A walk in someone else's shoes

In a first world democracy, you get comfortable, protected by enshrined laws and rights that protect your dignity, your freedom of expression. This can blind you to the fact that elsewhere, things are not quite so rosy. Amnesty International have recently released a Facebook app that scans your timeline and tells you how many times you may have been incarcerated, tortured or beaten for your opinions or actions in other parts of the world. It's well worth a look if you're on Facebook. Link.

See my results after the jump.

So, first of all, here's me being charged for my opinions, and even for using Facebook at all.

Then, here's how I was punished;

And this;

And some I escaped;

So, for saying what I think about issues large, small and inconsequential, for knowing people I know, or even people they know, I would have been convicted 13 times for 4 'crimes' in 6 countries. I would have been tortured once, imprisoned for who knows how long 3 times, lashed 9 times, and what I find most disturbing, killed by extremists 4 times.

I escaped being beaten, beheaded, shot dead, put to death by lethal injection, stoned to death, hung, sexually assaulted (presumably because I'm a man), persecuted (though really, all of this is the extreme end of persecution), having my actions forced (ie forced confessions and the like), and mutilated.

Lucky me. 

So think, the next time you cavalierly assume everyone gets treated the same as you everywhere around the world, that maybe you're actually very lucky.