If I could be in Mr. Bush’s and Mr. Blair’s press corps, I’d ask just one question! It is one simple question: Just what about Articles 2, 3 and 30 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights do you not understand?: Article 2 Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty. Article 3 Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person. Article 30Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein. Please, another minute…? Ø “Everyone” means, well, everyone. No one is to be excluded. Ø “entitled to” means, well, entitled to. No refusal to anyone for any reason. Even Osama can’t be wanted “dead or alive” (contrary to lawless Texan cowboy ways). Sorry. Ø “to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration,” means, well, to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration. There’s a whole whack of ‘em. Gotta be impressed by those high-minded 1948 signers in the wake of the “inhuman barbarism” (President Roosevelt’s phrase) of Allied bombers killing masses of innocent civilians in Germany and Japan, and of the ultimate “barbarous weapon” (Roosevelt’s Chief of Staff Leahy’s phrase) dropped on each of Hiroshima and Nagasaki killing hundreds of thousands more: even if Mr. Churchill dubbed the Allied attacks “moral bombing”! Ø “without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.” means, well, without distinction of any kind, such as race [Iraqi for instance], colour [non-white for instance], sex [non-heterosexual for instance], language [non-English, more, non-American for instance], religion [non-Christian for instance], political or other opinion [anti-U.S. Empire for instance], national or social origin [non-Caucasian U.S./Commonwealth citizen for instance], property [where there’s crude, dude!], birth or other status [no “black site” Geneva Conventions prisoner torture exemptions for instance]. No nepotism or patriotism here – or prejudice or greed! – when it comes to people not born from your mom’s, your clan’s, your yellow rose’s, your nation’s, womb. Ø “Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.” means, well (okay: this repetition is getting a tad tedious), Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty. No one can be considered outside the circle of inclusion – and that would not be Mr. Bush’s Iron Triangle of big business, Bush senior’s ancien régime, and Texan political operatives swaying/controlling the President. No more “The White Man’s Burden’s” “savage wars of peace”– with due respect to British Empire laureate (and a Mr. Blair favourite) Rudyard Kipling. Ø “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.” means, well, Everyone [see meaning for this above] has the right to life, liberty and security of person. No collateral damage allowed, and one totally cleans up the mess afterwards. Like you little Georgie and Anthony were urged to in kindergarten, where at life’s outset you were taught all you really need to know to be, well, in a word, kinder in the primordial Garden. (Remember your “greatest Philosopher”, Mr. Bush?: “Let the little Kinder come to me, and do not bomb them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.”) No more raining incendiary bombs over the enemy to impose the customs of civilization or democracy the way your 19th-century forebears imagined it. No one to ever get sick or hurt or killed from temper tantrum residue like depleted uranium (half-life 4.5 billion years, rendering victims half- eventually fully, dead) or pretty unexploded cluster bomblets (up to 30% dud rate) you might share with aliens/others/Kinder. Ø “Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.” means, well (at last!), Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein. No pre-emptive strikes; no nuclear bunker-busters; no air strikes at all! – since they always destroy far more civilians’ and others’ right to life (though nothing in the Declaration about soldiers’ exemptions). No, O God!, no Orwellian doublespeak political bullshitting! Then again, Mr. Bush and Mr. Blair, evidently words for you, like life outside U.S. of A. and British sway, are cheap and so are declarations. Forget the above! My simple question is: Why don’t you just enroll in kindergarten again? |
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