Is the game over when even Buddhists engage in genocide?

Not too long ago, it was common for the United States to loudly complain about human rights issues in other parts of the world--in the Soviet Union, China, Cuba, Iran, ... a long list of countries.  Of course, the US had human rights issues within its own borders (and continues to have) and it also conveniently overlooked abuses in countries that were governed by "our son-of-a-bitch."

Now, it feels like the US has even stopped complaining, at least pretending to worry, about human rights issues.

President Obama will have plenty of opportunities to address human rights issues in the next few days, but my guess is that he will not.  In his post-shellacking 2.0, the President will be in China and then in Burma, and both countries have immense human rights issues, which he will certainly gloss over.

In addition to the lack of everyday democratic rights that people in those countries lack, there is that acutely worrying treatment of the Muslim minority in China and Burma.  With the economic ascent of China, the US has pretty much stopped even whispering about human rights there.  I would love to have a reporter ask the President a question such as, "Mr, President, what do you think about the student protests in Hong Kong?"  Or even, "President Obama, have you ever tasted traditional Uighur dishes?"

Money talks, and bullshit walks, as they say.

But, there isn't even money in Burma.  No nukes, a la North Korea, either.  Yet, we don't seem to care about human rights issues in that country, especially when it comes to the horrible treatment of a certain group:

The Myanmar government has given the estimated one million Rohingya people in this coastal region of the country a dispiriting choice: Prove your family has lived here for more than 60 years and qualify for second-class citizenship, or be placed in camps and face deportation.
The policy, accompanied by a wave of decrees and legislation, has made life for the Rohingya, a long-persecuted Muslim minority, ever more desperate, spurring the biggest flow of Rohingya refugees since a major exodus two years ago.

A few months back, I blogged here about Buddhist monks leading the protests to drive out the Rohingya.  Yes, Buddhist monks, who are supposedly the followers of the uber-pacifist Buddha!

The crisis has become an embarrassment to the White House ahead of a scheduled visit by President Obama to Myanmar next week. The administration considers Myanmar a foreign-policy success story in Asia but is worried that renewed conflict between Buddhist extremists, who are given a free hand by the government, and the Rohingya could derail the already rocky transition from military rule to democratic reform.

The news item mentions that:

Mr. Obama asked the Myanmar leader to revise the anti-Rohingya policies, specifically the resettlement plan. Myanmar must “support the civil and political rights of the Rohingya population,” he said.

A tiny little country Burma is, and all that the President of the mighty US can do is mildly ask his counterpart to do something.  The Burmese president is far from shaking in his military boots!

the government appears to be accelerating a strategy that human rights groups have described as ethnic cleansing.

The Burmese government knows how to keep the Americans off:

In a gesture in advance of Mr. Obama’s visit, the government released 15 political prisoners in early October, including three Rohingya. Among them was U Kyaw Hla Aung, 75, a prominent lawyer, who was jailed after the violence in Sittwe in 2012.
One of the few Rohingya trained as a lawyer — Rohingya have since been barred from studying law or medicine — Mr. Kyaw Hla Aung said it was illogical for the government to insist that Rohingya were not citizens.

Amartya Sen, is among a few who is intellectually involved with raising the awareness of this human rights issue and is even ready to use the "g" word:

Sen said it is important that the word “genocide” not be tossed around lightly, and he acknowledged that this situation looks different from the murderous examples of Nazi Germany and 1994 Rwanda. Still, he said, the term applies in this case, with lives lost not just to the outbursts of violence, but also to the denial of healthcare and the right to work.

Of course, the American people couldn't be bothered about all these.  For one, we are all into worrying about our First-World-problems.  If we do manage to look beyond our own petty problems, then there is that distraction of nude photos of celebrities.  Who cares about some genocide somewhere, particularly if it is Muslims who are targeted!