1. Some may say the Readers present a depressing outlook. But pessimism is not my personal inclination;* it rather is my measured reaction when faced with the stern reality.
*: Do not interpret my words as coming from a pessimist temper, because that is not my temper. Instead interpret them as a true confrontation with the facts that I would like to see handled in a totally different way. (RaulPrebisch) For better or for worse, it is my conscience, my alter-ego, that is appealing to you my learned readership, I am aware.
2. Actually, not pessimism, but skepticism is the healthier attitude that the Readers present; skepticism keeps up the hope that things will get better and a more just society can be constructed.**
**: On the other hand, naively longing for ‘a more optimistic future’ is really no more than a defensive mechanism when approaching it from an apolitical, technocratic perspective. Faced with what seems an ever-deteriorating reality (a race to the bottom in slow motion?), the political force of the human rights framework is what the Readers fall back-on over and over.
3. All Readers have a similar structure and style –perhaps even being variations on the same theme. Is that their defect? I do not think so. It is perhaps useless to think about a more enterprising ambition when human rights (HR) are still so far away a dream: “marathon runner, do not sign up for the next 100 meters dash race”. (J.R. Ribeyro)
4. As everybody does, I see and feel a certain reality which is the one I present in the Readers; it is the point of departure to express my apprehensions and my views for ways out.*** The information I gather for the Readers I catalogue according to a certain interior frame or pattern that is now familiar to many of you…That is probably why I cannot write fiction.
***: It is more. Through writing the Readers, I myself try to understand the world better.
5. By showcasing the world the way I see it through the Readers, I peak into history through a small window seeing just a part of reality. The reality I depict presents, but does not always explain, what motivation was behind the facts I cover. So, in the Readers, I am like a mirror reflecting the reality as I see it. On top of it, I do try to incorporate a certain transcendence or universality into the facts covered.
6. As the author of the Readers, I am really a social insider, yes, but one that does not really have to personally live with HR violations day-in-day-out. So one can say I look at these violations with an outsider’s moralist eye. True. Nevertheless, I do present to you the vision of the downtrodden, of the humiliated whose rights are being violated and who are perennially facing a hostile world. I reflect every sort of denigration imposed on them as they defend themselves the best they can, sometimes to no avail, in a game they have lost in advance. But fate is not tragic per-se.**** I never fail to point this out. Claim holders often have a hidden determination (even if sometimes frustrated) of overcoming adversity with blind determination.
****: By the way, humor does not release us from tragedy, it just makes it more livable. (J.R. Ribeyro)
7. I reckon the Readers must be entertaining, moving, intriguing, surprising; and, if all of these, even better. If they fail to elicit any of these effects they are not worthwhile. The style must be (and is) direct and has to show and educate even if, often, they are not more than a collage of unrelated texts I weave in my loom. The Readers push you, their readers, to take a position that brings you into a determination to act. If the Readers are not taken as such I consider them a failure.*****
*****: Language in the Readers is important. To know a language is to know a destination, the famed Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges said. And Marcel Proust was of the opinion that a writing style is not about technique, but about one’s vision.
8. The Readers actually recompose reality; they are like come-alive-again notions lost in obscure footnotes at the foot of the page of world history. Sometimes their text addresses the social context of HR as a testimony, criticizing and making explicit specific denunciations. Why? Because ‘evil once perceived is half-the-way to its solution’. Such a choice already implies an intentionality, one that points to a particular view of the world.****** The Readers thus do not offer you a new shelf in an old shop; they offer you a whole new shop. (Geoffrey Cannon)
******: Ernesto Sabato, another Argentinian writer, used to say that it is the subjects that choose the writer. As for me, I choose to provide more than a socialxray; I try to convey a moral message –repeatedly. I use a certain tone and style that, repeated from multiple angles, points to my personal way of looking at reality. [Time and time again, over and over once more, until we right the wrong. (Jerome Koenig)]This is the reason why I pay special attention to using the right adjectivation in the written texts. What I do not know is if I succeed in saying just enough when I mean to signify as much as possible.
