A plastic surgeon attending to a client...
It is interesting how human rights play out in different contexts, different jurisdictions, and at different levels of society. Very few arguments have successfully been pitted against the universality of human rights principles, or have any propagated philosophies edged out the notion of the universal nature of rights. However, at its most practical level, there is a great disparity in the application of human rights. So inconsistent is this application that the idea of profiling humans as gaunt, cadaverous, emaciated is in some parts of the world viewed as rustic, savage, backward, lacking in glamour and intrigue!
As I browsed through the international TV stations known for bearing nothing but bad news today, I was perturbed at the reality of the contriving of rights, in some cases giving it an aesthetic value, or making it as inscrutable as possible, in essence, making a movie out of real death dealing realities.
Well this is how it plays out from one part of our one globe, to another ….
The UK, US and Argentina
Currently big news is the ongoing debate about the safety of breast implants. There is a sudden concern about the danger of rupturing breast implants said to contain industrial silicone (used for mattresses) and other impurities which if brought into direct contact with human flesh and blood would definitely lead to death. In the UK, the Health Secretary has overtly raised his anger and fear at the manipulation of data by the state regulator on the complaints about the effects of silicone breast implants that have alluded that it is at a 1% level, but has since confessed to giving a false account of gravity of the situation. The same issues have come up in the US which withdrew them from the market in 2000 but are still in use at an even higher rate.
In Argentina, 25,000 plus surgeries are done annually for breast implants. The recent concern about the safety of these implants has led to a sudden rush to have these removed before they rapture. Well nothing wrong with having implants. I mean at some point in life and at some level in society when you are on a full stomach and a swelling bank account, having plastic surgery for breast implants for better looking boobs is quite okay! Those who go through these procedures are fully aware (or so they have always thought) of the risks involved in having anything foreign inside their bodies.
What is of interest is the current level of the debate which has shifted from a need to ensure that the implants are safe, to trying to obligate governments to pay for thousands of surgeries to remove them before they rapture. The argument is that since the governments have failed to protect them from unscrupulous practices and false information from those engaged in this highly lucrative business, then they have a right to immediate medical attention that would involve an immediate removal of the breast implants fully paid from public coffers as the surgeons will want to be paid for it, and will certainly make a ‘killing’ literally!
In Argentina, a lobby group advocating for this is led by a lawyer who ironically too has a personal stake being in possession of a pair of beautiful breast-implants! Waiting to see how this drama will play out….
Syria, South Sudan, Congo and North Korea
Well same old, same old! The Syrian government killing activists like flies what’s the number of deaths so far? More turmoil in South Sudan a new state struggling with ongoing turf wars, hunger and starvation, nothing new there…. Congo – will those people ever stop dying, but why don’t they all leave that place and go elsewhere where it is safe?! Is there even a government there?! Oh I think they enjoy their problems… Hail the new Korean leader named the ‘supreme leader’, there are now calls for human shields to protect the new leader…. Am sure those stupid Koreans, complete zombies will expend of themselves to ensure that the new leader is safe….
It is odiously interesting how human rights play out in the media. Emaciation, pestilence, famine, even death are no longer as ghastly as bursting boobs! The harsh reality is that it is as difficult to suggest a panacea to this disparity as it is to reconcile the application of human rights in these different yet very unique settings. The quandary might be a creation of the media, but how much blame can we lay on the media when they themselves have noticed how bored we have become about never changing stories about the harsh realities of life, and for their own survival have to spice up human rights issues to guarantee that they remain afloat?
Indeed, we not only have negative rights as against a coercive state, but also bear positive rights to obligate government to actively participate in ensuring the protection and enjoyment of rights. They have to protect us from unscrupulous private entities and persons who may violate or infringe on our rights. Viewed from that point of view, therefore, the rich women with breast implants in the US, UK and Argentina have as much right as do the destitute, emaciated, hopeless and dying people of the Congo, South Sudan, Syria and North Korea, it just depends on where you are lucky to have been born….
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