Sep 9, 2006 11:30:00 AM cite

Abbas Beydoun: There were permanently people, religions and groups that considered themselves to be the most progressive and they thought that they have the right to kill the others and to show them without any respect the right way they should follow. There were also people who thought that the others are from the second class and their life is not valuable. I come from Lebanon, so some days ago the planes launched barbarically rockets on the houses and tens of civilians and families were annihilated. I think that the pilots were thinking that what they are doing is right so they did not care about the sequences and they did not think of the 400 children who were killed within 30 days. The pilots thought that they are serving their issue which is more important than lives of people as they thought, because they surely believed that their life is more valuable than the people they killed.

by Abbas Beydoun

Sep 9, 2006 11:30:00 AM cite

Alvaro Restrepo: My work in Colombia has to do fundamentally with dignity. In my opinion dignity is one of the most important words or concepts that we have to fight for. When we talk about dignity we talk about this other concept of quality that we human beings have to find. When we work in educational processes with children and adolescents, poor people and marginalized people, it is an important fact in this educational process that those persons can discover their human dignity as their biggest treasure. I think that dignity concerns the most important quality or concept which is selfrespect. In the moment in which a person knows himself/herself and respects himself/herself then he/her can also start to know and to respect others. This is why education plays an important role in the process of finding other qualities that make people have the feeling of dignity. For me the worst privation or agression that one person can commit against other human beings is depriving it from the right of education or the right of getting to know that... through the access of knowledge it is possible to get the most elemental form of human dignity.

by Alvaro Restrepo

Sep 9, 2006 11:30:00 AM cite

Ana Lucy Bengochea:

by Ana Lucy Bengochea

Sep 9, 2006 11:30:00 AM cite

Andries Botha: Well, dignities are always relative. It is difficult to know that there is a universal set of dignities. We are always very -- we're in a rush to believe my dignities, at the same provide necessities. But I think it is fair to say that one’s sense of integrity and dignity, and sense of security, food security, love, it's the right to sustain in himself, the right to shelter. Why do we let so many people go without them? Well, it’s because our humanity, our personal individual humanity is sacrosynct, and we are unable to see that we been divisible part of something much larger to [share] humanity, to [share] the living organisms.

by Andries Botha

Sep 9, 2006 11:30:00 AM cite

Angaangaq Lyberth: Claire, it’s so interesting what is the basic dignities. Where I come from on top of the world the basic dignity is recognizing each one another. When we don’t then we begin to remove those dignities. Each person on Earth, 6-1/2 billion of us, have the right to be recognized. But we don’t. Look at your people in Australia. They don’t recognize the Aborigines. They were there before anyone else. As in Greenland, where I come from, the Danes don’t recognize the rights of my people. So the dignities are removed by the rightful ownership of the land, when nobody owns anything but themselves. So when you realize that, you begin to see how we treat each other degradingly to a large, large degree everywhere. To answer your question, Claire, everyone has rights and deserves the dignity but that comes from you. If it does not come from you it cannot be delivered. You are responsible for recognizing everyone as I do. So let’s help each other to achieve that.

by Angaangaq Lyberth

Sep 9, 2006 11:30:00 AM cite

Anthony Arnove: Every human deserves basic human rights that involve not just meeting of their material needs, although those are absolutely a must and should be met, the right to clothing, the right to housing, the right to be free of disease, which can be easily prevented. Those are basic material rights. But, beyond that, I think we have to assert the right of people to have control over their lives, the right of people to have individual personal freedom of expression, but also freedom to control the circumstances in which they find themselves. And that means not only the right to have work, but the right to have leisure. That means not only the right to work, but the right to control the circumstances and the nature of one’s work. And it means the right to be able to express oneself creatively, to be able to have the circumstances that really call out for the maximization of freedom, the maximization of creativity and expression. We can’t even begin to imagine the kind of human culture, the kind of human possibilities, the kinds of artistic possibilities that would be unleashed in the society, which meets basic human needs universally, minimizes drudgery, minimizes the amount of work, which is necessary in order to meet the basic needs of the society and seeks to maximize, creatively maximize freedom. We’ve never lived in such a society. We can’t even begin to imagine what a society might produce, but we certainly can begin from looking at history to understand that and the circumstances where people have gained those freedoms and control over their lives even in limited ways. They have been able to produce remarkable things.

