Washington Uses Human Rights as 'Stage Prop'

Published in Wen Wei Po
(Hong Kong) on 2 April 2014
by Huang Haizhen (link to originallink to original)
Translated from by Renee Loeffler. Edited by Bora Mici.
Russia, China, Thailand, Singapore, and other countries have criticized the United States on its attitude of double standards toward human rights. Recently, in Colombo, Sri Lanka, there has been an uproar of anti-U.S. demonstrations, condemning the the comments the U.S. has made about the Sri Lankan human rights situation and saying that the U.S. criticizes where it sees fit.

Sri Lanka underwent a 30-year civil war and after its conclusion in 2009, it has managed to maintain a steady level of development. With a desire to stir up trouble and make others bend to its will, Washington brazenly accused Sri Lanka of "serious human rights violations," asking relevant United Nations organizations to open an investigation. The human rights situation of the U.S. itself is not up to standard, but it [still] has the conceit to openly criticize other countries that don't accept and carry out "the U.S. standard" as their own standard, frequently giving "the protection of human rights" as a reason for accusations. This demonstrates Washington's use of human rights as a strategic "stage prop."

In Washington, you can see hot dog stands on every street, showing that Americans, especially District of Columbia residents, love hot dogs. Aside from being inexpensive and easily prepared, each stand provides many different condiments for customers to add in order to suit their tastes. Street hot dogs undergo the addition of condiments, allowing the original product to be altered to suit each customer's taste.

There is an important observation to note from these stands, where they've gotten used to eating a certain condiment according to their tastes, changing something at will to how they like it. Up until now, including its solemn stance on human rights, Washington has also become a "hot dog stand," imposing its own "elite" attitude on others, to the point where human rights becomes whatever Washington deems it to be, and it pressures others to blindly accept its style of "human rights."

The U.S. Has Ignored the Lives of Americans for the Sake of Oil

At the beginning of this century, the U.S. military used "Iraq has weapons of mass destruction," and "for the prosperity of the Iraqi people and democracy," among other statements, as an excuse — these statements being "condiments" to Washington’s "elite" attitude in order to carry out a large-scale invasion of Iraq for oil benefits. Washington ignored the human right to life of 2 million innocent civilians and sent them on to the afterlife for the sake of oil.

Along the same lines, in the span of almost 10 years the U.S. military has used "for the improvement of U.S. and Pakistani relations" as an excuse to fly drones into Pakistan over 400 times, resulting in thousands of innocent civilians forfeiting their lives. The White House monitors situations around the world on a large scale, even going as far as listening in to the communications of the officials of other countries. All these situations equal an infringement on human rights.

The biggest violator is the U.S. president, who uses the people's level of support as "fuel" to initiate war. The U.S. has started countless wars without probable cause in many places across the world. Initiating war requires a reason. With its "elite" attitude Washington fabricates excuses as it pleases, without concrete evidence of human rights violations.

At the end of the last century, the excuse for starting the war in Kosovo was "human rights." The result of this was the violent death of hundreds of thousands of peaceful citizens by U.S. military bombs in previously untouched Yugoslavia. In the 21st century today, the U.S. wants to "guide" Crimea out of Russia's control, using the protection of the people as an excuse. This gives U.S. actions under the guise of "human rights" a bad name. Washington carries out this kind of "only officials can start actions" logic in order to gain control under the label of "human rights protection."

Depriving 'Communication Privileges' at Will

According to the interpretation of the relevant U.N. organizations, human rights entrusted to humanity are basic rights, such as education, communication and employment; all should enjoy equal access to these to basic human rights. However, when it comes to online territorial rights, armed with technological superiority, the U.S. froze all Iraqi domain name requests and data and "deleted" them from the Internet at will at the end of 2003.

In 2004, it used hackers again to freeze the Libyan Internet. In 2009, it unexpectedly "commissioned" Microsoft to cut MSN communication services in Cuba, Iran, Syria, Sudan and North Korea. In 2010, it shut out three Middle Eastern television stations, giving their "anti-US" attitude as a reason. Having said this, disregarding the right of developing nations to basic communication is a blatant "communications sanction."

Domestically in the US

Domestically in the United States, there can be found countless examples of racism, discrimination and bullying toward minorities; the police detain Muslims and African-Americas at will, with no direct evidence, frequently labeling them as "terrorists," and violently persecute them. Every year, there are at least thousands of African- and Muslim-Americans who are beaten up, even killed, with groundless charges, but the Washington "elite" choose to ignore these incidents. At the same time, a Caucasian can smoke marijuana without needing to worry about repercussions, whereas an African-American would be arrested. The conviction rate of African-Americas in the U.S. is many times higher than that of Caucasians. This demonstrates that the human rights situation of minorities in the U.S. is under attack, and the U.S. is a country with only basic human rights.


