Thursday, February 2, 2012

Quotable, and very smooth


“It is not possible to make human rights policy as a weapon of political and ideological struggle.  The world must be convinced that all countries of the world should assume their responsibility, ourselves included.  Who casts the first stone without having a glass house?  We have ours in Brazil.  Hence I commit myself to speak of human rights from a multilateral perspective.  I believe this is a commitment of all civilized peoples.  There are aspects that need to be considered.  In fact it is something that we have to improve in the world in general.  We cannot think of human rights as a rock that is cast in one direction only, and not in the other.”

      – Dilma Rousseff, President of Brazil, in Tuesday’s Granma

6 comments:

  1. what a bunch of hypocritical crap...

    do you think she would have said that 30-40 years ago amidst her own struggle?

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  2. I agree with her sentiment. 100 percent.

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  3. Brazil showed that respect the Cuban sovereignty.

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  4. Cuba represses elements of its population, no doubt. Let the Cubans sort it out since they are eminently capable of doing so on their own. Third party interventions from racist exile elements in Miami or from a United States with a track record of failure in Iraq, Afghanistan, [and at this point, Libya isn't looking good either], is NOT a solution.

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  5. There is nothing "smooth" about this at all. There are many Brazilians who are embarrassed by their government's silence on human rights, not only in Cuba but throughout the world. There are even more who view it as incompatible with their country's long term interests. No dictatorship lasts forever, and it is damaging to any country's fundamental interests to be seen as complicit in the oppression of another people. The United States knows this well. Brazil is finding it out now in a free Libya, and will eventually find it out in a free Cuba.

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  6. Anonymous of Feb. 13: Is Libya really free, as you say? I (and many others) have serious doubts. And if you claim that the US "knows ...well" that "it is damaging to any country's fundamental interests to be seen as complicit in the oppression of another people", then I'm having serious doubts about your faculties of reason, too! That negates all the years the US unconditionally backed the dictatorial Mubarak regime. They only gave in at the end when it was obvious the regime's days were numbered. The same story repeats itself with Yemen and Bahrain, as well as Uzbekistan! Need any more examples?

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