Friday, February 27, 2009

US State Department 2008 Report on Human Rights in Chile

This is the US report on Chile:

http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2008/wha/119152.htm

I found it interesting in light of 2008 YouTube videos of Sheriff's Deputies dumping quadriplegics from wheelchairs, that silly hoopla about the Guantanamo stuff, and mentally ill patients laying on floors for hours, not to mention incarcerated children being pushed to exhaustion and death in those boot camps that were so popular on Maury Povich and Jerry Springer Shows. Anyway...China, who really should just pretend they don't read English and let it drop, felt a bit slighted with their US State Department report (scathing)and not happy, published a "back-at-ya" report on the US. You can read that report here:

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-02/26/content_10904741.htm

So far, it seems Chile is focusing on what it needs to do and accomplish, as opposed to writing it's own critique of the US. Ah...how many years from a dictatorship is Chile? I recently watched a Michele Bachelet talk in California, and while I'm sure she has her shortfalls, I found her candor and forward-thinking ideas refreshing. I think she's been good for Chile. Navarro (prez hopeful) seems intent on making one of his campaign issues, the nationalization of Chile's waters, a carrot for the environmentalists. Maybe he knows Chile isn't just Santiago. (HELLO Hello hello....echo...echo...echo)

But that's just my thoughts.

Addition/Update: The Pew Center on the States report, released Monday, says the number of people on probation or parole nearly doubled to more than 5 million between 1982 and 2007. Including jail and prison inmates, the total population of the U.S. corrections system now exceeds 7.3 million — one of every 31 U.S. adults, it said.

Am I the only one who feels like something is wrong with all of this?

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