Human Rights Day In South Africa

For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.

–Nelson Mandela

South Africa celebrates Human Rights Day today, 21 March, in addition to the International Human Rights Day set aside by the United Nations on the 10th of December 1948.

In South Africa, Human Rights Day has a distinctive significance. It commemorates the Sharpeville massacre of 21 March 1960, in which 69 protestors were killed and 180 injured when police opened fire on a peaceful demonstration in the township against apartheid Pass Laws, which restricted and regulated the movement of people.

The equal and inalienable rights and dignity of humankind have never been more threatened than they are now. While America pretended successfully to champion the cause of human rights since the launch of the Charter in 1948, it is now blatantly championing efforts to effectively mangle and dismantle them.

There is currently a widely acknowledged genocide being carried out by Israel in the Middle East against the Palestinians, with undeniable political and military backing in the Western world, led by the United States. There are very evident current efforts to destroy the international rules-based order and institutions that uphold human rights emanating from the office of the Republican President Donald Trump.

Trump’s most recent attack on human rights involves the harassment and illegal deportation of foreign migrants in the US. Last week, a Palestinian activist was unceremoniously kidnapped by ICE agents under cover of the night, and now awaiting deportation in a holding facility on the Southern end of the country.

Also recently, several alleged gang members were deported to a prison in El Salvador in a direct violation of a judge’s order to cease and desist. It now appears that some, if not all of them, may be innocent of the charges leveled against them.

However, don’t be fooled about who is actually culpable for a second!

The path to genocide and marginalization of the international institutions that can prevent the genocide was forged under the liberal Democratic leadership of Joe Biden, who held office before Trump. Biden funded and provided diplomatic cover for the multitude of war crimes being executed with depraved impunity against Palestine by Israel.

Meanwhile, in South Africa, those who perpetrated and benefitted under a vile system of apartheid were expected to demonstrate a measure of remorse. While most White South Africans have accepted the change to an inclusive democracy, it seems that many others have now become reanimated and energized to openly reveal their racism, lack of empathy and entitlement in public. They have no doubt been emboldened by the re-emergence of the fascistic Trump Presidency.

I have regular online arguments discussions with some of them, and their commentary on both the Israeli genocide and Trump’s punitive actions against the country leaves one in no doubt as to their racist standing. Here is a sampling of the more egregious comments from Facebook forums:

Back in the USA, Elon Musk, who is a product of South African apartheid and erstwhile darling of the rabid right, is now facing an unprecedented backlash from the public over his overenthusiastic execution of Trump’s deranged Executive Orders. He has been instrumental in provoking anti-South African sentiment on his social media platform and probably also instigated Trump’s cancellation of USAID funding for SA’s anti-retroviral healthcare program. He has become highly unpopular in the US since leading Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency.

Musk is notoriously egotistical and narcissistic, while his support for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demonstrates that he has scant regard for human rights. In an interview on Joe Rogan’s podcast, he had this to say about empathy, a cornerstone of human rights.

The fundamental weakness of western civilization is empathy. The empathy exploit. There are…it’s… They’re exploiting a bug in Western civilization which is the empathy response. So, and I think empathy is good. But you need to think it through and not just be programmed like a robot.

Ironically, he was seen on television bemoaning the lack of empathy for him since the public backlash, practically begging for it:

It’s really come as quite a shock to me that there’s this level of really eh, hatred and violence from the left. I thought er the left, Democrats were a party of empathy, a party of caring, yet they’re burning down cars…

I’m unsure if Trump or Musk are even vaguely aware that South Africa is observing Human Rights Day today. Trump is undoubtedly deeply engrossed in killing such initiatives with more absurd Executive Orders, while Musk is too busy nursing a badly battered ego.