the world's biggest problem?

COMMENT

I have in the past cited the racist abuse suffered by the Palestinian people at the hands of the Israeli government as the world's greatest human rights issue. But perhaps I have not been thinking globally enough.

China has a population of 1.3 billion people. 1.2 billion of them continue to live in a state of abject rural privation, even though China's economy is now one of the most vibrant on the planet, having expanded by an astonishing 500% since 1989. An important year that one, because the demands of the students who were so brutally suppressed that summer remain no more realized now than they were then.

In Oslo last night there was an empty seat which should have been occupied by Liu Xiaobo. Dubbed a "criminal" by the Chinese authorities and dealt with accordingly (he's serving an 11 year prison sentence) his main "crime" has been to write a book called "Charter 08", the title referring to Vlacec Havel's famous "Charter 77", and like that earlier crucial text, is a wish list of human rights for the ordinary people of his homeland. China is supposed to be a communist state, but Marx must be spinning in his grave over that travesty of the truth. The real situation might be summarised as follows:

"Government of the people, by the elite, for the maintenance of their power and the enhancement of their personal wealth"

1/3 of the seats at the Nobel Prize ceremony last night were unoccupied last night, which shows how long China's reach is in manipulating other countries into toeing their line. The West gets rich using cheap Chinese labour to manufacture their goods, so we dare not fall out with them over such trivial issues as human rights. What a bunch of craven cowards we are!