The United States prides itself on global philanthropy, and American’s often indulge in feeling of superiority over Asian and European countries because of our human rights efforts. We feel it is our responsibility to identify violations of these rights, and then punish the violators. It’s a noble cause, and a great idea, but honestly, for as good as we feel about ourselves, we are doing a terrible job.
The human rights efforts are selective. Countries of potential monetary value are helped long before those with little to offer the United States. A motive for the current War on Terror was enforcing human rights in the Middle East, were there is lots of oil and trading, yet at the same time, a few countries away in Sudan and Darfur, very little government intervention existed because they have nothing to offer us in return.
Another inconsistency is life quality. The United States will step in and stop direct murder (in some cases) but will do little about poor living conditions, sweat shops, or famine. Our country, founded on competition, market trade and consumerism, is the biggest promoter of unsafe labor. We will save a population from death, but wont make it any easier to live. America poses as something it is not, as something it was never intended to be. The Fair and Just Savior of the World is a myth, every U.S. government relief effort has a motive. We need to stop pretending to be something we are not.
Human rights are not something to be middle-of-the-road about, either commit and do the job well, freeing people from oppression and then providing them the tools they need to grow on their own, of just sit back and try not to interfere. Doing half the job is insulting to the value of human life. Our unofficial motto “It is wrong to die of murder or terrorism, but okay to die of hunger,” should somehow wake us up to change our policy.
"We are Awesome!"
By bondaid - Posted on May 8th, 2008
Well, Americans aren't quite as cold hearted as some cynics might think. I saw on ABC's World News Tonight that America is the most giving nation in the world. I don't mean our government, I mean our people. American citizens have donated more money to charities than any other country in the world, and the charitable donations per capita in the US is also the highest in the world. (Sorry, I can't remember the specific statistics)
Our government is probably a different story, like you said. I'm the president of my school's chapter of Amnesty International, so I'm involved in some things that make me not so proud of America. Like, for example, our failure to do something in Rwanda or Bosnia during the '90s. Or the Jewish refugees we sent back to Germany during WWII because we had already met our refugee quotas. (In America's defense, the extent of the Holocaust was not truly known until towards the end of the war.) But all the same, it just makes us look bad.
Hopefully things will change in the near future. And hey, rest of the world, you can help too.
Your point about WWII reminded me of something I've often thought. We are so far removed from everything. We didn't know the extent of the Holocaust until near the end, but Europe did--or at least had a sense of how bad it might be. There were towns who stood up to the Nazi's and paid dearly for it. There were also towns who gave over all their Jews to save their own skin. But we didn't even get involved until we had to. This is so true of so many things today. We don't get involved simply because something is an atrocity that needs to be stopped. We get involved only when our own interests are threatened. And we're an ocean away from Darfur. It's easy to look the other way.
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/ediblewoman