I find it almost impossible to understand why we have pinned our economic hopes upon a country with such a terrible human rights and environmental record. We have traded our own principles of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for cheaply made material products acquired at a low consumer price that produce a high corporate profit while our own workers are unemployed. We must begin to change our economic values to reflect our democratic principles. Do we really believe we are benefiting by having our products manufactured in a nation without adequate human rights?

Over one million Tibetans were massacred in 1949 and the world remained silent. The Chinese are responsible for one of the largest holocausts in recent history. Most of their victims were unarmed religious monks. Our response has been to move our production facilities into their country because of cheap labor (which violates the rights of their own citizens as well) and the lack of environmental restrictions (which pollutes and degrades the environment of the Earth – that planet where we all live).

The violation of free speech and human rights involves the wider issue of the responsibility of corporations as entities toward the world in which we live. I guarantee that no corporation will blog about the injustice of this sentencing. We have given corporations the legal rights of individuals and yet they have accepted no moral or ethical responsibilities. A corporation is merely an entity beholden to its stockholders and its upper echelon officers. We believe corporations produce products when in fact they create wealth for a privileged few.

As consumers we must exercise our own belief in human rights through the products we purchase. Yet this can be rather difficult when so many products are made in China.

Most importantly, the power of internet blogs may alert the rest of the world to the understanding that many of the citizens in the US are increasingly disillusioned with corporate policies that violate human rights and environmental principles.

We need to free our own citizens from the imprisonment of their unemployment. We also need to free ourselves from economic decisions that benefit corporate executives and stockholders while seducing the public into purchasing cheap, unnecessary consumer goods.

The strength of words remains extremely powerful. Liu Xiaobo has been sentenced to eleven years in prison for writing sentences. Those of us free of such oppressions must exercise the power of words to align ourselves with the values of democracy, human rights, economic responsibility, and environmental protection.

I too feel for Liu while reading this. However, I know that I will most likely have forgetten about the imprisonment entirely by New Years.