Why is this man so wild to shame China over Darfur?
Who's backing him?
One wiki click threw this up: he gets grant money from Ebay founder, billionaire and "Franco-Iranian" wizard Pierre Omidyar's eponymous Omidyar Network.
Seems our man has been beating this Darfur/Sudan drum for the biblical 7 years required to be a certifiable monofocal prophet -- but why this cause? Why this when his own government is deep in the short stroke phase of fucking Iraq? Why does the world humanitarian community need a self-righteous new england lit prof's quixotic knight errantry? Are there not Scandinavians enough to get the word out on this?
I don't know or care whether he's just another useful idiot --- I doubt it --- or a sly Ivy-chafed geef out for some spotlight self-aggrandizement, and smart enough to know what humane causes pay well. What he's actually doing either way is aiding and abetting the Yankee Doodle imperial project -- that and precious little else. This whole people-who-love-people, groupies-for-humanity grapple is about China's countering Uncle's containment policies across the southern half of the planet -- in this case specifically, oil-rich, well-located Sudan: the Iraq of the Horn!
Comments (3)
Another journeyman in the horror genre when it comes to either China or Sudan (both independently and in tandem or most nations in the global South for that matter, such as India or Thailand). Alex Cockburn recently wondered out loud "When Will Kristoff Go to the Occupied Territories?".
For anyone more interested in a more "reality based" narrative of Darfur, this audio interview might be worthwhile.
Posted by sk | April 5, 2007 10:36 PM
Posted on April 5, 2007 22:36
Arundhati Roy has the low down on do-gooders like our New England prof. (and the general category of these "unwitting shills" for bigger projects):
Apolitical--therefore extremely political--reports of distress from poor countries and war zones eventually make the (dark) people of those (dark) countries seem like pathological victims. Another malnourished Indian, starving Ethiopian, Afghan refugee camp, maimed Sudanese in need of the white man’s help. They unwittingly reinforce racist stereotypes and reaffirm the achievements, the comforts and the compassion--the tough love--of western civilisation. They’re the secular missionaries of the modern world.
Posted by sk | April 6, 2007 9:03 AM
Posted on April 6, 2007 09:03
sk
"They’re the secular missionaries of the modern world "
and the advance men
of the secular crusaders....
Posted by op | April 6, 2007 1:49 PM
Posted on April 6, 2007 13:49