaving some 69,000 orphans. Despite this staggering and heart-wrenching reality, the Swaziland Government claims that it cannot do anything to help the situation. Officials in the Government explain that the global financial crisis has hit Swaziland especially hard, forcing the cutting of many (needed) social programs. Mr Mongardini, the leader of the IMF team that visited Swaziland, told the BBC that the government had "owed" $10m in grants to orphans and $4m to elderly people since September. Many are very skeptical of Swaziland not having enough money to pay for these much needed social programs, explaining that "lavish spending by King Mswati III and his 13 wives has worsened the crisis."

This is overall a very disturbing and depressing situation. Why is the Swaziland Government sitting and watching its citizens suffer like this? Clearly, the leaders in the Swaziland Government do not care about its people enough to try to help fix this awful situation. As bad as the financial crisis is, a Government should never choose conserving money rather than helping its citizens. A Government that does not care about its citizens is worthless and unjust - I think that a power shift (i.e. revolution) is much needed!