Injustice is always wrong

I have written about this before – and I do so to relieve my own anger and frustration with those who exploit others for their own (usually financial) benefit. This exploitation and injustice is widespread – it happens everywhere. This apparent universality does not detract from the fact that any and all injustice is wrong. In fact I would go so far as to say that injustice is the cause of most of the social ills that beset the world today.

Injustice is everywhere, in Brazil with the Indians living in the Amazon rain forest; in Australia regarding the plight of the Aboriginals; in the USA and Canada regarding the North American Indians and the Inuit (Eskimos); the Israelis demolishing ‘illegal’ housing and regarding the expropriation of Palestine with no compensation paid to the Palestinians. Then there is the injustice prevalent in China. It seems that property developers are trying to take advantage of the current housing boom in much of China, by forcing out those in poorer areas by bulldozing their houses and claiming the land, while providing no compensation.

Nothing, but nothing irritates, annoys, infuriates and aggravates people as much as injustice. Victims of injustice have a very long memory and can recall in great detail the cause and effect of any injustice they have ever experienced. Right from early childhood a person knows if something is “fair” or not. I am a grandfather and my grandchildren know when something is unfair and tell me “That is not fair.” They are always right. When that “fairness” is breached or overturned, trouble brews. It festers like an infected wound, in the mind, and will burst out in an unexpected way at some indeterminate time in the future.

Unless institutionalised unfairness is acknowledged and clearly and openly corrected it builds up until enough individuals are so upset that a ‘tipping point’ is reached and by some strange telepathy they band together and openly defy the authorities and demand justice. That is what the law is about – justice must not only be done but be seen to be done.

I suggest that the Chinese authorities are creating a great well of discontent by not having an open and fair judicial system where individual grievances can be openly discussed by both parties to any dispute and corrected in a ‘just’ manner. Trying to hide these matters will not make them go away – they are still there festering away and making a great many people unhappy.