my thought bubble

UDHR – ARTICLE 19

While some of us are taking it for granted, others sacrificed their lives for us to have it. It is given to us at birth, but it is taken away from hundreds of millions of people from their first breath.

People were killed for it since the beginning of time, in the name of power: religious (i.e. Inquisition), military (so many empires built on murder) or just the need of feeling superior (i.e. racism).

Having it makes us who we are, opens the gates of creativity, humanity, happiness. Being denied it makes us useless puppets.

It works on every level of society: from basic family relations, to work environment, to globalization of human interactions.

Used properly, it is responsible for our most wonderful creations. If used for the wrong reasons, it is responsible for the worst atrocities ever committed.

Somewhere in this world, there is a 63 year old woman in prison. She was rightfully elected as the president of her country and she won the Nobel Peace Prize for peacefully fighting the military regime that is killing, torturing and abusing her nation. Aung San Suu Kyi is the symbol of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of our days, and she keeps fighting the military regime with nothing but wording her beliefs. Her beliefs that people are born free, and noone has the right to treat them otherwise. She said to the world: “Use your freedom to promote ours!”

Do you know what freedom I’m talking about? Do you know what most of the unhappy people in the world need? Are you using it at it’s best potential, or you are just following others while denying your own right?

Freedom of opinion and expression: individuals’ most powerful weapon, oppressors’ most feared enemy.

My favorite article from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
Article 19: FREEDOM OF OPINION AND EXPRESSION ARE GRANTED TO EVERYONE.

What is yours? Do you know what your rights are? Do you take them for granted? Please comment. Express your thoughts! :)

Also, don’t forget to print the UDHR poster (11×17in.- tabloid) (8.5×11in.- lettersize) and share it with everyone today. The world needs people to be aware of their Human Rights, we all need to read it at least once.

Tags: aung san suu kyi, burma, human rights, human rights day, Universal Declaration of Human Rights

To Care or Not To Care?

When i was in high-school, whenever a person would show that they have feelings, they were considered to be a loser, the weak link of the group and everybody would make fun of said person. The normal next reaction would be friends not wanting to hang out with you, and because it was cool to bring down the person with feelings, they would stand you up, run away from you and laugh at you behind your back.

Rejection is tough to deal with, so you learn to shut down your emotions and play along. Before you know it, you only care about your well being. You don’t care about how bad you hurt other people, it doesn’t matter that you feel love and kindness, you have to act tough and cold in order to survive the angry mob mentality. Ignorance is celebrated, insensitivity becomes standard.

I was there, I know it’s true. I did my best to not show affection and love and the only consequence was that I hurt other people as well. I made others go through what i went through myself, I knew it and ignored it, and in the end I hurt even more.

Peer pressure is such a bitch! A lot of the human rights violations are the result of peer pressure, if you think about it: not having the strength to tell mean people to go fuck themselves resulted in racism, hate, violence, crimes against humanity. The way we interact with each-other, as society, never ceases to amaze me. We tend to follow others that we consider are cooler / better/ smarter than we are, and we ignore our beliefs who we really are. Personalities get shifted, feelings are being left out and we don’t care about anyone else but ourselves.

Care. That is what it all comes down to. At what point in our lives we learn to care not about how others see us, but about how truthful we are to who we really are? When do we feel strong enough to do something because we think we should, not because we are expected to or just because other people do it? When will we replace insensitivity and ignorance with care?

Why would you care that some women are being raped and murdered in South-East Asia, when you are so comfortable in this little coffee shop with your laptop and coffee? Why would you care that so many people starve to death in Africa, when you’ll go home and have your nice warm dinner? Why would you care that so many people are being abused and tortured, when you can just have your fun on your nice warm side of the world? Why would you care that so many people don’t have access to basic needs to live, when you want a better car?

Because the more care you bring into the world, the less room there is for hate and sooner or later, this will benefit you as well.

As I write this I can’t help thinking about what will others think of me after reading it. Will I be misjudged and thought of as weak because I care? Thankfully I learned from my mistakes, and I am just doing what I think is right, and that makes me stronger.

There’s no point for freedom when ignorance is celebrated and I am done with being ignorant. Freedom of thought, freedom to be me, freedom to care.

Do you care? We’ll see tomorrow, December 10! :)

Tags: Abuse, activism, Blogging, burma, Darfur, human rights, human rights day

Heyllo! My name is Anca, and I started One Day for Human Rights.

There are a lot of human rights day sites / actions out there, so why start another one, you might ask. Because I wanted to do more than working for Jack Healey’s (Human Rights Action Center), and because I believe that more can be done than what’s out there so far.

I wanted to make something different than ask you to donate money for this cause: to bring awareness. Less than 5% of the worlds’ population heard about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and probably less than that read it, even though i consider it to be one of the most important documents ever written. Have you read it? Do you know your rights as a human being? I know I haven’t until 4 years ago.

I grew up in communism until the age of 10. I remember very well the revolution to overthrow it, because we had to run away from home due to my family being in danger. My father was out there, risking his life to make a difference, while my sister, my mother and I were worried sick about him. When we went home, we had a bodyguard with a big rifle watching over us, and that made us feel very restless, worried and afraid. The presence of a gun around a child is such a wrong thing! Now, being an adult, I can only imagine all the child soldiers out there in Burma and  Darfur, not being protected by guns, but being forced to use them to hurt other people. Their future as adults is already decided, and I’m pretty sure that it  will not be a bright happy one.

I was lucky! Lucky to have had the opportunity to develop in freedom, even though I am sure a lot of the people in my country would disagree with me. Negativism, depression and fear for the future still rule Romanians, consequences of the 40 year long dictatorial regime not respecting the people’s human rights. It will take generations for the attitude of the people to change for the better, but I have faith that it will happen.

There are so many more reasons for me to be involved in promoting human rights, but I told myself I’ll keep this article short, for your sake :)

I know from experience that it is very hard to keep being motivated to fight for this cause. I’m a graphic designer, and never considered myself as an activist. The results come slow, the support is short handed and these can be very frustrating for someone used to getting immediate results from their actions. It is so much easier to donate $5 and sleep better at night because you ‘made a change’, but the real challenge is trying to make other people to believe in the reasons that determined you to donate the $5.

This is my challenge. This is the One Day for Human Rights challenge. If you are reading this it means you came to this website because you already are on my side (well, hopefully at least :)), but I wish that for one day a year, try to make someone else aware of the rights we all have as humans, have someone you know or you think they need it to read the UDHR, talk about it, spread the word. For you, as one person, the accomplishments will probably be small, due to the difficulty of getting people out of their comfort zone, but overall I believe that together we can make a difference. If the result we’re going to have is for at least one person to have a better life in this world, then I will declare this cause successful!

This cause was started by me, Anca. Even though I do work with Jack Healey and Human Rights Action Center, One Day for Human Rights is my cause, and I have noone else to support me except you, the people that care about these moral issues. I have no material incentive for you, as I have nothing to gain personally from doing this (well, except sleeping better at night :)), but I need your help and support more than anything. I need you to talk/write about human rights, for one day: December 10.

Will you? Would you? Should you? I believe that you should, as a moral duty to our world, but ‘will you’ and ‘would you’ I can’t answer. I encourage you to tell the rest of the world what are your reasons for supporting human rights in the comments section! Or, you can just write about it on your own blog, on December 10! *wink wink*

Thank you!
Anca

Tags: activism, human rights, human rights day, Universal Declaration of Human Rights