by Anthony Arnove

Sep 9, 2006 11:30:00 AM cite

Anuradha Koirala: The basic dignities that each human being deserves are respect and love. So many people go without it because we are self centered and selfish.

by Anuradha Koirala

Sep 9, 2006 11:30:00 AM cite

Anuradha Mittal: I think the basic dignities that each one of us as a human being deserves or actually has have been ensured by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. They go from political freedoms and the political aspirations that we have. For example, the right to association, right of gathering, or freedom of speech, but at the same time our economic social cultural rights, for example the right to an adequate standard of living which would include our right to food, right to be free of hunger, right to have shelter, right to healthcare. And the reason that so many people go without them are these inherent inequities in the economic system that we live in, that today’s world instead of being guided by the conventions such as the covenant on economic social cultural rights, the covenant on civil and political rights which come from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights have been put in the backseat whereas the new treaties such as our trade agreements, they take -- they come first. So, as long as we have that, we find these power structures that some people -- their greed and the corporate greed -- is based on the violation of the human rights of so many people. Human rights are basically guarantees of a human dignity, a life of dignity, free of hunger, free of exploitation, free of endangered servitude.

by Anuradha Mittal

Sep 9, 2006 11:30:00 AM cite

Ashok Gangadean: If we look at the human being, the whole human being in terms of global wisdom, global consciousness and the collective wisdom of our planet, we recognize that all human beings and all creatures are deeply interconnected in this sacred space of this infinite force, whatever name we call it, we can call it power, Aum, Allah, Yahweh, Christ, energy, nature, spirit, whatever name we use for the infinite force that surrounds us and in every cell, in every moment and every human being. A human being is part of that sacred fabric of life and of existence with nature. And, if we really see that global wisdom, we recognize that the human rights are the rights to flourish to become whole, to self-awareness, to self-empowerment, to self-love and the love of others, and the deep dignity that comes with our inherent sacredness. That is the source, the global source of human rights and human values. And, if we see a culture that can live in this global consciousness and global spirituality of the sacredness of life, we will then see that it's intolerable to have cultures that are ego-based and that are in violence to ourselves. And not just the human rights of others, but the self, when we are an ego-self, we are in deep violence to ourselves and undermining our own deep dignity and sacredness. So, I bring it right home and ask “Are we in an ego-based culture and a way being a self?” In that ego-based culture, we will always degrade and violate a sacredness of other human beings, of ourselves and of nature. But, if we can move into an integral global culture, we will then move into one that recognizes this deep dignity and sacredness. That’s universal human rights.

by Ashok Gangadean

Sep 9, 2006 11:30:00 AM cite

Audrey Kitagawa: Basic dignities that each human being deserves, be -- to have proper food, shelter, clothing as well as to be respected as an individual, as a human being, to be afforded certain freedoms, freedoms of expression, freedom of speech, to have certain rights accorded to them, the right to education, and there's a whole plethora of ways that we can say this dignifies the human being. Why do we have so many people go without them? This is a very complex reason why people are divested of their freedoms. It depends on the political situation of the country. Many of the disparities that are created by our current economic systems as well as our political systems and institutions that we must all be inspired to be able to see where these indignities may occur, because we basically want to be able to live life as just people that recognize and wish to honor and dignify the lives of not only human beings but of all living beings. And so to that extent we have much work to do to live life in a way that will help our brothers and sisters to be able to have these basic dignities, these basic rights, and also to be able to understand that our ability to do this helps to make us better human beings, to develop the compassionate heart, the loving heart for each other that will weep to see when indignities occur in our brothers and sisters around the world.

by Audrey Kitagawa

Sep 9, 2006 11:30:00 AM cite

Benjamin Fahrer: What are the basic dignities that each human deserves and why do we let so many people go without them? It’s a really good question. The basic human rights is access to the commons, access to clean water, to air, to land, to grow food, to communication, to freedoms. This are common, it should be basic to everyone that lives. Unfortunately, we live in a system now that has taken that, has taken away people’s common rights, common dignities to live and to be human. What it means to be human? We’re not human doers, we’re human beings. And so we need to have access to these resources in order to be. In order to be.

by Benjamin Fahrer

Sep 9, 2006 11:30:00 AM cite

Benson Venegas: Basic dignities that a person in this world deserve are freedom, equality, justice, love, work, self-determination, health care, and also the possibility for religious freedom. When these values enter in competition with political social interest if some systems, then some governments stand to reduce or limit these universal values in people. We need to recognize that these values are important and that people need to go with these values. Always. Thank you.

