India´s "Untouchables"

More than 160 million people in India are considered "Untouchable" -people tainted by their birth into a caste system that deems them impure, less than human.

Human rights abuses against these people, known as Dalits, are legion. A random sampling of headlines in mainstream Indian newspapers tells their story: "Dalit boy beaten to death for plucking flowers"; "Dalit tortured by cops for three days"; "Dalit 'witch' paraded naked in Bihar"; "Dalit killed in lock-up at Kurnool"; "7 Dalits burnt alive in caste clash"; "5 Dalits lynched in Haryana"; "Dalit woman gang-raped, paraded naked"; "Police egged on mob to lynch Dalits".
"Dalits are not allowed to drink from the same wells, attend the same temples, wear shoes in the presence of an upper caste, or drink from the same cups in tea stalls," said Smita Narula, a senior researcher with Human Rights Watch, and author of Broken People: Caste Violence Against India's "Untouchables." Human Rights Watch is a worldwide activist organization based in New York.

India's Untouchables are relegated to the lowest jobs, and live in constant fear of being publicly humiliated, paraded naked, beaten, and raped with impunity by upper-caste Hindus seeking to keep them in their place. Merely walking through an upper-caste neighborhood is a life-threatening offense.

Source: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/06/0602_030602_untouchables.html

Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela was the first President of South Africa to be elected in a fully representative democratic election, serving in the office from 1994–99. Before his presidency, Mandela was an anti-apartheid activist, and the leader of the African National Congress. The South African courts convicted him on charges of sabotage, as well as other crimes committed while he led the movement against apartheid. In accordance with his conviction, Mandela served 27 years in prison, spending many of these years on Robben Island.

Following his release from prison on 11 February 1990, Mandela has supported reconciliation and negotiation, and has helped lead the transition towards multi-racial democracy in South Africa. Since the end of apartheid, many have frequently praised Mandela, including former opponents. Mandela has received more than one hundred awards over four decades, most notably the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993. He is currently a celebrated elder statesman who continues to voice his opinion on topical issues. In South Africa he is often known as Madiba, an honorary title adopted by elders of Mandela's clan. The title has come to be synonymous with Nelson Mandela.

Immigration

The causes of immigration are always the same: run from poverty, unemployment, environment destruction, war, violence and political or religious perseguition. Immigrants run from an intolerable situation that oblige to leave their birthland to look for a better life.

Immigration isn't evil, by the contrary, several historical examples show that immigration constitue a powerful mean for the cultural, social and economical developments in human kind.

We use to say that immigrants come to do the works that the "natives" don't want to do, and they accept doing it from a lower salary. In Portugal, in average, immigrants offer lower salaries in 2.6% that portuguese workers doing the same functions.

GLAAD

GLAAD means Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. GLAAD was founded in 1985 in New york ,USA. the president is Neil Giuliano, and the focus of this organizations is to alert for the discrimination in media. The website is http://www.glaad.org/ .

The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) is a non-profit organization of LGBT activism that is dedicated to promoting and ensuring fair, accurate and inclusive representation of people and events in the media as a means of eliminating homophobia and discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation.

One of GLAAD's more visible programs is the annual GLAAD Media Awards, which honor individuals and projects in the mainstream media and entertainment industries for their fair, accurate, inclusive and favorable representations of the LGBT community and the issues that affect their lives. The event is held in Los Angeles, Miami, New York, and San Francisco.

Xenophobia - a definition

Fear (phobia) of strangers (xeno-) and of the unknown. Both racism and homophobia are sometimes reduced to xenophobia. Dislike of foreigners. Often a dislike of representatives of a particular nation. The word Xenophobic is often used as a political insult against Racists, Isolationists, and Nationalists. All these things are strange concepts as it is said that it only takes the link of six people for us to be connected with every person on Earth. Six degrees of separation makes us all related in some way. I sometimes think this is an exaggeration because I do read a lot and know a little about the lives of the famous at least and it is so easy to find a step of often no more than three or four for me to connect to almost any writer, artist, composer, politician, actor or royal that I care to think about. No one is a stranger. They are all the friend of a friend or have at least met.
There are two main definitions of racism today. One of them states that racism is discrimination based on alleged race, the other - newer - one states that racism ought also to include discrimination based on religion or culture.

by: Andreia Mendes

Martin Luther King

Fought for a equal treatment and contributed for a better situation of the afro american comunity with pacific protests and energics speaches about the necessity of the end of the racil inaquality. In 1963, he led a pacific march of the monument f Washington to The Lincoln Memoriial, where he pronounced his most famous speach: "I have a dream".

The movements and marches gave direction to thirteen years of civil rights activities. His charismatic leadership inspired men and women, young and old, in this nation and around the world.

by: Andreia Mendes

Human Rights

Human rights refer to the "basic rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled."* Examples of rights and freedoms which have come to be commonly thought of as human rights include civil and political rights, such as the right to life and liberty, freedom of expression, and equality before the law; and social, cultural and economic rights, including the right to participate in culture, the right to food, the right to work, and the right to education.
“
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
”
*Article 1 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights

So if we all born free and equal in digntity of rights… why there still is discrimination at so many different levels?