Dear Editor,
I feel compelled to respond to what Jamaicans consider as "rights". I was prompted by a letter to the editor written by "Justice and Peace Committee," on March 26, 2013.
They, as most Jamaicans, are confused as to the difference between what "rights" are and what "wishes" are. The authors tried to argue for housing as a human right. My question is how can housing be a right? Who is obligated to provide it, if one does not have housing? Where does it come from, Santa Claus?
We wished everyone had housing and a decent standard of living. And not because some big international body declares something, like housing a 'right', means that it is correct.
A "right" is something that we all equally possess and it very importantly, imposes no obligations on another person to give you that "right". The only requirements of "rights" are that they DO NOT deny others their own rights, deny them of their property or impose demands of service AND it also requires an obligation of non-interference from others. Therefore housing, health care, marriage, education, etc are not rights, because they impose requirements/obligations upon others to comply with our demands for service. They are WISHES!
Think about it... if marriage is also a 'right', who is supposed to provide us with a decent spouse? But to get to the authors' point (about housing as rights and the use of NHT funds to provide it for the poor), how can they be advocating the use of NHT money for people who did not contribute to its funds? By the NHT's own report, 40-odd per cent of involuntary contributors are denied access to the NHT mortgages, because they do not meet the financial requirement to qualify for mortgages. The NHT also stated recently that 75% of persons who have been forced by law to contribute to its coffers have NEVER been recipients of any NHT benefits since the Trust's inception. What of them? That committee needs to rethink its position on rights.
Kavon Fiennes
kfiennes@gmail.com
The difference between rights and wishes
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I feel compelled to respond to what Jamaicans consider as "rights". I was prompted by a letter to the editor written by "Justice and Peace Committee," on March 26, 2013.
They, as most Jamaicans, are confused as to the difference between what "rights" are and what "wishes" are. The authors tried to argue for housing as a human right. My question is how can housing be a right? Who is obligated to provide it, if one does not have housing? Where does it come from, Santa Claus?
We wished everyone had housing and a decent standard of living. And not because some big international body declares something, like housing a 'right', means that it is correct.
A "right" is something that we all equally possess and it very importantly, imposes no obligations on another person to give you that "right". The only requirements of "rights" are that they DO NOT deny others their own rights, deny them of their property or impose demands of service AND it also requires an obligation of non-interference from others. Therefore housing, health care, marriage, education, etc are not rights, because they impose requirements/obligations upon others to comply with our demands for service. They are WISHES!
Think about it... if marriage is also a 'right', who is supposed to provide us with a decent spouse? But to get to the authors' point (about housing as rights and the use of NHT funds to provide it for the poor), how can they be advocating the use of NHT money for people who did not contribute to its funds? By the NHT's own report, 40-odd per cent of involuntary contributors are denied access to the NHT mortgages, because they do not meet the financial requirement to qualify for mortgages. The NHT also stated recently that 75% of persons who have been forced by law to contribute to its coffers have NEVER been recipients of any NHT benefits since the Trust's inception. What of them? That committee needs to rethink its position on rights.
Kavon Fiennes
kfiennes@gmail.com
The difference between rights and wishes
-->