Perspective

Le Monde today has two articles about human rights.

The first one is about Hú Jiā (胡佳), a dissident who has been sent to prison. The headline, Pékin traque les opposants avant les Jeux olympiques, implies that he is not the only one who has troubles with the government.

The second one is about Guantanamo. Eighty demonstrators against the prison made their way to the Supreme Court in Washington, where they were arrested.

Both articles are interesting. Both articles are important. However, both articles lack attempts at explanations. Why do the Chinese authorities imprison Hú Jiā? What is the rational? And why does he protest and so few others? Why did the American authorities arrest eighty demonstrators? What drives the demonstrators? What drives the authorities not to see what drives the demonstrators?

In other words, neither article supports a dialogue. It would have been so nice if they had been the only articles in the world that had that problem.