La dignité sera le rempart contre tous les extrêmes

A tous ceux qui auraient peur d'une montée de l'Islamisme à la suite des événements récents et en cours dans le monde arabe, écoutez donc la réponse de Béchir Labidi, Tunisien:

"Je comprends que la peur de l’Islam est un vrai problème. Mais derrière cette peur se cache surtout la peur du fanatisme et de l’extrémisme.  Ce fanatisme et cet extrémisme ne sont que le résidu de la frustration et du mépris de l’Homme. La dignité sera le rempart contre tous les extrêmes.
Voila pourquoi, à mon sens, la révolution tunisienne remet les pendules à l’heure : c’est la liberté qui sera le garant de la stabilité et  non la dictature."

L'eau n'est pas un bien mercantile

"Quel est le premier objet de la société? C'est de maintenir les droits imprescriptibles de l'homme. Quel est le premier de ces droits? Celui d'exister. La première loi sociale est donc celle qui garantit à tous les membres de la société les moyens d'exister. Toutes les autres sont subordonnées à celle-là; la propriété n'a été instituée ou garantie que pour la cimenter...

Les aliments nécessaires à l'homme sont aussi sacrés que la vie elle-même. Tout ce qui est indispensable à la conserver est une propriété commune à la société entière. Il n'y a que l'excédent qui soit une propriété individuelle, et qui soit abandonnée à l'industrie des commerçants... Toute spéculation mercantile que je fais aux dépens de la vie de mon semblable n'est point un trafic, c'est un brigandage, un fratricide. La liberté du commerce est nécessaire jusqu'au point où la cupidité homicide commence à en abuser."

Maximilien de Robespierre, "Discours sur les subsistances", Discours et rapports à la Convention.
Rapporté dans l'article "Remunicipaliser l'eau", Manière de voir, Le Monde diplomatique, no 112 (août-septembre 2010).

The most powerful political idea of our time

"The European imperial powers withdrew from their colonies after World War II not because their armies were militarily defeated but because their armies could not secure the political objectives of maintaining imperial rule and legitimacy.
At play is a fundamental issue of politics. In the post-World War II era, after generations or centuries of colonial rule, the forces of nationalism and self-determination became irresistible in the developing countries. The idea that human dignity requires freedom from foreign occupation has become the most powerful political idea of our time. All of this was immeasurably strengthened by the spread of literacy, mass communications, and a modicum of economic development. Yet even as the United States has proclaimed its fundamental commitment to human freedom, it has disregarded its own anticolonial history and the basic facts of modern history. Thus, the United States substituted for France in Vietnam's struggle for independence, and could not understand that the Vietnamese were fighting a war of national liberation. The United States replaced Britain as the chief outside meddler in the Middle East oil states - Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia - but could not understand that every U.S. manipulation of local Middle East politics ignited powerful anticolonial antibodies.
President Bush imagines that the United States has liberated Iraq, but to the Iraqis the United States is yet one more occupying power, indeed one that has partnered with Britain, Iraq's original imperial power. Moreover, the United States has not tried to understand the roots of Arab views of Israel as a colonial imposition. While compromise is the only productive approach for both parties to the conflict, the Arab view reflects Arab nationalism and anticolonialism. For these reasons, military adventures such as the Iraq War are bound to fail [...]."

Jeffrey Sachs, Common Wealth, Economics for a crowded planet, chapter "Rethinking foreign policy".

Public vs private (4)

"Fourth, societies around the world want to ensure that everybody has an adequate level of access to key goods and services (health care, education, safe drinking water) as a matter of right and justice. Goods that should be available to everybody because of their vital importance to human well-being are called merit goods. The rights to these merit goods are not only an informal commitment of the world's governments, they are also enshrined in international law, most importantly in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as follows:

• Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
• Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.

Moreover, according to Article 28 of the Universal Declaration, «Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized.» A follow-through on the Millennium Development Goals would mark a major practical application of that article."

When I read these articles from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, I am amazed on how little they are actually applied even in the rich countries, especially the United States! If you don't have a work, you don't have a health insurance and therefore adequate medical care. One time I was at the hospital in Honolulu, I saw a cartoon on the front desk, where an old poor guy that looked very sick was arriving in a hospital, the receptionist was asking him if he had a health insurance, the guy was replying «no», and the receptionist was pointing to the door while telling him «the exit is this way». I was litterally shocked! You don't have equal access to higher education neither, since the selection is made on money, not on merit!
The situation is less bleak in France, and Europe in general, but I don't think we are heading in the good direction with the new government's reforms...