Justice for all

International human rights law comes with a lot of jargon attached to it. There’s the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights and Economic, Social, and Cultural rights. And then there are countless more protocols, conventions, and councils.

Although these conventions and documents are all a testament to the sheer power of words, they aren’t what make people passionate about human rights. Well, perhaps that’s a blanket statement: that’s not what makes me tick. True, I am taken with law because it imbues language with an almost mysterious authority. It gives words the capacity to be universally applicable and respected - gives them the ability to save lives. That is truly powerful.

But beyond this, what makes me tick, what makes me addicted...is something deeper. It’s not just human rights, but human nature. When you begin to learn about human rights issues, you begin getting at the very core of what makes us all “human”….but also, you start encountering things that you can’t even believe exist in human nature. You begin to slowly strip away what makes up the reality you believed in; the reality that makes up our privileged lives right now. And you start realizing that human nature is far more frightening than what you previously believed. Or at least, I felt this way.

What simultaneously fascinates and angers me is the fundamental question: how can people do such unimaginably horrible things to fellow human beings? A year ago, I began reading about the Rwandan genocide, and the question still haunts me. Forget lack of education, forget mass hysteria, forget following orders from above - bottom line, how can genocide even happen? How can a person kill without thinking twice? And how can it happen over and over again, without anyone stopping it - even when the signs are clearly beneath our noses? How can leaders so easily commit war crimes and leave destruction in their wake? But these things happen in everyday life too. How can police forces lock up a poor bicycle thief and then torture him to force an interrogation? Forget training of the police forces - how can anyone purposely cause suffering like that? Isn’t there some shred of basic humanity that prevents this?

The truth is, it’s downright scary and shocking to read and think about these issues. That’s why eventually you can become passive when talking about genocide and war crimes. After a while you have to go numb to it, otherwise there’s no way you can ponder these issues on a daily basis. Otherwise you simply lose faith in humanity.

But at the end of all this questioning, I don’t want to lose my faith. Despite reading about the world’s worst atrocities, I want to believe in the inherent good in people. That’s what addicts me to this field, and even though I haven’t gone far yet, I hope to assist in finding solutions. I want to help figure out how we can stop basic violations of human rights, and I want to believe that human nature really isn’t that bad. That we are all just products of our environment, and that if we can establish solid rule of law and robust institutions, we can change this. Deep down I already know this is true. I just have to confirm it to myself through this work.

I want to work towards this just so I can have more hope. You might think that I’m idealistic because I want to contribute to these causes. But the truth is, I started out cynical, wondering how the world could be this way. But I have no illusions about my own capabilities — I know I’m not going to change things overnight. In fact, I know that despite immense hard work, it’s possible I still may not be able to do much. The world is a hard place…and it’s hard to improve. Still, I think I do retain a deep sense of hope — hope that I can contribute in some way, however small. And hope that I’ll figure things out as I go along. Hope that I’ll confirm that humanity may very well be inherently good…but that we ourselves, through our everyday actions, have brought about the world we live in. And for that reason, hope that it is possible to change the reality of our world.

Photo credit: here

Here’s the second installment of Feature Friday this week: Beyond Good Intentions.

Beyond Good Intentions is a wonderful ten-part film series investigating the effectiveness of international aid. According to the website:

The Beyond Good Intentions film series follows the round-the-world journey of first-time filmmaker, Tori Hogan, as she investigates how international aid can be more effective. Shot on location in eight different countries, the ten-episode series takes viewers along for the ride as Tori meets with countless aid workers and recipients to uncover more innovative approaches to helping communities in need.

The film series is great because it brings to light a lot of the criticisms of international aid that are often unknown to the general public. People assume volunteering abroad is great — but perhaps it’s not truly sustainable. People assume the Peace Corps is wonderful — but is the program really effective? With the advent of Muhammad Yunus’ innovative approach to ‘banking for the poor,’ microfinance has almost universally began to be viewed as a panacea to the world’s poverty…but is it really delivering for the world’s poorest communities?

