Human rights in China

As you might have noticed in the news, there’s a big fuss around the human rights in China. As said: ‘The situation of the human rights in China hasn’t been so badly in 20 years.’

China is still used to a strong government or to say it in a different way, a dictatorship. People should listen to the state in all cases, just like in the past. But the rules of the past don’t apply to this period of living anymore. China should follow the rules of human rights. Instead, research of the United Nations has shown that there’s not enough attention from the law enforcement officials for human rights. Also (minor) ethnical neighbourhoods are not treated as good and normal neighbourhoods. Programs for ethnical neighbourhoods are not really made or put in progress. Besides, China also spends too less attention to the environment. There are no clear rules for pollution or actions taken, and there doesn’t seem to be much interest for clean energy.

But that’s not most important. Most important is that people don’t feel safe. Just an example: more than 245 lawyers have been included in police actions, without a clear reason. People disappear, and nobody knows why they are taken and where they go. This worries the people. Not just the Chinese; it gets everybody thinking.

But what now? Should the Dutch King, Willem-Alexander, interfere or not? A lot of people want him to interfere, or to at least mention the human rights during the state visit to China, which is on Sunday. Actions seem to be desperately needed. There is clear evidence that things aren’t going like they should. Willem-Alexander might make a difference for the Chinese people.

But on the other hand, the trust and respect from China for the Netherlands have already decreased because of the distrust we show. The purpose of the visit is actually to talk about trade. Mentioning the problem might decrease the efficiency of the trade, and trading goals might not be reached by this visit if China loses more confidence and respect for the Netherlands. Advice might be seen as critic.

My opinion about this problem is: consider both options; mention the problem or don’t. If the government shows respect for the Netherlands and the relations are good, mention the problem in a subtle way. If there’s distrust or the relations seem to be fragile, it smarter to leave out mentioning the problem. If the problem would be mentioned in the last situation, the government will see it as critic. But it is kind of critic, right? Yes, it is. But the government should not see it in that way, because then it will only weaken the relation with the Netherlands and beside that, they won’t take the advice seriously.

Dutch struggle around refugees

The refugee problem is dividing the Dutch society, because a growing number of people is not very enthusiastic about the refugees. The fact that they are fighting and complaining does not make this image any better. Especially the PVV- supporters do not want any more refugees to pass the Dutch borders. They actually want to decrease the facilities for the refugees. On the other side there are people who think this is the ideal opportunity for the Netherlands to show compassion and solidarity.

Especially the people living in urban areas are doubting whether we should take in more refugees. They think the cities are already very crowded and that they should not let more people enter their city. But the opinions are very divided; in Rotterdam there is a big discussion between Leefbaar Rotterdam and D66 concerning the refugees. Leefbaar Rotterdam thinks the city already has enough problems, while D66 thinks Rotterdam should take in as many refugees as possible to provide them safety, certainty and a (temporary) home.

From the refugee’s point of view the situation is inhuman. They actually think they should get a better treatment. In Nijmegen they are even having a hunger strike, to show how bad the situation is. They say the tents are much too cold for the families and that they get the same meal every day of which they do not know if it is halal. They also complain that the medical care is not good enough, and that they have no privacy. One man even complained about the fact that he could not have sex, because they are with so many in one room. “It is like we are in a zoo”, is what many refugees say who are sheltered in Heumensoord. They desperately want to switch camp, but this is the only possibility they have. Heumensoord is even expanding so 3000 refugees can be sheltered there. However a member of the COA says that the offered facilities are similar to those of other camps: a bed, showering facilities and three meals a day. They also get a clothing package from the Red Cross, which contains shoes, socks, two pairs of underwear, a vest and a few more items. They do admit that it is getting cold fast, so they are trying to get winter coats as soon as possible.

An extreme on the refugee situation is the village Oranje. The village made an agreement to take in 700 refugees. The refugees have then already outnumbered the 140 local inhabitants. But the government even wanted Oranje to take in 1400 instead of 700. This caused great agitation among the inhabitants because they thought they had made an agreement on taking in 700 refugees. They felt betrayed by the government. Later the number of refugees was brought back to 700 again and no more refugees will come to the village.

I think it is very easy to judge the refugees from a distance, because we do not need to live in their conditions. An easily made statement is: “close the borders, and let those refugees sort things out themselves”. Those people just do not want to interfere with these kind of problems, but it is no solution to just close your eyes for the problem and to let other countries solve it. The only way to solve this problem as fast and efficient as possible, is to cooperate. We need to take in refugees, but all the other countries need to take them in as well. We are trying to solve the problem by taking in as many refugees as possible. This causes situations such as the one in Heumensoord. We are focusing more on quantities instead of the quality. For this reason it is better to distribute the refugees among the countries, in that way we can improve the quality. Until now this is so unequally distributed, because some countries just close their borders and some countries are willing to help as many refugees as possible. We think we take in many refugees, but if you look at Lebanon or Jordan you see they are taking in many more. Do we really need to see bodies that are washed ashore to come to the conclusion we need to solve this problem as soon as possible? I hope not. Of course it is not good either to put so many refugees in a small village such as Oranje, but we can also shelter them elsewhere. Fortunately there are not only downsides, they support our multicultural society by bringing their influences into the Netherlands. When they are staying, they can contribute to our economics and the care for refugees creates many job opportunities.