華盛頓將人權當圖利「道具」

資深評論員 黃海振

繼俄羅斯、中國、泰國、新加坡等國譴責、抗議美國人權的雙重標準後,斯里蘭卡科倫坡等多個城市近日爆發了大規模反美示威,抗議美國對斯里蘭卡人權狀況說三道四、隨意指責。斯里蘭卡曾經歷30年內戰,於2009年結束後正處於稍微穩定的發展環境。華盛頓為了自身及傀儡利益、唯恐天下不亂,肆意指責該國「嚴重侵犯人權」,要求聯合國相關組織展開調查。美國自己人權狀況極差,卻對別國的人權狀況指手畫腳,並經常以「保護人權」為由,對不接受「美式模式」的國家發起「家常便飯」式攻擊,顯示華盛頓已將人權當作圖利的「道具」。

華盛頓街頭的熱狗店舖隨處可見,顯示美國人、特別是華盛頓人喜歡吃熱狗,熱狗除了經濟實惠、方便快捷外,熱狗舖頭提供的各種不同風味自助佐料,也讓品嚐者倍加青睞。街頭熱狗經過佐料的調配、添加,就可品嚐到適合自己口味的快餐,是熱狗風靡華盛頓的重要因素。華盛頓「精英」「吃慣」了熱狗,經常根據自己的愛好,隨心所欲依照自己的慣性調校其它食品。時至今日,他們連人權等嚴肅命題也當成「自助熱狗」,經過華盛頓「精英」的演繹,人權也已經變成自己可以為所欲為,別人不得輕舉妄動的「熱狗式人權」。

為石油無視他國人生命

本世紀初,美軍隨意編造「伊拉克擁有大規模殺傷性武器」為借口,加上華盛頓「精英」「為了伊拉克人民的繁榮和民主」等上好「佐料」,美國軍隊為了該國的石油利益而大舉入侵伊拉克。華盛頓為了石油,無視200萬無辜平民人權而不顧,把他們送入黃泉。此外,美軍在不到10年時間裡,用「為增進美巴兩國友誼」的借口,讓無人機在巴基斯坦進行逾400次行動,讓上萬名無辜百姓喪失人權而死亡。白宮對全球實施大規模監聽,甚至隨意監聽各國政要的通話,成為侵犯人權最為嚴重的國家。

由於發動戰爭已經成為美國總統提高民意支持度的「潤滑劑」,美國在世界各地發動了許許多多的不義戰爭。發動戰爭需要借口,華盛頓「精英」則可以完全不顧事實和人權狀況而隨意「編造」。上世紀末,發動科索沃戰爭的借口是維護「人權」,繼而對南斯拉夫作前所未有的狂轟濫炸,讓幾十萬平民慘死在美國的炸彈之下。在21世紀的今天,俄羅斯「師從」美國,以保護俄羅斯民眾為由,控制了克里米亞。從這個角度講,白宮在人權問題上帶了一個極壞的頭。「只許州官放火,不許百姓點燈」的強盜邏輯也被華盛頓冠以「保護人權」的「標籤」。

隨意剝奪他國「通信權利」

按照聯合國相關組織的解釋,人權是賦予人類生存、教育、通信、就業等基本權利,人人平等享有的基本權利。但在網絡權利領域,美國依仗自己的技術優勢,2003年終止伊拉克域名的申請和解析、將該國從國際網絡隨意「刪除」;2004年又利用黑客讓利比亞網絡癱瘓;2009年竟然「委託」美國網絡公司切斷古巴、伊朗、敘利亞、蘇丹和朝鮮的MSN即時通訊服務;2010年對三家中東電視台以「助長反美情緒」為由加以封殺。所有這些,無視發展中國家基本通信權利,是赤裸裸的「信息制裁」。

在美國國內,種族歧視、恃強凌弱、隨意剝奪少數族裔百姓人權的例子比比皆是:警察隨意在街頭攔截伊斯蘭、非洲人,在毫無證據的情況下,經常將他們當作是當然「恐怖分子」而橫加迫害;美國國內每年至少有幾千名手無寸鐵的非洲、伊斯蘭裔美國人,被警察以莫須有的罪名隨意毆打、甚至殺害,但華盛頓「精英」卻視而不見;同樣是吸食大麻,白人可以無罪釋放,黑人被捕、判罪概率卻是白人的幾倍。所有這些,說明美國少數族裔的人權狀況受到侵犯,也顯示美國是一個漠視大眾基本人權的國家。
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