Globalization: A Convenient Villain For Amnesty International Report?(ISSUES & INSIGHTS)(PERSPECTIVE)

Byline: K.E. Grubbs Jr.

Does Amnesty International suffer mission creep? How about philosophical confusion?

And why take an iconoclastic swing at one of the world's most worthy organizations anyway? We'll get to Amnesty's new report on human rights in a moment.

First take a moment to ponder the difference between "global" and "international."

You might not see a meaningful difference in the two words. Oh, the number of syllables, of course. And one of the words, the former, implies geography; the latter, political states.

Perhaps that difference explains why Amnesty International blames all the world's troubles on globalization. Well, not everything. Just the rise in humanrights abuses as recorded by AI, whose mission it is to campaign against said abuses.

You might even think AI epitomized that popular missionary slogan "Think globally, act locally."

Then again, AI's mission multiplies like fashion accessories on the newly rich. A Nobel Peace Prize winner, AI was founded 40 years ago with one focus only. It enlisted people to pressure regimes left and right, some of them sadistic, to …