Monday, June 16, 2008
Article #5 from Volume 1, Issue 4: Your Media, Your Human Right
"Human Rights Starts at Home"
Nick Wong
Being in Guatemala for the past six weeks, it has become apparent to me that “Human Rights” and “Justice” are two phrases in desperate need of a common union. Clear effects of the 36-year war are prevalent as indigenous populations continue to fill the lower brackets of the social ladder. Big business and foreign investors feast off the lifeline of the country.
Former officers of the genocide still become elected into political positions. There are a plethora of causes to be fought for here - a myriad of problems needing resolution - but what often gets lost in these larger mind-boggling injustices are the smaller day-to-day struggles of life.
Every day the country breathes survival. Young children scramble at the sight of shoes needing to be shined or try to sell lottery tickets to people who are too smart to buy them. Others market souvenirs to travelers who hope a culture can be commodified into an item able to be packaged, shipped, and placed on their wall back at home.
And finally there are those who simply show bodily deformations in hopes that a passerby will maybe throw them a few cents to absolve the guilt of not looking into their eyes. This crippled third-world economy is not due to individual laziness or an act of spontaneity, but rather due to the steadily deteriorating social infrastructure caused by global networks that benefit places like the United States.
Trade agreements like CAFTA (Central American Free Trade Agreement) set up unbalanced stipulations that prevent development and exploit countries like Guatemala. International banking systems like the IMF (International Monetary Fund) offer short-term loans with hefty interest rates in exchange for rights to property and land, eliminating prospects of self-sustainability.
These large networks are a new form of colonialism, a subversive system of share-cropping, indebting countries to the whim of the powerful. And it isn’t as if all Guatemalans are living in poverty. In almost every capitalist society, the United States included, there is an ever present gap between the have and the have-nots. Those who allow these agreements or have already established wealth, benefit from these relationships just as those in the States do. It is just the proportion that differs.
The majority of people in the States can reap the benefits of these international economic relationships, at least more so than those in Guatemala. Here, kids sacrificing their childhood to help their family are a prevalent reality, rather than an overlooked occurrence like it is in the States.
These tragic scenes I witness everyday are the costs to supplement a US lifestyle that pacifies people with comforts and inconsequential gadgets that update themselves every three months. Hence we get distracted when hearing about the exploitation. This isn’t necessarily about Guatemala specifically or to say that their problems are more tragic than others.
It is instead to say that we are all implicated whether we acknowledge it or not. So if we want to start bringing together “Human Rights” and “Justice,” start by looking inside ourselves and how we live our lives.
Nick Wong
Being in Guatemala for the past six weeks, it has become apparent to me that “Human Rights” and “Justice” are two phrases in desperate need of a common union. Clear effects of the 36-year war are prevalent as indigenous populations continue to fill the lower brackets of the social ladder. Big business and foreign investors feast off the lifeline of the country.
Former officers of the genocide still become elected into political positions. There are a plethora of causes to be fought for here - a myriad of problems needing resolution - but what often gets lost in these larger mind-boggling injustices are the smaller day-to-day struggles of life.
Every day the country breathes survival. Young children scramble at the sight of shoes needing to be shined or try to sell lottery tickets to people who are too smart to buy them. Others market souvenirs to travelers who hope a culture can be commodified into an item able to be packaged, shipped, and placed on their wall back at home.
And finally there are those who simply show bodily deformations in hopes that a passerby will maybe throw them a few cents to absolve the guilt of not looking into their eyes. This crippled third-world economy is not due to individual laziness or an act of spontaneity, but rather due to the steadily deteriorating social infrastructure caused by global networks that benefit places like the United States.
Trade agreements like CAFTA (Central American Free Trade Agreement) set up unbalanced stipulations that prevent development and exploit countries like Guatemala. International banking systems like the IMF (International Monetary Fund) offer short-term loans with hefty interest rates in exchange for rights to property and land, eliminating prospects of self-sustainability.
These large networks are a new form of colonialism, a subversive system of share-cropping, indebting countries to the whim of the powerful. And it isn’t as if all Guatemalans are living in poverty. In almost every capitalist society, the United States included, there is an ever present gap between the have and the have-nots. Those who allow these agreements or have already established wealth, benefit from these relationships just as those in the States do. It is just the proportion that differs.
The majority of people in the States can reap the benefits of these international economic relationships, at least more so than those in Guatemala. Here, kids sacrificing their childhood to help their family are a prevalent reality, rather than an overlooked occurrence like it is in the States.
These tragic scenes I witness everyday are the costs to supplement a US lifestyle that pacifies people with comforts and inconsequential gadgets that update themselves every three months. Hence we get distracted when hearing about the exploitation. This isn’t necessarily about Guatemala specifically or to say that their problems are more tragic than others.
It is instead to say that we are all implicated whether we acknowledge it or not. So if we want to start bringing together “Human Rights” and “Justice,” start by looking inside ourselves and how we live our lives.
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Labels: CAFTA, guatemala, human rights, newsletter, nick wong, spotlight, university of washington, uwjhr
Labels: CAFTA, guatemala, human rights, newsletter, nick wong, spotlight, university of washington, uwjhr
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