I was hoping the year, or the decade for that matter, would end on a happy note. So we joined two other families on a visit to the Disney World, trying, at least for me, to escape facing the depression amounted from reflecting the decade about to end. Then on December 25, Christmas day, I learned, from my iPhone, that a Beijing court has sentenced Chinese writer Liu Xiaobo to 11-years in prison and “two years’ deprivation of political rights” for subversion in his writings.

By now, you have probably noticed that I am someone who is wholeheartedly longing for a peaceful world, a world that each member’s life and rights are respected. But my dream had been shattered time and time again in the 2000s. This verdict on Liu had just added another blow.

No. The Y2K computer black-out did not occur. In fact, the decade started rather smoothly. But at the end, it has been covered with the darkest clouds in recent history.

Since the rectification of the Declaration of Universal Human Rights in 1948, we had witnessed a steady progress in accepting the universal values of respecting individual rights. The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 anchored a monumental victory for the pursuit of Human Rights in the world.

Looking back this decade, however, we saw perhaps the greatest regress since the end of the World War II. The horrendous 102 minutes of September 11, 2001 that took 2752 lives of innocent people changed everything, slapped the face of every peace loving soul. Not only the families of the victims will forever dealing with the grieves of the losses of their loved ones, the heroes who bravely responded the attacks are now suffering lung ailments, cancers and other fatal illnesses.

“Military action is of vital importance to the State. It is a matter of life and death, the way of survival and of destruction. Hence it is a subject of inquiry which can on no account be neglected.”

This is how The Art of War, a book by Sun Tzu written some 2500 years ago, begins. Responsi­ble nations in recent history have in general approached wars with prudence and deliberation, because, as Sun Tzu pointed, it is a matter of life and death. However, the processes of engaging and invoking wars in this decade were rather lax, and the lack of sufficient inquiries were apparent. The world has been paying great prices. According to icasualties.org, the coalition military fatalities in the Iraq war amounts 4689. US alone lost 4371 service men and women. And the number of Iraqi civilians deaths is near ten folds, at a staggering sum of 46783.

Political and religious oppression around the world worsened, and oppositions from the free world weakened. According to the Prisoner Database compiled at the Dui Hua Foundation, there are 19935 Chinese political and religious prisoners as of September 30, 2009. Individuals who peacefully exercised their rights to freedom of expression, assembly and association remained at high risk of harassment, house arrest, arbitrary detention, and torture and other ill-treatment. Family members of human rights activists, including children, were increasingly targeted by the authorities, including being subjected to long-term house arrest and harassment by security forces. Lawyers who took on sensitive cases were also at risk; several had their licences suspended, and others lost their jobs. Some lawyers were specifically warned by the authorities not to take on sensitive cases, including cases of Tibetans arrested during the unrest in Tibetan areas and Falun Gong practitioners. – Amnesty International.

The number of Political Prisoners in Burma has surged to 2250 by the end of September, 2009. Burma’s military government has more than doubled the number of political prisoners in the past two years, including more than a hundred imprisoned in recent months, Human Rights Watch said in its September report.

Massive human rights violations take place in nearly every part of the world in this decade. In addition to the two countries mentioned above, Equatorial Guinea, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Belarus, Chad, Cuba, Eritrea, Laos, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Zimbabwe all recorded widespread human rights violations.

What’s troubling is that we have seen a disturbing trend since the end of the cold war, particularly in this decade. Talks on human rights have become more and more political tactics, instead of unshakable principles. We selectively leverage them only to serve as instant justifications to our immediate policies. We choose becoming silent when we fear it might jeopardize our trade talks. We show indifference to the victims who are longing desperately our leadership and support, when we seek economic cooperation from the regimes who are the source of the oppression.

As I am sadly putting down these words, another suicide bombing just took place, killing eight Americans. Protests in Iran …

And Mr. Feng Zhenghu is still living on a bench in Tokyo’s Narita International Airport, waiting a permission to go home.

It is painful even to mention the earthquake off Sumatra killing perhaps 200,000 people, the deadly Katrina that drowned the city of New Orleans, the earthquake hit Sichuan Province, China, taking 70,000 people and leaving over 18,000 missing…

I don’t even want to start discussing the financial melt down.

While in the Disney Parks, watching people from all over the world celebrating together, hearing songs beautifully advancing the messages of peace and love, I couldn’t help but ask myself: wouldn’t it be wonderful that the world we living in becomes a Disney park?

Tags: human rights