by B. R. GOWANI
President Barack Obama, first lady Michelle Obama, and their daughter, Malia, meet with Malala Yousafzai in the Oval Office. PHOTO/Official White House photo by Pete Souza/Washington Post
The Western countries, their institutions, and their news media, to hide their own moral bankruptcy, are always in search of some or other victim of their current “enemy” (or “enemies”). Once they find her/him, they’ll put that person on a high pedestal to show how much they themselves follow the same principles which the victim pursues. Then they sympathize with that person about the heavy price she/he, like them, had to pay for it because the enemy/enemies do not follow the same values which the victim and Western countries follow.
Their current favorite is Malala Yousufzai, a victim of the barbaric Taliban. There can be no two opinions about her bravery and her continuous fight against the Taliban. The problem arises when she ends up as a tool in the hands of the Western governments who themselves are not any less cruel than the Taliban. The hands of the Western governments are full with the blood of the colored people (and also the blood of white people-World Wars, 1990s war against Serbia, or against Greece and Italy after the Second World War). And their pockets and museums are full with looted money and precious things.
So the Western countries try their best to put up a humanitarian face-partly to ease their guilt and partly to continue the similar crimes.
(On the other hand, Malala is a target of a malign campaign in Pakistan by people who see everything wrong with the Western countries but nothing evil in the Taliban and other militant groups.)
Malala meets Obama
President Barack Obama invited Malala to the White House to honor her fight against the evil forces. One wonders which hand did Obama used for a handshake with Malala: the one he uses to prepare a “kill list” (“disposition matrix“) or the other hand?
Malala did a brave thing when she told Obama:
“I also expressed my concerns that drone attacks are fueling terrorism. Innocent victims are killed in these acts, and they lead to resentment among the Pakistani people. If we refocus efforts on education, it will make a big impact.”
We can all guess that as a good politician Obama must have told her that he’ll “try his best to see what he can do.”
Malala at World Bank
The World Bank, not any better than Obama but not to be left behind, also invited Malala to speak. She has expressed her wish to be Pakistan’s prime minister. It would be better for her to acquaint herself with the policies of the World Bank. (Just last month, IMF or International Monetary Fund imposed stringent measures on Pakistan for a new loan which will increase the suffering of the workers and poor people.)
During Malala’s visit, the World Bank President Jim Yong Kim happily announced a $200,000 donation to the Malala Fund. (At least, a tiny fraction of the billions of dollars earned in interest from developing countries is being returned for some good cause.)
Malala with Christian Amanpour
Christiane Amanpour’s interview with Malala on CNN was titled as the “Bravest Girl in the World”. Malala is undoubtedly a very brave girl but on this planet there are hundreds of millions of brave girls who try to survive on a day to day basis; some succeed, others fail. Of course, their ruling classes are to be blamed for their miseries, but the blame also goes to the World Bank for its austerity policies and the Western countries for almost stealing its labor and natural resources. Nobody ever notices or talks about them. Amanpor (like Barbara Walters, Diane Sawyer, and others like them) is what I would call “news actress” whose job is to continue singing the songs of the US greatness and to help continue the US hegemony.
The US fascination with words such as “greatest” (as in the United States is the greatest democracy), “most powerful” (such as the US is the most powerful country in the world or US President is the world’s most powerful man), etc. is a disease without any cure.
Malala and Nobel Peace Prize
Now here is a person, who like Juliana Assange, Chelsea Manning, Edward Snowden, and others really deserved a Nobel Peace Prize. She survived a fatal attack, is not afraid to talk against her attackers, and is promoting women’s education. But the Nobel committee decided not to give her the prize, instead it was given to the Chemical Weapons inspectors. (They are currently in Syria to rid that country of chemical weapons. Syria’s vulnerability against Israel will now increase manyfold because Israel possesses a couple of hundred nuclear weapons.)
However, Malala was honored by the European Parliament with the Sakharov human rights prize.
B. R. Gowani can be reached at brgowani@hotmail.com