Tori explores these, and many more important, controversial, challenging questions. What’s more, she presents the information in a series of engaging and enjoyable short films which are accessible to the general public. These films don’t use grandiose rhetoric or useless jargon…which is what is usually employed in these debates, often put forth by academics. Tori makes these issues interesting and easily understandable, thus reaching a large proportion of the population and drawing in young people.

Check out the clip below, where Tori investigates the practices of Kiva and microlending. Click here to access their YouTube channel and watch the rest of the videos.

I haven’t done Feature Friday in quite a while, unfortunately, since I have been so busy this summer. So today I decided to double the effort and feature two great initiatives. Here’s the first one….and check my next blog post for #2!

Better World Books

Better World Books (BWB) is in my eyes - the future of business. Better World Books is one of the best social businesses out there due to it’s triple bottom line - economic, social and environmental. The model is amazing and absolutely self sustainable. BWB calls itself “the online bookstore with soul.” The company collects and saves used books from landfills, which it then sells online through betterworldbooks.com. The company employs a social business model by funneling any profits it makes back into the organization, rather than paying dividends to investors. And the best part? They donate a certain percentage of all profits to literacy initiatives worldwide - charities and organizations working to foster literacy and education across the globe.

If that didn’t catch your eye, what if I told you that their books are actually insanely cheap? Last week I bought six books on their website, and it cost only a total of $19! I bought five of these books through their “Bargain Bin,” which allows you to buy 5 books for $15. And contrary to the usual “sale” sections of stores, their Bargain Bin includes many interesting books and previous bestsellers. And, shipping is free throughout the U.S. Knowing that they would donate some of their profits enticed me, but finding so many cheap books on their site absolutely hooked me.

As if that wasn’t enough, their service is great, and very unique. After I purchased my book, I got this adorable email:

(Your book(s) asked to write you a personal note - it seemed unusual, but who are we to say no?)

Holy canasta! It’s me… it’s me! I can’t believe it is actually me! You could have picked any of over 2 million books but you picked me! I’ve got to get packed! How is the weather where you live? Will I need a dust jacket? I can’t believe I’m leaving Mishawaka, Indiana already - the friendly people, the Hummer plant, the Linebacker Lounge - so many memories. I don’t have much time to say goodbye to everyone, but it’s time to see the world!

I can’t wait to meet you! You sound like such a well read person. Although, I have to say, it sure has taken you a while! I don’t mean to sound ungrateful, but how would you like to spend five months sandwiched between Jane Eyre (drama queen)and Fundamentals of Thermodynamics (pyromaniac)? At least Jane was an upgrade from that stupid book on brewing beer. How many times did the ol’ brewmaster have one too many and topple off our shelf at 2am?

I know the trip to meet you will be long and fraught with peril, but after the close calls I’ve had, I’m ready for anything (besides, some of my best friends are suspense novels). Just five months ago, I thought I was a goner. My owner was moving and couldn’t take me with her. I was sure I was landfill bait until I ended up in a Better World Books book drive bin. Thanks to your socially conscious book shopping, I’ve found a new home. Even better, your book buying dollars are helping kids read from Brazil to Botswana.

What self-respectable book lover wouldn’t appreciate such a sweet letter from her future books? In conclusion, check out BWB the next time you start to crave a nice night in with a riveting fiction novel. Besides getting your reading fix, you’ll assist in recycling and contribute to some well-deserving literacy initiatives across the globe. BWB has a very sustainable and solid model, and I look forward to watching them grow!

I just want to take the time today to send some appreciation the way of Samantha Karol of Lifes Chocolates, who has started an amazing, energetic, appreciative revolution. She’s featuring a series of guest posts from fellow bloggers about the meaning of appreciation, and she’s given me the great opportunity to join in.

So check out her blog and read all the latest posts about appreciation. And while you’re at it, read my guest post for her series: Thanks to the “Invisible” Heroes of Our Generation.