Russia’s role in the Syrian Civil War

There is a big Civil War going on in Syria. And this is a big problem. It has many consequences for the whole world. Such as all the refugees who are coming to Europe. But also the rise of terrorism. Everybody in the world is trying to stop IS. Russia also started to interfere in the Syrian Civil War. But Russia made the situation in Syria even more complicated.

The relation between Russia and Syria is better than anyone thinks. Russia has supported the Syrian government since the Syrian Civil War began in 2011 and has made diplomatic efforts to bring peace. Russia’s support has included blocking Western-backed resolution in the United Nations against the Syrian government, and gives military aid to the Syrian government such as weapons, military training and military advisors.

The Russian air force began strikes in Syria on Wednesday September 30. In the past 24 hours, Russia’s air force has carried out 20 flights targeting 10 IS positions. Russia is targeting ISIS, al Nusra and other “terroristic groups.”  But the British Prime Minister David Cameron said that most of the strikes appeared to have targeted areas that are not under ISIS control. Nobody knows exactly for who the Russian air strikes are meant. The last 3 days, the Russian air force already carried out 60 air strikes above Syria. Sometimes the air strikes hit citizens from Syria.

Al-Assad, the president of Syria, was optimistic about a coalition of Iran, Russia, Iraq and Syria would be successful. Al-Assad said that this must be succeeded; otherwise the whole region, not only one or two countries, will be destroyed by all the terroristic groups.

There are different opinions about that Russia supports the president Al-Assad. Al-Assad has done horrible things to the citizens of Syria. And the Western presidents want that the president Al-Assad must leave. But Russia supports Al-Assad with weapons and military training.

Al-Assad has lost a lot of land. It is taken over by the terroristic groups. Russia wants to help Al-Assad to get his land back. So that’s why Russia is not only striking ISIS, but also other terroristic groups who are against the president of Syria.

The Russian minister of Defence, Sergei shoigu, says that Russia fired 26 cruise missiles from 4 naval ships in the Caspian Sea on areas under ISIS control. And there are around 2000 Russian soldiers in Syria.

The role from Russia in the Syrian Civil War is pretty clear. Russia’s goal is to help Al-Assad to get his land back. Russia is helping Al-Assad by firing cruise missiles on areas or terroristic groups, but also by sending weapons for example. I think Russia is doing a good job by tackling the terroristic groups. But Russia has to watch for they do not hit any citizen in Syria during the air strikes. But I think it’s better when we all work together to come to a conclusion and make clear plans.

Volkswagen Fraud

Volkswagen was under enormous pressure after an organization in the United States discovered that their diesel engines only passed the environmental requirements tests with the help of software installed into the engine.

The American Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the California Air Resources Board (CARB) are accusing Volkswagen of bypassing the environmental requirements with their “Clean Clear Act” diesel engines. The authorities said that the engines are installed to meet the requirements during the testing, but are very harmful for the environment after. The EPA did a research and discovered that the engine emits forty times the permitted amount of nitrogen oxides. These nitrogen oxides cause smog and encourage the formation of ozone and are harmful to the environment and human health.

This all gives the impression that Volkswagen committed fraud. When Volkswagen was confronted with this they didn’t deny that there were some things done with the software and take full responsibility for their mistake. “We totally messed up” is was the boss of Volkswagen told.

There are almost 14 million cars installed with this software. After Volkswagen got the research results they stopped selling all the models with this software from the year 2015/2016. The EPA is going to research the cars that were sold since 2008 and also takes 482000 cars off the road in the US. The sale of diesel engines in Switzerland is even temporarily forbidden.

What are they now going to do about the problem? If it is proven that Volkswagen installed this program on purpose, there shall be a fine of 37500 dollar per car. It still not clear if the government will order this huge fine, because this wouldn’t be the first time the EPA accused a car manufacturer of fraud.

The reason why Volkswagen would do something like this is still unclear. There are different theories. A theory can be that that engines that help the environment have a lot of maintenance costs, so they would be very expensive to produce and would leave Volkswagen with less profit. Another one is to compete with Toyota, the biggest car manufacturer of the world at the moment.

In my opinion it’s good that there is so much awareness for the environment, because of course the environment is too important to damage. It’s though a bit late that they realized that this was happening in the company, if true. On the other hand can the EPA research be trusted is the question. Recently in North Carolina they were trying defending their state against new overreaching federal EPA rules seeking more control over North Carolina’s water. Especially after the EPA’s disastrous handling of the Colorado mine spill North Carolina is questioning their trustworthy. Can the EPA be trusted? I don’t know, but if more unbiased organization would do research the results will be more trustworthy. The test results of the EPA will be more likely to say that Volkswagen committed fraud, because their concern is the environment. The research is still in progress, so we will see if this was all a mistake or done on purpose.