NOVANEWS
Civil Society a nonstarter in the developing world
Michael Farrell
Egypt’s turmoil had been skillfully exploited by the rich and powerful
If you were to ask her, Mother Teresa would agree that she was a horrible person, unworthy of the attention she received and then ask to be excused because she needed to wash a leper’s sores.
Despite my admiration and fondness for the late Christopher Hitchens, I always found his anger at Mother Teresa a bit over the top. She was conscious of the fact that she was not solving the problems; she just didn’t see that as an excuse to do nothing.
A priest I knew briefly during my exile from the Army to serving with the Reserves in College Station, Texas, used to take his vacations in Calcutta, working with her. He told the story in a sermon back in the 80s, but it’s stuck with me. A journalist approached Mother Teresa and asked her, “Why do you do this? You can’t win…” Her response was simple; she shook her head slightly, smiled and said, “It’s not about winning…” She then went to change the bed linens for a person dying of cholera.
Obviously, that story has stuck with me for a while. I agree — there is no reason to expect we are going to make the world a better place, but there’s absolutely no excuse for not trying. You know, if we try, we might succeed; if we sit around and sob, well, we’ll drown in tears. And yet, sometimes there are reasons to wonder why we should even bother…
Two pieces from the NY Times opinion pages got to me this morning. I will comment on the later, David Brooks’ column, later. The first was an editorial, Egypt’s Miscarriage of Justice. Following the downfall of the Morisi government last summer, there were viciously angry riots all over the country. Hundreds of people were killed, thousands injured, hundred’s of millions of dollars or more in property damage occurred.
Among the dead, most were protesters or by-standers, and a lot of the violence was protester on protester. However, in one instance, a cop was killed, and 529 Islamist protesters including members of the Muslim Brotherhood and their supporters were arrested and charged with rioting and killing the cop. Yesterday, the court delivered the verdict. All 529 were convicted of killing the cop; all 529 were sentenced to death. While there were initial demonstrations, the cops were present reinforced probably by Army units ready to swope in if needed, and the crowds went home. The Times position in the editorial was clear:
The verdict could well be overturned on appeal. Nevertheless, it represents an outrageous escalation of the military-led government’s ruthless crackdown against the Muslim Brotherhood and Islamist supporters of its ally, Mohamed Morsi. It will further radicalize the group’s members.
And it will almost surely worsen instability in one of the Arab world’s most important countries.There is no way that the proceeding can be seen as anything other than a show trial with a preordained political outcome. It was clearly intended to intimidate anyone who dares to challenge the military or shows sympathy for the Brotherhood and Mr. Morsi, who was elected president in 2012 in a democratic election and then ousted in a military coup last summer
It is impossible to know whether the court in the city of Minya where the verdicts were handed down was caught up in the animosity against Mr. Morsi and his supporters that has swept Egypt since his overthrow or whether the court was acting on directions from security officials. Either way, the case lays bare a prejudicial system that has been quick to punish Mr. Morsi’s supporters while ignoring gross human rights violations by the military-led government that replaced him.
Endless tears among the Palestinians
Of the 540 plus defendants, twelve(12!) were acquitted. Only 129 were there to be sentenced– the rest had either escaped, gone on the run or simply hadn’t been arrested yet.
There’s a strong possibility, if the Egyptian legal system retains any independence since –King Farouk, maybe? — that the verdicts will be overturned on appeal. Certainly, anyone in the Army which is running the place with any sense of public relations would say we need to fix this.
However, there haven’t been any signs that the Army wants to do anything that looks like conciliation. This will inflame the Islamist community in Egypt, and in the Arab world in general. Since we’re seen as allies of the Egyptian Army, it will add to the visceral hatred of the United States by many or most of the regions population.
And, it’s stupid — dictators are best served when they don’t do incredibly stupid things in public. However, military juntas who came to power after a popularly chosen government craters with the population and is overthrown in a popular revolt usually don’t get that piece of the puzzle.
While the world churns about this, we’re faced with a variety of other challenges internationally and internally. The right wing choir will hold Obama the Muslim responsible for whatever chaos ensues in the region; the left will be furious that there is an Army in Egypt and what the hell are we going to do about that, Mr. Lameduck President and John Boehner. The conspiracy buffs will blame the Trilateral Commission or the CIA. Nothing meaningful will be accomplished.
So, I’m sending a check this afternoon to the Catholic Relief Services for their work in the Middle East. I am aware that by doing so, I am not going to contribute to the victory over insanity. But, if the kids in a school get treated for hookworm and have fresh milk for a week, that will be worth it.
