People should talk more about Human Responsibility and less about "human rights"

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Human Rights Watch routinely criticize everyone, including the EU. They do this because they hope criticism can help build a better world. The Filipino, being incapable of even considering a future that’s better than today, sees criticism only as an insult.

For what it’s worth, I think talk of “Human Rights” is nonsense: there should be far more talk about Human Responsibilities, from which Rights naturally emerge. When people uphold their own Responsibilities, others have Rights.

In civilized countries, citizens mostly understand their Responsibilities. They know their duty to each other, to the State, and to the world in general. Not everyone, and not all the time: they need to be reminded, for example by the police, by propaganda, or by organisations like Human Rights Watch.

In the Philippines, you will be laughed at if you tell people they have certain Responsibilities towards others. To some extent, this is understandable: why should one be Responsible for paying taxes to the government, when we know the government will waste it or steal it? However, the Filipino has the same attitude towards (say) blasting his neighborhood with full-volume KTV, letting his animals run riot over his neighbor’s land, or for that matter, shooting his neighbor over some argument. He doesn’t care. It’s all about me me me.

Duterte could have explained all this. He could have pointed out how things work here to the EU or HRW officials: they are nice privately-educated men who don’t know anything about drug dealers, or criminals, or Filipino KTV. They simply don’t get what a mess the country is in. They don’t get that solutions that work in Belgium are unlikely to work in a bottom-of-every-list failed state.

Telling people to f’off and mind their own business only alienates people. But that’s the Filipino way, isn’t it? As long as the Filipino still has his Pride, it doesn’t matter if he loses everything else.

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