9. Given the prevailing climate of political complacency I feel is out there,the message in the Readers is against despair, but for liberation and for rebellion. The intent is to help move claim holders out of the state of complacency they too often find themselves in. The intent is certainly not to promote their climbing the social ladder (that is the aspiration of so many of the ‘disinherited’). The world of officialdom always alienates the individual with such an aspiration that ends up with people building a defensive mechanism, an alternative universe where they can find abode for their battered dignity. Claim holders are continually confronted with a reality that does not agree with their wishes and dreams. As a defense against their despair, they thus invent themselves a more livable reality. Nevertheless, the harsh reality finally catches up with them. But the illusory self-awareness is stronger and individuals refuse to lose their last bit of self-esteem and of unrealistic hope. This just shows the fragility of that illusory world they build themselves. The harsh reality comes back and shakes them up. Sooner or later,the illusion is thus bound to be shattered. (It is true that the imagination has the power to transform reality, cancelling out its ugly and sad sides…). Individuals are then left without authentic convictions, maybe because they realize they do not have the power to change the social reality. But directly acting to change the adverse reality does not cross their mind!******* They prefer to deny such a thought. This is a big part of our problem. Excuses are for losers, those thatneither hate nor feel pain, but feel something vaguely related to an injustice and certainly to a sense of nihilism and of faith lost; excuses are also for those with few and poorly held hopes, hopes they feel way beyond their reach leaving them embittered, but not defeated, still faintly desiring to fight back or avenge, but somehow preferring to ignore that desire: indefinitely?. (Juan CarlosOnetti)
*******: When individuals are incapable or uninterested to modify their situation, they remain in a detained suspense; in a limbo that is ahistoric, because there are indeed chances that provide for their integration. “Why act?”, they say, convinced that the world cannot be changed. “Rebelling for what…?” HR work is precisely aimed at overcoming such an attitude by choosing the path of pointing out and reversing such paralyzing pessimism.
10. What is meant here above is that marginalization often is a cause of defeatism. From this repeated experience, one could deduce a tragic conception of our existence. But, of course, it is not about that… Therefore, confronting reality –without falling into nihilism– is key to my Readers. Theyprovide information and analysis, yes, but they also take sides. The analysis and alternatives that I present are embodied ina vision of a society that is more just, more equal and more HR conscious.Ultimately, my hope is that the contents of the Readerswill stimulate you to reflect more concretely about what needsto change, how things can be done differently, and how people can be at thecenter of bringing about desired change.(Global Health Watch 4, PHM)
11. On the more formal side, I see the Readers as a contribution to the information and training of all those engaged in the struggle for the respect and advancement of HR. Readers are firmly committed to support HR, in particular economic, social and cultural rights and the right to development. They are conceived as learning guides that analyze contents and the scope of international HR covenants and the practice and obligations of states; they also present existing complaints avenues and can provide examples of jurisprudence. (CETIM)As regards the titles of the Readers, they allude to some of the purported truth presented in each of them******** or to some experience I had in the course of writing them.
********: Facetiously, absolute truth does not exist, and this is absolutely true…
12. I would say that, over the years, since the Readers had their debut, my passion has reached a more moderate quiet state a bit over halfway between being duty-bound and being somewhat apathetic. (What about your passion?) That is probably the fate of all passions; they slowly fade. But I keep propping myself up.
13. Finally, do not blame me for my testimony in the Readers so often being sour. It is not up to me to alter reality, no matter how intolerable. But I need to reflect it with lucidity. It is for claim holders to take it from there. However, a lone struggle is useless as is self-commiseration. Claim holders have to coalesce in their demanding sweeping changes and thus exercising their inalienable rights –and you who reads this can be a catalyst.
Claudio Schuftan, Ho Chi Minh City
cschuftan@phmovement.org