I had a maintenance day today. I got a haircut, and went to the dentist. My teeth are finally sparkling and shiny. I decided to have a bit of a mental break too. I went to a movie with my sister Charlotte and bought the new U2 cd. All in all, it was a good day.
The U2 cd is great. I bought the special edition. It came with a book, and inside its pages are pictures, and other odd scribbling. There was also something very curious. This quirky reliquary was hiding a copy of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Oddly, I had been kicking around the idea of writing something about this. In fact, I had copied some of its articles yesterday. Life has a funny way of pushing you in a direction sometimes.
What are the Universal Declaration of Human rights you ask? Well, this is it.
On December 10, 1948 the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Following this historic act the Assembly called upon all Member countries to publicize the text of the Declaration and "to cause it to be disseminated, displayed, read and expounded principally in schools and other educational institutions, without distinction based on the political status of countries or territories."
In a nutshell, it was a document designed to propagate the concept that all human beings share basic, fundamental rights.
Here are just a few for your consideration.
Article 12. No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.
(This one is largely ignored in North America these days... Especially if you are brown skinned, or speak out against the clampdown on civil liberties. New laws make it totally legal for you to be spied on. They can read your email, listen to your phone conversations, etc. George Orwell hit the bull's-eye with 1984.)
Article 19. Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
(This one too... It went poof in the wind. For example, we should be able to see Janet Jackson's tit on TV. People are capable of making their own decisions. On Remembrance Day, American Television networks balked at the idea of show "Saving Private Ryan" because of it's strong content. Regardless of the fact that they showed it the year previous, they caved in to the morality police. It falls into the new "Janet's tit" laws for public decency. They hardly equate with each other, and yet legally they do. Some people will argue about community standards. I would argue that remote controls were made for a reason. Okay there's a lot more going on here, but I though I'd keep it simple.)
Article 20. (1) Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association. (2) No one may be compelled to belong to an association.
(Hmmm... I'm sensing a pattern here! You should take a gander at the homeland security act sometime. There are some pretty sneaky things going on there. The police can now legally break up any gathering they see fit. For any reason they can concoct.)
Article 25. Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
(We haven't just throw this one away... We set it on fire first. We live with a different set of rules. The first, and most important is this. “It's all about me... me me me me me me...” and second... “Fuck the poor.”)
What's truly sad is this. This declaration has become nothing more than lip service. The United Nations is wholly incapable of enforcing any of this upon its membership. Not that it's likely that they would want it that way. Their failure is humanity's undoing.
Quite frankly I'm surprised sometimes that we haven't regressed to the point where we throw our poo at one another. Then again it might be more effective. Lord knows I've had that compulsion lately.
End of Transmission
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