by Benson Venegas

Sep 9, 2006 11:30:00 AM cite

Beverly Schwartz:

by Beverly Schwartz

Sep 9, 2006 11:30:00 AM cite

Bianca Jagger: Answertext will be available soon.

by Bianca Jagger

Sep 9, 2006 11:30:00 AM cite

Bill Joy: Well, the universal declaration of human rights has a long list of dignities that human beings all deserve and I would recommend that everyone look it up on the internet or at the library. Things like no slavery, equal protection under the law, no torture, no arbitrary arrest, fair trials and the list goes on and on. And this document is fifty years old and we subscribe to it. But we’re a long way from having all these rights recognized throughout the world. And I think it’s because people who are in power often for political or economic reasons choose to not respect these rights. So it’s been a long struggle for these rights and rebelling against tyranny, rebelling against all of these people who oppress us is a very difficult thing. Just say the right to everyone to have an education is against tradition in some societies. So we can struggle hopefully to give everyone enough food, to give everyone an education, but as long as people derive their power from riling people up and oppressing certain groups within their society it’s going to be hard to achieve the lofty and very real goals of things like the universal declaration of human rights.

by Bill Joy

Sep 9, 2006 11:30:00 AM cite

Bora Cosic: Each person has to gain the human dignity for him self. However before that, he must resign of every kind of self oppression through: politics, ideology, religion, nationalistic narrowness. We must remember how many people in foretime, (for example of my country, and of society where I lived, grow up, and developed) in socialism, (no matter what kind of socialism, the soft one of former Yugoslavia or the hard one of Columbia), were ready to sacrifice them self, not in the sense of sacrificing one self in the war or in some big battle, but in the complications of everyday life of these societies. This underlying to the every decision of government on harm of own integrity, that was the problem of people of that era. When the human being must own his dignity with his own resources.

by Bora Cosic

Sep 9, 2006 11:30:00 AM cite

Brian J. Weller: Basic dignities, this links to the last question really. Our dignity really refers to worth. In human terms, being treated with due respect. I’m reminded of the expression “do as you would be done by,” the basic law of Karma. I guess by treating each other as sovereign beings. I think basic human dignities are the cornerstones of a just and sustainable community; social justice, greater equality among nations, within nations, between ethnic groups, classes, between men and women and children. I think these are the basic dignities. We let these go really at our peril, and maybe the reason we do that is because we judge each other. We judge people before we truly appreciate their differences. So, returning to this sense of dignity, or these basic dignities, I think is learning again to see the highest good in each other. If we can do that, then our perception and our behavior will follow. My God, love one another. I think that’s the key to respect.

by Brian J. Weller

Sep 9, 2006 11:30:00 AM cite

Catherine David: I think that deals with the same things as the previous question. Everybody knows the basic dignities of humanity even if not everybody knows where they are laid down exactly. So why do we leave so many people without these rights? We have to start by considering the state of things at our countries, in the streets and the metro in Paris and in Berlin so its not necessary to glance on countries which are far away. So why we refuse them the same rights? Because of a simple lack of political will.

by Catherine David

Sep 9, 2006 11:30:00 AM cite

China Keitetsi: I think every human being should have a sense of belonging. Every human being should never be raped, for example. Every human being should not go without food. Every human being should have a home and every human being should live in an environment where they have no fear. They have to live in an environment where they are not told what to do. They should live in an environment where they don't have to do anything against their will, but I also feel that many have been betrayed. For example, in Africa there are women sitting there and watching how children die. And yet in the world here we sit and we think everything is fine. Everything we have here- water, Coca Cola- if you want you can even wash, take a shower with it. And there are, for example, children in Africa which have never even tasted Coca Cola. I don't say Coca Cola is a nice thing for a child. It was funny for me when people were asking me yes, China, you've been a soldier all your life and yet your teeth are very nice. How did you do it? I didn't eat sweets. I didn't drink Coca Cola. This was very funny. I think that it also changing because as you see 112 people are sitting here with me and are all fighting for the good of the world. So it is not like 10, 20 years ago where, for example, dictators had to kill and they get away with it. It's not any more easier for dictators to be corrupt and get away with it. But I think we should do more. I think everyone who is over 20 years old should take such a responsibility very personal.

by China Keitetsi