Axes of Evil

George Bush talked about the Axis of Evil, referring to three countries that supported destabilising policies on a global scale. I think that we need to look at the next level as well. There are a lot of countries that use violence and oppression on a more localised scale for various reasons, and that should not be allowed to happen.

In Zimbabwe, Mugabe’s regime maintain their position of power through use of extreme violence including  murder of opposition members and their families or supporters.

In Israel, the government maintains its stranglehold on the Palestinian people through raw violence and might. Building a wall that goes through Palestinian towns, restricting all movements, destroying infrastructure, moving their own settlers onto Palestinian land. And yet the Israeli government is supported at the highest levels internationally.

In China, minorities are regularly oppressed. The current target is Tibet, but they are not the only ones who have suffered in the past. Media is regularly stifled, protests are cruelly crushed, and differences of opinion are locked up.

And Russia has never forgotten it’s USSR empire. It still seeks to intimidate independent countries and interfere with domestic politics. Whether it is the Ukraine, the various ‘Stans’, or now Georgia, very few of the ex-Soviet Bloc countries have been allowed to control their own destiny.

 

A basic human right is that citizens of a country have a right to say how the country should be run. Any restriction of that right, whether internally as in China and Zimbabwe, or externally as in Russia and Israel, must be opposed as strongly as possible around the world.

Israel complains about the odd suicide bomber or missile, but they carry on destroying the Palestinians completely and carving up their lands. Then they promise to give 30% of the occupied land back – the desert part, with no access to water, roads, or any other of life’s basic requirements. Talk about empty gestures!!

Three times Russia said they would pull out of Georgia, and three times they failed to live up to their own promises. Get out! By all means support the South Ossetia people in discussions with the Georgian government, but don’t do it with tanks in Georgian towns!

I could go on about the violence in China and Zimbabwe perpetrated by the government forces on anyone who has a different point of view, and the temerity to voice it. But that information is available all over the net.

Suffice to say that while these injustices are occurring around our globe we should not be silent, our governments should not be silent.

Tags: censorship, China, citizens rights, Georgia, Human Rights, Israel, Mugabe, oppression, Palestine, Russia, South Ossetia, Soviet Bloc, Tibet, violence, Zimbabwe