Dreaming up new rights

The recent controversy over Canada’s refusal to recognize the “Right to Food”, which is another of those dubious “rights” dreamed up by the UN is illustrative of how most of the world views the West as a fat cow willing to be milked to death. I’m all in favor of human rights, but it seems that every week the UN appears to magically discover some new, previously unknown human right, while simultaneously forgetting about some human rights it believes to be obsolete.

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Hence the freedom of speech, association, belief, religion and security of one’s person seem to be evaporating worldwide and being replaced by the right to food, the right to kill Jews, the right to take from the rich and the right of countries to deprive their people of their rights. The recent twin disasters in Myanmar and China are illustrative of just how taken for granted western countries are when it comes to rendering assistance. Myanmar, in particular, rankles one’s soul, as nearly everyone admits that most aid sent to that unfortunate nation will not find its way to those in dire need of it. Rather the aid will fund that country’s military junta in their effort to further subjugate its people and deprive them of the right of self-government. Yet even with the knowledge that this is happening the West is nevertheless encouraged, no, commanded, to send aid. Just leave it at the nearest convenient port and we’ll pick it up, the junta tells us and reminds us to be sure not to stay in the country too long while we’re unloading. Of course, given the nature of the UN, whose dithering is legendary, the Myanmar disaster and what to do about the military junta blocking aid workers from helping will be talked about until the next cyclone hits without resolution. This despite the UN’s much vaunted “Responsibility to Protect” (R2P) doctrine, which postulates that it is the responsibility of all nations to protect the weak and vulnerable wherever they may be. The UN Security Council will spend countless hours debating whether or not to interfere in Myanmar and in the end China and those countries allied with China will veto any proposed action while thousands more die. If one is interested in just how effective the UN’s R2P is, just ask anyone who might still be alive in Darfur. The UN is engaging in a brand of doublethink that not even George Orwell could have imagined possible. But then, since its inception it has morphed into a refuge for scoundrels and dictators who are garnering legitimacy at the expense of the world’s democracies. How else could murderous thugs such as Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez and Yassar Arafat find a forum to spew their poisonous vitriol? How else could a conference on racism become transformed into an anti-Semitic feeding frenzy? And how else could a so-called right to food find serious consideration? The Harper government was correct in scoffing at that idea and it took a great deal of moral and political courage to do so. The government realized that in recognizing a Right to Food it would mean a permanent commitment on the part of developed nations to transfer a substantial portion of their wealth to poorer nations in the form of permanent tax increases that would ultimately serve to lower the standard of living for everyone. We would be much better off as a nation to focus on feeding our own country’s poor and assisting them in attaining economic viability. As for the UN, the biggest favor the West could do for itself is to withdraw any and all support and send that organization packing to someplace more appropriate...perhaps Antarctica.