A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing

Kofi Annan, Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Voltaire, L. Ron Hubbard.

One of these things is not like the other. If you said “L. Ron Hubbard,” then you are correct.

On May 12th, the Youth for Human Rights International organization came to our school and hosted an assembly on human rights. For the uninformed, this may have seemed like an ordinary assembly to raise awareness on an issue that we, as Catholics, should be aware of. Sure, this got the point across that human rights should be protected. If you still have the booklet that was handed out, take a look inside and flip to the second-to-last page. The five men listed above are called “famous human rights leaders”. I was not aware that L. Ron Hubbard was a “humanitarian” who “advanced human rights by working bravely for what [he] believed in.”

Humanitarian? I thought L. Ron Hubbard was the creator of the million-dollar “Church of Scientology”.

As it turns out, Youth for Human Rights International is based at 1332 L. Ron Hubbard Way in Los Angeles, California. Also based in Los Angeles is one of Scientology’s “Advanced Organizations”, specialized in delivering higher training to Scientologists. Like Scientology, they are a tax-exempt organization. The group advocates human rights and believes they should be upheld in any situation.

While human rights should be recognized in all situations, is a group so closely linked to Scientology the best way to promote the fair treatment of all individuals? As they say, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. The 1976 Scientologist “Operation Freakout” was aimed at ruining the life of critic Paulette Cooper. In 1990, Noah Lottick committed suicide after investing thousands of dollars in Scientology, clutching his last dollars. In 1995, 35-year old Lisa McPherson died while under care of Scientologists. The “fair-game” and “disconnection” policies also segregate and attack people. With a group linked so closely to Scientology, are these the people we want spreading the word of human rights? Furthermore, should we approve of their advocacy of L. Ron Hubbard? There are more prominent humanitarians out there not linked to a dirty cult.

If you are sceptical on the links between Youth for Human Rights International and Scientology, look no further than their website. Under “YHRI Collaborators” (found in the “About YHRI” section), a link to the Church of Scientology can be found. Not convinced yet? In 1995, the Hamburg Senate (in Germany) released a report on Scientology and its structure. In an internal memo, it was revealed that “All organizations and groups form a global network. Each one has its own individual role and responsibilities. But all service organizations have the goal to draw attention to L. Ron Hubbard’s technology and deliver it to the public.”

Don’t get me wrong; the aim here is not to detract from human rights. These should be upheld because everybody has the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That’s not the point. The point here is to expose the modern day propaganda of Scientology. If the organization didn’t tout L. Ron Hubbard as such a saintly figure, I wouldn’t have written this article. The fact remains, though, is that they do and, as revealed by the Hamburg Senate, their ulterior motive is clear.

As Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

Human Rights

Human rights are the minimum conditions necessary for the healthy growth of individuals and peoples. Minimum human rights include sufficient life goods, availability of education and work, cultural acceptance, economic justice, and the right to political participation. The struggle towards universal promotion of human rights has been an issue in the world for quite some time. However, only recently have strides towards human rights been made evident in the world. Just as with peace and political participation, the promotion of basic human rights has flourished in the developed world. There are very little instances in modern history in the developed world, such as in North America and Western Europe, where human rights have been denied to people. However, one widely known denial of human rights has been the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba by Americans.

In the developing world, just as with political participation and peace, basic human rights have been ignored and not been granted to many who are oppressed or not the most prosperous in society. As previously mentioned, the Darfur genocide is one such instance where the human rights of entire villages are denied by the militarist ideals of the Sudanese and Janjaweed. Oppressive governments also disregard human rights, as in China and, more recently, in Myanmar in the case of the oppressed monks and the withholding of aid relief in the wake of the cyclone Nargis. The people do not only die because of the denial of rights; those who live continue to be oppressed and those in power flourish because of their ease of access to the basic necessities of human life.

Like peace and political participation, we believe that human rights should be promoted and granted to all people, regardless of where they are in the world. In this world, many people are often mistreated and the careless actions of others in their lives lead to them not leading their lives to their potential. As we learned, the human rights of child workers are often denied in the developing world. We live good lives in the developed world and we don’t often think about how our lives would be different if our human rights were taken away. Those who live in the developing world often face this frequently in their lives. We think that we should not take these for granted; anything could change our lives and take away the rights that we often forget we have.

The need for recognition for human rights can be linked to the modern day issues involving Myanmar and both the persecution of protesting monks as well as the denial to accept aid after cyclone Nargis. Human rights are supposed to protect and promote the lives of people so that they can live their lives to their fullest extent as well as reach their potential. In the case of the protesting monks, the militarist government has been killing monks as well as making them “disappear”; the whereabouts of thousands of monks is unknown. The government is taking unnecessary and radical action against monks who rightly protest the government. In the case of denying aid after cyclone Nargis, the government is preventing aid to help, and potentially sustain life, of survivors of the cyclone. This move denies them the human right to life, the most basic of rights.

As Christians, promoting human rights is closely tied to Jesus’ message of love. To allow others to live, in its most basic form, is an expression of love by prevention of death. To allow for them to live their lives in the highest potential is an even more gratifying display of love. In order for human right recognition to flourish, we must take an initiative to make people aware of injustices committed against others. The more people know, the more they are likely to promote human rights. With this in mind, it is possible to achieve total recognition with enough support.

