Last night I was fortunate to see the play “My Name is Rachel Corrie” playing for the first time in New Zealand at the Forge, the no 2 theatre at the Court. It’s a 90 minute monologue describing her journey to the Gaza strip to volunteer as a peace activist (surely an oxymoron!!!!).

Go and see it if you can.

6 years ago she was murdered by the Israeli Defence Force, run over by a bulldozer attempting to destroy yet another ordinary civilian home. A mere speck in the devastation that is Palestine. But before everyone gets too excited, this post is not about Palestine but about the difference that individuals can make. That she continues to inspire people to act is in itself telling. That she gave her life for it is tragic but as she would probably understand, innocent lives are lost every day for little or no reason.

No Tiananmen Square mythology for her. The bulldozer did not stop for her. Perhaps because it wasn’t on film the Israeli driver didn’t feel any compunction to stop. One can only imagine what happens when no one is around. But this is the point. When we survey the world we can be overwhelmed by the incessant brutality and barbarism meted out daily by tyrants the world over. Yet still individuals can make a huge difference by directing us to the most minor of events which for us assume mythic proportions…perhaps biblical….David vs Goliath ring any bells.

Our sympathy is often with the individual, the person alone. It is the power of one that can move us, inspire us, energise us to say no. It’s why leaders such as Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King caused so many problems for their persecutors. One person can be harder to defeat than an army. It’s why Aung San Suu Kyi is always in our thoughts, always visible to the international community and always a thorn in the side of the tyrants.

So yes one person can make a difference. You can make a difference, no matter who you are or where you come from.

You can think about it or you can act, like Rachel did or you can write a letter.

It always counts no matter what the action.

News comes of Fouad al-Farhan and his release after 137 days in jail. He was detained for being critical of the Kingdom and its repressive approach to government. Following on from my previous post on human rights in Saudi Arabia, this is no surprise.

The Kingdom is very sensitive to any mention of reform or greater freedom of expression. It has huge strategic importance in the Gulf area and has always been a major bulwark for the West against Iraq and Iran. At the same time its treatment of its own citizens has left a lot to be desired. In some ways its an example of the ultimate trade off between human rights and strategic concerns.

But the key issue here is one of freedom of speech. Many organizations have worked long and hard around the world to support people like Fouad who are imprisoned on no charge and on spurious grounds at best.

Amnesty is one and needs no introduction but Index on Censorship is another organization doing great work in preventing and informing us on cases of repression and curtailment of speech.

It’s a cause all bloggers should support.

Following a huge campaign the death sentence on Pervez Kambaksh was lifted and we finally heard from him about his experience at the hands of the Afghani justice system.

Stories about the Taliban’s treatment of women and those who try to help them are legendary in their barbarism.

Now we hear about the treatment of women in Saudi Arabia. It’s one thing to treat women with violence (we have plenty enough of that terrible behaviour in the non-Islamic world) but the dis-empowerment via lack of rights and education is really unacceptable at the most basic level. It means there really is no escape from a life of slavery.

This extremist form of Islam does a dis-service to mainstream Islam and shows how vast and wide that congregation is in terms of beliefs and practices.

You wont hear anyone in power being critical of Saudi Arabia because their strategic position is so important and of course they buy a lot of weapons and sell a lot of oil. The hypocrisy of human rights and trade is summarised nicely here.

This year it’s the 60th Anniversary of the UN Declaration on Human Rights. The UN better start pulling its finger out before it gets done under the trades description act.

I wanted to share this story about the rehabiltion of child soldiers in Africa. It’s nothing short of a human tragedy and deserves our attention. About 10 years ago I did a course on the International Dimensions of Human Rights. One fact that really troubled me was the sheer numbers of children who had been co-opted by force into becoming soldiers and ultimately killers. The use of drugs and torture was commonplace and the results horrific.

Yet out of this comes a story of healing which has lessons for all of us especially those in developed countries where teenage crime is on the rise. I’ll leave you all to draw your own conclusions.

The recent visit of the Saudi Arabian King Abudullah has caused no end of consternation amongst activists of all hue. Let’s face it the Kingdom is not exactly progressive when it comes to human rights or gender equality.

The famous “ethical foreign policy” of the Blair years, a deception like most other announcements of that time, is clearly is misnomer. The real question is can there ever be ethics in foreign policy?

Foreign policy is all about making sure ones national interest is enhanced, or at least not set back, by international events. As Mick Hume notes realpolitik is still the name of the game. Yes we will be enraged at hideous regimes but we have to consider our trade interests blah blah blah.

New Zealand tends to take the higher moral ground where possible but of course people would argue NZ is too small for anyone to notice. The stance of our neighbours across the ditch is somewhat different and maybe its because they have more to worry about with Indonesia to the North and as a bigger economy they interact more competitively with other interests in the region.

It’s an interesting dilemma. The Great Game continues and its hard to see when its going to stop. Until then expect ethics and morals to be trotted out only around election time.

I finally got round to watching the film “V for Vendetta“. Shades of 1984 and more recently Children of Men. It’s quite topical given the current issue of domestic terrorism and how to deal with it.

In New Zealand we are still experiencing protests against the mass raid on people suspected of unlawful activities under the Supression of Terrorism Act. What constitutes terrorism on a domestic scale? And more to the point how far can the authorities go in their protective capacities?

This is not an easy question to answer. Intelligence services are meant to forewarn and forestall any action against the State. This will always lead to a presumption of guilt even though an act may not have been carried out. This leaves a bit of a vacuum in the traditional legal process of innocent until proven guilty.

The authorities are stuck in a tight spot here. Blamed for not preventing an attack and blamed for arresting innocent people.

For activists of a more moderate nature this presents potential pitfalls. How far can you go? Certainly for activists with a bent for civil non-violent disobedience this can put them squarely in the firing line.

It seems to me that New Zealand is better than most. At least the media, with their general liberal bias, have no problem in reporting openly what takes place. In the US this may not be so easy. There is considerable concern over the loss of civil liberties and privacy for even the average citizen.

There’s no easy answer. That’s why governance and participation in the democratic process is so important. As long as there are clear sanctions against governments and those in power, through the ballot box, and freedom to air grievances then there is a balance.

However, when fear takes over then there is a big problem. If this is really happening in the US then one can only hope for some change and for the issue to be aired openly in the electoral debate.

Fear and freedom have a lot in common. You cannot be free if you live in fear.  Whilst I think we are still fortunate in NZ in our openness we still need to keep an watchful eye.

Meanwhile be careful out there on the 5th November