A Different View of Human Rights

May 15 is Bloggers Unite for Human Rights day… where the call is out for bloggers to “use their space to make the world a better place”.

There are many human rights issues that deserve to be talked about. My personal issue though, is with the way journalists have often been treated, and now — through expansion — censorship of the internet.

Barry made a great post on his blog about Net Neutrality that is a good place to start on that topic. If you publish OR consume content on the internet; if you like to be able to go to whatever sites you want, regardless of what ISP you choose; if you actually want to receive emails that you subscribe to; then you need to care about Net Neutrality.

And of course, this is just an extension of the censorship that has been going on in mainstream media for years. The internet is the media of the people — anybody can create a video, audio, article, e-book, or nearly any kind of content and distribute it online, including very professional “radio” and “TV” shows that are webcast or podcast rather than broadcast… and is in essence “the medium of all media” in the way that you can mimic any other form of media online (be it print, TV, radio, or anything else).

The true “journalist” — even in mainstream media — really believes that they are working for the people, and publishing our “right to know” for the good of all. But true journalism doesn’t really exist in mainstream media, try as hard as the reporters might.

Yes, journalists around the world are being wrongfully jailed, tortured, and even killed for publishing (or attempting to publish) stories that certain countries want to censor and keep under wraps. Those governments don’t believe that people have the “right to know”…

For instance, this 2006 press release from Amnesty International tells how “Since the beginning of the war in Iraq in March 2003, more journalists have been killed in that country than anywhere else in the world.” Some of those deaths were apparently accidental — yet many were deliberate.

They go on to say that “However, it is not just in conflict situations that journalists need protection. Across the world, in a range of different situations, journalists are attacked, imprisoned and forced into self-censorship by repressive governments. The common element in all of these is the unwillingness of some governments to allow alternative voices to emerge and, in many cases, a fear that journalists will expose abuses they have tried to keep quiet.”

The list of places where this kind of treatment happens includes Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Colombia, Lebanon, Kenya, Rwanda, Cuba, Bangladesh, Egypt, and Turkey, just for a start.

But what about right here in the USA?

If you think press freedom exists here, you’re mistaken by that too.

Media in the US (and even in Canada, where I’m from) is big business more than public service. Each media outlet — or their conglomerate owner — has a political view, and the stories chosen to be covered… even the journalists hired on staff… fit their political agenda, whether they know it or not.

Yes, most journalists still believe they’re doing fair and balanced reporting — not just on Fox News, which may be as far from fair and balanced as you get. But they’re doing it under the thumb of the bosses who call the shots.

I remember when one family-owned media conglomerate in Canada bought out another one, and then tried to enforce their own political and social views on every newly acquired newspaper that had just joined the “family”. They wanted to control the editorial content from a centralized place, rather than letting each newspaper editor set the tone for the community — and there was a big uproar over that, but of course, nothing was or could be done about it. The family, after all, “owned” the newspapers… and hence, they “owned” the news.

Humans have a right to know. Humans have a right to free speech — both to give it and to hear it. Humans have a right to “peace, justice, and the humanitarian way” (Yes, not just in America).

And humans don’t always get those rights.

But now, let’s take a slightly different look at human rights. Because we are multi-dimensional beings, and while our OUTER world may be marred by what rights “others” give us… our INNER world is under no one’s control but our own.

We ALL have equal rights, no matter where we’re born, or what social, political, religious, ethnic or any other class we belong to. Doesn’t matter your gender, sexual orientation, age, or anything else either.

We are all born with equally powerful inner selves that are unlimited in what we can achieve — should we choose to.

We can choose to make a difference, from the heart and soul, in our own lives if no one else’s. By extension, of course, we will affect others… but the main goal needs to be ourselves, because that’s all we have ultimate control over.

We can choose to look at media coverage with a critical eye. To question what’s being told to us, to take a look at “conspiracy theories” without dismissing them as hogwash, and to really wonder what’s for our own good… and what’s meant to keep us down.

My acupuncturist told me about a possible link between between vaccinations and autism. So do you think I’ll just blindly listen to my doctor when she says, “It’s time to vaccinate your baby?” No, we’re going to do a lot of research into the topic and make our own decision.

Barry discovered some shocking facts about fluoride, and then researched the truth behind the stories. So do you think we’re going to blindly use fluoride because dentists have been telling us to since we were kids? No, we’re buying fluoride-free toothpaste now.

We can’t control everything that happens in the world around us… but we can control our reaction to it, what we do about it for ourselves, and how we’re going to deal with it in the future.

It’s like Jack Canfield says in my interview with him (found both at Masters of the Secret and Manifest Life)…

E + R = O (Event + Reaction = Outcome)

So we can’t control the “Event” (the situation at hand, whether it be a war, media censorship, or what-have-you) but we can control our “Reaction” to it (whether that be to try to affect it on a large scale, or simply make adjustments in our own lives) and that affects the “Outcome”.

So let’s all aim for the best Outcome possible by deciding on and controlling our Reactions to the Events that occur around us.

And that’s the ultimate in human rights… the ability to change the Outcome.

Keep Unwrapping the Mysteries of Life!