Peace

Peace can be defined as the natural fruit of justice between people and between nations, with justice as a prerequisite for true peace among peoples. The promotion of peace requires that human dignity is respected, international cooperation is achieved, a more equitable distribution of the world’s resources is put into effect, and that the arms race ends. Peace is said to be only an idealistic dream and that it is nearly impossible to achieve in this time and world. Even if this is true, peace is something that should be strived for. Despite its uncertain future, peace is used to combat situations that arise in the world all the time.

In the developed world, peace would be much easier to achieve than in the developing world. The developed world has no need to raise arms with another nation because of its prosperity (the exception being the United States of America). The developing world, however, must work harder to achieve peace. With tensions and wars that have been enacted over trivial things like land or resources, there has been a vicious cycle put into place in the developing world. The clash between nations over dwindling resources and shrinking land borders continues to this day, one of the most recent disputes over resources being the American occupation of Iraq. With little motivation to end strife and conflict, it seems that hostilities will continue.

We think that peace is a dream that we will not see. We do not even think our children will see it in their lifetimes. The world is a violent place on a larger scale, never mind the peaceful protests and the rallies that litter the world, hoping for a peaceful Earth. The world is too caught up in materialistic greed, driving nations to quarrel and fight over land and resources. That effort would be much better used in driving peace efforts between nations. If nobody takes an initiative in stopping conflict, then there is no hope of peace for the world. It takes one influential power to strive for peace; the rest will follow. With one of the world’s superpowers embroiled in a violent occupation in Iraq, however, we don’t think this will ever come to fruition.

Peace can be linked to the modern social justice issue of the Darfur genocide. As it has been revealed, the conflict and resulting genocide has been a result of conflicting groups of people, as in the Rwandan genocide, and the hatred of one group towards another, as in the Holocaust. History has seemed to repeat itself again. With peace, this could have been avoided; with peace, now, it can still be stopped. Appeasement to the Sudanese military and the Janjaweed will not help the peace process, but stoke their egos and inflate their sense of self-importance. Only true peace can bring about the end of the conflict. The resolution of the conflict, like the ideal of peace, seems far away from fruition. The Darfur genocide, officially recognized in 2003, does not show any signs of ending.

Our own awareness of the issue, coupled with political participation, can help to amend the problem and ease the damages of the genocide. By letting the people know of the destruction in Darfur, and signalling to the government the issue at hand, it is possible to relieve those displaced and suffering from the conflict. True peace will not come about by awareness, however. Peace will only come about through intervention by a third party and even then it will not end the hostilities between the conflicting people.

As Christians, we know peace and love go hand in hand. There is not much we can do but to love others as Jesus has loved us. Love is the first step in the long walk to peace. By letting people know that peace is possible through love (and the resulting emotions such as forgiveness), perhaps a social movement can take place. If it is possible to have awareness for Darfur raised, perhaps it is then possible for a peace movement to build momentum, however idealistic it is.

Political Participation

Political participation can be defined as the democratic participation in the decisions impacting one’s life, expressed for example through freedom of speech and voting. Political participation, we know, is highly evident in developed nations. North America is a large section of the world that relies on responsible political participation, that is, the participation of individuals only under certain guidelines. Dependent on area, these guidelines are supposed to ensure that political participation is done in right judgment. Federally, Canada’s voting age has been set to the age of 18 since 1970. Western and Northern Europe are also areas of the world where political participation is done under strict guidelines to ensure that the best decisions are made.

There are still some places in the world, however, where political participation are either corrupted by the government in power or disregarded completely. In newly-industrialising as well as developing countries, the voice of political participation is second to the voice of corruption within the government or from influencing powers. Countries that suffer from this are located usually within Asia, Africa, or South America. In addition to corruption, political participation is disregarded within communist, dictatorial, or even militarist regimes. In countries such as China, a totalitarian regime is in place with no democracy and penalties in place for speaking out against the government. In countries such as Cuba, the communist tendencies of the government tend to rule out the voice of the people, even though the communism places equality for all.

We, as a group, feel that political participation is not yet put into the full practice that it could be put into. We know that, in places such as Canada, political participation has been put into place and encouraged. Even though this is in place, we feel that people do not take the voting opportunity seriously. Given the opportunity, those who live under rulers who do not take their own participation would surely vote and express their political views without restraint. However, we think that people are too complacent in the developed world and that they feel they can change nothing (or do not want to change anything).

The concept of political participation can be linked to the social justice issue of totalitarian and dictatorial regimes in power across the world today. As mentioned before, China is one of the highest profile totalitarian states in recent history. The link that can be drawn between the two is to enable political participation for the people of, for example, China. In a country where protests are stopped violently (Tiananmen Square protests of 1989), political participation would hopefully allow for the peaceful demonstration of people to go unpunished. Furthermore, rightful political participation should allow for citizens to not be afraid of the state and its punishments. The people of, for example, China should not live in fear to talk against the state, nor should the state enforce its totalitarian views upon the people.

As Christians, we should respond to political participation positively, especially for the good of all people worldwide. If people live oppressed by their governments around the world, then it is very possible for Christians in the developed world to rally the people and tell the governments of issues at hand. While the government may be more concerned with internal affairs or international relations, the benefit of democracy is that the people have a say in the people in office. To help the oppressed, it is very realistic to write to the government and, if enough support is gained for the causes at hand, then the government may see that the issue is truly one that needs to be addressed. The only thing hindering this is our non-willingness to commit to the issues.

Tentative Grade 12 Schedule

A History 12
B Literature 12
C Christian Education 12
D Law 12
E Spare
F English 12
G Physical Education 12
H Information Technology 12
J Spanish 12