Today is International Migrants' Day, commemorating the day in 1990 that the UN Assembly adopted the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (resolution 45/158). This article by Chandra Bhatnagar is worth reading for background, but suffice it to say that migrants face many human rights abuses right here in the original modern Bastion of Freedom known as the USA.
With that in mind, I call on all US agencies and employers to treat migrants with the humanity and respect that they deserve, simply by being our brothers and sisters born to the same divine Father-Mother as created us. I call on President Obama to direct his agencies to enforce all aspects of national and international law that protect these people from abuse, and to take immediate steps to rectify the situation in Villas-del-Sol, Puerto Rico, including provision of electricity, water, health care, and humanitarian aid as needed (see the article). And I extend my own prayers for all migrant workers in the US, and everywhere.
It is a disgrace for a nation of our proud heritage to continue to allow this kind of abuse, especially in the aftermath of the Hurricane Katrina travesty. If we cannot extend mercy, compassion, and basic human rights to people on our own soil, how can we ever expect to support it as far away as Afghanistan?
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1 comment:
Hey girl,
There was always a tradition of Empires mistreating people on their own soil. Look at the numbers--almost half of this country exists under the "poverty" level. I've tried to explain this to European friends who think all Americans are rich because that's who they see.
This country also has a history of migrant abuse: the Chicago meat packing industry, the slave hells of NY making garments, and, of course, the abuse of migrants, which has been going on since 1900.
As long as big money can be made off of cheap labor, there will be abuse. This country was founded on the family farm, which is now just about gone. As long as food is an industry, workers will be worse off than serfs. In Britain there was a huge migrant population who starved in the winter after the harvests were got in.
It's nothing new. But, yes, we should make everyone aware of it. Buy organic, buy local, buy from small farms, grow your own.
glad to see you posting again, sweetie, we've missed you!
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