Greece Human Rights and Climate Change

Can we live in a world where we can take what others tell us is important or meaningful and be happy ourselves? The answer is yes…but not for very long. In her Tedx Talk, Dr. Elizabeth Lindsey gave a speech pertaining to the idea that we worship the idea of not being good enough, simply because of something like commerce and wealth and success is the indicator of happiness. That we have forgotten what it is like to pay attention to what is going on in our own world.While this powerful speech spoke about remembering to follow our own map through life, it gave me the impression that we are inherently materialistic, and that we can only give so many speeches to change that. Where do we draw the line between what is helpful, and what is vain? Isn’t most advancements we have made toward the lifestyles we now are used to good?

Maybe it is for American…but not a lot of other places.

                                             Protestors against the gold mine are fought back with

                                                                tear gas by local police.

                                              

In a recent article by the Business and Human Rights Resources Centre, local Greek protestors have been advocating against the Canadian-owned gold mines located on a peninsula in Northern Greece. The protestors are arguing that the continued use of the mine is impacting local fishing, polluting the groundwater, major deforestation and affects the locals’ livelihoods who live close by. However, most of these protestors have been thrown into jail, seemingly based on arbitrary grounds. The protestors are the victims of excessive police brutality, false arrests and violence by local police and the private security at the mines. Looking further into the issue, it seems even the Greek Council of State halted all mining due to “environmental grounds.” Although this may seem like a moral ground, most of its employees protested the idea because it means less work for its people (and with Greece’s plummeting economy, jobs are hard to come by).

So which is worse? Having no job but keeping the environment safe? Or having a job that may damage the environment?

The Hellas Gold Mine in Greece
Courtesy of: The Financial Post

In Farish Noor’s publication about eurocentrism, it seems that he was saying we have a responsibility to understand multiple cultures now that we live in a multicultural world. One point he made is that the Western idea of Asian cultures and traditions has leaked back to the Asian masses, and has almost become accepted. Although many activists are fighting some of the more widely accepted mythos of Asian ideals (such as the idea that Asians are conformists and obey strictly to their superiors), as long as the Western ideal of Asian culture remains, it is all for nothing. Noor believes that human rights is no longer restricted to just one country, or one culture, but it is a global problem that is often overlooked, mostly due to the accepted Western ideal (this is what Noor explained earlier that eurocentrism is the idea that one group’s culture/ideas are accepted everywhere.)

Because, as Noor said, “If we are to live in a truly equal and diversified multicultural and global environment, the West will need to learn to respect difference and to understand other cultures.” (Noor, 69).