[TLDR (too long didn’t read): If you are reading this, chances are you care about HR. This Reader is about reassessing past present and future patterns of HR violations and how to reinterpret history. For a quick overview, just read the bolded text]. Traducir/traduire los/les Readers; usar/utiliser deepl.com
1. From time to time, it is necessary to re-read a bit of history –but with a critical eye so as to avoid the conventional history’s erasure and destruction of important aspects of our collective memory.* (adapted from Mario Benedetti) [I note that there are some of us who are relearning history, and do not mimetize just with its more glorious(?) characters and episodes]. (Louis Casado)
*: Those who adapted to everything survived, but the majority was not able-to and died. (Primo Levi)
2. Throughout history, ‘the people’ always existed in an ephemeral manner; the people were never the subject of their own destiny, the people were only (and continue to be) the object of the predation of other people’s interests and this is the way we find them in conventional history. (Armando Uribe)
History does not repeat itself. Those who repeat themselves are the historians
3. If we think of the contemporary history of indigenous peoples, their identity claims have a long history of confrontation with the power structures, as has the feminist movement that has been struggling for women’s identities since the beginning of the twentieth century. The problem is that this history is not taught and there is a total ignorance of their achievements. (S. Montecinos) Instead, we get more than plenty of the achievements of fiefdoms, monarchies, nobility and the clergy.
4. In monarchic systems, the nobility and the clergy were exempt from taxes, levies, contributions, duties, fees, tolls and tariffs. Such privilege made their immense fortunes since it was precisely them, the clergy and the nobility, who collected the taxes. In addition, they freely used the labor force of those rendered poor and, besides having them pay a heavy tribute, they ‘allowed’ them to live in their lands and be their subject, –but also took the virginity of their daughters. The nobility and the clergy further demanded from peasants and villagers free labor for the maintenance of churches, municipalities, palaces, roads, bridges.** Feudalism was brutal, and generated idle classes that occupied the best of their time building castles and having fun. (L. Casado)
**: More than five centuries later, such practices have not entirely disappeared. In the economic sphere, tributes, fees and ‘contributions’ take the generic name of taxes. And, one would have to be very candid, to conclude that those rendered rich pay their taxes religiously (no pun intended). Very early-on, those who obtained the best part of the environment in which they lived realized that they could avoid taxes by increasing those paid by the populace. (L. Casado)
In our revisioning of history, one task is to assess the linkages between past, present, and future patterns of human rights violations
5. Historically, human rights (HR) violations have generated cycles of trauma, systemic disadvantage, and poverty that are transmitted across generations and that must be explored. The take home message is that the descendants of groups that have experienced historical HR violations (including women*** and the young) are the most vulnerable to rights violations in the future and have seldom been able to claim for their rights. History has tended to glorify the warriors of the past and despise the majorities, including those of the present. There has, therefore, been no place for thepoor in the pantheon of heroes. (Carlos Tromben, La Republica Militar) They have literally been rendered poor…
***: They say that in each and every one of the historical periods, the history narrated about gender changed. Sometimes it was/is presented to us as a tragedy, sometimes as a comedy… We get these chronicles full of errors and duplicities, perpetuated by historians who think they are wise –wise men who allow themselves to be fooled, and those who think they are too smart. (C. Tromben)
6. So, let us not forget the periods in which women and/or young people did not have the right to vote …without forgetting the regimes in which, in order to vote, you had to be a property owner, know how to read and write or belong to a certain ethnic group. (L. Casado)
Bottom line
7. It is very common to confuse ‘historical truth’ with ‘judicial truth’. The latter is, at best, a very limited aspect of the former. Moreover, since judicial rulings are ultimately the result of the exercise of political power by one or a minority of people, they often –due to errors, self-interested calculations, intimidation or corruption– openly alter the interpretation of history. And when it comes to authoritarian regimes that concentrate all the power****, it is very difficult to expect both truths to coincide especially when it comes to hide crimes of a political nature. (Felipe Portales)
****: Dictators have never been content with controlling the present; they have wanted to control the past as well. Therefore, ‘correctly’ crafted historical narratives can give them an appearance of legitimacy and provide justification for their actions. (Vladimir Kara-Murza)
8. I reiterate, history does not repeat itself. Those who repeat themselves are the historians. Re-interpret your history!
Claudio Schuftan, Ho Chi Minh City
Your comments are welcome at schuftan@gmail.com
Note:
I repeat a footnote from many Readers ago: Are these Readers sometimes repetitive? Yes and No.
No, in the sense that they look at the many aspects of HR work, some new, some old, but the latter always from different perspectives and angles. Yes, in the sense that they always reinforce key concepts of the HR framework.
This deliberate duality is considered indispensable for the readers to progressively internalize the concepts in such a way that they can then comfortably use them in debates and in teaching HR.
In that sense, this is no apology. [Moreover, all the good and wise in these Readers has come from others; that of lesser importance has been mine].