Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Izzy Asper's "Walk of Shame" for Totalitarian Despots a No-Show at Our "Human Rights" Mausoleum

In a CJN article about our soon-to-open shrine to victimhood, Gail (daughter of Izzy) Asper outlines one of her dad's ideas that failed to make the grade:
Her father, she added, wanted a “walk of shame” with Stalin, Hitler and Mao. “Instead we have ordinary exemplars that will resonate with young people. Dad wanted less stress on rights and more on responsibility. Dad believed ‘He who saves one person saves a community of people.’ If the CMHR encourages people to stop an injustice, prevent one incident of cruelty in the world or take action or write a letter that provokes our government to take action, then we did our job.  
“We aim to transform bystanders to human rights heroes. Young people should know how we fought for rights, and how it was when aboriginals had no rights and no vote, and Chinese and Jews were discriminated against… Our message is one of vigilance. We may be glorious and free, but we must stand on guard for Canada.”  
I think Izzy had it right and his daughter got it wrong. The mausoleum's message would have been so much stronger had it incorporated a "Walk of Shame" instead of or in addition to the squish and candy floss of "ordinary exemplars." Sure, there's a Mass Atrocity Zone, but I doubt that what amounts to a kind of genocide porn (and which, trust me, will never include, say, ISIS beheadings) will have the desired effect.

Me? I'm vigilant about the travesty that "human rights" has become in our time. Which is to say how, on the domestic scene, it's a system of kangaroo courts for members of privileged victim groups who harbor a grudge, while at the international level it's a weapon with which to bludgeon the world's lone Jewish state (an example of which you can find here).

Tell me, Gail, where in your museum will you make room for that shameful reality?

Update: Something else I don't expect to see at the mausoleum--The Cairo Declaration of Human Rights Under Islam. Can you imagine the "ordinary exemplars" they could have found to represent that "universal" document?

Update: Here's a picture of an "ordinary exemplar" exemplifying "human rights" for non-Muslims living under Islam:

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