HUMAN RIGHTS ACTION CENTER'S BLOG
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This Valentine's Day, Take Action for Burma
- Posted on 02.13.09
Related causes: Human Rights
This Valentine's Day or soon thereafter, show your love and support for the people of Burma by secret shopping for Burmese "Blood Rubies." Click here to take action: http://uscampaignforburma.org/become-a-secret-shopper-for-burma
Recently, Congress decided to ban the import of Burmese "Blood Rubies" in response to Burma's military regime's atrocities against ethnic minorities and the violent suppression of peaceful Monks and democracy activists. "This bill hits the Burmese leaders where it hurts - in the wallet. It's our hope that these sanctions will push other countries to examine their own financial dealings with Burma," said Representative Berman, a Democrat from California.
Regardless of their aesthetic value, buying rubies that could fuel oppression in Burma is immoral.
We are asking you to become a secret shopper. Please go to your local jewelery store and inquire if they sell rubies from Burma.
The recently enacted "Block Burmese JADE (Junta's Anti-Democratic ...Read More -
Who Will Save Burma's Women and Children?
- Posted on 11.24.08
Related causes: Human Rights
By Nilar Thein
Published on June 19, 2008 (The Nation)
I woke up from a dream in the middle of the night. I was with my daughter, playing in a small garden.
We were playing hide and seek. I was looking at her from behind a tree. She was so beautiful, with the prettiest smile on her face, looking for me happily. I couldn't hide anymore. I wanted her to find me. I wanted to hold her in my arms and kiss her face gently. I started to show myself to her, but, suddenly I saw three men -with black coats and ugly faces - watching from the shadows near my daughter. I stepped back. I wanted to be found by my daughter, not by them. I still saw my daughter, still looking for me with her innocent smile. I didn't want to hide anymore. I wanted her to find me, but these men would take me away and put me in hell. Then I woke up, with tears on my cheeks.
I have been separated from my daughter for nearly ten months. A midnight knock at our door in August last year changed our lives dramatic...Read More -
2008 is a good year
- Posted on 11.24.08
Related causes: Human Rights
The real surge, not the one in Iraq, for human rights came at the end of the last century. Communism disappeared without bullets flying. Southern Africans had majority rule. Military dictators had mostly disappeared in Latin America. Central America finally cooled down after 300,000 deaths to innocent people. Many prisoners went from jail to executive power. Names like Biko, Aquino, Romero, were remembered with honor by their people, if not their governments. Human rights were on the table of all governments as well as the editorial pages and news columns of newspapers. People power against governments was winning, as Molly Maguire said to her sons, “What tyrant shall we tumble?”
Then came Bush and Cheney. The nightmare of torture became a reality in American held jails. People are held for long periods without lawyers. Power and meanness became the foreign policy of the USA. Our 9/11 foreign policy as a nation became a fear driven madness rather than a search for our true enemie...Read More
