Failure to Comply

A Lack of Conformity...
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How is that people like President Barack Obama can commonly be heard preaching the tenants of democracy... one being the inalienable Human Rights... and yet we watch as our fellow democratic societies violate the rights of their own citizens? I'm not talking about China. I'm not talking about Saudi Arabia. I'm talking about European democratic societies. Our old friends from across the "pond".
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If you have been reading Alder's Ledge for long you should now be aware of the growing issues with the Europeans' violations of human rights. Not only has anti-Semitism made a comeback in the European mindset but the xenophobia has isolated Romani living in Europe. Targeting of Roma has grown rather intense over the past few years alone as France and Italy have deported Roma in great numbers.
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It is my opinion that European countries are trying to strip legal citizens of the European Union of their rights as citizens simply because the targeted community's ethnicity. By deporting the Roma to countries outside the European Union the governments are making it impossible for the Roma to claim the said rights. Instead the Roma find themselves in worse poverty than they had suffered back in France and Italy. And to make things worse, the deported Roma are considered less than second-class citizens in their new homes.
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It is hard to prove such allegations and near impossible seeing as how news from across the pond is hard to come by and difficult to believe. Most of the news agencies and news papers from Europe appear to mask what they find embarrassing about their home countries while pointing toward the United States as a "model violator of human rights".
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However when you hear the slogan "Hamas, Hamas, All the Jews to the Gas" being chanted at "football" games you have to realize that human rights is an issue in Europe. You can't ignore the reference. It doesn't happen by accident. And the fact that the fellow Europeans, the ones not shouting it, don't stop it... they become complacent to the violent rhetoric.
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In England the following video brought to us by CNN shows how violent the attacks on human rights (the right to live in peace) in even the moderate country of England have become.
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Meanwhile in Italy, a breeding ground for xenophobic hatred, the attacks on human rights take on an entirely different appearance.
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But none of this should be news for those of you who have been reading this blog over the past few months. So why do we care? Why does it matter what Europe does to its own citizens?
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We have been witnessing the violations of human rights in China for decades. But we can't do or say anything about those violations because of our own. And we will never be capable of being taken seriously due to those violations.
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Western democracies can not nor should not be taking part in the degradation of human life and the value of it. It is obvious that we do not out right destroy human life but rather attack the value of it. We isolate the targeted group and punish them nearly relentlessly. In doing this we usually deprive the targeted community of the common liberties we here in western democracies cherish most.
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For the Jewish community in Holland this has been a way of life for the past several years. The Holland community has blamed it upon the "immigrant population". They claim that the Jewish community has brought it upon itself since they continue to supposedly support the Israeli issues with the Palestinians. Yet most of the liberal minded Dutch don't seem to realize that they themselves are denying Holland's Jewish community of their civil liberties by allowing the persistent attacks.
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So why can't we here in the west preach "Human Rights" to the countries that need it most?
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Simple. They view us as being weak on the enforcement of common Human Rights laws. They appear to believe that if we can't enforce the laws here at home than we can't be trusted to enforce them abroad.
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Take Rwanda for example. This is a country that has suffered a genocide in its very recent past. Yet it continues to suppress the rights of its citizens in much the same ways as before the 1994 genocide. America and its European allies however do not seem willing to address the issue. And China, who has investments in Africa, will not dare talk about Rwanda's current human rights violations.
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And if we did talk to China about Rwanda... well there is always the issue of France's Roma deportations to bring up. We are blocked from taking on such clear violations and the violators themselves due to our own weaknesses. We can't act against China or Rwanda due to our own weakness when it comes to our allies in Europe.
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Those of you reading this blog can take action however. Unlike our government, you can make your voices heard. By writing your Congressman you can let him/her know that this issue does matter to you. By writing your Senator you can make our government listen.
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You can even write President Barack Obama himself if you want. After all, Barack did promise to officially recognize the Armenian Genocide... which he has not.
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Source Documents for this Post.
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VOA News
http://www.voanews.com/english/news/Human-Rights-World-Report-Quiet-Diplomacy-Failing-to-Protect-Human-Rights-114479969.html
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Romea.cz
http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?id=detail&detail=2007_2127