By Phoebe Chua Chia Shing
Human
rights, “commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a
person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being”
(Sepulveda et. al. 2004)
When the term "human rights" was first introduced, it was mainly for the cause of attaining equality and freedom in the area of civil and political rights. However in the past 3 or 4 decades, the feminist as well as the LGBT movements have been striving to be accepted as part of basic human rights along with religious and cultural freedom.
With the emergence of new media, advocates for these four areas have a lot more channels available to disseminate information. One of the blogs I've come across advocating women's rights is WIMN's (Women in Media and News) Voices (http://www.wimnonline.org/WIMNsVoicesBlog/). It features a diverse online community of 50 women blogging on media coverage on woman and a range of social, cultural and political issues everyday; the primary audience being obviously women. Based on observation, the blog seems quite open for anyone to comment to the point that at times it gets so many spam comments. It has not had to deal with dissent as blog viewers seem to only have compliments for most posts or nothing to say at all unless negative comments have been removed which I doubt,
On the other hand, one particular site that caught my attention was the Jewish LGBT network (http://jewishlgbtnetwork.com) as it seemed to combine the advocacy for ethnicity, religion and LGBT rights all in just one site. As if the specific use of "Jewish" isn't an indication already, Being a resource site for Gay Jews, Lesbian Jews, Bisexual Jews and Transgender Jews, it was set up with the targeted purpose of offering a support structure to LGBT Jews based in any part of the world. It provides a platform, to locate and connect with local social groups, professional groups and other support-groups catering to this community, The title itself explicitly indicates its primary audience. It does not provide viewers an option to comment but allows trackbacks and pingbacks to share the information. Hence, I find it a bit strange that a site which aims to connect people discourages interaction on the site.
Whether I agree or disagree with the views from any of these four movements, I cannot deny the fact that it has and - I predict - will continue to bring great impact to our society, quoting another example,
“Decades from now, people will look back and wonder how societies could have acquiesced in a sex slave trade in the twenty-first century that is... bigger than the transatlantic slave trade was in the nineteenth. They will be perplexed that we shrugged as a lack of investment in maternal health caused half a million women to perish in childbirth each year.”
― Sheryl WuDunn, Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide
What are your views?
“The test of whether or not you can hold a job should not be in the arrangement of your chromosomes”
On the other hand, one particular site that caught my attention was the Jewish LGBT network (http://jewishlgbtnetwork.com) as it seemed to combine the advocacy for ethnicity, religion and LGBT rights all in just one site. As if the specific use of "Jewish" isn't an indication already, Being a resource site for Gay Jews, Lesbian Jews, Bisexual Jews and Transgender Jews, it was set up with the targeted purpose of offering a support structure to LGBT Jews based in any part of the world. It provides a platform, to locate and connect with local social groups, professional groups and other support-groups catering to this community, The title itself explicitly indicates its primary audience. It does not provide viewers an option to comment but allows trackbacks and pingbacks to share the information. Hence, I find it a bit strange that a site which aims to connect people discourages interaction on the site.
Whether I agree or disagree with the views from any of these four movements, I cannot deny the fact that it has and - I predict - will continue to bring great impact to our society, quoting another example,
“Decades from now, people will look back and wonder how societies could have acquiesced in a sex slave trade in the twenty-first century that is... bigger than the transatlantic slave trade was in the nineteenth. They will be perplexed that we shrugged as a lack of investment in maternal health caused half a million women to perish in childbirth each year.”
― Sheryl WuDunn, Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide
What are your views?
You know what? Whether you're a woman, man, an infant, gay, straight, bisexual, asexual, trans, or anything in between, or nothing at all, it shouldn't matter. There is no need for special "qualification" to be a human being. What makes you human is having respects for one another, and not hurting anyone. That is what defines a human. I believe the core problem with basic human rights is due to the preconceived idea of how one should live their life. When in actuality, there is no proper "prescription" to live our very own life. If each one of us stopped putting labels on everyone as if we're some piece of clothing or a canned food, trust me, we'll live in a world free of prejudice, hatred and discrimination. But that isn't the real world, is it?
ReplyDelete*because this topics is quite a sensitive issue, therefore I will not comment it in the perspective of religion.
ReplyDeleteIn my point of view, I think that the Jewish LGBT network is only the platform for them to disseminate ideas and more information about them. The reasons they do not let anyone to comment on their entries might be because of the negative comments which possible flooded their entries. However I also agree with you Phoebe. That's true that we can't deny what and how big the impact of blogs like this can affect peoples in the future. On the other hands, it is correct like Venisa said we should stop ask peoples to be what they should be because they earn their human rights in this world.
Nothing is right or wrong, sometimes it become a norm when people think it right. We as a wise person, should not judge what are you, is because what are you today is how you grow, everyone has their own living background, different background, different style, who should we judge on. It can't be fair if we do not have same background on it.
ReplyDeleteHi Phoebe,
ReplyDeleteI strongly agree with Atikah regarding issue that they do not let anyone to comment on that entries freely. I think, if they opened that blog for comment, too many people will suddenly become expert about that issue. Maybe, sometimes we cannot simply judge other people as long as we not in their place.
Hi, it is quite sensitive issue, but my opinion would be the same as atikah. I will not comment based on my religion. Yes, we should not judge other just from their appearance. We have our own right. But, as a human we should know our limit right.
ReplyDeleteI hope this is an open conversation. Its true Nur, human has human right, but, they still should know their limit. And true, there is nothing right or wrong, but when we talk about human right, most of it are only desire to be free and do anything they want
ReplyDelete