Supernationalism is a method of decision making in
multi-national political communities, where power is transferred and delegated
to an authority by governments of member states. It’s often referred to and to
describe the basis of how the UN runs. It’s a large political entity in hopes
to monitor and protect for the greater good of the people’s rights and
freedoms. The majority of votes implements decisions and are enforced by those
individuals representing a country to ensure that everyone is equal. These foundations
of human rights in which the UN dissects and defines the boundaries of democracy
and how government intertwines with those human rights.
In class we were asked to read and discuss the universal
declaration of human rights. We were asked to talk amongst ourselves and
decided which of the 30 articles were vague versus righteous without question
and also whether the U.S. has broken any of these. Naturally there was much debate. I found that
literally every single person had a different opinion. What I have gathered
from just mere observation was that your opinion is that of a biased reasoning
concluded from experience and education. For example article 4 stated “no one
shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be
prohibited in all their forms” Many argued, quite passionately, that slavery is
still relevant today. I personally thought, no way really? Or at least my
ignorance has kept me oblivious. I do not consider seasonal workers from
neighboring countries such as Mexico, picking strawberries and such in southern
California to be slavery. Not even in the least bit. Especially because, living
in L.A. for 11 years I have personally become quite acquainted with these
seasonal workers. Many of these workers come for several months to make as much
money as possible and then go back home to support their struggling families. I
believe it’s an opportunity that they feel fortunate to have. Do I think they
are under paid? ABSOLUTELY! We are completely exploiting these people, however
is that slavery? Many students said as long as they are being paid, it’s not
slavery. The definition of slavery is the inability to have control of your own
body, due to the power withheld by a superior. I don’t know if I necessarily
agree with that, especially because I don’t know the conditions of what these
workers are in. another student brought something to our attention that blew my
mind. It blew my mind because I had no idea that this was occurring right under
my nose and the shear openness, yet NO ONE has done anything about it! The story
is occurring in Immokalee, FL. A group of over 1000 worker of tomato picking
were kept, beaten, chained, shot if caught trying to escape and locked in a U-Haul
truck for sleeping purposes. Is this for real?!?!?! This is in direct violation
of article 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 17, etc. (the list doesn’t stop there) so why hasn’t this
gone national? Why are we hiding this? What disgusted me even more are the
companies that are buying these products; Publix and sweet bay grocery store. Why
hasn’t the UN done anything about this? Has the UN even heard about it? Or does
it not even matter because it’s only a small group of 1000 workers compared to
a national issue? I feel as though the U.S. is the big brother. No one wants to
stand up to the big brother, and we just keep on bullying other countries with
money and weapons. Why keep America accountable for all the nasty shit we have
done to people? What about the discrimination against homosexuals? Now that’s a
whole other issue. Maybe the issue of homosexuality and gay marriage isn’t as
pertinent as current slavery but it still deserves recognition just the same. Most
of the UN is on board with gay marriage; except for countries who naturally
suck (this is obviously the Middle East).
Article 16 states that “men and women of full age, without any
limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and
found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during
marriage and at its dissolution”. S0o0o……where in there did it ever mention
discrimination of gender or sexual orientation? It didn’t right? A human=human.
Why is this such a hard concept for many to grasp. Just let human be. Do not
imposed your ideological, oppressive, higher archy opinions when you have no
right to judge someone other than yourself. So again why isn’t the U.S. on the
gay train? I don’t know. All of these questions I wonder if the U.S. is really
in conjunction with these simple ideologies of freedom or we mask ourselves
behind power and lie. The U.S. exploits others and puts pressures on countries
to behave and conduct themselves in a certain way, yet we have done the exploiting
ourselves. I am not an anti-American, but I just wonder why we constantly
oppress a country to ensure failure, yet go in all “happy go lucky” to help
these countries in need. I think we need to stop looking at the specs in the
eyes of other countries and focus on the plank that is inserted in our own.
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