It is a falsehood what you say, that Americans are unwilling to stand up for the rights of indigenous people 'half way around the world.' There are many, many Free Tibet movements here in the US that get an AWFUL, AWFUL lot of media coverage in the US, even HOLLYWOOD coverage (ever hear of Seven Years In Tibet?). btw, aren't the Tibetan people also 'indigenous people who are half-way around the world?'
I find it to be the height of self-serving hypocrisy when people are quick to stand up to human rights abuses when it is committed by non-white governments but fall almost dead silent when even far worse human rights abuses against Third World people are being committed right now by US Government and American Corporations (Human rights is a problem in Tibet, but at least you don't see China starving the Tibetan people to death, do you?)
I read both versions of the Fact Sheet long before I came to this debating room, as I've mentioned already in my Nov 11 post "broken links...". I certainly appreciate that it makes the connection between McDonald's and Third World starvation, how corporations continue to rob land and resources, etc. But this message is not getting across to the average person. The only message people are getting is the animal rights issue. This is a failure of the anti-McD crowd to get this message across. This is why the average person can't help but chuckle under their breath when they see activists in front of a McD outlet, protesting the killing of LIVESTOCK in front of a RESTAURANT, because the average person doesn't see that there's more to it than just animal rights.
The average person can sympathize with the commercial killing of endangered species like foxes(for their fur), seals, elephants solely for profit. But to stand up for the rights of unendangered species like livestock that people use for food is a little too much to swallow for the average person, especially when the emphasis on animal rights buries all the other important (I believe far more important) reasons to boycott McD's.
This being the case, I can't help but conclude that when you see such intense media coverage of China's treatment of natives in Tibet, but hear nothing about equally (and often far worse) dreadful human rights abuse of native Asians, Africans and Latins being committed by US right now, the Free Tibet movement in US is little more then propaganda against China, not genuine concern for human rights.
You say human rights is a far more difficult issue to attack because it isn't exclusive to McD. Well neither is animal abuse exclusive to McD. If McD is exploiting animals, so is every other fast food chain, Wendy's, Burger King, Taco Bell, etc. You could probably say most any meat-serving restaurant in the US is exploiting animals. So clearly, the reason that the anti-McD movement puts so little emphasis on the disgusting human rights abuses of native people is NOT because it is not exclusive to McD; because neither are animal rights abuse exclusive to McD.
So why are they putting so much emphasis on animal rights abuse and so little on McD's grave human rights abuses that are direct cause of tens of thousands of children to starve, and often die of starvation? Even if people were getting the message of how exactly how McD causes starvation and death, some probably still won't care, but I think many more will.
I feel the right thing to do is to make a stronger effort to expose such evil exploitation of people, to get the public to make the connection between McD and death and starvation, and let them decide if they still want to keep on patronizing such evil corporations. If this exposure risks raising the collective guilt of the Amerian people, so be it. I think hurt feelings are nothing compared to the suffering of McD's victims in the Third World. Hurt feelings are a small price to pay to help end the practice of genocide, to end the robbing of people's land for profit (starvation is a form of genocide). I advocate that mcD and any other company like them change their fascist ways completely or go out of business for good, for the sake of humanity.
My thought of the day:
2 wrongs don't make a right, 10 wrongs, 20 wrongs don't make a right,
not even a hundred wrongs make a right.
