Introducing Shalzed, an Alien Scientist Puzzled Why Human Rights Are So Hard On Earth

Shalzed Chazak is a scientist from a peaceful, hyper-advanced civilization on the opposite edge of the Milky Way. When a failed wormhole experiment accidentally strands him on Earth, he decides to use his technological know-how to solve our problems. He builds a machine to obliterate polluting vehicles and constructs a device that floods the UN when it bickers and dallies rather than take action to stop a war.

But sadly, he saw this didn’t work. Everything he destroyed was rebuilt as before, and he became reviled by the humans he sought to help. So he took the uncomfortable step of talking to people whose views or actions would be intolerable on his world. Though impatient with lies and hypocrisy, he listens and tries to understand why justice and human rights are so much harder to attain here than on his world. Most of all, he hopes sharing his conversations will somehow help.

The purpose of this series is to use short fiction to make human rights questions more accessible and entertaining. It’s also to show that human rights are more than political protests, condemnation, and finger-pointing. Instead, human rights are a rich and vital discussion of our shared values, critical for understanding one another and building a better future.

Subscribers receive an email each Friday. In some Shalzed confronts a political figure or activist with a controversial perspective on a current human rights issue. While episodes are fiction, they include links to sources documenting the views expressed and end with questions for discussion. In others Shalzed sends only a question, giving some background and asking you to consider how human rights values apply to a topic in the news.

Thanks for joining on this journey to make human rights educational, accessible, and entertaining. I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Shlomo