lynnf
08-22-2008, 08:36 PM
sound familiar?
will they put us to shame by succeeding while we fail?
(fail to get our government to follow its laws/constitution)
August 22, 2008
BILL MOYERS Journal
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/08222008/transcript4.html
.....
PHILIP PAN: That's right. And so, this was their second or third child. And parents who had already had two children were being forced to be sterilized. Obviously, a lot of these people weren't willing to comply, and some of them fled. And what the officials were doing was arresting or detaining their relatives or neighbors, and basically holding them hostage until these people came back and submitted to these operations.
And so, this is not the way the one child policy is supposed to be enforced. It says very clearly in the law that coercive tactics are illegal. And so, he decided to try to file a class action lawsuit against these officials, which is...
BILL MOYERS: This didn't make them happy, did it?
PHILIP PAN: No, it didn't. He came to Beijing looking for help. He found some lawyers, some brave lawyers who were willing to do this. He found some writers who were willing to write about it. And he came to me, as a member of the foreign press, because he thought international attention would help.
...
Two things about this story, I think, are interesting, though. One is after he was arrested, there was really a big push in the legal community, which is among these lawyers, who are pushing for better protection of people's rights, to get him out of prison. The lawyers were basically met with violence when they attempted to defend him. Every time they went down the community to try to interview witnesses, thugs were assigned to beat up, to beat them up, essentially.
And they didn't know how to respond to this. Whether they should continue pushing the limits, and confronting this violence, which would put not only themselves at risk, but other people in the community. Or whether they should back off and take a more low key approach.
And this is the dilemma facing all people, I think, all these individuals who are pushing for change in China, in different ways. They have to decide how much can they confront the state, and how much should they try to compromise. And it's not an easy process.
...
lynn
will they put us to shame by succeeding while we fail?
(fail to get our government to follow its laws/constitution)
August 22, 2008
BILL MOYERS Journal
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/08222008/transcript4.html
.....
PHILIP PAN: That's right. And so, this was their second or third child. And parents who had already had two children were being forced to be sterilized. Obviously, a lot of these people weren't willing to comply, and some of them fled. And what the officials were doing was arresting or detaining their relatives or neighbors, and basically holding them hostage until these people came back and submitted to these operations.
And so, this is not the way the one child policy is supposed to be enforced. It says very clearly in the law that coercive tactics are illegal. And so, he decided to try to file a class action lawsuit against these officials, which is...
BILL MOYERS: This didn't make them happy, did it?
PHILIP PAN: No, it didn't. He came to Beijing looking for help. He found some lawyers, some brave lawyers who were willing to do this. He found some writers who were willing to write about it. And he came to me, as a member of the foreign press, because he thought international attention would help.
...
Two things about this story, I think, are interesting, though. One is after he was arrested, there was really a big push in the legal community, which is among these lawyers, who are pushing for better protection of people's rights, to get him out of prison. The lawyers were basically met with violence when they attempted to defend him. Every time they went down the community to try to interview witnesses, thugs were assigned to beat up, to beat them up, essentially.
And they didn't know how to respond to this. Whether they should continue pushing the limits, and confronting this violence, which would put not only themselves at risk, but other people in the community. Or whether they should back off and take a more low key approach.
And this is the dilemma facing all people, I think, all these individuals who are pushing for change in China, in different ways. They have to decide how much can they confront the state, and how much should they try to compromise. And it's not an easy process.
...
lynn