Wow, there are so many things wrong with that statement that it's ridiculous.
Part One: Updates
I heard back from the one of the directors of Desert Nights (Aara Manoogian), the documentary about human trafficking in Armenia and Dubai. He said he would be happy to mail me a copy of the film to show at UF, and suggested that I try to get Armenians on campus to promote it. He recommended that I read up on his latest work and get back to him with any questions I may have. Mr. Manoogian also said that Americans could help by putting pressure on President Bush to put the UAE on the list of traffickers so they will face traffickers. He pointed me to an article he wrote here. I have no idea how that kind of thing works. Maybe we could start a demonstation or something. You know, take it to Washington. Lincoln Memorial steps and all that. Drop me a line if you're interested.
People from International Justice Mission also wrote me back. Cheryl Noble from Student Ministries wrote me back about starting a campus chapter at UF and has provided all the information necessary. If you are interested in being part of this idea of starting a chapter of IJM on campus (or even better, heading it up), drop me a line and I'll forward you the email.
Also, someone from IJM responded to my email about Armenia and the UAE. She said that IJM only works in South and Southeast Asia right now on this subject and has no offices in the Middle East or in Eastern Europe due to a lack of resources and contacts/partner organizations in those regions. Sounds like fertile soil to me. She referred me to a group called Progeny, which is dedicated to rescuing oppresssed children around the world.
Part Two: Chomsky
I've been reading a lot of Chomsky in the past couple of days. I really like what he has to say on topics like education, U.S. foreign policy, and the media. One interesting point he makes is that "there is a kind of margin for survival in the Third World that relates to the degree of American dissidence." This is based on his observation over the years that governments tend to force their terrorist/aggressive operations underground as activism becomes more successful. He uses the examples of the U.S.'s involvement in Nicaragua (the Iran-Contra affair) and El Salvador, as well as examples of the U.S.'s network of terrorist mercenary states (like Israel). Very interesting stuff.
Regarding education, he talks about several of the problems of the educational institutions in America, from public schools to Harvard. It mainly has to do with indoctrination - being taught that obedience is more important than creativity. Ever wonder why in high school you could get a C on a test and not be punished (key word is punished, and this doesn't involve parents), but if you showed up to class 5 minutes late, you were given a detention? He further points out the problems with universities, as they are essentially like corporations in that they depend on funding from wealthy, important people and the government. They are constantly having to make people happy, and because of that, it's very hard for anyone to do anything meaningful within them. You can't rock the boat too much for fear of losing a donor constituency.
Obviously, his views are much better documented and articulate than what I've said here. Those are just a few things that I've found interesting.
Part Three: Disappointing Human Rights Films
So today I watched this little video called "Life Choices: Human Rights in the 21st Century." I can't find it on the internet. Apparently, it was produced at Notre Dame sometime in 1989. It was pretty terrible overall. The first part, though, was an interview with the chair of Amnesty International, which was fairly interesting. He made a point about human rights abuse starting first with separating the "us" from the "them" in order to dehumanize the victim (prime example being WWII). The second part was a discussion between several people from different countries, and it was awful. It basically involved a bunch of well-educated people from the US (who were exclusively military, and exclusively white), Germany, Israel, India, Hungary, and Brazil meandering on and on about nothing really. They repeated the same canned human rights stuff, continually interrupted each other (especially the Americans, which was funny), and never really accomplished anything. The final part of the video was an interview with a Mennonite, who said a bunch of feel-good things about human rights.
After that disappointing experience, I watched a short documentary called No More Tears Sister. It's about a human rights activist named Dr. Rajani Thiranagama, who was assassinated in 1989. Unfortunately, the film is a bit of a failure. It documents her life, some of the situation in Sri Lanka, and her relationship with her family. It talks a lot about how she was a great human rights activist, but never actually tells you what she did. Sure, it says that she founded the University Teachers for Human Rights in Sri Lanka, and that she wrote some pamphlets, but that doesn't say much. According to the film's web site, Rajani "became implicated in grassroots organizations fighting for women’s rights and against the discrimination of Britain’s black people and became involved in the international campaigns of other liberation groups...Her work to rebuild her community after the 1987 October War is renowned." She is supposed to have "fought for the release of imprisoned students and helped establish the Poorani Women’s Centre for victims of war." None of this is very well-represented in the film. What a shame. It got good reviews, too, which I don't understand.
The one thing that I really did enjoy about the film was learning a bit about the conflict in Sri Lanka. I don't think I've ever been exposed to it before.
Conclusion
So, my new question is "What does a Christian view of human rights look like?" I think Haugen provides a good springboard, but I'd like to explore the question in further depth. I'm going to outline Good News and start brainstorming.
Research is starting to pick up. Dr. Sterk has really helped to point me in the right direction. I'm doing a lot of reading.
Peace,
Sam
P.S. New albums from Sufjan Stevens and Thom Yorke today. You can listen to Sufjan's latest here.
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