[afro-nets] More on the Politics of Human Rights

[Claudio Schuftan <claudio@hcmc.netnam.vn>]

More on the Politics of Human Rights
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Human Rights Reader 59
 
SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC INJUSTICE ARE NOT AN ACCIDENT
(Part 5 of 16)
 
42. It should not come as a surprise that social and economic 
injustice is not an accident. It springs from the very nature of 
capitalism, now in its phase of globalization. When profit gov-
erns the day-to-day decisions of business, the effect on the or-
dinary person will inevitably be considered secondary. Policy 
cannot be governed by the profit motive and by love-thy-neighbor 
(or the rights of thy neighbor) at the same time. Under capital-
ism, the most that can be hoped for are a few compromises. These 
alleviate some misery, but those underprivileged millions whose 
rights are being abused are still among us, suffering (in grow-
ing numbers?).
 
43. Let?s face it, Capitalism, even if attempts are made to mod-
ify and humanize it, is our way of economic life --and we are 
indoctrinated to it.
 
44. The poorest are the same everywhere. They are poor primarily 
because their rights are not central to the political priorities 
of governments. They are prevented from translating their rights 
into effective demands or claims in the only terms that the mar-
ket understands: the power of cash.
 
45. The problem is that the institutions that create wealth are 
not neutral as to its distribution. The concept of market demand 
mocks poverty or plainly ignores it as the poor have very little 
purchasing power. Market demand should be substituted by a sys-
tem that somehow sets national-consumption-and-production-
targets-based-on-minimum-human-needs. 
 
A spirit of ?noblesse-oblige? towards the poor is not enough. 
Development must be redefined as a selective attack on the worst 
forms of poverty.
 
Development must thus be measured as the level of rights 
achieved by the two poorest income quintiles.
 
46. The Establishment is not those people who hold and exercise 
power as such. It is the people who create and sustain the-
climate-of-assumptions-and-opinions-within-which-power-is-
exercised by those who do hold it by election or appointment. 
The ruling class imposes its morality and puts it into practice 
in accordance with its historical class interests. Politics, 
science, morality, art and religion are all forms of ideology. 
 
47. Many people believe that the scientists? psychic energy is 
so powerful it can transform all around it. The question is: How 
can this gathered energy confront the Pentagon, Exxon, IBM, Nes-
tle or any other political or economic giant? What is missing, 
then, is an urgent political strategy for committed scientists.
 
48. Our acceptance-of-the-established-ways has an important con-
sequence: It leads to a belief that those with wealth and power 
--even if inherited--deserve their good fortune. If the rules 
are fair --and we seldom question that they are-- those who make 
their way must deserve what they have amassed. But a corollary 
of the acceptance of good fortunes is the acceptance of bad for-
tune. A man who is poor deserves to be poor --he must not have 
tried hard enough; perhaps if he had worked harder, he might 
have inherited something. Abroad, Americans, for example, doubt 
that poor nations really deserve its assistance: They must not 
have tried hard enough or, had they looked harder, they might 
have found oil... This attitude towards the permanently poor is 
confused with the Americans? attitude towards the temporarily 
afflicted, those faced with sudden disaster; few nations are 
generous as the USA. Yet, this generosity is only a natural ex-
tension of this same vision. Victims of disaster cannot be held 
responsible for their plight. This being so, any poor nation 
should not only be grateful, but permanently beholden to the do-
nors for any aid, because it should be recognized that the re-
ceiving nation really does not deserve the money... But this is 
deadly wrong; charily cannot do the work of justice. The barri-
ers of class, race, and ethnic prejudice and discrimination, 
along with political and economic naivete separate such an ap-
proach from reality.
 
49. So, are we afraid of radical change? How can we reduce our 
fear --transform our cowardice? This, really, is a mystery that 
somebody has yet to figure out.
 
50. Unless ideologically inclined, many of us are content to 
take life as it comes when things go reasonably well, preferring 
to evade the troublesome question of life?s purpose or meaning.
 
51. As scientists, technicians, intellectuals and activists, we 
are restless, dissatisfied and often rightly critical, but often 
also urgently in need of a more radical ideology. (We are also 
doing quite nicely: we have a vested interest in the status 
quo). We prefer to emphasize morality and fundamental values and 
are good at exposing (and explaining away) unintended-
consequences-of-well-meant-interventions. Such a position has 
evolved into an independent force (or non-force) threatening to 
give legitimacy to a situation where essential conditions are 
set by corporate elites, where great inequalities are rational-
ized and where democracy becomes an occasional, ritualistic ges-
ture.
 
Claudio Schuftan
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
mailto:claudio@hcmc.netnam.vn