A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
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Thiranjala Weerasinghe sj.- One Island Two Nations
?????????????????????????????????????????????????Saturday, December 1, 2018
Tyranny against Humanity: Human Rights and Global Politics
The Humanity and Nature are interconnected. To know the Nature of things is to know oneself. The global understanding of human rights violation appears detached from the media sensational coverage and inner thoughts of human minds seen on the screen.
( November 27, 2018, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) The
tyranny of human rights violations – planned and alleged goes unabated
across the globe. Late American historian Howard Zinn must have sensed
the human cries against the Nature and called “Tyranny is tyranny.”
Nobody seems to care for the dried-ink paper written words and meanings
of the UNO human rights declarations or respect for human dignity in
crisis and conflicts.
“Hell on Earth”, called the UN Secretary General seeing the insanity of
bombings on 400,000 civilians entrapped at Eastern Ghouta (Syria)
several months earlier. Millions perished while the UN Security Council
debated the chemical attacks on the innocent civilians across many war
zones. Thousands and thousands of innocent victims of the wars and
ethnic cleansing are fleeing from imminent death and destruction to
relatively peaceful West European countries. For decades, hopes of peace
have been dashed away by death and despair across the Middle East. The
international institutionalized systems of governance were supposed to
protect the innocent victims from the scourge of wars and provide
protection to civilians in conflict zones. Not so, the UN has become a
voice of spectators mainly occupied with public debates and services not
conflict management and peacemaking but settling displaced people in
camps to be operated by the NGO’s.
A new outlook of dysfunctional global systems of governance. In a sense,
global institutions are failing to respond to the humanitarian crises
or to prioritize conflict prevention or peacemaking. The abstract words
of Magna Carta, The UNO Charter, The Universal Declaration of Human
Rights and other wishful ideals of the universal protection of human
rights – all appear blindfolded to the pains and sufferings of the
forcibly displaced people across Syria, Iraq, China, Afghanistan, Yemen,
Palestine and many other lands. The global human moral values are at
crossroads without questioning the insane political behavior towards the
refugees camping on divided national borders in many European
countries. Recently, Angela Merkel and Immanuel Macron on the First
World War ceremonies reminded the EU nations, how catastrophic was the
nationalism that instigated the Two WW. European history tells that the
doctrine of nationalism repudiates the notion that human life and well
being is sacred. The UN Charter was the embodiment of guaranteed
security to protect the rights of the people from the “scourge of war.”
Human Rights Violations and the Raging Wild Fires
The Humanity and Nature are interconnected. To know the Nature of things
is to know oneself. The global understanding of human rights violation
appears detached from the media sensational coverage and inner thoughts
of human minds seen on the screen. The truth and facts of life often
presented as fantasy because they could unfold human cruelty against the
ruling elite. But the real experience if shared by first hand-observers
could send an electric jolt to a living human consciousness.
Laws are supposedly known, self-defining, unambiguous and clear
statements for tangible actions. Otherwise, there cannot be a dictum of
law and order. Or is it a presumptuous elucidation of lost human history
that consumed millions and millions during the 2WW? Time is living, not
dead and we must learn to defy the failed human logic of wars for
peace. Do the UN laws really protect the human rights in real world
crises? With an inquiring inner eye of the human spirit common across
all societies, the UNO has no power or logical force to use and hold the
aggressors accountable for the crimes. It is an impregnable truth
shared by all knowledge-based scholars. Over the decades with political
obsessions and inacceptable realm of reason, the powerful states
continue to victimize the political opponents or those who have varied
identities of ethnicity, belief, language and racial outlook. As an
integral part of human civilizations, we are at great loss to be
disconnected with the norms of respect and honor for equal rights and
dignity. Recently, the raging wild fires in California attracted
immediate attention because of uncontrolled sensation and the nature of
human property losses caused by the wild fires. All concerned appeared
at edge –day and night to control or extinguish the wild fires and to
safeguard the affected masses. The consequences of the wild fire are
imagined with intensity and utmost care. Have you ever seen a similar
approach given to the planned and deliberate violation of human rights
and killings of the innocent civilians caught in bombings and chemical
warfare in the Middle East or elsewhere? Is it a question of thought or
strategic priority or urgency to do the best in unusual situations of
conflicts? Are we just becoming a non-living statistic in the record of
causalities?
