Send them home?

Why do politically free people allow others to abdicate their moral responsibility for their own rights to others?

I have been watching the Mugabe fiasco for many weeks. According to the media (a whole nother issue) about how Zimbabwe citizens are being bullied, killed and coerced to limit their political choice. I have a really hard time getting agitated about this. I guess I feel the same way about North Korea, many other countries of Africa and yes, even China. Why should I get exercised over their plight? I know it exists and yet I have hard time giving a damn, at least to any large degree. The world’s free countries (I will use this term loosely but with the understanding most readers will understand that I am not convinced of this so called freedom) are routinely called upon to allow entry to their territories for people who feel persecuted. I suggest that perhaps we should say no in a loud and resounding voice. Stand and fight. What free country became free without a loss of many lives and struggles of the populace? If Mugabe takes control of Zimbabwe, well, it’s up to the people to pick up sticks, stones or kitchen knives to free themselves. It is not up to South Africa, where most flee if they can, to solve the problem.
Note that I did not list Mexico in my examples of such bullied populaces. I think that immigration for economic reasons falls on a slightly, and only slightly, different level. I guess that I feel less animosity toward a boy that crosses the U.S. border to pick fruit to feed his young brothers and sisters less contemptible than someone who chooses to do so to escape persecution of a bully government. Stand and fight. As an aside, I recall my youngest coming to me in tears, telling me that a boy had been picking on him. I told him stand and fight. He told me that the boy was much bigger than he and would without doubt, kick his ass. No problem. Stand and fight. If an opposition knows without a doubt that you will stand and fight, they will be much less inclined to start a ruckus in the first instance.

The cost (lives and money) for these countries (the people) will increase dramatically as time goes by. Perhaps we should reconsider the immigration policies professed to be because of discrimination and retaliation. Send them home to “stand and fight”. The rest of the world can’t continue to do it for them.

Would you tell your youngest to stand up and fight knowing that the big bad bully had an AK-47, was willing to use it, and immune from prosecution?

Would you feel right, having sold weapons to the bully, to then tell his victims to stand up and fight? I suppose you could try to balance the equation by turning around and arming the little people too, but as the Palestinians have learned, if the other side has tanks, it doesn’t matter much whether you’re throwing rocks or firing bullets.

How much blood would you see spilled to speed up the process? That’s what this comes down to.

edit: If people are lucky, a little blood at the right time will be the cost of whatever they’re after. If unlucky, well, the Hungarians in '56, and Kurds in '91, were both encouraged to rise up by none other than sitting US presidents. Both were crushed.

it’s not a fair fight, enigma. far from it. and it’s not being waged in a schoolyard with fists, either. the risks and the almost certainty of reprisals to one’s self and family are overwhelming.

perhaps you feel the ennui of endless outrage, or perhaps you numb yourself as a coping mechanism. but there are still things you can do to help, such as wander into a mugabe victory parade with a knife and slit his throat, all close and personal like. that’s the kind of expression sorely lacking here.

Here’s one for you, enigma.

[quote=“Washington Post”]Thousands of people thronged a police station in southwestern China to protest the alleged coverup of a teenage girl’s rape and murder, witnesses and officials reported Sunday. The crowd set fire to a government building complex and several police vehicles.

The violence, which began Saturday, was brought under control by authorities around 2 a.m. Sunday. There were conflicting reports about the number of injuries and arrests as news of the riot spread over the Internet. Pictures and video from the incident were posted on Chinese online discussion forums and Web sites but quickly became inaccessible, ostensibly as government censors stepped in.

Spasms of public anger against perceived injustices or government corruption occur periodically in China, but this weekend’s riot, in the seat of Weng’an County in Guizhou province, was larger and more destructive than many. The government has been anxious to contain such incidents, especially as it prepares to host the Olympic Games in August, pledging to show the world its prosperous, “harmonious” society, as the ruling Communist Party calls it.

Children as young as 12 began blocking the entrance to the police station sometime after 4:30 p.m. Saturday, said a middle school teacher who witnessed the incident. The teacher, who identified himself only by his surname, Zhang, said he then saw students carry two police cruisers into the building’s first floor and set them ablaze.

“Police could not control them,” he said in a telephone interview.
[…]
The state-controlled New China News Agency published a short story on the incident Sunday morning that said the chaos broke out after people were “dissatisfied with the medicolegal expertise on the death of a local girl student.”

According to Internet and news service reports, the student’s body was found in a river last week. After a brief investigation, police declared her death a suicide. The girl’s family, however, said there was evidence she had been raped and most likely murdered. Three suspects who had been seen with the girl shortly before she disappeared were brought in for questioning but released the next day. Two of the suspects are relatives of local public security officials, the reports said.

Last week, the girl’s uncle went to the public security bureau but was severely beaten by people who relatives believe are connected to the police, according to Internet reports. The uncle reportedly died from his injuries Saturday afternoon, sparking the demonstration. Calls to a family member were not answered Sunday. [/quote]