Beautiful, courageous document. It's expressing, with eloquence, all the needs of the human spirit, and the freedom it requires to blossom. A country, which is refusing those rights to its citizens, is depriving itself of honour, and the only richness worth acquiring.
At PenCanada, we're sending a petition to President Hu Jintao asking for the immediate and unconditional release of Dr. Liu Xiaobo. We're asking hundreds of people to add their names to the few we already have.
This heroic man, and all the signatories of Charter 08, deserve our admiration and support. They are an inspiration, as were the people who wrote Charter 77 in Czechoslovakia.
Thank you,Sean, for all the informations you provide, whenever one human being is suffering the loss of his civil and human rights. If it happens to one of us, it happens to all of us.
I'm with Claudia here... But can this document have the same impact as Ch77? At the same time China started banning Google..((! Blogger is already banned... Kindest hans
I agree with Claudia. I must admit that I had not heard of this document. It is a brave act in the dace of a nation that seems to want the worst of capitalism while maintaing the trappings of a communist regime
You're right, Hans. It's going to be far more difficult for the Chinese challengers.(I hate the word:'dissidents'.)
Charter 77(signed by 243 people) was a first brave step in Czechoslovakia. But communism was already on its way down in Russia. When Gorbachev arrived in 1988, many more people signed the document but it was much safer by then. Liberation was appearing...
The 'Charter 08' Signatories need a strong dose of heroism as the doors are blocked solid. No chinese Gorbachev on the horizon. And the West is not offering much support. Why should Hu Jintio worry? After all we gave China the Games though it showed no desire to offer a more democratic government. We sent all our official Representatives to the Games Opening though Burma was odiously oppressed at that time.
As you mention, Hans,(for financial reasons, I believe) Google is accepting China's censorship rules.It blocks the voice of the reformers. It seems that they stand totally alone. That's why we must speak with them, sign petitions, publicize their ordeals, inform our own governements. China should be made aware that the free world knows about the dishonourable treatments it inflicts on the courageous Signatories of Charter 08.
Charter 08 is not trying to reverse a government. It's simply asking for human and civil rights that any citizen should receive from his own country.
Sorry, Sean, for invading your post. Couldn't help it! :)
Claudia, as I can't think of an additional aspect to your comments, I do just focus on the end of your first comment: You are, of course, exaggerating, but thank you. You are very kind. :)
Bertus, Hans, Jams, thanks to you, too.
As for your question, Hans, if the Charter 08 can have the same impact as Charter 77: Not many people would have thought that twelve years after the signing of Charter 77 the iron curtain would fall. That's why I am sure that despite censorship, suppression, detention & torture, Charter 08 will circulate, and thus the ideas of its signatories. Open end, of course, but why should I already have moved to my last dwelling six feet under, before the impossible happens? :)
To cut it short:
Beautiful, courageous document. It's expressing, with eloquence, all the needs of the human spirit, and the freedom it requires to blossom. A country, which is refusing those rights to its citizens, is depriving itself of honour, and the only richness worth acquiring.
ReplyDeleteAt PenCanada, we're sending a petition to President Hu Jintao asking for the immediate and unconditional release of Dr. Liu Xiaobo. We're asking hundreds of people to add their names to the few we already have.
This heroic man, and all the signatories of Charter 08, deserve our admiration and support. They are an inspiration, as were the people who wrote Charter 77 in Czechoslovakia.
Thank you,Sean, for all the informations you provide, whenever one human being is suffering the loss of his civil and human rights. If it happens to one of us, it happens to all of us.
I 'd like to echo Claudia here.
ReplyDeleteBertus
I'm with Claudia here...
ReplyDeleteBut can this document have the same impact as Ch77?
At the same time China started banning Google..((!
Blogger is already banned...
Kindest
hans
I agree with Claudia. I must admit that I had not heard of this document. It is a brave act in the dace of a nation that seems to want the worst of capitalism while maintaing the trappings of a communist regime
ReplyDeleteYou're right, Hans. It's going to be far more difficult for the Chinese challengers.(I hate the word:'dissidents'.)
ReplyDeleteCharter 77(signed by 243 people) was a first brave step in Czechoslovakia. But communism was already on its way down in Russia. When Gorbachev arrived in 1988, many more people signed the document but it was much safer by then. Liberation was appearing...
The 'Charter 08' Signatories need a strong dose of heroism as the doors are blocked solid. No chinese Gorbachev on the horizon. And the West is not offering much support. Why should Hu Jintio worry? After all we gave China the Games though it showed no desire to offer a more democratic government. We sent all our official Representatives to the Games Opening though Burma was odiously oppressed at that time.
As you mention, Hans,(for financial reasons, I believe) Google is accepting China's censorship rules.It blocks the voice of the reformers. It seems that they stand totally alone. That's why we must speak with them, sign petitions, publicize their ordeals, inform our own governements. China should be made aware that the free world knows about the dishonourable treatments it inflicts on the courageous Signatories of Charter 08.
Charter 08 is not trying to reverse a government. It's simply asking for human and civil rights that any citizen should receive from his own country.
Sorry, Sean, for invading your post. Couldn't help it! :)
Claudia,
ReplyDeleteas I can't think of an additional aspect to your comments, I do just focus on the
end of your first comment:
You are, of course, exaggerating, but thank you. You are very kind. :)
Bertus, Hans, Jams,
thanks to you, too.
As for your question, Hans, if the Charter 08 can have the same impact as Charter 77:
Not many people would have thought that twelve years after the signing of Charter 77 the iron curtain would fall.
That's why I am sure that despite censorship, suppression, detention & torture, Charter 08 will circulate, and thus the ideas of its signatories.
Open end, of course, but why should I already have moved to my last dwelling six feet under, before the impossible happens? :)