My daily routine includes a circuit of various comic strips, first in the newspaper, then online.  It’s good to see what other people are doing.  One of the strips that I checked out today was Gavin Aung Than’s Zen Pencils.  Today’s strip quoted from the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  Funny stuff, right?

It’s a short document with only 30 articles ratified in 1948 unanimously (with 8 abstentions) by the UN.  What caught my eye was Article 27

1) Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.
2) Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.

Arts and culture are a basic human right.  That seems kind of small potatoes when compared to some of the other rights listed in the Declaration, but it’s all part of making the world a better place for everyone.  If everyone works just a little bit on the world’s problems, then together we’ll solve them.  We’re glad that we can do our part.

Keep smiling.