Kafila for more
(Thanks to Robin Khundkar; he also attached a note by Omar Ali:
“This is a very shocking documentary. Not unexpected, but still shocking.
Almost everybody is selective about their outrage about human rights, and third world regimes (and third world activists, for that matter) tend to make even less effort to appear universalists in this matter than the Western regimes and Western populations (BOTH are selective, but we are relatively more secure in our selectivity and rarely see it as selective). We tend to use the concept almost exclusively as just another way to attack opponents, as in Pakistan being very vocal about human rights violations in Kashmir, but never in Sri Lanka, or Arabs being outraged about American atrocities but not those committed by other Arabs; And naturally this is then justified by pointing out that the United States does the same for Israel. Which is true. All Western countries have a history of selective outrage as well. But there is an almost unconscious adjustment of expectations, so the worst outrages in Pakistan, India or Sri Lanka (not to mention Africa) will not excite as much attention as killings in Palestine or by Western forces. Some people would say it serves them right because Westerners have a self-image of being more civilized. Anyway, THIS is rather gruesome..…”