Human
Rights Violations:
We Can Stop Them
By Paul Buchheit
10 June,
2008
Countercurrents.org
Should we boycott the 2008 Olympics because of China's human rights record? American citizens are determined to defend the individual freedoms of people around the world. We are proud of our own freedoms, and we want others to share our lifestyle.
Let's consider that lifestyle. The 'ecological footprint' measures the amount of land, water, oil, and other resources needed for a human being to survive. The 4 billion people living in Asia and Africa have an ecological footprint of about 3 acres. Each American uses about 25 acres.
To support the energy needs of the U.S. and the rest of the developed world, people in Nigeria are living with pipelines on their farms and in front of their houses, 24-hour gas flaring leaves toxic chemicals in the air, acid rain and oil spills have polluted the water, and angry young men with guns roam the areas once used by children to attend school.
From the Congo comes the gold that we use to decorate our bodies, and the coltan used in cell phones and computer chips. The mines are filled with pre-teen children who work 12-hour days in the heat in toxic dust and sludge, all for a few pennies a day. Other children work as soldiers. Little boys patrol the site with oversized machine guns on their shoulders.
To rid
ourselves of some of the unpleasant aftereffects of modern
consumption, we 'recycle' most of our electronic waste to China, where
unprotected workers in the Chinese city of Guiyu make a couple of
dollars a day treating circuit boards with acid, and grinding up components
coated with lead and mercury.
To help
satisfy our appetite for the world's resources, we fashion
one-sided trade rules. According to Christian Aid, trade liberalization
in the past 20 years has cost sub-Saharan Africa more than $272 billion,
a staggering sum that could have erased all its debts while paying
for vaccination and school for every child. Meanwhile, we don't even
follow our own rules. The U.S. pays a few hundred of its largest cotton
farmers up to $500,000 in subsidies, allowing them to dump their cotton
crops on countries like Mali, where over a quarter of the population
relies on cotton for its livelihood.
How else do we compromise the rights of humans around the world? We sell twice as many arms as any other country. Nearly half of the arms deliveries to developing countries in 2005 came from the United States. In 2003, we sold weapons to 20 countries declared undemocratic or human rights abusers by the U.S. State Department’s own Human Rights Report.
In 2002
the U.S. withdrew its support for the International Criminal
Court, which would have tried people guilty of genocide, war crimes,
and crimes against humanity. Our country joined China, Iraq, Iran,
North Korea, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the Sudan as non-signers.
In 2004 the Bush Administration rejected a ban on the use of landmines, calling them a necessary military capability. At the present time, while worldwide use of landmines has decreased, the U.S. maintains about 10 million mines and has suggested that it may resume production of a new type of landmine.
In 2008
the U.S. again refused to join the treaty against the use of
cluster bombs, even though many children are killed or injured when
they pick up the toy-like bomblets that failed to detonate when first
dropped.
We in America dwell on our positive values, pride ourselves in wishing these values on other people, and condemn any obvious violation of our beliefs. But our actions are causing long-term suffering around the world. We need to take a closer look at ourselves. Great Americans from Henry David Thoreau to Martin Luther King spoke about true patriotism, which requires that we evaluate our actions honestly, and seek constant improvement in the way we deal with others. With the end of our own abuses against the developing world we might regain the right to criticize China.
Paul Buchheit is on the faculty of DePaul University and the Chicago
City Colleg(GIChicago.org) and fightingpoverty.org. He is the editor
and main contributor to "American Wars: Illusions and Realities"
(Clarity Press).