Tragic Tensions of Time and History bring Rohinga and Uyghur Victims under Global Focus
“The Syrian government has routinely used banned cluster munitions and
barrel bombs across Syria to inflict terrible harm and suffering on
civilians. Now, they have started duplicating these horrific tactics in
Idlib and we don’t have any reason to believe that they will stop.”
Amnesty International, 9/14/2018.
Tyranny of human rights violation and forcible displacement of civilians
is fast spreading across the globe. Corresponding tragedies experienced
by the people – the human body and souls are crushed by deliberate
violence, massacres, rapes and forcible eviction in Myanmar (Burma),
China, Syria and other critical situations. All authoritarian leaders
enjoin an erotic ambition to rule and remain in power even if they have
to dehumanize all the population. The resulting degeneration and
destructiveness goes on for decades. This aggressive instinct should
have been challenged and stopped even by force if not by reason by other
affluent global leaders and members of the UNSC. Alas, their
psychological conscience feels no sense of guilt for the on-going crimes
against the humanity. Time and history are not on the side of tyrant
egoistic rulers –soon they will be floating like scum on the torrent of
time.
We must remain connected and vigilant to our obligation to protect the
human rights and give life to history. Dr. Fozia Alvi, a physician of
Pakistani origin working at University of Calgary (Canada), did just
that to help the Rohinga refugees in Bangladesh. Her commitment and
dedication saved several hundreds of human life with adequate medical
care and humanitarian assistance in the shallowness of man’s cruelty to
fellow human beings. Rohinga people are victims of “genocide” described
by the UNHR Commission in Geneva. For long, they were targeted victims
of ethnic cleansing by the ruling military elite of Burma. Often
conflicts bring unity in human diversity. To all civilized people, there
is a rational impulse of humanity to help people in pains and anguish
of torture and exploitation. In a message, Dr. Alvi along with Yvonne
Ridley, a reputable journalist and humanitarian activist from UK
(YvonneRidley.org), have joined the collective minds to set-up orphan
camps on the border areas of Turkey and Syria. These individuals
demonstrate courage and a deep sense of humanity to initiate and
organize humanitarian help to the most vulnerable innocent children, men
and women in conflict situations – what could not be undertaken by many
resourceful organizations and global institutions. The people of Uyghur
– a nation in its culture and socio-political identity is under immense
tyranny and is being victimized because of their ethnicity, belief and
cultural values. The Amnesty International (9/24/2018) reports that:
An estimated up to one million predominantly Muslim people are held in
internment camps in Xinjiang in northwest China Families tell Amnesty of
their desperation for news on missing loved ones. China must end its
campaign of systematic repression and shed light on the fate of up to
one million predominantly Muslim people arbitrarily detained in the
Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR)…..The past year has seen an
intensifying government campaign of mass internment, intrusive
surveillance, political indoctrination and forced cultural assimilation
against the region’s Uighurs,
The Need is Urgent for the knowledge-based 21st century humanity to come
together and challenge the tyranny and insanity of human rights
violation. This challenge must accompany a remedial action – a package
of planned accumulated humanitarian assistance to all the refugees,
enriched with a sense of moral and intellectual security to protect
their rights and to ensure a return to normalcy in human societies.
The voices of reason are loud and clear as One Global Humanity cannot
suffer the penalties of tyranny and evil-mongering of the few sadistic
warlords. We the people of the world enjoin focused minds and
imagination to articulate a new world of One Humanity, brotherhood and
peaceful co-existence amongst all, free of hatred, intrigues tyranny,
encroachment and animosity.
(Dr.
Mahboob A. Khawaja specializes in international relations-global
security, peace and conflict resolution with keen interests in
Islamic-Western comparative cultures and civilizations, and author of
several publications including: Global Peace and Conflict Management:
Man and Humanity in Search of New Thinking (Germany, 2012); and Global
Peace, Security and Conflict Resolution: Approaches to Understand the
Current Issues and Future-Making. (Lambert Academic Publications,
Germany, 10/2017).