Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Human rights and humanitarian imperialism in Syria

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Sunday, September 30, 2012

Human rights and humanitarian imperialism in Syria

Click here to access article by Ajamu Baraka from Pambazuka News.

Although the website is based in South Africa, the writer is an African American human rights defender. Thus, it is interesting to read his views on the Empire's use of "human rights" increasingly to justify intervention in other countries. Because I am entertaining a guest today, I have only had time to scan this article; but I think it presents an interesting point of view.

Syria is just the latest in a long line of international crimes perpetrated by Western powers. But what makes the crimes in Syria, as those in Libya, even more offensive, is the cynical use of human rights to advance the diabolical interests of Western imperialism.