Thursday, May 28, 2009

Respect for Human Rights

Why is it such a difficult goal to achieve in our world of today? You would think that after the nasty experiences of World War I and World War II that the world would learn.In fact our today should be reaping the benefit of tremendous scientific and technological advancement that have accelerated the quality of human services to societies. Alas..this is not the case..the records of human rights violation in all countries of the world is appalling! In particular, the treatment of women, children, the aged, the indigenous, the homeless, the mentally and physically disabled etc etc demonstrate evidence of the world's failure!

Who is responsible?

The answer is: any human person who chooses to protect themselves over others, pursues self interest goals instead of the goal of the common good are deemed to operate in unethical ways, be it in positions of leadership in government, business, organizations, multinational coperations, entrenched village councils, committees, church,and so on. I call this excessive individualism.

Does this mean that cultures who claim that there traditional practices and customs (like the fa'aSamoa) is solely for the benefit of families and the community, and who claim that their customs and structures ensures learning of responsibilities --do these cultures demonstrate a perfect example of respect for human rights of individuals especially, children, youths,women,the aged, mentally and physically disabled? I think not. Look at the increasing rates of suicide in youths, teen pregnancies, rape cases and domestic violence against women, children in street selling, a few of many examples indicate that cultures are blind to what they could be doing to individuals. I call this unregulated or excessive culture.

An examples of unethical cultural practices. Like the individual matai who puts their signature in a land register on behalf of family land and who then chooses to receive all benefits in relation to the family land from some overseas investor and who has supported some government scheme to change the use of customary land.

What about the sneaky tulafale who brings 'nothing' contribution to the aiga 'fa'alavelave' and then uses his oratory skills to make a big profit of money, food, fine mats for himself? Who funds the fa'alavelave??
I call this 'horizontal cultural exploitation' of the Samoan family! According to this example the individuals of the family have no right to say "no".

So there is violation of individual and group rights in Samoan society and the global issue of respect for human rights exists well and truly.