Some of these people are famous, but the vast majority of the people doing some of the most grueling, dangerous work out there are not. They’re not doing it for the recognition. Most of them don’t own their own domains and blogs, and don’t try to “brand” themselves like we do. Instead, they remain anonymous. While I’m sitting in my comfortable room in Europe, enjoying pasta and bread, these brave people are living in difficult conditions and putting themselves in danger to fight for what they believe in. I know I am immensely lucky to have what I have, but I think I lack something that these people have: courage. I talk so much about international issues on my own blog, but I haven’t actually gone and volunteered in a conflict zone, nor have I ever experienced living in conditions of poverty. I’m not sure I’d ever have the strength to become an aid worker in Darfur, or a Peace Corps volunteer in a remote village. I’d like to think I’m up for all these challenges, but I still think it takes a special type of person to dedicate their lives to such work.

Read the rest of the post here.

Thanks Sam for facilitating such an engaging series, and encouraging people to value appreciation. I feel that far too many days, we forget to truly appreciate how lucky we are and what we have in life. This series gives you a chance to do that. So take a look now!

It’s a widely believed theory that the Internet, social media and other online tools and technologies can serve to undermine authoritarian regimes and help to spread democracies. As I wrote before, technology represents the ‘democratization of information’ - by which regimes no longer have a monopoly on knowledge. By reaching people who might never have known of other possibilities, the Internet and technology is opening people’s eyes and putting power in the hands of the people via the dissemination of knowledge. For sure, this is a powerful theory. But even beyond this more ‘general’ effect, we’ve heard stories of how Twitter has facilitated protests and organization by the people against the state - in places like Iran and Moldova. Twitter is truly revolutionary - in more ways than one.

Yet, these success stories are - perhaps - isolated incidents, and most of the authoritarian countries of the world are much less amenable to the spread of social media. A brilliant article by Foreign Policy claims that Twitter barely exists in most autocracies - many of these countries have their own versions of microblogging or have their own social networks. In many parts of the world, Orkut is far more popular. More likely, Internet in these countries is not widespread enough nor fast enough for people to be constantly logged on to Twitter. Moreover, Twitter is likely to be used by people with knowledge of English and some international exposure - it doesn’t necessarily reach wide swathes of the population, many of whom may be poor and non-English speaking. It mostly reaches the educated and the elite.

Another problem described in the article relates to the lack of anonymity on Twitter - incidents in the past have shown that individuals can easily be tracked down by government forces for their actions on Twitter. This isn’t exactly conducive to starting a revolution. If I were living in an authoritarian country, I doubt I’d use Twitter, a public medium, to voice my criticisms of the regime or to publicize protests I was a part of - it seems too easy to get caught!

Twitter is also prone to misinformation. After all, how much detail can you put in a 140 character tweet? During the swine flu outbreak, there was certainly misinformation all around - sometimes certain issues or breaking news stories spread like wildfire, and just as likely these stories can cause mass hysteria. Twitter simply isn’t a tool meant for informing people completely, and it becomes even less useful when we begin dealing with complex political situations. That’s just not something you can easily break down on Twitter, and such sensitive information is prone to misunderstanding.

Ultimately, Twitter’s an excellent tool for many of us - it helps us keep up to date with the latest issues and debates, generates fantastic conversation, and helps drive traffic to our sites. It’s gaining a cultish following by some who understand it’s true power - it helps us create a network, an audience far greater than what we’d have otherwise. Some people claim that Twitter is stupid — I’ll be honest and say that it makes me smarter. And you know why? It’s because I follow smart people. There is intellectualism to be found on Twitter, and those who find it are hooked.

Despite all the hype, Twitter isn’t going to be spreading democracy anytime soon. Sure, it may facilitate protests in certain areas, but there are still many obstacles stopping Twitter from being embraced within authoritarian regimes, especially poor ones.

But I’ll still be holding on to some hope. And in the meantime, I’ll be tweeting.

Picture credit: here