The way we treat our two million migrant workers is absolutely appalling! We treat them as we see them. We don't seem to see them as human beings with human rights, or as important (even essential) contributors to the Thai economy.

Burma's rubies and jade are prized for their beauty but the ugly truth is that the trade in these stones supports human rights abuses. The sale of these gems gives Burma's military rulers quick cash to stay in power.

"We used the Computer Crime Act, because we didn't want to use a more serious law," said Pol Col Yanapol Yangyeun, Commander of the IT Crime Office of the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) under the Ministry of Justice, during a seminar on Thailand's relatively new computer crime law on Nov 8, 2007.

This connection between social change and dealing with repression is a more acute problem in countries outside those that are called developed countries. In that part of the world called developed countries social revolutions have taken place to deal with forms of repression which maintain the type of inequalities that are prominent in their countries.